Just yesterday, during one of my youtube browsing sessions, I chanced upon a particular Pepsi commercial which featured MJ. Needless to say, it was amazingly invigorating with some cool dance moves. Immediately, I was lost in a reverie and was reminded of the rocking "Black or White" & "Beat it"s, the groovin' "Billie Jean" and the soulful "Heal the World". And suddenly, it struck me... all those wonderful moments deserve atleast one nice blog post! So here it is... specially for you, Jacko!
I would be fooling myself if I claim that I had been listening to Michael's music all these years. I was always a huge fan, yes... but somewhere during the past 5 years or so, MJ had finally managed to be "out of sight, out of mind". Unfortunately, his death brought back his music to me. I cannot describe the chill that went up my spine when I heard the Intro tune of "Thriller" again... after all these years. The high-pitched shrieks, the flashy costumes, the feline movements, the intricate plots surrounding the song...every single second is sheer pleasure!
The guy has teamed up with greats like McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Lionel Ritchie and many more that escape my humble memory here. There are loads of people out there who believe that MJ's music is trash and when prodded, shrug off any arguments by referring to all the accusations heaped on him. Moreover, most of these people cannot hold a note to save their lives and cannot tell the sound of a guitar from a flute.
Ok! I am no soothsayer and maybe, MJ was no saint either! However, firstly, none of the accusations belie his musical genius and secondly, most of them seem to baseless now that, after his death, there are loads of people coming out in his defence. There is enough evidence now that MJ was nothing more than a victim of the big bad world which knew nothing better than to use his talent to fill its own coffers. The recently released movie "This is it" is evidently another such gimmick to cash in on the hysteria, and not a tribute as the makers claim it to be. Alas! MJ never had the childhood he wanted, nor the pleasure of spending his money the way he wanted to and died, a mere skeleton in his huge "Neverland" Ranch, wishing he had never grown up.
Jackson's entry onto the music scene was a landmark in the beginning of the Generation-X (whether one likes its ways or not is another matter). He was a phenomenon, like nobody has ever been nor anyone, in this fickle digital age, ever will be. He has left behind a treasure of music that will be cherished for decades to come, 'cult' moves that are as much a rage as they were 25 years ago and glimpses of a life so extravagant, so lavish, yet, so incomplete.
I pity the psychos who label him a 'freak' and mock him for a lack of anything better to do. Even in his death, they try to find something that might benefit them, even at the cost of putting Jackson's reputation into peril. Well, this might be going a bit over-the-top but I am reminded of a few lines from Julius Caesar, the play, here:
" You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
and men have lost their reason "
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Memoirs: Antaragni' 09, The Final Fantasy :D
Scenes from all the Antaragnis I have been part of are etched in my mind, more so from this, the last edition I would witness as a part of the IITK student community (unless some mean professor decides otherwise). If you are reading this blog and wondering how details of my activities and perspective on Antaragni could interest a reader, I would like to point out to you that this is merely for personal record.
I will be following chronological order (more or less) from here on...
Day 1: A Nice Beginning!
As is the case every year, hordes of people start trickling in on Thursday (some of them have actually been here since Wednesday). I have just a single class in the morning but decide against visiting the SAC before the evening. Guess it didn't hurt too much. Come evening and the lot of us head for the SAC in a definitely-more-than-ordinary attire. And lo and behold! That amazing hustle-bustle: a motley crowd of guitar playing dudes, "bewildered at being in IITK" junta, sweet girls, naughty girls, "goth" chicks, woooo girls (seriously!!), a 10, a pair of 8s, a bevy of 6s... an indigestible assortment of the happening crowd! Had MJ been here, he would have shrieked... "This is it!"
Our ogling eyes having been satiated a bit, we move to the venue for the Opening Show. Ha! 4th year... no standing in queues. We get in... Advaita is nice, Sitar Funk is great! Kudos Niladri... but ya, we've seen u already, remember "Megabucks'08"... we move back to the SAC before the show reaches its climax. Hungry stomachs... we head to the food court; new resolution - any money spent on vegetarian stuff is a waste! A chicken lollipop here, a butter chicken there, a few roomali rotis thrown in for good measure... and we're full! Wait for the much awaited Antakshari... turns out to be a bit of a bummer, i get my singing opportunity and we manage to get 2 tees (size XXL)!
