Another Mortal Life

I've too many things to write about, but I don't feel like writing about anything in detail. So I will write a few lines each about a few unrelated things.

I am lost
Yes, and I took so long a time to realize. I don't feel like I would be proud of this phase of my life a few years hence. I wasn't like what I am, nor did I want to be. I want to be the same person I used to be some 4-5 years back, 'coz I am still proud of him. A few of my friends say I am better than him, but it's no good if I don't feel it like that. And I've realised that it's what I feel about myself that's more important than anybody else's opinions about me.
Only thing positive here is that I know I can find myself again. No matter how much down and out I feel at times, there's always something that tells me that real me can resurrect, can start from the scratch.

Saurav Ganguly
There's something about Saurav Ganguly- hate him, love him.. but you can't ignore him. I used to be the most vehement critic of this man when he was performing so badly. I wanted him out. And when Mr. Chappel came in to make the wishes of the thousands like me come true, I realised I never wanted it that way. He became my hero the day I found almost everyone was bent on ousting him. Certainly he didn't deserve that sort of a farewell. The clips of Steve Waugh's last test match used to strike me hard those days. What was it in Saurav that nobody cared to give him a befitting farewell? The most successful Indian captain was made to look like the worst thing ever happened to Indian cricket. Why?
But this man is tough. He was shown the door after his first tour in early nineties.. came back resurgent in the middle nineties.. and went on to be the captain later on(of course, not all were happy). He shook the English hypocrites, he hit the Ausie sleazers by their own weapons, and made India into a team no one could consider an underdog.
He is selected once again for the Test team. Even if he is bowled out for a duck, I would still consider him to be the greatest of all his contemporaries.

SRK doesn't understand
After the horrible Don, the news has it that Shahrukh Khan will be the new host for Kaun Banega Crorepati! Man, You are not an iota of Amitabh Bachchan, Just be the K K K Khan.. only that suits you. But yeah, the show can be good if you don't try to copy AB. If any of the original KBC dialogues are still kept in the new version, they will meet the same fate as "Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai". When AB delivered this dialogue, it was Don's voice. When SRK utters it, it's all drama- some inexperienced person on stage who knows he is not what he is trying to behave like and also knows it's tough to make audience believe he's Don.

Academics
I think I've to come up with a better approach towards studies and examinations. This time the only course I devoted some time in was PHP. The dropped first sem of the first year has skewed my life a lot. My ambitions to complete the degree in 7 semesters has had its toll on CG. I know if I've to do it I've to be more serious towards studies. Another option is to let everything go on smoothly and use my eighth sem. This might help in improving the CG also. Don't know why but the dream of attending the convocation with my own batchmates even after loosing one sem gives me more satisfaction than any CG.
I've got about a month to ponder it.

Irresponsibility towards myself
OK. I don't like inorganic. I never liked it. It is such a rattu subject. (But didn't I knew it's one half of CY120 before registering it as OC?) This guy won't study it at all! As if this is against my ethical code! I don't care. Go hell inorganic.. I just wanna pass the course and organic would be sufficient for that. End result: 4/50 and 24/50. Man you don't pass at 28/100 ! I left the Major's answerscript of the co-ordinator's part of the course blank... BLANK...
God, Plz help me give up such kiddish eccentricities. I can't afford such things in my 7-sem-degree plans.

Philosophy da hukka
The contrast in The Introvert's writing and talking skills was evident yet again when he found the class highest marks for minor 2 (along with many others scoring equally) and the class's second lowest marks for the presentation both displayed against his name. Ohh ma'am, presentation wasn't that bad considering it was almost sponty with only 1 hour of work and with no power-point to assist me. I thought you were different from some other humanities teachers who mark students for the beauty of their ppts.

The dilemma
There was this friend who didn't sleep the whole night studying for the next day's 10:30 exam.. did sleep at 8 am. At 11, prof called his name and we realised he's not there. I asked the prof whether I could make a call to him. He allowed. I did. Then he asked what had happened to him. I told him the guy's coming. He reached at 11:15, didn't get extra time. Prof told he could've taken a re-major (of full duration) had he approached him later on with a medical certi. I don't know whether it would've been better not to call him.

