Fear nothing but fear itself

Self preservation is a very strong motivational force. It is only natural to try to protect oneself from harm by taking certain measures. All that is completely understandable. The problem is when we go overboard with the "being cautious" part. Nobody is asking you to do something stupid, but a little risk here and there is justified, right?

Fear is THE most important emotion as per me. When you fear something, it tells you that the thing can cause you harm. If you fear FOR something, then you know you care for that thing/person. It's not as bad as it sounds. Without fear, there would be no caution. Honestly speaking, how many motorists would wear a helmet or use the seatbelt if it wasn't for the fear of being caught by the ever ready traffic cop? 

Being scared is the reason for long self sustainance. Lemme give you an example, imagine not feeling pain. Not knowing that nothing can cause you discomfort. Would you then stop yourself from putting your hand into the fire? Fear prevents you from doing stupid things. But it isn't too good a thing either. As essential as it is, fear can many a times cause quite the reverse effect. Like in those cases where pedestrians are scared stiff in the middle of the bus you road and stay rooted there till a big truck makes them roadkill.

But, guess you must already know this part, fear isn't always the best guide. How many instances do you remember where you didn't do as something just because you were afraid that something might go wrong, only to regret it later. That there, is your fear of failure. Some people find this inspirational, a challange. Others, like me, most probably falter. Many a times the latter situation leads to your dread actually coming true.

My folks have always told me about how people would try to use your own fear against to you for their own agendas. So naturally the next exercise would be to know about how to mask your fears. I for one, have it bad. First sign of distress and my face lights up to a shade of red like a Christmas tree. Not good people, not good.

So you see, its mighty important to conquer your fears or they would prevent you from competing menial tasks in your day to day life. Want an example? Ever seen a late night horror movie only to return home with the living daylights blown outta you? Every corner has an apparent ghoul/demon/possessed toy waiting to rip your guts out. Fear does th.at to you. You start anticipating the worst. In real life you start imagining scenarios. It only goes downhill from there.

So to end it all, unlike what most people would advise you, don't let go of your fears. They help you survive, but then again, don't let them rule you. All the best. 

The Blogging Experience

It all started a few months ago. I remember trying to plan up a mystery novel and figured out that that the best way to improve my writing skills. But the big question was, who would read all the stuff i have written? Sure i could write and then i could read my own articles but the review by other people seem to be a better option. So i decided to put up a blog. Seemed like a perfect idea. I type what i want to express and others can read and i can get an occasional;feedback on my writing style. I tried one of the sites i had heard most about back then. Blogspot. Next was the name of the blog page. What should i call it? Names have always dumbfounded me since as long i can remember. I remember all the bizzare names i had come up for the college sae team.

Then it came to me. I name i was given in school. Wobble. I remember it having something to do with my short attention span, but anyways it had become a name i had decided to take up. I was Wobble. So it seemed natural that my blog should be called Wobble's Place. It was a place for me to speak up after all. That decided i registered my blog and planned to get down to blogging the next day.

Well...that was the plan. Thing was, i had totally forgotten interest in the blogging idea. I went on with my normal college schedule, trying a little to continue with my book. Then i hit the block. Thing is, when i was planning on writing a mystery novel, i had planned on making the plot completely secure, i.e, without any loopholes. And i could not think of one proper trap for the protagonist. Always figured out a way for him to escape. Thing was, i wanted him to be trapped helpless, and if i could think of an exit strategy, so could the reader. Ultimately the writing part was put on hold, and i started giving a little mind space to technical stuff like engines and automobile systems. I still dig those topics, but somewhere, i still wanted to write. I had always wanted to be a writer or a free lance journalist before i decided to take up engineering.

