Tapasya

So, I am an environmentalist and consider myself quite responsible to do something to preserve it. Hence I have always been on lookout for activities where I can leave a mark or do something worthwhile, have joined Greenpeace in the past and did some other basic stuff, but wanted to go bigger. So here came my chance, there is this guy who is roomie's friend, one day he came to our room and told us about this initiative which in simple terms is about environment consciousness but it's bigger in terms of operations and impact, well I was definitely in, the moment I heard it. About the initiative, the operation is going to begin with a big event wherein we will arrange for a gathering of about 5000 eminent people from politics, bureaucracy, social leaders, and other important people from the NCR region primarily, as this is the venue for the opening event. This event will have lots of practical and factual information being delivered, and a strong message being passed that some people want to do something for the environment and everyone else is expected to at least support it as basic responsibility, even if they can't be a part of the operation itself. This event will be followed by numerous smaller events across the country, concentrating on places where a mass of people can be gathered and then delivering the message. Focus shall be on schools, colleges, institutions, markets, big housing societies etc.

One of the basic problems we faced while brainstorming on how to make it more effective and sustainable was that most people do recognize it as an issue, and tend to know of the basic facts about the spill outs. But, still somehow people don't really appreciate the gravity of the situation; they hear about global warming and fail to notice the almost tangible changes in weather for example. Most people want to do something or are conscious but don't have time. In a country like India lack of resources can be another major setback. Despite all this, some people, agencies NGOs have come up and are trying on various levels, but then there arises the problem of coordination and auditing. Believe it or not, even as all NGOs are supposed to work for environment consciousness and general social betterment, most do not want to cooperate with each other. There is this totally irrational competition or ego amongst these NGOs or agencies as well, which is holding back the collective effort from being substantial. Anyways this post is not about cribbing over what's wrong, but is about thinking what can be done to make things better.

As for my part in the NGO and the event I have been given the task to maintain the website and to handle corporate communications. Publishing various facts, analysis etc. and performing the task of an editor for the website. Although it's been getting really tough to find some time after the regular B-school life for the extra effort required, but my excitement and interest about doing a good self satisfying thing has kept me going. I have been wondering how to make the effort more inclusive, the message more penetrative, the goal more holistic and the people more interested. And as the theme of the event says, with which I totally agree, we need to glamorize the word 'environment conscious', we need to make it the next 'in' thing. Something people would take pride in indulging in and would like to show off. This can apply to all sections of society but, it would be easier to begin with the youth and the elite. Both of who are relatively open minded and have the time, energy and resources to put in the effort.

Now, we all talk about putting in the effort, and taking the pains, and all… but what is this effort? What do we need to do? Is writing blogs on environment an effort? Is organizing such events an effort? Will it help the environment? Not directly it seems, in fact conducting such a huge event will lead to wastage of energy in one way which is quite paradoxical to what we are saying! Although it will create a ripple, in the pond perhaps, it can't kick everyone out of the slumber at once, but it might shake them a bit, remind them for a few hours, and maybe even bring a few facts to the notice of people, which have been lost, or ignored. Also the subsequent events to be organized in schools etc. are going to be the key I suppose, primarily because the youth is more responsive and caring today, after entering adulthood, survival becomes such a looming problem that the planet getting heated up doesn't seem so big.

As we could figure out why the efforts were not sustainable, we had to think out of the boxes and decide on strategies that could help us having an impact that would last. I could think of few things which remain an integral part of life despite all else that's happening to us in the while, would like to quote some of those here; moral values, integrity, hygiene etc. these are the things which we have accepted as general norms of good life, and follow them regardless of all other pain in life, we take pride in these things and count them as assets, don't we? We thought why can't environment be one of these things? Something you can feel proud of if your son shows interest in it, or something you can mention at a tea party and would hold your head high while doing so. Something you can get printed on your T-shirts and feel cool about it.

