Having a room to myself i was as flippant, if not more and as careless as i ever was. Only a phenomenon could get me to change the sorry state my room was in. And then, mom and aunt visited.
Needless to say i was rendered speechless (fact is they never let me open my mouth. Thank God she's not an external) all the while chiding about the deplorable condition of my room! To cut that long story short, they ended up making my room living worthy for those other than me as well with the parting order to maintain it as such.
Taking it to my heart i decided to shop for stuff that i had so far labelled as frivolous. And therein lies my mistake.
"I believed i could shop."
Now before i relegade you with my shopping experience, let me tell you about my previous shopping experience. 'Zero'. The max i have shopped is for a razor. I'm a guy who buys a blue shirt every time just cos i get confounded by the variety(I've nearly 6 formal shirts and all blue). So all i perfectly know about shopping is how it spells.
As any good(rofl) medico, i made a list of items to be bought. Starting from Nescafe, the list included pril, harpic, a boom, a dishwasher brush, a brush for toilet cleanin, couple of door mats, all out, a dettol soap for washing Hands, a soap tray and a ceramic cup. How hard is it gonna be to buy these 11 items?!?!?!?
Obviously tougher than i had bargained for. So i chose a big and grand departmental store(does this count as my 2nd mistake???) and went riding happily on my bike.
Facing me were half a dozen rows each as long as a tyranosaurus, from the apex of its head to the tip of its tail, and i was already lost! Seeing my distress a (pretty;)) sales girl offered help. The first thing i had to do was get a stroley. Pushing it around(feeling like a new dad:D) i started my conquest with nescafe.
The shelves offered nescafes of all possible flavour and bottle size(there is an option of favours in nescafe? Its just nescafe coffee right?:(). After 10 minutes of indecision, i settled on the classic(sounds good. But the Taste?:() chosen by inky pinky ponkey(:D). And then i had to walk nearly half a mile(guilty as charged of exaggeration:p). To reach pril. And once again i faced the dilemma of choice. This time however i decided faster(thanks to my friend who pesters me to wash his dishes with his pril).
Dettol was tougher. Why would i want an antiseptic soap to be cool as ice or smell of jasmine? Now its at the dishwash brush that i learnt that the (pretty:D) sales girl had other plans. Don't get me wrong. She was out to make a profit for the store. And why not? Its her job. But i was wakeful enough (lol) to reject a suggestion of a brush that costs 150 rs instead of a 20rs one. So i broke up with her and proceeded to complete my list. The broom was over soon as there was only one option. The allout offered a dial to adjust the outflow for an added 30 rs (bunch of pirates!). The coffee cup was tricky. The store offered only a glass cup for 50rs and with my track record for handling(or aptly said, mishandling;() i was wary of incurring my mom's wrath again.
Atlast i was done and feeling like Alexander would have felt at the bank of Ganges (that I'd come a long way, but all for nothing). While waiting to have my bill totalled my eyes caught a bottle of squash(:p). Only the price tag stung(i shall endorse fresh fruits herein). So i consoled myself wit a couple of packets of Maggie chicken noodles(yes yes yes yes yes :D) and proceeded to check out.
Now i knew this stuff gonna cost. But i never dreamt it would burn my pocket through and through. At 466 it wasn't exactly cheap (i suffered a minor heart attack). Obviously the inflation is yet to pass in this store. Thankfully i had taken the last 500 i had. And it was finished.
Moral of the story, for myself and first time shoppers. No Overconfidence. Never trust the help. Don't be overwhelmed by the choice (this is where i realised, freedom of choice is not always to be appreciated). Be ready with your dad's credit card(love you dad:D.) And only recommended for the strong of heart or women (;))!
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Our group photo session!
Not having a photogenic face, i have a natural aversion to being captured on film. Plus add to it the visceral hatred (is this comin too strong too soon?) for few of my batchmates i was not too intent on capturing to preserve this period of my life i am intent on forgetting.
But pleading, advice, coercion, and friends prevailed. So it was decided to report there in the hostel gallery(another place i detest more than anything, do not ask why) at 3 noon.
We Indians have this unique code of punctuality that defies any possible explanation of punctuality. While i was counting on that, my innocent friends believed that the photo shot would have got over. And the time was yet to be 3. Seeing my reluctance to move, they short of dragging me out, did everything possible and succeed in gettin me ready(for those of you who know me would marvel at this).
How could there be a photo session without a debate on dress. That has thankfully never been a problem for me seeing how i once wore a pink shirt and a green pant. To see guys squabble over a shirt is new to me. Atlast we were ready, after another idea of applying perfume(perfume? For a photo?).
