And the Spirit carries on......

"Catastrophes make history. In the past 4 years Kharagpur has provided diverse tastes of making (and breaking) history ranging from bitter to sweet, to downright unpalatable. My present reflection, however, is all about yesterday.

We in Kgp have our own self -confessed Woodstock once a year, in the form of two events which are effectively the necessary stepping stones to a successful career (yes, it is almost a career) in a highly coveted performing art.. MUSIC. These events are somehow very indiscreetly named Eastern and Western Groups [hmmm, why not rings, cliques and fields] and during the past years have led to decisive turning points in the biggest competition of them all. The GC: General Championship. Seven teams of music gods and not-god-yets battle out relentlessly for two days trying to snatch those noble championship points. Lateral efforts are not spared too, as fancy lighting, excessive dramatization, showmanship, and poltu are used to complete effect. It is the most sacred stage a KGPian can play on.Period.

Now for the real thing. The last paragraph is a complete farce. Our attempts at understanding the sheer complexity (and lunacy) of a GC tussle falls miles short of target."

You'll notice that the above piece of text is in Quotes +italics. That's because I wrote it sometime back, when we couldn't finish in the top three in Inter Hall Eastern Groups a few days ago [Makes, sense. There is irony in the above]. It was a performance with a lot of heart, but with help from a couple of power failures and some rules pushed too far, we couldn't make a spot in the top three.

A lot has happened since then. We secured a Bronze in Inter Hall Western Groups today. This is also our third straight bronze in this event. Wow! 10 days worth of hard practice and I should be really happy about it..... But somehow, I read the quoted text again ( I had planned to post it sometime but never got it completed) and it seemed more apt than ever.

As far as I am concerned, I don't give a tinker's cuss about the GC. And I can say this because today I am not in a position that makes me vulnerable by saying that [this is an obvious reference to many dudes who are on the prowl these days for funda]. Trying to win the soc-cult GC is like throwing eggs into a dark room. Find the couch and your egg will survive. Find the concrete and it is over for good.

Find a qualified judge and you get what you deserve. Find a noob...and OUCH!

It is the blatant nonlinearity in the entire process of acquiring points in the GC that is so scary. Which reminds me of Stewie Griffin:
"You know Lois, our life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get....
YOUR life however, is a box of active grenades."


But, as the title says, the spirit carries on.. [which by the way is a very good song :)]

So we still toil and moil for..don't know what. I guess it is pleasure, the charm of performing together, the bonding that keeps up going. But there's not a lot besides that. The GC is a tool in the hands of people most of whom could not become particularly good at anything worth mentioning [of course forming the minority are the few who became good at everything, and I really respect them]. So this majority take it upon themselves to ensure everything else goes well. But I cannot blame them. That's their job. This is mine. In the end we are all going to be separated anyways. Who's gonna remember the GC?

Pick up a skill. Be a good leader. Excel in your muggai. Be a good sportsman. It's all in the game, as long as you do it for yourself...because your self is the only thing you'll carry out of this campus.

And I am sure the GC will take care of itself.

Innovative (and irritating) mail IDs

This post is dedicated to a strange phenomenon observable in a queer subclass of Orkut & Googletalk users. In an effort to send out a message, or for some other entirely crappy reason, these guys and girls often adapt incomprehensible and PJistic Gmail IDs. What's worse, some go to the extent of susbsituting their names with something that's hip-hot-happennin (or totally useless, of course).
Man is a social animal, but you'll agree that this soup of social networking becomes harder to understand the further you get from your teenage days. I mean, there was a time when you 'Orkutiyaed' for hours at a stretch, looking at arbit profiles of girls (and answered arbit friend requests if you ARE a girl). There was this time when you consolidated your friend list and boasted of 300+ friends, many of them you never even talked to. Worse. Many of them you did'nt even know.Especially the Brazilian ones.

But there is a limit to how deep can one go into this MAYAJAAL. Here's a sample of gmail id's and orkut names I have come across. I am not mentioning whose gmail IDs these are, because in most cases I have absolutely no idea:

.] avishkar.smarty
.] monophilogynist.pk112
.] thisisme17
.] giggidy.giggidy
.] cutie.pie
.] blueeyedbaboon
.] dudes8686
.] shakeyouabhi
.] xxayisjeeves
.] mecoollibra
.] newton.evems
.] badal2405
.] pdon007
.] hunkydude
.] coolest007
.] typhoon.2010
.] moodyarian
.] tropicaliceberg2006 [wth??]
.] sexysyk
.] comiczone420
.] yvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Phew! If you are reading this and any of these great gmail IDs belong to you, could you leave a comment, preferably citing the bizarre circumstances in which such names were created?
Now analyze this. I am logged into Google Talk, and in my IM contacts, I see a person with a name (for example) 'tropicaliceberg2006'. The display image is a portrait of Shahrukh khan, and the name is "PLZ GOD THESE ENDSEMS R KILLING ME...:(:(:(" [similar combinations expected].

HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO THAT IS?

No concluding remarks needed. Instead I'll chip in with a quote from 'The Big Bang Theory'-edited for effect

" Hey if you could stay for the night at our place, we could play World of Warcraft and watch BattleStar Galactica together!"
"OR, We could just get a life."

A night less ordinary

Serendipity indeed.... Of my 4 years in college, I have not had a more eventful night as far as musical performances are concerned. To sum up:

1. a satisfying ETMS production, well received keeping in mind the not-so-noisy crowd.
2. Seeing Breathe, a Pink Floyd cover band, live amid fireworks and a cool breeze.
3. Playing with Breathe.

A night of elevation....

Things you have to try before you die.

This post is likely to end up as the longest blog post I have ever written. Not because my mind is taking giant leaps of imagination at this moment, but because every mind takes these giant leaps at random moments in the past, which all go undocumented. Since this documentation is so important, I dedicate this megapost to the immense amount of information that we imbibe through everyday sources, but end up losing it all to the pathetic structure of human memory.

It is quite useless to trace the sources of whatever has been written down here. It is a list of various things which I have/have not experienced.It is all dynamically updated, and is probably being furnished with new stuff as you read.

The list of things to be experienced before you die:


1. Witness the border sealing exercise at Wagah, Punjab: This one is a beauty. Green guys on one side, Khakis on the other. Excessive rhythmic stomping. Soldiers exchange thumb gestures that look like the 'thenga' we all know. Two flags rise and fall together with perfection. And the best part: a few hundred Indians and Pakistanis on either side, shouting "Hindustan/Pakistan Zindabaad", each loving the indescribable sense of victory: shouting your land's praise right at your enemy's doorstep....

2. Listen to Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt live: Few musicians have the ingenuity to invent a musical instrument. The sheer audacity with which the man churns out notes from a guitar look-alike is astounding.