So that's basically the endeavour we have set for ourselves, we understand and know it's going to have to be really big and should reach out to people from all possible mediums. TV, radio, shows, events, movies, newspaper, and celebrities whatever it takes to make the message heard and understood. Remember the news which created so many ripples, saying Amitabh Bachchan is vegetarian, it gave immediate pride to every vegetarian, I remember my parents took pride in mentioning it. Well so it's like this, if John Abraham says save environment it will be cool, if in a movie SRK quotes global warming it would cause kitty party discussion amongst ladies. It sounds really farfetched as of now, but we will be trying our best definitely.

I have to get the website started as soon as possible so for now so it's time to move…

For any more info or details on the same feel free to get in touch.. Afterall that's all we intend to achieve, your attention.. :)

A Rainy Night..

I was on my bike riding back to hostel on NH-8, and it was going fine... was wishing a little rain would do good as it was so dusty and polluted that my eyes were burning off driving for almost last 3 hours... anyways I was passing through IGI when the 1st drops hit my face and I got really pleased… just what I had wished for..!!

But guess I got a little more than what I wished for and within 2 minutes it was hitting so hard on my face had to stop my bike to a side way hotel.. Waited for a few minutes and it seemed to slow in intensity so I moved again and then it again caught up really hard and so I again stopped..

This time waited for about half hour but it didn't stop this time at all... I saw the road in front of me convert to a pool in front of my eyes... it got so deep by the time I left the place that whenever a car passed through it in fast speed the water would splash about 10 feet high.. that was d awesome part... looked pretty kool..

Btw during all this I was standing outside a catmoss store and watching little kid clothes and wondering who would buy stuff from this store it was in the middle of nowhere.. anyways it was quite boring until this bus stopped just in front of the store and a pretty girl came out and rushed towards the store to get shelter… she was followed by her mother to spoil the scene but nonetheless seemed like a decent enough reply to my boredom… So well for the next 15 minutes judged this girl, her mother and exchanged some side glances etc etc and finally reached the conclusion to move on with life… J

anyways seeing the rain won't stop now and it was getting time hostel gates close and having moved over with the pretty girl who didn't appeared all that pretty by now decided to leave and so prepared for getting wet.. hid my cell in d back jean pocket same with wallet.. put the helmet on… looked at the rains hitting the road in front and gave myself some assurance that I could do it and put the key in the bike… gave a last smile to the girl … only to have the mother smile back at me … released the clutch in a smooth stroke and set off…

Tough luck though as I was merely changing to 3rd gear a car rushed by and a 10 feet wave of rain water soaked me completely..

Cursed loud as I cud but the rains were heavy and his car's music loud.. L

Anyways kept driving and rains got heavier so started driving under the flyover trying to act smart but at places water was flowing from the edges of flyover and got such thick waterfall on me that I started feeling water on my innermost body parts in no time... :D

One of the things I don't like about getting soaked is getting water in my pants … I had anticipated this situation though but it was imposed on me with such brutal force that was finding it hard on my ego to swallow it the rain really made me feel small for a moment and seemed to win over me.. anyways lost the thought as I was wearing my new woodland sandals and was trying to save the great leather from getting all swollen in rain but alas... a huge pool of water came and was carefully driving with my legs on the petrol tank but a silly bus stopped right in front of me and had to ground both my feet to gain balance.. cud feel my sandals sucking water and getting 2 pounds heavier each… it was the only feeling which matched the intensity of disgust I felt on having my undergarments getting wet earlier that drive… J

Anyways.. Now that I was totally wet.. I remembered my cell might be in trouble next coz even the back pockets of my jeans were wet by now… so tried some silly things and failed as there was no place at all to keep my cell from getting wet…

by this time I reached the toll bridge it should have been around 8-10 minutes of drive from the catmoss store and now I felt the rain subsiding… and this time didn't feel bad on my wrong decision of leaving 10 minutes early but felt really great as rains suddenly stopped and a sweet cool wind was sweeping past me but this too was a momentary pleasure… it got really cold now and as rains had stopped and I had set the accelerator high I could feel a biting cold shattering my teeth … so to save myself I further increased the speed and focussed really hard on the road and on trying to stay on the road… and it worked as it took the attention off cold… anyways soon I was back to campus… put my bike in the slot… peeled my T-shirt off and started walking towards the room..

numb..

