Pistol in an encountered Radiologist's hands. Are you happy, Raj?

Rang de basanti and Wednesday were more than mere bollywood movies. They actually hit the much needed spark in some of the non-eunuchs of our society. Guided or misguided, they rose, and tried to change something. Were the successful? No.

Imagine this. Rahul, a boy next door of Patna is an average youth. He gets a diploma in Radiology, and one fine day, goes to a big city called Mumbai for a walk in interview. And 22 days later, is encountered by the Mumbai Police for supposedly threatening the life of a number of bus passengers, shouting "Jai Bihar, Jai Patna", also being alleged that he was gonna kill some bigshot guy called Raj Thakeray.

Sounds feasible? Yeah, Biharis are unpredictable. Back in Bihar, they play with rifles and pistols like toys, you know.
Okay, lemme make something clearer here. This Rahul belonged to a typical middle class family, with no political connections and no criminal history.
They called him the 'Prince' of the mohalla for his subtle and gentle nature.

Still sounds feasible? Okay, let's suppose that this actually happened, which it did, actually. Now the big question is,
"WHY??"
What forced Rahul to become a mass life threatening gunman?
What forces a youth to take a revolver in the pen holding hand?
Revenge.

Now, what sort of revenge did Rahul want to take?
Revenge to the INSULT of hundreds of Biharis in their own country. Maharashtra (literally, the great land), can not tolerate the Bihari people occupying their job positions. 'THEIR' job postions.

Wtf, dude.


If I am an unemployed guy, I would definitely want to work. Work anywhere in my country. Who the hell are you to stop me from workin in this part of India or that part. I have a constitutional right to move, settle and work in any normal part (by normal, I mean not ethnically preserved) of my country.
So, shut the fuck up, and mind your business. And lemme give the interview and lemme get the job and lemme feed my family. I might not be as rich andd powerful as you, and i don't aspire to be one. But I want to live, and I have to work in order to live.
And I don't need no passport or any fuckin permission from any political freak.



May be this was the message that Rahul Raj wanted to give to Raj Thakeray. All he was trying to do was to get some media attention, so that the meek voice of a common man reaches the power zones.

And what he got were two bullets in his head, and two bullets in his chest.

Readers of this post, think.
And comment what you feel.



Alok Kumar,
IIT Kharagpur.

Love.

Didn't know what love means. Don't know the meaning still. Wikipedia says...

'As an abstract concept love usually refers to a strong, ineffable feeling towards another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual.'

But this definition is crap. Coz it sounds more like that for an infatuation.

Was I in love?
Or infatuation?
Or a mere feeling of opposite gender attraction.
I dunno.
But surely would love to know. No, would like to know.
We should not use words whose meanings we don't know. Its like deceiving the listener/reader.

Anyways, I wonder. I wonder what makes a person like a person, who also likes the former, but still they can't be together, just because serious commitments freak off the second person.
There has to be some bottleneck in this theory.

What is a serious commitment? Don't we like to have someone who cares about us to be around us? At least, I would like to have someone who cares about me. Coz' that would make my life a lil easier.

And I believe man does every thing in this world to make his life easier.

Anyways, I learnt about human relations a lot in the last few days. And that has made me all the more confused now. I think I would be researching on this after I get out from this place. IITs are bad places. They either suck the brain out of you or overstuff the brain with useless information. In any case, the end is a compromise.

Okay, now I know what a hangover is. But this hangover will take sometime to be done away with. Just another peaceful sleep won't do anything to it.

I have got no one to blame. It was me who chose this path for myself.
And I never regret.



Alok Kumar
27 Sept. 2008

Too many cooks... spoil not only the broth, but kill the spirit, too.

Group Work. Ha! Lemme tell you something at the first place, its a very tough thing. At least for me. The clash of attitudes, the hurting of egos, the ghost of leadership, the misuderstandings... sheesh man! It sucks... And worst comes to worst when the aim is to 'DESIGN' something...

And i write this post after the two group works I was recently involved in. Number one, an architectural project, in which we had to design something. Its very difficult to make someone else to believe that my design is better than his. Why should he listen to me in the first place? He also has got brains. Why shouldn't I listen to his crap ? (Yeah, I know. The same attitude that makes me call his design a crap, gives him the power to call my design a shit.) Its like a two way road.
But we all came to a solution (not the best one, but you see, a design can never be the best.)

