Saturday, October 27, 2007

Living by the stone


Living by the stone
He carved out figures.
Cut by cut, scrap by scrap
With his little fingers, eroding his worst fears.


Fear that his sweat might be too little
Fear that his pain might be too small
To achieve that epitome of an image
Where corners were points and edges true lines.


A pound of pain, a ton of labour
Never a
torture, sheer ardour
Just a constant pegging away at God’s will;
Perfection isn’t ever served on a platter.


Why stone did he choose?
When roses abound and petals lay strewn.
What path did he choose?
That none traversed and little had known.


This query they put, then back he shot:
“What fun there is in mocking the mocked?
Carving out garlands, anyone could
But a canvas of stone, only I would paint.


When a beaten path you all tread,
A new beginning from where would emerge.
Where all treaded the beaten path,
A dead end reached where nothing diverged.”


So back he went to work,
Driven by a desire to leave no stone unturned.
Cut by cut, scrap by scrap,
Thus were eroded his worst fears with his now content fingers.


(A new composition...hope you like it. Comments would, as always, be welcome.)

Monday, October 8, 2007

zzzz...zzzz...huh?

Wasn’t this blog supposed to be done and dusted, you may ask? Well…not yet. You see…it’s difficult to write regularly if you want to be original and interesting at the same time. Some people may argue otherwise…but hey, what the heck; it’s my blog, isn’t it?

So much has transpired in the last 8 months or so, and yet not much seems to have actually happened that I can remember and appreciate distinctly. Life’s just like this…like running frantically on a conveyor belt moving in the opposite direction. You sweat, you tire, you feel so much has happened, but you move too little in absolute terms.

For the fear of becoming too abstract, let me change topics before I am banished perpetually from the art of writing. The last one or two months have been a treat for cricket-lovers and cricket-haters alike, thanks to a new breed of cricket – the T20. Strange, but yes…a treat for cricket-lovers because they are, well, cricket-lovers…and cricket-haters because T20 made the game much easier for them to comprehend and absorb, and they didn’t have to bother about seeming at a loss in a cricketing discussion (T20 doesn’t give you the luxury of so much time for a discussion).

T20 has proved to be a refreshing new dimension to cricket and my initial skepticism which preceded the cup has been superseded by a reassuring feeling that it’s here to stay, grow and capture. After a damp squib which went by the name of the‘ICC World Cup 2007’, T20 has delivered good and promises better. The ICC has been smart and innovative in packaging the format and has, to their credit, been more than successful. Let’s hope that the ICC now handles the T20 format in an economical way and uses it as a platform to enter territories hitherto considered impregnable; instead of looking at it with the “let’s-make-hay-while-the-sun-shines” approach that they have adopted and persisted with over the years at the cost of the sport itself.

Speaking of innovative approaches, I had the great fortune of seeing a refreshingly different Hindi movie called “Johnny Gaddar”. Prasun Joshi once said in a talk show that “in a Hindi movie, it’s not about what will happen… everyone knows that, but how it will happen”. Johnny Gaddar, for a change, invites the viewer to ask “what will happen” also. Its script is highly unpredictable and that is its strongest point. The protagonist vacillates between the innocent and the cold-blooded and his unpredictability builds the premise for the film’s unpredictability. The characters are very clearly delineated and each one of them stands out with a remarkable performance.

My favourite scene from the movie is when the protagonist tosses a coin to decide whether to proceed with his intended plan or not. He loses the toss…but he badly wants to go ahead with his plan...so he goes for a best-of-three…loses again…goes for a best-of-five…and bingo…this time he gets his licence to go ahead. I found that to be a very practical representation of human nature. When you want to or do not want to do something, you always find reasons to do as you like. You just block out the thought that those reasons do not actually carry much weight.

Human nature is, indeed, complex. Sometimes, you just lapse into a state of laziness which you find so comfortable and mushy that you do not want to get out of it. And then suddenly, you wake up one day and realize the rut you were in. Like I woke up today and realized my blog has been rotting for the last 8 months. But human nature also invokes you to make promises to correct your nature. And on that note, I sign off with the promise of delivering more frequently than I have till now…laziness be damned!!

But oh, before I leave, let me inform you that anyone who reads this blog is mandatorily required to post his/her comments....Human nature, what to do?

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Life...as it comes

(Here is a light take on life; hope u like it.)

Life is like a house of cards,
Unstable like the wheels of a rickety cart.
It's a never-ending race of God's creatures

Interspersed in between by His Interpretors.

Life starts with a crying baby;
Later on, it may be a matured lady.
Finally, a grandma of ages
Who has filled her autobiography with millions of pages.

Life gives us so many gifts
Without ever asking for a return gift.
Hills, mountains, rivers and lakes,
"Oh! Why do poets forget chocolate cakes?"

A wife to love, a dog to feed,
A boss whose orders you have to heed,
A friend who could be the friend indeed,
To all these, we surely owe a good deed.

Accept life as it comes,
Erase the differences and renew the sums.
Why shatter the windows and break the doors,
Just because Sachin hit only four fours?

"Time is precious and also valuable."
Who cares - do I really need a time-table?
I believe life is in no hurry.
If not a cup of tea, at least it may be curry.