Rock on!!!

wot a muvee.. saw it yesterday amidst hell lot of distraction and criticism from the co-watcher but whooaaa...
and wot an awesome song...
http://www.mp3pk.pk/indian/rock_on.html
thanks paki piracy sites... :)

download the song now... and listen...

and here goes the lyrics to sing along...

add the naaa naa naa naaa/.... with ur own understanding... :)



meri laundry ka ek bill
ek aadhi padhi novel
ek ladki ka phone number
mere kaam ka ek paper
mere, taash se heart ka king
mera, ek chaandi ka ring
pichhle saat dinon mein maine khoya
kabhi khud pe hansa main,
aur
kabhi khud pe... royaaaaaa.... (repeat)

present mili ek ghadi
pyaari thi mujhe badi
mary jane ka ek packet
meri denim ki jacket
do one-day match ke passes
mere naye naye sunglasses
pichhle saat dinon mein maine khoya
kabhi khud pe hansa main,
aur
kabhi khud pe roya

kaise, bhoolun, saatva jo din aaya
kisi ne, tumse, ik party mein milwaaya
kaisa, pal tha, jis pal maine tumko pehli baar dekha tha
hum jo mile pehli baar
maine jaanaa kya hai pyaar
maine hosh bhi khoya dil bhi khoya
kabhi khud pe hansa main,
aur
kabhi khud pe roya
maine pichhle saat dino mein
ye sab hai, khoya..

the movie will definitely rock the theatres for a a while and wot a versatile person farhan is... man, that's wot I call a one man show...

he sings, directs and acts... girls love him for the looks, guys love his songs, critics love the direction... wtf is he perfect??
:)

r0ck on truly r0ck$..!!

Does god not exist? - II

well so I have much waited to write this post since the last one, and dat was because had an exam today, won't get started on exams now and so coming straight back to where I left ...

for the unitiated read or scroll down to 'does god not exist?' underneath..
so I left it at a point where it seemed like god might exist afterall despite all the claims from science and biology and evolution that they can explain everything naturally.
Now can this argument be countered?
I took about a day and some reading to figure this out...
but I was myself really confused before I finally saw the solution, here it goes.
It's like we have come to the bottom line that if god exists then he has made some effort to conceal his presence and being a god has effectively done so. Now, what's not so subject to subjectivity is the fact that the universe does exist afterall (we talk about the illusionary universe concept later) and it's complex, so we conclude that someone must have designed it, because it seems improbable that something so complex would happen just by chance.
So, god designed the universe and did it in such a way that his presence is not apparent. well fair enough so far. The watchmaker's analogy has lead us this far now moving on, a watchmaker makes a complex watch, because he has a reason, he wants to sell it, the watch has some purpose of existence, to exhibit time that is. So if someone has designed something sensible it should have some purpose.
Does the universe, our existence, the various animals and birds, the micro-organisms etc that exist, the pain, the agony, the wars, the coups do they have a purpose that was planned in advance? Or is it just a random chance based occurance?
There might be a few cases
1. God exists, and has planned everything and this is part of master plan.
2. God exists, and hasn't planned it, is conducting an experiment and observing results.
3. God doesn't exist, we came into existence after a huge number of failed co-incidences and then after another few hundred generations of evolution have become capable to self sustain and develop on emotional as well as tangible fronts.
4. God doesn't exist and neither do we, it's all just an illusion that's taking place in the mind of a young boy who has taken booze for the first time, in some other world. (sounds ridiculous but will write a post later on this)

now considering 1st case, everything is planned, sounds really boring, and I am sure god too would be bored of just playing the storywriter, or maybe not, in which case we are just cast in a great play, and have no choice or decisions of our own, in which case there is no meaning of this life, we are just robots, because we can't do anything on our own, everything is planned in advance and can't be changed. Doesnt appeal like true but might be the case. Although life would really suck if at the end of it i would know it was all staged.