Home
Would be going home tomorrow. Mom, dad, sis, I missed you the way I miss you only.
Warrants are also issued against me by daadi, chacha, nana-nani, maama, bua etc. I'd surrender, guys! (But check your extradition treaties :D). Vikram ko pakadna mushkil to hai, par namumkin nahi hai. :D

C ya friends! I'd miss everybody who comments on this blog, and also the few who've stopped :P
(Happy birthday in advance, Taru!)

How could it happen? How could he let it happen? He doesn't remember the last instance of this thing happening to him. He had even started believing this thing doesn't happen to anybody sane in this world, and in his college in particular. It's not like he had shielded himself from all thoughts people consider similar to this one, but from this one atleast. He was yet another lost soul in the coveted campus of his who used to take comfort in the theory that "you could find a girl of this campus attractive only if you've gone insane or are deeply frustrated." And like everybody else who 'believed' in it, he too knew it well that it's nothing but the theory of sour grapes.
But theories are meant to be shattered. And this one (for him at least) lost its existance, a month back, to someone's smile, a smile all unaware of his presence, a smile that originated from deep within, but didn't reach the face in its entirity, and yet the fraction which emerged out was more than enough to make any heart loose some beats. Man! This girl was in the same year as him and he happened to see her for the first time that day! Should've frequented the 'Wind T' more often, he thought. And a few minutes later he found himself on the pre-registration site. Darn! They display names of people registering for all but humanities courses (e.g. a possible interaction session!) for the next semester.
That evening, he found a good listener in me, and a bad advisor: "Common OC kar le", "Register for her DE courses as OCs." Nothing was found feasible. "What else can I suggest yaar? You aren't much into extra-curriculars, nor is she, I guess." Then I thought of resolving the issue the other way-> warned him of blasphemy(!) - "IIT ki ladki?!?!?!", but couldn't make him give in to that. After some two hours of a fruitless conversation, I left him with himself.

Yeah, PHP is over!!!!!!!

'Images' closed...
Pencils blunt...
Misplaced erazor...
Sucks..

When I curse the time,
it can't be sublime
A cut by the razor
sucks..

Tried chilling, but no fun
Touches the forehead a gun
Yeah, the professor
sucks..

Deadlines approach, kick
God, like you, the week
before the major
sucks..

sunsaan-rasta safar
bhatki huyi dagar
doobta hua sooraj

anant ek talaash
nirarthak ek prayaas
khokhli ek aas

mook sa ek khilonaa
chupchaap si duniyaa
kaan phaadta sannaata

khamoshiyon ki hadd
koi saath bina aahat
sardi ki kampkampahat

door koi aawaz
pahadd takrayi gunj
jangal ka saameepya

andesha dishaabhram
thame thame kadam
roshani hoti madhyam

(CHAAT LIYA NA?? NOW KILL ME!!)

[But hamein bhi prof ne chatwa diya..guest lecture mein baitha kar.. German prof ke advanced type lecture mein UG students ka kya kaam?? Aur hamaare PhD students (was too old, may b a prof,i don't know) to mast question poochhte hain! "Excuse me, what's differnet engineer".. Mahaan aatma, vo 'different' tha. Slide mein thodi si galti ho gayi to guest ki jaan lega kya?]

Guys, today i'm gonna try to live up to the URL of my blog! I couldn't attend morning as I woke up late. And I chose not to attend PHP in the afternoon. I didn't want to have this 4-hour headache on my birthday.
.......................

I was thinking:
[1]There are some friends I value a lot. I really do.
[2]Then there are many friends for whom I don't matter at all. I really don't care.

