Posts Tagged ‘dream’
Same Same but Different
Last night I had this amazing dream. I woke up at night with lights flashing all over. A man with big mustache and vintage golden dress was standing tall, over me, and laughing loud. “Wake up, you lazy bugger, Wake up”. Sleepy and startled, my first reaction was to blame it on the overdose of Vodka that night. But soon the gravity of the situation or can I say the lack of it dawned on me. Aaj toh lag gayi Mamu!
He told me I was dead. Died of a certain Gastropathic attack. Gas! Couldn’t it have been something legendary? Like being attacked by flying dragons while jumping of a plane which collided with a UFO. Leave it. I died of Gas alright.
Here I was, one moment trying to realize my dreams, my future and the very next facing the shock of my demise. My whole life flashed before my eyes. Family, Friends, Future. What now? I begged, pleaded with my soul transporter. Let me live to make things work, make things right.
It’s hard to say that it was my lucky day, given that I just died. But he took pity to me which clearly didn’t seem to match his M.O. “There’s one condition though”, said he. “Here it comes” “Give me a reason to let You live. Hey it’s easy, “I have so much left to do in my life. Get married. Make a career. Have kids”. He gave me a smile. “You don’t seem to get my question. Why should I let You and not some other person, live”
I was just an answer away. Given that I have been writing exams all my life, it shouldn’t have been that difficult. But believe you me, however hard I tried, I couldn’t get an answer.
Have you ever thought? Trying to make a mark in life, a place for ourselves, we have ended up being clones of each other. Lost that very individuality that we have been craving for, fighting for. When I look outside my apartment all I see is blinking stars. Only they are not stars, they are other apartments. We are all boxed up. All flats look same. All work looks same. All roads look same. All blokes look same. How is my life any different to my fellow men?
Well, it only seems logical that we all be same. The funda of evolution revolves around learning and surviving. We learn from others, grab the best of all and apply to our lives. Thereby becoming a hybrid.
With the advent of cut throat competition, this cloning process has only hastened. Don’t you remember your mother/wife saying, “Pados waale Sharma ji jo TV laaye hain humein bhi wohi chaiye” Or a kid crying that he wants the new Play station which his friends have. You covet other mans wife, car, house, life.
If we look at it the other way round, “What’s the problem in being clones” After all we are all born humans. Same at birth. Same creator. Same creation. Why is the need to be different? Just that it doesn’t seem all that right to be part of a monotonous system. It just seem what can I say, unnatural.
The similarity doesn’t end with the lives we tread; it follows us to our grave. However hard we have tried to make our post-death ceremonies different, the truth is, after a certain point, nothing but dust remains.
Anyhow, I was not able to answer the question of the big mustached guy. Good that it was just a dream. Am not sure what I had done for real. Not even sure I really do care to be all that distinctive. I might try now and then, something out of the blue to be different. Might also be successful at that for a while. Till someone decides to catch up and steal my thunder of course.
Laluisms and Indian Railways
Lalu Prasad Yadav’s railway budgets used to be special. He started a trend of sorts with rhymes in his speech. It takes an orator in command for the words to take effect. Not everyone would have had the same effect. The rhymes themselves were not a random phenomenon. They reflected the state of affairs of Railways. The Mood. I try to put together few such rhymes in accordance with the changing Railways each year. Could be easily divided into three phases.
1. Phase I: The Beginning
When Lalu got hold of ministry, it was in shambles and Lauisms in the initial budgets reflected that.
There was hope of building a new future. Hard labor was needed to fulfill the dream.
“मैंने देखे हैं सारे ख्वाब नए,
लिख रहा हूँ मैं इंक़लाब नए”
“मेरे जुनूं का नतीजा ज़रूर निकलेगा,
इसी सियाह समंदर से नूर निकलेगा”
There was a tough path ahead. Help of every individual was needed to overcome the hurdles.
“जीवन के हर पथ पर माली पुष्प नहीं बिखराता है,
प्रगति का पथ अक्सर पथरीला ही होता है”
“एक कदम हम बढे, एक कदम तुम,
आओ मिलकर नाप दे, फासले चाँद तक”
Overall it laid expectations from the future.
2. Phase II: The Delivery
During his later budgets he stood on solid performance and growth. Hope gave way to conviction.
We have come so far by a collective effort. We have redefined success.
“नवाजिश है सबकी, कर्म है सभी का,
बड़े फ़ख्र से हम बुलंदी पर आये|
तरक्की के सारे मयारों से आगे,
नए ढंग लाये, नयी सोच लाये”
Charges were not increased amidst the inflation. We came good on our promises. Wait for more.
“दौर-ऐ-महंगाई में भी रेल सस्ती रखी,
पर कमाई में कोई कमी न रखी”
“जितना अब तक देख चुके हो, ये तो बस शुरुआत है,
खेल तमाशा आगे देखो, दरियादिल सौदागर का”
Overall mood migrated from hope to conviction of delivery.