Atlast we started. And in the way we met 2 guys who were just tired to walk the distance (can not blame them seeing how the sun has decided to torment us earlier and more this year). So we reached the destined spot and lo! Behold a phenomenon!
The girls had assembled! Flashback over a year when we had to wait for half an hour for the girls. I will confess, i felt bad for underestimating the girls. Then myself and my friend went back to fetch the 2 guys. Cos though i might not be too interested, i certainly did not want them to miss out on this occasion.
Fast forwarding the wait for a couple of people who have made tardiness their middle name, we reached the moment. I managed to half hide myself behind a pillar, well away from the duo i love and hate.
So how long would a photo take? Turns out the photographers (who certainly did not inspire any confidence in me) had something a bit more prolonged in mind. What with an obnoxious group cracking irritating jokes(please spare me God, which was greatly enjoy by the girls and drew heavy laughter)and having to sit on broken pieces of brandy bottles(someone had been celebrating in style it would seem) i was more than ready to bolt.
After innumerable encores, we were finally done.
And today we get the sample result. Thank God my face is as blurred in the photo as it is in some peoples mind.
But pleading, advice, coercion, and friends prevailed. So it was decided to report there in the hostel gallery(another place i detest more than anything, do not ask why) at 3 noon.
We Indians have this unique code of punctuality that defies any possible explanation of punctuality. While i was counting on that, my innocent friends believed that the photo shot would have got over. And the time was yet to be 3. Seeing my reluctance to move, they short of dragging me out, did everything possible and succeed in gettin me ready(for those of you who know me would marvel at this).
How could there be a photo session without a debate on dress. That has thankfully never been a problem for me seeing how i once wore a pink shirt and a green pant. To see guys squabble over a shirt is new to me. Atlast we were ready, after another idea of applying perfume(perfume? For a photo?).
Atlast we started. And in the way we met 2 guys who were just tired to walk the distance (can not blame them seeing how the sun has decided to torment us earlier and more this year). So we reached the destined spot and lo! Behold a phenomenon!
The girls had assembled! Flashback over a year when we had to wait for half an hour for the girls. I will confess, i felt bad for underestimating the girls. Then myself and my friend went back to fetch the 2 guys. Cos though i might not be too interested, i certainly did not want them to miss out on this occasion.
Fast forwarding the wait for a couple of people who have made tardiness their middle name, we reached the moment. I managed to half hide myself behind a pillar, well away from the duo i love and hate.
So how long would a photo take? Turns out the photographers (who certainly did not inspire any confidence in me) had something a bit more prolonged in mind. What with an obnoxious group cracking irritating jokes(please spare me God, which was greatly enjoy by the girls and drew heavy laughter)and having to sit on broken pieces of brandy bottles(someone had been celebrating in style it would seem) i was more than ready to bolt.
After innumerable encores, we were finally done.
And today we get the sample result. Thank God my face is as blurred in the photo as it is in some peoples mind.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
The moth teaches me a lesson.
Today i saw a moth, trapped by a glass panelled window. Beyond which was a flower. The most beautiful I'd ever seen. Beautiful and alluring. The moth went at it with vigor. Again and again. Dashing against the unseen yet solid difference. Thwarted but never giving up, for the heart is consumed by love. Love for a flower so precious that the rest of the meaningful faded into nothing. So powerful a feeling that the repeated defeats dented not its soul. Even as the day grows shorter, and i wondered for the reason to spend such a short life on this seemingly Fruitless exercise. Unmindful of its self and the ones deserving its love left forlorn. The moth kept on, indifferent to pain, hunger, suffering or humiliation. Twack, twack, twack, and again. The flower unsurprisingly didn't flutter even a petal. For if not such a powerful emotion would penetrate your heart, i wonder what could. And the moth dropped for last time.
March 8.
March 8.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Dream
I'm not the usual active dreamer, what with being an insomniac, dreams often are short and vivid, rarely remembered, thankfully.
But occasionally i get that vivid and elaborately structured dream that is just too difficult to forget. So what is a dream?
Dream might have its etymology from the Proto- German word "DRAUMAZ" possibly meaning "DECEPTION".
My favourite book, Guyton's book of Physiology, says that dreaming is an active process. Strange, seeing how we always thought sleep was a passive state.