The only time I care is when I find some persons from the former list also belong to the latter.and it really hurts. Sometimes I think the two lists should be exclusive. It's not in my handsto make changes in list-2. So in order to bring about the exclusivity, I tend to remove from thelist-1 the people who have chosen to belong to list-2. But life is no mathematics, and so it turns out that even list-1 is not in my hands. I could never throw anyone out of the list. They have been too good friends to deserve that. So the intersection of the two sets is not empty and can't be emptied. Tough..
For those who belong to [1]intersection[2] and happen to stumble upon this blog some day:Guys I value you a lot. I really do. And I don't care if I don't matter for you. I can't change myself (not that I don't want to)!
But there still are people who are in the list[1] all deservingly. The odd friend who called me up at the midnight is one. No matter how rarely she calls up, she never forgets to make a call on my birthday at least. Given the intense blurter that she is, I don't get much to speak, though I get a few advices like "You should change", "Learn French" etc, and a few titles- bewkoof, ganda bachcha etc. Then there's another friend whose call I missed as I was having a bath at the time. It's easier for him to remember as his own birthday falls on the day next. Thank you both! Looks like my list[1] has got too short. I guess i'm losing out on friendships once considered life-long. There's some fault of mine too, indeed.
Then, there are a few hostelmates who took some time out of their busy lives to wish me. Thanx guys.
I'm sure there will be another few who wud wake up late and call me towards the end of the day,as was the case last year. Thanx in advance.
...............

Got this colorquiz idea from phoenix's blog and thought of trying myself:

Vikram took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Desires a tranquil, peaceful state of harmony offe..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Thought of listing some of the posts of my co-bloggers which I liked quite a lot. Here it goes:

Can't waste my time and energy in writing a lengthy post on Farhan Akhtar's The Mimicry Show which I happened to watch yesterday. These few lines are just to tell myself that my intuitions about "whether a movie is worth watching" are generally right, and therefore I should not let anything to tempt me into watching movies like 'The Mimicry Show' which I had decided,at the first instinct, never to watch .

On the phone,
One midnight last week,
I knew it was she,
i didn't ask.
She knew I knew,
she needn't tell.
'Hello', 'hi'
and 'how are you's
were soon finished.
conversation begun.
mute.
dumb.
silent.
somebody tell her-
it costs equally
whether u speak or not
on the phone.
But she loved this
self-imposed silence,
even face to face,
where also it costs
and even more than words.
And so did I.

But now I've learnt,
somewhat,
how to break the silence.
"So you are into law,
I guess"
She felt good
learning I knew that much,
at least.
And she didn't sound
uninformed either-
"yeah,
and howz your engg. going?"

Then followed more talks
about common friends.
how she got my number.
-wasn't tough for her.
nor it wud've been
for me.
Some extend
the 5 minute task
to three and a half years,
others,
like me,
tend to extend it more.

A good conversation
it was, indeed.
A renewed friendship-
that's all.
and that's more than
perhaps everything.
Things should end,
that is if they have to,
with an understanding of
"I've nothing against you."
We managed that.
This was what I wanted,
perhaps.
and this only was
what I was called for,
perhaps.

"So..... , Vik... "
"Happy birthday, Z !
not that I ever forgot!"
"Thankyou! Wishing you too-
A happy birthday!
a week in advance!"

"Aren't you calling on that day?"
"No, Vik "




PS1: This is purely real.
PS2: "When people don't believe what you want them to, consider telling them the opposite."

Yesterday night
the phone rang.
No special ringtones
I ever assigned,
for nobody was special
for me, ever.
Nor was I
for anybody, ever.

So the phone rang
with the same old tone
unchanged for ages.
Irritating vibrations
tried to make it slip
off the edge of the table.
Simulacrums of me.

I picked it up.
How easily it calms down.
How momentarily it irritates
and how certainly it finds
someone to pick it up.
Anyways..

So I picked it up
"hello" i said.
3 seconds later
heard the voice
from the other side.
Sounded 'familiar'
'family'? a 'voice'!
a disturbance in the air!
rediculous language.
Every voice you recognise
is not 'familiar'.
can't be.
Some voices are heard after
three and a half years.
If you stop
associating with them
the familiarity,
life is good.

Meri daastaan-e-gham pe unko yakiin kahaan hai,
Poochhte hain meri aankhon mein nami kahaan hai.

Had-e-gham ke baad aayegi khushi sunaa hai,
Dekhta hun mere zakhmon mein kamii kahaan hai.

Aasmaan ko to chhoone ki hasrat nahi rahi ab,
Nahi rahe wo bhi jo bataate zamiin kahaan hai.

