Zephyr

Well a light warm breeze flows over. The season is changing and with that our lives. Its been a long journey, 23 years !!! woww ..... they just went by in a flash. Things keep changing rapidly and with the present pace of the world, you simply cant wait and appreciate it. I dont understand why people are running this race (in the name of development and achievement they surely are pushing things a little too far). I am pretty sure that 99% of the population doesnt have any concrete goals in life. They are in this race either to reach higher ground or they dont want to be the odd ones. Looking back at my life, I just find another person in this huge pile of mass blinded by the magic of life.

The immediate question that crept into my mind was - 'Was is worth it?'. Well for most of the part Yes! being one of those who craves for social approval and acclaim makes it even more difficult to turn my head away from this ruckus. But just a minutes relection made me see the light, that which wasn't visible for all these years. This way I knew I would never retire from this race, not even in my death bed. I knew this wasn't what I wanted. There was more to Life, to seeking true happiness and to understanding the miracles of the spirit.

The winds have blown in a change, not only in the climate but in me too. From hereon begins my search for things I will cherish in my life.

Renaissance underway !!!

"Answer just what your heart prompts you". Is this what we do in all situations. Is this how we deal with all our problems. No, atleast not me. I have never been able to follow my heart. It has always put me into more trouble than I could manage. When I look back on the path that got me to my present, I always feel that I would have been better off taking the other option provided to me at every crucial junction. Probably this is what God wants us to understand. "The path is set for you to follow, the choices have been made for you to understand". I still havent understood my choices but have followed the path till date. In their lifetime many of us never understand the purpose of their life, hopefully I am trying not to be one of the many. I want to know what exactly is that I was sent here to do. But I think I will have to wait for the right time and the right moment. There are 2 possibilities that could occur if I come to know my purpose before the right time, either I complete the task for which I was sent here early and then there will be no more use for me in this world or I will find myself incompetent to perform the task rather than persisting with it till the end.

It just a mindless blabber for many but just stand by in your journey and think ....you will understand the meaning beyond the truth you seek.

A New Chapter Begins !!!

May 2006 : Done with my Bachelors from IIT Guwahati.
August 2006 : Begins my quest for Masters at Arizona State University, Phoenix.

After a terribly long flight from Bombay to Los Angeles with only one stop at Frankfurt and a long delay of the connecting flight from LA to Phoenix, I landed in Phoenix at around 2:00am on the 7th of August, 2006. Luckily for me the Indian Students Association had not only picked me up from the airport but also provided me with temporary accomodation till I find my way around. It was really nice of all the seniors to help the freshers and provide them with a lot of assistance in the beginning.

The first few days went by running around the whole campus from building to building and desk to desk to get all the paper work done as soon as possible. I managed to do everything but just forgot about my accomodation, which finally has been resolved and hopefully will be moving in this weekend.

My first weekend was pretty boring, just sitting in the room and watching movies in my seniors laptop. After doing this for the whole of Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we decided it was enough and managed to coax a senior to taking us to South Mountain. South Mountain is a picnic spot in the outskirts of Tempe. It was a nice ride apart from which I didnt find the whole place pretty exciting. Well it was still better than sitting in the room.

The next week passed eating pizza's and attending ice-cream parties. Ohh forgot to mention the silly orientation programs where you sit through a series of lectures which make u feel sleepy. After all this came the best weekend till date.

"THE TRIP TO GRAND CANYON".

It all began on Saturday morning when I went to a seniors place and he asked me whether I was interested in coming to Grand Canyon. After a little bit of dilly dallying I decided that this was it. My chance to have fun before a gruelling semester. I took it up and would not regret it. We started on Saturday afternoon at around 3:30 pm on 19th August 2006. We decided to touch Sedona and Flagstaff enroute to Grand Canyon. It was a really exciting trip and the ride was amazing. I was amazed to look at the level of civil engg in the US. 2 laned roads on top of mountain ..stretching for a few miles. This was really amazing and there were a lot of other fun incidents all over the trip (which I think will go in a different topic later on). We came back on Sunday night 10:30 pm. Although we could do a whole lot of things ..there was a time constraint that didnt allow us to explore everything. All in all it was good trip and had some much need divertion from all the troubles ehehe.

After this started the SEMESTER, on 21st August 2006. I bunked my first 2 morning classes of Environmental Fluid Dynamics (EFD) ....well this had become a habit at IIT which has to be lost soon if I have to survive here. During that week I paid my first visit to the Student Recreation Complex (SRC) and from then on have been a regular visitor. Its a really cool place to relax and exercise. You will find a lot of things to do ....any game or dance or food etc;. The second week went by in a similar fashion. Well things are slightly getting hotter and I guess from the next week I may not have the time to do this .....therefore putting one down right now ....

Incase the semester does not put me to the limit ..I should be doing this regularly ...otherwise will come back later ....

