Fakerisms

   Well...well..well.. Did I keep you wondering on the title of my blog? Any guesses? take a chance one more time? Fine, lets me break the ice, it means 'fake mannerisms'. It means to show to the world that one is well 'mannered'.For the sake of understanding let us consider mannerisms something more than etiquette's followed when we meet people. I mean to say that it is the value given to a particular relationship from the heart and to actually mean when they greet a person.
    There are so many people who say "Hello, nice meeting you" but hardly a handful of them mean what they speak when they follow the etiquette here. These dialogues have become so banal that we now utter them like machines do when we meet people either to match up to their status or to be as sweet as honey. Well, some innocent people are unable to realise this and think that they really mattered to these people.This apparent feeling of being valued is limited to only one meeting: once the meeting ends, the "strong-ties" come to a bleak end.
   A little more introspection into such people shows that these people are the epitome of being fake. They will show you green pastures only when they need your support to cling to. You must either be of some financial value or emotional value to them.Meeting them is a good experience altogether; their talks filled with embellished language to cajole preys out there. They will analyse each person by the value that person may provide in their lives and accordingly tailor talks to keep their record clean in his/her books. They will have no emotional attachment towards anybody whatsoever but they are master disguisers and will never let their true self show up.  These people will have two faces and to sets of friends; one set of friends to show to the other social beings out there with all sorts of fake interests and to create a fake high social image. The most jocular part is they may do 10 things which may seem modern apparently but their bases of such things are void.The second set of friends who actually stood by them during their tough times. The latter set of friends would never make it to their "parties" and other social gatherings. The worst part is that these people may not even bother to remember their well-wishers who stood by them like a pillar during high tides in their lives.

   These people are heralder's of fakerisms and they very well know how to lure others by talks and trap sane people for their own insane actions and purposes. I loathe such people to the fullest and feel that these people must be ripped off all the company they have at their disposal. They do not deserve anyone who is genuinely interested in friendship.These are the people who can never actually experience the joy of true friendship with anyone but can only maintain a ledger/balance sheet in life with one column containing people names and the other containing the "value" others contribute to their lives.Sometimes I even admire the "best-friends" of such people.Who knows this best friend might just be another person to just support this person so blindly in even all the wrong things he/she might be doing.
  So..so..so let me end this piece.It was surely a long one with
rancor directed to such fake people. The instant I see them, I am repelled miles away mentally. Someday, I wish to see such people out of this world so that the efforts I am taking to even keep them away is reduced and used for better purposes.
So, beware of fake people guys!!they are everywhere and you might be the next object of their interest, lured by their sweet mannerisms trap!
                                       GOOD DAY TO ALL OF YOU

The filthy rich but poor state of affairs!!

   It is morning 7:30 am IST and I and my friend are standing in anticipation of a bus at the stop. In a vast colony of ours, I can just hope that some bus might have gone inside the depot to later on make an appearance outside to ferry the customers to station. These buses are said to follow a timetable and are supposed to be on time like the local trains. The "Fixed" time actually is "variable". Sometimes the "standard deviation" is too much and sometimes astonishingly too less. I get a bus after these calculations only to know that I have no seat to sit but a comfortable place for my legs to hold the weight of my body.
 After a half an hour journey with my friend, we reach the station and this is where things are more disordered though the timings are fixed and sacrosanct. Every train does come on time, does its duty diligently of ferrying customers but customers fail to care for the services provided. In this case it is assumed that money paid is a big favour done. This is not the attitude which people portray or would express but something which their actions speak. "Macho-ism" here is something which is not based on one's character and actions but more on one's habits and appearance. People consider the whole of the country as a "wash-basin" since hardly there are any restrictions on spitting and every man has an extended right of "right to spit".
The railway tracks are a victim to this phenomenon. They are filled with so much filth and dirt that it is hardly bearable. People have become active doers but passive observers, what I say by this is that we act very easily, may it be any action but the effects of such actions are something which nobody wants to even observe or bring to notice or for that matter improve. One glance at the tracks will show many plastic bags, sometimes some bad spit stains which are considered to be "normal". From the person's perspective who has spit can consider himself/herself a hero figure since he did this action and there was not a single person to stop him/her in doing so.Behind him maybe 10 other passive commentors who would not publicly ask him to mend his ways but might abuse him internally for his insanse actions."Akhir me kaun jhagda karega aur jhanjat mei padega, ek ke sudharne se desh nahi sudharta(At the end who wants to fight and why to get into trouble and just improving one person will not improve a country)" is what people use as a standard "comment and logic" to refrain from correcting the person or questioning his/her actions.People, with this logic end up getting a false satisfaction a  reason for their actions. Owing to this attitude today, the not only the tracks in India but also the streets are filthy with garbage lying on roads, in certain areas(I see the condition slightly improving these days, feel good).
One more dirt is the passive attitude of people in turning a deaf ear to such problems. As I mentioned above, as always there is a rat race for money and there is no mistake in it being so, mistake lies in considering  that paying money allows one to do as per his whims without fulfilling any of his/her responsibilities towards the country. People don't realise that money cannot buy him/her everything: money can surely buy a house but it cannot buy him/her environmental beauty which is complimentary with the house. As the environment is complimentary, so should be such duties and they must not be equated with money paid for a service.
   So, people are getting richer day by day in terms of money but we are still poverty struck when it comes to our social responsibilty. So, guys, human race can never be poverty-free, can it? If we ever have to experience any such time, let us not turn a deaf ear to all gross that is going around us and make this world a "rich" place to live in.
    Let us first understand the different shades of "poverty".
Lastly, I would like to end this blog on a quote
“You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.”
-Frank McCourt

