Thought for a day

"Because sometimes, our stupidity knows no bounds."

R.I.P good sense and general carefulness.
Sometimes, you have to fall to learn to look before you step off the curb.

Atonement: A Review

I had been stuck on this book for almost three months now without making much progress. There was always something else I had to do. Last week, I figured, other stuff can't be as important, so I went back into my cage and really started reading and finished the book yesterday. (The absence of an internet connection played an important role in facilitating 12 hours of reading time on a Saturday). I had heard people tell me how amazing the movie is, and while I believe them, I also believe a lot of poetry would have been lost in the making of the movie. After the first few chapters, once the life altering event has occurred, there isn't much suspense left in the novel. Ian McEwan kind of tells you without really telling you what the ending of the book is going to be. I felt the book to be more of a character study, about how different people remember an event that happened to them years earlier. Some hide, pretending nothing happened, others have to live with the consequences and cannot hide. It's almost like a study of human emotions, you can see how each character is thinking and reacting. It does leave you feeling a little hollow in the end. Had I not been a tough nut, I would probably have even cried. I am now planning to watch the movie, if only to see the characters come alive. (And Keira Knightley). I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who is looking for a serious read and is slightly out of sorts with life. It made me feel better about the general going-ons right now. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it heals. But of course, you have to shut the world out completely for that to happen, which might be a major contributing factor!
And the title, I love the title of the book. It's such a loaded word, Atonement. I wish I could think up such words while I write. I  am beginning to think I need to start reading through a dictionary now.

Onto other books now,
Adios,
Naina

Experience that changed how I think - Part II

I used to go for my internship to South Campus every day for two months during my summer break. Summer means 45° and hot winds. I would take the bus every morning, because my family lacked confidence in my driving skills. One day, I finally convinced them to let me drive down by myself. Dad, being the encouraging sorts, agreed. Feeling all grown up, I pulled on my shades and plugged in my music and drove off. Being a Saturday, I didn't get much traffic on the road. I got there in good time, only to  discover the parking was full. The parking guy would not let me in. I scanned the lot and found this tiny spot between a Honda City and one other car. I showed him the spot, and he let me through. Like a pro I maneuvered the car into that tight spot. Feeling rather proud of my achievement, I turned the engine off and gathered my stuff. I was about to step out, when it dawned on me, there wasn't enough room to get the door open. The gift of foresight... I did not have it.
I looked at the old couple sitting in the Honda and smiled, wondering what to do. Helplessly, I figured, I would have to back up and park elsewhere. I figured if i did that and found a different parking, nobody had to know what I had done. Sounded easy enough, till I tried. I scratched the entire left side of the Honda on my way out. Uh-oh. My first accident ever. The sweet old man who had smiled at me a few minutes back looked at me in shock.
Well, the rest is boring stuff. I apologized, called my dad, who apologized on my behalf and shared his contact.. Yada yada...it was all sorted out.
The point being, you have to plan in advance. Whether you're parking a car, or backing up one, you need to know exactly where you're heading and what your next move is going to be. You can't scratch somebody else's brand new Honda and expect them to be OK with it, and not every father is as tolerant or supportive as mine when it comes to pulling his daughters out of a tight spot. So that's your lesson for today, look for how you're going to get out of the car before you park it.

That last line kinda sounds deep...
Naina

Experience that changed how I think - Part I

So, I have to work on my applications which require a lot of introspection and retrospection. My sister tells me I have become a Twiteratti, whereby I cannot write anything meaningful (read essays for my applications), but a whole lot of "ooh-look-what-happened-to-me-today". So, as of today, I'll be working on a series of ideas that I rejected for my application essays. I hope I can change your life and affect it the way mine was. Yes Nim, I've had some meaningful experiences in life as well. And a conversation with my Physics Professor counts!!
So, the first one, to Mr. Pathak. (Varun, your not allowed to call me a nerd at this stage.)
Back to Mr. Pathak. My dear man, you may not have been able to pique my interest in nanotechnology, but you did make me think.
The following conversation took place about, say, 3-4 four years back. I am obviously not quoting it word for word..but the essence has not changed.

I had just finished reading another book on the Holocaust and was waiting for something in Pathak sir's room, when we started discussing the things that went down during the world war. I was expressing my horror at what Hitler had done, and how wrong it all was, when sir stopped me, and asked, how do you know all that stuff happened?
I've read about it, you know about it, I know about it, the world knows about it... What is there to not know?
He looked at me and said, do you think the Allieds never did anything that bad? Do you think it was one sided?
"We would have heard about it, if something that big went down, I'm sure we would have known."
And then, he said (this I quote word for word), "History is written by winners".
Had Germany won, do you think the kids in school would have been taught about the gas chambers? You would have seen another side of the war. You would have heard of the atrocities American soldiers inflicted, you wouldn't even have heard of concentration camps. What happened in the Iraq war? What happened to the POWs? Does the next generation get to read about it in history books?
I think my face was stinging with the realization of what he had just told me. I was stunned. Years later, when I read 1984, his words came back to haunt me.
What IS the truth? We, as a race, have become so gullible to everything we are told. If one person says something conspiratorial on Twitter or Facebook, ten people follow it. Soon, hundreds begin believing it. Nobody stops to reflect and question the origin of that piece of news. Everybody likes a conspiracy. We thrive on it, we embrace it. It makes bulbs in our head glow. It makes us angry. We like being angry. We are moronic in that sense..conflict seeking, temperamental humans.
Anyway, the take away for me from this "experience" was to always always always question what you are told. Don't believe your mum when she tells you that you can't stay out late at night, or your sister when she tells you that she is smarter that you are. Question it. Always.