Lab to muskura uthte hain be-sabab bhi magar
Dil bhi ye nahi jaanta meri hansii kahaan hai.

Chand lamho ne badal daala is kadar humko,
Hamiin se poochhte hain log hamiin kahaan hai.

Words that have had me occupied over the weekend..

Nazism
euthanasia
mercy killing
tagged stalker!
attendence f***a
registration, OC, DE
Don
inertia
change
Netherlands
Sassy girl
Million dollar baby
Khosla ka ghonsla
program
quiz
phone
S,P,D,F
Behind enemy line
blog
orkut
deadline
crush
Umrao Jaan
nocturnal-ism
Anand
scorpion
Of mice and men
life
Ghazal, Bashir Badr
kabhi yun bhi aa meri aankh mein
I wanna b ur.. Arrghh
coming back to life.. Floyd


PS. Guess I've discovered a time-saving way of blogging! ( though the 'phase' of having no ideas continues.)

These days I have totally ran out of original ideas.. even for writing craps I seek inspiration! This phase might continue for some more time, but now that I have got 2 long hours before a 5-7 pm lab (and afternoons are never meant for studies), I guess i can, at least, complete the tag passed on to me by pri..
So as per the tag, I have to write 9 weird things about me and pass on the tag to 6 more people.
Lemmie try..
1)








Oh God.. how do they do it! Tough for me! OK.. trying again.
1) I am..








sorry, Pri.

It's already 4:30 pm. I guess I should leave for the lab. I have really put more than an hour in this post!
Apologies to everyone of you. I am weird.

OK. It was all absurd. There is no point in continuing to read others and not posting anything myself. This doesn't help in saving time. Moreover, the self-imposed prohibition ruins mental peace.
One of my friends came up with a good suggestion: Don't impose negative conditioning on your mind like "I won't do this" or "I won't do that". Just devote yourself more to the things you want to do; it will, then, become very easy to refrain from things you want to shun- without even 'trying'. Let me discover the power of such positive conditioning now.
So I won't try to refrain from blogging, though I won't be a devoted blogger anymore. There can be days without a single post, but whenever I feel an impulse to write I would write. In other words, I am back!

In case you want a one-liner: It's the blogging which I quit; and it's you whom I have to thank...

I liked the blogosphere quite a lot.. have read many interesting posts by some really nice writers out here. But I've to quit it. This may seem to be a sudden decision but actually it's a part of the chain of connected decisions/resolutions I have been taking for quite some time. I won't say much on it. I've to shun blogging, at least for the time being.

But I'm not ungrateful. I've got to thank you.. and since you are certainly not one single person (sounds weird?) nor are similar, I decided to leave a few words about each of you.
So, here I go..

[Phoenix]: The first regular commentor on my blog! I've counted on her for ensuring that no post of mine is left with '0 comments' label for more than 10 hours! She has always left positive and encouraging comments on even the most rediculous posts of mine.
It was great reading your blog, Phoenix. I enjoyed commenting on your blog; reading the replies to them was even more fun (mostly). Might even keep reading your pages in future too [including the ones I am very recently prohibited from :)].

[Pri]
I really liked reading her emotion-packed posts. Whenever she faces some very specific questions, she choses to generalise them like-"isn't the life itself that way only?"
(Sorry Pri, I'm not taking up that tag. You really made me feel important. I will definitely do that tag thingy if I start blogging again.)

[Musafir..]
Don't know why, but this guy prefers to comment on older posts only. A nice and co-operative batchmate of mine, he, like myself, has some weird and complicated notions about life.
Wish you the best of luck for your journey, musafir.. hope we can change.

[Grain Saint]
I used to comment on his blog.. without letting him know that am the one who lives 'Sagar kinare' i.e. in the room adjacent! Loved it! Have told him now. His surprize knew no bounds!
Thanx Sagar, for patiently reading all those sarky comments and replying too.

[Tapasya and Siyaah]
People with a nice taste for urdu poetry. Loved Tap's compositions and the poetic replies on comments. Loved Siyaah's collection of ghazals and the translations by him.
Good luck friends.

[Forgetful Functor and Chandni]
Recent regulars on my blog. Both have great writing skills, especially at fiction. [I'd also like to know about FF's book someday!]
Good luck to you too, friends.

