Where's the difference !!!

Often during my school days,I was confronted by a question-Why is there so much disparity in academic performance?The complete answer was not in the effort they put in.I knew some students who slogged and labored much harder than me,but to little gain.They were pretty serious and hard-working,but this didn't reflect in their performance,and more often than not,their grasp of the fundamentals.And I outrightly rejected answers like 'They are less 'brainy''.Why this partiality?College drastically changed my outlook towards teaching..So I left my pursuit before finding sth satisfactory.Today I stumbled upon a story that made me pause and look back.

A student asked his teacher the same question.He was asked to wait.Next day,when the teacher was in his class,he fired a question at the class.

"How many of you regularly listen to music?".
Almost all the hands went up in the air.
"How many of you play a musical instrument?"
A small fraction of hands remained upright.
"How many of you can read music?"
Still fewer hands.
"How many of you can sight read the score and play it at the same time".
A chosen few hands still survived. 
And then came the masterstroke
"How many of you can read the score and hear the music straightaway?".
The number of hands is immaterial.The beauty of the question suffices.
The story is open to interpretation.But I think I have got hold of the answer now.The answer is passion.Different students had different degrees of passion towards music.Most of them were casuals and they would never be able to make out head or tail of the mystery of music,regardless of how much they listen.For another guy,music might be embedded in his existence.Someone can teach you to play an instrument.If you hang in long enough,you will learn to read a musical score.Maybe your instructor will make you see a piece and give an impromptu recital.But no teacher,no school on the face of this earth will teach you to convert dry words into music.This is something that you will learn out of your own yearning,your burning desire to delve deeper.This is passion in its purest form.This is what will bring about the difference.

Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi

Warning: Only for people who enjoy "cheap and vile" humor
Ask anybody in my college..What is your heartiest desire.I bet my money on the answer,"more quality girls".(Assuming that anybody is a boy.Won't you ask a girl more charming things??)

Imagine a scenario,set somewhere in the future(I earnestly pray to the Almighty God to hasten that future before my graduation..All my friends will turn believers),where boys become a rare/endangered species in. I entreat you to stretch your imagination to the point where the sex ratio in my college is reversed..40 boys in a batch of 500(scale according to reservation and kiddo IITs under our "mentorship").


Imagine the life of an average boy.On the very first day,when the deans ask us to be magoda great engineers and not to go to finance,IIM or abroad build a great nation,a group of baffled boys sitting in solidarity,maybe holding hands,saheli types, in one corner of Convo.One of them is at ease,he knows some "dude" girl from his school/Kota days.An unfortunate guy gets late.He enters the hall and walks the most difficult 20 meters or so of his life,blushing under the scrutiny of a thousand lustful eyes.And there is no end to these petty,embarrassing incidents.

Imagine R2 and Ex-Hall during exams.Boys in demand bhai.Envious girls watching a lucky babe flirting"studying" with a hunk.(No relation to our coolhunk). The dumbest,weirdest,and magodas of today will be cozying up with ultra-hot chicks.A boy asks a gal for her classnotes and she's on cloud nine.It becomes the talk of her hostel.Girls swarm over Zanskar(or watever the girls will call it)  to see boys swimming in the pool.Even obscene comments wouldn't surprise me.
Obscenity brings me to the most cherished part of campus life(atleast for me) - hurling abuses and LAN.Wat would be the most common abuse in the campus??How would girls abuse each other?? I suppose casting reflection on a girl's relationship with his male family members. Baap something something..Bhai bla bla.(Still haven't figured out a good enough Hindi version).Out of nowhere,a girl calls another girl names.No big deal. Habitual stuff for them.Poor boys nearby can do nothing but blush with a faint and embarrassed smile.Boy's pics scattered all over the LAN-with folders like Husn ka Khazana,Jawaan Launde :P

And think how would Vindy look like then??A girly Khullar(even more irritating,with shriller voice),lady Bacchi(even filthier),female Akhilesh(even dumber) and Miss Thakkar(just imagine).
Hey guys.Don't lose heart.There is a silver lining to this dark cloud-Placements.Companies vie and die for guys.You're the man !!! What if for the first time in your college life.At the end of 4 years,you go out laughing with a top-notch job in your pockets.And maybe even more girls will hit on you in your job.

PS:1:Please exercise your imagination and suggest more such scenarios.
2.:The central idea of this post was adapted(a polite synonym for plagiarized) from an IITKGP boy..Due credits to him
3.To the thousand other nameless colleges that suffer the same plight..my heart goes out to you.I share your desperation and frustration.
4.Nothing in this blog shall be misinterpreted to mean that I am betraying my brotherhood of boys.You are awesome guys.

That guy from Kumaon

No marks for guessing Chetan Bhagat.The poster boy of IITs(esp IITD).The GenNext IITian.Youth Icon.India's most loved writer.Publishing Phenomenon.And a million other equally impressive phrases.From being Chetan Who 5 years back,he is India's highest selling author today-outselling a thousand literary luminaries.For the common Indian reader,he has joined the ranks of Dan Brown,JK Rowling and Paulo Coelho.For the IITians,he is a part of our collective identity.And within IITD,people introduce themselves as "Chetan Bhagat ke batch wala".Thats some real skyrocket dude !!!

