Life Moves On

It has been a week at college. It hasn’t been the greatest of the beginnings. In a new place, it usually never is for me. But this time there was something extra. This time I was never going back.

The academics is fantastic, the hostel is good, the mess food is much better than expected and there are thousands of other activities I could participate in. There are thousands of new people to talk to, to make friends with. Yet, I miss home. I miss school. I miss my family. I miss school friends. I miss them like never before.

I hadn’t ever given college life a thought. It never hit me; not until I was alone in the hostel room at night staring at the opposite wall. I was never going back home. Physically, yes, I would visit it a lot. But, mentally, I was out. Every moment after this I go farther away from home. And I’m never coming back for good. I had been given a huge responsibility: the responsibility of surviving alone.

It does sound very big when you put it like that. And it is indeed really big for someone who hasn’t seen much of the outside world. But I’m getting better already. I’m getting used to being alone. But it does take some time to come in terms to the fact that childhood is gone. Getting used to being alone means acknowledging and living with the fact that you aren’t going to be with your family anymore. And that is just plain sad. I would kill to be a kid again.

To think, I’d complained about so many things when I was a kid, gotten bored and tired in so many situations. Now I miss them all. That agonizingly boring chemistry class, that horrifying early morning journey in a crowded bus to Ashok Nagar for JEE coaching and those days of absolute boredom at home: those memories are gold now.

And friends, so many friends I hadn't talked enough with and hadn't said proper goodbyes to. Everything was just so abrupt. There wasn't enough time. There never is enough time.

Maybe I’m a guy who dislikes the present, whatever it is and gets lost in nostalgia and likes to grumble about it. That adds another dimension to, “the grass is greener on the other side”. If that’s true, then I’m going to miss my college like crazy after five years. I’m going to have a lousy life if I keep doing this.

So that’s one week gone now. There’s still a lot of time to start enjoying myself. I better do that before those five years run out. It's always better to not think about these things. I guess it's really time I plunged into college life.

To all my friends in a college outside Chennai: have a terrific college life. And keep in touch. Things are never going to be the same again. But it doesn’t always have to be the same way. Things can even get better. Let’s just enjoy the moment. :)

RSI Interview

IIT-Madras. Some are fascinated by it. Some are obsessed to get into it. But most of us don't really care about it. But I must say I was amazed when I went there for the first time. It isn't all about technology and being nerdy. There are tennis courts, basketball courts, swimming pools, cricket grounds and the place is simply huge. Coming to the technology part of it, they make some crazy things down there. But I've realized that all those 'instruments' are fascinating only on first sight and can be incredibly boring on deeper analysis for those who have no interest in science.   

For those who do not know, RSI or Research Science Institute is basically a summer camp inside IIT and you get to  explore and play with your desires in science. You have to stay there for the month of May and listen to a series of lectures and make a project. I was lucky to be one of the people to get chosen for this but the problem was that from the chosen people only three (two this year) get selected based on an interview. The interview. That was the problem. Written tests were all fine. But this?! Anything to do with face-to-face talking was a problem for me.

I had another problem. Half of me didn't want to go in the first place. Why? Because I thought it would be a sheer waste of a month. My initial reaction was all positive. One month in IIT for free?!!! And I signed up just like that without a second thought. Then people began dropping out, people said it wasn't worth it. Suddenly I found myself completely unwilling to go. But the interview was inevitable. "Go flunk in the interview", said a nasty part of my mind. It would be an extremely stupid thing to do. If I didn't want to come I should have dropped out. Then I told myself I'll give it my best at the interview and I'll let fate decide and maybe think of dropping out if I get selected. No, that was stupid too. It was a big chance after all. Bah, lets see how the interview goes.

The day arrived. The feeling wasn't unlike a maths exam. But I wasn't feeling one bit nervous, maybe because I didn't care about the outcome. Also, I didn't prepare a single thing before the interview. Maybe it was my usual laziness, maybe it was my indifference towards the interview. The others said they hadn't prepared as well. But people usually don't go talking about their preparations.

The Library

The interview was to take place at the computer science lab, the interviewers being three professors, geniuses by the looks of them. The eight of us sat down in the library. A peon entered, "Who's the first?"

The guy next to me raised his arm before I had the chance to and he ran off without a backward glance. I wanted to go first. I wanted it finished quickly. Now I had to wait for him to come back. The wait was a long one. I could tell that almost everyone around me was nervous. One had his face in his hand, one looked like he hadn't slept, one kept talking to perhaps reduce the nervousness, one was lost in thought, one was supremely calm and composed and last one was trying to control his emotion. To be honest, I was getting bored so I picked up "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" and started reading from a random page. Soon the guy returned. He was grinning, yet he had the air of someone completely destroyed inside out. He made a thumb down and said, "Super flop!". Maybe I should have let someone else go but I sprang up immediately after I saw him and dashed towards the computer lab with remarkable confidence, totally unaware of the impending doom.    

Inside The Chamber  

I opened the door to the Senior Computer Science Lab. I felt a blast of chill air hit my face. I walked inside. Immediately, as though it was waiting to happen, my insides turned into ice which flooded across every part of my body, my brain had gone numb and my mouth had gone bone-dry. My heart began hammering furiously. The confidence I had few moments earlier had evaporated completely. I had no idea where the nervousness had erupted from all of a sudden.

The three professors were sitting there talking with each other and handling a file. They stopped when they saw me and the one on the left gave me a wide smile, "Come in.... Sit Down". I did NOT like the smile.

 I sat. This didn't feel like a science exam. This felt like a public debate. The freak-nervousness that comes with it matched. 

All three of the smiled mechanically. The one in the middle asked,
"Your name?"
"Arjun"

He flipped through the files and handed over a sheet of paper to the professor on the left.
"So how do you feel?", the smile was still there. I suppose they intended it to have a calming and encouraging effect in which case they were failing miserably.

"Fine... um.. a bit.. nervous", I managed.
I didn't say 'nervous' because I was actually nervous but because I thought they might ask easier questions if I said so. Foolish logic. But there you are, I had already mentioned that my brain had jammed.

The guy laughed, (I suppose its rude to say 'guy' here, but its much shorter than using 'professor' all the time, so *shrugs*)

"Nervous?! Why're you nervous? There's no need for you to be nervous!"
Yeah. Sure.  You can say that sitting there.

