When the Ocean turned green

Ever since Rajiv started working on an oil platform, every now and then something happens which gives him sense of fantasy. Like being in a Japanese animation movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
 
This shift on Arabian sea Rajiv witnessed such an moment of fantasy. At night, around 11.50 PM Rajiv was going back to his room from office. I always tell Rajiv to check on if everything as we walk back, being as vigilant as possible. After all this is the middle of an ocean. It does feel a bit scary at around mid-night, while going back alone to the room. Especially when colleagues show us a horror flick or on amavasya (new moon), Rajiv gets really scared.

There is the ever present flare (used to vent the excess gas into the environment by burning it). Both

LP flare

of them, High pressure (HP) as well as Low pressure (LP). The thudding sound of a broken tin shed on the bridge end created by the wind (always scares me at around 12:00 in the night). And we also have to check on to the ocean. If any activities is going on (who knows what might come up from the ocean, tsunami/terrorists/Godzilla/Dinausour sized robots/you never know).

So, I casually looked at the ocean as I always do while going back. And I was astonished. I would be lying if I said I haven't seen anything like it. But then again they now a days they can show you anything in a movie, such is today's technology. You don't actually believe it exists. You think what a wonderful imagination, and how you could never imagine somethings like it. Well you can't; you have to experience them. And yes it is true that people do experience things differently. And that is what one brings across, one's perception.

I guess most of you have seen the movie Life of Pi. It was in this movie that I saw it first. The moment when Pi is stranded on that island, which seems like heaven to him. The island with all the Meerkat's. The island with the green glow at night.

That is what I witnessed. A big area of glowing green patch. Not just one. But about 4. There could have been more. The glow was like seeing a jugnu in the ocean. It was pulsating. It was like seeing northern aurora lights, in the ocean. I did look up at the sky, if it was originating from there. Then I looked at the lights at our platform, may be reflection from one of the boom lights of the crane.

No, it indeed was something. I did a public announcement and told as many. No one in their entire career had seen anything like it. Some ignored it. They just don't see the wonders around them anymore.

I watched the green glowing dance of the ocean for an hour, before it faded a bit. And I was feeling a bit sleepy. The next day morning, was all talks about, what did we actually witnessed. I was asking google like crazy. It did turn up that some kind of worm, do this in the Bermuda triangle. I don't know if they are the same worms, and there were theories of jelly fish, other fishes, etc. But you want to be part of the theory that contains Bermuda triangle, don't you? I asked a guy who was on the platform for 16 years. He said, he never witnessed anything like that. 

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda_0002df.htm

We did hope to enjoy the ocean dance green next day also. But that wasn't to be.

It was a one time thing. 

The day when Rajiv flew

It has been a few years since Rajiv started working on an Oil Platform in the middle of the Arabian Sea. In order to reach this place Rajiv has to board a helicopter.

Rajiv and I were really excited for our first helicopter ride. However this excitement was short lived and turned into horror for us when we were getting trained to safely evacuate the helicopter in case of any emergency. It felt like getting trained for the job of Bruce Willis's stuntman in one of the scenes of a Die Hard film. First we were strapped to a seat in a helicopter, then it was submerged in a swimming pool, then it was inverted while we hold our breath, now we are not to open the door but kick or punch out the window glass and come out of the helicopter safely. And during this whole evacuation I also have to remain calm and sometime wait in queue for I might not get the window seat. And just so we don't forget this, we were made to repeat it 7 times. But before the training even starts I had already crapped out all the excitement in my pants when the trainer started showing the videos of the helicopter accidents in both land and water.
 

So now when I boarded the helicopter, it is not with the childish exuberance but with the fear of an uncertain accident. I try to take the window seat as I don't want to wait in queue even in possibly my last few moments. After the nervous helicopter ride, it lands in the middle of ocean on a huge man made structure with thin legs and a bloated top.

