What does it mean dude?

We all know what it means. But, when asked this question, I blanked out for a while and I wondered, not about the answer; but about why this question was even asked. I am not going to take any names here, as it might hurt someone's prospects of a relationship. So let's name people as X, Y,  A, B and so on....

Curious dude X tells another dude, Y, about this friend of his. Friend = A.
Dude A and gal B had been friends for a while, and were often just hanging out together, talking about, god knows, whatever topic. During one of such hang outs, A and B ended up holding hands for at least a couple of hours.
and then ......... wait for it.................... wait for it.................. nothing! This is all that happened (or at least what I came to know of). Whats more significant is what happened after A and B parted. A called up X and told what had just happened and asked him "yaar, agar ek ladka aur ladki ek-doosre ka haath pakad ke baat cheet karein, to iska kya matlab hai?" and X said that he didn't know, and was puzzled himself. As he was curious he asked Y about the matter.
Y digs on to get more info on this by asking questions like - Who held the hand first? Was this some comforting or consoling hand holding or not?, basically tries to get some possible masala out of the story. X replies positively, saying that there wasn't either consoling or comforting involved, no one in particular held the hand first, it just happened.
This is where I come to the picture. So this dude Y tells me about X asking him such questions. I too, obviously asked Y the masala extracting questions, and told the universal conclusion about this matter, to which Y agreed. We confronted X about this and got some more info on the topic, which pointed to one thing - there is no A. X was playing the oldest trick in the book. He used the name of A to just narrate his own story. I guess the proxy can be understood in a way that by doing so, X gets to keep his budding relationship under cover, and also gets a way to ask the trivial question.

But the other question still lingered....
What does it mean when a guy, asks his friends for the answer to this trivial question?
One could be that X knows what it all means, but for some reason hopes for a different answer.
Or this could be his arbit way of sharing info on his life.
Or he is just trying too hard to analyse the situation.

So, tell me.. What does it mean dude?
 

You are 'It'

Set out on its own way,

it doesn't know how it came to being,

or when it will die.

The path it takes, is called its destiny.

While it rewrites destiny,
with others of free will.

Collides with some of what's in its path, 

evades the others, it defies those 

who try to predict; flaunts its free-will.

The free-will, itself takes it on a ride

of self realization, and destroys the pride;

then disintegrates and merges it with self.

It is the self that takes them all, 

feeds, nourishes and sends each one out.

Out on its own way.

Everytime I Die

Some come and some go, 

the sum total may not be constant. 

But then, nothing in life is fair! 

The ones coming, are welcome, 

I bid farewell to those leaving. 

For those returning - I hope it's different 

'coz no one likes to die, over and over again.
 

Old Monk Joke

You might be disappointed if you are a fan of Old Monk Rum.
This is probably the oldest Buddhist-monk-joke, and I must have heard it many a times. But the last time, I heard the correct version and finally understood the humor behind it....

There's a barbecue at the Zen Buddhist temple, and the Zen master's working the grill. A young monk reverently approaches.
The Zen master looks up, smiles and says, "Wanna hotdog?"
The monk replies: "Please, Master, Make me one with everything."

continuing with the other part....
After taking the hotdog, the monk pays for it with a $20 bill and asks for change and the Zen master replies: "Change must come from within"

Fair. Enough!

It all came crashing down. She finally acknowledged what had been around her for a long time, and had grown in front of her - slowly, steadily, brick by brick, and wall by wall. 

She believed that sometimes a talk with a stranger can be a real eye-opener 'cause she thought one who has nothing at stake, speaks one's mind. This guy was less of a stranger though, and more of an acquaintance. But the realization came to her nonetheless as she knew that he stood unbiased, and did not have any hidden agendas. She could not ignore or refute his stand. Well, it wasn't even a stand that he had taken on the issue. It was a fair, simple question asked in a candid manner, that had her dumb founded. The whole situation was like something that led to the aphorism "Know Thyself". Something like what went through Socrates mind, when a person, who didn't know what Socrates looked like, asked him if he knew Socrates well.

