Practicality? Nah! Sheer Lunacy? Oh yes!!

Everybody on this planet have their own definition of perfect. No one can agree with the other on what "Perfect" actually is. Thus the saying, "No one is ever perfect". Similarly, everybody has their own definition of practicality. Something has to be of use, even if not in use, atleast the idea must sound usable before it gets the "Practical" stamp. Normally, the idea is branded practical if it can be used by the masses. Otherwise, it's of no use, and is thus deemed impractical. The best example of the above are the exotic sport-cars which everybody love. Well, not everybody. There exist people who would call these beauties "impractical" or "waste of money" or "gas guzzlers". And these people are not entirely wrong. In fact, the sad thing about party-poopers is the fact that they are almost always right about the wrong kind of stuff.

I agree that these cars do possess an unquenchable thirst for the finest of the fuels and that purchasing them would really set you back, but I wouldn't go as far as calling them a waste. People would call you "mad" for purchasing the car. They will call you "selfish" when you hog up the street space and then they will call you a "maniac" or a "show-off" when you finally let loose all that engine power on the highway. There is just no pleasing such people. No one can realise the true value of the car until they sit behind the wheel themselves and feel all that power just ready to be unleashed right under your hands.

These cars are not about being practical. They are about ignoring boundaries, breaking open the shackles that bound us to the "Practical world" and then best thing yet, to have all that power under your control. When you rev up the engine, when you hear the monstrous engine roar or just humm, the feeling of pride takes over. You have command over this thing. You can go over 300 kmph and be the envy of those around. That is what makes these cars worth it. The feel of all that torque available to you. An engine begging to be set free. A machine put together with sheer accuracy and the science behind it all. The brains that go into designing each bolt, the clutch plates, the gear train and not to forget the beautiful body.

All that and the fact that only a few selective people will have what you do. The feel of exclusivity. The constant roar reminding that you have bought something special. That machine is not a waste. It's a marvel. So don't think of practicality if can afford one of those things. The ones who speak foul, envy you the most. If you have bought one, you ARE mad. As mad as a rabid dog. But then again, what's the fun in being so practical. It's OK to have fun once a while.

With that said, I don't think practicality has anything to with life. Sure it makes the life smooth, but sometimes it pays off to stop and check out the finer things in life. Smell the roses. Appreciate the engineering behind the wheel. All that thing done for it's owner. YOU. If you already have a car like this, you may already know what I mean. If you're planning on buying one, and can afford it, go for it I say. And if you're like me, a technological fan who hopes to one day purchase his own monster...we wait. One day it will be our turn to smell the roses. For the others, feel the emotions. Maybe its more practical than you think it to be.

The world tries to screw us all...

Everybody likes to think of themselves as an individual. Everybody has their own taste. Their own way to do things. Nobody likes to buckle down or change their style upon somebody's command. I doubt there are any exceptions. The world, the jungle we live in, apparently has very different plans. It plans on exploiting the people, and the sad part is the fact that there is nothing much anybody can do about it. What it literally does is rape the people it can, make the most out of them and then throw them to the wolves. Sometimes it happens out in the open. Totally public, a common knowledge, but who has the guts to face the goons lest they rip out the poor person's throat?

We try to justify the whole issue to ourselves just to make ourselves feel better about it. We try to reason, we try to tell ourselves that there weren't really many options but to give in to the whole thing. We think,"There is no glory in fighting, but praise in surviving. Even if you're battered and bruised, there is still hope. Life moves on. I've done nothing different from what others might have done. I want to save my skin too." If you had thought of your actions to be justifiable, you probably wouldn't have needed that to-self pep talk. In truth? This was a hunt. You were the prey. You feel guilty about giving in. That's where the anger comes in.

You start feeling pathetic and low to have given in to the money asking, forgery performing, manipulating thugs who command your life. There were things you could have done, and with luck gotten away with it. You could have been a hero by ridding the society of one menace if you had chosen to. You could have kneed the bastard in the weak spot and finished the whole thing, but you chose to give in. Why?

The answer is simple. Lack of courage. Most of us know the right from wrong. Many of us are educated enough to screw the conniving wolves that roam our peaceful meadow, but we lack the courage. The bad guys have no restraint after all. They don't go by our rules. We all lack courage. And no, the fact we all lack it doesn't make it alright. We call the few gifted with it as stupid. Stupid enough to fight the unlawful thing. We admire the few, but have no courage to stand up with them. Without support, even the strong will perish. You are not gifted with the guts required to be the first one to stand? Atleast try and be supportive about the person who does decide to stand for you.

