Day Seven

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

How I wish that was all we had to do and not act on those ideas, plans or purposes. Just push the thought into your mind and that idea gets done automatically without you ever lifting a finger. One of these days I am sure that they are going to come out with a machine which does exactly that and maybe it's already out there.

Ya can be pretty irrational at times but I'm still trying to exist in realms of reality. Well for how much more longer will that be, is something which even I've no clue but hope that day doesn't come.

But hey taking refuge in a fantasy land ain't that bad, at least over there you are the creator and the destroyer. Maybe we are all creatures of some alien life forms fantasies. That is one idiotic fantasy I tell yeah! Who in their right minds would create such pathetic life forms as us human beings.

In case you are wondering where this post is going or what is all this blabbering about, well was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and every time I watch this movie some how get some really crazy ideas. A great movie & a book, do watch it and read it if you guys get a chance.

With all that stupidy around me and when I thought tis' the end of me. Just when I thought I could no longer resist it and was almost about to give in, like a whiff of fresh air an intelligent life form has returned to its' rightful place to save me from the dumbness which was slowly making it's way into my system.

I know even I don't know what got into me but some days fell like I've been possed by the spirit of Arthur. C. Clarke, and it just so happend that this was one of those days.

Day Six

Stupidity comes in all shapes and sizes; sometimes me included.

Seriously when Winston Churchill said that "India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator." He was not far off from the truth and even after 60 odd years those differences are much more conspicuous than ever. Screw that I'm not above all this, probably am as parochial as anyone so let me not pass judgement on others.

This is what happens when you are living in a tin box kinda set-up with temperatures hitting 45 degree centigrade. Day zero seems to be running into me every couple of days so don't have much to write about today.

Day Five

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Don't know how they manage it but right from 2001 onwards i.e. from the time I've been carrying a mobile, the phone companies have been successful in cheating me, not once but four times. Again come the time to take a new connection, they will most probably succeed. Last month Vodafone billed me for some other plan and I was like chalta hai it must have been a honest glitch in the software. But when it happened again and I called them up to fix it 'again,' they were like that plan no longer exists and we automatically changed you to this plan!! Hello you change my plan without my permission and don't even bother to tell me, is it for real?

To cut a long story short the plan they were offering me was like manna for a person in a desert and the one they changed to was quite the opposite, still the gall they have is beyond me and still am not able to come out of it. And this is the country whose economy has boomed on the shoulders of service sector. Gawd help those people getting serviced.

The day was not all that exciting because half the day I spent calling the phone company and basically the people attending your calls are as stupid as an arse, literally. Don't know how they motivate themselves to do such a thankless job is beyond me. Myself in such a kind of a job would probably end up committing suicide or killing the person next to me within one month. It's not their mistake too as that is what they are being paid to do and maybe some where down the line the companies need to give them some sort of an encouragement by providing them means to pass the buck onto the bozos who really take the decisions, which effect regular customers like us. These bozos deserve all the anger that we show on the frontline executives.

Oh yeah! went to Atta market and got myself something. Self-indulgence it ain't, but still deep down I think I do deserve it.

Day Four

There was once a teacher who knew only one way of dealing with the pupils. Given a task, you measure up to the expectations you were given lavish gifts and fail, were meted out with the harshest of punishments one can think off even for small mistakes or failures. The pupil for the fear of earning their teachers wrath resorted to all sort of skulduggery in order to meet up to the expectations. Along the way they forgot what was right and what was wrong. There was a collective decline in moral values. Pretty soon the gifts were of no use because at the end of the day everyone ends up at the same place whether you are a success or a failure.

Now replace teacher with life, pupil with you and task with choices, see for yourself whether the choices you made and the means you used to make them work were worth the effort?

Ah! Well, was just wondering about why people want to succeed at any cost? Success is something which has to come from within, it's not something which can ever be attained in materialistic or quantifiable things. So the cost you pay should not be at the expense of your core values, without values you are nothing and when you are nothing, who cares for your achievements or lack of them?

Well got lots of time to think and I thought a lot. I've never made the right choices in my life and have always been a perenial under-achiever or maybe people think too high of me. What ever be the reason, I need to re-visit some of my priorities and get my life in order. Not that, it's not in order right now but maybe give people their due and listen to what they got to say.

It was another day which I spent half the time trying to beat the heat and the other half trying to beat the boredom from not having anything to do. Well I got those books and have lots of catching up to do both in the virtual and real worlds, just didn't feel like it. Seems like I just want to think & think but seriously I don't have much to think either these days. Amits' book has come out finally and that's the 5'th person whom I know whose book has been published. No way am I as good as they are, but all of us started out with the same ambition and here I am still trying to decide whether I live my dream or just follow the pack and give folks who have expectations on me something to cheer about.

Day Three

How selfish soever man be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it - Adam Smith.

Was just thinking back at the ol' times and couldn't help but notice that only things which I still remember, as if they happened yesterday were the things which made people around me happy. Is it in our psyche that only the good parts are ingrained and the bad parts left out? That's how we bury our skeletons in the closet I guess.

Anyway went to delhi to get books and it's sunday book market was no better than the one in good Old Hyderabad and infact the hyderabad one has better choice. Then went and had some good mughlai food. All in all a satisfying day and the best part was rain, man I longed for it and it came down at the right moment.

Couple of oddities, Delhi won't be ready for the 2010 commonwealth games for sure and people should try and smile a bit more at strangers. It won't hurt either if they once in a while slow down and smell the roses on the way. Everyone seems to be in a mad hurry to some place, where I've no clue but jeez show some compassion to others and that is what your culture is all about not some shit written in the books about your forefathers.

Anyway will end my post with a funny incident that happened on the way to Chandni Chowk.
Who in their right minds would travel one hour north just to get to the metro station and then travel that distance all over again and get down 2 blocks from where we caught hold of the bus, in which we travelled north. That is what happens when you have all the time in the world to do nothing.

Day Two

Repeat of day zero, need to get out of this cycle before I get used to it.

Day One

Past failures don't mean a thing for me. If my mind is set on something then come rain, sunshine or err..that's pretty much what we have in India, I'll stick with it and get that something done.

With some valuable lessons learned from the previous day, I planned to spend the afternoons away from my abode hereafter. With that in mind even though I hated watching the cam version of this movie, deep down some where was guilty of not giving it the credit it deserved. So I dragged my sorry arse to the cinemas and lo behold it was much worse watching it on the big screen with proper audio & visuals. Watchmen would and should go down in the history of movie making as one of the biggest screw ups. It would take real efforts to beat that one.

Anyway after the movie was over. Went to Haldirams and bitched away to glory about everything & everyone. Man that lifted my spirits!! The ordeals of the past two weeks were forgotten and that smug look on my face was returning once I proved that I'm the best and the rest sucked, even the person who was putting up with me included. Ha beat that!! Made him agree to this point, actually he didn't have any other go and who would want to endure my non-sensical badgering for another minute when a simple yay! would give him the freedom to run away form my company.

After that came back to the hostel, slept for a while then watched IPL and then drifted into a state of nirvana from all that ego massaging that I applied to my 'own' ego in the evening. Don't remember exactly when I slept but that was one well spent day..