She took a while to come up with an answer 'cause each time she attempted to answer she ran into the walls which she had ignored all this while and simply could not find a passage out of the concrete jungle. After about a minute, all she could manage was a mumble - "I don't know. Maybe?". He couldn't hear what she said, but the look on her face was a sign enough for him to understand that he had poked her on a sensitive issue. She brushed the question aside and moved the conversation to another topic. He, being an acquaintance, let it slide. But, the question lingered in her mind, leading to a desire to act. To act on destroying the prison of ignorance.

दासतान-ऐ-दिल

वो हमे भूल गये तो चलो कोई गम नही।

भूले को रसता तो कोई दिखा देगा ही।

पर पहचान कर मुह फेर ले, ये हमे मंज़ूर नही।

कसम से! बन्दा ये सच्चा है, कोई आवारा नही।

कोई यह बता दे कि हमने करी कया खता,

जो दुनिया कहती है कि माफ़ी हमारे नसीब नही।

अब गिर कर उठा ना जाए, लाचार दिल ने ऐसा करा,

क्यूंकि रूठे वो हमसे और हमें अब ये जाहान गवारा नही।

हरा हर पल करता है दिल के ज़ख्मों को,

वक्त भर देता है हर घाव को, यह सच नही।

दासतां है यह किसी और की यारो,

क्यूंकि ..... मेरे सीने में तो दिल है ही नही।


for the devnagari handicapped -


Woh humein bhool gaye toh koi ghum nahi.
Bhoole ko rasta to koi dikha dega hi.
Par pehchaan kar muh pher le, yeh hein manzoor nahi,
Kasam se! banda yeh saccha hai, koi aawara nahi.


Koi yeh bata de ki humne kari kya khata,
jo duniya yeh kehti hai ki maafi humare naseeb nahi.
Ab gir kar uttha naa jaye, lachaar dil ne aisa kara,
kyunki roothe woh humse aur humein ab yeh jahaan gawara nahi.


Hara, har pal karta hai dil ke zakhmon ko,
waqt bhar deta hai har ghav ko, yeh sacch nahi.
Dastaan hai yeh kisi aur ki yaro,
kyunki...... mere seene mein to dil hai hi nahi.

The year long relationship - Part 3 of 3

Important: this is part 3 of a trilogy, it is highly recommended that you start with Part 1

More than half a year had passed, it was mid March and we were now practically living together. Luckily my landlord never saw her. Anyway, I was planning to make a trip to Bangalore to meet up with IIT junta, and asked her to join me.

            Me: Hey Lon, my friends are having a get together in B’lore. Do you want to join me?

            Lon: No. I think you’ll have more fun with your friends without me.

That’s another thing that irked me a lot. It’s as if she not only had no place for friends (neither hers nor mine) in her life, but also in some way she was allergic to them. Let alone meeting some friends, even if I received a call from a friend, she would just disappear suddenly. I tried to poke her on that a couple of times, and all I could get was a cold reply – “You’ll be having fun with them, what do you need me there for?”. If not allergy then maybe  jealousy of some sort. Anyhow, it was a battle front and I was loosing badly. Social life was coming to a screeching halt. Sometimes these sorts of things make you consider the pros and cons of an entire relationship. I knew I was in a corny corner, I guess it was an addiction and if so, I needed a rehab.

Fate, it seems had a plan for me - I had to travel for work to US for a couple of weeks soon. It’s not that I was dying to get away from Lon, or that I have a craze for US; but I like travelling. Even if you hate travelling, you have to admit that it’s fun to be at a new place, see new people, and learn new culture. For me it was all the more exciting because it was my first time outside the country.

If I remember correctly, I got my visa on a Wednesday evening, and it was decided on the next evening that I should travel on the same Saturday, so that I get some time to settle in before joining the US office. With just two days to pack up, practically one day as I still had office on Friday, I had to hurry. I started to pack on Friday evening and I was doing it frantically and that annoyed Lon –

            Lon: Oh, somebody’s excited.