Whether life is boring or interesting
Depends on how good is our pampering.
If you live it to the full, you will see
The innumerable times you have been set free.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The IIT Tension

I am in a distraught state,
No interest in finding a mate.
In work I'm always late,
That's one thing which I most hate.

My eyes only open to a blurred gaze,
It's like being caught in a maddening maze.
Or that of being trapped in a cage
Which makes my smile subdued by rage.

A battle is enraging between the heart and the mind,
Let's see who wins the choice is not mine.
But to me, the heart is more kind
Than my cruel mind.
Since it tells me it's just a matter of time before you start studying,
While the mind tells me, it's just a matter of time before the results declare you failing.

Obstacles will always be there,
All have to undergo struggle to be up there.
Struggle on, someone beckons;
"I am trying, but they are obstructing me - the demons."

IIT seems like a distant dream;
I am not in the cake, forget the cream.
Whether it's a lack of hard work or a good amount of bad luck,
I know that for IIT, one has to be a swan, not a duck.

Time will only tell if I am in the group of elite,
This may just happen, the situation will be tight.
Failure would mean sorrow and shame,
So I pray to God for happiness and fame.

(Written while preparing for IIT-JEE, in my 12th std. U might just be able to identify with my sentiments here.)

Monday, January 29, 2007

Of grit and gratitude..

I have been thinking about starting my own blog for too long now, but haven’t been able to, due to supposed lack of time. But now with Opulence 2007 over, I have finally found some time to spare.


Opulence’07 was like a dream come true for us all. The last one year has been a roller-coaster ride with very loose seat-belts and the only thing we have been able to focus upon has been Opulence.


Around a year back, Vikalp, Ashwin, Murali and myself, all saw a dream; that of taking Opulence to heights never known before. At that time, it was only a dream; a pure and transparent dream, full of possibilities, impossibilities and ambitions. And since then, as days and nights have gone by, we have seen that dream materializing into reality. The single-minded focus on the task at hand and the determination shown by the team at all times has been exemplary, to say the least. I won’t be wrong if I say that the amount of work put in by us all amused us as much as it must have amazed anyone else.


Two years back, the four of us, Ashwin, Vikalp, Murali and myself were giving entrance tests to become a part of the team of Opulence 2006; along with a host of other candidates. At that point, sitting around that lamp-post standing centrally in the hostel, all we were probably thinking about was getting into the team and doing a fine job. Who had thought that next year, we would be the ones giving fattas to our juniors, asking them to give written tests and interviewing them. Never had we thought that one day, we would be getting the likes of Prahlad Kakar to come to Opulence, or for that matter, we would manage to fill a 1500 capacity SB Main Hall twice when it was so difficult to fill even a 150 capacity Senate Hall once. But we have grown since that time. We have seen dreams which at times, we thought far outweighed our own expectations, whenever we consciously decided to be pragmatic. Yet, there was this intuitive feeling always that if we do the best we could, nothing could stop us.


I daresay that the commitment of my fellow team-mates has been unsurpassable and my imagination restricts itself in thinking that their efforts can never be surpassed for the sheer amount of dedication and innovation they brought to the table in all their dealings.

The marketing successes, achieved by Vikalp and Ashwin, were the result of infallible perseverance and resourcefulness, along with their more obvious convincing and persuasive skills. Murali handled the events with a professionalism that would shame a corporate and originality that would shame an artist. The 2nd year team, though a little lethargic at times, has to be applauded for the raw talent that they possess, the novelty of their ideas and the power of the execution of their events. However tensed we might be and however angry we might be at them, they were always able to make us smile and see the lighter side of things.

There are two persons, though, whom the more we thank, the lesser it seems. Abhinav bhaiya and Akshay bhaiya have been the guiding forces behind us in whatever we have managed to achieve thus far. Two years back, they were impressing upon us the virtues of sincerity and passion; and teaching us the nuances of professional marketing, innovative publicity and sound event management. The last one year, they have done all this and more, be it explaining to us how to get things done by the BHU officials, or going to the airport to pick up Kakar, or chalking out the inaugural and valedictory proceedings and executing them with silky smoothness, or mundane things like thinking out names for our new events, or throwing lavish parties to cheer us up and sustain our enthusiasm, or staying up late in our hostels telling us what’s been missing and what’s not. I can go on and on. I am so overwhelmed with awe at the amount of passion they have been able to sustain for the last three years, that I am stuttering to give objective direction to my thoughts as I write this. Along with the passion, they have also made us laugh our lungs out with a humour which is simply unique and I would like to call this the Abhinav-Akshay brand of humour. For saying something like, “It’s wonderful”, they would say, “I am feeling full of wonder”, or sample this “I am going to pick up the Prahlad of Kakar.” We had never thought that we would have seniors who could act like fathers and friends at the same time. I can never forget that fateful night of Diwali of ’06 when Abhinav and Akshay bhaiya flaunted their humorous side so brazenly, that we laughed like never before as much at the P.J.s as at the good ones. Some moments like that crashing of kulhads containing lassi at the Pahalwan’s while saying cheers, have become etched in our memories forever.


Opulence has been like the coming of age for many of us, and has given us impetus to do more such fruitful things that would enhance the reputation of the college and encourage development of its students. But most importantly, it has given us friends (and might continue to do so) whom we can brag about and has become synonymous for one of the best phases of our lives, undoubtedly.