Is avoidance really a solution?

       Avoidance is said to be the main strategy which is adopted by humans to reach a truce to the problems which they face. I recently happened to wonder, is it really a solution to all issues? Does avoidance provide a permanent solution to the problems? What do you think?
       To start with, whenever I stated any problem which did not have a straight-forward solution, avoidance was suggested by people. It is the solution which, according to them, relieves a person of pondering about a problem which they have. At this very moment, I wondered, where does this problem go? The whole universe is balanced and there is no magic in problems vanishing away out of the blue. What should be done then? Let us take up the  process of food assimilation and overall digestion process of our body. Whatever food we ingest into our body is either absorbed and used for our life essential processes or excreted from our body, in this way there is always some process which defines each action performed. What if we imagined that the food we just ingested was avoided by our system and rejected for any process whatsoever. Just imagine now, where will this food go? It cannot be residing in the realms of our stomach all the time; it needs to vacate the space occupied by it to make room for the new food substances to nurture our body's health.
     Emotions are no different  and being emotionally healthy involves flushing out old emotions to make room for new and healthy ones.The unhealthy and vicious practice of people to generalise emotions based on a previous experience acts as a hindrance. After any bad experience, people often harbour these feelings(often negative) inside them, ignore them and are complacent that things are good with them; this complacency does not last much and the emotions which once they avoided surely hits back like a thunderbolt out of nowhere. Emotions have no physical existence and are abstract  and this makes things worse because we have no external tonic or any medication to help. The grandiose challenge, I believe is not an unhealthy body but unhealthy emotions. Having said all this, the best I could hope for is the presence of an excretion system for emotions. In this way, people realise how much filth they hold in their hearts.
    The first step to flush these emotions out of the system is accepting the fact that things have happened and letting go of the past for a better future. But wait, there is a catch here too, memories, they act like destructors of this process. People think what they experienced in the past to be way better than it actually was. This compels them to go back to the place where they came from to feel "secure". How can memories exaggerate things like this? If things were so better, they would never have taken a turn for the worse. With such destructive memories, they spoil their present and end up ruining their future prospects. People at the other end of such emotional people are smart enough to know this and take this to their advantage. So, in this discussion we found that avoidance of issues spawns memories which again backtracks our progress by 2 steps.
    I have explained the perplexities involved in avoiding a problem w.r.t emotions. However, this could also be extended to other domains, areas for a better life and healthy living.
     So, having said all this, I wish to ask all of you, do you see avoidance as a strategy to tackle your problems??
       

Include Me!!

