one morning...

Coffee is the most important drink of the day for me, after Honey-Lemon Tea. First thing that goes inside my stomach every morning is either the sweet and sour HL-T or simmering bitter black coffee. Without these drinks, morning isn’t morning at all. And now when I have a nothing-to-boast-of 160 kbps connection at home, which takes 5 light years for icicidirect-dot-com to open in unhappy hours, I try checking all my inboxes in happy hours along with my drink lubricating every cell of my body from my throat down to my bowels. Slurp! Burp, Burp!

Long centuries of evolution of homosapiens have brought a poignant monotony among them. Now there isn’t only one crazy restless person in this world. For every person awake at 5 in the morning, there is another at some other city, thinking along almost the similar line of thoughts. So, as I log on to my gmail at this relatively godforsaken hour of day, I see Dindu coming online just a second later; and a pop up chat window another second later.

Dindu: ‘Man! Which subject is the most important subject that should be taught to everybody?’

Me (sotto voce): Is this fellow sleep-walking or something? Morning 5 O’clock and he is asking me this? Sure this fellow is sleep-walking.

I had this friend of mine in college, who once slept with his hands on the keyboard, while typing a project report and when he woke up the other day and submitted his project report, his Automotive Engineering instructor sent him summons and asked whether he wants to finish his studies or not. Surprised when Vikesh (name changed) came to his room and checked his report, he was surprised to see his wildest of fantasies about Latetia Casta and Katie Moss documented in the report, instead of Analysis of Crank Shaft Design. We all had cramps in our stomachs for the rest of the term.

Dindu: Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Political Science, Psychology… which one?

Me (sotto voce): What the f*#k! Who cares! Tambi has gone nuts early in the morning!

Dindu: Dae! Are you there or not?

Me: Hi Man! How are you? I hope you are in India and fully awake? It’s 5 in the morning?

Dindu: **ck off! What the hell do you think, I am sleep-walking or something? Surya and Asin are here with me, pissing me off with this question… tell me…

Me: Surya and Asin? I know you are Surya, who is Asin?

Dindu: Not me a**h***. I am Dindu. These two are here beside my bed and asking me these stupid questions. Tell me fast. This Surya fellow is suffering from short term memory loss; he forgets everything after 1 minute. So tell quickly, or else he will hit this shovel on my head…

Damn! I logged off immediately leaving Dindu in his four dimensional world, before he could start behaving like a screwed up schizophrenic. Tambi must have watched some Tamizh movie late last night and got severely affected by that. Phew!!!

Enya playing in my iTunes, I sit in my terrace watching the changing colors of sky, drinking the sweet-sour honey lemon tea, at the same time thinking about what could be the most important subject in this world.

Waste!

I have struggled to find my favorite subject for almost quarter of a century now. In my school days, it was mathematics – may be because my old-man used to teach me and I always scored in 90’s. In higher secondary it became English – may be because my teacher was so pretty. Four years of engineering made me so blasé that I viewed every subject with an equal eye – so no favorites there. In interviews where I had the highest grade was my favorite, just like everybody else. And enter this post education life; I slowly start taking interest in Economics and Computer Science, I don’t know why. But for a subject to be favorite means one needs to know every minute detail of it, its history, its current affairs and its future. I am just a novice when I try to find my location w.r.t. these subjects.

It is very silly to ask what the most important subject is. Like the story of the asshole becoming the boss of body, it is madness to cry for a subject. The basic idea I am trying to form my life on is – ‘one must know something of everything and everything of one thing…’ Subjects are subsets of life, not the other way. Subjects are means of understanding life, not the other way. It is possible to find connections between Operating Systems and Biology, Political Science and Chemistry, Psychology and Physics, J2EE and Journalism, Oracle and Ontology… you name it… Just need an eye…

PS: The images are paintings by Mr Sunil Padwal, a famous modern artist.