Love at first sight...

Sometimes it doesn't really take too long to find the perfect one. The one that will go a long, long way with you. There you are...minding your regular business..not really looking for the one...not even bothering to look around for the one. But its there for you..just round the corner waiting for you to cast a glance and make it your own. Just a simple glance and you know it in your heart that you two are just meant to be. That's all it takes...a moment - to accept and give in. 

Happy Feet Indeed!!

Ain't we a perfect match? ;)  

Chandni Raatein!

(This post was written a month back but forgot to publish. It's an insane one, mind you - one of my random moods when the lukkhi in me had taken charge. I still don't believe I am about to publish this.)

No, I am not into corny blue films, as yet! It was either this or 'O meri Chandni'. You take the pick!

So finally landed at my latest haven - Room # 16, Hostel - Chandni, MICA, yesterday. I loved my earlier room a lot - everything was just perfect about # 5, Parijat...the location, the view, the furniture arrangement, the storage space, even the position of the electric switch.

This new place is amazing as well. My own room! No one to share it with..ALL MINE :D :D :D Okay enough gloating . No wait, did I mention it is the biggest room on the floor! Just my luck :) The room is spacious to say the least..not like those crammed hostels in the otherwise thik-thak college in Mumbai I once visited to meet a friend..what was that again? IID..no wait IIT, I think. Wateverr :D

Its a first floor corner room - the door well hidden behind the pillar. Privacy you see. You open the door and a neat and tidy room greets you warmly. The colour scheme is yellow-green-orange with a touch of purple.

Books (by the virtue of being seldom handled) are arranged neatly on a black rack and a green-yellow dari (carpet) on the floor reminding me of home.


To add just the right touch, a yellow sitting cushion!...for those idle mornings and lazy afternoon reading sessions.


For the more demanding times (say one night before the exam) there is this study table with just the right number of table-top show pieces - 3. A clock, a mug for stationery and one Ganpati bappa (He had to come along...exams jo paas karni hai).


And then there is this one piece of furniture where I shall be spending 91.472% of my non-lecture time - the bed! With a green-n-yellow bedsheet with yellow-n-white cushions. Call me crazy, but I brought along all 'wonly yellow-worange' bedsheets with me!! O wait! The bestest part...my oh-so-lovely curtains! Green..very chic and soothing.


There is this huge tree just outside my window (all 11th/12th botany gone waste..i failed to identify the damn tree!) and a path that leads to the mess on one hand (how strategic) and the classrooms (tragically, how strategic again) on the other.

So what do you think? Kya meri room aapki room say behtar hai? Just say so darlings and be my life-long friend (Did that just sound very cheap?)

So let me end this really insane post on a slightly senti note (blog ke TRPs* badhane ke liye kya kya karna padta hai!!). An ode to #16, Chandni - for the great times we shall share!

For the times we spend, in the times to come
Moments that are happy and sad are some
This heart and mind may wander and roam
When comes the night, it will find a way home
So cheers to you and a cheers to me
My heart will always be where you shall be :)

Aah! Enuff said..the bed looks gloomy, I think its yearning for my company ;)
Tada!!

1. * @ aagau Media majors at MICA, mala mahitiye blog la TRPs*** nastat, ugaach akaleche taare todu naka**
2. ** - Mala mahitiye ha Dighe madam cha dialogue aahe. Mi ithe tyala credit detey. Sue karaycha vichar tala.
3. *** BTW, fyi, Blog la Page Views and Unique Users astat - Sessions ani Time spent per session pan astat^
4. ^ - Hyala VDCP mhantat, VDCP = Virtual DCP^^
5. ^^ - Aata hey atti hotay. Somebody stop me :D

Religion is flawed only because man is flawed.

I spent two of my best hours today watching 'Angels & Demons' ...the experience still giving me goose bumps as I write this...



The age-old debate of Science vs. Religion.

How do you explain the existence of one to another?

How to explain the co-existence of both? And for how long ??

As the mysteries of one century become the logic of the next - one may say it’s a losing battle for Religion but then look around you...the faith in the Faith is stronger than ever!!

Karl Marx wondered (and wondered aloud) if religion was opium of the masses...which may have led few of us to question the need for religion. Isn't the world a much simpler place to live? When all the phenomena stand perfectly rationalized? When the miracles of old world are nothing but scientific wonders waiting to be discovered? And then why do we need the religion to sedate us, delude us providing illusions of an existence that life certainly isn't! Isn't science just the perfect answer for the rationalists amongst us? Almost like an antidote for religion, isn't it?



