common cold chaos...

As I write this… Sneeze… I have come two days away from the situation where my nose had become almost of the color of a… cough… cough… monkey’s ass. Sneeze… You never know when it catches you – the common… sneeze… cold. You sleep happily after watching your favorite movie, and… cough… cough… when you wake up you realize that all night you have been… sneeze… breathing with your mouth open. Worst if you reach your work without a kerchief or tissues. In last two days, I had thrown three… sneeze… kerchiefs after they reached the brim of their liquid soaking patience, while the fourth is on its… sneeze… test. AAAHH... Gaawwd!!!

According to wikipedia “Common cold leads to 75 to 100 million physician visits at a conservative cost estimate of $7.5 billion per year. Americans spend $2.9 billion on over-the-counter drugs and another $400 million on prescription medicines for symptomatic relief.” Can you believe it? There is a big money making opportunity here… if a textile/FMCG company can come up with something innovative for the running nose, on similar lines of sanitary napkins but without letting the nose turn red by the cloth-friction, how much revenue it can draw every year! I will definitely buy the IPO if the co lists on any of the exchanges!

The interesting/sad point is that there isn’t a medicine for the virus which causes the common cold. If you thoroughly read this article, you will find that in a healthy immunocompetent individual, the common cold last seven days on an average. Whatever medicines we take (CROCIN, PCM, Aspirin blah blah…) only focus on relieving the symptoms. They don’t and can’t do anything to the virus.

Prevention is the only best possibility of staying away from this chaotic inevitability. Noble Prize winner Linus Pauling was supporter of the Vitamin C Megadosage theory of preventing the viral infection. In 1970 he published a bestseller book – ‘Vitamin C and the Common Cold’. But overdose of Vitamin C does something bad of the Iron content of body, so be careful before trying anything!

Meanwhile… aaa… aaa… AAACHHHEEE… I will go and buy another set of... AAACCHHHHHEEEE... kerchiefs… Sob… Sob... Mom... :(...

dindu's dilemma II...

For past few days I had been busy writing drafts of recommendation letters for my professors and managers. I am trying hard to get out of the country you see. For MS. All this time I had been living with these words - good communication skills, good team player, diligent, focused, calm, keen, eager, talented... He he he... And I found that it’s very difficult to write all good things about oneself. Especially, when you have to make sure that all recos ‘must not’ smell similar or you will be in trouble. Because no two people will write the similar things about you, isn’t it? But they ask you to draft the thing! So, all this while I was juggling with words and their synonyms…

Met Dindu the other day. I hope by now you are at least a little familiar with this victim of multilateral nomenclature. Same old coffee shop, same hot coffee and same old Dindu and same youthful I – we were peacefully 'sight-aDichhifying' when suddenly Dindu got eerie.

D- ‘Dae Machan! Tell me one thing seriously man… if you are a 10 pointer then…’

R- ‘Wo.. oh.. ho.. wo..!! What happened suddenly?? You are scaring me man. ‘Seriously’ and ‘10Pointer’ are the words which have scared me throughout my life… And I am not the real 10 Pointer man… You know that it was only in one fateful semester… What shit is flying across your mind?’

FYI: 10 Pointer is the term similar to ‘Five Point’ Someone. 10 Pointer is a person who has ‘A’s in all courses of his Engineering academic history. I happened to have all ‘A’ in 6th semester of my history which earned me the sobriquet of ‘one sem’ 10 P, but people tend to miss the ‘one sem’ thing most of the times and create confusions…

D- ‘Whatever man! You made ‘A’ in Design of Machine Vibrations man!! You made ‘A’ in Heat Transfer!! Fucker!! Now tell me the answer of these questions if you are a real fundu mechanical engineer:

1) What is the role of girls/female/ladies in this world... Why are they born… and how is that a guy need to have a relationship with her?? Just pure love (with no lust) or love with lust. Give justifications for all your answers .

2) Why do they say girls are equivalent to goddess/Lakshmi..what quality in them we should recognize and respect to consider them equivalent to goddess. What do you think they possess that needs to be respected.'

R- ‘Ha ha ha ha… Fuck you man! If I made ‘A’ in those courses, it was because or the formulae that could be mugged and the firm support of people behind me who were ready to make happy ‘D’s. It was relative grading man! And also if I can solve Navier Stokes equation or Gyroscopes doesn’t mean that I can give you the answers of these questions. This is philosophy and psychology dude, not springs and Machines. There is no formula I know which can solve the above problems! Such questions are answered either by spiritual saints or psychiatrists!’

