Yo Pal

It's Nivedita

2010-10-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

Most of us, if not all, lead very uninteresting lives. Nevertheless all our lives are glittered with instances which arouse our curiosity, seize our spirits, and trigger our impulses. Such instances make life worth living for, if not dying for. One such episode that occurred in my life needs to be documented and so it follows.

I ran and toiled through the rain in the crowded Kempegowda bus terminus to catch the first Volvo bus to Murugeshpalya. My pair of jeans was loose and was frequently sliding off my hips with my cuffs getting underneath my shoes and soiling themselves. I had to put one of my hands in my pockets to keep my pants up. In my other hand there was a heavy bag of heavy books and I had my 5 pound laptop in my backpack. I was annoyed, helpless and exhausted. Fortunately, the coveted Volvo 335E bus had not left yet and I was able to get aboard and get a seat by the aisle.

I looked up and saw two young nubile girls kissing. Wait! I had imagined that, they were just hugging too closely amidst the crowded bus. Both were ostentatiously dressed, something that isn’t too common among the hard-working IT professionals of Bangalore. After that one of them got out and the other one came and took a seat nearest to me across the aisle. I looked at the one who got out and saw her trying to give a parting wave at the one that had taken the seat next to me. I duly informed the one sitting in the bus and the parting wave got reciprocated. “Glad to be of service!” I mumbled to myself.

From bottom to top: white sneakers, white skin-tight pants, flashy green top, and a thin pink cotton neck-wrap. The girl didn’t have an incredibly attractive face but she was quite well-dressed. Soon she got a call from somewhere and started discussing the absurdity of having a honeymoon in Antarctica and the prospect of playing with penguins there. My eyesight slowly swerved to the AIPGMEE book beyond her and the eyes that were so intently reading it. I then realized that there was another person, a lady, sitting next to her on the other side. As curious as we all get to read others’ arbitrary and esoteric books in buses, trains and various crowded places (in order to look educated), I got interested and tried to decipher the text of the book from a distance. Being an engineering student, I have absolutely zero knowledge of medicine or medical procedures except for maybe what I learn in House MD. Seeing me, even the glamorously dressed girl got interested in the medical book, and we shared a moment of interest in the AIPGMEE preparatory guide. It was obvious that we knew nothing of that field.

It was difficult to get a view of the medical aspirant and I was able to see only parts of her face beyond the silhouette of the glam-girl. At one instant the glam-girl bent forward momentarily to adjust her posture and I got a glimpse of the lady’s face. Her eyes were half open, her lips mildly smiling and her head absolutely motionless as she gazed intently into her book. She appeared to be around 23 years of age. Before I even knew, I was twisting and turning in order to get another look at her motionless head but the glam girl was almost always in between and blocking the view. I guess she got uncomfortable feeling that I was looking at her when in truth I had suddenly become far more interested in the lady beyond her. Luckily, the glam girl got off on the next stop and unluckily another guy took her place to block my line of sight. And I continued twisting, turning and shifting in my seat.

I didn’t know that I was getting drawn to her until it was too late. The more I looked at her, the more difficult it became to look away. The constant head, the half-opened eyes and the serene composure became too much for me to bear. I tried to take back control of my thoughts but in vain. My only solution was to bang my head repeatedly on the front seat’s handle in order to shake myself off. But it was too late. I could not stop looking at her. She looked complacently and serenely beautiful.

My body and mind had built up a lot of tension looking at her and I needed to release it. So I decided, come what may, I will speak to her and tell her what I thought of her. The bus was too crowded to have a conversation with her, so I decided to get down at her stop and tell her. I was supposed to get down at Murugeshpalya but I didn’t budge a muscle when the bus halted at that stop. “This is going to be a long evening”, I said to myself. For this first time in my life, I was being led so strongly by a feeling and not my rationale. It felt good.

