the hills

okays long time and no bloggie blog. the highlights of my life are my US trip which is 5 weeks away. And my recent trip to shillong.

Shillong was good. It was good spending time with (extended) family. Eating good food. And most of all, re-appreciating the pristine beauty of the hills. Of course this appreciation was tempered with frustration, when you see the waterfalls, quiet little beauties with crystal clear water with picnic plates, biscuit wrappers, chip packets and other garbage floating in them. Is it... really so hard to walk 5 steps and throw it in a dustbin? Okay I actually typed out another semi-long rant raging against a certain type of people but since my last few posts where really negative this one is going to be on the positive side.


When I was there, sitting in this awesome guesthouse reading an book (Room with a view by Forester - about Victorian England and it's culture - it's like reading about modern day Indian culture) and looking at the scenery, I started thinking about how it would be like to settle in the hills. This was not the first time.

Firstly, what would I do? Obviously to really appreciate the hills, you got to sit there in peace reading a book in the evening and hosting parties on the weekend. You can do that only if the work you do allows for that. Obviously that means no coding jobs (not that there are any in the hills) and no businesses. Civil services is a good option, but I'm not sure if I would get posted in the hills only. The only other option and the more viable one would be farming. Shit I really should I have done agricultural engineering or something. Damm this doctor/computer engineer mentality that our parents generation have. I could be there in the hills, with a huge farm growing grapes and apples. Maybe a vineyard? My dad did mention about one of his friend, an agricultural engineer from IIT doing exactly that, growing vegetables in the hills. That would be excellent, work of 4-5 hours a day and all of it physical. Then quite evenings with comfortable outdoor/indoor armchair (depending on the season) with a book. No noise, no smoke, no grime, no heat, no dust. On evenings, I could hold parties at my big, big farmhouse. Great conversation and beers.

Mmmm, sounds fantastic. Maybe one day. Maybe I could actually have a stint at some farm, actually see how would life actually be.

On a related note, I had two new experiences. A new experience is a wonderful thing isn't it? Into the world of the unknown, adrenaline, excitement and fear. The real reason I feel school is so awesome is because you have so many first experiences... first crush, first time you laughed till tears rolled down your eyes, first best friend forever, first time you tried alcohol, hundreds of firsts. I had an experience of an helicopter ride. It's ... how do you explain it? Another thing altogether. If you've rode a bike and driven a car, it's exactly the same. A car offers you a narrow view, much like an airplane. With an helicopter you can fully appreciate the sheer awesomeness of the hills from the skies. Must become a helicopter pilot if the opportunity presents itself.

The second thing was the first time I actually went through a cave. Seriously this is the most awesomest thing. Crawling like a rat in some portions of the cave (seriously don't know how Mom managed, Dad wisely opted out) and the knowledge that a simple slip could easily lead to death considering how jagged the rocks are made it an exhilarating experience. Aunties in sarees were going through the cave, this is India for you... safety be dammed. ;)

Over and out.

All politicians are corrupt

Recently I was the listener to a long rant by a "friend", let's call him Jumping Jack. The subject was the Indian elections and obviously he was highly critical of the Indian politicians. He described in gory detail what he'd like to do to all Indian politicians which was neither pleasant nor legal for most parts of it ("round them up and shoot them"). He described what he'd do if he was the PM, the intentions were honorable but the methods... well, let's say Hitler would be smiling in his grave ("castrate all those who spit paan on the roads"). Of course he couldn't name which constituency he was in let alone the candidates of his constituency (gave me the "Abey, have you been listening to me?" look) and said that he was voting for NDA because he was tired of all the Congress BS ("What exactly?" I said "Everything man, you know, everything" he replied).


We had a couple of beers at a cheap bar and then he sped off in his car, ignoring the red lights because "Yaar, it's okay if no one is there at the red light".


Often I think why exactly I want to leave India for at least two years. Well most people have definite answers but for me I have concluded it is a number of factors. The Indian political establishment, Indian politicians or the way things are run here is DEFINITELY not a factor. I used to think it is, but it is not. It is the attitude of people there towards politics. Their knowledge of politics is limited to four words "All politicians are bad". They rant on how they can improve their country but the next minute drop an empty potato chip packet on the road. Their facebook statuses change to vitriolic messages about the government when a terror attack happens but they never bother to exhort their friends to vote for someone like Meera Sanyal. They use the lane markers as if their car is a line follower robot. They just basically ... piss me off.

What would you remember?

Would you remember your awesome CGPA in college? Would you remember the long nights you spent in the office? Would you remember how you were a good functioning member in the society, another brick in the wall for the greater good.

Or would you remember those majestic pyramids in the Peruvian jungles? That night in the bar when you saw the most beautiful girl ever? All those places in the worlds where you lived and imbibed their cultures? Or would you not remember all these, because you feared you would not get the promotion if you took a month off? Because you were cooped up in your room copying facts from your book to complete your assignment? Because you were too afraid to come out from the cocoon you lived in your whole life to live in another land when the opportunity presented itself?

God (and the Flying Spaghetti Monster) knows how some people put themselves to it. Revolve your life around rote cramming in school to get into the top college. Revolve your life around rote cramming studies in college to get the job you want. Revolve your job around unproductive work to get the promotion. Revolve your life around the promotions to get the money. The money! The money that pays for your wife's shopping bills. The wife that your parents selected for you. The money that pays for the mansion that you barely live in. The money that pays for the life that you barely live. Your life always revolves around something that society dictates that your life should revolve around at that point of time in your life. So it revolves and revolves from one thing to another until you are spinning so fast that until you cannot stop. Cannot ponder. Cannot think. You are too far into the vicious cycle that you should have never gotten into and now it's too late to stop.

Me? I'm just an average Joe typing bullcrap.

Hypocrite Hypothesis

The world is full of hypocrites. The world is full of people proclaiming the world is full of hypocrites. Hence, the world is full of hypocrites claiming that the world is full of hypocrites.

I do not know what should I write in a blog. Everybody has a blog, most of them have their blogs reasonably updated. Most blog are all about opinion or life. I am not a very opinionated person. For example if you ask me about the Singur situation, my reply would be simply "Boot that lunatic lady out of Bengal". Of course if I was in a position to do something about the issue, it would be something less dramatic, more practical and definitely wordy-er when put into words.

My life? Well I don't really get the kick out of reading other people's life. Delhi Times bores me so much that despite PYTs being present all over the paper, I just can't stand to open it in the morning. Nor does the life of a corporate lawyer earning 500,000 dollars a year on Wall Street interest me (which last I heard is a really popular blog on the net, apparently). And my life is much, much simpler. When there's college, I usually don't go. On Fridays I eat pizza. On Saturdays I drink beer.
I try and make witty jokes whenever there is a conversion. When I'm bored I watch a movie, read a book or watch TV. My movie and book reviews rarely exceed one paragraph. In evenings I try and go out, run a bit, play some football to give some respite to my ass, sore from sitting on my ass all day long.

I think a lot. Very philosophically. I think if I wrote down half of what I thought, I'd be the next ... errm, who's a famous philosopher? Hippocrates? Plato?

Just found this. Things you do, things you create and forget about them!

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!

Learning GRE words from Barrons would be a lot more easier if the sample sentences were based around the multipurpose word "Fuck".

1. abase - lower, degrade, humilate. After being called a fucking retard, he was abased.
2. abash - embarass - Caught fucking his dog, his face was red due to the abashment
3. aberrant - abnormal, deviant - Sheepfuckers are aberrant.

and so on.