2nd case god made everything and prepared the ground laws but left the rest to self sustain and is a silent observer. Now, why is he silently observing?
Is he enjoying our tussles, and stuggles? Are we the eternal soap opera for him? Is it the big universe prime time show or something? Are we under some sort of psychological experiment?
In any of the above cases, again the meaning of life comes down to just how much entertainment could we provide or what inputs we could generate for the experiment. If this is the case, again life sucks big time. If after my death, god's agent would meet me and congratulate on successful completion of experiment or on a nice display of emotions through the tenure of my role, I would really go crazy. Although wouldn't matter as I am already dead but still. Life again has no meaning.

3rd case no god to watch over or to expect a good show or anything, by chance we came up and are trying to survive and enhance our species. Everything we do in life has a real impact on our future, our happiness, our loved one's lives, and on the future of our coming generations, besides we also affect our planet, other species and the rest of the universe too in some little manner. We have the authority and right to make whatever we feel like of our lives, and this really makes our lives meaningful. It gives us a responsibilty, towards ourselves and those who look forward to us. We can make others happy or sad and we have that power.
This view atleast sounds more hopeful and gives us the will to strive through our lives. Although any of the 1st two views can be disguised to appear as this one, and maybe gods are fooling us to believe this one is the right view, infact if they want us to be good guinneas pigs, they would ensure that we don't know we are being experimented, it's for the good of the experiment if we are blinded.
Then it would make sense why gods remain hidden and have effectively removed all proofs of their existense...

ohh god help me figure out whats the matter with gods..!!
seriously the matter is growing out of proportions..
and once again I have hit a point which I hadn't imagined when i started so stopping to take some breath and find my bearings will be back as this discussion is far from over yet ..

Shopping...

Well, traditionally considered a feminine trait/hobby/vice I have discovered a few things about shopping that might put some light on the topic, I think even a lot of men have that passion for shopping .. I didn't knew it but I am a big brand freak and I will tell you how crazy can I be about shopping, which I recently realized when I went out to a mall for dinner with this another shopping freak 'male' friend of mine and two girls.

We were just looking for a nice restaurent in the mall and it was getting late, when we passed through a GAS store which had the 50 % flat sale boards flashing all over it. You wont believe it but we both looked at each other and it was the biggest grin possible I saw on his face and he must have seen on mine at that moment, there were no words exchanged.
We spent about half an hour in the store during which contrary to popular beliefs our female friends had to keep reminding us that we can't afford that much expenses, and that time is short, and we need to do better things and all. They really had a good time laughing on our condition. After we finally completed shopping and were going to the restaurent with our GAS bags stuffed with 5 shirts in all we were not talking to each other still, just walking down the corridor and wearing an ear to ear smile... I realized that we were looking quite stupid like that and I told him to keep his mouth shut and so did I but we were both ecstatic about it, thinking and exclaiming loudly how kool we would look in those shirts!!
And for about coupla weeks every one who came to my room had to see and appreciate my shirts and anyone who called me on phone had to hear of my experience.!! Since then I realized that, I totally enjoy shopping. Although it's not typically in a woman's way that we shop, where I guess the difference lies. We just go in select, try and pay as for my case I shop so that I later showoff and feel good about it... While women just seem to enjoy even the process of selecting and going around and keep elongating it perhaps to enhance the pleasure or something..
for men its about the product they shop, while for women its about the process of shopping, that apparently seems more important. But, as for the similarities i think men can be compulsive shoppers as well, maybe not so intricate and subtle but they too can have irrestible cravings for certain products, my favourites would be brands clothes, watches, shoes, electronic gadgets, books.. infact one of the only motivations of my life which makes me try to be richer is the fact that being rich would let me shop without worrying about money.

Still, I think the fundamental question remains, shopping for a product seems to be reasonable as that should be the aim of shopping, but shopping just for the sake of shopping??
Although, I am sure it can't be generalized to all women, still atleast some of them, surely do it. They would go into tremendous troubles just to find the right fit, or the right shade or maybe a lil lesser price. I don't really understand what psychological reasons might be behind it, perhaps some females reading this might throw some light...

Does god not exist?