Sleep s REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non rem). Dreaming is a process (lets just say process for now) that occurs during the REM phase. Now a few characters of rem sleep are, 1. There s active movements of the eyeball while the muscle tone and movements are suppressed. 2. The brain activity s erratic. 3. The breathing and heart rates are erratic. So does this signify rem sleep and by implication dream, is an active process?
Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky say that rem sleep has 2 parts. 1. Tonic 2. Phasic.
In my dream, i was scuba diving, in the depths where light is unwelcome. With me, i have a torch. Suddenly the torch goes out and i am left in pitch black. No idea which way is up which is down. I keep swimming and swimming. Until my oxygen runs out. Then i suffer a slow, agonizing, drawnout, painful death by suffocation. This is where i jolt to wakefulness sweating, with the blanket twisted around me and the bed in disarray.
Rem phase lasts around 90 to 120 mins every night. There are about 5 to 6 rounds. So the average would be 18 to 20 mins per cycle. Then why, correct me if i am wrong, do we feel that dreams last longer?
A simple physics shall answer that. Thank you Einstein. Theory of relativity. Also the brain activity is so fast that hours in a dream state last but few seconds in reality (i did not steal this concept from Inception folks).
Sanskrit scriptures describe 4 states of consciousness.
1. Jagrat- wakeful state.
2. Svapna- dream state.
3. Sushupti- dreamless higher state.
4. Turiya- spiritual consciousness.
Now if the sauna state s compared to rem and sushupti to nrem, voila, we have a conformance.
Sankaracharya says, 'Experience of deep sleep is a glimpse of self's real nature where there exists no "I" .'
Then there is the theory, forgot by whom, which correlates long term memory with active dreaming. Several neurotransmitters being implicated.
So, what is dream? It certainly is no passive meaningless process. From the way i interpret my dream, I'd say, it is like a colescing of all.
Having recently experienced a traumatic separation, perhaps, my dream draws inspiration from that. The torch being the person i lost and the subsequent loss and my depression. The emotional trauma has manifested as a dream. I fervently hope i am not seeing the future. So having said this i have substantiated the scientific explanation of long term memory and the spiritual explanation of self realisation.
But occasionally i get that vivid and elaborately structured dream that is just too difficult to forget. So what is a dream?
Dream might have its etymology from the Proto- German word "DRAUMAZ" possibly meaning "DECEPTION".
My favourite book, Guyton's book of Physiology, says that dreaming is an active process. Strange, seeing how we always thought sleep was a passive state.
Sleep s REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non rem). Dreaming is a process (lets just say process for now) that occurs during the REM phase. Now a few characters of rem sleep are, 1. There s active movements of the eyeball while the muscle tone and movements are suppressed. 2. The brain activity s erratic. 3. The breathing and heart rates are erratic. So does this signify rem sleep and by implication dream, is an active process?
Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky say that rem sleep has 2 parts. 1. Tonic 2. Phasic.
In my dream, i was scuba diving, in the depths where light is unwelcome. With me, i have a torch. Suddenly the torch goes out and i am left in pitch black. No idea which way is up which is down. I keep swimming and swimming. Until my oxygen runs out. Then i suffer a slow, agonizing, drawnout, painful death by suffocation. This is where i jolt to wakefulness sweating, with the blanket twisted around me and the bed in disarray.
Rem phase lasts around 90 to 120 mins every night. There are about 5 to 6 rounds. So the average would be 18 to 20 mins per cycle. Then why, correct me if i am wrong, do we feel that dreams last longer?
A simple physics shall answer that. Thank you Einstein. Theory of relativity. Also the brain activity is so fast that hours in a dream state last but few seconds in reality (i did not steal this concept from Inception folks).
Sanskrit scriptures describe 4 states of consciousness.
1. Jagrat- wakeful state.
2. Svapna- dream state.
3. Sushupti- dreamless higher state.
4. Turiya- spiritual consciousness.
Now if the sauna state s compared to rem and sushupti to nrem, voila, we have a conformance.
Sankaracharya says, 'Experience of deep sleep is a glimpse of self's real nature where there exists no "I" .'
Then there is the theory, forgot by whom, which correlates long term memory with active dreaming. Several neurotransmitters being implicated.
So, what is dream? It certainly is no passive meaningless process. From the way i interpret my dream, I'd say, it is like a colescing of all.
Having recently experienced a traumatic separation, perhaps, my dream draws inspiration from that. The torch being the person i lost and the subsequent loss and my depression. The emotional trauma has manifested as a dream. I fervently hope i am not seeing the future. So having said this i have substantiated the scientific explanation of long term memory and the spiritual explanation of self realisation.
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