[other visitors]
I thank you all for visiting this blog. Whether I forced you somehow or you came here by any coincidence and commented [and future visitors too].



PS: I'll be back! Remember me :)

Paani bilkul.. theek nahin hai
bimariyan bhi.. phail rahin hain
bisleriyan khoob.. bik rahi hain

ho..
hmmm

sickbay mein.. khaat lagi hai
AIIMS refer.. kar rahen hai
exams ki to.. waatt lagi hai

ho.. ho..
ho.. ho.. hmmm

IIT mud mein.. ghul gayi hai.
media ko bhanak.. lag rahi hai
dean ki neend .. udi nahi hai

ho.. ho..
ho.. ho.. hmmm

zindagi ka koi.. mol nahi hai
keechad ka ye.. ghol nahi hai
phir bhi koi.. shor nahi hai

ho.. ho.. ho.. ho..
ho.. ho.. hmmm
hmmm.......


With apologies for morphing this nice song into the above crap:
"Paanyon mein" by Sajjad Ali
All this is with ideas/inspiration from:
1. Saint 'Grain'day
2. Crap! (oops!)

God is a big sinner... encourages great sins. I could never get myself to fully believe that He does exist. My percentage belief in Him never bettered 70 and never dropped below 10 [And after years of analysis I can safely say that this figure has got no correlation (+ve or -ve) with my marks in any examination. ]
Sometime back I saw a documentary film 'Ram ke naam'- and I felt the said percentage hitting an all time low. I have heard of Ram janmbhoomi, Babri masjid, Dec 1992 etc even in the days when I didn't know where the hell this Ayodhya is (read where the once-used-to-be-sacred Ayodhya is, if you are uncomfortable with that slang.). Now I got to see it filmed. [Let me make it clear in advance, that I don't have any attachment to any political party. ]
The film had been released by the order of high court in 1997 , when the dust had settled, to help people see what they had lost. Some parts of the film were shot before the 1992 masjid demolition and some afterwards. What I write here is largely not from the film. I have only taken some facts from it. You may say all this has got no relevance now, but the dust in this nation of ours has become light, perhaps forever.
"God loving folks of Bombay! Join us in large numbers to create history - A new temple of Ram. Ram jyoti will give you all the inspiration you need for the betterment of life"- says the great leader on Rath-"What is needed for betterment is only Ram!" sounds great! "If there is no Ram, there is no survival" Oh great leader! You tried to make Ram for us. Thank you. For centuries, there was no Ram (!!!). Now you have made One. I would now worship Him and forget the pictures of thousands that were killed in celebration of His birth.
The mosque was built in 1528. Fifty years later, Tulsidas wrote Ram Charit Maanas combining pieces of various stories about Ram from here and there. He had also got some measuring devices which helped him pinpoint the birthplace of his Lord in terms of latitudes and longitudes. So he cleary wrote that his Ram was born at X degrees north and Y degrees east. Despite his effort, the ignorant masses couldn't comprehend his writings well, and made at least 10 temples in Ayodhya, each one of which claimed to be Ram's birthplace [There was nothing wrong in it. It strengthens the belief that 'Ram to kan-kan mein baste hain']. There used to be pooja at the Ram chabutara in the masjid complex too. This place was a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. Mandir and Masjid coexisted there, peacefully for years, till 1949.
But with time people were learning more Avadhi! And some of them with good comprehension skills managed to read the exact value of latitudes given by Tulsidas! Great! And it coincided with a mosque! Great for our leader on Rath!
Soon everyone came to know about Ram's birthplace. When exactly was He born? Even their leaders were/are not able to tell. In Tulsi's time, the time measuring devices were so inaccurate that they showed an error of thousands of years. So he couldn't incorporate that detail in his work.
"Bachchaa bachchaa Ram ka.. Janmbhoomi ke kam ka"- Yes, the pictures of several five year old bodies in that blood-flood exactly tells us how every child of this nation served for the birthplace mission. And now while writing all this, my percentage belief in God fell below 10. Don't ask how much. I am still not a nastik though.
This nation is great. Here Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi got a Bharat Ratna in their own tenure as PM (!). Why didn't the leader on Rath award himself with one when he had got a chance? Oh, what a fool I am! He is not a great son of this land. He is at par with Mahatma Gandhi. Father of upcoming Hindu Nation (Haayy Ram.).