     The title seems absurd isn't it? What can it possibly mean according to you?Include you, but where? People have made good friends with whom they hang out with, have a good time with. Everything seems fine and green when you see a person in the group. Recently, I was amused to see the amount of efforts which people take to maintain their status quo in a group.
      We measure the "coolness" quotient of a person by the number of friends he/she has. A person who has more number of people at anytime is said to be crowd-puller,hilarious and an attractive personality. There are no second thoughts about the qualities which this person possesses. Everybody wants to become like him/her. The real problem arises in this thought only. To match upto such sort of personality, people try and force themselves into things which they might not be interested in. Let us take up the FIFA worldcup as the reference. People's mind which are 'football dead', suddenly woke up when the world cup bell rang. I was surprised when these people were acting as if football was not an alien sport for them and that it has been decades since these people started watching this game. The best part is when these people accost other hardcore football fans with some recent game discussion and end up making fun of themselves by stating some wrong facts owing to lack of knowledge. My laughter knew no bounds when a person openly supported a football club as opposed to a country. Such has become our attention-seeking habits that we just crave for attention albeit through such ways  warranting unnecessary self-mocking and devaluation of one's own personality.
     Having said all this, I fail to understand one thing, why do people want so much of attention? my wonder-lust struck mind wanted to dig deeper. One of the possible answers could be we belonging to the "social being" category.How would you feel being a loner when all around you are in groups making merry. One always feels to have someone with whom they could speak, lighten their heart and have fun; pretty natural that way.Let me tell you, being surrounded by people always or having let people bother you at times is annoying. Sometimes, it is always better to be alone and nurture one's thoughts.
     Human beings are pretty ambiguous when it comes to liking something.For instance, people living at a particular place always admire other places rather than acknowledging their own surroundings; to be precise, people in the north pole always admire the south pole and vice versa. When we go and reside there, we come to know the complexities involved in residing in that place. So according to this principle, a loner will always want to be surrounded by people and sometimes, a person in a group may want to be accompanied by solitude.
   I have always been blatantly opposing the method of forcing oneself into something which one doesn't wish for primarily.There are always people who will be like you when it comes to giving you company. There are like minded people and there are people who differ greatly in thoughts compared to you. I feel it is always better to be a loner as opposed to being an "intruder" in the group for the group members. Deliberations will always make you and other person uncosy with each other.
     So, guys stop deliberating and live naturally.The "include me" attitude should be deserted. Let me tell you that there are ways in which I have kept company, not that I have people near me in abundance always; company can take various forms you see, take you into wonderlands, make you imagine places you have never been in before, make you imagine characters in those places, make you imagine a whole new world.If you get what I mean to convey.........
So guys, who is giving you company??
“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.” 
-Jean Paul-Satre

My Sunshine Blog Award

Hello everyone out there. This is my first blog award and I wish to share this with all my readers who have relentlessly supported me by reading my blogs.
As the legacy goes, this award is awarded by a fellow blogger.This award helps to identify other fellow bloggers and connect with them.
I acknowledge my nominator Namrata who writes awesome blogs and whose page is worth visiting time and again.I just like her style of writing
Thank you Namrata this award shall always be cherished.

There are certain rules one has to follow in order to accept the award. They are:

1. Display award on your blog.
2. Show gratitude to the person and link back your nominator.
3. Nominate up to 10 of your favorite deserving bloggers.
4. Link the nominees in your post and let them know.
5. Write ten interesting things about yourself.

My nomination list goes as follows:
1)Anusree Burman
2)Vishal Bheroo
3)Ananya
4)Ankita Shreeram
5)viyoma
6)Vinay

I shall nominate a few other bloggers with time.
Here are 10 things about me:
1)I have just completed my engineering in IT and on the verge of beginning my professional career.
2)I love reading books and that too from a  variety of genres.
3)I believe in simplicity and I find beauty in uncomplicated and clear thinking.
4)I am a deep thinker and my blogs are a reflection of that.
5)I really admire my parents and their simplicity.
6)I write what I feel and expect readers to be open about their views on that topic.
7)I also love singing and have got a token of appreciation in this too.
8)I believe in absolute dedication in the work I take up.
9)There are certain people who are valued dearly in my life.
10)Lastly, I believe in sarcasm a lot....:P.

The conversation among intellectuals!!!

