As my first academic year in IITM nears the end, I have discovered that there are some things, which I would like to pursue for all my 4 years here (3 more). One important thing that you have to take care of if you want to make full use of your time here (apart from academics) is to prioritize. I and my friends have had a lot of discussions on this. You can’t keep on trying stuff till 4 years get over and there is nothing you have gained. I am of the view that all the trying should be restricted to a maximum of 1 year, and then you should prioritize, pick and practice (wow! I came up with a 3P prescription………make that 4P). I have made a list of 4 things that I am going to pursue over the next 4 years – music, football, quizzing, and LitSoc in general.
Till now, I have always played music alone, which is interesting, but not half as much as fun as when you play in a group. When you play solo, you don’t need to take care of coordination, volumes of each instrument, tuning, and other things, which are very crucial when you play in a band. It is also a lot of fun when you play in a band, the late night practices, grub sessions, and the general banter (in insti lingo- farting) in between practices. Here I discovered the joy of playing with other people, and I want to do that for the next 3 years also.
I think it was around class 11 when I gradually shifted from cricket to football. I do play cricket occasionally, but if you ask me to pick one of them, it will always be football. Even in my JEE days, I played casual football quite regularly. When I came here, I saw that I wasn’t very bad compared to others, so I started playing here too. I bought my first football boots after coming here (and have already worn out 2 pairs here). I got through the NSO selections (which by the way is a very big farce) and made it to the hostel team, which ensured that I played football almost every day. I plan to keep playing football till I can, and am going to try to get into the insti team next year, as I heard that both the left wingers are passing out this year.
Quizzing for me starts way back, in 3rd standard where I was gifted the whole set of Bournvita Quiz books by my parents. I was a big fan of the show when it used to be good (and when it used to be quiz, before it became a talent show) and it was like a religion – watching it on TV at 12 on a Sunday. Throughout my school days, I quizzed and enjoyed quizzing, and I carried that enthusiasm into college, and though the quizzing style here is very different from what we had in school, I still enjoy quizzing here. Recently I put up a quiz of 15 questions for the Quiz Club Meet, and my questions were appreciated (though almost all of them were very easily answered).
LitSoc – Here is one thing that I realized very late into my 2nd semester, quite recently. I had planned to pursue my other 3 interests even before coming here, but LitSoc is one thing that caught my attention and made me interested in it. For the uninitiated, LitSoc is the inter-hostel trophy for LITerary and SOCial events. Competition has always thrilled me, and I thrive on the competitive spirit, bordering on RGing (there simply is no non-insti lingo word for this, so please forgive me). So I thoroughly enjoyed the competition between different hostels, and was disappointed even more to lose it to a rival hostel (and later, even lost the 2nd position). I have decided that next year onwards, I will work towards getting the LitSoc trophy back to where it belongs (we have been winning it for 3 years, before this year).
Western Music videos
Labels:
music
Here are the videos of our hostel band performance in the LitSoc (non insti people, read: Inter Hostel Literary and Cultural Competition held throughout the year) WM competition. We came 2nd, which is quite an achievement considering that we didn't have a drummer! For all those who laughed at us and said that we can't play WM without drums, in your face!
This is Lazarus by Porcupine Tree. TI on the bass, Sayash/Rubber Band on guitar, Sutta on tabla. Dandiya on vocals, and yours truly on the keys.
Pure Narcotic by Porcupine Tree. Same instrumentalists as the previous one.
This is Nightmare Cinema, and instrumental medley. TI shifted to his natural instrument, which is the keyboard, and, in insti lingo, "raped" it! This was the best of the lot.
The winning performance was by Saras, which was truly amazing and out of this world. Here is their own composition, called Hourglass.
This was also partly the reason for lack of posting in the last few days. All the LAN hours used to go in practice, and I used to return to my room at around 1-2, when LAN would have gone. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot from this experience. Till now, I had played only solo. I had never played as a part of a band before, and trust me; it is very different from playing alone. There is an enormous amount of co-ordination required, and dedication and practice. This year, TI played a big role in us winning the 2nd place, right from song selection, to the last song, which was practically assimilated from different sources by TI and Sayash. TI is passing out next year which will leave a staggeringly huge void in our music group. I hope we get some musically inclined freshies next year, and more importantly, I get the hang of band performances.