Off-topic, I was listening to Bon Jovi's Always on repeat today..reminded me of Snape. The lyrics kind of fit. Isn't that weird?

Another one will be up soon,
As ALWAYS, would like to hear from you lot! Leave a comment or at least mark a box at the bottom. (I lied, it hurts when somebody marks a post "Lame". But dont worry, go ahead and mark it if you find the post lame)

Adios.
Naina "enlightened" Taneja

Sunday Morning

It's 6.30 in the morning, the sun is up, there is a chill in the air. Decent time to be alive in. Unless of course, you had to drag your grouchy self out of bed at 4.30 in the morning (after lying awake for over an hour), get dressed and enter a dirty kitchen to grab a decent breakfast of fried egg which ends up being more scrambled than fried and reach over an hour early for an exam that starts after three hours. And when you enter the arena, you look around hoping to find a cosy nook where you can put your head down and catch up on the sleep, and realize even a tiny space to put your butt on would suffice at this stage. All of this for an exam I haven't studied for and expect no miracles from. Sometimes I wish I had my own Tyler Durden who would make me do stupid things so I  didn't do other stupid things. To top it all off, I had the brilliant idea of disabling my 3G connection yesterday, because it hardly ever works anyway, only to realize, it had been working alright all this while. Humans, never satisfied. So we end up even more dissatisfied. Now I am here, without internet, without company, and with no hope in sight of getting any sleep before I am supposed to begin applying my soggy brains to work. But you guys, its a nice Sunday morning, so sleep in, snuggle up next to your bunnies or husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, kids, who or what ever. It is still only 6.35 after all.

Lol, network error...

Sunday Morning

It's 6.30 in the morning, the sun is up, there is a chill in the air. Decent time to be alive in. Unless of course, you had to drag your grouchy self out of bed at 4.30 in the morning (after lying awake for over an hour), get dressed and enter a dirty kitchen to grab a decent breakfast of fried egg which ends up being more scrambled than fried and reach over an hour early for an exam that starts after three hours. And when you enter the arena, you look around hoping to find a cosy nook where you can put your head down and catch up on the sleep, and realize even a tiny space to put your butt on would suffice at this stage. All of this for an exam I haven't studied for and expect no miracles from. Sometimes I wish I had my own Tyler Durden who would make me do stupid things so I  didn't do other stupid things. To top it all off, I had the brilliant idea of disabling my 3G connection yesterday, because it hardly ever works anyway, only to realize, it had been working alright all this while. Humans, never satisfied. So we end up even more dissatisfied. Now I am here, without internet, without company, and with no hope in sight of getting any sleep before I am supposed to begin applying my soggy brains to work. But you guys, its a nice Sunday morning, so sleep in, snuggle up next to your bunnies or husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, kids, who or what ever. It is still only 6.35 after all.

Lol, network error...

My Kiss of Love

Another report of "moral policing" in my city. A few protectors of the Indian culture took it upon themselves to beat up a bunch of students who decided they wanted to kiss in public. I get it, you have man strength. You would like to let the world know that. How dare people show affection for each other in public? I mean, I don't care if a man rapes a woman in public, or stares at her obscenely, or molests her. As long as there is affection involved and the act is consensual, it is against the Indian culture.
Rewind. Are you trying to tell me, my culture allows for sexual abuse, but not for a little PDA? Dear Protectors of the Indian Culture (Henceforth, referred to as the PIC), tell me, when was the last time you were this quick to react to help a lady in distress in a public space? I get groped in the dark, you stand by on your bike, watching on, wondering why I am trying to grab a man by his collar and calling him names. But, the moment I as much as hold my boyfriend's hand in a public place, you swoon down on me, from who knows where, and ask me, Is this your drawing room? Yes, I am aware this is  a public space, I am also aware of what is illegal in public. I am not indulging in obscenity, PIC, I am only displaying my affection for another human being. Who defines your limits? OK to beat up people in the name of "Culture", not OK to be beaten up by people for being buffoons.
I remember reading a report in the papers a few months back, that a city had decided to install cameras in a park where couples frequented and sat by themselves in corners "indulging" in PDA. Did anybody bother to identify public spots where eve-teasing or molestation are rampant and suggest installation of cameras there? Is it just me or does everybody here have their priorities messed up? You are actually sending out signals, that if it is forced, we will accept it and let it go with comments such as "boys will be boys", but the moment it is consensual, it will hurt our sensitivities and we will step out and beat you up. Boo your logic. My Indian culture is not stagnant. It is evolving. Which is why Sati is illegal today, which is why dowry is illegal today. By your logic, we should de-evolve by a 100 years and go back to being an underdeveloped, enslaved society. Because that was once a part of our culture. Every time I hear somebody use the word "culture" to defend some inane action of theirs, it makes me mad. Drop the act. You don't care. You do the same stuff behind closed doors, everybody else just decided to stop being shy and take it out into the open. Again, I understand the difference between full fledged obscenity and a little display of affection. So, till you can tell the women of this country they can walk freely at night or alone through a deserted patch on the road, stop telling them to not kiss in public, you don't have the right to.

A very indignant Indian Girl.