The Canteen Phenomenon

Of all the days spent in my college, I’ll definitely want to make note of a few. About 55 – 60 % of my three year education @ my college was spent in the canteen, thanks to my brilliant & amazingly f**ked up professors. Well not that I’d have actually made anymore productive use of that time other than having wonderful conversations with my friends. But it feels kind of sad to waste all that time at a place that doesn’t even serve good food, except for that brilliantly made Dahi vada & Sabudana wada.

Anyway, as the matter of food came in, there are a few places I went to during my college years & still am looking forward to continue going there. One of those amazing places is Mani’s at Matunga. Its really hard to imagine how my udipi life would have been if I hadn’t been at Mani’s. Its really hard to imagine, trust me. The amazing idli vada chatni, I dream about this stuff. Its freakin amazing.

Another place worth mentioning, which according to me serves the best masala paav in Mumbai ( I am not exaggerating, am I ? ). Its DP’s (Durga Parmeshwari or something like that). In the same building as that of Mani’s but on the opposite side. Again you can hardly imagine the taste of masala paav there with a view to die for ;).

Coming back to my miserably boring canteen, the worst thing there is about my college canteen, apart from the perpetual company of flies, is its murals. Totally rubbish, I could have painted a better one. You will literally feel like throwing your plate & spoons on the wall when you see it while eating. Anyway, another thing worth mentioning is sudden increase in the price of Mangola. That drink was heaven until its price rose twice. Anyway, it is a really noticeable fact that there aient no crows on my canteen ceiling. What I mean to say is, my college is plagued with crows that somehow have developed some grudge against me. Its been 5 semesters in that place & not one semester has passed without a crow shitting on my shoulder. No where else , but precisely on my right shoulder, again n again. Well these crows don’t come to my canteen & I’m more than glad about it.

Its so splendid to write about a place you hate so much that you can actually throw up if someone would just mention its name. Maybe I’m passed that syndrome & maybe I’ve accepted that there is nothing that can change my current position. Anyway, I wasn’t even trying to change it in the first place. A guy can feel a little difficult to breath in such a chic devoid environment, you really cannot breathe in that place. Rabid dogs move around, rabid professors too. Maybe that’s all part of the fun. Its so sick that I’ve actually grown through it & this is going to help me face any kind of irritating experience in my life, as there is nothing more irritating than my college, to say.

So of all the time spent there, I wish for just one thing. Not good professors, not good chics around, not good industry exposure, not a conducive environment to study, not a crow free skyline, not fly free air, not cleaning up those wadala slums, not more frequency of the 110 bus, not the smell to ward off, but I would like to wish for a better canteen, after all, 60 % is not a small amount of time, is it?

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Song for the moment: Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE

A coupla days ago, I was filling out some form on a website. It had many not-so-to-the-point questions. But the one that really set me off, to thinking out of the box, was : "Whats the happiest moment of your life ?"

I was really disturbed because I couldnt remember any of it. Maybe because there are too many of them or maybe because there aient any. I chose to think on the former one. I pondered through the deep dungeons of my memory to short list one single happiest moment of my life. Well, I realised that I wasnt much of a searching kinda person when it came to search stuff without using Google. It was really hard to point out that single moment.

I went through most of my childhood memories, from which I could remember a very few. They say that a child's memory starts to develop after the age of 3, but it cant associate most of the things as they dont have total idea of their surroundings yet. Anyway, I went to the shelf where I keep my photo albums & dug out my childhood pictures. It was so much fun to see it all again, although I couldnt associate themwith many events, as they were taken when I was one or two years old. I took some help from mom & she told me what had happened during that picture was taken. Its so surprising that in every picture I was looking as if it were the happiesnt moment of my life. Then where did all these memories fade away!

But then I realised that its wise to think top down, so I went from my current state & started thinking backwards. I remembered the days when I met some really important people in my life, I recollected the memories of the first time I realised that I was in Love, I thought of how some people had said the right words at the right time & really made my day. Its amazing to think of all these things with a purpose or a sort of search condition just like we use on google, here the keyword was
" The happiest Moment of my Life ".