Steel Grating

As we walk towards the office for the joining formalities, I notice that the walkway is see through mesh of steel grating. Rajiv could easily see the ocean below. And then when Rajiv walked on this see through grating persistence of vision removed all the gratings and only the ocean remained in the eyesight. It is then that Rajiv had the feeling of walking on air. It has been a childhood fantasy of Rajiv to fly. He regularly keeps on seeing dreams about flying, and this day an illusion fulfilled his dream. This was the day when Rajiv flew over the Arabian Sea.

The journey to platform twelve and a half

My mother being a deeply religious person, wanted to buy some books on the topic. One among the best publishers in India are the Gitapress(originally based in Gorakhpur). Naturally she wanted to buy books of this particular publisher only. On a fine Sunday evening, we decided to get out and buy some Hindu religious books. But first we must find out our destination.

Papa calls their Delhi branch and asks where their outlets are in the city. Strangely, the nearest outlet for us falls on the New Delhi Railway Station, somewhere between the platform 12 and 13. I was amazed that they actually opened an outlet on the railway platform. I wanted to see this shop, but it was hard to get Rajiv out of bed. Rajiv has been breaking all sorts of sleeping records lately (setting a personal high of sleeping for 16 hours continuously). Such is the fear for Delhi winters in his mind. But none of us can ever deny mothers wish, there is a greater fear for her wrath.

We entered the railway station from the back side, since platform 12.5 would be near. Though I had come to the railway station a few times before, it was my first time entering from the rear side. I always wondered why the railway station of nations capital does not look even as impressive the one in timbuktu. But when I visited it from the rear side, I was introduced to the actual magnanimity of it. It was huge, and I wondered whether they built it this way to sustain the inflow of people actually coming to buy books from Gitapress.

After buying the platform tickets we got inside, and started to look for platform 12.5. It kind of felt stupid to come to a railway station for buying books. So I start asking even more stupid questions to papa, “where are we going to?”, “which train are we catching?”, etc. He plays along by replying Gorkhdham express. Suddenly the person in front of us turns around, and now he starts asking questions. “What time will it arrive?”, “How much more late is it?”, “Which platform?”.

Papa now becomes confused, as more and more eyes look at him with hope in their eyes. They felt as if, this man can give them the information, which even the station master couldn’t. The information which will get them off this railway station. The station on which they were stuck, and even they seemed to forget how many days had gone by. Some of them even seemed to have started their alternate career, in order to survive on the station. And then their were some who started living there. Strife for survival had made them forget their purpose, that they wanted to get somewhere. Understanding the gravity of the situation, papa did the best he can under the circumstances. He said an innocent, yet confused (as if he was one among them) sounding “pata nahi bhaisaheb!” (I also don’t know brother!).

We tacitly decide not to do any more stupid talk as we reach platform 12. Now we ask a simple question to the coolie “yeh Gitapress kaha hai” (Where is Gitapress?). The look on the coolie’s face makes us realize the stupidity of our question. Finally we spot the outlet, mummi is fairly excited. She starts to go through the books, and soon realizes she has forgotten her spectacles. Now she begins to hassle the shopkeeper, for what she wants.

It seemed the shopkeeper had attained a meditative state, he was beyond this materialistic world. Nothing seemed to bother him, not even mom hassling him for books. His authority on books published from Gitapress and the trains departing/arriving on platform 12/13 seemed unquestionable. After almost a hour, mom bought almost every book in the shop (Gitapress in extremely cheap). We ended up carrying more luggage (books) than some passengers.

Finally we got back home, and on the way back it occurred to me that Harry Potter must have had a similar feeling when he was going towards platform nine and three-quarters. Only difference being he went through it; and may some day I will also go through it.

The year I knew as 2009

PART 4: THE END

As September ended, my father was diagnosed with meningioma. His surgery was done on 30th September; after which he showed good recovery. In a month he was up and running (not literally). The best thing to happen was that he did not remember anything about it. 27 September to 1 October, seemed to be erased from his system. He jokingly compares that scar on his head with the one in Ghajini. Now it has healed and there are no signs though.