"em... ye-ah"

"So do you fight a lot with your brother and sister?", he asked, exchanging pointless looks of glee with his neighbours.

I momentarily forgot my nervousness. Excuse me. What?!

"I don't have siblings", I said in a rather firm tone.

I had bulbed him to oblivion. It was the biggest bulb I had seen so far. The battle was won. I relished the triumph. I looked up at him. He was still smiling. He had not even lost his poise.

"So I guess you fight with your dad when you want him to get you a cricket ball, say?"

Suddenly I felt extremely stupid. The moment of triumph had vanished. And now it seemed  so foolish to have felt happy for a bulb for even that millisecond. 

"Er,.. no... He gets me a cricket ball if I ask him for one"

"Oh... Right"


Now the guy on the left spoke and I felt something dangerous was coming,
"So if I asked you from which direction is the schools gate is your house located what would you say?" The question was so sudden.

I gaped at him.
"er..... ...... um..."
He didn't wait.
"Okay tell me this. Which direction is the school's gate facing?"

 I understood the question. It was a start.

But I didn't know the answer. 

"Hm.. You've been through the school gate about thousand times and you never thought of this?", he was positively grinning now. 

What did it matter where the school gate faced?

"Um. I dont know. But, if I know where the sun rises I can find out".

"Everyone knows the sun rises in the east", he said. Apart from the fact that they were trying to maintain an encouraging atmosphere by smiling, they were merciless.

I could have facepalm-ed. That was not what I meant but I should have phrased it in a better way.
What I meant was- 'If I knew where the sun is right now, I can find out'.

 But I only managed, "um.. I meant.. um.. not that...."

He coolly cut across me.
"Take a look outside. We'll give you one minute. Then tell us"
"What.... Now?" I had convinced myself that I would be imprisoned and tortured here for atleast another half an hour. The prospect of leaving this place for even a minute was unbelievable.
"Yes! Now...", and he gestured towards the door. I sprang up and went for the door. Even my legs felt weak. My mind was filled with a strange and disrupting buzz. I opened the door and stepped outside. At that moment, I fully appreciated the warmth of sunlight. The effect was overwhelming. I just stood there for a few moments taking deep breaths, momentarily forgetting why I was there. Then, I looked up, the sun was on the left, and the school gate was behind me and it was morning so.... It took half a second to figure it out. Its amazing how the brain worked so quickly then. I realized I was supposed to go back inside. For a fleeting moment I thought I'd run for it instead. I should've done that really.


I went back in. The whole thing took fifteen seconds. He had allowed me one minute. I came back early. Does that mean I did extremely well? Or maybe he just thought I was stupid and that I couldn't say the answer straightaway and had to look where the sun is do find out, so he decided on one minute randomly? But their faces betrayed nothing. They were smiling as usual. I sat.


"So?"
"The school gate is facing the north"
"mmm" He had given no impression that my answer was correct. He simply nodded.
"It says here that you like mechanics. What do you like about mechanics?"
Truth is that I have no idea what mechanics is really about. All I know is that Newton's Law 'F=ma'. And I know how to solve some decent problems with it. These guys were totally about the practical approach. And i did not like mechanics. I had just written that for the sake of writing something.
"um... I like to analyse the motion of objects... and um... see how things.. work"
A pathetic lie. Who on earth cares how things work as long as they do?


He nodded. Something told me I was in deep trouble.

I was.  

Its Official!

 

"So how do you come to school?", the guy on the left asked, now in a more business like tone. I was to take it that the interview had started.
"Cycle", I said automatically and I regretted it immediately.
"Aha!", he pounced.
"Now, if I give you two cycles: one with a bigger crank shaft and one with a smaller one. Which would you choose?"
I stared. What on earth was a crank shaft? I tried escaping -
"Sir I don't own a gear cycle so I wouldn't know about crank shafts"
"Oh no no no... ", the guy in the middle started, smiling nastily, "every cycle has a crank shaft". Dang! 


"Oh."
My expression couldn't have been more blank. And all three of them were staring into my eyes and smiling. How  was I supposed to think? But I somehow managed to put things together : The only thing which is important and big enough to have such a complicated name must be the chain and whatever is there in there, the small wheel like thing around which the chain rotates. So he's probably asking which one is more energy efficient for the same distance? I tried unconsciously blabbering once again:
"Sir... if you apply a force on the pedal......."
"No no, don't involve force in this" 
My insides were getting colder.


Then I thought about the gears in a gear cycle. In one gear you had to do a lot of pedalling to move, in another gear you could get there with lesser pedalling and all those 'crank-shaft' sizes were different. So now all I had to figure out was which was which. I tried doing some physics mentally. Smaller radius... R... . one rotation... 2 pi... But no, it was hopeless. Their stares were making it impossible to think plus my brain had already jammed. I had to guess.
"I would take the one with the bigger crank shaft"
The guy on the left leaned forward,
"Why?!"
"I think... I am not too sure, that with lesser amount of pedalling we can move the same distance with the cycle with a bigger crank shaft"
"Oh....... Right", he exchanged glances with the guy in the middle. That smile did not waver. Again, they didn't give the slightest indication that I was right. I was to know later that I was dead wrong.


"You watch racing? Formula 1?"
This time I was prepared.
"No." I don't know what car racing is and I haven't seen a car in my life. No thank you.


But he asked anyway.
"You've noticed that the racing cars' tyres are unlike the ones which go on road?"
I considered telling him that I had no idea what a racing car looked like but I had lied too much already.
"Ye-es...."
"So how are those tyres different from the normal ones"
"They are um... big... and um..."
Sheesh
He stared at me for a moment with his eyebrows raised.
"Hm.. You've noticed that the usual tyres have certain irregularities in them?"
"Yes"
Ask me what they're called. Please ask me what they're called.
"You know what they are called?"
YES!
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came. Somehow, incredibly, I had forgotten. I was so confident that I had known the word a moment earlier. I racked my brains but no, the word was lost. I stared at them, looking miserable. They continued to smile. The guy on the left edged forward,
"Yes?"
I shook my head. This was ridiculous.
"Why do they have these irregularities? How do they help?"
"It helps increasing friction... so you can turn easier I suppose"
"Yes yes but, how does it increase friction?"
"Um... its kind of rough... and uh... more...uh ", I tried making actions for I couldn't get out the words.
Yet again, they simply nodded me out, not paying attention to what I was trying to do.
*sigh*
"Can you find these irregularities on the tyre of a race car?"
The way the question was phrased itself suggested that the answer was no, yet,
"I guess so...."
"Are you sure?"
"uhhm yeah... I think they'll have lesser irregularities than in the normal ones since they have to go fast but I think they will have some since they have to turn fast too and you need some friction for that"

Yes, I was looking exceptionally like that

"No. As a matter of fact, the race car tyres are completely bald", he finished, smiling gravely.
I sat there, mouth open.
"A-Are they?"
"Yes..." It was incredible how he was still smiling. It was a mocking smile. Even a look of deepest disappointment or irritation would have been better than this.