                                                             

                   Now that my exams got over and for sometime atleast I am getting a respite from all the stationery items. So I utilized this time to just wonder about what they had to say about me. They have worked really hard to get me here and I guess they deserve credit for the same. There were some stationery items I would prefer using during my examinations while for others, they had found a dark recess inside my pouch to rest during the strenuous times.They were very reluctant to talk to me in my presence so I just put a microphone on the table and went away for a break during studying for one of the examinations. Here's what everybody had to say:
(My pouch has a pencil ,Pen A,Pen B(used less as compared to Pen A), Scale, Rubber,Sharpener lets see what these people have to say about me..as recorded by my microphone)
Pen A: Hello guys, how are you all doing?
Pencil: I am doing well, it's only during the examination that I become a commodity to be used; other times I    have a peaceful sleep. Life is kind of seasonal for me. Every 6 months my importance is realised.
Rubber: I pretty much agree with Pencil, I am only used to rub off the scars which this pencil creates on the   paper. Pencil, I need to ask you one thing, why do you create so many wrong curves and marks??
Pencil: Hey that's not my mistake; this guy guides me to work and I create my marks according to how he     holds me and guides me along the paper.That's really unfair of you for blaming me for this!
Rubber: As you can see my status, I have become so small in size only to hide the wrong marks created by you. I feel I don't have a life of my own. While everybody grows, I am just  reducing in size as the days pass rubbing someone else's wrongdoings.
Pen A: Well, you two, it seems his pouch has only a pencil and a rubber. Look at me, I am the same since 4 years and that is so boring. he doesn't even dispose me for me to take a new shape and for my life to get interesting. All the time he refills my ink and uses the same style of handwriting. Let me tell you one thing, his handwriting is cursive and he must be rotating me about 30 times a minute continuously, that's so tiring. I am bored of his touch and curves!!!!! The worst part is on the answer paper he tries to overwrite pencil's lead marks with my ink in diagrams. I am fed up of so much of importance!!Sometimes I even try to protest by not giving out a smooth flow of my ink but he ignores and by flipping me in different angles ensures that my ink flows properly!!
Scale:No reduction in size, no issues but my surface becomes rough after a point of time.
Sharpener: It seems I am in relationship for life with pencil. The only job is to groom the pencil so that it delivers quality and sharp marks. Nothing more to say!
Pen B:Hey listen up you all, I am quite chilled, he uses me very rarely, I am fed up of his mood swings but guess what i really like him since he bothers to care of me and also makes me realise my importance by using me regularly. So I think, I have nothing to crib about with this guy.
Pencil: Pen B, maybe you wont realise, for his own needs he sharpens me and reduces me in size as days go by, as I work for him I see myself reduced in size and power. Won't you feel bad for such a thing?
Pen B: Not at all, infact mates, I rate all of us more than his friends who are humans, would you like to know why?
Pen A: That's a very interesting point you made Pen B, I can't wait to hear your justification
(Everybody now listens with full concentration with the rubber allthemore curious )
Pen B: As you all know, he prefers Pen A more than me, so I have been kept at the outermost zip in his pouch where he hardly explores things.I could hear all he spoke to himself when he was alone. He spoke about how humans are manipulative and not trustworthy. He hates such people and loves people who can be trusted upon. I think we all are loyal to him and stood by him for all these years! doesn't that make us better than his fellow friends??Though we loose a part of us daily, I feel proud to do so, its a life lived of pride and no guilts.
Pen A: Hey come on bro, aren't you getting too serious here, I need a change okay?
Rubber: I agree with you Pen B, you are absolutely right! all these days I have been cribbing but now I feel proud of my own loss. I just hope after my slaughter, he disposes my cover properly which i am wearing now and on which he holds me to rub!!
Pencil: Correct Pen B, but before laying my life for him I would surely advise him to buy a lead pencil rather than pencils like me, in this way those pencils can remain loyal forever with only the lead changing inside.
Pen A: Scale and sharpner, I hope you are on my side atleast!!
Scale: No, Pen A, I agree with what your counterpart has to say, I shall serve my master!
Pen A: Scale, It seems you are in the armed forces. Oh come on scale!
Sharpener: Do we have any option here?? but there is some substance in what pen B has to say.It's better to be loyal and serve him after-all he is caring....
(Meanwhile, I make an entry and they all are back to their static positions.....now you all can imagine what can they say after this...)

