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Showing posts from January, 2013

Why I Argue?

"Working with you is like working with a dictator, you never let others have their way." I am often accused of being argumentative. There are very few people who haven’t blamed me yet, for challenging every single statement they put in front of me.  “You have to dispute everything” , “You always try to impose your ideas” , "Why! Why! Why! You always do this Why! Why!" , “ Beta, Har baat pe behas nahi karte” . After being on the receiving ends of all the above and several other similar remarks for all these years made by almost everyone I know and who knew me enough, this blog is my last attempt to redeem my impression, on all, of a belligerent human being. Yes! There are no doubts about me being inquisitive or challenging others statement. I do that but the reasons behind my actions are often misinterpreted. I frame my beliefs after a lot of introspection and thus it is natural that I expect the same from everyone else. I suppose people should kno

Life of Pi

BOOK REVIEW "Every page offers you something of tension, humanity,surprise, or even ecstasy" 4.5/5 If you are interested in philosophy or psychology or disaster management, Life of Pi is a must read for you. After all who won't be interested in reading the account of a teenager trapped in a life-boat with a Royal Bengal Tiger, well to be more accurate, a Royal Bengal Tiger, a zebra, an orangutan and a spotted hyena and survived the Pacific for 227 days before finding land. Story of Pi Patel starts on a light note with laden with comic description of how he was named and how he followed 3 different religions but at the same time several important philosophies are presented by the author, veiled in humor.  Author, Yann Martel, has discussed the subtleties of human psychology by comparing it with animal behaviour. Through the midway book become more pessimistic and has been reviewed as over-descriptive and dull by many but I found those description quite convi

I welcome despair!

Shrouded by doubts, darkened at heart, Discarded, Broken, Shattered, Starved For love as, solitary, I lied there To be devoured by you, I welcome despair.   I have been tormented by illusion called hope, Tired of chasing dreams that elope Leaving my spirit torn so I can no longer recover, So I wait to be united with you, I welcome you despair.   Light at the end of an abyss is success, To be viewed and dreamt but never accessed, And thus my surrender to failure is fair, I quit futile attempts to convalesce, as I welcome despair.   Calmly, I drown in the sea of pessimism, No more disappointments, I make no efforts, I have no dreams. No reasons to pray, no stories to share With a sealed fate I fare, since I welcomed despair.

Dream on, Move on, Go MAPC.

I have always believed that  I should do my part and trust others with their parts and eventually all things will fall into place.  As a matter, it’s often not that straightforward and sometimes people require a nudge or two but thankfully, things often do fall into place. That’s what is important; show must go on, objectives must be completed and organisation must prosper. And that is what MAPC has tried to do irrespective of the challenges that presented themselves in front of the Team. The Media and Publishing Club, IIT Roorkee SRE campus often abbreviated as MAPC of which I happen to be the Manager is certainly on a rise and that’s what keeps me content in spite of a highly unproductive last week. Team has finally effaced their differences, every other In-DePTh (campus newsletter) seems to be better than the previous one, team is never short of ingenious ideas, we are finally dreaming big and reaching out for them. We have figured out an efficient and effective way to

Why didn't they help? Bystander Paradox

I often use to wonder why students who are ragged alone in their rooms generally complain while those who are ragged along with others don't, in spite of the fact that mass ragging can be more offensive at times and thus more derogatory. I recently got the answer to this and to be forthright, a few other questions in a pessimistic concept (rather a paradox) of psychology called Bystander Intervention Problem . It suggests: "More are the bystanders to an emergency; less is probability of their intervention." This is strange to hear but then quite easy to contemplate. We might have ignored a man who had fallen in the crowd or a guy hit by a car on the road or a man being beaten in a brawl.  We all just go by ignoring it. You may say it was just that one time, but then study suggests that an average man in his life witnesses only six emergencies. It’s good for obvious reasons, but then when we encounter true emergencies we couldn't decide what to do due to lack ex

Cliffs, Abyss and Myopic Economy

I have always been fascinated by catchy phrases coined by the intellects and the media. And thus, its no surprise I discovered the word  FISCAL CLIFF  very intriguing. I would rather like to reveal that these are desperate times with socializing opportunities curtailed by extreme cold, so I have resorted to, what you may call  intellectual enlightenment.  As a part of this scheme I have started reading ET ( The Economic Times ) in hope that it might help me develop a financial outlook and satisfy my urges for statistical analysis which are terribly frequent these. So, ET, in recent past, was plagued by this phrase  Fiscal Cliff , so it quite natural to develop certain amount curiosity about it for any person even if he is not as inquisitive as me. Moreover, the enigma of the phrase is overemphasized by the height of urgency exhibited by US Congress in attending to it. I admit I was mesmerized by Senate's dedication as they sacrificed their New Year Eve to come up with a solution

Whiling away a Wintry Night Part- II

PART-II: Life is to live Bewildered by the announcement, I rushed towards the ticket counter and enquired about trains to SRE. “You don’t have one from Delhi; there is one from NZM station. You can take an EMU for NZM station. They are frequent enough, you can get one anytime.” EMUs are what you may term as locals. I must say the idea to take a local was not worth embracing especially at 1:30 am keeping in mind the rising crime portfolio of nation’s capital.  All of a sudden I recalled this fancy dialogue from “Risky Business”: “Every now and then say, “What the f**k!” coz WTF gives you freedom; freedom gives you opportunity and opportunity makes your future.” It was not pretty much in context but I just wanted to mention it anyway. It’s my blog after all. So, I said WTF , I’ll just go to NZM, what other choices I had anyway. So, I boarded the EMU. Now, there is stark difference behaviour of the passengers during daytime and nights; in broad daylight our first priorit