meThinks

"The reader should realize himself that it could not have happened otherwise and that to give him any other name was quite out of the question." – Nikolai Gogol, "The Overcoat My copying of the epigraph is to revere the literary precision that Jhumpa Lahiri has maintained throughout “The Namesake”. “The Namesake” is a story of dreams, despairs, diversions and disillusionment. It is the story of a generation which tries to cling to their traditions in their newly found abode and of a generation which is trying to free themselves from the same traditions being imposed upon them. It is the story of the angst of the Bengali immigrants in a foreign land and the conundrum of ABCD (American Born Conflicted Deshi’s) on being exposed to two contrasting cultures of East and West.  “But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their

“It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the 'pursuit' part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?” - The Pursuit of Happyness Since antiquity, human beings have realized that all our actions are directed towards attaining a singular state of mind i.e. happiness. Health, wealth and everything else are sought by us merely because we believe they would take us closer to this elusive target of HAPPINESS. But the farther we proceed in our quest of materialistic acquisition, the greater is the realization our discontent. And thus we are forced to ask whether we can truly be happy? Is attaining a perennial state of happiness an insurmountable task? Is our pursuit for happiness a

Co-author : Tanuj Choudhary Disclaimer : The facts used in the text are a result of exhaustive research; however, interpretation can be attributed to authors’ perverted minds. The sole objective of this article is humour and shall not be employed by the political parties for election propaganda. This article contains volatile literature and can hurt political sentiment.  Readers’ discretion is advised.     “If you really want a bestseller, you must exploit the plot for all sexual possibilities.” A viceroy, his promiscuous spouse and her beloved friend (who also the leader of opposition) and a blood smeared nation at the verge of independence after 200 years of servitude; most writers shall agree that this tale offers every element that is needed for a promising story. We are not here to tarnish the name of the dead but how can you forego a sexual conspiracy in a taboo-stricken nation. The Story: It is a well-established fact that the British left India earlier than

A beyance is the one word that can summarize an entire month of my life. I have now witnessed how procrastination can lead to total inactivity which was unprecedented to me, heretofore. I would  not   say it is a very common experience in daily life yet fortunate ones (generally suffering from acute depression etc.) get to observe the ultimate prowess of procrastination. You essentially need to be procrastinating on every single activity which is not forced upon you by nature or college administration for a month to finally attain this state which I shall christen as Zombie Living . Zombie Living is a state where as a college student all you seek is basic necessity ( Food, Sleep and TV series ) and attend to most primitive responsibilities ( maintaining attendance and copying tutorials ).Zombie Living is, quintessentially, living by a code somewhat like a samurai: If I am at my room I shall watch TV series unless I am too tired to watch it, If I am out I am copying tu

There are moments that cannot be penned down. They are too pious to be explained; they just need to be experienced. E ven if I had been a prolific writer, I would have failed to help you envisage what is described in the following post. But still I know many of you will recognize it for I hope that at some particular moment you might have gone through such a specific set of feelings which are so general to everyone who falls in love. I don’t know what they are termed, but there is definitely a trance involved, so let us for a moment accept the existence of the term: LOVE TRANCE . Butterflies dance in a frenzied way   Tension rises and fades away    Every second is felt through    So is the trance when I am with you. Every part of the body undergoes a strange sensation as if they are the chords which are being played. In a jiffy, there are butterflies that fly down in your guts in a frantic fashion and before you know it, you are no longer in control of anyth

Truth is like the town whore. Everybody knows her, but nonetheless, it's embarrassing to meet her on the street.    WOLFGANG BORCHERT,  The Outsider I n this blog, I have purposely omitted a few names because of the sensitive nature of the content, rather, the sensitive nature of the parents of those who are referred in it. I, unfortunately being the author of this post, do not possess the privilege of anonymity and thus, I sincerely hope that my parents are not reading it. This blog is second of the three part series: What I did this summer and mostly covers my account of various incidents that I was willingly and sometimes unwillingly a part of. It seems all my friends were busy writing their love stories last semester as this summer I was suddenly overwhelmed by the introduction of new characters in my life and soon I became a part of romantic extravaganzas of several others in addition to my own. I would have started my story from Bangalore: how I tr

PART:I You have a strange fulfilling sense when you have lived every day.    W hen you have huge anticipation for something, it never turns out to be what you expected. But that should never stop you from anticipating things or planning for events because that provides you a benchmark for how well the experience actually was. And when the experience outweighs your expectation you know you rocked the day.  Never before, the lanes of my memory have been so stocked as if stories are in perpetual grapple in my mind to reach my pen. It is as if you can pick a day and I can associate a piece of memory with it. I won't be lying if I say there was a time when I considered writing this blog post as a log of events but then my preference for classification over chronology dominated my writing style.  "Earn and Spend"   This is the fourth postulate of my philosophy for life which I did come across this summer and my vacation simply remained an exhibition of t