October was the resting month for my father, loads of medicines, weekly checkups and well wishers coming home. My father enjoyed his month long holiday. His health showed good progress. My break allowed me to shift my whole attention to my fathers care during this period. As October ended, I somewhere saw about half marathon happening in Delhi.

Running did not seem like a very complex task, and since I had covered more than 35 km in a day in my Valley of flowers trip, it seemed doable. I ran the half marathon on November 1. Lots of people asked it must have been fun, I answered it was painful. My father and Uncle, were used to walking daily more than 10-15 KM in there teens. Hence, me finishing the the half marathon at this age, did not create a great impression on them.

We then went to Dehradun as father recovered, so that all of us can have a some peaceful time. Spent about 4-5 days there, met Bhabhiji (Cousins wife); whose marriage we missed on 30th September. In December, we returned to the MC Project, launching it (don’t remember the date). The idea was well received, and most of my time went in garnering feedback. As new year came, I went to lucknow to meet two good friends of mine, with a revelation which I had just days before new years ever. All my friends know about the revelation I had, although I will share it in writing when something tangible happens.

The year I knew as 2009

PART 3: THE VENTURE

It was one of the normally dull evenings in the hostel blocks. I was deeply engrossed in an extremely boring google research for one of my marketing (m-AD-MAN*) projects. It was then that Jai pinged me, to discuss about his project for NID Bangalore. Little did I know, that this discussion would shape a significant amount of time in the coming year. Frustrated with uninspiring assignments, we turned to music, and “the MC Project” broke out of shell. For the next 3 months, Jai and I worked on the idea, as a part of our academic tenure. After which the term ended, and I found lesser time for working on it. So, as I narrowly scraped through my management diploma, I decided to dedicate some time for the MC Project in 2009.

MC actually stands for Music Collaboration, and the name was taken from my project title, which was “Music Collaboration through social networking”. Our basic idea is to create a platform for amateur musicians, where they can easily share their work with others, and even collaborate to finish their/others music piece. And as these musicians will come together, there will be communication, which might lead to learning from each other. So we have three basic concepts: Share, Collaborate and Learn. At this point in time, we have created the basic working model, which provides for the functioning of all these concepts; but it does requires some polishing.

As I finished all the traveling, I turned back to the MC Project. For the 3 days my body rested, my mind started to ideate. The main reason we started the MC Project was we were never able to find a place for us in the social hierarchy, with respect to the fact that we wanted to play music. We were not professionals, neither did we intend to become one. For us music was a means of joy, passing time and not money. As one would say, we are amateurs; and although there is a term that defines us, there isn’t a place that connects us.

I never intend to become a professional musician, I enjoy strumming my guitar now and then, and I intend to keep it that way. Being professional adds a pressure to churn out songs every now and then, as my livelihood will depend on it. Also, I don’t get the rights to my creation, the distribution company does. And if I see the track record, Phooti Kaudi has produced some 4 songs in last 4 years. Which is not at all a bright sign, but it sort of makes me understand why we are seeing so much of copying in the industry. Involving money in the process, changes the equation dramatically; specially when ones livelihood is in question. As for me, I want to make music, not money; I want to make friends, not fans. Money is a means and not the end. A means to joy, to happiness, to music again.

When I actually like a music piece, my subsequent reactions to it is, listen it again and tell everyone about it. I often make others listen to it, and share it, if some one is far. While I feel, I am adding to the fame of the artist, I am actually practicing piracy. Something which I have stopped doing, once I realized what I was doing. First of all, it is against the will of the artist and secondly his livelihood depends on it (well not the insanely famous one’s). But then I ask myself this question, what if the artist doesn’t mind me sharing the music piece. What if he/she (him/her)self wants to distribute it for free. An amateur musician may be, some one who thinks like we do. Or it may be an upcoming/struggling artist who just wants his/her work to be out there, to create a name. Or a seasoned professional may be, who just wants that one song to get out there which he made just for himself and no one else.