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Chaos isn't a pit, Chaos is a ladder

                      /**I welcome one of my friends to co-author this article with me**/

           Chaos, a situation where our mind fumbles and heart rumbles. Everybody of us, at some point of time face a chaotic situation. Before I get to the helm of this topic, let me pose a question to you all, what is actually chaos? Prima facie, it means a disordered situation where one isn't able to decide what to do. By what I spoke just now then, chaos is a pit, a pit which is rounded, where there is no corner, everything seems even, every option seems viable and good to go with.

   It is a concept that is feared and a concept that is envisioned as this vast pit that is hard to escape from: A dark pit where all humanity is lost and there is no order. 

   So, elaborating more on chaos as a disorder, the next question that comes to one's mind is where is the way out? We are always unsure about every path we take may lead us down back where we are.We climb a few steps of a ladder we just chose in the chaotic situation, look down and finally fall back of being unsure of reaching the destination. So, having explained in a abstract way, now let me take a few examples:

Scenario: Suppose Mr/Ms X is appearing for campus interviews, and his/her college is a very renowned college in the country. Now X has too many options on the plate. For him/her, every option seems  to be a good bet. Company A provides ample money, company B provides a job profile he/she  wants, company C also provides a job profile of his/her choice.As he/she is not able to decide, he/she is in a pit, where to him/her every option seems viable and  good. He/she then chooses a company from the plate halfheartedly so that somehow he/she is  able to get out of it. With partial dedication there he/she always  judges every situation minutely. If  something ever goes wrong, he/she will blame it on the choice he/she had made during the chaotic  situation. Finally , with total dissatisfaction he/she leaves the company with framing up reasons for the same somehow in his/her mind and getting satisfied temporarily.

     Now let us take another perspective keeping the same scenario in mind. Mr/Ms X has so many options, so this forms a chaotic situation, or is it? The situation is not at all chaotic when Mr/Ms X knows what are his/her priorities. Even in the case of multiple companies offering the same profile, he/she will now choose the best one since his/her thoughts are directed. So, chaos is a situation which is backed by unclear thinking or priorities. He/she uses the so called chaotic situation to come up,rise up with the best possible option available. Just think, if he had just one company offering him a job, would he have had the privilege to work with the best in the market? Absolutely not. So, Mr/Ms X has now risen from the chaos; not only risen but also got the best possible option currently in market. So, what is the conclusion of this scenario? It is that chaos can be used as a ladder to come up with something which was otherwise not available in an ordered and systematic situation.

 I consider chaos as a combination of pleasure with pain. Pleasure because we are in the cloud of uncertainty as to what might turn up thus keeping the excitement quotient up. Pain because handling an uncertain situation requires a lot of mental effort and thinking out of the box; it also involves taking risks, sometimes even falling down and again getting up, which, to sum up, requires a great amount of endurance.

     Chaos is just a concept that hasn't been understood well. For example: chaos brings the best memories. When was the last time you remember something that went according to plan? It's not that much of a lasting memory. But don't you remember that time you got lost on the way home, and had to figure out the right way yourself? Now THATS a memory. And that's something that you will remember and even utilize every time you step out of your house.

  Absence of chaos can also be related to one not getting out of his/her comfort zone.There is a saying- The best things happened when you step out of your comfort zone and that is a perfect example of chaos; Stepping out of your comfort zone is a way of courting chaos. You have no idea and no control over what might happen, because you've never done this before. That seems a scary proposition. Most people would shy away from such circumstances. But the truth is that no matter what happens, you are always going to grow as a person after that. It might not be in the way that you'd expected, or the way that you'd want, but the fact is that your life is going to be different in some way; however subtle, however small.

   So every time you court chaos, you are in fact growing and changing. That chaotic event is going to take you some place that you've never gone before. And that is why it is a ladder. A ladder that makes you grow and take you places.

     However, some people choose to stay away from it because of reasons like fear, or their preconceived notions about what chaos is, and they cling to whatever they know without giving much emphasis on exploration. Some choose to not venture out into the unknown and stick to things they know and like, and what that essentially means is that they are stagnant. They are forever stuck in their so called ideal version of reality and convince themselves to stay away from chaos. They cling onto ideals like faith, pride, trust, ego and they choose not to climb their ladder, only to later realize that they have not grown as a person from life's experiences as much; how they are, in most ways, the same person they were years ago. Sometimes you might realise that you don't even require faith; sometimes you might find that you are strong even without something supporting you; sometimes, even from fear, comes strength.