"Your cycle has a brake right? Well, how do ships brake?"
Sorry. No clue. I think you should let me go and save both of us the embarrassment.
The thing that flashed in mind straightaway was Popeye the sailor man.
"Um... an-chor... ?"
"No no. Anchors are used to hold a ship steady in a dock. How do ships slow down and stop?"
Anchor was the only technical term I knew which was related to ships. Now it was time to blabber.
"The water provides a lot of friction, so all they have to do is switch of their motors at a certain distance and the water will stop the ship automatically"
"What. That's how they stop ships?"
"Er?"
"Couldn't you use the same force which runs the ship to stop the ship?", he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
 "I.. er... suppose you could do that"
Now the guy in the middle started after a long time,
"Have you seen the movie, 'The Titanic' "
"Yes". I realized I hadn't. But I knew the facts.
"How do they stop a ship there?"
"Well, they dont really stop it. An iceberg comes and crashes into the ship and breaks it into two..........."
And they started laughing as if I had told a very amusing joke. I couldn't have found anything less humourous. 
"No, we don't want to destroy a ship do we?"


"So, do you play carrom?"
I saw no point in lying. After all, how much worse can it get?
"Yes".
I waited for the pounce.
It came sooner that expected.
"Hm. So if I wanted you to pocket this black coin and also wanted you to push your opponents white coin to the other side at one shot, how would you do it?", he said, making a series of diagrams in air. I didn't feel like talking. So, I pointed at the paper lying on the table and asked him if I could use it.
"Of course, of course". Things would be a million times better if he just stopped smiling and staring at me!
I drew a few circles and a few straight lines and went,
"If you hit here, it'll go hit there and this'll go here and that'll go there"
It was right essentially but a guy on the street could've told him that.
They gave me an instantaneous look of disbelief which switched immediately into a smile. I'd rather they shouted.
"O-kay. There is a special word for what happens in this. What is it?"
"Um.... collision?", the question mark after an answer was always there. I wasn't sure of anything now.
"No.. not collision, another word which accurately describes what happens here. You've studied it at school. Come on!",
Seriously? Come on?
I racked my brains for other complicated, scientific terms I knew. In milliseconds my thoughts dried up and I ended up looking into their laser-like eyes again.
"Impact!", the guy in the middle said, "Impact",
"Haven't you studied this in earlier classes? Oblique Impact? No?"
Okay? Isn't collision the same as impact? O.o


"Okay. We'll ask you an easy question"
I did not feel like relaxing.
And so the final nail in the coffin,
"If I give you a balloon filled with air, how would you find its density?"
I don't know what was worse. The fact that the question didn't seem to be too tough but I had no clue what the answer was or the fact that they said the question was easy and they were thoroughly under the impression that they had asked an easy question or the fact that they were smiling expectantly as if waiting for me to burst out with the answer any second.


I did the only thing I had been doing. Sit there looking blankly. Their laser-eyes rooted me to the spot choking all thinking possible. Seconds passed.
 "Okay, what is density?"
"M-ass by Volume?"
"Everyone knows that", he said, showing the first sign of irritation. My supreme knowledge had finally managed to break his composure.
"So how'd you measure the volume of a sphere?"
"Um.. you need to measure the radius of the balloon?"
"Yes. How do you do that?"
"umm... using a .... ruler?"
"WHAT?! You measure the radius of a balloon using a RULER?!", he said looking shocked and quite forgetting to smile.
I didn't know what was so shocking about it. I made movements with my hand to show how I'd place a ruler on the balloon and find the radius.
He simply looked at me. Then they looked at each other.
"Okay, think about it. You can go", he said, picking up the files again.
Freedom?

I rose immediately.
The guy on the right suddenly said, speaking for the first time,
"Oh by the way. Don't google the solution. Think about it yourself. Try to figure it out.", he said very seriously.
I had to think a moment to figure out what he was talking about. Then I nodded absent mindedly.
I wouldn't dream of googling it. I wouldn't dream of even thinking about the damned problem. At that moment, I hated every single thing about science. I realized I had zero interest in science from the beginning so in a way, flunking it was good. People more deserving and interested could make better use of the camp. I felt like going home and eating and sleeping and playing computer games and enjoying life instead. I thought about May. The whole month was free now. I had cricket matches to look forward to, and possibly birthday treats or hangouts.

My expression exactly after coming out

 I stepped outside. The other seven were waiting there. I must have looked completely destroyed because the one who went in first started grinning at the sight of me and said, "Pocha?". I returned the grin giving him a thumbs down. I was actually laughing. They surrounded me pounding me with questions about what they asked, how it went and all that. My head was spinning. Everything was a blur till I opened my box of bread and pineapple jam.
                                                   

29 C

Bus travel can be very tiring, especially on a sweaty summer day and that too, right after a three-hour coaching class. Nevertheless, I walk slowly towards the bus stop thinking about Lays packets and coffee. It can hardly be called a bus stop, since it gave absolutely no indication that it was so. The crowd of people who are waiting impatiently there tell me I'm at the right place. 

If you people came here seeing its about "buses" in hopes of learning how my hand snapped into two in detail, sorry to disappoint you but this is just another boring daily life post.

The Stop...... 

I get there and start waiting. This was actually a completely lousy bus stop and I'm not talking about the overturned smelly dust bin right beside it. Half the buses which go to my place are filled with ego and don't stop in small bus stops like these. I can go wave at them all I want but they don't feel the need to stall the traffic for a sweaty, helpless child (*Cough*) And those who don't stop happen to be the new models, deluxe buses, white-boards, whatever you call it. Definitely ego. Who needs them anyway? They're pretty much the same except for the cool yellow hook-like things to hang and swing on. But they're definitely not worth the five excess rupees.