And based on all this philosophy we have started the MC Project (which we self proclaim as non profit). I understand, many may feel the idea to be impractical; and we may be the only people who might end up practicing it. But then it is a idea that we float, the acceptance of which is not the question here, it is something we believe in. Plus looking at the current scenario, famous music is today being pirated for free, some doing it intentionally and some unintentionally. Today internet is more efficient and powerful an distribution channel than any when it comes to digital media. And this power should be used in a manner, which should benefit the artist and not hurt him.

I was familiar with the concept that creative commons, were floating and I found it to be applicable here. I like the idea behind creative commons, and I certainly feel it is the way to be for our project. It has its own glitches and has had its share of problems, but then evolution needs time to give birth to perfection. The license which I personally like is the attribution non-commercial. It says that, any one can distribute the piece, if they do not earn anything out of it, until they give the author due credit. Plus, if any one is making money using the work, then they need to pay a fee to the author for it. So I can share my work, and people can share it, as I want; and if it finds a commercial application (for instance, in advertising) I get a slice of the pie.

For 2 months Jai and I worked on materializing our idea, and while we were on the verge of launching it in September, life hit me in a way, I never imagined….

* – m-AD-MAN is actually short for one of our marketing subjects, Advertising Management. While others Called it Ad-Man, I used to call it mAd-Man

The year I knew as 2009

PART 2: THE JOURNEY

In the last week of June, 2009 I went to Gamshali, a place deep into the Himalayas in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand; a place where once my ancestors used to live. It is the second last village of India towards Tibet (now China); and until 2003 one had to walk about 14 km to reach there. As a child I had only heard stories about the place, my ancestors, the festivals; Gamshali was a place from fantasy land for me. When I visited the place in 1996, I was captivated by its beauty; I was in one of my bed time stories, it was magical, I was living my fantasy and it was way better than watching Avatar in 3D.

13 years later, while I was returning to the place again, my only concern was if the child inside will be able to relive the magic again. And one of the reason for my worry was that my perspective had changed over the years. Physically, it is now at least a foot and a half taller with an additional myopic vision; and mentally, <umm ….> well, I have gained a lot more information. And when I reached the place, the same feelings gushed back; although the village seemed a bit smaller now.

I had coincided my trip with the biggest of all events in my community, “HOM”. Hom is a 12-yearly event, a series of rituals which lasts for 7 days. Although I didn’t know the purpose of it and couldn’t understand the meaning of the rituals, I selected this duration of time for two reasons: a) Gamshali was one of the place where Hom occurs, b) all of my relatives would come. The reason I why I only heard stories about Gamshali and not live there is that my father had a transferable job. We hopped from one place to another; so I never truly belonged to one particular place. And to the one place I had the sense of belongingness to, I had never lived there. Hence I had never met most of my relatives; and I thought Hom to be a good platform to start.

For once in my life I was not the only Fonia to be around; there was a whole army of us back there, available in every shape, size and age possible. My biggest problem were my aunts and uncles, they were so many that I lost count, and it didn’t stop there. Our ancestors had to create a whole classification of them, assigning them a code name based what relation they have to which of my parents. In a day, I had been introduced to hundreds of them, each with her own unique code. I was confused to my core, and to top it of, some of them were younger than me.

Apart from this confusion, I had a very pleasant time; and my plan one became clear to me. I wanted to make a movie, and I had done some candid camera work during Hom; so I decided I would make a documentary out of “Hom of Gamshali”. Although the research is still going on, and I might have to go back, in order to get more video clips; the movie has taken a direction.

Some photos from the Gamshali trip

During my Gamshali trip I traveled to most of the places around it, within a radius of 9 KM; with my relatives. The place was distinguished with an unimaginable beauty; the reason being minimal human intervention. After Hom was over, I came down to Joshimath along with my aunt and few cousins. I had a week long stay in Joshimath, and utilized that time to visit Valley of flowers and Hemkund Saheb.