I was busy composing my speech: “Hello. Could I have two minutes of your precious time? Listen, I am not a letch, stalker or a person of such disrepute. And what I am about to say is utterly ridiculous. But you are an incredibly beautiful person, and I’d like you to know it. I’d be glad I could know your name. I’m sure your parents must have warned you against divulging information to strangers, but if you feel that I am strange then I’d like you to at least keep my card. Thank you for your time and good bye.” I felt satisfied at my ability to compose a reasonable speech and took another look at her wondering if she had a boyfriend.

The horror what filled my nerves when I saw a ring on her right hand nearly tore me apart. ‘Every good plot has a twist.’ All my thoughts and hopes collapsed like a row of dominoes. Hurriedly, I asked the person sitting to my left (I had suddenly realized that there was another lady sitting to my left) about the meaning of a right hand ring-finger ring. She said that marriage rings are worn on the left hand and engagement rings on the right. So, the actress in my movie was engaged, and the male protagonist could only express despair to himself and the audience. All of a sudden, I wanted to get off the bus as soon as possible.

I then proceeded to perform an autopsy on my thoughts: I tried to figure out what I truly felt and I still felt the urge to tell her how beautiful she was. Besides my stop had passed by a long time now and now that the expedition to her stop had already begun, I decided to finish it. I started wondering where she would get down and I started wishing her stop would come soon as it was getting late. I was still looking at her and admiring her face.

Her stop came ten minutes later, when I noticed her make her way through the aisle to the bus door. I also got up with my book-bag and backpack and followed her. The bus stopped at Hope Park and we both got down. As it was raining, she got out her umbrella and I got drenched as I followed her across the street, with one hand in my pocket (to keep my pants up). “Hey!” I cried and she turned around. “Can I have two minutes?”; “Yes”, she replied. “Not a letch ...stalker …disrepute!” I babbled incoherently and she gave me a quizzical look. Fearing that the look might become distrustful in a matter of seconds, I blurted “You’re the most serenely beautiful person I have ever seen. I was supposed to get down at Murugeshpalya but I wanted to get down at your stop and talk to you”. “Oh god!” she chuckled politely. “I’d be flattered if I could know your name, if not then please keep my card”. She wanted to say something but before she could say what she wanted to (i.e. I’m committed), I produced my expired E-Cell card and shoved it into her hand. I bid “Good bye” to which she replied, “Its Nivedita”.

The next day I woke up with mixed feelings. Partly I was hoping she would call me and partly I was afraid her boyfriend/prospective husband would and admonish me. But then I remembered I had to leave Bangalore the next day, so all of my fears and hopes suddenly started to appear irrelevant. I was smug about what I had done, about venting my feelings. It was going to be a great morning.

Swearing upon injustice

2010-04-26T00:11:00.000-07:00

You are so full of shit, that your existence alone defeats the existence of all others who can make any positive contribution to society.

So you were born on 1945 eh? just after Hitler's death.. I see. Pity, you have all his qualities except his leadership abilities.

It because of you it doesn't rain here often.

You bureaucratic son-of-a-bitch! You don't know how to differ between obeying rules and being just. Hope you die an untimely death, so that others can live longer!

I am so pissed off right now, I wouldn't might stripping your guts out and devouring them.

Pleading for extra time counts as "disturbing" eh? Hope you die seconds before your life takes a positive turn.

You pig, you sloth, the tiniest smile on your bulging cheeks causes a painful blood-rush to my brain! Guess i might give u some scars, then you'll become quite a piece, and i might be able to smile back.

You "talk to my superiors please" puppet! You think you're inculpable? You represent the soulless vermin that infests modern society. I'll check you out later.

Quote

2010-02-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you. -Rashi

Globalization and Capitalism

2010-02-20T08:12:00.000-08:00

One of the essential features of globalization is the international flow of capital. Foreign direct investments, outsourcing and international trade form the economic underpinnings of present day society. Today the individual is subject to very powerful ‘free’ market forces which give him very less control over his own life. Capitalism has reduced almost everything, including culture, religion and even human life, to commodities, which can be measured entirely by their commercial value. Corporations today have the role that religion did in the past, and the flow of capital serves to signify their grasp on the globe. The formation of the European Union demonstrates how economic forces have become powerful enough to integrate once-hostile nations.