Ahem ...
so here I am starting what I regard as one of favourite dissertations..

before I begin I would just like to pray to the almighty to give me the strength so that I can convince all you readers of mine that there is no such entity as 'god' ...

ok there was an apparent paradox in the above sentence and that's the basic theme of this post. We will see various aspects of the arguments during this post..

Let me open with the classic watchmaker's theory, which states that if there is an intelligent design, a structure which is complex in nature (DNA, solar system, structure of an atom etc.) and can't possibly be generated out of sheer chance, natural causes then the only possible explaination is that it should have an intelligent designer. It's called the watchmaker's theory because it was developed based on comparison of the universe with a watch, which can't be made due to natural causes, and sheer chance and hence by law of negation it should have an intelligent creator.
Well developed in the 17th-18th centuries the theory was caught on by the church and widely propogated and the concept of creationism was born. God was obviously given the status of the creator of all that we see around, as it was supposed at that time that something so complex could not otherwise have come to reality.

As it turned out soon to follow up was the famous theory of evolution by Charles Darwin which showed how very complex structures, DNA, nervous systems, so many species of insects, birds etc could be explained by the terms, 'genetic mutation', 'natural selection' and 'survival of the fittest'. I won't go into details of 'evolution' because this post is about something else. So as it turned out the watchmaker's theory was effectively blown to pieces, even other complex phenomenon like solar system etc were explained by laws of gravitaion and nebular hypothesis etc.

So, the reason which was cited for God's existence was taken away, and in effect we can safely say today that we don't need god to create our universe because it can exist on it's own, and develop into complex sturtures through either long durations of hit and trial operations or based on natural laws of nature which can be nearly explained by science today.

But does this put an end to the eternal debate?
Absolutely not!
Infact the debate is as fierce as it ever was. Lets analyse this particular argument for example. We say that we have found a perfect reason for every phenomenon to occur ever, and that there are no mysteries left and hence there is no need for god to exist because we know how things work. God is not the creator because a creator is not required, the universe can exist on it's own and can develop and grow through various processes of evolution. Now my question to this point of view is, assuming god is all mighty and powerful and had the power to create all the universe and the various laws that govern it, would he be so naive so as to leave loop holes in his massive creation. What I mean to say is if he made a thing work, would he not also develop a system that would make that thing work. For example let's take the solar system, the planets revolving around the sun. So let's assume god wanted to do something like this, because sun could act as a source of energy for earth which he wanted to be inhabited for some godly reasons of his.

Now, one way of doing this would be simple order the sun to stay stationary and earth to keep revolving around, he is god he can do it. But, because he is perfect he would not use his absolute powers or not display magical properties. So he makes a set of rules, which we discovered as the gravitational laws. By, making these rules he legalized the entire process of revolution and all and hence cleaned all evidences of his intervention. He created a self sustainable system, because perhaps he had other universes to create or other godly affairs to deal with. With this fool proof system of laws he made sure that he doesn't always have to stand by and watch whether the sun and earth are obeying or not. besides he wouldn't ever have to take the blame of using his supernatural powers to affect the lives of any living creatures. It's similar to a democracy where the ruling party never implements a decision of it's choice by forcing it on people. It makes it a law, by passing a proper act and stuff and hence it makes the law credible. By the virtue of being a law it can't be challanged and is not subject to speculation or questioning. It's no more a matter on which people can comment or raise fingers at, it's a law it has to be accepted as it is.

So well god the politician knew if he just used his powers like a dictator people would eventually raise fingers and might hate him for telling them what to do so what he did was took the diplomatic approach and laid down laws, and then called it a democracy. As it turned out he was able to clean all the traces of his presence by effectively eliminating all evidences, by putting in laws which replace him effectively in his absence and today what we witness is a clean godfree world.