After Long Gap .....

Its been nearly 3 months since my first and last blog to date. This sudden absence can be attributed to a combination of factors, which I feel aren't important. The only important thing is I am BACK from the shadows of darkness ...or whatever ....

Hopefully will be more regular. At present there is a big confusion between my mind and heart, which I guess will not be resolved for quite some time. Hoping for some respite soon. Currently at Arizona State University, classes have started on the 21st of August. Within these past few days I have missed my parents, home and friends. The only thing I realised is that LIFE is very testing and puts you in places and situation you dont like to be in. But right now I look to the challenge in front of me, which again is very much similar to the one faced at IIT, and hopefully I wont commit the same mistakes as before.

More news from my side in my next blog ......will definitely keep posting ..

Is LIFE crazy ??? or Do we make it crazy ???

In life and in chemistry, its always the scum that rises up ...... do we accept that or not depends on our experiments and experiences with a crazy game called 'LIFE'. The rules of this game can never be understood completely, they seem simple and easy to follow but always the creator (GOD) has a special move up his sleeve. No matter how well you plan or how well you execute you are going down if your playing against him.

It is said that only 2% of the world's population are real achievers and the rest are mere bodies made to fill the space. Analogies of this game can be drawn to chess, where in you have 10 pawn pieces but only one King and one Minsiter, exactly resembles the situation in our world. Too few important men burdened with decisions affecting too many people. For example the utter nonsensical ideas that tend to sprout in our dear politicians are just like cactus sprouting up in a desert. They cause more harm than good. Here I would like to take the liberty of stepping aside from the mainstream discussion here to another topic :
'RESERVATIONS IN IIT's and IIM's'
No person with even an intellectual ability of the size of an amoeba would think of doing this. Any educated man in his right mind would know the importance of prestigious institutes to the nation. But somehow our beloved representatives seem to ignore this case. They are bound to increase reservations on the basis of caste to nearly 50%. I have nothing against my underprivileged brothers, but even reservations cannot be escaped, shouldnt it be on the basis of economic discrimination rather than caste. India is one of the fastest developing nations and things like caste discrimination do not give a pretty idea about our country globally. Also economic differentiation will clearly separate the poor from the rich and those are the people who have to be awarded reservation.
Secondly, reservations for the underprivileged should be there even in prestigious institutes as it gives diversity to the university and provides equal opportunity to all. It is the figure that disturbs me......isnt 50% a bit too high even when we consider the population ratio. Also as many critics have already pointed out that the government spends a lot of the taxpayers money on IITians, so is it justified to spend that money on lesser qualified people. For institutes like IIT's and IIM's , the brand name depends heavily on the quality of students entering. Recently IIT's have steadily decreased the difficulty of their qualifying exam attributing it, to stop coaching institutes from cashing in on innocent parents who are willing to spend lakhs of money to see their son in IIT. This itself has brought about a slight decrease (might be negligible) in the intellectual quantity entering these IIT's. Now with the coming of the new reservation bill the brand that the IIT's command has been threatened. There will always be the cream that will enter the IIT's but then there will also be those who have just missed the bus by a whisker which is always the case, only this time those who miss the bus will be far better than those who have managed to enter thanks to the reservation. Another thing that has trickled through my mind is that always there is a difficulty faced by the IIT's to fill the seats alloted for the reserved castes, at present this figure is 22.5% and imagine what would be the plight of the Institutes if tha figure is made 49.5%.
Thirdly there would be a big intellectual gap in the class. The professor teaching the class would definitely face the problem of balancing the pace of his teaching to meet the requirements of the higher intellectual group and the lower ones. It would definitely cause inconvenience to one and all, as some would feel that the teaching is slow and some fast and some confused on what pace to follow.
All this would guarantee the huge vote bank for the political parties ......Sonia, Arjun Singh, Congress and other political parties wouldnt dare to oppose the bill strongly as everyone craves for the vote bank. More than 70% of our country can be classified as on or below the povery line. This would easily give us more than 25% of the vote bank to be the reserved class which is being targeted here. Even that would be fine but, how many of these underprivileged students are availing reservation already present in the state board examinations. The number would be pathetic when compared to the actual case. It will mostly be utilised by well to do families who carry the SC/ST tag and happily using the tale of injustice that happened during our forefathers time for their own personal benefits, rather than the benefit of the community and nation as a whole (this can definitely be traced back to SC/ST political leaders and businessmen).

This is a serious issue that needs to be strongly condemned and mercilessly criticised. I might have missed mentioning a few important points or might have been looking in the direction with respect to some of my points. Please feel free to post your comments and maybe I will use them to make a better article in future.
Now coming back to life .....this cannot be finished with as easily as the topic above. Shall deal with it another time !!!! Hope it doesnt disappoint you.