            Me: Well yea, but more tense than excited. I still haven’t yet got confirmation of the hotel reservation, and I leave tomorrow. Moreover I am travelling alone.

It is not a big deal – travelling alone. I am used to it, I do that often from Chennai to Bangalore or Delhi. But going to a new country, alone, seems to be a big deal for everyone.

            Lon: Alone? So you won’t have any company for next two weeks?

            Me: Yes and No. I will be staying alone, but I have a couple of college friends who stay in the Bay Area. I hope to catch up with them in the weekends. It’s been a long time.

            Lon: Ah! Super. I suppose you wouldn’t miss me then.

And hence started the whole ugly argument again, and ended up in a communication breakdown - that too right before I had to leave. It’s the last thing you need on your mind when you are packing. I decided I’d let her break the silence this time.

As soon as I landed at SFO and got the immigration stuff done. I called up Ankit, who said he would come pick me up and show around SF. It was awfully nice of him and Aditi, his gf, to do so. We also called up Vibhu who had just come back from his convo @ MIT the same morning, and despite his long journey, he got up and travelled another 45 miles by public transport to meet us! We roamed around in SF for a while, had brunch, and then went to the famous Golden gate bridge. It was the smoothest possible transition for me to a new place - in familiar company. The very next day Harsh landed in Bay Area for his internship, and there was another addition to the gang. We guys spent almost every weekend together – Movie/ Pub/ Club/ Hookah/ Beer back at Hotel/ Football World Cup matches/ Sailing/ Beach trip/ Road trip. It was very much a jam packed trip.

Work was keeping me busy in the weekdays and I was keeping the gang busy on weekends. As the work demanded, I extended the trip by another 3 weeks, and I didn’t even have to think twice about it. Why would I? I was having a good time, great accommodation, pick up and drop for office, non-vegetarian food every day and a gala time with old friends. I guess Lon was right, I wasn’t missing her at all, I was successfully rehabilitated. Meanwhile, a couple of my school juniors - Ronak and Mayank, who were graduating this year, and placed in Chennai, asked me if I wanted to share an apartment with them, after getting back. I agreed almost instantly and later on I realized it was probably the best decision I had made. I hadn’t officially broken up with Lon yet, in case we were to patch things up, this was the easiest way out to improve on our social life. She just could not not-meet flat mates. I just got excited, I had the perfect solution. I had already given her my new number over e-mail, but hadn’t yet heard from her. But what the hell, I had the perfect solution, so I called her up. A relapse.

            Me: Hey Lon, What’s up??

            Lon: Hey Sarb! Nothing much, just back to the old business of haunting lonely single men. How are you?

She killed me each time with this one. She really has some memory.

            Me: *a laugh. I’m good.

Blah-blah-blah and I updated her with the stuff going on there. 20 minutes and we were chuddy-buddy; it turned out to be easier than I thought - to patch things up. So, I decided to tell Lon about me moving with Ronak and Mayank. The reply was completely unexpected.

            Lon: So this is your way of breaking up?

            Me: What? Break up? Who said that?

            Lon: Yea, I said that. You know that I don’t like to meet your friends. I know you’d ignore me when with your friends. Now you’ll have flat mates!

            Me: What do you mean you don’t like to? You don’t want to!

            Lon: Does that make a difference?

            Me: Hell it does! You haven’t even tried to!

            *awkward 30 seconds silence

            Me: So it means that if we are together you will never go out with me to meet anyone?

            Lon: You are SLOW. It took you a year to get to that conclusion?
            *painful 30 seconds silence of introspection.

            Me: Hmm.. Yeah. Thanks a lot and GOODBYE Miss Ness.

As Oracle once said “Everything that has a beginning has an end”. This was the end of it. What did I learn from it? I don’t know, maybe not to drag it for so long 'cause people start to think that you are SLOW. Anyway, Life has taken a new turn and I am back in Chennai and have moved to Thiruvanmiyur with Ronak and Hrishi. Mayank got an offer in Bangalore and obviously chose Bangalore. This marks the end of Lon era. Good riddance Ms. Ness. May you find some painful guy to drive mad and wish I never have to meet you again. Cheers to Ronaxx and CHB and to the good times ahead!