D- ‘I don’t know machan! You give me the answer… Write something about it in your blog… You just get me the fucking answers man, before I get married!’

Silence... Sip... Sip... Sip...

R- ‘Ok da! If you are so worried then I will try to formulate something by asking some people and reading some psychological literature, before your wife screws you! Now, let me look around and appreciate the beauty and you will pay the bill…’

the pondy diary....

Nov 8:

Reached Periyamudalayarchavadi (some 8 km from Pondicherry) at around 1500 hours, overshot the actual destination by some 3 kilometers… Flight, being 'Simply Dhakkan', was as usual late but when it comes to a ride on ECR (East Coast Road) you forget everything! Learnt a good lesson on value of money – Rs 55/- you can reach from Chennai to Pondicherry (distance 150 km) in a bus, Rs 50/- you can reach from 3km away from Periyamudalayarchavadi to Periyamudalayarchavadi in an auto… WTF!

Called up the evergreen guest house at auroville and took directions to reach there. Apparently the lady named 'Tamar' had sent me a mail regarding guesthouse availability which never landed on my gmail account. So she was a little pissed off when I called her out of the blue. Anyhow, pigs is pigs. I hired one screwed up Atlas Gold line for Rs 25/- a day (Rs 500/- deposit) and started paddling my way towards what would be my accommodation for next 3 nights. Damn! 5 kilometers into the forest, I was sweating like a sick pig. Have to cut down smoke and start working out.

The bearded fellow named Ameer (an Israeli national) showed me the place. Rs 200/- per day, no fan/AC, no doors, no attached toilets… but it was worth more than 200 if you ask me. That's called marginal utility of money. I froze the deal, dumped my bag in the hut. Being Diwali (in Tamilnadu), the whole place had gone into a holiday. That meant nowhere to eat before main-road! The hosts offered me a colorful honey-oat sandwich and a banana and that was all for the lunch. Household had 3 pet dogs – 1 black Labrador, 1 black & yellow greyhound and 1 black & white Doberman. Dogs liked me… especially the Labrador called 'layala'. I am also going to have one Labrador for myself one day - black or yellow!

Dinner time… had to cycle another 10 kilometers (up + down) for two 'paranthas' and some unidentifiable 'sabjii' with curd. Add one 300 ml apple juice and it becomes Rs 70/-. WTF!!! 2100 hours and I am on my way back into the forest. Fuck! No lights… pitch black… somehow managed to get back to the hut with my Motorola C168's LCD light! Sweated profusely… desperately needed sleep after mosquitoes spared me… will need a motor bike tomorrow if I want to return to Hyderabad alive… you see, when survival is at stake you don't go around writing essays, poetry and appreciating beauty... you try to survive... eyes closed…

Nov 9:

Eyes open… 8 in the morning… Where am I? Who am I?

After regaining consciousness, headed towards visitor's center for breakfast… ate like pig… met another yellow Labrador there… poor fellow seemed abandoned by its owner… he looked like an enlightened old dog you see, with all serenity and love it showed despite being sick and hungry… shared some food with him… came back… Mosquitoes have also become familiar now and seem bored with my blood… looks like I am adapting fast… sleep…

1400 hours… Where am I? Who am I?

Bullshit! I need a bike… screw the 'shaan ki sawari'… surrendered the cycle… got one splendor for Rs 90/- a day (Rs 500/- deposit)… Phew!! 'Ab jaan mein jaan aayee'… Lunch at Beach Café… Rice and Fish… slurp… slurp! Back to hut… sleep…

1900 hours… the neighbor comes to the common kitchen… (me living just above the kitchen)… name Emon… Age 40-50… six packs… tattooed biceps… cyclist… teacher at auroville kindergarten… makes himself a fruit salad and herbal tea… back to his hut some 50 meters away from mine… Damn! Really need to cut down smoke and start working out!

Went out splendor-fully… got myself three apples and one bottle of water… one apple and one glass of hot water for dinner… 2030… I am asleep…

Nov 10:

What a wonderful morning... Had a healthy defecation… metabolism is working good… one apple and one glass of hot water works…

Had a nice talk with Natasha (Yoshi's, the host on my first visit to auroville, daughter)... She, also, was a teacher in the kindergarten. She told me about how they have re-forested the whole auroville land. She has been living there for more than 15 years with her husband (alas!) who takes care of the foresting the waste land…

Booked my slot to visit 'Matri-Mandir' in the evening… Local guys are thinking that I am a foreigner… Enjoying the unearned glamour! They should not eavesdrop someday me reciting Super Star Rajini's punch dialogs…

1600 hours… the most amazing place I have ever seen… the central chamber of the 'Matri-Mandir'… one beam of natural solar light descending from a heliostat on the top upon a 400kg crystal globe… That is the only source of light in the huge (HUGE) hall… the hall is perfectly sound-proof… this is the place where you will find real silence… But only 15 minutes are allowed… shit!!!