3. Phase III: The Continuance
His last budgets were more of a commentary of his achievements. Election budget!
“गोल पर गोल दाग रहे हैं, हम हर मैच में,
देश का बच्चा बच्चा बोले, चक दे रेलवे”
He summed up his achievements. What had been done in his tenure will help reap benefits in the long term. We have just planted a tree. Everyone will grow with it. Commitment to duty.
“सब कह रहे हैं हमने गज़ब काम किया है,
करोड़ों का मुनाफा हर एक शाम दिया है,
फल सालों यह अब देगा, पौधा जो लगाया है,
सेवा का, समर्पण का, हर फ़र्ज़ निभाया है”
Overall mood was of letting people know of what was delivered. Of coming good on the promises. One more chance, perhaps!
Dreaming again
The music is very loud. The crowd is dancing in fun and frenzy. I can’t see much amidst the cigarette smoke, save the belly of my dance partner. What a unique belly button. Not round as all are, somewhat square as one may call it. Unique but stunning. No point hiding it, belly button is what turns me on the most. Suddenly the music has stopped. I can hear some humming. The belly button has moved away becoming round, making the belly flat and black.
Where was I? Oh! Yes, now I remember. Kumar Sirs lecture. Have I been day dreaming again, about yet another belly button? Oh my God! I have been.
“…where ar = The LPC’s of the reference and at will be the LPC of test…”
“What was all this junk”? Professor Kumar is trying his best to explain the concepts to us, but believe you me; I am getting none of it. Not that I am trying to. When I look around all I can see is 50 faces of people from Mars. I try to make a poker face, trying to save my emotions from spilling. Like I have any of them!
The guy sitting on my right, two rows ahead. I don’t know his name. He was one from the masters’ course. Why I or for that matter any of my bachelors’ colleague won’t know his name is a matter that I don’t want to rake up right now, but will take it up later.
So this guy, donning the thinnest nose I have ever seen is moving back and forth; trying to stay awake. What’s that outside the window? At a certain distance, I can see a dupatta, pink in colour. The more I try to focus, the more I can’t. The curtain in the room is trying hard to obstruct my view. No matter. I can still make up for the lost opportunity by using the power of my imagination. Alas! What am I turning into?
Enough of this monkey business. Let’s come back to the class room. Dada bond is sitting in the second row, extreme left, with his bag over his shoulder. Now that we have come to Dada bond, let me tell you why we call him bond. He is one of a kind. I remember during our first year at college when I was trying to grasp the basics of C. I still shiver to think of those days. At that time he used to hack our accounts. A lot of time his mail account was blocked by admin owing to unusual activities. That was the official reason though. Whatever, as usual he is with his bag on and jotting down each and every dot of chalk that Kumar Sir is making on the board. Why is he making all these notes in this last semester? It seems a bit unusual to me, but who cares.
Yes, I forgot to tell you, this is my last semester at college. 8th semester. 4 years have passed. I have always heard that time flows very fast. But it’s only when such moments arrive that you realize the gravity of the statement. It seems just like yesterday, when I first came to college. Now two months hence, I would be leaving all of this for a new place. But all these thoughts can wait, the lecture is important.
“…100 such values/sec will be streaming from source…we have to further do the analysis of the data by cepstral analysis…”
Sorry Pa! I can’t handle this at all. About Professor Kumar himself. He is one of the senior faculty members of CSE dept. Ah yes! I am in Computer Science Dept. This Kumar Sir is also one of a kind. His lecture may fall short of technical details but none that he speaks can be grammatically wrong. It all has to be articulated to the T. Current course, comes under his research interests. Thereby we are being subjected to two hours of agony or as they say double delight.
I am feeling bit like a goose. Coz while writing all this, I have to look once a while at the projector board and nod my head several times to imitate that I am following the lecture.
Well there is this lady in the class, the only one enrolled for this course (I really liked this line “in this course”, like the situation is any better otherwise). Let’s call her Lata. She is sitting just in front of me or better still I came and sat just behind her. She is the only one from Venus in the room.
Oh! Sir might have a hint that I am not following the lecture. Let me nod vigorously.
Back to Lata. I call her lady, coz she seems to be quite elder to us, having enrolled for a PhD. Now that I have come to her, let’s finish it off.
I first saw her in Preetam Sirs class. Preetam Sir, deserves special mention and I will come to him later in detail. I saw her and like we all here are, concentrated more on her than the lecture or the projector board. After these four years at a sex starved college, I am not shy anymore staring the opposite sex, if I see one. This went on for a week till I found out that she was married. Oh! One more of my infatuation breaks.
It’s hard for me to understand how one can continue studies even after marriage. Why deny those sweet moments of cuddling and love for such boring lectures. But I guess that’s my frustration speaking. Gaining knowledge is essence of life and can be done at any point in life. She is married but to still gaze at her like that? Maybe I see her as a ray of hope at the very end of the tunnel.
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