Doomsday

I guess scarier than death is the anticipation that leads to it. Living each day like it would be your last is supposed to be a good thing but that last day would also be full of fear because any second you could see Yamraaj climb down from the sky and take you away with him. Lately life just seems like one big last day...
A student in my college suicided because the administration harrassed him until he couldn't take it anymore, a batchmate passed away by slipping while crossing a river and hitting his head on a rock, there were blasts in Assam, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, there was mass gunfiring on the streets of Mumbai. These are only incidents that I have been a distant spectator to (through news channels), during the past few months. Life has become so unpredictable for every one. I guess if you really think about it life is always unpredictable. You never know when you can meet with an accident and loose your life. Come to think of it it really isn't that hard for the person who dies but for the people who he leaves behind to live without him or her in their lives. Accidents were always a part of the fear that one lived with everyday but today we have to live with a fear of being shot at or being blasted at any corner of the street. It has become difficult for us to even walk the streets of our city without receiving ten phone calls from our parents and family and friends telling us to hurry up and go home. But really is there any certainty that there isn't a bomb sitting ready to blast inside your very own residence. Really...in today's world anything can happen.
There was always the issue of Global Warming that all of us were aware about but never consciously did anything to prevent and now that it is finally here and we can see how the seasons are actually changing, we realise that we should have done something. Sometimes when the sky becomes dark and grey in the middle of spring it does feel like the world will end that day.
To make things worse man is fighting against man. Terrorism is growing and capturing so many innocent lives. It is robbing civilians of their family members and friends. What is the reason for these innocent people to loose their lives, nobody knows. It certainly wasn't their fault.
Life lately just seems like one long grey day. If you are careful enough to avoid accidents, then the terrorists may get you, and if you are lucky enough to escape them too, eventually the ice age will come and you will freeze and become a fossil anyway. There is really no way out. A few of us may be lucky enough to live a whole life and die when our skin cannot wrinkle anymore, for the rest of us, keep living with the hope that tomorrow will not be your last and with the gratitude that you are still alive. And if you actually do want to do something for mankind, save water and electricity and fight against terrorism. If you can't do that either, just spread smiles...you'll be making the world a better place. Take care...

Delhi all the way!!!

The train journey started perfectly. We had water and a whole lot of junk food, enough to last us the entire journey and probably more. Three superly excited girls on 2 hours of sleep and with a fun-filled 4 days to look forward to, we did just as was expected of us - brought the coach down with our nonsensical conversation and hysteric bouts of laughter that pursued after every few seconds of conversation. The basic outline of our 2 hour conversation was all of us taking turns to teach each other our respective mother tongues and the sentence that we took up to complete this task was - "I will cut your throat and drink your blood", inspired from the ever famous Bengali dialogue of the character "Manjulika" in the Bollywood movie "Bhool Bhulaiyaa". The three languages being Sindhi, Bengali and Kannad, by the end of the learning session, we had mastered the dialogue in both Bengali and Kannad (I was the one who had to teach the Sindhi, only problem was that I didn't know the language well enough myself and it didn't sound half as funny or scary in my language). Unfortunately our fun was interrupted by a funny, short man who had the middle berth between our lower and upper berths so we didn't have a choice but to shut up and go to berth(bed).
Unable to curb the excitement of our trip that was to follow, 2 of us woke up pretty early and revised our Bengali and Kannad dialogues soon enough to say them to the third girl from our group who slept right through till we reached Delhi. Giggling like little girls we got down on the platform and made our way towards the exit. Two of us who were staying together headed in the direction of the car waiting for us and the third headed towards her car. The following couple of hours included freshening up, eating breakfast, getting to our first destination and waiting for the third to come. Before I move on, the purpose of the trip was basically to make a sort of documentary on the 10 ancient cities which amalgamated to form the present day city of Delhi. The trip was of four days and the day time was to be devoted to video-shooting while the evenings were devoted to having fun.