Some more time at the CCD stall... some more foodstuff... and we retire at about 3 a.m.
Day 2: Pretty Eventful!
Get up pretty early in the morning considering the last night's bed-time. Surprisingly, choose to skip the word games (had enough of lit events in my 4 yrs). Head off to see the 'designs' in the rangoli competition, on the recommendation of a friend - not really worth spending too much time. So, a detour to our favourite haunt : the SAC. Not the most crowded of places at this time of the day. I plan to participate in some musical events today - a first for me... get myself registered... have to wait till after lunch. During lunch I am coaxed into hosting a pretty lame event called "mallville - mafia wars". Around 3 pm, I finally get to perform in 'Geet' in the presence of quite a lot of my friends, brought together by loads of phone calls :D. Seems the outing was better than most had expected. After the usual lounging around, I reach the mall desk for the "mafia wars" thingy. The not-so-surprising time-delays ensure it begins only around 6. And what do we realise... that for some weird reason (still beyond my understanding), the event sees an all-male turnout. I crack some pretty lame jokes on stage, not that the event had any scope for me to "do well". After around 2 hrs, the painful game ends with my friends and I (!) winning the maximum we could have from the game (not that it mattered in the long run). With still some time at hand, I rush to the english vocals event... another entry - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', not too many ppl this time around but this one seemed to have gone well too. After this we flit from some event to SAC to food court and end the day at around 2 am again. Ya, I did sit through an incomprehensible flurry of questions called the "sports quiz" and left in a hurry!
One of the interesting happenings of the day was the nukkad event - Our team did brilliantly but that is not too much of a surprise really. What was more amusing were the ever-so-shockin' beginning some of the Nukkad entries had. One moment there was a small group sitting near you, quietly, and before you know it they just dash off to the centre shouting at the top of their voices. In a scarier one, I saw a girl heading in my direction, pointing her finger and the next moment she grabs the girl sitting next to me, drags her by her hair and both of them jostle for some reason... naaiice!!
Day 3: New day, new stories!
I will probably be a bit more concise with this day as most of our activities repeat themselves henceforth. Get up in the morning... have Hindi Dumb-C which doesn't seem to be a Dumb-C event at all. We are kicked out in round 2. See a bit of the JAM where jam-master J.Das emphatically announces that "self-banging" is allowed. The crowds find it too gross and leave (Ok! That is not true :D ). Gen Quiz takes place in the afternoon... we miss out by less than a mark - disppointing! Take a bit of rest... see the Mridaksh prelims on Mall Stage... find them extremely soporific.. exit. We enter the discotheque... 3 dudes... decide against dancing, begin to leave, meet two geeks (also close friends and cool people!) who are extremely enthusiastic to shake a leg : quorum complete... we head to the dance floor - an enjoyable hour follows! Time for the Bolly Quiz - new team, the quiz turns out to be a farce... we don't qualify again... but sit through as the "nOOb" quiz ends in a jiffy! Time running out to make our last Antaragni outing a quizzing success... retire late to bed again, after the usual hanging around! Some interesting Dumb-C participation late at night... acquainted to the "Thakur High-Five" - don't worry, that's an esoteric joke!
Day 4: That's all, folks!
Well, here it is... final day of the final edition of Antaragni! Another day with a fresh bit of hope that this day will be special! What do we do in the morning... hmmm... oh! the usual... return to the SAC for some more guy-guy hanging out. Oh ya, did i mention that every morning I woke up to the blaring tunes of Salsa numbers with pairs of boys and girls dancing, hands-over-hips, right in front of my room. Bhhaammm! It hits you... get out and get goin'. We miss the comics quiz and a mixed bag of word games... maybe I did repent that a bit... but as I said before enuf of those events for me, really! Then we get together for the MELA quiz with a junior completing the ranks with me and Raju. Did pretty well... As Raju put it, atleast we didn't go out for a duck like Sourav Dada! No prizes for us tho... a first for my Antaragni career.