I turn around to look at one of the shops. Maybe someone there sells orange Lays Packets? I turn back to see an A1, Air-Conditioned gliding past.  No! I just missed my jolly AC-ed ride home. True, the A1 doesn't stop here, but he is not as egoistic as the rest. He being a sweet fellow stops when I wave my hand. (Actually, AC buses stop because they don't get enough money to run and are glad to accept more passengers at any time but I won't tell you that. It'll spoil all the fun. Besides, I like AC buses. Hey. You are not reading all this written in brackets right?)

I continue my wait. I stare longingly at an auto then shake my head. Impossible. Treacherous rates. Then, finally, a bus appears in a distance in the smoke of the traffic. I maneuver through the crowd trying to get in front. I see the number. 21. I go back to my original standing place. Annoyingly, this bus which doesn't go to my place stops for a full minute at this bus stop. After a lot of shuffling, an old lady who just climbed out of the bus suddenly talks to me,

"He-ey. Will you get me across the road please? I want to go to that side"

I stared. Totally Blank. My brain exploded into three parts and each one was racing. 

Part One was saying, Okay, this lady is really old and alone. I'm not in a hurry anyway. Maybe I should.
Part Two was saying, Oh what the hell lady? There are like fifty people around and you had to go dump the trouble on me? 
And Part Three was wildly inventing solid excuses that I could give her which are satisfactory and does not make her search another person after leaving  with an angry "hmpf".

My mouth managed to say,
"Uhh...um" for all this while.

Then, a man, about twenty, apparently working, said,
"You want to cross the road lady? Here. Come with me"

Saved! **Phew** Thank you, person, whoever you are. What would I have done if that person had not turned up? Would probably have provided her the solid excuse and gone on to hide in some unnoticeable corner of the bus stop. I felt half ashamed, half guilty. All of a sudden, those Panchatantra stories where the god disguises himself as an old person and asks for help and punishes people who are heartless. The things old people can do to you. God.

I still haven't gotten into a bus! Before I can think anything, another voice:
"He-eey"
I turn.
Old guy. Looking like he lives in the bus stop. About eighty. Oh no. Now what?!

"You see the poster here?", he said, pointing at the piece of paper stuck on the side of the shop.
I look at the "poster". It was a contact lens advertisement, showing five eyes, each wearing a different coloured lens, making the eye look blue, green, brown.. etc.
Okay?
"They've displayed all this, but they don't say which one is good. All this is simply for show. I've been thinking about it for a long time."

Brilliant. Simply great. Here I am waiting for ages to get home, and a random guy decides to make conversation about criticizing Varilux contact lenses. I simply grin. I hear a low rumble and a squeak of a horn that can only belong to one vehicle. Finally! A darned bus! Saved again, from the wrath of old people. A 29 C. Yay! Oh wait, you better stop here. It did stop. It is overcrowded. I couldn't care less. I have this curious sort of affinity towards 29Cs, simply randomly liking them. I mean, they're just cool right? (:P) I get in, fingering some coins from the wallet and holding them before I do so. Who knows what can happen when you try to take your wallet out in that crowd.

The Bus.....
Okay, I'm in. I get to the middle of the bus. No breathing space at all. But it isn't so bad since I can actually turn around and move my hands. I look at the coins in my hand. A 50p and a 5 Rupee coin. A gold 5 Rupee Coin. No, I'm not wasting that. I collect those gold ones. But, "Ticket Ticket?", the voice which doesn't know to speak anything else said.
I handed over the gold reluctantly and pocketed the bus ticket. 

I hold the horizontal and the vertical bars for support, putting most of the pressure on my left. Right, was still volatile. I look at the graffiti on the bus walls.





"Something something Roxxxxxxx" (It had more "x" that that)
"I love you someone someone. Signed: Someone someone" (Thu :P )
"We are awesome!! Signed: Someone someone someone"

One word. Jobless.

Suddenly, the bus applies brakes, approaching a speedbreaker, or a red signal, I don't know, but I involuntarily grab hard with my right and it stung. Badly. No damage done. Its too much to have two consecutive injuries in the same vehicle in the same limb.

Then, a guy from behind bumps into my bag and smiles sweetly and apologizes for it. Highly abnormal activity. People in overcrowded buses in Chennai never smile sweetly and importantly, never apologize. Pickpocket?  I suddenly become very aware of the phone and the wallet, touching both of them every three seconds to make sure they're there. Atleast my right hand has something to do now. The guy takes out a phone, a Samsung Galaxy, and goes through folders for no reason (Yes, I was peeking into it) Then, he takes out another phone, a Sony Ericsson Xperia (WTH?!) and meddles with that too. Who is this guy? Suicide Bomber with a bomb in his cell? Without warning, he pocketed both the phones and got down at the red signal. Phone and wallet still there. I am still alive. No harm done.


Strange things don't stop happening. Another woman, some high class personality who looked completely out of place in that local bus is trying to ask someone to get a ticket for her. I hate people who ask me to do that. I face the other side and give and expression of being completely absorbed in seeing the scratches at top of the window. Too Late.
"Hey!!! You.... YOU. Get a ticket to Besant Nagar"
I ignore completely knowing perfectly well that it is me she is calling. There were about ten other people who she could have asked to get the ticket. All the rotten luck. Apparently I was the only who looked  bully-able.

"What the hell do you think of yourself?"
Uh. What?! I turn around.

"Don't you have the courtesy to turn around and look at the person when he or she is talking to you? Is it so difficult for you to give the money to the conductor and get one ticket? I am a teacher and I know you are a student. These are extremely bad manners", she fumed. 

Get your own ticket you lazy bum. 


I shrug and give her the "what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?" stare. She decides to get it herself after making all sorts of angry noises. And she promptly trips and almost falls right on someone.
"Watch where you're going lady", said some nice guy.
Ha! 

Destination almost reached. The rotten smell of the river tells me that. I move to the front of the bus near the stairs. After sometime, the bus is almost there. 
Another man:

"Move it. Why the hell are you standing here if you're not going to get down?"

"I am going to get down here thank you"

"O.....h"
**Bulb**

The bus screeches to a stop and I quickly get down  before something unfortunate happens. What a day. I watch as the four big wheels carry the huge structure out of sight. I walk home, tired.