It all starts with cowardice. Thats how the wolves get the edge. They smell fear. They know you will give in, so they come for you. If you're ready to be messed around with, stay down, maybe they'll leave you alive. If you truly wish to survive, don't be an idiot, make an army. Fight back. Only a society can beat a society. One man cannot. We must fight for what we have. You may turn out to be the hero legends are made of...

Samosas, Vada Paos and Cold-drinks

Dieting. The conceptualized way to loose weight. You eat less fatty stuff (Some people skip meals altogether) and in the end you are rewarded with a slimmer and a healthier body. So what would be the opposite of dieting? For a part, maybe it's something I'm following. I stay in a rented apartment close to college. Our gas cylinder got over about 6 months ago, and we have been super lazy to apply for a new one. The proper food joints (as close you can get to food anyways) are located in a market area about 300 meters away. And when the tummy rumbles, the only saviour around is "Kiran Bhai" and his "Kiran's Cafe".

 Now this place is far what might strike your head when you hear the word "cafe". I doubt you get coffee there, but I've heard he makes a mean "Adrak ki chai". And what might you get on the menu? The all time favourites : Samosas, Vada Paos (which are dumplings made out of potatoes and marinated with Besan), poha and "bread pakodas". On occasional rainy days, he even whips up onion pakodas, which sell like hot cakes (just a similie here, no cakes on sale). When we have so much food right under our appartment building, why bother with all the fancy stuff. So our usual lunch menu consists of a samosa, a vada pao and an occasional bread pakoda. To wash that down, we go for a cold drink. Now tell me readers, what do you think of our daily lunch menu? It certainly made me loose WHATEVER was left of my appetite.

 For the record, we do eat proper dinner everyday. The wonder thing though. I've lost 3 kilograms without any exercise routine. Go figure. Now I hope none of you readers are planning to try this at home. We might not exercise allot officially, but believe me, running up and down to college and back is more than enough exercise for us. We're just lucky with that I guess. The things not good though. Gone are the days when samosas used to a rare treat at home. Now it's our staple meal. I don't feel like looking at the stuff whenever I go home. And this is the part which really sucks.

It's every kids dream to have junk for a meal. Thing is, it no longer remains something we would enjoy once in a while. Why ruin the fun and the magic of the thing by regulating it? Believe me, you WILL get bored. As for the health issue, it's still bad. So only one advice from a junkie here (yeah I know. Ironic. But hey, speaking out of experience). Eat healthy and savour the taste once a while. As for me, it's time for one of those "I WILL NO DO IT" regime. No junk for lunch. Wish me luck :)

A Small Social Message : A little respect

Being a guy I can understand what it feels like when a cute/Sexy/awesome girl passes you by. For that moment, the world does seem to pause. Everything can wait. The people standing behind you in que at the ATM, your friend giving you a piece of advice (if he's a guy, chances are he's looking too) or in some cases your girlfriend who's been trying to get her point across (not a wise move on the guy's part here), all are secondary. As long as your intentions are cool( even if they aren't, as long as you keep them to yourself), you're good. If you DO decide to comment, publicly at that, two words. YOU SUCK.

Everybody likes to be complemented. Nobody likes to be pointed and shouted at. The shouting here refers comments like "Maal" or some other ridiculous stuff people say. Fun is what they call it. I call it stupidity. Many guys who read this may condemn me for it. It's normal they say. Everybody does it. I agree. But it doesn't mean that its right. How would you like it if somebody points across to you and shouts " Oi! Big fat man! You're a douche!" Not very polite is it? Most people will fight tooth and nail cause of that.

I remember this incident, where there was this female. She is a post graduate student. She was passing by when a couple of classmates (total morons) started calling out names of well known porn stars. No other way to put it. Felt bad at that. Quite embarrassed. Though the woman ignored ( I doubt she had ever heard of those names), I felt sad for the society.

The fact is that we do live in a male dominated society. I'm a guy, and personally I don't bother with the endless gender battle. You can expect women, girls to talk about the eve teasing issue, rarely a guy. Especially a person like me who maintains a distance. But I guess it has to come from both sides to stand up to those few chauvinist idiots who give guys a bad name.

Just a social message from a common observer. GOOD DAY..

Dude you gotta start speaking to girls

Everybody have their phobias and everybody have their own ways of facing them. Some people find it difficult to face the crowds, some are afraid of heights, some afraid of silly cockroaches...the list is endless. There's apparently a word for a fear of being watched by ducks...from somewhere. It can't get any crazier than that. My predicament, is speaking to women. Hope you aren't amused by the fact here. It's a pretty sorry situation out here, and i know it might seem funny (I've had friends laughing their asses off at this), but it's a pretty serious topic. And if you face the same problem, read on. If you don't, well then i hope you enjoy it as much my friends have. I needed to get it out, so i am.

