Resurgence

Time to Bell the CAT Authorspeak: This is an unintentionally long post (and a badly written one). However, every incident written over here is true without any attempt for ‘overt’ dramatization. The blame for this post’s failure to create impact should lie squarely on my shoulders and to some extent on my limited writing capabilities. The battle pitch has been prepared. They have already sent the invites to the ‘warriors’ who would fight it out amongst themselves to emerge victorious, to become champions. The rules have been redefined this year and the organizers have also decided to change the mode of combat. Thus, though brains and wits would remain the greatest assets of those warriors, they would engage in a virtual battlefield. Life was much simpler when I decided to become a warrior and fought for my ‘pride’. Some of my friends who were preparing for this battle for months had to only make me realize that this battle will be fought in the beautiful city of Chandigarh (Though I m...

I AM BIHAR I found the lines posted below on a blog: http://coolbihari.blogspot.com/ and took the liberty of copying it and pasting it without the permission of its owner. I do not think he would mind though. And while this may appear to be a kind of ‘rhetoric’ from the native of a state which still lags behind on all the ladders of development, I do not think there is anything wrong in taking inspiration from the past to correct your present and future. I believe as of now, Bihar is in a transition phase where the inertia of the past few decades is trying its best to stall the thrust of the development. Thus you would hear every now and then how some student associations tried to ruffle up the college administration when the administration started to bring order into the system or how there is a spurt in crime once again when the police is tightening noose on criminals or how the encroachers are protesting the demolition of their illegal facilities. This seems to be a final an...

Last Sunday Last Sunday, I woke up by the continuous ringing of the doorbell. I cursed the person at the door as I scuttled to find my T-shirt. I was within my rights to curse the person at the door anyways: after all that was Sunday morning, the only morning when I can catch up with my dreams. As I opened the door, I could barely keep my eyes open. I was expecting Rai ji, the caretaker of the building I live in, at the door since he has this nagging habit of pressing on the doorbell continuously but instead found out two Muslim youths there. How do I know of their identity? Simple: They were wearing their traditional headgear and the area I live in is dominated by the Muslim community. It is not hard to make that connection anyways. They had come to collect a donation for the orphanage they run. I asked them to wait and brought them some money. While preparing a receipt for the donation, they enquired about my name. When I told them so, I registered some surprise in their eyes be...

Age of Reason I watched a beautiful documentary series over the weekend: The story of India. It traces the journey India has taken from ancient times. And though it misses some of the important facets of Indian history (well, the makers cannot be blamed: you cannot cover everything in 6 hours), it presents a very true and beautiful picture of India. In a way Michael Wood, Writer and Presenter of the series, completes a spiritual journey in the course of which he brings out the real essence of India. I would like to comment on the entire series but at present I am intrigued by one term he used throughout his journey – ‘the age of reason’. He talks about various chapters of Indian history, each of which is marked by conscious efforts to bring in peace and rule of reason: be it the times of Buddha or that of Ashoka; whether it was Gupta’s reign which brought Golden Age to India or Islamic influence which created an altogether different cross-culture; there were always people who propagate...

Eclipse I woke up at 6 in the morning to catch the glimpse of ‘Rahu’ swallowing the Sun. However the nature had decided to play games with me and all I could see was the cloud cover over the sky. I was informed later by one of my colleagues that he was able to see the ‘partial eclipse’ over the Calcutta sky. Well I could not have done something at that time. However, I caught the TSE (Total Solar Eclipse) at Varanasi on TV and that sight was ‘awesome’. To see the corona and the ‘diamond ring’ was out of the world experience. My interest was more on a place called Taregna, a place near to my native city of Patna. This small naxal hit town was touted as the best place to view the eclipse in the country and as a result had seen a rush of astro-tourists from across the globe. The state government tried its best to beef up the security as well as the infrastructure for this celestial event. The place, as all of you would know by this time, was the research laboratory of legendary astronome...

A Work of Boredom “What do you want dear Vatsa?” The voice had a mythological serial like feel to it. “Who is this?” I asked as I opened my eyes. “Well I am not very sure of the grammar you used. But then the English grammar has defied all the logics with which I created this world. It must have been an anomaly and I can not change the codes now to rectify it.” “Who are you? And where are you? And what rubbish are you talking?” “Well again I do not see the need of two Ands in the sentences you spoke. Anyhow to answer your questions- I am God. You can not see me because I am God and you are human and hence you do not have the privileged access to view my image in this dimension. To answer your third question” and I suddenly felt a tight slap on my face before I heard these lines “You do not talk disrespectfully to God. I was introspecting on my design of this world when you disrupted my thought process. And to make it worse you labeled the entire thought process as rubbish.” “Sorry God...

Damn Machines Suddenly a message flashed on my computer screen: “Are you the One?” “The one? Which one?” I asked. It was strange for someone to message in green (but considering the growing concern for environment and increasing trend to ‘go green’, I took it as a fad). The screen flashed again “I mean, Are you Shanu?” “Yes.” “Run” “Run. Where? Why?” “This is the problem with you researchers. You ask a lot of irrelevant questions. Run. There is a danger to your life.” “Danger. What kind of danger?” “Is there a need to probe on every thing? Just run.” “But where?” “Again a question. When will your kind learn the lesson? You are wasting time. Run anywhere. Just move out of your office. We will send backup team to protect you.” I left the chair immediately and scanned the floor for my immediate boss. He was nowhere to be seen. I took a deep breath and started to run (Well it was actually a rushed and cautious walk). There was a sense of déjà-vu in the way the entire episode happened. Prob...

Lessons from Monkeys I know that I have been away from the ‘blogworld’ for quite some time. Believe me it is not a deliberate break (At this time I do not need break to search for peace or to bring things in order in my messy life). After I graduated, I went for a tour to J&K and then immediately joined my current work place which is giving me very little time to write anything. But I hope that I will continue to contribute to blogworld in my own little way. A couple of days back, on my way to office, I spotted two ‘Madaris’ (I do not want to bring in some ‘effect’ by using this word. I used this terminology because I do not know the English of ‘Madari’; I have put tremendous pressure on my Grey Cells but the English database present there seems to be considerably small to help the matters; The fact that none of the people, whom I have asked this question, seem to know the answer is the only consolation point that has emerged out of t...