Part I: The Paradox  "Life is somewhat like walking down a dark tunnel with a candle in your hand." A lthough the line in itself is explanatory, I would elaborate upon it to put rest to the slight amount of vagueness that yet lingers. When we are in a tunnel with nothing but a candle as single source of light, all that is visible to us, while making a choice of path, is a circumference of space lightened by the flame of the candle. It is very much analogous with momentary nature of our lives. Our future is dark as we are unaware of it; we might have some notions about it as we have of the path ahead but eventually it is more or less oblivious to us.  Our past is dark as it is unalterable and thus cannot be of any help. Some might argue that we draw experience from our past but then, to be forthright, how often do we learn from our mistakes ( someone did right say experience is the name we give to the mistake that we so blatantly repeat in past that it unlikely w

I n wake of a dream I walk through your door To be in the world where I'll rise and fly and dream even more. And when the dream were wet, my eyes did too and I crawled and wept, in your arms I slept. But then the clouds were gone and we see clear sky the doubtless sun shines and so do I. Unshackled from chains, in freedom I breathe This world of dreams is all I did need. And then the ways were lost and so was the dream, all my past was gone and so does future it seems. Tempered and torn, shattered and soiled lying down I ponder Why I had tried? Then I look around, I am at bottom of all, I have fallen so bad that I can no longer fall.  In wake of a dream I walked through your doors, the dream might have died but I will prevail.

Contributions: Shreyas Adiyodi & Tanuj Choudhary Disclaimer : Sasanka Bhagabati, here, is a fictional character. If, from his character sketch, you draw any resemblance with a namesake residing in A-122, that’s sheer brilliance on your part :D. Observing is an art of making curious, obvious. Aim S o like any other sincere student of an IIT, I have often been plagued by this innocent question, Why the hell do we need to study?  As most of us have long forgone our scholarly pursuits, it seems even more illogical to mug for long hours before examination. Don’t you think, it would have been amazing to score grades without messing with your sleeping schedules? And yes we all think it’s possible as grades are relative, yet due to some muggers we are all forced to bear the plight of studying every time before the exams. So, the aim of this blog is to determine why students study for exams when they can all manage good grades if none of them study? Prerequisites: I

Kung Fu Panda is a symbol for Swapnil Jha who resesmbles him closely In the midst of lonely strolls and when in my heart despair dwell you come along with contagious smile and now my friend all is well A few of us did meet as kids at a place we were sent to learn we kept running around in jolly moods reliving those moment are all i yearn Strangers we were when we began to talk You touched my soul with pristine heart All the fun and flukes we had and for a never ending journey, it was just a start Now when I remember those days the bunks ,cries , love and rave can't forget those songs we sung and dreams we chased, Thank you guys, a lonely child you really did save  

And then night descends upon my mortal self, my soul transcends to that new world Where your giggles are melodies that leave me in trance and our soul intertwine in an eternal dance. And then we weave together a wonderful dream Lost I am and lost you seem Then boundaries are forgotten of time and space All I can imagine is your beautiful face. In that world you utter promises with doubts yet bold Knowing very well how future unfolds,   Scared that tides may wash away the moments we share, Still then trying to enjoy the times when I am there. So before you suddenly begin to ponder those unknown apprehension I can just wonder, I want to press my lips on yours and kiss, Oh, I will be there forever and ever and so will be these moments of bliss.

Co-author: Tanuj Choudhary Disclaimer: This blog is a compilation of accounts by different students and should not be confused as authors’ personal experiences. Any resemblance of undermentioned accounts with authors’ personal lives is just a matter of co-incidence. This blog shall not induce our recruiters to strip us of our present intern offers. So habituated I was of searching for reasons of my failure that I can no longer figure out why I succeeded this time. A nd we are back as promised with this second post of the series Intern and MindFuck . This should clearly exhibit to our recruiter our punctuality and dedication for work.  And now that we have somehow managed to find an intern our credibility to speak on this topic has been established. It won’t be an overstatement if we credit our exceptional resume for our achievements. Thus, we would like to share the ancient secrets of resume building with our readers.   Part II: CV Confessions CV is a pi

There are few moments in life you always despise, the moments when you can’t interpret your own thoughts, you can’t identify with yourself. This article is written in one of such weak moments, since these moments are characterized by the fuzziness of thoughts which offer no such underlying relations, thus the article lacks a unifying theme in itself and is more of a realization of various unrelated emotions. This is first part of the article which has been trisected. # IDENTITY T wo years have passed since I have joined IIT Roorkee, but this was enough for me too appreciate an irony of life. No matter how many people you are surrounded with, there will be times when you’ll be made aware of your solo existence, about the perennial loneliness.  When you look around you can’t relate to the horde that surrounds you. With everyone having their own, obviously varying, perception of this world, it’s too difficult to commune with people due to such differences in perceptions and belief

There are few moments in life you always despise, the moments when you can’t interpret your own thoughts, you can’t identify with yourself. This article is written in one of such weak moments, since these moments are characterised by the fuzziness of thoughts which offer no such underlying relations, thus the article lacks a unifying theme in itself and is more of a realisation of various unrelated emotions. This is the third part of an article which has been trisected. #GOD Is there a God? Again a paradox, sometimes I wonder whether everything is ambiguous in life or is there definitive reality. Even this can lead to a debate of illusion and reality. May be this is the reason I m so fascinated by life there are several questions which appear so simple but everyone has his own answers , all those answers are correct. You don’t have to follow a set of defined procedure to reach the solution; life on the other hand gives opportunities to explore your own solution which is d