Nevertheless, I built up this humongous list thinking throughout that night. It had all the small things that had happened right since I started to remember things, through pre school, primary school, Teenage & till now. The little coincidences that happen everyday, the books I read, the day I realised that life is SHIT without Formula One , all those wacky movie watching sessions with my friends, my first booze ;) It was all so overwhelming to remember.

But there still wasnt a satisfactory answer. How does anyone know that some moment is the happiest moment of their lives ! Do people have to go through worst experiences to realise how their best days were ? Does this balance between good & bad things really matter to us ? I remember this amazing line from the movie Vanilla Sky, Cameron Diaz says this to Tom Cruise a few moments before she commits suicide by driving her car down a road & off a bridge with Tom still inside: " Whats happiness to you David (Tom's character's name) ?"

Thats exactly what I was thinking that night (obviously I was thinking about me & not David). Whats all this happiness after all? Is it just a hormonal surge which makes us feel happy, all those endorphins & adrenalin....? Seriously how do we scale memories as happy or sad moments ? These thoughts really made me sick that day. Its so weird to not get an answer to such a simple question when all the things that you want to know are available on the internet.

In the book 'The Seven Sins of Memory" the author Daniel Schacter says how the brain can play games & manipulate past memories according to your current state of mind & your mood. Was I a victim of one of these seven sins ? Was I thinking about the old things & purposely made them look like happy incidents ? I guess I would never know that. But I can definitely say that it feels so good to look back once in a while & to see the long trail of sweet & sour events that we have lived through, the people we have met & what roles they play in your life. Its almost orgasmic to realise that our brain retains almost all of it. I would like to quote it in the words of Ewan McGregor from the movie Trainspotting: "Take the best orgasm you've ever had, multiply by 1000, and you're still nowhere near it." Although Ewan was talking about heroine & I'm not :)

So it still remains a mystery about the happiest moment of my life, who knows, maybe I'm living in one....

Song for the moment: Filter - Take my picture

MENSA

What is MENSA ?

People hear about mensa but they dont know what it's all about. They are told by someone that its a group for intellectuals & people with very high IQ's. Thats one of the major reasons that keep people away from appearing for the mensa tests. Very few people are willing to know their IQ, as they think, a low IQ score may be a source of embarresment.

Its true tht Mensa is an organization which has people with high IQ's, but thats just the punch line.
Mensa is something more than just high IQ & uber intelligence. Its one of the major source of motivation for all members. People from various educational backgrounds & different communities come together to form a huge pool of experience & achievements. Although these people are distinguished in their fields of work, all mensans keep their prides burried & share their experience as just another person in the crowd.

But beyond all the achievement & glory, a mensan is a true human & is equal to any other human.

What I learnt from mensa is a sense of responsibility towards society, to use my naturally obtained intelligence in the betterment of humanity & for proving myself as a better person.

These things may sound too ideal or philosophical but its the unsaid fact when you are a part of MENSA.

I have been a mensan since 1999 & since then I have met amazing people which normally I would never bump into. Eventhough these people are tested for high IQ's they seem to be built with a sense of humbleness that comes with their intelligence.

There are so many intelligent people around me, some are my friends, some are my closest relatives. Its hard to convince them to take an intelligence or IQ test. But who said it takes an IQ test to prove a person's intelligence ?

As actor P.J. Oclan said in the movie 'Little man tate' :
" You see, it isn't the size of a guy's IQ that matters. It's how he uses it."

But the bottomline is how to make yourself & your intelligence useful for your own growth !

The answer lies in social interaction. Thats where mensa comes in. Social interaction gives you a sense of confidence & makes you realize, what you are actually made of ! Thus Mensa can be seen as an Organization ( non profit ofourse ) that fosters intellectual & judgement skills.

I wont request or urge anyone who reads this, to go & take a mensa test, but yes I do suggest them to take up a Mensa test so that if they qualify then their experience can be used to make a wiser out of the wise.