This is Lazarus by Porcupine Tree. TI on the bass, Sayash/Rubber Band on guitar, Sutta on tabla. Dandiya on vocals, and yours truly on the keys.
Pure Narcotic by Porcupine Tree. Same instrumentalists as the previous one.
This is Nightmare Cinema, and instrumental medley. TI shifted to his natural instrument, which is the keyboard, and, in insti lingo, "raped" it! This was the best of the lot.
The winning performance was by Saras, which was truly amazing and out of this world. Here is their own composition, called Hourglass.
This was also partly the reason for lack of posting in the last few days. All the LAN hours used to go in practice, and I used to return to my room at around 1-2, when LAN would have gone. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot from this experience. Till now, I had played only solo. I had never played as a part of a band before, and trust me; it is very different from playing alone. There is an enormous amount of co-ordination required, and dedication and practice. This year, TI played a big role in us winning the 2nd place, right from song selection, to the last song, which was practically assimilated from different sources by TI and Sayash. TI is passing out next year which will leave a staggeringly huge void in our music group. I hope we get some musically inclined freshies next year, and more importantly, I get the hang of band performances.
1 comments
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Long Time
I had almost forgotten that I had a blog to update, when I received a mail saying that a guy (who will henceforth be referred to as Lead) had left a comment on my blog. Now, you see, if it was any other guy, I would have taken my time. But a reminder coming from a guy whose post frequency is vertical lines, I simply had to post, and then I decided that I will post on Lead. So here is the story of Lead.
Lead is a very clever nickname devised by one of our common friends (henceforth referred to as Ramen) describing an anatomical part of the former. It is rumoured that Lead and Ramen are involved in a relationship, but then there is this another theory that Lead has a girlfriend back in a place (henceforth referred to as Digland) whose existence has technically not been proven yet, leading to yet another friend Vuthshir coming up with a theory that she doesn't exist.
Imagine an elephant. Now scale it down to human size, and decrease its thickness to half. Now decrease its stamina by a factor of thousand. Make it very homesick. Now, make him sit in front of a TV/Computer Monitor, with a mobile to his ear. Now draw a speech bubble around its face, and type any 10 random words picked from these-
"Shit, amazing, awesome, incredible, shit, movie, scene, shit, acting, blog, shit, sooooo, Bangalore, Sweety is hot, shit, noodle, gay, shit.”
The image you get is roughly what Lead looks like.
Once upon a time, in a place where every fish lived in rivers, there was this place called String where everyone used to go and have dinner, when the food from the king of the mountains used to be bad. One fine night saw me, Lead, and a few other fish (namely PI, Pooj, Babu, and Kayaniv) having dinner there. Here is how the conversation goes-
Lead: “Hey! Have you guys seen this movie called blah blah blah? The acting done by XYZ fish in that is sooooo incredible! Please please watch that movie!
Babu: I will watch that once I get my own computer. Since I have made up my mind about doing this, this will have to happen, and this movie WILL be watched by me.
Me: I am not interested in watching this genre of movies.
Lead: Ooohh! Then you should watch this incredibly amazing movie called blah blah blah blah, which has awesome cinematography.
Me: Ok, I correct myself. I am not interested in watching any kind of movies.
Lead: Ooohh, then you should watch……………………………………………
(This pointless discussion goes on, till the discussion reaches a stage, where everyone is discussing about their rivers)
Pooj and PI (in unison): Our River is super awesome. We have so many fish who can pick up musical instruments at random from the river bed and start playing them.
Lead: I wish I weren’t in Kala River.
(Everyone turns towards Lead, with a shocked expression on their face. You see, in this land, it was preposterous to think that you didn’t like your river, however bad it was. So even if Lead was justified in hating his river that way, he shouldn’t have made his thoughts public, and hence this shock)
Me: What the fish dude. Why are you so negative about your river?