Having accelerated the growth of world GDP since its inception, capitalism has had a lot to offer. It is because of capitalism, that we have computers, mobiles, automobiles, internet, and a host of other technologies at our disposal. As long as production maximization ensured maximum profits, all was well, and the law didn’t mind treating the corporation as an individual. Slowly and steadily, particularly during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the US, corporations and capitalistic institutions gained hegemonic powers. Corporations today are more powerful than many governments, for example, the top 550 billionaires in the world control more capital than 270 countries in the world! Such absolute power often corrupts absolutely, and we can see how corporations have shoved aside labor unions as they sought to outsource their production in third world countries, resulting in job deficits in their own countries. With such practices, promises of capitalism such as “prosperity for all” and “global progress” have faced the brunt of much criticism.

We began with capitalism being one of the essential features of globalization, but it is capitalism which drove and still drives globalization, remarkably. The discovery and invasion of India was motivated by economic forces as the British Empire state had reached optimum levels of wealth creation and the only prospect of boosting its already large economy was foreign wealth expropriation. Globalization has always been primarily a method to do this, although new benefits have emerged, such as the free flow of media, images, ideas, and people across continents. Commercial exploitation of third world countries by large corporations such as Nike and Unocal not only aid such wealth appropriation but also weaken these countries. For every $14 T-shirt that is sold, $0.03 is given to the laborer, who is inevitably an impoverished victim of capitalism in some third-world country (TWC). One may argue that corporations are creating new jobs where none existed, but one cannot ignore the jobs that are being taken away from first-worlds in order to provide them to third-worlds at much lower rates. Such practices aren’t benefitting any country, even the home countries of these corporations; they only serve to preserve corporate hegemony.

Indigenous products and services cannot flourish or compete against such large corporations. This is why international trade almost always benefits foreign corporations. One doesn’t need to go far back in history to see how the British rulers deracinated textile mills and cotton production in Bengal and replaced it with opium cultivation, as the superior textiles of Bengal posed a threat to the ones made in Manchester. A similar thing is happening even today: people of TWCs choose to work for large multi-national corporations (MNCs) over lower-paying domestic companies. This labor deficit, more commonly known as the “brain-drain” in India, further weakens domestic governments and industry, and preserves the existing corporate hegemony.

Unfortunately, globalization and the flow of capital are not uniform. This means that certain nations will benefit over others. Such a transnational corporation is both centralized and decentralized with respect to its operations. Most of its head offices, which control the corporation globally, are always located in the first-world countries. It is decentralized with respect to its production and distribution, which takes place in TWCs such as those in South-East Asia and Latin America. In essence, capital flows from the underfed to the overfed. It is remarkable to see that Wallerstein’s World System Theory still explains the current world’s economic system, the core being replaced by the large MNCs, with the TWCs forming the periphery, and capital flowing from the periphery to the core.

Capitalism appears to be the greatest form of evil but it is essentially an agent of change. Evil is what one does to oneself. It is important to speak about the systematic violence that state itself perpetrates on the indigenous tribes in order to support capitalism. For a global corporation to set up its activities in a third world, which is beneficial from the government’s perspective, it will want to acquire vast amounts of land, manipulate the demands of the nation, so that they ultimately decide the agenda for that nation. In other words, they then take over the narratives of the country and thus in the light of such an ‘industrialization’ the government is left to play it's only part, i.e. marginalize the weak and the oppressed and systematically erase stories that these narratives cannot encapsulate. So the natives have a choice to either wither and perish or fight for their lands and existence, and when they later choose the latter and embrace arms, they are called Maoists and Naxalites (terrorists) and shot down.

We are increasingly moving towards a world characterized by imperial corporate rule. The corporation represents the present day “Empire State”, regulating the quality of life of every individual on the planet. The day isn’t far away when one will be defined by the corporation one works for and not the country one belongs to. But soon enough, capitalism will reach optimum levels, when there is no more left to exploit, and then corporations may start privatizing space and exploiting extraterrestrial planets, as was seen in the film, “Avatar”. Or we might just be able to develop a new system in which power is returned to the smarter individual.