Day-1

The first day we were to cover the Old Delhi region which included Shahjanabad, Jama Masjid and The Red Fort. The city we were covering was Shahjanabad which was built by Shah Jahan. These areas being predominantly Muslim areas, we were freaked out because of the recent bomb blasts that had taken place in Delhi a couple of days before our trip. Carefully we started walking towards the market street. We couldn't decide as to where to go and all we could do was stand and argue as to what our plan of action should be. Chandni chowk being a majorly congested market area, we were honked at and screamed at to get out of the way a whole lot.
Eventually we decided that nothing was going to come out of us walking around on foot so we hired a cycle rickshaw and luckily found one, the driver of which knew the area very well. He took us around the entire area and showed us everything that we needed to see including the silver street, the paratha street (i begged my friends to go there and actually eat something, but no one agreed), the gold street, the electronics street and so on including just about every type of market that you can possibly imagine! We were so very grateful to the rickshaw driver for making our task so much easier or else we would have been able to take a video of only about half a street! Since we have a habit of complaining no matter what, it was the worst thing sitting in the narrow backseat of the rickshaw. For those who have been unfortunate enough to sit in that seat through crowded markets with non-so-pothole-devoid streets, I am sure they can understand our position. We managed to get through by exchanging seats every once in a while.
It was part scary and part funny to see how much importance a person could get just by having a camera in his hand. We got a whole lot of inquisitive glances and even some very frantic waves from people when we pointed the camera in their direction(some even if we didn't). Overall was a pretty great experience. The streets were overly crowded with people jumping over rickshaws and "thelas" just to get to the other side of the road. The electric wires were so carelessly wound over and around electric poles and hung loosely over shops and houses. There was an amalgamation of old and new houses and one could spend an entire day picking out the old ones from the new ones. There was absolutely no distinction between pedestrian and vehicular pathways. People moved in any direction where they could see an inch of space in which to walk in. All this in paths that were wide avenues that served as processional paths for the king Shah Jahan from the Red Fort till the Lahori and Delhi Gate. It is said that Shah Jahan used to be able to see till the Lahori and Delhi Gate sitting in his fort. Streets that were wide and grand have now been converted into congested markets that provide no space for people to even walk during peak hours.
Even though Chandni Chowk does not portray a perfect well-planned market, it gives us an essence of Indian street and stall markets like no other. Delicious aromas floating around in the air, inviting us to snack at every food stall in sight, no matter how stuffed we already are, shiny objects glittering out of shop windows making us wish we had more money on us to be able to purchase them, colourful clothes draped over shop fronts fluttering in the gentle breeze showing us how great it looks from every angle, people bustling past doing their everyday business or shopping not forgetting to spare a few extra seconds to stare at the people walking around with cameras, while those poor people who are unfamiliar with the area walk, clutching their bags to their chests because they have been given several warnings about pick-pockets. Whether you like it or not, that's a typical Indian market for you that all of us love!
After chandni Chowk the rickshaw headed in the direction of the Yamuna river where we saw the level of the water that was and that is presently. On the way to the banks of the Yamuna we saw the famous Hanuman temple and quite a few other temples. After the river bank we cycle-rickshawed our way to the famous Jama Masjid and Meena Bazaar. After seeing Chandni chowk, Meena Bazaar didn't present too many exciting sights, except that one man incessantly tried to follow our rickshaw which was moving at a snail's pace and eventually ended up getting verbally abused by us. Thankfully people around were too busy to notice and a scene wasn't created. The Jama Masjid was beautiful. It is a mosque made of red sandstone with marble domes. Since we were way too tired and still had the Red Fort to visit, none of us dared to even raise the question of going inside.
Following the Jama Masjid we went to the Red Fort. We left the cycle rickshaw there and gave him a huge amount of money(I am not going to disclose the amount for fear of being mocked by all people reading this), but we were so very grateful to him. We even took his interview! The Red Fort was just as monumental as we had imagined it to be. The Aurangzeb wall was the first structure we saw. Aurangzeb had later constructed this wall in front of the Lal Qila to separate the fort from the streets of the common man. After purchasing tickets and leaving our bags in the cloak room we went inside. We already had studied the fort before we went so we could pretty much point out every structure we saw. I am not going to list out all the structures because it would serve no purpose considering I can't actually show you which structure is which. Overall it was a great monument. It was admirable to see how well every structure had been preserved. The great Mughal arches and inscriptions were all great sights. There was a nice market inside the fort of handicrafts and all Indian crafts where it took all my female will power to not buy anything. Since the camera battery had just about 10 minutes of life remaining, I had to practically run all around the fort to get videos of all the buildings inside. The provided the last straw. I gave up and started to irritate everybody which paid off eventually and we were out of there within 15 minutes. The remaining is a blur.
All I remember was waking up the next morning...

i, robot

If I were a robot and you were a robot and everybody was a robot...
I would open my eyes and walk out of the closet (no need to pay for a bigger room to accommodate a bed!), no rubbing sleep-deprived eyes, no yawning, wide awake just as I had been last night and day and the day before that and the day before the day before that and before that. A quick coat of polish and oiling, followed by a quick coat of paint of the colour listed out for each day of the week.
A quick bite of battery power to charge my cells and out the door I go singing along to the shuffled playlist stored in my head. Automatic shut off of the music as soon as I am within close proximity of the college building. I enter, sit down for class. I don't yawn, stay wide awake and even manage to listen and register every single word spoken by the teacher. Four continuous lectures and I don't even need a stretch.
End of college, head home, sit down to review everything taught and finish assignments. That would be easy enough. Any books to be read would only need to be flipped and every image and letter would be imprinted on my very large digital chip that common people would call a brain. The phone rings, a member of the opposite sex tries to act smart with me, all I would need to do is check my database for his image and character profile and check off the qualities that he has that match the "dream man" list and if he fulfills the criteria that lie within a range mentioned in the database, I continue with a conversation which is randomly chosen by my brain chip out of the many recorded in my memory. If he doesn't, all I have to do is conveniently play a playlist filled with abusive words and don't stop until the call does not get disconnected. If the person is patient enough to listen through the entire list, it would be repeated.
Then a power chord inserted, I walk back into my cozy warm (cheap) closet and end my amazingly hassle-free day.
Life is easy!