Valley of Flowers

Hemkund Saheb

There was a gap of few months between the time I graduated from college and the time Hom had to start. During that period, I first visited Bhutan with my parents. We had a week long stay, and went to Thimpu and Paro. I was so mesmerized by the place, that I wanted to stay there for at least a year, but alas financial plus time constraints. After which we went to the Nathula Pass and shook hands with the Chinese soldiers. Finally when Hom was over, I had to go back to Bangalore, as some of my friends called for me. During all this travelling, I forgot to get a shave and a haircut; and while I was telling this to Bhotia, he said you can get one in Hospet, I have a very good shop right next to my home. Thus Jai and I traveled to Hospet, in order to get our haircut; and also meet Bhotia, Priyank and visit Hampi in the process.

Bhutan+Nathula Trip

And before my journey had started, before I was even thinking about it; I once talked to Sutikshina Pratap Kaushik, who is in Joshimath. He told me that it was his birthday the day after; which prompted me, Sharad and Jai to leave for Joshimath that very day. It was a trip where whatever wrong could ever happen with us happened; and that is what made that trip so memorable. I will only share one photo from that trip which summarizes how the trip rocked.

As I spent time close to nature, I felt humbled by the mountains, cherished by the flowers, energized by the river, loved unconditionally by mother Earth. And while I enjoyed the nature around me, it occurred to me that mother Earth is doing pretty well. She will never be in any kind of trouble, it is foolish of us to think so. She is not the one in trouble, infact it is us who are in trouble and we could use a different perspective.

After spending almost 3 months in continuous traveling, I was now exhausted. And I headed back home as my last trip of the year was over (the Hospet/Hampi one). As I reached home, and found my beloved bed, I could only wake up after three days completely fresh again. My fresh mind started to think about something I started back in college, something I am passionate about, something for which I took the year off. And it is then that I and Jai started the process to implement what we once ideated….

The year I knew as 2009

PART 1: THE BEGINNING

(Breaking this post into parts, as it has become annoyingly long)

As I write this post, my dabba (laptop) tells me that it is January 6, 2010; it was only a few days back when I knew this year as 2009. In a matter of one second it changed, and yet I felt no change in it*. I started it as a very confused person, and as it ended I was more clear headed than I ever have been. As the transition was about to be made, I was hit with a sudden realization; and I felt extremely excited about it. I almost spent the next whole day telling everybody about it.

The year has been an eventful one, most of which I have spent sleeping and eating. It was for the first time in my life I had the free time to whenever do whatever and go wherever. This year can be characterized by short patches of boredom distanced by longer spurts of enthusiasm. Traditionally it used to be the other way around, and most of my enthusiastic moments used to be either my term exams or assignment submissions.

2010 started in Lucknow with my two very good friends Prakhar and Sharad. It was an auspicious start, as I spent the first two days eating, and the day after sleeping (as the stomach went out of order). I was very happy to meet my friends after a long time, and I sincerely hope that the new year brings joy to all of my friends. Unlike 2010, which has started with me carelessly eating, sleeping, drinking and farting; 2009 started with me eating, sleeping, drinking and farting. I had to care if it was the class room (eat + sleep), a group meeting (eat + drink), company presentation (fart only), mess (eat, drink & eat with an occasional fart) except for my room. That was the only place which provided me a carefree and unconditional environment.

But the biggest question I faced was not whether a place is right to eat/sleep/drink/fart, but whether to finish my plans (click to read it) first or to simultaneously work and try to finish my plans. But in order to finish them I had to be clear about them, and this needed time. I told friends, I was considering dropping out of placements; as I needed some time to control the eat/sleep/drink/fart routine and I felt working simultaneously would not do any good to my purpose. Plus I would always have thought what if I actually had taken the year off? Some thought it took courage, and some thought confidence, but in reality it just took a hangover of stupidity and ignorance.

As the college days were getting over, I had to pay off all my debts before leaving. And although I had none on the college, but I had some on the 3 Idiots team. I had agreed to audition college students for them, and received an advance payment for that. But due to my routine and an occasional Thailand trip (alas! it didn’t happen) I could not do the auditions. I cleared my debts with the team, and then I was ready to go to the one place I always wanted to….