Identity in a Globalizing World

2010-02-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in suburban Kolkata, in a non-descript Bangladeshi home, a teenage girl is downloading the latest episode of the Japanese manga series, “Naruto”, to her Acer laptop. At the same time, she’s looking online for a ninja headband that she’d like wear to school. She knows her immediate friends won’t dig the idea of a ninja headband but she isn’t afraid to look silly and to try new things. A faint cry reaches her but she pays no heed: the volume of U2’s latest soundtrack, “Magnificent” keeps drowning all other sounds until her mother storms into her room and smacks her on the head. Grabbing her by her “John Cena” tee, she drags her to the dinner table and admonishes her. Her parents want her to behave more like an Indian girl and less like an American tomboy; they say that she is being an embarrassment to her native culture and society. But Usha is uncompromising. She devours her dinner rapidly and goes to her room to complain to her overseas friends, particularly those who disagree, if at all, with her parents’ point of view. Most of her western friends think her name is a variant of “Usher”, a popular American rap artist, but she doesn’t mind, not at all. She’s too busy thinking how great things would have been if she had been born in America.

The preceding paragraph hints at most, if not all, of the social, cultural and personal influences of globalization. It is evident that corporations have a huge role to play in which they use their brands to communicate and implant lifestyles, attitudes, desires on the consumers and thereby attract more consumers. Fuelled by profit motives, these mercenaries (corporations) are ready to expand to new territories and subsequently displace or modify indigenous cultures in order to establish a growing market system. Terms like “globalization” and “economic growth” are used to rationalize such measures. It is interesting to note that many of these corporations, however global they might claim to be, have most of their central offices in the country they originated in, the United States. This country, having been “discovered” in the 1700s, inherently lacks a long established or distinct “culture” as compared to the well-defined cultures one can associate with East Asia, Europe, the Middle-East and the Indian sub-continent. Such corporations, driven purely financially, would have inherently failed to understand or even consider what culture and identity meant. And with the law considering it as a person, the corporation represents an invincible and omnipresent behemoth.

The relentless march of globalization has engendered insecurities and has probably induced the formation of religious and territorial fundamentalist groups. The corporation is even more pivotal in the way that it has facilitated the formation of portals (internet, wireless communication, satellite technology) for the free flow and exchange of liberal ideas across the globe. Such flow of images or in general, “scapes” in the words of Arjun Appadurai, characterize globalization. Flows of ideas, such as those of democracy or western feminist movements, distort political structures of third world countries, thereby weakening not only their governments but also their religious and cultural establishments. Iran’s interest to shut down Google in its country and Google’s interest to move out of China, following a hacking attack on human rights activists’ email accounts, elucidate the building tensions in third world countries, as they strive to improve their condition by seeking human rights, democracy and independence (concepts of the west) instead of devising novel domestic solutions most suited to their social structures.

There is a natural tendency for third-world countries to “look up” to the west, in spite of the all the damages that they have caused to such countries in the preceding centuries. Skin color probably fosters xenophilia, and the flow of media only serves to accentuate the economic gap between these worlds. The way such countries see the west (skyscrapers) is very different from the way the west sees them (slums). Such exchanges serve to make the upcoming generation of the suppressed civilizations disregard or scorn their own cultures and beliefs, as we saw with Usha. It is interesting to note at this juncture that in such a global society, the bourgeoisie, in particular, is becoming victim to western simulacra, “the signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality” as explained by Jean Baudrillard in Simulacres et Simulation. This perceived reality becomes the reality of western music, corporate brands, Hollywood, and proliferating “western food” chains. The lack of distinction between reality and simulacra can be explained by observing how it is becoming hard to differentiate between the goods that are needed and the ones whose need is created by commercial images.