There was this poor lady with two of her little children at a nearby juice shop.. she asked for one glass of juice.. and then to make two of it using an empty glass. It felt so nice to see the man at the shop filling both glasses three-fourths.
[Let me make it clear that all through my life i have hated all those beggers who could rather work to earn their livelihood.. and those more who give them money. But these people were no beggers- they paid for what they did ask for.. and no one could ever pay for what they actually got.]
""""""""""

I like that 'Hi' by the humanities' teacher on the rare occassions when we the students show up our face.. that "you guys are irrepairable, but i'd repair you by the end of this semester" she says with a smile conveying she doesn't mean it [oh god, what if she means it? :( .].. and that "thank you" by her when i submitted the book review yesterday.. a week after the due date.[now that is too much of a nicety.. and u might say that excess of everything is bad! Anyways, this whole paragraph is quite off-context]
""""""""""

Had no contact with this friend (who once used to be quite close a friend of mine) for more than 4 years till he caught me some time back on a networking site ['orkut' sounds so bad ever since I started blogging :)].. still had almost no exchange of words, in any form.. and three days back i took his number from the same site.. dialled it at midnight.. and wished him a happy birthday! He was so surprized to hear from me after 4 long years.. and so full of cheers.. and i was enjoying his surprise. Why don't we let others and ourselves have such joys more often? [now this line is a stolen one :)]

Zindagi tujhe kai baar
aate-jaate huye dekha hai.....

Labon pe laane se pahle hi jo badal daale maine..
unhi sawaalon ko teri aankhon me
jhilmilate huye dekha hai.

main ashq teri aankh ka.. mujhe meri khata bata de
main ashq teri aankh ka.. mujhe meri khata bata de

ise nasamjhi kahoon teri.. ya kahoon tera deewanapan
dard diya kisi ne aur.. kisi ko nazaron se gira de

aankhon se dil mein utarna jaante honge bahot
meri tarah se koi dil se aankhon me utarkar dikha de

umra gham mein main.. chahe khushi mein chhalka
khud tune hi tha roka.. tera mann hai to baha de

tu uske liye ishq.. aur main tha ek moti
uske liye ab tu hi nahi.. meri hasti bhi mita de

tere dil ka vo ghar.. phir teri aankhon tak ka safar
aakhiri ehsaan ye kar.. apne gaalon pe hi sukha de

dost parakhne hain to aaj mehfil se munh naa pher
dhoondh vo jo dekhkar mujhe.. mera hamsafar baha de

aashiyano ki kami insaan ne kab mujhe hone di
tu bhi mujhe apne kisi dushman ka pata bata de

aadmi ko e khuda tune dee hai taqdeer bahut..
kabhi fursat mein ho to meri bhi maut bana de.

It was the humanities (philosophy) class today. In the last class, a movie 'The Cup' (Phorpa; based on the worldly desires of young monks) was shown and today there was supposed to be a discussion on its philosophy. As I missed the last class I had to download it from the LAN, but still I didn't watch it over the weekend. After an hour of discussion on the philosophy behind the movie (which was tough to catch up with for me 'coz I haven't seen the movie yet), the teacher moved on to discuss about the tagline of the movie,"Buddhism is their philosophy.Soccer is their religion" and suddenly, I was asked to say something. Having not seen the movie, I'd rather not comment.. but I was forced to (The other option was to admit that I haven't seen the movie yet, which I didn't think would be a good idea).
So I just said the first thing that came to my mind at the instant:
"Taglines are some nicely crafted words focussed only at marketing the movie. I don't think they have got much to do with the true philosophy behind the movie"
"Why do you 'always' try to cut the discussion at its very root???"
"Ohh Ma'am, the last time I attended your class was a month back!!!"

Truly I have started "blurting out".