* – As I was deep asleep at that instant (I know, PJ, but this is what inspired that line).

The inspiration

Clay Sculpture by 2008-10 batch, NID Bangalore

It has been 6 long minutes since I have been staring at the screen of my Lenovo R61 thinkpad, in the hope of finding a start for this post. And finally I get bored out of thinking and staring. This is a real issue with me, the ideas don’t come when they are supposed to come but they pop up in my head at random instances. And when they pop up, the time has flown by and I can only console myself with the thought that this will be used at a similar future situation if it happens.

Andy and the Universe

We so many times tend to generalize our thoughts for the rest of the human kind. I think I generalized one of my thoughts again. Sorry for that; but I have lately discovered that I tend to do this very often; I am in the process of evolution now and I realized suddenly that I am a very unique being. For starters, I am a combination of billions of microscopic entities which have assembled in a way which was never tried before. Let the scientists first finish debating about the microscopic entities, and  in the mean time we (:x), sorry (again generalizing) I will call them andy. These  andy’s on there own may be lifeless but somehow the combination creates a living being which is me <adding this comparison for the sake of paradox; the andy’s can even be alive>. Somehow they work for the good of me; my functioning and they don’t even know of my existence.  But do they even know of there own existence? Every andy is working hard, which can be proved by the mere fact that I am writing this blog. And when this unique combination was put in an external environment in which it was never before, the wiring inside my brain happened in such a way which can never happen.

If I am a unique being then all my thoughts and actions are unique; what I think could never have been thought in the same manner, what I have done could never have been in the same manner. Hence I feel that it is wrong on my part to generalize what I think/believe onto the whole of human kind. For example if I say that we are destroying the planet, or we are responsible for all the trash that is lying on the road; whom am I referring to, how do I know about others; I can be certain about me and my actions but not about others.  There is no we but only I, it is I who think, who does and thus it is I who needs to change in order to see the change happening around me. And it is not difficult to change also; all I need to do is to think for the change to happen and voila. The wiring inside my brain will change as I think and as a result I will change.

Coming back to point about the andy’s; there are so many of them and each one doing a specific role in my body. The funny thing being they don’t even know that their doing one particular task is keeping me functioning; they don’t even know about me, and also not about the existence of other andy’s in my body. Still without knowing about other andy’s or me; they are working in such a coordination that keeps making me do what I want to do. I sometimes ponder over the fact that if I am the andy in someones body. If this universe is alive and I am just serving one purpose in the universe. But then I feel that I need not know about it; I just have to do what I feel like doing and it will serve the purpose. There might be trouble when I do something against my intuition; just like the andy’s in my body. If they did something out of line I might be in trouble and in turn they will be in trouble. Similarly the universe will be in trouble if I did something out of line and inturn I will be trouble. I will need to change if I am not following my heart and being intuitive; ’cause if I am not then there might be some problem with the universe. For which I just have to think and rewire my brain and voila the universe will change around me.

All these andy’s make me feel like an universe, make me feel as big as possible and the universe starts making me feel like andy. And having studied programming, the funda of recursion comes into my mind again and again. Am I the universe or the andy; or is this a never ending loop?  Is every andy an universe and every universe an andy? Is this the way it is? But then I need not think all this and just follow what the heart says, and I will serve the purpose if I am an andy and I don’t even need to know about it.

The day Rajiv became tall

After living for 8312 days on this planet, I thought I was the one who knew about Rajiv, more than any one did. But it is now, the 25th of may 2008 at around 2 pm I might be proven wrong. The day began like all the normal days. Rajiv and I woke up at around 9 am today, very early to the standards we have set. There was a time when we woke up regularly at around 2 pm and sometimes even 4. However to discuss that would be to digress, so let us come back. Freshened up and ate three aloo paranthas (yummy); <freshened up means lightening up and brushing the teeth’s>. Then we had my routine thinking session; Rajiv started to think doing the work I had planned, but I started to listen to some green day songs and chatting on gtalk. We soon forgot about the work he had to do and started to orkut now, but I soon became bored of that too. The thought of work again came to his mind, it was like a evil dark lord who wanted to ruin my Sunday.