Such perception causes people to imitate practices prevalent in regions very different to their own. A popular example would be that of Indian Metal music, a culture that is predominantly western but gaining much popularity in urban Indian cities. Such Indian English-Metal bands do gain limited popularity but are mostly shadowed by their western contemporaries. This shows two things: one, the continuance of interest towards western compositions as compared to indigenous creations in English, and two, the inability of such bands to create sufficiently original music in an attempt to simulate western themes. The success of “Jal”, a Pakistani rock band, is an example of music that has succeeded owing to its ability to combine “rock” instruments with domestic music thereby producing popular compositions. Such an attempt preserves culture and gets wide acceptance. Thus, it can be concluded that imitation is not only unpopular but also an identity-dissolving agent.

In such a culturally globalizing world, it is interesting to speculate the future of society, identity, and culture. Many have reasonably suggested that cultural homogenization fostered by the American hegemony will lead to a “global monoculture” in the not too distant future. As explained by Maude Barlow: “Dominated by US and Western values and lifestyles, driven by a consumer-based, free-market ideology and carried through the massive US entertainment-industrial complex, the global monoculture has infiltrated every corner of the Earth.” This cultural homogenization has endangered local tradition, knowledge, language, skills, artisans and values. As mentioned earlier, the corporation has had a huge role to play in converting culture to commercial commodities. It has become increasing difficult for local manufacturers to market indigenous products, thereby facing extinction. More than 80% of internet web sites are in English with more and more parents encouraging children to learn English over native languages.

Vandana Shiva calls it a “monoculture of the mind”, more interestingly so, as it conforms to the notion of “perceived reality” of Baudrillard. Consumers are more influenced by images and media, rather than need. However, such a “global monoculture” needs analysis as it is important to understand the customs that will remain local and those which will succumb to the brunt of globalization. It would be unfair to associate global culture with the west, because the global mono-culture is essentially a mix of diverse customs. This is why one can see Samosas, Kati rolls, Chinatowns, and Bhangra discos in New York, arguably the most globalized city in the world. Globalization has certainly induced immigration from third-world nations into the west and such immigration has leveled out the ethic distribution of the populace in Europe and the Americas. A common culture, which has been defined by corporations, will exist beneath the diversities created by the heterogeneous mix of inhabitants. So, in essence, the global monoculture that is being established will form a kind of a meta-narrative, which will allow novel cultures to develop and flourish under its superficial regime.

The terms “identity”, “culture”, “patriotism” are used with such a cavalier attitude by contemporary activists to denounce globalization that one gets easily deluded without understanding what these terms imply. Identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable; with respect to people, identity can be used interchangeably with “individuality”. One can choose identities based on their likes and dislikes. When common traits of identities are shared by a group of people, it becomes a culture and the group strives to promote and expand it to ensure its survival. At a time when the world was not so well connected, people stuck to separate regions and were able to preserve cultures easily, which developed distinctly from other regions and cultures over thousands of years. Presently, the increasing connectedness of the world is offering the individual a multitude of customs, languages, and places to choose from. As a result, it has become increasingly complicated and difficult to preserve traditions. Ancient cultures and beliefs are no longer integral parts of one’s identity; hence it isn’t unnatural for cultural activists to deem “unpatriotic” those individuals who choose to adopt customs of different cultures. The same is true for religion and nationality.

In an age where religion, traditions, and customs are losing popularity, where the progress of science and communication techniques is making the third-world open to corporate exploitation, where the economic gap between the rich and poor nations and the rich and poor people is ever-widening, it seems that cultural and identity preservation remains a battle for the social elite. Globalization definitely poses a threat to cultures, not only because corporations are defining new cultures based on media-induced needs, but also because the widespread exchange of ideas across the globe is helping people choose what is most suited to them.

A parable

2009-10-03T02:19:00.000-07:00

A slave had two water jars that he carried to the river to get water for the master's house several times a day. One of the jars had a crack and leaked half its contents on the journey back the house every time. The jar was saddened to know that his imperfection caused the slave to make more trips to the river because of him. One day, the jar told the slave he was sorry, and suggested the slave get a newer, better jar. The slave just smiled and said to the jar, "You are perfect just the way you are. See, along the path, all the beautiful flowers that grow on the side that I carry you? Every day, you water them, making them grow. Each day, I pick these flowers and put them in the master's house, where they brighten the house and bring him great joy."