Money Minded Maniacs II - The Doctors

My next part of the post. This time I'm going to grill the doctors like I promised. Lets start the show.
 
The Docs

Getting to the firing straightaway. How do you identify a doctor?
People would say, "Stethoscope hanging over neck."
Other people of our cheek would say, "Oh. The guy with unbearable handwriting"

To put it in a sentence, a doctor is someone who smiles too much, has the power of making you believe that "Everything-will-be-alright" and has half all of your wallet money before you notice it. Its not really as bad as it sounds. Its worse. Who knew your kidney's valve was more costly than a Maruthi Alto?

Lets take the small-scale situation first. (I like doing the One-Fine-Day situation thing, especially when you know for sure its not going to be one fine day at all) So here we go, 

One fine day (:P) you happen to go to your favourite restaurant and have a bite at the coconut chutney which was on the verge of getting spoilt. Food Poisoning! Your body heat shoots up and you land in bed, groaning. You are loaded with Crocins and your body refuses to calm down. So finally, you decide to get rid the fever and the money as well as quickly as possible. 


Enter doctor. He will do three things. Ask you to take deep breaths and put his stethoscope to use, make you roll your eyes and flash a torch, and look at your outstretched tongue. Then, he takes out a paper, scribbles something which only medicine shop guys can identify and ask you to have a good day after robbing you of 200 Rupees. You cant do anything about it (except vomit on his table for self pleasure maybe? )

For wasting a certain amount of battery in his torch, removing some negligible ink from his pen and getting rid of one of his sheets of paper, you lose 200.   What would happen if you actually make them do something? *Shudders* People are ready to pay anything for getting their bodies working properly. And, they think doctors can fix everything.

Well, the more sad thing is, it isn't even the doctor's fault. Suppose, he charges 10 Rs for a check up. (That's a little too hard to believe)
Point #1: His roof would be brought down by thousands of patients who rush here once they learn of the price.
Point #2: The doctor has to be a complete fool if has to treat 20 patients to get 200 when he could have got the same money with one, especially when people are ready to pay.
Point #3: For a new doctor, when he sees that every other hospital is charging that much for a check up, he cant possibly reduce it very much even if he feels that the money is outrageous, its bad for business. Unless of course, he happens to be a noble life-loving idiot. (Such people don't exist anymore. They went right after dodos did)

Lets just say I like firing at these people and I'm partly jealous at how easily they earn big bucks. (Not taking their previous hard work into consideration)

The only difference between the mechanics' case and this case is that, there you can chuck the machine which doesn't work out of your second floor window. Here if you do that, its called "homicide".


Large Scale Business:
A ninety year old lady has a severe problem in her kidneys and her condition is worsening. Her sixty year old son is in a dilemma. He knows she's going to die anytime now, so why not let nature kill her peacefully? But no, there is a hospital across the street which says it can cure kidney problems. He has two choices: To let her die peacefully now without doing anything or to take her to the hospital and buy her more time to live, say a month, that's being optimistic and torture her with hospital equipment till then.

Its a simple choice if you look at it here. "Let nature take her", is easily the best option. She dies in peace plus you save money. But its complicated. Say he does that, and his mother dies, he'll be with the permanent guilt that he could have saved her but he didn't and also, other people blame him for her death. Something like, "You abandoned her!", which is painful to hear.

Even his conscience would tell him to go to the hospital, in that tiny hope of saving his mother despite the fact that, logically, its better off leaving her as it is. So she finally, inevitably ends up in the ICU to be operated. One night for the patient at a hospital costs about as much as the most expensive hotel suites and doesn't have five percent of its luxury. Days pass.

They'll make her survive a few more days. Then, after the most expensive week of a lifetime, the doctor will come out with a well-rehearsed expression of deep sympathizing sadness and tell him she just passed away. With the reason being, "Excessive fluids, Cardiac Arrest" etc, etc.

The result of it all, she's dead anyway, plus he's lost a few lakhs of money and your family members are actually glad that she didn't stay for too long because then, the expense would rapidly multiply. Okay, the equipments for operation are costly, agreed. But definitely not that much?! Serious looting. What's the rate today? Around 60K per day. I mean, what the hell? And its just because humans cant let nature take the old ones away in peace.

"Who cares about how much it costs? I want to live"
I'm not saying that isn't the right attitude. That should be the attitude. But, hospitals exploit that statement a little too much. In the end, you end up dying anyway.

Having a general doctor and a mechanic in the family would really help cut down the expenses, for smaller scale situations at least. 

Everyone is a money minded maniac. No doubts. No questions asked. I just felt like firing at these two categories. You cant blame me. Goodbye for now.....

Money Minded Maniacs I - The Mechanics

There are four kinds of people who steal. (No, there are obviously more, but the number comes under 'uncountable', so this will settle for now) The first. The honest thieves, the ones who do the direct job of drilling through bureaus and gobbling up money. The second, politicians. No surprises there. "Honest Poltician" was always an oxymoron. So, even they are forgiven since we already know that they must always be bad.

It is the third and fourth that I find are outrageous. The ones who fix our broken gadgets and machines and the ones who fix our body parts. In simple terms, mechanics and doctors.

The Mechs

They don't use knives and guns to rob. Your lack of knowledge is their weapon. First, they never turn up for repairs unless they are sure they can hit a jackpot, which they tend to hit very often. And their frequent targets: Old timers. The young generation know and meddle too much.

------------------
You would be relaxing after retirement and would want so check "e-mail" to see if your old friend sent you something. You would have, with some difficulty, memorized the sequence to do that.

Start-> All Programs -> Mozilla Firefox

One fine day, an error pops up when you open. Extremely baffling. Without second thoughts you phone the software guy.

"Hello. The Mozilla Firefox in my computer is not working! What is wrong?", you would say in a desperate voice.
"We will attend to the matter immediately sir. We will send an expert, soon", he would say in his most silkiest voice.

If you were lucky and you got the meaning of his "soon", you would scream into the phone just before he slams it down,
"When?! Today 6 pm?"
"Ah, sure sir."

And when he doesn't turn up at 6 pm, or the 6 pm of the next day, or the next. You call him up again.
"We had lodged a complaint that Mozilla Firefox isn't working. You said you would sent a man at 6 pm that day. Where is he?!", you could shout all you want.
"Is it so sir? I will send a man immediately to attend the matter.", he would say, completely disregarding your screams.