How could we design something common? Because we all had the same level of knowledge and same level of power of Veto in the group.

Now consider the other 'group event'. This time I had to design something for a society where I was supposedly the design head, and three guys were working under me. We came with a solution, and when everything was finalised and the design was just going to get printed, one by one, all the photoshop layman people of the society started to bring their own design ideas to it. I try to please one guy and then the other starts crying about the overall attraction.
As if I don't have any design sense, and I must listen to what they say, and dance to their tunes by changing the background to black or brown or red or grey...

And add to that the fact tht most of them have not much idea about Photoshop, or at least, how a design is made on a computer.
So, leaving aside my sense of respect for my design, I incorporated some major issues of conflict in the design and tried to please some people. And when I showed the new and 'modified' design to the team again, some new problems started to bliss me from new mouths.

What crap man!

My opinion? Designing is a personal thing. Or at least, the user group should be highly defined, as in case of a well defined client. If the client says yes, then yes, its done. It should not be like that there are 8-9 clients, raising their objections one by one, not aggreing on each other's opinions and expecting the designer to dance on their tune.

And that's why , I shelved the entire project. Respect my sense of Design, or spare my soul from getting irritated by your distorted sense of designing and handling a group project.


Alok.
Sept. 14, 2008

Hairstyle Matters!!!

Couldn't find a better analogy for the change in my hairstyle. And for those of you who didnt have the privilege to witness the change, well, see it yourself!!!

















People ask me why. Frankly speakin', I dunno. I loved my long straight hairstyle, and then I got it trimmed to the smallest ever in my life... giving even the NCC cadets a sense of challenge. Sometimes I do search for the reason. The only satisfying answer being a crave for change.
It doesn't matter whether it's for the better or the worse, but a change should be there; for a costant lifestyle graph irritates me, and for that matter, every sane guy, I suppose. We crave for something new (most often, for something better), but sometimes the urge to change takes over every sense of judgment.

And then the almost Bald me surfaces. Lol. I sound very desperate about long hairs. Dude, I actually am. And moreover, I hate the constant P.S.Is' I have started to face after sporting this trimmed hairstyle.

Par peace hai. Wo kehte hain na... " Ghar ki kheti..." Lol...


Alec.

P.S. - P.S.I = Pehchan ne se Inkar (for the Non Kgpian fans of mine... :D)

Why I find this Place Awesome #2

Yeah, the series continues... Last week I got my first Stipend. The white envelope was heavy, not because of the notes in it, but because It was MY first income... or it SEEMED to be heavy to me. Anyways, First Salary (oops, sorry, First Stipend) is invaluable to any ambitious guy.
And the four 1000 rupee notes are gonna be preserved by me. A modest start, I know, but worth preserving, wassay ??

Hmmm, returning back to the topic, why do I call this place Awesome.
Pondicherry is a great place to freak out on the weekends. Work a lot during weekdays, and njoy the party in Pondicherry on the weekends wid friends and the Beach drive. And add to tht the fun of biking around on Passion. This IS Awesome. Isn't it ? (Provided the fact tht we are not allowed to use Powered vehicles (read, Bikes) back in IIT ).

And along is attached one of my snaps wid the bike and the Matri Mandir in the background. I love this pic, coz it so summarizes my stay in Auroville.

Have got two more weeks left. Am planning to visit Chennai on the next weekend. This thursday, the boss is taking us to Yelagiri, a Site near Bangalore. Must be fun, I guess.

And after tht, I wud be going to Praddy's place in Bangalore. Have got a hell lotta fun in stock for myself in the coming days.
Let's see...


Alec.

Why I find this place Awesome. #1

And one fine day, She asked me, what are you gonna do for ur training... I mean, where are u gonna go? And I was speechless. I didn't know that I was supposed to go anywhere in the vacations... Vacations meant no work, right ?

But I came back to my room early, and sent a cover letter for internship to some 20 to 30 architectural firms, knowing it perfectly that I was gonna go to Patna, my hometown, and if possible, get a training there only. After about half an hour, I forgot everything about the mails.

And next day, I got a mail from Shama, inviting me for a 2 months training in her firm, in Auroville, next to Pondicherry. Apparently, my googlepages webspace seemed interesting to her.

I thought, Dude, I am not gonna go to Pondicherry, Its simply too far.