I am glad I call myself an agnostic person because I had started this post with the theme of ending it at a critical analysis of watchmaker's analogy and hence showing we dont need a god to our creator but as it turned out I found a way out of that atheist point of view and now for the time being I cant convince myself that god can't possibly exist.. I am glad I am an agnostic.. :D
perhaps need to change the 1st few paras now but maybe dat wud remind me of a task incomplete...

for all those RC-phobiacs ...

so CAT is approaching sooner then it seems... for simplicity sake I wud say it's 2 months to the C-day and its perfect time to start preparing and more importantly convincing urself that u have wot it takes to do it!!

ok disclaimers...
I don't claim that this would result in any certain results or anything, but if perceived in the desired manner this can lead to an increase in ur RC scores, especially in the really tough RC papers and u must be able to feel the difference soon after u try this method.
So, not wasting much webspace, a few assumptions...
1. ur RC preps b4 this point are most valuable and this procedure can help u supplement and rightly orient those preps.
2. even if ur not at all prepared from before, try this method ul be atleast confident if not anything else.
3. I am assuming a basic level of vocab and a decent level of grammer knowledge.

Well, so lets start by trying to see how we prepare for RC now.
We read newspapers, novels, magazines, we solve various other passages in a time frame as in mocks, FLTs other tests etc. and then later we try to analyse what went wrong.
Obviously something went wrong otherwise u wont be reading this. What is definitely wrong with practising reading on newspapers is the fact that in newspapers/novels the text is articulated in a manner so that it is lucid and easily comprehensible, the vocab is usually not hi-fi and the technical lingo pertaining to any subject is usually either very shallow or absent.
So, however hard we practise with this kind of material we can never get a feel of the real stuff for 3 simple factors are amiss in any novel/newspaper.
1. they are written in a non-complex manner.
2. they are always contextual.
3. they never take technical know-how as granted

while as we notice in any tough RC paper these three factors become the biggest hurdles the passage would typically either be
1. complex
2. non-contextual
3. with lotsa technical jargon of any subject (art, philosophy, science things ur not comfy with)
it can be a mixture of few of these attributes as well..
complex and non-contextual etc.

Now, we know the problem which basically is we are not practising on what is our weakness, we are just beating around the bush but not focussing on the problem area.
What we need to do as part of RC practise is to know what are the attributes of the passage that give us pain and then address them by tackling them upfront.
So, as we know passages are complex, non-contextual and with tech-jargon we have to start reading stuff which has all these features.
Typically the difference this stuff has with the stuff u normally read is that this stuff is extremely boring and therefore, no one reads it leave alone thinking about it, or trying to analyse it.
But, the good thing is that now only 2 months are left and we have found out that we basically suck at RC [ :D ] so as a last resort we have to try something radical or be ready to perish. Now, as perishing is not our cup of tea we will try hard and fight it out, right!!
So here goes the strategy that can be followed to overcome the 3 aspects I mentioned.
Find stuff on the following subjects:
Arts, philosophy, psychology, sociology/epistemology, politics, theology, literature, economics, science and basically anything u think of as tough and boring. It should be very boring I emphasize because it has a great effect on the learning process, if it's really boring then in order to just follow the stuff ul have to really concentrate hard on the text, this is an immediate outcome and something which will be a virtue later, if u can learn to focus hard on even the really sulky stuff then ur definitely one up on any RC exam.
It should pertain to something entirely new say french revolution or renaissance paintings or artists of belgium during the baroque age or something crappy, here the emphasis should be on comprehension & focus as well as trying to be familiar with the terminology. Why we are focussing on terminology is because without knowing the very basics of a subject, it's like ur trying to read a topic on ur area of expertise but ur vocab is quite poor so ur missing few words every sentence and hence although u can make out the rough idea still u can't really enjoy the subtlities of the text. While if ur really thorough with the vocab u can really get into the text and get the real feel of the subject, it really acts a confidence booster.
Analogously, when we are talking about a new subject arts for instance, even if we don't know what the text is about the knowledge of a few key terms here and there can really boost ur confidence when ur feeling lost. And once u can get a hold of the text that knowledge will really help u get a better understanding and comprehension. Now I am not saying that in two months u can be good at everything, definitely not. But, still it's better then reading newspapers/novels in any case. So try going one week for each of the topics u find frequently in CAT papers or as mentioned above, about half to one hour each day. It will definitely help u gain some perspective and a broader outlook on the passage.