After this continues for another week. He would finally turn up mumbling things like,
"Traffic", "Work Overload" and "Couldn't make it"
You would feel like asking, "Why the hell did you so coolly say, you'll come then?"

He would walk to the P.C and ask you a few questions about what's wrong to make sure you're the biggest fool in town. Once he does that, he'll go:
Right Click -> Refresh
like twenty times like it'll solve everything. Then, he'll go amaze you by doing things you've never seen before. You'll be sitting there astonished. But if you're lucky to have a kid in the house who's tweaked everything he can get his hands on, the kid will save the day by furiously whispering in your ear,
"This guy isn't doing anything. He's just clearing temporary files!"
But no, you wouldn't listen to any kids. The mechanic is god. He knows everything. Heh! :P

"Sir, there is a problem in the C.P.U. The processor seems to be overworked. We would need to take it to our hardware office to inspect it", the silky voice returns.

The kid would be in open-mouthed disbelief, with every inch of his body screaming, "WTH?! You're kidding me"
But who listens to kids? You'll nod gravely as the mechanic suppresses a grin and removes the piece of machinery from your sight.

"I will call you when everything is alright sir. It wont take more than two days"

The waiting game starts again. Two days. Five. Ten. A hundred phone calls. Different innovative excuses each time. The kid will be having a "What did I tell you?" expression.
You've finally had enough. You go to that place directly and blow up. He'll still be grinning.
He has already won the battle when he took away your piece of machinery.

"Sir, we are sorry for the delay. It is completed. The processor needed to be repaired. You can take it home"

Despite your fury and that fact that you'll have to carry the machinery by yourself, you'll be glad its finished.

He drops the bombshell with finesse,
"That'll be 6500. We accept cheque payment."

There will be absolutely no point arguing. He will tell you about how this part cost this much and how the damage was severe and finally after destroying you with technical names, you'll have no choice but to surrender. After painfully parting with 6500, you'll finally be able to open Mozilla Firefox.

-------------------

That's why it always helps to have a tech-freak in the house and believe in them even though they'll be the ones responsible for most break downs.

Yet, you cant know everything. If the inner, deeper, unknown parts  get damaged, it is the mechanics' lucky day. He'll replace it for a 10000 bucks. After he does that, another mech would tell you he would have done the same replacement with just 8000 bucks. You'll go scream at the first guy. He would simply say,
"That guy uses inferior quality machinery. It wouldn't last five days."
Its hopeless.

The bigger the machine gets, the more they steal. Another instance where the car doesn't start. It'll be sent to garage and will stay there for weeks till you empty your phone balance.
Finally, you'll receive a bill of 25000. Yeah I know they replaced oil, motors and all other crap. Hmpf. All they must have done was put two wires into place.

And when you ask why the AC isn't working, they'll say you never asked them to see the AC and that'll cost another 30000 because apparently the condenser is broken.
You'll run out of that place with your car saying, "Vendaam Pah Saami".

So, it always helps to have a full fledged mechanical engineer as a relative. Or, the simpler alternative, is to be a millionaire. Solves all problems doesn't it? No repairs. Get new stuff. Simple. Be a mech. You'll get there.

Review: Kung Fu Panda - II

The much awaited sequel to Kung Fu Panda is here. And its in 3-D! If you haven't watched the first part yet, watch now. You wouldn't understand this movie (or this blogpost for that matter) as much as you would like otherwise. You wont regret it.

 

The Plot: Po, 'The Big Fat Panda' is back, fully trained, fully fed (but of course!), with only one more goal to accomplish in Kung-Fu - to attain inner peace. Master Shifu tells Po, to his utter horror and disbelief, that people go without eating for months to attain inner peace. Before he can think about this inconceivable task, he is faced with a new foe. 

Not a dinosaur, not a lion, not even a giant rat, but a peacock, named Shen. Several years ago, a fore teller had told Shen, that 'A warrior of black and white' would defeat him (Guess who? :P ) Shen, outraged, had slaughtered all the pandas of China. Po, with all his awesomeness, had miraculously, unknown to Shen, had survived.The peacocks, who were shocked by Shen's actions had banished him from their city. Shen, returns with a powerful weapon and takes control of the city. It is the job of Po and the Furious Five to travel to Gongmen City and stop Shen before he destroys Kung Fu from China. On the way, he discovers new things about his past, and story takes an uncharacteristically serious turn. 


The Animation: A new land, Gongmen City, is introduced in this sequel. As before, the expressions on the  faces of characters, co-ordinated with stunning dialogue delivery, especially the Panda's make the film. Jack Black has yet again done a brilliant job of voicing the Panda. A small letdown is that some of the scenes were created just for the 3-D effects. While the 3-D did look amazing, some of the fight scenes weren't as much fun. (They let too many chunks of wood fly towards you :P)

The Characters:

Po: The black and white dragon warrior is the same as ever, except maybe that he can now do new combination Kung-Fu moves with his old weapon, his belly.
He finally gains some respect from his master and his fellow warriors, but also occasionally gets pounded. He still likes getting beat up though. His out-the-blue humour, hillarious expressions and bizzare fighting techniques make this movie a must watch.

Tigress: She continues to remain the only character who doesn't make us laugh. Her suddenly developed respect towards Po is hard to get adjusted to as she used to treat him like scum. She goes and hugs Po once or twice which is "Eww" and also gets very serious and emotional.

The Other Four: Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper have lesser roles and just help in fighting, making weird but effective kung-fu combos with Po. They come up with witty lines every now and then so it isn't just the panda you have to look at.


Shen, The Peacock: This guy is nowhere near Tai-Lung of KFP 1 being the super villian of the movie. He is supposingly much more evil and heartless than Tai Lung. The movie intended to put his character across as 'cunning' and 'ruthless', but manages only, 'a joker' and 'someone with no idea at how to fight and relies on servants and weapons'.

Shifu: This guy is a species of Red Panda (You didn't know that right? :D ) Google 'Red Panda'. Shifu plays a cameo and takes over the role of Master Oogway, (He's awesome! :P ) though, he doesn't say all Oogway-ishly saintlike dialogues, nor does he have the God-like personality Oogway had. He's got a new cool new tunic on now!!