  

So, friends, leave your inhibitions. Climb the ladder. Something great will come of it.

--Co-authored by Vikram Thyagarajan

1st blogiversary.

      So, dear friends, it has been a year long journey of writing on this platform.I started blogging on April 30,2013. Blogging has been a very soothing outlet for me for my issues in life.
       In January 2013, I wasn't even aware about the various platforms hosting blogs and the concept of blogging. I had a notion that bloggers were some people who were stalwarts or people who have established themselves who air their views for their followers and fans to read(this notion is quite hilarious for me too now). I later on realised that one need not necessarily be a big shot or a stalwart to be a blogger. Simple people also blog by airing their views and garner a lot of appreciation.This provided me an impetus to start blogging.
    If you all would have read my very first article, I had mentioned that various problems in my life had compelled me to pick up a pen and paper and use words as a medium to vent out my thoughts. Though I have mildly criticised my experiences in my blog, I feel I have successfully made myself feel lighter by doing so. Really, my laptop's keyboard and screen have been patient enough to take my words. My screen's unflickering support has led me to publish 27 posts and many in making still. However, I only blog about the issues which touch me to the core; I do not focus on just increasing my blog post count.
    Blogging, as an experience, has been wonderful. I have grown as a person here interacting with fellow bloggers. I was able to reach to people from multiple countries; something I hadn't imagined myself doing a year ago.Some people were silently expressive by hitting the +1 button of google plus while a few of them were expressive by commenting on my posts. I really appreciate the efforts of both of them and welcome even more people to be expressive in the way they want.
     Google has to be thanked to provide this platform which connects so many thoughts, so many people across the globe through the medium of blogger.com. Also, Thank you all my readers, you all have indeed been of great support to me by reading my posts. I hope, through my posts, I could influence a few of you in a positive way.
     With the completion of one year, I am also conferred upon 'The Sunshine Blog a\Award' by a fellow blogger which I shall formally accept soon. For a blogger, nothing could have got better in a year with all such credentials and optimism.
I hope to come up with some more intense topics in the coming time.
THANK YOU ALL ONCE AGAIN.    
     