Basics about Mensa:

Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr. Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other"s company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

Mensa Goals:

Mensa has three stated purposes:
to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity,
to encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and
to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members.

What kinda people are members of Mensa:

There is simply no one prevailing characteristic of Mensa members other than high IQ. There are Mensans for whom Mensa provides a sense of family, and others for whom it is a casual social activity. There have been many marriages made in Mensa, but for many people, it is simply a stimulating opportunity for the mind. Most Mensans have a good sense of humor, and they like to talk. And, usually, they have a lot to say.

Mensans range in age from 4 to 94, but most are between 20 and 60. In education they range from preschoolers to high school dropouts to people with multiple doctorates. There are Mensans on welfare and Mensans who are millionaires. As far as occupations, the range is staggering. Mensa has professors and truck drivers, scientists and firefighters, computer programmers and farmers, artists, military people, musicians, laborers, police officers, glassblowers--the diverse list goes on and on. There are famous Mensans and prize-winning Mensans, but there are many whose names you wouldn't know.

How do you qualify for Mensa

Membership in Mensa is open to persons who have attained a score within the upper two percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test that has been properly administered and supervised. There is no other qualification or disqualification for membership eligibility.

The term "IQ score" is widely used but poorly defined. There are a large number of tests with different scales. The result on one test of 132 can be the same as a score 148 on another test. Some intelligence tests don't use IQ scores at all. Mensa has set a percentile as cutoff to avoid this confusion. Candidates for membership in Mensa must achieve a score at or above the 98th percentile (a score that is greater than or equal to 98 percent of the general population taking the test) on a standard test of intelligence.

Generally, there are two ways to prove that you qualify for Mensa: either take the Mensa test, or submit a qualifying test score from another test. There are a large number of intelligence tests that are "approved". More information on whether a test you have taken is approved, as well as information on the procedure for taking the Mensa test, can be obtained from the nearest Mensa office.

Mensa has no other eligibility requirements other than IQ testing.

Dont miss out the fun, contact the nearest Mensa Office & sign up for a test.

WHY DO I DIG BOOKS ?

Books have been a part of my life since I was in grade 7. They have not exactly been a soulmate for me, but they have been close enough to be one. The only problem I faced with books is that, they cannot reciprocate to your thoughts.

But the reason remains, WHY DO I DIG BOOKS ?

- Why not play a sport ?
- Why not hang out with friends ?
- Why not live a exciting life, going places, watching things ?
- Why stick to the lonely room & the PC ?

These things may sound like a confession of a miserably boring moron, well as they might be ;) they are also confessions of a guy who cant help but read something all the time.

This reading stuff has a history. I was part of a really normal nuclear family. Mom , dad loved me a lot, had loving & caring relatives whom I used to visit a lot. None of this has changed yet. But there was something missing. There was always this GUY URGE to explore, to enjoy the adrenalin rush, to play pranks, basically to do all the stuff that is expected from a kid. Notice the use of the word "was" in the previous sentence.

Now what does all this have to do with reading? Read Along...

Ever since I was a kid & showed remarkable similarity to any normal kid, I liked to play in the sun, in the mud & practically at any place with loads of fun. But there was one problem. I was born in a place where I was going to be devoid of all these kiddy guy stuff. I was born in the building where there were no guys to play with. The best part is, there were GALS. ALL of them.

I used to get out of my home everyday in search of action & adventure, I never wanted to play with gals (back then). "Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony". I had no other option. I wasnt as open as I should have been, or else I could have gone to play at the local playground with complete strangers. I stayed, I played with these gals half heartedly. I had to spend my energy on something & this was it. I ended up playing all the girly stuff that I should have just learnt from overheard girly talks. But nevertheles, I played & satisfied my urge to get out of my home. Eventhough it wasnt worth it for me. I dint know it back then, but all I did thru my childhood is weaken the sportsman in me.