Ping: He's Po's dad. And he's a goose.(Wth?!) And a noodle restaurant owner. You're going to hate every scene he is in. Thankfully, his role is very less. All he does is take part in emotional conversations with his 'son' and make noodles :P

Fun? : There are ups and downs in this movie. The ups being the Panda. Period. Go figure. Also, the villian tends to crack you up a little every now and then. Downs being, the large number emotional, sad and serious scenes which are soo not Kung Fu Panda-ish. Unlike the first part, most fights are in groups and in a rush, so you don't get to see the in detail bizarre fighting techniques of the Panda (Belly Bouncer and Bum Crushers for the win!)

The climax also ends on a serious note which is lousy. Oh well, its not really as bad as it sounds.

Worth watching in a theatre? Definitely. A one time must watch movie. Kung Fu Panda 1 was better, but I still liked this one.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Random Scene
Panda and the furious five are captured, chained up, and are being brought to the HUGE castle where Shen resides to be murdered.
Panda (Looking up with a sudden serious expression): Ah. We meet again, oh ancient enemy.
Furious Five (Puzzled and turn around to face him): What?! Who?!
Panda: Stairs

Relaxation Time - With Story Books

This blogpost comes into existence because of sheer boredom. Its summer. Half of us out there are sweating and walking like maniacs not knowing what to do. The other half are out secretly partying. The only things I find amusing during those periods of helplessness during power cuts are story books. Story books can really take you to another world (You will continue to sweat in that world too. That is the power of Chennai)


You should be experiencing a dizzy, everything-swirling-around-you-for-five-seconds feeling after you snap shut a heck of a story book. Yeah, that's because it takes those five seconds to come back to this world. (Overkill? :P )  Of course movies can do just the same but due to lack of experience and the fact that power cuts render movie watching obsolete. (I'm obviously referring to thiruttu DVD watching or  Piratebay downloads)

Don't tell me that you feel no such thing, that you remain seated exactly in the same position  on the chair and don't go casually strolling in other worlds. Not even halfway through? Midair?? No?  *Sigh* Such down to earth people the earth has :I

Oh, I just realized I'm supposed to be talking about story books. Hmpf. Maybe I'll change the title to "I'm Bored. What about you?" and get on with it. Anyways, here goes.  Hopefully, they'll make no sense. Yeah duh, my posts which make no sense are much better.

 
You would have come across some over smart guys out there who try to convert a super-hit book series into movies and earn big bucks. You would obviously have seen him miserably fail too. Look at what happened to Harry Potter? Books-> Superhits. Movies-> Megaflops.
Huh what? You're telling me the movies were hits as well?! You're kidding me.Surely they cant have been hits after they chopped off half the scenes or when they killed Sirius Black in half a second and let the uncensored Harry-Cho scene roll for minutes?? Or maybe that's why they became hits. Sheesh. What a public....Okay, we'll have another "HP Movies Suck!" Blogpost sometime in the future and drop the issue for now.


It doesn't end there. Movies tend to destroy the books too. Your mind's eye would be imagining the hero of this book, whom you like, to look like something awesome. And then they make this movie, and this hero is portrayed by a long nosed, wrinkle faced twerp. That's it. Your favourite hero just turned into the long nosed, wrinkle faced twerp who had instantaneously destroyed your 'mind's eye hero' and so you would go hate the character now just because of the movie.

They destroyed Albus Dumbledore from the Third Part. Then they destroyed Percy Jackson. Hope they don't do the same to Artemis Fowl.

 So, how do you figure out if a book is good? There are some simple things. If you look at the page number occasionally, flip the pages to see how much more for the chapter to end, or get distracted easily, then you've gotten yourself a bad book. Of course there are books which are drab and dull throughout but deliver the stunning finish which makes you admire the book despite a lack of overall brilliance.


 Bah, why bother? If you get a book, read it without second thoughts instead of analyzing and inquiring about it.

Moving to the genres (I've never really understood the pronunciation of that word. Its really Jyonur and not Jenray? ) of books:


Plain Adventures. where Boy A, learns a deep secret that was hidden from him for years - that his parents were mauled by a tiger while they were having a romantic stroll in the jungle. So he, emotionally gripped with vengeance, goes to a jungle, kills the tiger heroically only to have Man B, tell him that the tiger was innocent and his parents were scratched to death by the hounds of Man C. *Sigh* You get my idea. Not very interesting to read unless the author is a genius. Fortunately most authors happen to be geniuses (or is it genii?) These authors have the ability of turning content-less books into hits just with their language. Heard of Alistair Maclean? He can make your history book turn into a thriller with his language. He's mostly about World War II campaigns of different people, rescue missions and that sort. He pulls out these amazing twists out of nowhere. They're better than ones in the crime mysteries. Also, his characters' conversations are filled with subtle humour and irony that can make things more brighter than they are in the story. His description of things. Whoa. You could be there at that spot with a paper and pencil and you cant describe the place better than him. Such good people exist just to give us a jolly time pass. How nice of them.


Fantasy. Depends on the author. And you would need more time to grasp fantasies than a normal book. That's because you would need to learn about their world and their laws and principles. For example, if there is a book in which it says, if one guy touches his right elbow with his left leg in a certain spot, then lightening would strike a certain volcano. Now when the guy does that often, you must automatically understand its implications.There have been absolutely-brilliant fantasies. (Take hint! HP! HP!) There have been useless ones. So when you go to this section of the library you have to get lucky. Or you need to have friends who've gobbled them up.


Comedy. I'm definitely not talking about something like this,

ATM Withdrawl
Sardarji 1: I saw your password! Ha! Its Star Star Star Star. I'm a genius.

Sardarji 2: Hahaha. Yo got it wrong! Its 4318.

Though, even this has gone from the category of "Joke" to "Unforgivable Mokkai" among the 5th generation people. Jokes don't become jokes because of the content. Its the phrasing and the way its told that makes you laugh. Don't get my idea? Make Vijaykant tell a joke to public which you thought was super funny and I'll give you ten bucks if he doesn't get hit by ripe tomatoes for it. I'm talking about those beauty of books which make you double over every now and then with their dialogues, timings and mostly language. Read those books searching for content, you'll be wasting time. These books are built just for humour.
Example? PG.Wodehouse. You've got to feel awed by that guy. He's one reliable mood lifter and when you're reading his books, people around you tend to ask, "Is something wrong with you? Stop with the foolish grinning"


Crime Mysteries. Suspense is everything in these books. Open the last page first and you might as well chuck the book out. A murder scene. One obvious suspect who is doesn't seem to be a murderer. Investigation. Clues. Interrogation. Finally the fantastic build up in the last few chapters and the unexpected truth which leaves you stunned for seconds. Different detectives do the climax in different ways.