A few months had passed by now from the time i had first registered my blog. I was reminded about it by a close friend who had resumed the work on his own blog Crimson Room Thoughts. Totally inspirational. It all started coming back to me. My blog. My desire to write.I decided to give it a go. Again. I put up a post called "Social Blackhole". My attempt on Social Networking. Followed by a few personal posts. I guess, at that time i knew my blog wasn't known at all, so i literally used to write whatever came to my head. My friend encouraged me to write more. I did. Got myself registered at Blogadda and Indiblogger. Seeing the count cross 1000 for the first time made me smile. The feeling was awesome. :)

I recently got my first Indirank. 70. Maybe in times to come, i'll get better. Blogging had become a part of this person and i can't help but smile when i read other blogs and feel awesome realizing that i'm a part of communities with people who have such excellent minds. A freedom. Maybe one day i can call myself a proper blogger and count myself amongst the other intellectuals.

Signing off : The Amateur Blogger 

The idiots i work with...

It all started with a game. A computer game. Till the time I had laid my hands on it, cars were just a mode of transportation. Some cheap, some insanely expensive and many totally practical. But not until I had given the game a try, I truly came to appreciate those machines. Initially it was all about tweaking my game car to be fastest amongst all. I rarely worked my gaming skills. To me it was all about the car. The smarter the machine, more is the ease with which you control it. That’s the way I look at this. Humans can’t be trusted with their hands. The little left for them to do, the better. Gradually from the game, I came to think more about all the cars. Particularly the shiny, exotic ones. The tech used in them, the brains, the mechanics, the balance of speed and luxury…every aspect of an automobile would send an energising current through my body. So you can imagine how I must have felt when I received my first SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) student membership card. Sure it’s a fairly ordinary thing, but an own card with the words “Automobile” on them meant something to this kid. And when there was an announcement in class about taking part in an ATV manufacturing competition, I was ecstatic. Engineering would finally become awesome. A team of 19 working non-stop, designing every smallest possible detail about a car, it was a dream.

 I was in for a rude lesson in reality. Don’t get me wrong, I had an excellent time working and studying for the competition. The scrutiny we had to undergo was awesome as well. The problem here was not the hard work, but the people I had to share the work with. At the very beginning, we had divided ourselves into different groups, with each group given a specific detail to work on (Brakes, steering, suspensions etc…), so in the end we can have an efficient working environment with a high success rate.

As if that worked out. It was about a month since we had returned from our summer breaks. Me and a friend had done quite a handful of research on ATVs and where I was ready with detailing for a few parts and the innovations to be used, he was ready with the rest of the structure. Everything seemed to be in place. All we needed were the details from the other 17 to put together the rest of the design. That was like 50% of the total work. We were in a mess. People had simply not given any thought to the detailing, taking it for granted that I and my friend would get them done along with our own stuff, since we were the ones “MOST INTERESTED” in this.

A Very Early Design On My First Attempt

Out of the nineteen, 12 of them refused to do any sort of work at all. 4 of them claimed to have read a little for the event while the two of us had to really go overboard with all the designing on our own. Bad experience, especially with a deadline looming over. Anyways, we got through with that with a decent result, which those”@#^$%*#^” promptly took the credit for. I liked working and all, but it saddened me to see people use our efforts to their convenience. Well that was forgotten soon enough. What was done was done. We would have to be careful about the team in the future.

Two months later came about another competition from SAE. We had to build a race car. F1 style. Passions went soaring again. But this time we were a little smarter. We made a smaller team of eight and decided to go for it. Work went on quite smoothly, with limited people. But then those who had not made it to the team, came about, throwing about every pessimistic dialogue they could deliver.

“Waste of time…” they say.

“We could not do it then. How do they think they can manage it now?”

We.  WE?  I’ve almost had it with these fools hanging around. This is about as frustrating as it gets. I you can’t do the thing for yourself, at least let the other person give it a try. The idiots would try everything they can to discourage us from taking part. Is this how messy it gets in the professional offices too? Is the world such a sad place?