Memories

Soft nostalgic music, rain pitter-pattering outside, a steaming cup of coffee and an old photo album. That is all that one needs to bring back one's entire past into the present. Life goes on, time goes on. We can never go back to relive the moments that have gone by. Life is always full of good moments and bad moments. All you need is one rainy night and every single one of those moments come flooding back to your mind and tear up your eyes.
Whether it be the glowing toothless face of your baby brother staring innocently back at you, or your mischievous face shyly smiling back having been caught in the deed, a photograph of you dressed up for your first day at school or that day at the beach when your sister and you just could not stop laughing. They may seem insignificant and just about as regular as every other moment in your life but when you sit down and look back, that very insignificant moment may be all that you need to make your day. The whispered conversation about boys at school, the hushed hiding before you pop out and yell "Surprise!!!" at your friend's birthday party, the expression on your parents' face when they receive you at the airport when you go home for the holidays, the smile on your brother's face when you get him a surprise present that he actually likes, the twinkle in your mother's eyes when she played with your baby pet hamsters, the pride in your father's walk when you topped your class...these may not even be present in the form of photographs but they are forever engraved on your heart, etches that can never be wiped away.
Life may not treat you well. You may lose friends, you may not always win the game, but no matter how difficult life is, the only thing you need to get through is a bunch of old photographs and a big enough heart which can be painted with all your memories.
So, stop reading, and start living...

Teacher's Day

I have never understood the concept of having particular days in a year dedicated to different people. Would you love your friends any more on Friendship Day than on any other day? Well, anyway, today is Teachers' Day. As much as I was against the idea of appreciating our teachers only once a year, I had to co-coordinate a small event for our teachers. Although we had a time of about a week to prepare, we waited until the very last day to actually get down to work. Who are we to wrong the words of some great man who said "Old habits die hard"?
So, with approximately 36 hours in hand, we set out to collect money, order food, order tent supplies, get gifts for teachers, get a sound system, write a decent speech, write titles for each of our teachers, get the juniors to actually turn up for the event, the list was endless. Never having been the most senior batch of the department, I had never actually had so much work to do. The juniors could not do anything right, or so it seemed. Everything they did had to be redone. Every time I tried screaming at them and chiding them for not working properly, all I could do was end up laughing at how my voice couldn't reach even the third row of the classroom while I mentally cursed each and every person who had complimented me on my soft-spokenness. Somehow I actually got people to contribute enough money to reach the required target, with the help of people who could actually speak loudly, ofcourse! By 4:30 p.m. the tent was up and the food was ready. Finally, I thought, I can sit and catch my breath and compose myself for the speech that I had to make at the beginning of the event (which incidentally was scheduled to be 4 p.m). Just as I had settled into my little corner, "Sneha", somebody screamed. Reluctantly as I limped towards the source of sound, I was asked to write a thanksgiving speech for one of my batchmates. Too tired to refuse, I took the paper and pen supplied to me, found a corner, wrote a few lines and handed it over. Just then the teachers started arriving.
I ran to the mic and fumbled to find my voice. After looking for a while, I finally found it. After a little waiting for the teachers to settle down, I started my speech. After that everything was a blur. I don't remember what I said or what I did. Faint traces of running around, holding a mic, clapping and speaking remain. By the end of it, all that I was left with was a feeling of satisfaction and immense gratitude towards my teachers. As much as I may complain, they were the reason I knew everything that I did. Some were more liked than the rest but each and every one of them had in some way or the other taught me something. All I can say is that, I salute my teachers for actually having been able to drill some sense into our thick skinned heads.

A lecture on a virtual world...or was it on settlements?