I honestly don't know where it all started. I remember not having any problems before. I think it started when i actually hit puberty. At the time, i neither bothered me nor anyone else. Life moved on without me feeling a need to speak to females. I generally don't go around chatting people up. Call me an introvert if you will, but i felt there was ever any need for me to speak to the girls in my school. All my friends were guys, and we mostly stuck to ourselves. Playing football, studying, hanging out etc. It wasn't until college that i started to feel the full implications of the thing. The reason for the sudden enlightenment? My roommates who seemed to notice my uncomfortable conversations with girls around me.

One such incident took place when i had to attend a seminar. One of my friends introduced me to a friend of his. The friend in question was a girl (no points for guessing earlier). The entire conversation was limited to one "hi" and a smile each. Lasted 2 seconds. After the seminar, my friend told me that for those 2 seconds, i had gone a deep shade of red. Something like a "cherry" i should quote. See? And apart from wondering WHY i was going red, there wasn't a stray thought going on inside my head. Honest.

Though this did trouble me, i set it aside as "not important". All was cool until 3 of my friends decided to bring up an intervention. Disaster. A long talk about how i should speak to every girl i see to overcome my "redness" to that it's about time i get a girlfriend. Some things i have excluded since they were sort of...lets say unpleasant and embarrassing. After all the goading, the discussion ended with one conclusion : I AM IMPOSSIBLE.

My argument was simple. When there's no NEED for communication, is it necessary? I think not. Anyway i still go cherry red and that is VERY embarrassing. If anybody has the same issues, then please share. If not, well not much there then. Not a very insightful entry this, just something personal about a boy with issues. I type to improve. Hopefully my next entry will be more....something. Can't think of the right word to save my life...until later then...

       

Social Blackhole

I recently got back to my twitter account, and with new gusto got down to some tweeting. Thing was, i never really had understood the witter concept. It sounded like just another fad people had taken up. It always started out like this. There were bloggers who used this initially to broadcast their views to those interested. Next came the high profile people tweeting away. Twitter suddenly became a instant hit. Who wouldn't want to know about their favorite personality taking a kick at the world. It was a chance to finally get to know what the high and mighty thought. Thus came in the followers who wanted to establish a communication with their all time heroes (be it a one way thing, it was a start). The last group of people to join were people like me. Those wondering what all the hype is all about.

It was the same with my Facebook account. "I'm not going to get sucked into the blackhole called Facebook", i had said. "It's too addictive", i had observed. As if that worked. I tried to experience the pull of the networks bottomless pit. An image comes to my head. Me dipping a toe into the side currents of the roaring whirlpool just to gauge the danger. I gauged it alright. Got sucked into the eternal abyss of social networking. A few of my friends were pleased. "We told you so" was what they had said. "You are one of us now" they had told me smiling, like i had just been recruited into a group of hungry zombies and getting ready for my first brain hunt.

I was helpless. Before it was just on the desktop. Next came the mobile internet, and before i knew it, i was tweeting away at 6:30 in the morning. The bad part? I'd go back to sleep after posting the tweet. Self loathing there. Lots of it.

The question which really gets me here is, WHY? Why get hooked onto this thing. Why have a compulsive desire to check on your page every 15 minutes. Are we looking for occasional "likes" or "comments". Are we actually relying the internet to have a thriving social life or is it just a way to get those feelings out of your head? Whatever be the cause, the ultimate result is just the same. Addiction. You just gotta check that post. Just like someone needs just that one drag off his Cigarette.

Then there are a tornado of fake profiles, all identified with women in swimsuits as their contact pictures, and YOU get to be their FIRST friend!! The sheer joy!! The excitement! Blah. Only fools would fall such stuff, (i know quite a few). An incident to share here. A friend of mine got an invite from a girl claiming to be from Delhi. He messaged her. She messaged him back. He became her self proclaimed boyfriend. He even admitted to meeting her when he was in Delhi later. In truth, the account was FAKE. He later admitted to not meeting with the girl, but the guy still has no idea that the account is a fake. He says the girl was a fool, so he dumped her. Yes brother, we believe you.

Fake profiles, fake people...everything is there. Wannabes, critics, photo fanatics...it's a whole new world out there, and it's going to be a long time before a decent number people come back to reality for good. Still trying to do that here. Someday, sometime, we should break free. Though blackholes generally don't let go. Until then...TWEET away :)