"Whatever I write is pathetic." And this is not a sudden realization. I always knew it; and I am getting to know it better. Sometimes I think I can, at least, be a good observer/critic (for, every successful critic has been an unsuccessful writer), but then i realise that this requires an entirely different set of attributes which I am not gifted with (I haven't got a 'critical heart', u see!). Having got snatched of both the options, and having necessarily got to find something to waste my time in; I finally settled with what follows.
So here I proceed to enlist some lines from various ghazals, urdu doublets etc which have been there in my web of memories for a long time. They really had some heartfelt effect when I first heard them (though, everything fades away gradually.) Some may be a piece of some ordinary literature, but still I would write them here, because there have been some days in my life when I read them and said to myself-"this has made my day! wow!"
To start with, this one was shared by a friend once:
"Jindagi ke kisi mod par gar tum ittefakan mil bhi gaye...
tumne nazarein jhuka li maine kuchh poocha nahi."
I will say just one thing on how much I liked the above lines: This is the oldest sms still kept in my mobile, and it dates back to April 9, 2005.
Now consider this one:
"Kuchh roz huye, aaye vo khayalon mein..
phir kayi roz bekhayali rahi."
Call it ordinary,for you won't let it sink in.
Don't know whose the above two are, but the next one is definitely Ghalib at his very best:
"Tune kasam maykashi ki khayi hai ghalib..
teri kasam ka aitbaar nahi."
People say Mir was better than Ghalib when it comes to romantic ghazal. I don't know much about this comparison, but here is one gem from Ghalib himself:
"Hum to samajhe the hum hi hain ustaad-e-ghazal ghalib...
Sunte hain ki jamaane mein koi Meer bhi tha!?!"
Now let me come to the lyrics of ghazals sung by jagjit singh, the ghazal maestro. Hate him, for he voices things from within your own self which you don't want to hear. Whether or not one listens to him, everyone knows him for his singular hold on current Indian ghazal. But very few have heard the punjabi ghazals sung by him. I was moving randomly in my wing one day (two years back) and my feet had to settle down when the ears caught this string:
"Mainu tera shabab le baitha...
Rang gora ghulab le baitha."
Obviously, the lines were romantic, and unlike the usual hip-hop-bhangra (save me!), I could easily comprehend the meaning. So I rushed to listen to the entire song...
"Kinni beeti te kini baaki hai..
mainu eho hisaab le baitha."
"Mainu jad vi tussi ho yaad aaye...
din dihade sharab le baitha."
To top it all, it concludes with-
"Changa hunda sawaal na karda...
mainu tera jawaab le baitha."
[won't say this one had any heartfelt effect, because I never posed 'the sawaal' (proposed) to anyone as yet. May be the effect was to make me reluctant in posing it to someone]
Next, consider this ghazal sung by Mehdi Hasan:
"Ab ke hum bichhde to shayad kabhi khwabon (mein) milen...
jis tarah sukhe huye phool kitabon (mein) milen.
Tu khuda hai na mera ishq farishton jaisa..
tu insaan hai to kyun itne hizaabon (mein) mile."
I was spellbound. So was I when I heard this one by Ghulam Ali:
"Dekh kar mujhko log naam tera lete hain...
isme main khush hun, mohabbat ka ye anjaam to hai."
Now let me conclude this post with another one by him-
"Uske dil pe bhi kadi ishq mein guzri hogi..
naam jisne bhi mohabbat ka sazaa rakha hai."

