Sunday, February 25, 2007

Sometimes:

  • The Heart refuses to believe what the Mind knows is true. That jalebi rich in ghee is bad for health. That the roadside chaat is injurious to health. That chemical changes are permanent. That people forget each other and time can weaken the strongest bonds - laconic, ionic or platonic. That putting good money after bad is counter productive. That you should not invest everything you have in one stock. Or one dream.
  • Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. The prize you did not deserve but won nevertheless. The heart shattering words that tore through your heart like a pet rabbit tears a white bedsheet. The hole in your heart caused by a ricocheting bullet, angry genes or a much-feared conversation.
  • You are so hungry you can't eat or you are so tired you can't sleep or you are so sad you can't speak. Life comes with myriad tricks. More tricks than the grandest magicians. And there are no rules. Just when you thought you knew how to tackle the fickle beast, it grows a third horn and (honks it?) hits you hard. Somehow life seems to know where it hurts the most. Those who have suffered from migraine, stones in the urinary tract or arethrosyncomphalynxcaricitis [ ok, just call it a heart break!] would know.
  • You really need a vent to empty your heavy heart or heavy bladder.
  • Scepticism and pessimism join hands to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bad things happen just because you think they will happen. Or may be because you let them happen. The ice cream stain on your favorite shirt, the weak-knee syndrome or the perpetual khich khich in your throat.
  • Star rated movies go by the most innocous names. Like '18 and confused'. Or 'Deep Throat'.
  • Thinking is the most tortuous thing to do. More tortuous than listening to a certain cough-and-cold-infected singer, hanging upside down on a hook attached to your belly button, or seeing your own heart getting pierced.
  • Undervaluation manifests itself in the most unexpected ways. "Your pen is not worth it". "That movie is not worth waiting for". "That thing is not worth getting angry about".
  • You should let go. Of your sweetest dream, your favorite (but now undersized) jeans, the chappal whose battered sole is now wafer thin, and a lot of other things.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Of Obsessions and excitements!

Happy 'V' day to all who are blessed, and best wishes to all who are waiting to be blessed !

I was very pleasantly surprised by a gift from Strato. Err, umm ... the non-typical-of-Strato tone apart, the packaging was wonderful. It had all the redness and pinkness thrown in for full measure and words that could easily make the angriest hearts melt. Reminds me of the old Dhara ad in which the sulking boy gets oh-so-excited at the mention of the word Jalebi. Hmm...
I had been somewhat sulking at her for making me wait for lunch. Meanwhile, the charge of the hunger brigade had been romping full blast inside my tummy.
I am told I have a way with words. Where there is a word, there is a way - what else can I say? Once before, I have been complimented on my ability for succint descriptions. And the compliment-giver was one of my favorite profs at IITK. She taught us Psychology, and in the first mid term she had asked a rather original question. If the structural psychologists and some-other-baffling-name psyhologists were to argue, what would be their points of agreement and disagreement? I believe I wrote a somewhat more animated description of the argumentation than the prof expected - may be, there were even a few murders at the heat of the moment ! Anyway, when I saw my evaluated answer script, I felt great reading the superscription - "You know how to write well. However, you should know what you are writing."
In other news, I have picked up some obsessions. While codebreaker-a-day is an old routine, now I do numerous sudokus a day. Also a codebreaker and a crossword. And the latest fad is loop-the-loop.

Just the day before, results were announced for the Poll-of-the-year. It set the mood right for thinking about the next inflection point in our lives. Uncertainty eats into my head and drives me mad. And there are only few things that can act as consolation.

Sometimes it surprises me. Sometimes it disturbs me. Whether 2 years put into MBA from an elite institution were worth it or not is more or less decided by the job you finally land. A rapid process, preceded by weeks of anxiety. And the moment of decision is so ephemereal. One moment you have all the choices in the world, the other moment you are tied. To a role, to a company, to a job.
The worst thing is that there is no alternative. Not in the amount of courage I am willing to spend in the process of finding a job.

-Trying-my-way-with-words.
Will post when I am done rhyming the ands with the wands.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Cliches and More!

There are some cliches that have been cliche-ised that the very sound of them makes a whole sentence boring. Examples - 'as to', 'how do we go about...', 'what this is all about...', etc.
Combined with personal favorite items, they can make any serious conversation funny and vice versa. The set of personal items I have come across includes
'bhaiya ho' : this was my Math tuition teacher in class XI, and you can visualise a set of giggling boys holding on to their stomachs to prevent them from bursting every time the 'revered' phrase was spoken!
'actually' : and i guess this is actually quite a common choice. Actually!
'like as' : As a matter of fact, a slight misspelling makes it even more interesting. 'Like ass'. But my computers teacher in the computer coaching class stuck to the single s version. I think he didn't find the idea of likening everything to 'ass' so interesting after all!
A frequent question at discussion tables here is, "So how do we go about doing it?". I wonder what is wrong with the simpler version: "So how do we do it?".
One might call this nitpicking, but why not. At least I am not yet into commenting on missing colons and hyphens. Eats Shoots and Leaves is actually a very good book for people who belong to this category, actually!

The activities that lead to final placement have started. Presentations by companies, numerous interactions which are alleged to be evaluative exercises in the garb of talk-over-coffee, case contests and so on. I find some of the gimmicks ridiculous, but then its too lopsided a judgement I am making without having been at the other side of the table.

I guess life also has a way of moving in cycles. Motorcycles for some, and bicycles for some. And I just pictured myself riding a Hero Gold Cycle with a special someone seated in the front passenger seat. [And also all the jing bang of Bollywood movies in the background]
The detour apart, sometimes life moves so fast, you gasp and pant, but all you get hold of is the bhagte-bhoot-ki-langoti. Or knickers or whatever, without a judgement on the gender of the bhoot. Life at IIMA had so far been like that. Mostly. In the physical sense, the 2 years moved like 2 years always do. But there were phases when life changed its face faster than the protagonist in FaceOff. And even more beyond recognition.
Then there was a phase when things were more settled down. Everyday was like the previous or the next.
Looking back, I realise that I have just crossed a small peak. But in reality, I am in a big trough. And that is going to change real soon. Life is going to change. Unpredictably, Rapidly. Almost in an instant.
I wonder if I am equipped at all. Some possibilities actually make me shudder. I wonder how I will go about dealing with those. But we all have to.

So many of the principles we learn in economics are true in real life as well. The results that are conjectured for the 'rational human being' hold true even when applied to the irrational world of relationships. Families, friends, lovers, siblings - you name it.
Demand and supply works as well in a family as it does in the market. Of course one has to guide one's vision appropriately. If you are too freely available, you are treated differently. 'Familiarity breeds contempt' - there couldn't be a more succinct way of saying it.
People look at profit and loss in all transactions - business or interpersonal. Taken to an extreme, it can be used to explain just about any kind of love, but then it would be too encompassing a theory. And a TheoryOfEverything is for the Hawkings of the world to find. However, I strongly believe that people look out for what they gain from anything and everything - relationships, stocks, and everything else.

What do you do when every single day, the one you love kills a part of you?
Do you kill a part of them? Can you?
And what do you when a part of them is a part of you?