Where art thou, with thy phone switched off?

2009-09-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

I have traveled far and wide,
and waited long and strong,
for thy phone to get switched on.
But my efforts seem to be of of no avail,
That's why i have written this silly mail,
So that you may grant me audience.

I promise you it wont take long,
If you reached out and switched it on.
Give your phone the liberty to sing,
And to do that irritating "trin trin".

I might be a bugger, I could also be a friend,
An idle chat wont necessarily bring about the world's end,
So take some time off and switch the thing on.
It'll do more good to me than do you harm.

What? You're still reading? You haven't switched it on?
Looks like my efforts are laid waste after all.
Hope you're not giggling, coz I'm serious as hell
I'm a person with zero patience as my friends can tell.

Hey! I got to go, talk to ya later, must get back to work now
My temper's gone, I'm much saner somehow
Knowing how much time i've devoted to this prose scares me
So for heaven's sake please switch it on and talk to me.

Karma - the gol of life (gol as in "circle")

2009-05-21T01:08:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how this karma thing really works? Even as a scientific observer, it is but only natural to believe that one will suffer the consequences of one's own actions. But it is quite awesome how this actually happens.

It's all in your head!

BANGALORE, 19th May: It wasn't the first time that it was raining so heavily, and it certainly wasn't the first time that I had streaked across the road and sneaked into the nearest bus to Majestic. The cacophony created by the traffic and the pelting raindrops makes it immensely difficult even for the ticket-collector, let alone the exhausted driver, to notice a person sneak into the bus from the rear entrance. With an overwhelming pretense of sincerity and aplomb, which can only be challenged by George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven, I took my seat beside a fellow passenger. Obviously, as i had stated, the t.c. had no idea that the bus had a new occupant, and I made no effort in informing him about it. With nothing else to bother about, I dozed off.

When i got down at Majestic, I couldn't help feeling the pang of guilt that had set upon my head. It was the second time that i had saved a few pennies, but the last time it was done inadvertently. This time, the act of evading the ticket-collector had transformed itself into a heinous crime in my head which conflicted with my moral code. If i had to use an analogy, I'd say I felt the same as Mahatma Gandhi had felt when he had stolen from his father's pocket. I vowed never to evade the t.c. again.

BANGALORE, 20th May: The following day I was headed to Majestic from Murugeshpalya along with my sister. I paid the t.c. for the both tickets and my sister got off at Corporation. The bus was about to reach its final destination when i realized that the t.c. had charged us an extra Rs. 10 for the tickets. I read the tickets and realized that he had charged us from the bus-stop prior to the one we boarded the bus at. Furiously, I made my way to the t.c. and admonished him for his misconduct. But this fellow wasnt willing to accept his fault. Even the bus-driver defended him with a completely different argument that the ticket from murugeshpalya does indeed cost more. When i produced older copies of tickets issued the day before, he withdrew. The t.c. was adamant and stayed indifferent to my accusations. I called him a thief etc etc and used a variety of expletives. But i guess his knowledge of English was limited to the various stops and places in Bangalore and the pronunciation of numbers, as his job required. Crestfallen, I withdrew but not without an undying desire to clout him.

Later, the proceedings of the previous day about my misconduct (wrt to evading the t.c.) dawned on me. And i was gripped with this feeling that the law of karma had prevailed once again like so many times before. But being an agent of causality, i realized that the unfolding of events had nothing to do with my past as compared to my absent-mindedness or carelessness.

Belief in karma or fate isn't different from belief in god. It just one among of those many abstractions that we use to explain things that happen to us and others, because we need the feeling of being in control. Most of the times these beliefs can cloud our minds from seeing or discovering the real truth, i.e. things are just the way they are and most of the times the reasons are pretty simple. Making theories or adjusting theories to fit our daily experiences might not be very different from believing that the world is flat. The key to discovery and knowledge lies in exploration and mining, nothing else.