Important Message again: Thank you for your patience to go through the extra long blog, split over three parts. Unfortunately, this is not a plain text. This is my first attempt at writing a breakable "code". Hopefully it will not be the last. I request you to try to break the "code". I’ll be glad to answer any questions after that. You can always ping me for any hints. Answer/Solution is updated in the comments section now!

The year long relationship - Part 2 of 3

Important: this is part 2 of a trilogy, it is highly recommended that you start with Part 1.


One of the reasons why I got along with her so well, at first place, was the eye contact. Well, I am sort of a guy who doesn’t really make much of an eye contact. I don’t know why, for some reason, I really have to concentrate hard to keep eye contact; but in her case, it would just turn to a staring contest. Maybe it was the pseudo romance, or maybe puppy love, but in the beginning I thought that I get lost in her dark brown eyes. Later on, though, I felt the creeps because every time I got lost, I felt like I was staring in the dark at emptiness. Before you pass a quick judgment on this, I request you to hold on a little longer and listen to what I have to say.

Lon is almost perfect; I’d say she is perfect in all departments but one, the one that kills me. As I said she is uncomfortably hot; and she doesn’t even need any make up to be that way. You would know what I am talking about if you’d met her. Yes, that probably is the first requirement for any guy, and she more than fits the bill. But, I was fond of her more because of the enlightening sessions I had with her.

For a guy like me, who doesn’t really know why he is doing what he is doing, half the time. She had shown me my own true nature. It’s weird but, she introduced/reintroduced me to myself, and I’d also come to see her like my guru. It was she who inspired me to pick up guitar, sketching, and blogging again. Lon is the most mature girl, for her age, I have ever met. Guys’ ego usually get in the way when the girl they date are more intelligent/mature/earns more money. Not in my case though, I don’t mind her being the superior-being as long as I get to learn and improve on myself. She is, if not more, then at least as mature/intelligent/brainy as me. She usually knew what I was talking about, and she corrected me too when I was wrong or well, when I wasn’t sure about what I was talking about. Yes, it’s a fault that my friends would associate with me; I have the constant need to correct anyone/everyone for any mistake or fault of theirs, be it factual/grammatical/pronunciation/any damn ignorable mistake, it is likely to get the corrected by me. I know it’s annoying, and it was good to get my own medicine, for a change.

Looking back, I remember she also got all of my jokes and did not get annoyed at the PJs that I keep cracking every now and then, except for maybe once. During one of the movie marathons, we were watching “Enter the Dragon” and I started dishing out Bruce Lee PJ’s - Bruce Lee's favorite festival? Diwa lee, his sister-in-law's name? Saa lee.  I guess I should have been wary of her Chinese roots before cracking Lee jokes because she really got pissed, and yelled at me “Don’t ever joke about Lee, it’s my middle name, you ass!” and I was thing WTF? Okay! Okay! Anyways, by now I am sure you are wondering what the hell is wrong with me. Why is this, the last relationship and not the current one? The thing is, she's like a convex-one-way-mirror. She can see everything, but you are stuck looking at yourself - enlarged with all the faults magnified! 

Usually you can get a good idea of a person by the company they keep. But, I couldn't even use that approach, as I have not met a single friend of hers, now I suspect that she never had any. You know those hard-level puzzles in the magazines which attract you to solve them, but are too hard to crack and you give up after getting annoyed? She is like one. The problem is, in her case, you do not even have the next edition available to check out what the solution was.