Yes.. and i think that's what most people feel when the minor exams finish!(Don't you agree? Well you have every right not to, and you would definitely have apt reasons for it.) I just want to put forth my reasons for believing that minors are one of the best times one can have in an institute like mine.
So this time the minors were from 1st to 5th of sept. And believe me I was waiting for them. No lecture-tutorial-practical for 5 complete days!! It was a real delight. Today is tuesday- and I never had a better tuesday than this one since the sem started. This sem, the tuesday afternoon during regular classes is horrible for me and my group. We have an about-to-faint professor giving details of the experiment for one and a half hours, the essence of which could be very easily bundled in 10 minutes. In a way, he makes sure that the lab lasts for its alotted 3 hours. During the experiment too we are expected to refrain from 'undesirable comments' on each other because the professor is a heart patient("Please help me keep my anger under control"-he says !)
Now move on to the day before i.e. monday. A three-hour tutorial of one single course! Forgive me sir, how do you find the idea of a one-hour minor every monday?? Either we'd come prepared for it or at least we would've the choice to leave if we not be able to solve a question (without getting marked absent! wow!!)
Moving further back- sunday and saturday :( ... Surely, the system ruins our holidays by scheduling minors on these days. In any case, most people waste their weekend sleeping, and excessive sleeping is bad and minors help one to use this time in things better:)
And last but not the least- friday- the day on which the minors started this time.Thank you, God, for you saved me from the biggest hell in IITD - PHP100 laboratory, for one week at least! (Now don't ask me why I am doing PHP-the 1st sem course-in my third year. That I didn't fail it in my first attempt is a reality, and I'm doing it now is an irony.)
To sum up: during minor time we have no 8 am lectures, no four hour labs,no submissions and no unhealthy naps in the day time! Also, we don't have to help someone control his anger.
But.. the five great days of minor-1 are over. Friday is approaching with its dreadful four-hour lab. What a great friday the last one was! (it was the hukka exam that day!).
Waiting for you minor-2, come fast.

He was a child then. And like any other child in his teens, he would also expect people to accept that he had matured. Watching Kuchh Kuchh Hota hai, he thought, had changed his life; or perhaps introduced him to the life for the first time. Freshness of the movie enthused him from within. The childishly behaving hero was an inspiration for him, the child. For him he was the epitome of the romantic acting. The same story repeated itself for few more movies with the same actor, with the same hype- he didn't shun them,he didn't need variety- he was a die-hard SRK fan.
His hero made a disappointing act in Ashoka, doing shear injustice to the persona and charisma of the great Ashok. He couldn't listen to the criticism of his idol. Meanwhile some other movies allowed him a sigh of relief. He hated any comparisons of his idol with the newly arriving star-kids, and every movie of them that failed made him jump with joy- he was a die-hard SRK fan.
He cherished Devdas to explain to the people that his favourite actor has got variety in his acting and he is not the same k k k kiran type anymore. The newspaper reviews declaring SRK inferior to Dilip Kumar were instantly put to dustbin, so that his father be not able to read one and ask him to have a look, and even worse- ask him to read out for him. He was a die-hard SRK fan.
Kal ho na ho came as a breeze of fresh air, yet comparisons with Rajesh Khanna's Anand could not be avoided, and he could not stand them as usual. Veer Zara was a hit with an upbeat Rani Mukherjee, bubbly Preity Zinta, oh-so-real-actor Manoj Vajpai, a fine director Yash Chopra and some Shahrukh Khan . He screamed with joy-" He is still the king- the King Khan- and he will always be." He was a die-hard SRK fan.
Then came Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna with an SRK and a Rani living in some illusion that their respective spouses hate them for their handicaps. While the King-for-long-enough Khan can't stand his wife's success and oh-so-insane Rani finding fault with whatever his hubby does or think, the director tried his best to portray the duo as the ones being mistreated.The movie was,indeed, meant to showcase that you don't have to keep yourself stuck in a marriage that is not working,right enough, but, frankly, it was not able to showcase the same effectively. It turned out to be a usual tale of partners fighting and divorcing, only dramatic thing was that no third person,sorry, fifth person was involved. The SRK fan died..died hard. If only he could wait some more time, some Don could give him a easy death with a single shot of a pistol.
May his soul rest in peace. Amen.

Meri pehli mohabbat...
kitabon pe jami dhool ki moti parat ke siwa kuchh nahi.
diary mein rakhe phool ki ghatati rangat ke siwa kuchh nahi.
chatake aaine mein nazaara dhundhli soorat ke siwa kuchh nahi.
patjhad-o-saawan se anjaan sukhe darakht ke siwa kuchh nahi.
sannaate mein sunayi deti jhooti aahat ke siwa kuchh nahi.
deed-e-manjil se mehroom purane khat ke siwa kuchh nahi.
Meri pehli mohabbat...
pighal-pighal ke uske seene mein jam chuki hai jo hamesha ke liye
mom se patthar bani us parat-e-nafarat ke siwa kuchh bhi nahi.