After doing all this we can think of various strategies to adopt during the exams/tests/mocks, some suggest that when ur really bad at it you should attempt as many as possible. The logic is like, if my accuracy is 50 % so if I attempted 14 questions I would score 21 in the standard CAT pattern, while if I attempt 20 I would score 30, maintaining the same accuracy. So cut down some time on other sections and get a decent score in this one, if it's all it takes.

There can be lot many other strategies and you need to try out various options but one thing that's not going to work is trying to ignore the problem, we are not going to be satisfied with any B grade schools we want the best of the lot and our attempt should be at the best ones. For which it becomes imperative to score decently in all the sections. Which should be our aim.

I haven't talked about QA and DI in here because I haven't done a lot of research on them as they came naturally to me. While RC was my weakness so tried a lot to improve and came to think of this as a strategy and it's reasonably effective depending on how u use it.

As for QA and DI I would say that try to find out the problem areas and weather ur focussing on finding solutions or not. The biggest hurdle usually to improvment is the inability to figure out the weaknesses or the inability to figure out a appropriate solution. Think rationally and there always is a solution around.
Keep watching for more 'gyaan' on CAT preps and it would mostly be with the heading 'how to crack CAT in two months' .. ;-)

cheers guys...

feel free to post any queries...

Food..

it's getting about time I need to get my dinner down my throat, just got an odd thought, what does food mean to me?
i have it every day, i enjoy when its nice and tasty, and i look forward to eating out but is it all about food?
is it just about quenching ur hunger at the moment or to enjoy those 10 minutes during which ur swallowing it?

think..

ok will continue after I have my food now... :)

I know u guys won't feel the difference but i back after the dinner... :D
and now as I read wot i had written pre dinner I feel wot the hell...
but anyways will continue just for the heck of it...
btw had a great meal, paranthas, malai kofta, egg bhurji with some curd and butterscotch icecream...
yes I did enjoy those 15-20 minutes even relished the butterscotch on my tongue but now I don't feel anything.. after washing down my throat with some lemonade i can't recall what that meal tasted like or the pleasure I had just a lil while ago devoured ... so was it momentory??
Is eating a momentory pleasure which goes away as soon as you have finished eating...
besides does it have something to do with how hungry u r rather than the actual quality/taste of food... in which case all wud boil down to ur perception of the food rather than the food itself..
and as i can figure out about 50 % of the hype is perception.. u may have different tastes different likes and dislikes u may just not feel like having ur favourite icecream one fine day for some unknown reason...
So then can food be compared to any other source of momentory pleasure?
before answering this i wud just like to verify my stand that i am not against momentory pleasures .. ;) and relish them a lot...
well food is a necessity and it can be enjoyed if it's tasty.. say something like sleeping is a necessity and it can be made a pleasure if u have a beautiful bedroom and a cozy mattress etc...
but at the end of the sleep say when u wake up in the morning after a good sleep does it really matter if the matress was soft or not? unless ur back/neck is not aching and u feel content by the duration of the sleep I don't really think it matters at all wot u slept on... the only matter of difference is how u felt before u went to sleep, wot u felt when u were actually sleeping doesnt matter because u don't really feel much when ur sleeping... :)
and similar i guess is the case with food.. one day u have a sumptuous meal at a grand restaurent.. next day u just eat leftovers from morning before... and next day u just grab a sandwhich from subway... after each of the three and assuming u got the quantity u need for a meal, does it really make a difference what did u eat? yeah before u ate ur meal it might feel great if u were sitting in a great bar with some exquisite drapings but by the time u finish with ur meal all that goes away doesn't it... u just want to go home the beauty of the surroundings doesnt appeal any more... all u can think of is the bill.. ;) if ur paying particularly... even if ur not paying the bill seems to become the point of attention momentarily and then it all seems to vanish and all ur left with is a desire to get back home and may be lie in ur couch or watch a movie or if ur not a homie person den maybe ul think of going to a disk or a walk or do something else, but u can't stand to be in the 'temple of food' for any longer than necessary and most importantly the temple is not appealing any more...
can this mean that its the way or journey to exotic food that we are looking for and once we get it the interest goes away?
Is it also that untill the moment u actually taste the food the thrill and excitement of doing something new, interesting is there, but when u do actually taste the food it just dies away and after that moment ur just filling ur belly for that meal...
It sounds pretty lame to me also to bring down the value of tasty food in such a manner but i don't know seems like its a fact that food is just a meal. and once u had it u cant really tell wot u had for that meal...
Sounds like i have become a saint or something... :)
but to tell u the truth i relish some foods so much that I literally crave for them when I can't get them...