It is not like I haven't tried enough to get her to open up. But every time I ask her about her past/future/friends any god damn personal thing, I get shot down by her brahmastra - silence. You just can not beat that. What are you going to pull out, silence? Good luck with that. I tried that once. It leads to what is popularly known as communication breakdown. If you think I could have been more patient with her - Well, I ran out of it, and, I AM a patient guy, I really am. A lot of my friends can vouch for that. But, she just wouldn't budge. Lon can sometimes be so irksome that she can literally drive you mad. At least with my patience I had come to know how to handle that aspect.


.... continued at Part3

Full Time Job

Yea, Life's a full time job.
No vacation, no time-off.
It's like He has given us a job a piece.
No one knows the purpose,
neither of one's own job, nor of anyone else's.
What would our contribution amount to?
What we lack is the big picture.
I have to say the average job satisfaction is very low.
If only He hadn't given us the intelligence to question,
we'd be like machines in a factory.
Maybe we already are like them.
The ones that question, breakdown in protest;
Some get replaced sooner than thought.
So, work! work! 'cause no one knows when the payday is, or what the pay-check is.

The year long relationship - Part 1 of 3

The last year was a good one, but the last relationship? Not so sure. I had just moved out of IIT campus to Nungambakkam and was really bored. Bored because, almost all of my friends were placed outside Chennai or had gone for further study outside Chennai, to add to that, my job wasn't hectic either. Occasionally it demanded weekends/ more hours, but on an average I wasn't working more than 45 hrs a week. I had all the time in the world at my hands, with nothing much to do. Moreover, the procrastinator in me destroyed the plans of utilizing the free time, and it was in this “free time” that I met her.

I had gone out to check out Minus1 - the closest pub to my place, and I found her sitting at the opposite table staring at me. Well, being a Surd in Chennai, I do get a lot of stares; fortunately this wasn’t one of those - “OMG, Is that an alien?” look. So, I took the cue, and stood up, but before I could walk up to her, my rusted guts started to panic and threw up junk and random questions - What is an asian babe like this doing sitting alone in a pub in Chennai? What if she is a pro? What if she's just jerking me around? What if she is with someone or waiting for someone? Luckily, the brain processed some parameters and ordered me to turn straight to bar and to order another beer, buying me time to think and to weight the pros n cons.

After half a pint and 5 mins, the pros and cons were irrelevant, as gods curse for men had taken its full effect and I wasn’t thinking with my brain, but my penis. Again, I stood up, and the panicky rusted guts, which again tried to throw me off the target – What should I say? What should be my pickup line? But this time I ignored it and decided to be.....  Spontaneous!

Me: Hi, Do you mind if I join you?

Babe: Sure.

*awkward 30 seconds of silence…

Me: So, what’s a babe doing, sitting alone in a pub in Chennai?

*facepalm. So much for spontaneity! At least, I could have asked her name first!

Babe: Well, I come here and haunt the single men, sitting alone at the bar. And what are you doing sitting alone at the bar?

Me: (huh? A babe with a sense of humor! ) I come here to get haunted by the pretty babes who sit alone in the pub. Damn, that’s not funny! tchch.. I just moved in here, and just came down to check out the pub. I am Sarbjot, BTW.

Babe: Hi, I am Lon.

Half an hour had passed and I was barely managing to keep up with the philosophical topics that she was so happy to discuss, the pub was closing, and there was a growing desperation for a way to ask her number. Bad at multitasking I started to nod at almost everything that Lon said.

            Lon: Okay. So, let’s go.

            *another nod. Damn it! I don’t have a way to her number yet!

            Me: Where to?

            Lon: I am thinking of going to Marina beach and pain some more single men.

            Me: (What the hell? She’s brave too?) Do you need company?

            Lon: I don’t. But you do. Why don’t you join me? *grins

            Me: (Yessss!!) Sure.

Moving to the end of the day, (as rest of the part is out of the scope of this blog) as we part our ways –

            Me: This was fun. Should do it again.

            Lon: Yeah, Give me a call next time you are going to a pub. Alone.

            Me: *a laugh. You are funny!

And there I had it with me, her number. 

So it started, with a run in @Minus1, continued with hangouts at cafes/pubs, moved on to frequent dinners @Shansi, and got strengthened by movie marathons, back at my place.