End of a journey, beginning of memories

The apprehension at the beginning of the journey, the anxiety before the journey begins and thus sometimes refraining from entering the journey itself. These reactions are so common whenever we try to venture into new things in life. For the time we experience it, we never find any sort of joy in such things and always wish that the journey gets over as soon as possible for the "better future" prospects awaiting us.
    Still, as we say the true value of things are only realized in two cases: before we get it and after we loose it.In the same way any experience in our lives are valued in two cases: before we are about to experience and after we experience. What remains after is the memories. Memories are the elements of life which form a link between the present and the past and a lot has been spoken about it. This time though i would like to share with all my readers how my memories are, having reached the periphery of this four year long engineering journey. I would focus on the first two and the last two semesters while writing(start and the end).
    To start with, I was a pretty reserved guy, if you would have asked me in my FE(First year of engineering), probably I would have been shy enough to voice my opinions and never started blogging. There were a few people I would hang out with, we had lots of fun, exploring new places. For me probably this was the phase where I started going out to the fullest.It's not that i never had a set of friends before or places were in scarcity but then this is the phase called "college days" where such outings reached its peak. The first semester was mostly spent in speaking to people and getting to know them.  I had made acquaintances but things never reached a level of friendship. Generally first semester is really stressful considering the grand transition to studying everything in a matter of 2 months previously done in a year or so. This semester passed by soon and the first war was waged on November 30,2010(i meant semester one exams..:p). We fought a month long battle which came to an end on December 29. It is said "if the end is good everything is good" and we missed on this pleasure too(the last paper being disastrous for many) .
   A fresh start for semester 2 was the need of the hour. This is what I exactly got. Now that some acquaintances turned into friends, we started to go out and started "bunking" and hanging out, playing and enjoying. A semester comprises of roughly 3 months and during this course, I hardly studied anything and sometimes my folks often wondered this radical change(all the studies came in the last month). My reply would be just as simple "There is time and I will make up". Things had just settled and i was getting into a mode for which the coming 3 years of my life would be spent. Thus, semester 2 was an semester which gave me an  idea of how this journey would be. By this time I can say i had fit in the shoes and got adjusted to this life. Some of the good moments which are worth remembering are our trip to juhu, and some inordinately wonderful moments with all my buddies. This semester ended with all of us going to Juhu which was the tip of the iceberg(MV wisdom).
      Once getting used to all this, I began to enjoy engineering, it had become a routine for me to study for a month and to enjoy the rest of the time. I will always remember the time i spent playing carom at the hostel in our college. A guy named Anand who resided there would arrange for our gameplay. I along with friends named Amit, Aadesh, Akshay,Bhushan,Bhavin,Fahim would all go there and have "striking" time on the carom board.  Sometimes, while they played, I would be reading some or the other book totally engrossed in that.
    The next checkpoint is the Industrial visit which I have already described in the article titled "The legendary trip".  After this trip my bond with some people got stronger. So in the following semester, we all would gather, have discussions and in this way i got an opportunity to speak with many people with whom i had never opened up much. Needless to mention, I got to know some more good souls out there.
    Semester 7, was the semester of a lot of work. All got busy in a race to get placed. Myriad number of companies coming to our campus and recruiting people. This was a deciding semester for us, since the efforts we put for all the preceding 3 years was about to bear  fruits. It was also a semester of disappointment for many since they couldn't make it. This is where a friend's importance was realised. We were all always mentally supporting the people and reassuring them of their own capability. I am happy that today they are placed. One memorable thing about this semester is the garba night where I danced to the music. I learnt a few steps, which was a great thing for me since I would always refrain from dancing.
  Lastly, coming to the VIII semester, the final one. The beginning of  end was in a  way the beginning for me. Since this was the last semester, bonding between people increased even more now that people knew that the end was not far away. Let me tell you, its a terrible sensation when you have a good time knowing that things are going to end soon.  I sometimes feel why hadn't I or why they did not open up with me being in the same course and class. I consider this semester as the semester of parties and enjoying one's heart out keeping in mind the "end" which was nearby. The end which was expected to arrive but wasn't expected to be so painful. Just yesterday we had our farewell and officially, yesterday was the last day of our college where we could meet our friends.Frankly,  I don't think our emotions developed in these four years would ever separate us apart come what may. There are some relationships which distances can never separate because of the bond called emotions.
     When we look from a larger perspective, 4 years is not much in a lifespan of about 60-70 years.What counts the most is the time and age in which these years were spent and this is what makes it stand apart from our school and junior college days. I learnt so many things here personally and professionally. I would also like to state that during this journey, some pastures were red and not everything was green. Such times made me strong and ready for the unforgiving outer world composed of mortals who just think about themselves.
   If I made a list of what all I will miss about this place, it would itself turn out to be an article. Through this medium I would like to thank all those who were with me in this 4 year long journey.
 Bhushan, the train journeys I have had with you; we got to know each other so well in these journey's ; sharing each other's problems and thus strengthening our friendship bond. Fahim, for the long talks after college;;who is also my my project co-member with whom I have had so many fights, good moments and a wonderful time. Amit, the person I could pretty much relate to and whom I had so many talks with;you are really good at heart brother, keep it up. Bhumika,a lady who thinks deep and has a sound intuition. Anvi, who is more into sitcoms(I will surely watch scandal..:p).Aadesh, the cricketer who was the captain of our college team , will always remember the pranks you played with me and also our short and sweet game of greeting each other in regular intervals.Chirag, the shrewd guy who I believed knew the ways to handle things to produce exact result, be it work,business or personal relationships, you will be missed man..:).Mangirish, the MBA,MS talks and the car journey's after exams. Aakansha, a person who sings well, have had so many singing sessions with you.will remember all this.Milind, the code master and Bhavesh, a funny guy who would turn out to be a prankster of the highest extent, the master of sarcasm, will miss you..Shiv(Bantaay), I will miss the morning walks with you; the talks we often had which turned out to be so productive and deep.Some other brother-like and sister like people with whom interactions were short and sweet...the list goes on...