The saga continued, it was 1995, the first day of my life when the whole yard in front of my building was empty. "WHAT ?" " NO GALS ? "

I was stranded there, alone. No one to play with. I dint get it back then, but after all these years, I think the gals got gal conscious. Tht was a blow below the belt for me. I couldnt stand being lonely. For a year or so , played with a tomboy. It got boring after that. Then I got extremely lonely, I used to spent my evenings in front of the tv. May be thts how i got my Spects. Imagine a 12 yr old boy who has lonely evenings.

Thts when I jus looked around the house & found 10 story books from a set that i had got, a gift from my parents. Opened it up without formalities & started reading. They were interesting ( aesop's fables to be precise ). I spent a whole week on them to understand every story properly. I wasnt a keen reader back then.

But after that week, i had a new source of entertainment. I started reading. Although i was into drawing & painting stuff, this reading thing was special. I actually used to anticipate the evening reading time. This time killing hobby was soon about to become an obsession. I got Robison Crusoe from a library & that was the first ever act of fiction that I read , which was over 200 pages in size. I simply loved it & just went on.

Today I jus gave a thot about all the abstract stuff that i know, all the nice things that i have incorporated in my life, certain amount of know how which works as information sometimes..it made me realise how important it was for me to get frustrated in 1996. I could have missed all this reading action without that lonely childhood.

Thts why I dig books so much, bcoz they make me realize that i am lonely. They make me realize the importance of company & helps me to be away from the " 4 Wall syndrome ". Who said you need dope to get high ? one good book can keep you high for weeks together.

So this is a sob story of my dope, really dont care now that i dint play. As now my fav sport ( F1) doesnt demand that i actually play it & WHO HAS THE TIME TO PLAY EITHER ;) ?


But I still miss that sportsman anyway.....

ARTIFICIAL STUPIDITY

2005?
I remember reading a sci-fi book called “2001: A Space Odyssey”…well I did find that book a little ‘too’ futuristic when I read it in school, back in early 1998. But like millions of other foreseers I too dreamt of a very modern world when mankind would step in the new millennium. What was I looking for anyway?

2001 arrived & I was still waiting for someone to build a Starship Enterprise. But to my dismay there weren’t any wormholes, neither were parallel universes. They still reside in their actual form & that will be ‘Theories’. Read about space a lot, but I found computers more interesting.

Forgetting the future for a while, let’s go back to the invention of transistors. Long back in 1947, three physicists named John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, gave birth to something so important that we would soon forget about its existence & start using it blindly, just like we use Oxygen. They made the first Transistor, at the Bell labs. What was the itch that made these guys make the most important invention of the 20^th Century? All they wanted to do is to use the knowledge in electrical devices gathered since the 1800’s, to make devices for communication.

This urge gave birth to the Information Age. At first, the computer was not high on the list of potential applications for this tiny device. This is not surprising—when the first computers were built in the 1940s and 1950s, few scientists saw in them the seeds of technology that would in a few decades come to permeate almost every sphere of human life. Then comes the digital explosion. What do I mean by the explosion? Well, mass producing transistors & integrating them with chips (not the fried ones, but the silicon ones), gave computers a new meaning. Computers grew smaller in size, from huge rooms to table tops & now, laps & palms. Ever wondered how 2005 would be without the transistor? Don’t even bother to think about it.

All this info I gave you is just a small intro to what actually follows. What exactly do we mean by the words Information Technology? One can easily “Google” up the words “information Technology” & generate some 100 million pages in 0.12 secs. But that’s not what IT is all about. Its all about application of the information…..Sounds techy? Wait till u read ahead.

Information – Any relevant data that can be accumulated & presented is known as Information. That will be a very basic definition, but information is too vast to define. In the early ages people used to gather information by looking at the sky (to find what time it was, duh) but it worked. I don’t remember looking up for the time ever since I began to talk & ask people what time it was. Anyway, the example of staring at the sky for the time, sounds as obsolete as using a cave man tool to cut veggies. All I am trying to imply is the use of very basic things that would sound so weird if told long back in the past before their invention. Who ever thought that someone would come up with an idea to make a mechanical piece of metal to tell you time ! Well someone sure did come up with it. It’s the same with computers. Computers have had generations of growth. They still want to grow, but this time its not in size. No matter how small the technology grows, it will always become simpler to handle. That’s when the human element of stupidity comes into picture.