Don't get me wrong.This post is not about glorifying Mr. Bhagat. I leave this job to his numbered books(yeah,all his books contain a number in their title!! These number-addict bankers*#@%!) and the Bollywood movies they have inspired(Who would have imagined Salman and Aamir dancing to the whims of an IITian!!).As far as I am concerned,I have just finished his latest novel-2 States:The story of my marriage.So,I am pouncing on this opportunity to dissect him(figuratively bhai),his work and its implications.To set things straight,I devoured 5.someone (outright runaway),left one night... in between(much below expectations),didn't touch 3 mistakes(after hearing reviews..nothing personal),mustered enough courage to buy 2 States on my trip back home and finished it before the journey(maybe sth personal here :x)

I think IITians identify themselves with this kinda reckless stuff. Others find it hard to imagine that the very IITians they idolized and considered sacrosanct are such big perverts,or that the IITian author can imagine such (at a loss of adjectives) stuff.Both ways you win Mr. Bhagat.

On a serious note, what I appreciate most in his works is that he is unpredictable-sometimes just for the sake of being so,but he has an element of surprise.A gust of fresh breeze in the "formula"-ridden Indian landscape.And for that very reason, you are engrossing. In 5 point someone,I didn't expect Hari to be caught stealing the question paper or the prof. to come back and find his daughter in a compromising position.Again in 2 States, it was rather unexpected how he managed to woo Ananya to bed so easily,by just sacrificing a rasogulla.No melodrama.Cut the romantic crap.And when everything looks bleak, his estranged father comes to his rescue. That guruji guy must have been a divine plan-his role eludes earthly intellect. And the mother of all surprise.Who on earth would have thought that God will rescue those endangered mortals-and as if that is not enough- through a mobile phone without a battery!!!!.Its movie version was even more ARBIT(can't think of a better word).

Any comments on his style and particularly sarcasm??? Typical IITD stuff.Hope one day Thakkar or Dimaag beat his record,maybe in Bhojpuri or Punjabi.And Brad Pitt and Angellina Jollie act in their movie versions :) Or our own funny Bacchi rubbing shoulders with Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler in a comedy flick.On a personal note, I think what some guys did with Prof. Kurur one early morning can be a much spicy tale to tell.And how about a book on our Eternal Entertainer-Khullar?????Sounds tempting.I think every batch has its own weirdos.Nothing specially special.
In the name of serious criticism,a recurrent theme in his works is uprooting social evils and dogmas.While in 5.someone,there is no moral highground - just rowdy guys enjoying the prime of their youth, One Night.. addresses issues like gender inequality,although as side-topics.And there is no end to this good guy stuff. 3 mistakes delves deeper into social issues and finally, we have a whole book- 2 states on national integration and regional harmony.Meanwhile, Mr Bhagat quits his lucrative I-Bank (Not sure Deutsche Bank or Goldman Sachs) job to  "make change happen in the country". What a moving change of heart.If you haven't heard it yet,he has also given a couple of motivational speeches. Good going man.

Finally,Verdict time: I am a bored,approx. good-for-nothing kid pounding his keyboard in the dead of the night.And you Mr. Bhagat,have already been introduced at the very outset.You will shine in the firmament and I will spit on the moon,indignant of the aftereffects.Lets go our own ways dude.Keep going(I know you won't go back to Singapore if u ever happen to read this post).N yeah, I'll read your next book for sure. 
PS:1.I don't call him Mr. Chetan because that might confuse him with our "DHOUN".Atleast my former roomie and "partner in crime against birds" deserves this much attention.
2.His motivational speeches are REALLY GOOD.I rate the one at Symbiosis just a little below Steve Job's legendary "Stay Hungry,Stay Foolish" one.Don't miss it.

May I Come in Ma'am / Courting Confusion

After months of procrastination and dilly-dallying, here is my blog(weblog to be technically precise). My refuge and abode on the World Wide Web.I am not sure whether it is my desire to express myself (I do have frequent, self purported fits of creativity) that brings me here or the obvious desire to escape the clutches of boredom and monotony.At the very outset, I confess I am in uncharted waters(a flattering synonym of novice/amateur).Frankly,I had a tough time with the "About Me" column.I ended up making it more like an informal introduction. But I dare say, it sounds like me.
Whatever be the motivation,the final outcome is that Here I Am. As an afterthought, it dawns upon me that maintaining a good one is orders of magnitude tougher than creating one.So,I stand confronted with the perpetual contradiction of creativity- "How to express what you like so that others like it". If I don't stay true to myself, the very purpose of self-expression will be defeated.I can just as well Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V any cool stuff on the web,as the majority of status messages and updates,without any remorse of being an impostor.At the other extreme, if nobody deigns to trouble himself with my affairs,there is no point in blogging.I may as well stain the pages of an obscure diary.It is the instant appreciation or at least attention that gives blogging its charm and aura. 
 Needless to say, I am so bloody confused.

I think a positive aspect(maybe the only) of my college life is that I have learned to co-exist with confusion, in a somewhat peaceful and even symbiotic fashion.I don't think that being confused has so many negative connotations as is generally portrayed.After all,it is a pre-requisite of a Shakespearean Hero and preferred in a Byronic One.Coming back to reality,let me share something.Few months ago,I poured out my miseries on being indecisive to Bada Khullar an esteemed senior,and he said,"That's good.It means you are thinking". So,now I place being confused as a state somewhere in between brain-dead and omniscient. As for now,I postpone this turmoil with a makeshift decision that this is a somewhat lopsided dialog with myself having the greater weightage.
That's my side of the story(blogging saga if you have no objections).As for you, the inquisitive/vella reader,you may expect a potpourri of random topics-some philosophical, some technical,some commonplace and some unheard of-but all with my signature and perhaps confusion.
(PS:The title of this blog is from a poem The Song of the Happy Shepherd by Yeats)

Ciao!!!!