    If I could ever see you all in my life at one place and at one time, I would be the last person on this earth to miss this opportunity.Guys, it's too early to be so emotional but this is what I feel frankly.
Time goes on and nothing is permanent, so unfortunately, have to bid adieu to you all from this platform. I hope you all do well in life and one fine day we could meet at a place and recreate our class to put life to all the memories we will henceforth carry from this stage.It is the End of this journey and beginning of memories...

Shallowness

               

            /**I welcome one of my friends to co-author this article with me**/

I believe Shallowness is the greatest suffering of the day. With advancements in science and other arenas, we are also advancing in becoming shallow in our thoughts. By shallow I mean having thoughts, principles based on something immaterial.

      Deep emotions, deep thoughts have rarefied these days. I mean when I see the world around me which is so manipulative, a place where the concepts of FWB (Friends with Benefits), I find one thing; shallowness. We are apparently running behind some or the other thing without knowing the reason why we crave for it. Lets take up one example, majority of us run for money; justified. Till we get adequate money that excitement and ecstasy is always there. As soon as we get the money, we feel, now what??

Shallowness lies in the thought that since majority of the people are behind something, we also run behind the same thing also called as herd mentality. Some of the common scenarios of herd mentality is taking up a course just because of its popularity,  buying a thing just because someone else has bought it.

     The world is a strange place, laden with people from all sorts. Shallowness doesn't have to be restricted to higher concepts but to also lines of thoughts such as these:

Scenario: In engineering, we have 8 semesters and on an average 6 subjects per semester. Scoring marks is the sole purpose of many of the people here. Well that isn't any problem because all of us would like to score good grades. The problem arises when grades are the sole purpose and people resort to rote learning. According to me, the aim must be learning and applying and if one learns, scores follow automatically. In a way I would term this as shallowness because no purpose is served by hosting rich scorecards alone with a poor mind.

  To run behind the results without knowing the base of things can be said to be shallowness. In every article of mine, I have spoken about relationships. This article is no exception. "Beauty" is such a terrible Maya it leads to shallowness.We, many a times do not judge the person's inner beauty but only the outer one, visible which can be artificially obtained these days. Isn't it shallow guys?? I think we need to change our thinking regarding this.

Shallowness is a terrible thing, one can say since it never makes the person realize the consequences on time . I have in the past also spoken about karma and how a person pays for it. Often, one can find people indulging themselves into crooked ways to achieve something and this leads to the path of being shallow. Its one thing that causes immense suffering but only after the human has settled down in relief that his motive was accomplished..over the surface, it seems that his/her intentions were sorted and taken care of by being shallow..and that person who has been shallow will continue to live in blissful peace on the job being done.He/she will always have the feeling of being complacent though he/she was being shallow but, this shallowness is such a silent predator, like the very-feared heart attack, that it strikes the person who had been shallow in the past, all of a sudden..a bolt from nowhere..and that is when all the suffering starts..the guilt conscience first completely shoots down one's morale..then self degradation, owing to the past where one had handsomely exhibited to oneself how low one can stoop on morals and ethics to achieve that lame and sometimes ridiculous motive which one had, This guilt first starts to creep in and misery compounds. One thing leads to the other and eventually, one fine day the person who has been shallow will be ready to lay bare and sacrifice his/her life as well to atone for his/her sins. We can clearly see how shallowness gradually leads to one's destruction eventually.

 On a lighter note now, One more aspect of shallowness is in our line of thought: "If I cannot go ahead, bring the other one down to my level." One must realize that bringing others down doesn't compensate for the fact that you have not gone ahead in life. Such people are sadistic people,selfish people who can only think about themselves and their happiness.Happiness for such people is coded with a if else statement...let me also write the pseudo code:

   if(I achieve)

{Then I am happy}

else if(others arent able to achieve)

{Then i am happy}

else

{I am sad}

Hilarious..right?? Remember one thing, that never fall prey to such thoughts which are shallow. Even the core of the earth is 6.5k  kms away from the surface and that is where the processes are taking place...isn't that deep enough?? Shun shallowness and embrace deep,powered and directed thoughts.

-CO-AUTHORED BY SHIV NAIR