And typing these words in my office in Auroville, (6 km from Pondicherry), I can now realise how dumb my first impression about this place was. This place is Awesome, and I mean every letter of it.

The best part of it all ? Internationalism. My ex roomie was a French fellow, Damien. He went away wid his girlfriend, who is a german girl. My new room mate is a Spanish fellow. My crush here is a French girl, and my best friends include two american guys, a dutch girl, an Irish girl, a girl from America, three indians and one Austrian old man.

Life is so easy goin out here. I hv got a Passion Bike on rent, and enjoying the mud roads of Auroville in Style. Talk about friends, beaches, eating out, bikes, guest houses, office, work, Stipend.... and so on. And you would end up talkin about my life here in Auroville. People are simple, the economy is simple and the needs are Simple. And I thought Auroville was a religious place, stinking wid spiritualism and meditation and stuff like tht.
No, Its about being happy, and about being carefree.

Everyday I do around 50 push ups, eat 2 eggs in the morning, reach my office, work till 6 in the evening, and then go to the multimedia center for the free movie...
And in the last few days, I have seen some of the best movies and documentaries of my life in tht air conditioned auditorium. Small and beautiful. Both the documentaries, and the Auditorium itself.

I think my lunch time is over. I know its a bad ending to a blog post, but well, hvta work, buddy.
Will talk about other stuff in the next post of this series.

Alec.

And tht's how it ended.

Yeah, i knew it was gonna happen. I knew i was gonna loose her someday. But had never expected the doomed day to be this near. But that's how the world goes, i guess...
Kiki. Thats what i used to call her. Kiki - the cat. Kiki - my cat. And she was so cute. In the last post, i did mention that she was a strange cat, having literally no fear of any human being.
I never liked cats before her; and will never like dogs after her, i guess.

This blog is dedicated to some of the good memories of me and my cat. She was a real opportunistic kinda animal. (Does that ring a bell? Well, in my mind, it does.) She had mugged up the mess timings, i suppose. Go to eat, and you are sure to find her.At least i did, especially on the days when they served Fish. She had developed this habit of mewing loudly whenever she was hungry. Mny times i gave her a large part of my share of fish. And she ate that in no time. And after i wud finish feeding her, she would move away from me like she never knew me. (Again rings a bell. Dude, is my head a bell tower or what ? :P)

Every week i used to lift her up, and take her below a tap in the bathroom. You must have heard that cats fear water. I hereby, certify this. She used to twist and turn like hell, but man, i, with my strong arms and indomitable spirit, did not let her go, till she was completely drenched... And after that, i lay her down, and she used to lick her whole body and her white fur glistened like snow, thanks to me, :P.

But her best feature was her set of beautiful eyes. The light brown pupil wid a green lining at the outside. I just could not help myself from offering her a piece of my fish, when she looked up to me and mewed...

And on tht unfateful day, when she lay before me on the mess roof, all dead, i still could appreciate her cuteness and her beauty. The fur was still glistening, and the body had neither shrunken nor rotten... I could see her eyes too, they were as shiny as ever. I seemed that the parting of soul had happened not long ago. A few hours, i guess.

And i swear i felt very strange when i saw her dead. I felt like lifting her up and fondling her. I felt like feeding her. I felt like taking her to the bathroom, and drenching her, I felt like tying my bunch of keys to a string and hang it in front of her so that she might play with it. You know, cats love to play wid things hanging from a string... I felt like letting her sleep on my lap while i mugged up the book of Financial Management... like she always did.

Death is a strange thing, i tell you. It leaves everything stoned. This was the first time when someone whom i loved, died in front of me. (Yeah, tht's true. I never lost to death anyone whom i loved, before she died.) There she was. All still. And i could not believe she was dead.
But I guess, i had to.

Some people say, i make a lot of fuss for nothing. After all, she was only a cat. A cat in a hall of residence. And hence, i should not brood over things.

But she was not just any cat. She was THE cat. My first Pet. And i have some very good memories associated with her. Isn't it weird that I got attached with a cat to this degree within two months???

Lastly, on an optimistic note, They say that a cat has got nine lives.(At least the Eveready Battery's Logo says that!!).
So, Kiki, you still have got eight lives. Nevermind. We'll meet someday. And yes, thanks, for giving me some of my best moments till date, with a 'non-human' animal.



Alec.