A few days for the competition remain. I’m waiting to see how it pans out. A selection would be an awesome slap on their faces. It’s Passion vs “the other idiots”. Lets see who wins…

Horrific Night After Dinner

I've been staying in Pune for the past two and a half years, that is, ever since i started by engineering course. The city is fairly peaceful, though I can say I have very rarely felt at peace here. Guess I miss home. This incident took place one night when I was returning home from a friend’s birthday treat. We had gone for dinner to a KFC outlet a few kilometres away from home. We had packed a nice dinner and were feeling pretty satisfied. We thanked our friend for the awesome treat and started for our place on my friend’s Pulsar. We decided to take a longer route home and enjoy the slight cool about the city. What we did fail to check was the fact that we were running low on fuel. Luckily there was a small gas station along the way where we decided to tank up.

While my friend, Rohan, was getting his bike refuelled, I decided to take a stroll about and take a look around. There wasn’t much to look about though. There were dense trees on either side of the road. Looked pretty creepy at night too. I was just turning back, when I heard sounds of whispering. Now I’m not the one to normally eavesdrop on any random stranger’s conversation, but in this case I was lucky I did. They were 2 men loaded with tobacco (disgusting). Both dark and buff. The look at those arms made me gulp. They looked like they could snap my neck like a twig. They were conversing in Marathi. Being from Mumbai, I could slightly comprehend what they were saying, the basic words at least (I’ve been born and brought up in Mumbai, but can’t speak Marathi to save my life, go figure).

What I heard, gave me a near heart attack. The goons were discussing my friend standing by his motorcycle. They were planning to mug us when we left the place. I could see the big oaf, one of them; take out his knife and wiping it with a dirty cloth. That thing was HUGE! I had to bite my tongue from crying out loud. We didn’t stand a chance against these goons. Unless we had an advantage. I checked that the two men were busy with their planning and observing Rohan. I had to act fast. It was time for action.

I walked towards Rohan who looked cross. I had been gone for some time. I told him the situation and watched as all the colour drained from his cheeks. He started fumbling with his keys and planned on out racing the goons. I told him that could be risky. I was terrified like crazy too, but it was time for calmness. I formulated a plan and calmed Rohan down with a pep talk and words of encouragement. Even I was surprised with the words flowing out of my mouth. Fiery. But self-appreciation could wait we had a plan to put into action. Rohan parked his bike at the gas station exit and wandered about as if to take a leak. I walked up to the small shop at the gas station, where the attendant was busy listening to music on his radio. The goons were there too. They stopped talking as I walked in. This was a risk. If the attendant was in on their plan, I was dead meat. I took my chance. I started speaking in hindi to the attendant about how he had cheated my friend of his money. The guy got angry and started screaming about how he was an honest man and that he could do nothing if the fuel prices were on the rise. I lashed out calling him all sorts of names and creating a ruckus. Even I was surprised at the words flowing out of my mouth like flaming arrows. The goons sitting at the corner were grinning to themselves apparently amused by the show. That was my purpose. Seeing them distracted, I kept on ranting like a madman and I guess it got quite serious. Well that was good.

While I put up a show for goons, Rohan managed to find a wedge and a few tools lying around. Utter chaos. It was time. Until now it was a loud discussion. Now it had to get louder. I started shouting at the top of my voice about how innocent students were being cheated in the name of fuel. My voice and the loud radio pretty much drowned away all the other noises, including the noise of Rohan hammering holes into the fuel tank at the bottom. I saw him move towards our bike after one last swear, stormed out leaving the attendant fuming. We started on our way praying the goons don’t follow. Well even if they did, we were prepared. Soon enough, we saw their bike at a distance behind us and frightfully, it was closing in. They hadn’t noticed the hole at the bottom, and were asking us to pull over or that we would pay.  Yeah right!!

We went on faster. After five tense minutes, their bike started spluttering and broke down as they looked puzzled. We zoomed away, leaving the goons cursing behind us. WHEW!!


This post has been put up for the KFC "Set's you on fire!!" contest. Hope you like this story, imaginary as it is... 