I have this theory that people read daily predictions in order to give themselves a hope that they will taste success today, or some work which was knocking at the doors of uncertainty will suddenly realize that the doors have opened and they are the one’s of certainty, or they will gain some treasure, or blah blah. I think that you understand what I want to say, that these predictions are never saying something which one does not wants to hear. Instead they tell what you wanted to, and then they motivate you to do the stuff. If they said what one does wanted to hear, they would not be as successful as they are. They will be violating the laws of supply and demand. Hey I again digressed; coming back to the topic.

Now Rajiv wanted to read something good about himself or that something good is going to happen, like the work that he had to do will miraculously be completed today without any efforts from his side. So he started googling about some astrology sites. He googled upon one of the sites that looked good; although he knows what he wants to read and that all of the sites will provide him with that information, he did wanted it to look authentic. So he registered at one of these sites and read the daily prediction, which was exactly what he wanted to read. However there were various other section and one of those were ‘general predictions’. I was curious, and clicked this and started reading. This was the starting point of me doubting my knowledge about Rajiv. This is what the physical description had to say:

Good complexion, well formed body, tall, slender in youth but tendency to stoutness in middle age, smooth, brown to black hair, blue or brown eyes, passionate, parrot like nose round or oval face, good features, curves and contours of body are regular, often have dimples, good looking graceful and youthful appearance with sweet smile and with attractive countenance. Almond eyes which speak themselves. Such persons look younger than age normally.

I starting wondering when did Rajiv become tall and slender; when did he develop this parrot like nose and from when does he started having dimples, regular curves and contours of body. And what are these almond eyes, I was so confused. I hadn’t seen Rajiv from some time; and was wondering that can a person undergo so much changes in one night sleep. I had heard that while people sleep they become taller, but how tall do they become. I was confused, my updated knowledge had the picture of a five feet four inches person weighing 64 kilos, who barely takes bath due to laziness, with a small nose, and fat cheeks and has a growing belly.

I wanted to put an end to this confusion, and there was only one way. I stood up, slided the keyboard rack in and walked through the dining room and stood in front of the mirror. All the confusion was gone, it was still the same Rajiv. And it was still me who knew most about him, more than anyone else on this planet. I now started to listen to some songs again.

When the computer ate my Ice-Cream [:x]

In order to do one task we have to do so many others. If the primary task to done is what one wanted to do; then he will finish all the secondary tasks with an excitement; no matter how boring they are. But if the primary task is the one which one hates (or not likes), then even if the secondary task involves his most passionate subjects, the work shows no or low enthusiasm.

At present I am doing an internship, and the best part of it is the lunch break; it is the time when I get to eat the ice cream. It is amazingly hot and humid in this place and the ice cream is a great relief. Rajiv disagrees though; according to him the whole office is air conditioned, and hence my claims are false. Anyways it is always enjoyable to eat the ice cream in summers and issue is debatable.

There is a mother dairy ice cream cart right outside our office. It is a very typical cart; and I always try out a new flavor everyday. But today was the day when the computer ate my ice cream. I had finished tasting every flavor he had; and I recently saw the advertisement of mother dairy choco chip and nutty almond. So I wanted to taste one of these flavors today. The ice cream man (we shall call him ice man from now on); however said that there has been a problem in the software in the mother dairy office. They computer shows some ice creams not shipped which have been shipped. So they have stopped all the new flavors. Now this ice man might never have even seen a computer, (ok…. he might have seen one). But at least would never have operated one or would know a thing or two about the computer. My life was getting affected by the computer where I least affected it to; and I was not able to taste the new flavor of the ice cream. And the person who was directly getting affected was not even computer literate.