Lead: You shut up. Your vaGOD river is so full of fish who are very talented, and you keep getting such people every year. My river is one of those rivers where you put in all those fish who come from somewhere near bryderahad so that due to the large number of such fish, we die of lack of oxygen.
Pooj: Dude, how many fish in your river can you talk to, like you are talking to us right now?
Lead (thinking):……………………………………………………
(Still thinking)
(After a full 30 seconds)
Lead: There is this fish in my school, who I can greet by saying Hi!
Me: Is that all. I mean....
Kayaniv (all this time, he was silently brooding): Hey, but.........
Me: Shut up. Don’t interrupt me. (Kayaniv gives me a pleading stare, and goes back to his brooding silence.) If you stay this passive, what else would you expect from a river. Let’s take an example. You like playing water polo, don’t you?
Lead: Yes.
Me: But if a guy comes to your nest and asks you to come out and play water polo when you were watching a movie, would you do that?
Lead: Errr…… Errrmmmm……………. No. I would go back to watching the movie. Yesterday I was watching this movie called……………………………………………………….
(After a long and winding description of a particular scene from that movie)
Me: Coming back to where we were, if you don’t go out and interact with other fish, then how do you expect to not feel bored and unwanted in the river.
Lead: But no one I can talk to lives next to my nest.
Me: It never happens like that. Are you so lazy that you can’t swim a short distance, or are you scared that you might pass out on the way?
Lead: Errr…… Errrmmmm…………….
(The conversation continues like this, with a lot of Errr…… Errrmmmm……………. from Lead, till it reaches a point where everyone discusses about what they want to do. I will skip to the most interesting part, which, as you may have guessed by now, is Lead’s)
Lead: I want to quiz, write, play water polo, learn to play the guitar………………….. (and a countless number of other things)
Me: Dude, you have to prioritize and choose which ones you really want to do. For example, when you already know how to play the mandolin, why do you want to learn the guitar?
Lead: But the mandolin cannot be played as a part of any group here.
Me (laughing): That is the lamest reason ever I have heard for learning the guitar, or rather anything. What happened to your creativity dude?
Lead: You don’t talk about creativity. Your vaGOD fish came with up a creative writing entry which sucked balls, because I didn’t understand it.
Me (laughing harder): I stand corrected. THAT is the lamest reason for anything ever.
Lead: Hey, parodying the fish from South India and is sooooo much cooler!
Me: It’s already been done by someone.
Lead: Oh. Shit.
(Here the story ends, because “my creativity ends at midnight” and the time now is 1205)
Elements of the story are fictional, but most of it is true and accurate to a fair degree.
Plumbum, you are going down.
P.S. To know more about Lead, click here
Lead is a very clever nickname devised by one of our common friends (henceforth referred to as Ramen) describing an anatomical part of the former. It is rumoured that Lead and Ramen are involved in a relationship, but then there is this another theory that Lead has a girlfriend back in a place (henceforth referred to as Digland) whose existence has technically not been proven yet, leading to yet another friend Vuthshir coming up with a theory that she doesn't exist.
Imagine an elephant. Now scale it down to human size, and decrease its thickness to half. Now decrease its stamina by a factor of thousand. Make it very homesick. Now, make him sit in front of a TV/Computer Monitor, with a mobile to his ear. Now draw a speech bubble around its face, and type any 10 random words picked from these-
"Shit, amazing, awesome, incredible, shit, movie, scene, shit, acting, blog, shit, sooooo, Bangalore, Sweety is hot, shit, noodle, gay, shit.”
The image you get is roughly what Lead looks like.
Once upon a time, in a place where every fish lived in rivers, there was this place called String where everyone used to go and have dinner, when the food from the king of the mountains used to be bad. One fine night saw me, Lead, and a few other fish (namely PI, Pooj, Babu, and Kayaniv) having dinner there. Here is how the conversation goes-
Lead: “Hey! Have you guys seen this movie called blah blah blah? The acting done by XYZ fish in that is sooooo incredible! Please please watch that movie!
Babu: I will watch that once I get my own computer. Since I have made up my mind about doing this, this will have to happen, and this movie WILL be watched by me.
Me: I am not interested in watching this genre of movies.