Imagine a cave man making a stone tool for himself. Finally he comes up with a way to make it & then starts mass producing it so that he can gain profit from his simple invention. This tool, overtime, becomes a basic necessity of all the people who use it. They cant do many things if they lose such a handy tool. They device various ways to decipher the simplicity & structure of the tool. Some of the wiser ones actually do decipher it & then they use it more productively. But some people seem to overlook the simplicity & use the tool blindly.

Now consider this tool to be a computer. How many computer users actually know what’s inside the casing & why did they pay the mean looking PC dealer, just to bring it home? Its really not expected from every person on this planet to understand what this technology is made of. Now just filter these potential users & extract the users in the IT field. What do we get? All we find here is 60 % of these users don’t bother to know what goes on behind the scenes. From the remaining 40%, we can say that 5% were responsible to make it & 15 % are some how related to each of the component used inside the computer. Also the 20% crowd is developing stuff for governing the hardware. So why do we have this rift? Why do people do not look into the things they believe in so blindly.

Someone might say that its none of their business. I agree to this till a certain point, the point being the actual implementation of the hardware & the actual flow of signals & so on. This contradicts the basic principle behind modern computers, Simplicity. But how will some one argue on the basis of the computers usage!

Its been quite a while since I was looking for a legitimate answer to this question…but today I feel I have found the answer. The magic word is “Curiosity”. If someone asks me why curiosity, I’d reply, “it works”. It was curiosity that told us about gravitation, it was curiosity that led to the invention of the computers in the first place. It drives the 40% crowd in IT & baffles the remaining 60%. For those who don’t care about curiosity towards a computer, are to be considered amongst the ones who don’t bother to know what the hell they are doing in IT !

So really, what the hell are they doing there ?

I finally feel like saying sumthing to all those people in the field of IT, who dont dig computers:

"Chill dudes, its just ones & zeros"

IDENTITY

Many times, this thought crosses my mind, Who am I ? What am I doing here ? Am I just a part of a physics equation that claims that I am on some plane or dimension which maybe a part of several other parallel universes ?

Nevermind, an early sunday morning usually has this Neo effect on me. But seriously, if I give it a thought, what do I actually know about myself ! Where am I going from here ?

Its been more than 3 weeks since I am all worked up with my studies & exam preparation, I never really took time out for giving a serious thought to the future. Well this exactly isnt a time for doing it as its going to keep me distracted for atleast an hour of my studying time. Nevertheless, The question still remains, What do i want ?

Rich Dad Poor Dad, boasts about a phrase called as "the rat race". Now this is a term used for that situation where a person ends up being a part of the system on which he starts hopelessly depending for his survival. To earn a decent income & to have a happy & fulfiling life. But in the midst of all this routine, that person may be killing his identity, his own impression on his times. Unlike being a famous personality, this person strives to look out for oppotunities to prove his place in the world. When does this stop ? Where does passion begin ?

As of now, I see myself caught in that rat race, race with the null to fight for the highest score that I can come up with. To prove that I am little smarter & maybe I can get a few more opportunities than the rest. But is it worth it ? Well I may come to know in a few years, but all this time I used to think that working hard was all about passion for something one does. I think I dropped my passion on the way here.

This dilemma of proving my worth or following my passion has got me all mixed up for atleast an hour of my Sunday morning, which may soon subside when I'll be jolted back to reality on having a glance at my syllabus.

This morning again makes me feel like the lonely boy on the swing , jus sitting there holding the swing ropes waiting for someone to give him push.

The Sun is up & I jus had my tea, going for breakfast & then to study. This is just like an average day, one of those 365's which doesnt seem important to me.

Today reminds me Rene Magritte's The Son of Man (The painting above), an amazing piece of art which somehow defines all my feelings.

Just reminds me of one more thing:
Robbie Williams - Road to Mandalay

"Save me from drowning in the sea
Beat me up on the beach
What a lovely holiday
Theres nothing funny left to say"