Lucky by Chance

2009-02-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

KOLKATA, 31st Jan: I was returning from the Kolkata Book Fair half dead and with my cousin sister, Pupu, who was not at all responsible for my washed-out countenance. It had indeed been a long day, nearly 5 hours, most of which had been needlessly spent at Bengali book stalls. (psst.- The thing is I can't read Bengali) Near the last quarter of our trip, we had managed to purchase 6 books for ourselves.

The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith), Interpretation of Dreams (Sigmund Freud), Collection of Short Stories (HG Wells), and an Oxford Mini-Dictionary occupied the heavy tote-bag that I was toiling with during the entire return trip. Shortly after the auto-rickshaw dropped us near our house at Kankurgachi, we decided to make a quick trip to Bhikharam to refuel ourselves. While Pupu paid the auto-walla I held her books as well over my shoulder, which was now red and swollen. We quickly crossed the bustling streets and made our way to have some Gujju snacks.

I dropped the book-bags on the restaurant seat and had hardly made across to the snacks counter when Pupu made me turn back and observe her puzzled face. She counted it again, 1-2-3-4-5-?, 1 book was missing. We came to the conclusion that we must have left the book in the auto-rickshaw we came in, at least that was the only option we had in which we had a slim chance of getting the book back.

We rushed back to the auto-stand and inquired with the authorities about the auto which had carried us and when it would be coming back. Thanks to the incredible powers of observation that often rescue those in need, we were able to identify the same auto we came in. But the auto-driver confidently denied the possibility of us leaving any book in his auto, as he would have otherwise seen it. Distrustfully, we let the driver leave and crestfallen, we made our way back.

"You still wanna go and have something at Bhikharam?" I asked. "Well, we've lost 150 bux, so maybe a snack can make us feel better", she replied. We entered Bhikharam, and I seated myself at the table next to the one I had earlier dropped the book-bags on.

Suddenly, I noticed a familiar tote-bag below the table infront of me.

Twist of Fate...and the Restoration

2008-12-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

CHENNAI, 20th December: I took 5 minutes to get dressed, and had a few remaining before the next bus to the Chennai Convention Center would depart from the IIT Madras campus. The occasion was the PAN IIT 08 Alumni Meet and a cocktail party had been scheduled for this last evening at the convention center 10 kms away.

Code Green, IIT Kharagpur had just won the award for the best B-Plan there. IIT Mumbai came second and some other IIT came third but the important thing is that KGP came first! I couldn't help but feel a sense of vicarious joy from their victory. Even though literally it wasn't my victory, it could be argued that this is precisely what ANY E-Cell member would want: Start-ups from their institution winning national/international events.

Workaholism and alcoholism cannot go together, at least in my case it doesn't. I don't abstain from alcohol, but I don't make many attempts to drink either. Rarely do I get an opportunity to drink, and considering my frugality and the high prices of alcohol, I really consider alcohol as a waste of money, which is again the main reason for my sobriety.

But again there are few moments when joy and free alcohol come at the same time, and workaholism gives way to hedonism. I thought about it and the idea of pouring down a few sips of alcohol for the third time in 2008 intrigued me.

So as I got dressed, somebody called me up and told me to rush to the BUS stop as the last bus to the Cocktail Party was about to leave. And since there is no rickshaw service in IIT Madras, I had to run the entire length of the lengthy campus to reach the BUS stop in time. As I was nearing the stop, i felt my chest and realized that my Delegate card, which is necessary for getting into the bus, was not there. Must have dropped it during the run!! Damn it. There was no way I could go back or take a few steps forward, and the idea of joy and free booze was slowly fading away.

Crestfallen, I moved forward hoping that the PAN IIT coordinators would consider my IIT identification card. Chances were slim, and time was slipping away. Then I saw Shruti, one of the student coordinators of the event, coming my way. I pleaded my case, and she told me there was no way I could attend the party without my delegate badge.

All hopes lost, I decided to trace my path back and look for my badge as I would need it for the next day. I have a stupid habit of thinking deeply, and I momentarily scanned the philosophical implications of this sudden twist of fate on my future. I turned around and walked away.

"Hey!" Shruti cries. "Whats that dangling behind your back?"