The idle mind - A post by a very bored person

I was really looking forward to this week. The first week of the year. The college doesn’t open for another week. No books. No studies. No chores. Sitting here in my rented apartment with a week of nothingness seemed like a nice change from the busy exam schedule. All would have been perfect, IF there was somebody to spend all this free time with. None of my friends are here. My laptop has just come back with a new hard disk, and thus, no source of entertainment there. So I now have a week in front of me with nothing but a project coming up to work with. As much as I love what I’m doing, it does get awfully monotonous. I just can’t imagine myself sitting at one place working on a design with nothing else to do. Summing it up, I as bored as one can be.

I often wondered how it must be for those who lived alone in big cities. I had imagined it to be a cool thing to stay like that. No commitments, coming and going as one sees fit, living the life with your own terms…but now all that seems pointless. My schedule involved getting up late in the morning, around nine, lazing around for an hour getting up, walking around like a zombie, going downstairs for a bite to eat, coming back up and then finally settling down to get the design done. Then I take a nap and repeat the above process. Like I said, pure uselessness.

An idle mind is a devil’s workshop. So says a famous quote. In that case, I’m pretty sure mine must be close to a forge or a workshop of a sort by now. What really got me worried was the fact, thati could not think of even ONE thing to do in all this free time. So I decide to do the thing I like to do best, write. Or in this case, blog about something. Normally it doesn’t take much to think about what to write. I’m far from a good blogger. Just a beginner here, but the ideas never seem to be a problem. Life, being the biggest inspiration, just seems to supply the mind with ideas. Right now, the lake full of ideas is as dry as a patch of the Sahara. Forget blogging, my mind seems to have totally lost all capability to think beyond what i'm supposed.

I started trying to keep myself busy. Got deeper into my design, started thinking about philosophies, religion, reading a book (Girl who kicked the hornet's nest, brilliant read BTW) and now have started feeling somewhat better.I'll be coming up with different posts soon. This writers block is a terrible thing. I hate blankness. But i'm happy about this free time. You get to know yourself best at such times. 

If indeed there is a devil residing somewhere in the grey matter, sir, PLEASE STOP MESSING AROUND WITH MY HEAD!! 

I WILL LOOSE WEIGHT....eventually...!!!

The clock had just struck twelve and the fireworks officially announced the beginning of the year 2012. There were echoing voices screaming "Happy New Year". Lots of hugs, Hi-Fives and toasts to the new year. The barbecue party had turned out to be a cool idea and the night couldn't have been better. Amidst all this wishing frenzy, I had a piffany of a sort. I don't quite know what bought it on, just that all of a sudden, as my friends describe it, i had a weird expression on my face. Something between gleam and madness in my eyes. And all of a sudden there was voice shouting above all others," I HAVE MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION!! I WILL HIT THE GYM SOON, AND I RESOLVE THAT BY THE END OF THIS YEAR, I SHALL BE AS FIT AS THAT GUY IN ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY BOOKS!!!"

That said, i looked around to see the encouraging faces of my friends. with maybe a few words of encouragements.
**crickets** and maybe a *snicker*

Not a reaction i was expecting, but i guess i had earned it. I had been giving them that crap since as long as i can remember. I am not fat. Not exactly anyways. But anyways, I decided it was time to get in shape, and decided to hit the gym. Sadly, the hit the gym thing never took place. I either sleep past my exercise time or sometimes am in simply no mood to get up out of my comfy bed to take a jog. So far, a few days into the new year, it's too cold to venture out early in the morn. It's like there is no right time to do this. Plus the fact that staying here actually helps me loose weight. How? No clue. I'm not eating what you would call a balanced diet. Maybe it's all got something to do with the running around to college.

But I guess it's time that all the procrastination comes to a stop. Sure it wouldn't be pleasant to get up early, but maybe I can fall into a routine. Maybe. I have my doubts. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other people like me out there. I have no problem getting up. It's the going out the house part. Plus realising the fact that those jogging around you are twice your age does not sort of make it any better. If not for my body, then to show all those people out there that i can do it. I've just about had it with people rolling their eyes whenever i mention the topic.

Hope i can bring myself up to task.