But then how do you explain the faith? ..the belief that ran across the world for centuries in one form or other. Yes, blaming the Pope and his Vatican running like a smoothly functioning corporation selling us hope, faith, peace and respect towards that one Big Guy sitting up there; is a very tempting option. But then is religion nothing more than the biggest con job that mankind ever faced?



In the closing scene of ‘Angels & Demons’, Cardinal Saverio Mortati says something so profound that it almost explains the age-old fallacies of religion. Almost. He says, 'Religion is flawed only because man is flawed.'

Religion and Science. Yes, both are outcomes of Man's imagination and creativity. Both man-made; yet so different - one appeals to the heart and the other to the mind. It’s up to us to choose - heart over mind or mind over heart. Religion has made blunders in the past - the propagators of religion can almost share a bench with Hitler in hell for their atrocities and impositions. We still pay for it and would continue to do so for ages to come. But science functions no better. Its blunders are going to be the blunders of mankind in the future.



And may be..just may be..when man is tired of science one day - he will look back and seek solace in religion as we do now seeking solace in science from the misgivings of religion. Is this why they are meant to co-exist? To offer man some respite when he has had enough of the other? Well, who knows..Maybe.



When Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opium of masses," one might wonder if he was asking us wean ourselves from it. May be not! For a man who learnt from the sufferings of others - maybe he found the key to the existence and sustenance of religion. May be he found a reason for religion in man's life. In the full context his words were:

“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.” (Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.)

How difficult this mortal human life would be if not for the illusory happiness that Marx talks about! How would life be if all things stood perfectly well explained and rationalized! ‘The Logic’ would then be our God and we all devoid of any hope or fear. (On second thoughts – Why does mankind always need someone/something to look up to? We remove God and replace it by Logic but the truth remains we replace it. But then again, it’s a better place to be – the last time one race made the others look up to it – it nearly wiped out the ‘others’!)

So are we saying that a flawed religion is better than none at all? Of course, it would be same as a flawed science (we are moving towards it) better than none at all. And since the situation of perfect religion and perfect science (just like a perfect competition) almost never exists..man has to make do with one of them...leaving the choice either to himself or going with the flow as per the societal context of his time and place.

Phew! That’s a lot of unanswered questions! But may be the point is to question rather than a muted acceptance! And yes, like all man-made creations – religion and science included, one needs to accept their flaws instead of overlooking them.

To quote Karl Marx again – ‘Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.’

Random rambling!

The room is a mess. So is the mind. I guess I will start cleaning the former.

What is it that i fear the most?

Hi!just had this incessant urge to talk to some one but all my so-called good friends are busy with no time for me. So I am doing the next best possible thing
Q: What is the root cause of sorrow?
A: Desire
Sahi jawab!!!!…aur aap jeete hain…..well nothing ….not even a teeny meeny amount of respect because he said it was a mugged answer.

WHAT IS IT THAT I FEAR THE MOST?

CB asked this question and got me thinking…loss of loved ones, failed dreams, fear of the unknown.
Did you ever want some thing bad enough to risk everything…just to realize you would never get it?
Well you can say that atleast you tried and its better to try and fail than never to have tried at all…..but deep inside, your heart still burns for it and you pray for one little chance to have that feeling... of how it feels to have it.

What happens when your dreams don’t come true?
Do you stop dreaming? No of course not!…but some where down the line you stop believing in them. You stop believing even in the possibility of them coming to life. Happens to all…right?

“Lehron ke saath to koi bhi tair leta hain,
Par asli insaan who hai jo lehron ko cheer kar aage badhta hain”
Sounds more like the definition of Mosses crossing the red sea than a common man trying to dodge the puddles on the road.
So coming back to the question. I fear loneliness, failure or rather loneliness that follows a major failure. Trust me, I have an authority on this one. It’s like “been there, done that, slept through most of it” kinda situation…and quite literally too!! Someone once said to me “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” And it struck me like a bolt! I don’t want to be orphaned even though it means having those people around who are just ‘sukh ke saathi’ and ‘dukh me koi nahi’! One would ask, “why do you want those people who you know are not gonna be there when you need them?” And I would say, “because it feels good to be loved that’s why.” Lame, I know, but that’s me.