Lead: Ooohh! Then you should watch this incredibly amazing movie called blah blah blah blah, which has awesome cinematography.
Me: Ok, I correct myself. I am not interested in watching any kind of movies.
Lead: Ooohh, then you should watch……………………………………………
(This pointless discussion goes on, till the discussion reaches a stage, where everyone is discussing about their rivers)
Pooj and PI (in unison): Our River is super awesome. We have so many fish who can pick up musical instruments at random from the river bed and start playing them.
Lead: I wish I weren’t in Kala River.
(Everyone turns towards Lead, with a shocked expression on their face. You see, in this land, it was preposterous to think that you didn’t like your river, however bad it was. So even if Lead was justified in hating his river that way, he shouldn’t have made his thoughts public, and hence this shock)
Me: What the fish dude. Why are you so negative about your river?
Lead: You shut up. Your vaGOD river is so full of fish who are very talented, and you keep getting such people every year. My river is one of those rivers where you put in all those fish who come from somewhere near bryderahad so that due to the large number of such fish, we die of lack of oxygen.
Pooj: Dude, how many fish in your river can you talk to, like you are talking to us right now?
Lead (thinking):……………………………………………………
(Still thinking)
(After a full 30 seconds)
Lead: There is this fish in my school, who I can greet by saying Hi!
Me: Is that all. I mean....
Kayaniv (all this time, he was silently brooding): Hey, but.........
Me: Shut up. Don’t interrupt me. (Kayaniv gives me a pleading stare, and goes back to his brooding silence.) If you stay this passive, what else would you expect from a river. Let’s take an example. You like playing water polo, don’t you?
Lead: Yes.
Me: But if a guy comes to your nest and asks you to come out and play water polo when you were watching a movie, would you do that?
Lead: Errr…… Errrmmmm……………. No. I would go back to watching the movie. Yesterday I was watching this movie called……………………………………………………….
(After a long and winding description of a particular scene from that movie)
Me: Coming back to where we were, if you don’t go out and interact with other fish, then how do you expect to not feel bored and unwanted in the river.
Lead: But no one I can talk to lives next to my nest.
Me: It never happens like that. Are you so lazy that you can’t swim a short distance, or are you scared that you might pass out on the way?
Lead: Errr…… Errrmmmm…………….
(The conversation continues like this, with a lot of Errr…… Errrmmmm……………. from Lead, till it reaches a point where everyone discusses about what they want to do. I will skip to the most interesting part, which, as you may have guessed by now, is Lead’s)
Lead: I want to quiz, write, play water polo, learn to play the guitar………………….. (and a countless number of other things)
Me: Dude, you have to prioritize and choose which ones you really want to do. For example, when you already know how to play the mandolin, why do you want to learn the guitar?
Lead: But the mandolin cannot be played as a part of any group here.
Me (laughing): That is the lamest reason ever I have heard for learning the guitar, or rather anything. What happened to your creativity dude?
Lead: You don’t talk about creativity. Your vaGOD fish came with up a creative writing entry which sucked balls, because I didn’t understand it.
Me (laughing harder): I stand corrected. THAT is the lamest reason for anything ever.
Lead: Hey, parodying the fish from South India and is sooooo much cooler!
Me: It’s already been done by someone.
Lead: Oh. Shit.
(Here the story ends, because “my creativity ends at midnight” and the time now is 1205)
Elements of the story are fictional, but most of it is true and accurate to a fair degree.
Plumbum, you are going down.