The Sherlock Way:
They'll all be talking pretty normally. Watson, Sherlock Holmes, a couple of people and some policemen. Sherlock would casually go and say, "The murderer happens to be him" pointing at a guy. And that guy snatches out an unexpected gun or a cyanide capsule to gobble but the police have already snatched him. Then, Holmes explains to the always-baffled-and-gaping Watson and the police chief what it was all about and the how and the why. No marvelous speeches, no build ups, but he still leaves you gaping.

The Poirot Way:

Hercule Poirot gets the ten-fifteen people to attend a dinner party and claims that he knows who the murderer is. With Oos and Aahs from every side, he begins his classic build up, how he eliminated X and Y, why the murder was committed, why Z did this suspicious thing even though he was innocent, and why A was hiding some things. He finally gets to how the psychology of the murderer only matches one and only one person in that room. He slowly turns around to face him. Their eyes meet.

"Messieurs and madames, I present the murderer. Voila! Monseigneur B!!"  
(Just how odd does "Monseigneur B" sound? O.o )


Crime mysteries don't have to be necessarily murders. But its always better to have someone dead


Situational. What genre would you put a book in which describes the life of a man who was working in World Trade Centre and lost his entire family there while he survived? Thriller? Maybe. Or this book where Saddam Hussein steals an important US document and threatens to burn it in public? Or this life of a little girl who turns into the US president. Jeffrey Archer material. And every single one is genius.

Hence, story book reading remains the only form of entertainment during power cuts since every other form of my entertainment requires electricity or roaming in the summer heat.  But hey, don't go reading Tinkle, though that's awesome too.

A Family Function? Oh..... Food?

"Hey. We are attending a marriage today"
The normal reply would be, "Who's getting married?"
Today, the obvious reply has turned out to be, "They'll have good food right?"

As I sat monotonously glued to the twenty inch monitor, I heard mom say, 
"You are coming to the reception at 6.30". 
Not a question, a statement. Can't say I expected anything more. People knew better than to leave me alone at home. (o_O) So, my reply turned out to be something like, 
"I'll bring the camera",
again, just a statement, not a request. 
"No. You wont", 
came the simple unarguable tone. Though, after a little arguing and some use of persuasion skills, I managed to get them to allow me to bring the mp3 player instead. 
 I allowed myself the liberty of this question,
"Who's getting married anyway?"
Dad started to speak, "Baby.......". 
The shock of hearing that word nullified the courtesy of not interrupting and I went,
"What?!!!?!! Baby?!"
And dad waved his hand and replied,
"Not her. Her daughter"
My jaw literally dropped,
"That's even worse!". Dad, totally unmoved by my ghastly show of emotions, simply laughed and said,
"Nah. That's just a nickname for my cousin."
*FACEPALM* 

Fast Forwarding Events....... >>>

After wasting fifteen priceless minutes in the car by untangling the earphones, I managed to hear a couple of songs before we reached. A huge place, a big parking lot, fancy ladies to welcome people, a big board with flowers and all the nice things saying 'X Weds Y'. None of all this even registered. My brain went something like, Big Place = Awesome Food! 

We walked in. For the sake of not freaking out the old timers there with my mp3 player, I reluctantly pocketed it. Blaring classical music is definitely not what you expected after listening to cool bits of western. What? A mini stage performance?! These guys are rich.  

After avoiding looking at the guitar players who made me J, I looked around a bit, not expecting to find anyone I knew. And then out of the blue an apparent relative, an old lady, came and shook my hand,
"Oh Hallo! Do you remember me??" Most certainly not.
"Oh.... I think I do."
"Aww. And you've grown so tall and bony!" Tell me something I don't know. :-/
"uh heh heh" 

And she went off to grab some other innocent kid's hand. I walked off before I could get assaulted again. I searched for a random friend who might be there and who I could go to and say, "Wow. I didn't know you're my relative". The only kid over here was an unknown, mischievous looking, ten year old twerp who I had no intentions of meeting. 

Next Stop. It should have been the first. The eating place. After a thorough examination of the fancy buffet hall, I grabbed a plate and a tissue. I meant business here. :P


I wasn't intending to do a 3 Idiots-ish whitewash of the marriage food but it did come very close to that. I wouldn't go on to explain how I managed to chomp a piece of every food existing there with meticulous precision. I believe in the art of eating slowly and peacefully rather than gobbling down everything with fetish and burping in the most uncivilized manner. There are exceptions of course. Say, when the food in question is in any kind of threat of being cleaned up by others, all manners and civility are forgotten. But in this case, there wasn't any necessity for the dog instincts to take over. There was infinite supply of the noodles and the naan. 

I looked at the irresistible Ice-cream. I got myself a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Not the best. But anything goes when it is osee.
"You want fruit on that?" I like ice cream without pollution.
"No thanks" 
It took a little more than a second you could say, before:
"Can I have another scoop?"
"Oh, sure, how much ever you want" 
Now that would have been a very grave thing to say if it weren't for my addiction to remain staggeringly underweight. 
I spared the ice cream box after the second serving. It was really hard, bringing in the self control. 

I finally allowed myself a glance at the bride and the groom. It must be boring to stand there all day and smile at every single soul who says "Congratulations" and other formalities. But deciding that the new couple wouldn't be what you call 'bored' on the very first day, I refrained from thinking such pointless thoughts. Now I carefully extracted my mp3 player which seemed to have buried itself deep inside the pocket. Earphones tangle themselves faster and more efficiently when they are left alone. And they show no respect to the laws of science while doing so. But who cares, as long as they work.


I understand that old people don't use gadgets but they don't need to stare at it like it was a time bomb. I had to turn on the full volume to nullify the classical cacophony. But to avoid the frequent suspicion that blood was pouring from my ears I went outside and reduced the volume. :P It was time to go. And after a content reception attendance we left. Oh the 'content' part? I mean my stomach obviously. 


With a post that  was meant to be about attending marriages but turned out to be  wholly  about food and music, I sign out :P