The first day of 2008 is just about to pass and I'm stuck up in a bumpy bus with a cranky driver trying hard to manoeuvre the khatara out of Delhi's ISBT. I'm trying my best to balance my guitar, my laptop and 3 bags all over the place to make sure they dont bump into anyone during the violent tremors in our good 'ol khatara. Just when you think things cant get worse, they actually do! My sweatshirt failed miserably against the assault of freezing gusts of wind. In my attempts to close the window shut I failed even miserably! All I could do now was shiver helplessly. At last I reached Roorkee and sleep peacefully in my Room-Sweet-Room (S-37 Rajendra Bhaven @ RJB)!
Day 2, 3, 4:
The next day goes on pretty uneventfully, with me sleeping while the friendly neighbourhood ghissu set out on their early morning pilgrimages to the lecture rooms (this has become their routine now). It has become my routine too, though I set out just a bit late, 30 mins late that is! With the hostel full again and life back on track 3 days pass us by swiftly.
Weekends are here again,
Just sleep till late,
And relax your brain,
To hell with the NCC parade!
Day 5:
The very first weekend into the second sems and I get up late as usual. Now LAN is something I really did miss when I was back home. You ask for it and they'v got it, movies, music, ebooks or software. I download from LAN Taare Zameen Par and watch it. For 3 hours I am transfixed, its possibly the most touching movie I'v seen. Amir Khan is a perfect perfectionist! The child artist Darsheel Safary too is par excellence. Everyone has lived their roles not merely acted them. Aamir Khan has handled the theme with great dexterity. He has not just succeeded in making every child a hero but actually helped us see a child in ourselves. Just like no man is perfect no matter what position he commands in the society, every child with both their ability and inabilities is special and talented in their own way. The movie isn’t just about a child suffering from dyslexia and his challenges, it’s also about how parents get carried away by today’s competitive world and fail to understand their child’s dreams and nurture their inborn talents.
We may love our family or our friends, but how many times do we actually say that we do? Rarely if at all ever. At Mood Indigo, Shankar Ehsaan and Loy for the first time to my knowledge campaigned for TZP at a live concert. The music too is gratifying. Its worth watching this movie once, twice, thrice an umpteen times.....Day 6:
Sunday! All I do daylong is eat and sleep. At night though I decide to start reading a book, something that I'v been planning to do for long. I decide to start reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. A very bold book I would say. Its not easy to stand up and talk about atheism or rather prove God to be a Delusion in this world driven - or should I say riven - by pernicious theism.
'I suspect - well, I am sure - that there are lots of people out there who have been brought up in some religion or other, are unhappy in it, don't believe it, or are worried about the evils that are done in its name; people who feel vague yearnings to leave their parents' religion and wish they could, but just don't realize that leaving is an option. If you are one of them, this book is for you. It is intended to raise consciousness - raise consciousness to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one. You can be an atheist who is happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled. That is the first of my consciousness-raising messages. I also want to raise consciousness in three other ways, which I'll come on to.' - Richard Dawkins.After my fourth pilgrimage of the semester, I decide to go out and have dinner with my friends and thats just about when things begin to become interesting! My mom always thinks Indra — a Hindu counterpart of Zeus — will zap me with a bolt of lightening for not believing in him!
And it turns out to be true! Mr. Indra or Mr. Zeus or may be both together are busy formulating Holy Plans to Zap me - the blasphemous atheist (thats how we are always portrayed)! While I am busy eating the sky starts to get cloudier and cloudier as if it still is monsoon. Bolts of lightening began fencing with each other and there is deafening thunder, the Plan is ready and about to be excuted. (Ok this sounds just a bit more melodramatic than it was, just thot it'd be funny) Five of us, me and four friends (isnt it obvious?) begin hurrying toward the NIH gate inorder to try and reach RJB before it begins to pour, merrily discussing about lightening strikes, totally unaware of The Holy Plan. And suddenly we see a flash of blinding light and a loud bang. We all run helter-skelter knowing very well that we just missed being struck by lightening. The shopkeepers come to help us but manage to make things worse with their stories of casualties nearby due to lightening strikes. Gathering some courage, we set out again and again lightening struck us! The same flash of light, the same bang. We survived the wrath once again! And it began to rain. At last we returned to our rooms half drenched and fully petrified but thankfully all alive. The Holy Plan failed again!
Thats it folks my first week of 2008 and my first week of second semister too!P.S: I'm thinking about a post on The Pilgrimage that is our daily trips to DOMS to attend lectures.
P.P.S: I have no intentions of harming religious sentiments wrt my day 7.
P.P.P.S: I recently went to Mussoorie and its beautiful.
P.P.S: I have no intentions of harming religious sentiments wrt my day 7.
P.P.P.S: I recently went to Mussoorie and its beautiful.