I was easily hooked on to her company, not only because she’s uncomfortably hot, but also because she has an addictive personality. She was just so damn unpredictable. One day she is all preachy – “God helps us all”, another day she is all ears even when I’m in the ’deth fan mode - “Megadeth is far better than Metallica because, blah blah blah”. She could be anything from angry, calm, argumentative, agreeable, funny, violent, caring, abusive, and eloquent. Lon had all the weapons in her artillery too have things her way; silent treatment being her favorite choice of weapon.

 As summer gave way to autumn, we were spending more time together and things were going smooth until…. Well, they say if you observe the moon closely, you will start to notice the imperfections.

.... continued at Part 2

Train of thought

would like to be proven wrong more often.

would like to be more open minded.

would like to be, for a while

would love to be more than just be.

needs to know.

needs to understand.

ah, needs that don't ever end.

understands the importance.

ignores the same.

needs to drive.

first get a license!

 

एक दीया

अब से रात हर जगमगायेगी
क्यूंकि मेरे आँगन का दीया है अब चमकता सितारा
मै दुनिया के लिए खुश हूँ नहीं
मै दुनिया के लिए खुश हूँ नहीं
उसे तो मिल जायेंगे तारे अनेक
लेकिन मेरे दीये की थी जो गर्मी
उसे तो अब ले कोई ना पायेगा
अब से रात हर कटेगी मुश्किल
क्यूंकि मेरे आँगन का दीया है अब चमकता सितारा

The Indian Purpose

How it would have been, if Agent Smith were Indian


But, as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we're here. We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without Cricket we would not exist.
It is Criket that created us.
Cricket that connects us.
Cricket that pulls us.
That guides us.
That drives us.
It is Cricket that defines us.
Cricket that binds us.
We are here because of you Mr. Tendulkar!

Run down to Banga-lore

If my situation gets out of control,
I could run down to Banga-lore!
If I need a place to do some layin' low,
I could run down to Banga-lore!

Sun is never in the sky,
Bands are always hoppin'.
You can shake it all you want,
Never feel like stoppin'.
Think I'll give my mind a rest and save my soul,
I will run down to Banga-lore!

If you don't have anywhere left to go,
You could run down to Banga-lore!
If you found the answer but you still don't know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!

You don't need to buy your friends,
They're just glad to meet ya.
Maybe even meet yourself,
A friendly senorita!
If you never try it you will never know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!

Take me a vacation from the killing bore,
Gonna run down to Banga-lore!
Should have left a long, long time ago,
Gonna run down to Banga-lore!

Sun is never in the sky,
Bands are always hoppin'.
You can shake it all you want,
Till you feel like stoppin'.
If you never try it you will never know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!


Original Track - Run down to Mexico by Racer X.
Great Song! Fits to Chennai/B'lore Situation, with just a few modifications :)

Why 3 Idiots?