Why has the software wants to do this. Does it feel the heat of the summers too? Does it want the ice cream to cool off the heat. So it is keeping all the ice cream with itself. I do expect that either this blog will get many hits or many hate hits or no hits or may some day I will open a website which will get famous and I will get money or I will advertise my movie through web but I never thought that I would not be able to eat the ice cream probably due to a person who did not handle the software properly. May be tomorrow when I go to buy aloo, pyaaz, tamatar the sabji waala will say that there is no aloo today due to problem in the software of the fertilizer company. Or may be the sabji waala or the ice man will decide to become computer literate and have there own laptops. They will work with a Just-in-time inventory and operate laptops; order online and stuff.

I do expect my life to get affected by the computer; but I never expected it to eat off the ice cream I wanted to.

My Plans

Ever since I came into existence; my primary motive was to fulfill the needs of Rajiv Fonia (read ‘about’ for more details). But in order to do that I had to do certain things. So I followed all the conventional paths; Engineering plus MBA. Presently I am running after my mba degree; hope I will catch her within the two years. One year has passed by and it has been a success. I have reached all the places I needed to.

But in this process there are certain things which I saw, experienced and liked. So the needs of Rajiv Fonia remained same but the my needs increased as time passed. It has been directly proportionate to the amount of time I live. I do not know whether this relationship will remain as it is; but for as long as I have lived the needs are increasing. Although the goal of my existence was to fulfill the needs of Rajiv Fonia; seeing that it is easily accomplished my mind craved to do stuff which happened around me. And after realizing that the needs of Rajiv Fonia can be fulfilled in a time less than what is allocated to me; I tend to utilize that time to fulfill my own plans. Rajiv and I have come to terms on this topic; he utilizes this time by sleeping when I am not in a mood for doing anything, otherwise I use for the fulfilling the plans I have made.

Plan number one: Make a movie; this has been my dream since I started watching movies. Whenever I watched a movie I used to think that if a particular scene was filmed in some other way the scene would have been much better. Or if the end of the story was shown first and the beginning at the end then the movie would have been more gripping. But one needs so many people in order to make a movie. To start off with, we need people to act; and then there are the musicians and so many more people.

Till now in order to fulfill this plan I have taken up all the opportunities I had; I have made five videos, all five minute long. First one is called ‘finally final’; it was a music video which me and my friends made in our final year of engineering. Rather than writing more about it, I will just put the link up so that you can see it.

The original idea of the song belongs to Jai Shankar Beban(lyrics + guitar); and this song would not have been possible without Sharad(vocals), Pulkit(vocals + flute), Dodo(drums), Dhaneel(tabla). You can see my photo when the credits called director roll along with the photo.

After that I have made four videos during my first year at the mba, two out of which have been shared on you tube and I will put the links for that up as well. I have contributed in the editing of one of the videos mile sur and made the blooper video.

Links : mile sur | blooper

I would have loved to show you the other two as well; but they haven’t been uploaded on youtube.

Plan number 2: Write a novel; I don’t know why I had this idea in my mind. Because unlike the movies idea; which I got by getting inspired from watching a lot of movies; I haven’t read many novels. Infact I just read 2 novels completely. I think this is because I want to tell a story and making a movie is so time consuming and resource exhaustive that some day it came to my mind that I should start writing first.

So I have decided that year 2008 will be the reading year. I am presently reading ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’. After which I am going to read ‘interpreter of maladies’. The dog one is a nice novel; you should read it.

Also Saurabh and I have decided that we will read a novel every week and write reviews so that we can improve our writing style. Although Nehte (Saurabh) has read loads of novels and stories; and his writing skills are way better than mine. So I will be learning alot from him.

Plan number 3: Work/Venture; This is a topic I am really confused about. Whether I should work or whether I should start some venture. The more I think the more I get confused, and the more the ideas that I get. I somewhat feel stupid not to think of simple ideas that others have thought I couldn’t which were a hit and more stupid when the ideas I thought were implemented and are very successful. I couldn’t implement them due to lack of resources.

I have come to the conclusion that I will start something that requires no resources at all and if it is a success then leverage over that to implement my other plans or think of some other resource less plan. And work simultaneously.

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I think these are all the plans I have. More on this later.