This was the most amazing experience of life… will keep me alive for long… one apple and one glass of hot water… sleep…

Nov 11:

Nothing more to do now… flight at 2000 hours…

Paid off all the bills… boarded a non ECR bus (which goes via airport)… all 3 nights of serenity and silence was gone in 3 hours of bus journey… all that shouting and screaming, that too in an alien language… suddenly I remember the incident of some bus being burnt somewhere in Tamilnadu…

Bus got punctured on the way… had to wait for some 45 minutes in a god forsaken place… while other passengers boarded other buses to continue their journey, I didn't dare to get packed in those already 'festive-packed' buses…

Coincidence happened… met an old colleague while she was returning in some other bus from somewhere to Chennai… even she said I was looking like a foreigner! Come on yaar… 25 years and I haven't even touched foreign soil… forget foreign soil, I haven't even touched a girl except at the palm of her right hand with the palm of my right hand… how can you do this to me… how can u…

Another lesson on value of money – Rs 45 to come in a non ECR bus from Pondy to Chennai… Rs 150/- for a 'too hot' veg puff and a 'too cold' cold coffee with ice-cream at airport… saw India winning against Pakistan sitting on a luggage trolley…

Flight was delayed again… reached Hyderabad… Same old shit begins from tomorrow again…

Journey was awesome… lived almost like an animal… away from the mayhem of Diwali crackers… This was the best Diwali I remember after last year's… listened to my voices for all the time and found out that 'unless you know what you want, it doesn't matter what you get…'

one about diwali & desperation...

are you safe with yourself?

Famous Chinese painter and philosopher Ching Hao said: There are six essentials in painting. The first is called spirit; the second, rhythm; the third, thought; the fourth, scenery; the fifth, the brush; and the last is the ink.

More often than not a person is left alone with himself and his thoughts. Everyone cannot handle these thoughts. Everyone does not (or cannot) enjoy his or her own company. And this solitude is inevitable, one day it comes. One day, everyone gets to encounter his or her inside talking face to face… Solitary confinement given to hardest and coldest of criminals, leaves them crumbling with fear and paranoia. Solitude is something hard to handle.

Sometimes, it is the most silent moments of life which are the noisiest. These are the moments which really matter.

When a person feels in harmony with himself, if a person feels safety from his own thoughts – he feels secure elsewhere too. When a person isn’t safe from his own thoughts, he can neither be anywhere else.

But you see… these thoughts are no real. Yeah! Thoughts aren’t real. Thoughts are something which are formed somewhere inside our brain. You look at this brain map, structure & functions of individual parts of brain and you will come to know what actually is behind the thoughts. Limbic system, cerebrum, medulla oblongata… every part has a role to play. And that is the fundamental pattern our brain follows. Can’t change that... From the most mundane thoughts of liking something, to the most influential life changing thoughts take shape in the same brain.

Then what is it that gives rise to these incomprehensible thoughts? It is the rhythm. You see. Our whole body is in one rhythm or the other every moment. It’s how we are breathing, how our heart is beating, how the blood is flowing in our veins, how our internal organs are working… all these factors form a specific rhythm inside us and that in turn form thoughts.

All thoughts are mere responses to the external stimuli which have been fed inside us since the time we were born. Have you ever looked at a newspaper without first knowing that it is a newspaper, or have you ever looked at moon without saying to yourself that you are looking at moon? Can you look at Indo-Pak cricket match without getting excited; can you forget for a while that you belong to a country?

Enough!

I went to an SBI bank today since I had to get some Demand Draft work done. Government Bank as it is, opens at 10:30 and so there were some 20-30 people already packed outside the gate of the bank. As soon as the gate opened there was disorder and chaos because everyone tried to get in together. Similar thing once caused death of 96 people in Hillsborough in 1989. The point is this – thoughts, though virtual their existence is, keep waiting at the door of our consciousness to get served, all through the day, every moment. Now if you delay attending to them they are going to create chaos! I mean SBI could have learnt something from ICICI Bank but ‘old habits, die hard’. No matter how stupid or how great a thought is, it demands attention from our awareness, otherwise if left unsatisfied creates turbulence later!

Just need to ask how safe are you with your own company... And next time you get a spate of thoughts just issue them a service token and serve them one by one. Not to forget, open up early, don’t delay!

Godspeed!