3 Idiots - the movie has made much news over the last month, breaking revenue records, creating controversies over the insufficient credit to Chetan Bhagat, the author of 5.some1, and for bringing out the flaws in the education system of our country. When I first heard that 3 Idiots is releasing and it is inspired from 5.some1, I thought "Great! Now there is going to be a movie on IIT life. As if the novel 5.some1 had not masalafied it enough and presented it to the public". Personally, I was shocked and angry about the book 5.some1, because it felt like a violation of an unwritten code of conduct, prohibiting you to divulge any secrets about the IIT life. Moreover, the author decided to add some masala to the story so that it sells some copies. As a result of which, people now know about things that we wouldn't want to be public, and they also have misconceptions - things that they think happen, but in fact they don't. I didn't know what was more hurting - the truth or the misconceptions, but I knew one thing - that I wouldn't watch a movie, which twists the truth and presents it on a gold platter to the public.
As I have weak willpower, I ended up watching the movie, that too twice. Well, all my friends including many from IIT gave a thumbs up to the movie, and I wondered if there was something wrong with me for I was thinking the other way. So, I decided to get rid of the prejudice and give it a shot. And I did, and had mixed reactions, well more negative reactions than positive. I didn't like the movie because I saw what I feared I'd see in the movie. A student stealing a question paper - okay, its possible, but unlikely. A hot pataka babe in campus - thankfully they stuck to the novel in this case, made her a professor's daughter and not a student(which is known to be impossible). Fresher making a quad-rotor helicopter with wi-fi'd cam on it, with all the overworked 1st yr schedule - really far fetched, but it is still possible. A student impersonating another guy for the whole BTech course - that's right in between highly improbable and impossible. But a guy making an inverter, using it to supply power to make a suction pump, made from a vaccum cleaner, to deliver a baby - haha, that as close as you can possibly get to impossible. Surely they could have done without the delivery scene in the movie. As for the character - Prof Virus - Now, there are some hard-ass profs in all colleges, but someone like Virus at IIT? I don't think so. I thank god that I didn't have any encounter with such a professor. But, some of my friends and seniors did. And from their experience and from the tales heard from seniors or alumni of professors who would not let you pass a course easily, of times when it was surprising if students completed the degrees without failing any subject, I can say that there hasn't been any prof till now in IIT like Virus. But even if I am wrong, even if such a prof existed, the system ensures that what happens to a student is not in the hands of one professor alone, but in the hands of a group of professors. Surely, the group cannot be comprised of all Virus-like profs.
Well, that's all what bothered me throughout the movie. But, after the movie I did feel happy, elated and uplifted for some reason, and I thought maybe it's the preaching about learning for excellence, or the hostel life, or the study sessions, or the fight for final year project and similar stuff that made me connect to the movie. So, despite all the negatives, I recommended the movie to another friend - Reshma, and surprisingly the response was negative. And I wondered, why I even liked the movie at first place? Looking back, I didn't agree with the ragging session - nobody ever asked us to strip at IIT. I didn't agree with the bathing problems - bunking 1st hour classes was very common, so bathroom clash wasn't a frequent thing and even if it did happen, I'd go to classes without a bath, who cares. I didn't agree about the drinking at rooftops either, because when we ever made a booze plan, we would call the whole wing for it, not some 3 guys. I wouldn't agree with study sessions too, as it was again a group study session and not an individual studying; and the idea of distracting others with porn was a really lame one, I can think of better ideas in 30 seconds. How is this - since class notes of muggo students are sought after, one muggoo can make notes with wrong equations or fundaes and give it to others for copying. I did have problems with the final year project, but the professors had been more than helpful in my case, and I guess this is why I couldn't digest the Virus character at all. Only thing left was the study for excellence attitude thingy.Well, I completed my degree with study for success attitude and hence it should sadden me and not make me happy.
The question still remained, why was I happy after watching the movie when I hated it so much. I stopped trying to answer this question, as the answer seemed out of reach, and went on with the work life. Next day, Prasanna, a colleague of mine, who had seen he movie and was really thrilled about the movie said that the whole tea-gang (Gang of 5 guys who go out every evening for a cup of tea) of ours should go and watch 3 Idiots, as it is a brilliant movie. I could not say that I wasn't happy after watching the movie, and it was too tough to say no to the excited, enthusiastic Prasanna, plus we keep making plans of watching some movie and never go. So, I agreed to go for the movie. I am happy that this time we did go for the movie, as I found the answer to the question. It felt like a "Communications" Noise filtering experiment - Once I knew what the noise (hated parts of the movie) was, I was able to filter it out from the signal(movie) to a good extent. And this time all I saw was - the 3 idiots. I could see why I liked the movie, I could relate to the unbreakable bond between the 3 idiots. The movie doesn't remind me of IIT at all, but it does of the friends I had made at IIT. It does make me realize that out of the many brilliant things that the great institute had to offer, I might have opted for mediocre stuff in most fields, but I have made the best set of friends possible. I guess that's why I visit B'lore so frequently, and thanks to the movie, that's where I'll be next weekend.