Although the topic may seem completely vague to most people not associated with architecture, this post should still be worth reading (hopefully!).
Well, this semester we have a course called "Principles of Human Settlement and Planning" which is being taught to us by one of my absolute favourite teachers who is one person who knows everything about everything. He can talk for hours about any topic under the sun. He was even a part of R.K.Pachori's team which won the Nobel Prize. Well, so anyway, coming back to the topic, the lecture started off on how settlements grew and how with time philosophers tried to define factors that influenced the growth of settlements. After pretty good discussions about how we all have personality spheres which are impacted by personality spheres of people around us, we moved on to discuss what was common between old settlements and present day settlements which would probably not change with time. The answer was...spaces to house people, congregational spaces and connections between spaces. That was when it all began...I argued with Sir that maybe in the future, congregational spaces would not be required since everything could be done through video conferencing. To that he answered, that is also the creation of a virtual space, which ofcourse I just had to counteract by saying that a virtual space was not a real physically present space on the earth surface...which led him to say what actually bemused me to such an extent that at that very moment I told myself that I had to write about this. He said, "How are you sure that everything around you is real?". And I shut up.
Normally an ardent debater, this time I was actually left speechless. What could I say? After some thought I said, then Sir there is absolutely nothing in this world that is absolute! To which he gave his wide trademark grin and said "Yes!"
That led us to a discussion on how the future would be. Video conferencing, 3-d image transfers of humans into virtual environments in which they could actually interact without being present physically, digital transfer of just about everything, just like the Jetsons. How cool would that be! Which led me to think about how crime would also become digitized. Hackers would be thieves, where they would hack into the transportation protocol and divert products or people to their desired locations and steal or kidnap. We oculd grow our choice of plants in our gardens, as fast as we want them to grow, maybe even invent new species altogether. Each one having their one chance at playing God. Really, there is no limit to human imagination. Just as I was shaken out of these thoughts by Sir as he moved on to more technical discussions on human settlements, one of my classmates called out "Sir, phir toh yeh sab moh maaya hai!". There was nothing else left for anyone else to day.

Calicut Part-II

Another day in Calicut...
We were woken up early by my friend's parents as there was a day-trip planned out for us and the car that was to take us around had already arrived. We quickly got ready and left for Kappad beach. With a few stops here and there, we reached the beach. It was gorgeous in the true meaning of the word. No excreta, perfectly jagged rocks(with danger signs painted on it!), perfect clean beach, shore line filled with coconut trees, amazing breeze. All of them added to creating a perfect postcard picture. After rock climbing in a salwar kurta(!) and taking some nice and some very stupid photographs, we got back into the car and headed for a boat ride. Her cousin knew some one who had a house boat and he had arranged a ride for us. Just as we stepped into the boat, it started raining which only made the scene more beautiful. Lots of coconut trees, a meandering coastline, scenes of women making ropes from fibres from coconut peels, coupled with rain made my day.
After the boat ride, we rushed back to the house to leave for the bride's house. Quick freshening up followed by a cup of coffee and we were out of the house.
The drive to the bride's house was about an hour long. Tired from rock climbing, I slept through the journey, the Malayalam conversation providing the perfect lullaby. The next few hours went by in a blur. We reached, walked about aimlessly in the bride's house for a while, shifting from room to room until finally we got a glimpse of the beautifully adorned bride, had a great photo session with lots of light and flashes until the bride was positively bored and even a tad bit irritated. Then came the actual mehndi ceremony in which every member of the bride and groom's family would contribute a little to the beauty of the bride's hands decorated with exquisite mehndi patterns.
During the ceremony there was a live example of Modernism in front of us. The bride had already gotten mehndi put on her hands by a professional before the ceremony and the family members would only come and touch the tip of a cone to her hand and pose for a photograph. Talk about forgetting our traditions!
After clicking photographs and sneaking in a few tid-bits of conversation, we moved out for dinner. Biryani with fried chicken, eaten in the typical desi way by our hands, was all we needed to satiate our appetites. Since there were no elders who had accompanied us from the groom's side as a tradition, there were very few pleasantries exchanged and soon enough we headed back to the groom's house for another karaoke session. Too tired to show any enthusiasm, we headed straight to a bedroom and sat and talked until it was time to leave. While leaving, my friend made sure that she kept no secret of the fact that I had told her that I would write about my trip on my blog. While my friend bore my weight as I sat on her lap during the ride home, we talked and laughed and I enjoyed my last night in Calicut. Upon reaching home, we were greeted by her grandmom who smiled sweetly at me and asked "Coffee?". With a huge grin on my face, I quickly replied, "Yes, please!"
After that I only remember waking up the next day. We quickly got ready and I packed my bags, dreading the nauseating 6-hour flight back. As the rest of the family was heading out to the marriage house, I said my good-byes. After a last mug of coffee, we headed out to the airport. We spoke little on the way there because it was too much for us to bear that we were departing again. It had hardly set in that we were actually seeing us together, and it was already time for us to part ways again.
Sad and heavy hearted I said good bye, hugged her as tightly as I could with all the energy that I was left with after she squeezed me with all her might, and left. The ride back was uneventful.
Overall, the trip was a perfect one. In one weekend, I managed to see both the nature and the culture of Kerala, and I mean it in the literal sense!
If nothing else, I am sure my friend's family will carry the memory of my coffee to their graves...