P.S. To know more about Lead, click here
9
comments
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Grand Theft
Sorry for the long delay. It was because of a combination of quizzes, lethargy, sleep, laziness and general boredom. Today, however an interesting thing happened. I lost 1500 bucks; or rather stolen would be the more appropriate word. I forgot my wallet in class today, but remembered it before leaving the class, which is about 3 minutes after I left it on my table, but by the time I got back to my table, it was already gone. Pretty obviously, it was taken by someone in my class itself, which includes all students of Mechanical, Aerospace, Civil and NavalArch students. I first frantically checked all the desks in the row I was sitting, but to no luck. I checked with the people who were sitting beside me and behind me, but there also no luck. I finally started spreading the message through SMS that I had lost a wallet. I was very scared by now, because it had my ATM card, student’s ID card (which requires Rs. 1000 for a duplicate one) and Rs. 1500 in cash, with which I was planning to treat my friends for my b’day. Fortunately, a good soul came and returned the wallet to me in my room, saying that it was found near OAT, which is quite far from where the classes are held. It had all my cards, but zero cash. Also, my mess food coupons were also flicked. My first reaction was that of extreme relief. I had told my parents by this time, and even though they didn’t make that big a fuss out of it, I knew that I had blown it big time here. Slowly, the feeling of losing Rs. 1500 started to sink in. Then, that of amusement, that the guy who actually flicked my money, also took the care of emptying my mess coupon booklet worth some 40 odd bucks.
All this got me thinking into one direction – the people who study here, are supposed to be the cream of India, and even though I won’t make any assumptions as to these people would be the ones who will lead India and all, but these are the people who can make a huge difference. But if some of these people don’t have the ethical sense of returning a wallet to its rightful owner, especially when it has a card which tells the finder about the owner of this wallet, then doesn’t it make you feel uncomfortable that some of these may actually become our leaders in the future. Do we really need to wonder where our Ramalinga Rajus come from? My final emotion was that of disgust because of the fact that I am studying with such students. This proves one fact - moral sense cannot be drilled into a person, it all depends on your character and upbringing. I am not saying that I will not be tempted if I see 1500 bucks just lying around somewhere. But if I know whom it belongs to, I will definitely give it back, because I know that losing something that expensive, causes a lot of stress. This comes from personal experience, because I myself am quite careless.
This, by the way, should in no way be treated as the general trend. I have made some really great friends here, who I can trust to any extent. We have helped each other countless number of times, and I realized that the friends that you make when you are in a hostel are especially close, because you literally live together. But a few people like these can indeed spoil anyone’s impression of the whole lot. I learnt my lesson today (as I did when I lost my mobile, my pen drive, my keys etc.). Be ultra careful with your stuff. Not everyone is your friend.
All this got me thinking into one direction – the people who study here, are supposed to be the cream of India, and even though I won’t make any assumptions as to these people would be the ones who will lead India and all, but these are the people who can make a huge difference. But if some of these people don’t have the ethical sense of returning a wallet to its rightful owner, especially when it has a card which tells the finder about the owner of this wallet, then doesn’t it make you feel uncomfortable that some of these may actually become our leaders in the future. Do we really need to wonder where our Ramalinga Rajus come from? My final emotion was that of disgust because of the fact that I am studying with such students. This proves one fact - moral sense cannot be drilled into a person, it all depends on your character and upbringing. I am not saying that I will not be tempted if I see 1500 bucks just lying around somewhere. But if I know whom it belongs to, I will definitely give it back, because I know that losing something that expensive, causes a lot of stress. This comes from personal experience, because I myself am quite careless.
This, by the way, should in no way be treated as the general trend. I have made some really great friends here, who I can trust to any extent. We have helped each other countless number of times, and I realized that the friends that you make when you are in a hostel are especially close, because you literally live together. But a few people like these can indeed spoil anyone’s impression of the whole lot. I learnt my lesson today (as I did when I lost my mobile, my pen drive, my keys etc.). Be ultra careful with your stuff. Not everyone is your friend.
5
comments
Friday, February 27, 2009
Coming of age
Labels:
general
Today was my 18th birthday. Even though it was my 18th, it was the least eventful birthday I have ever had, because of the quizzes going on. My 18th birthday was spent in the workshop and the physics lab!
My friends gave me 2 awesome gifts and a card.
a pillow for the eternally sleeping guy!!
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a doll which is supposed to be my daughter (whose name by the way is natasha)!
.jpg)
thats supposed to be my birthday card.
My friends gave me 2 awesome gifts and a card.
a pillow for the eternally sleeping guy!!
.jpg)
a doll which is supposed to be my daughter (whose name by the way is natasha)!
.jpg)
thats supposed to be my birthday card.
3
comments
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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