one such thing is chocolates and good coffee, its almost as if I am some sort of hypnosis or drug when I remember these things, this really changes the importance of food to more then just one meal... As also people can and do pay lots of money to savour good food... and the same is also seen by the number of people crowding the restaurents everyday... food is a damn huge industry by itself and lots of research goes into developing foods that are yummy and can make people addicted... :)
so it's more important than it seems.. or is it that it's importance has been wrongly exemplified? maybe because of the excess money and the lack of other interesting things to do in modern world, food has become such a statement... as for the industries I pay due respect to their marketing startegies that they have really made the people believe that food is what they think it is...
what the crap am i talking about what do I or u great people who read my crappy posts have to do with those industries...
infact why am I writing this bullshit...
who am I ??
what am I doing here??

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Catching up...

It's been coupla years since I last blogged in here...
trying to recall, a lot happened during this time...
made an attempt at CAT in 2006 and did pretty bad by my own standards, I think I was prepared but all hale the loss of sleep the night before, really lost my cool and spoilt the final party... after that went thru some tuf time getting over the past relations and moving on to the new life..
as it turned out had a great time in ILP (@ TCS) and then got immersed into work comfortably... the transition was smooth as I got to stay once again at home... it was Masi this time and had a really cozy stay with cousins ...
well along with this began having some great time with TCS buddies...

special mention to kulpreet who ensured that no one he knew ever felt they were working... as a cubicle mate I think we had some of the best times possible in an office... from company perspective though I am afraid they won't appreciate much... ;)
but gyming, TT, chatting, freaking out, hanging out at the cafe were the words that ruled those 6 odd months...

all this while slowly was inching closer the mighty CAT ... was appearing for some mocks and all but I don't really know what i was doing wrong... only practise I remember doing at home used to solving test papers... it must have had helped because during the real thing I did pretty well ;) ..
anyways so after the results, was kinda surprised, sad, happy, confused and lost... it was the kind of feeling u get when u get something you wished for and didn't really made efforts, so eventually I was feeling lucky and kinda took things for granted after that...
Didn't really prepared for interviews either and wasn't much confident but the arrogance perhaps saved the day and as it turned out came out a winner in the end...
yeah one thing I shudnt forget is was happened to me at NITIE... those guys really butchered me... I hope I have taken the lesson that things can't always be taken so lightly...

Well so then came the long process of waiting for the waiting lists to clear... during which I killed time in office big time hiding from bosses and work ;) ... at home watched movies lots of them... and most importantly watched LOST... it must be the best thing I did this year... so had a real good time in front of my lappy ... really paid off buying it... :)

Kinda lost touch with friends during all this while and was lost in another world...
anyways this phase was periodic and got over as the time to move to gurgaon came up...
eventually had to leave the conforts of home and move on, about which i was pretty excited as was going to get back the lost freedom.. :)

Although had a tough 1st week after coming to ggn in physical terms yet as i recall it now I think the only thing I will take with me after that week was that I can stretch myself to any physical limits as possible without failing... a big boostup for future endeavours..

well after settling down the eternal question again dawned upon me as to what am i doing and why and what do I want from life and all... am not over with that phase yet so still looking for some answers... mmm life over here got settled in a pretty smooth stroke, have a real cool roomie and can totally have fun with him... although have been kinda cutoff from the rest of the class but still have found few pretty good friends and will have some more pretty good ones soon... :)