Then came in the climax of the festival... the prof nite with KK on campus. Began with a disappointing opening by "Faridkot" but KK managed to take the fun a notch higher. Hung out with one set of friends for the first half and then met up with the quintessential geek group - An AIR 5 (now a Fulbright scholar), an AIR 10, a PhD student (female) who is about to get married Jan next yr and some other dudes who love to hang out but derive most of their humour from highly skilled wordplay. Not the group you would associate with the usual definition of "fun". But boy! Did we have some fun that night! It was an amazing show, not because KK was exceptional, but because everybody was so keen to have a good time and succeeded! Weird and hilarious dance moves, Venkat's "Uchcha Lamba Kadd" performance, and our dear friend Bong flashing (his receding hairline) on the giant screen... all elements for some moments to remember for a long time. Pretty tired, we come back to SAC... I meet my Student Guide (Baap), here for Antaragni, eat some food and then resort to playing Dumb-C again! Very unwillingly, we call it a day at around 3 and bid farewell to a not-entirely-awesome but definitely a special Antaragni!
P.S. I tried to write the above in the form of an ongoing commentary. As the events were already in the past by the time I wrote them, there might be tense inconsistencies at lots of places. If you give a damn about that, get a life!
A special mention for the little girl who hung out with our gang and actually went out of her way to dance with us on the prof nite inspite of her sociopath friends' efforts to dissuade her! Also to my MME buddy "ak100ak" for raising the 'fun' bar, his long sojourns to attend calls notwithstanding...
Ciaos Antaragni!
I will be following chronological order (more or less) from here on...
Day 1: A Nice Beginning!
As is the case every year, hordes of people start trickling in on Thursday (some of them have actually been here since Wednesday). I have just a single class in the morning but decide against visiting the SAC before the evening. Guess it didn't hurt too much. Come evening and the lot of us head for the SAC in a definitely-more-than-ordinary attire. And lo and behold! That amazing hustle-bustle: a motley crowd of guitar playing dudes, "bewildered at being in IITK" junta, sweet girls, naughty girls, "goth" chicks, woooo girls (seriously!!), a 10, a pair of 8s, a bevy of 6s... an indigestible assortment of the happening crowd! Had MJ been here, he would have shrieked... "This is it!"
Our ogling eyes having been satiated a bit, we move to the venue for the Opening Show. Ha! 4th year... no standing in queues. We get in... Advaita is nice, Sitar Funk is great! Kudos Niladri... but ya, we've seen u already, remember "Megabucks'08"... we move back to the SAC before the show reaches its climax. Hungry stomachs... we head to the food court; new resolution - any money spent on vegetarian stuff is a waste! A chicken lollipop here, a butter chicken there, a few roomali rotis thrown in for good measure... and we're full! Wait for the much awaited Antakshari... turns out to be a bit of a bummer, i get my singing opportunity and we manage to get 2 tees (size XXL)!
Some more time at the CCD stall... some more foodstuff... and we retire at about 3 a.m.
Day 2: Pretty Eventful!
Get up pretty early in the morning considering the last night's bed-time. Surprisingly, choose to skip the word games (had enough of lit events in my 4 yrs). Head off to see the 'designs' in the rangoli competition, on the recommendation of a friend - not really worth spending too much time. So, a detour to our favourite haunt : the SAC. Not the most crowded of places at this time of the day. I plan to participate in some musical events today - a first for me... get myself registered... have to wait till after lunch. During lunch I am coaxed into hosting a pretty lame event called "mallville - mafia wars". Around 3 pm, I finally get to perform in 'Geet' in the presence of quite a lot of my friends, brought together by loads of phone calls :D. Seems the outing was better than most had expected. After the usual lounging around, I reach the mall desk for the "mafia wars" thingy. The not-so-surprising time-delays ensure it begins only around 6. And what do we realise... that for some weird reason (still beyond my understanding), the event sees an all-male turnout. I crack some pretty lame jokes on stage, not that the event had any scope for me to "do well". After around 2 hrs, the painful game ends with my friends and I (!) winning the maximum we could have from the game (not that it mattered in the long run). With still some time at hand, I rush to the english vocals event... another entry - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', not too many ppl this time around but this one seemed to have gone well too. After this we flit from some event to SAC to food court and end the day at around 2 am again. Ya, I did sit through an incomprehensible flurry of questions called the "sports quiz" and left in a hurry!
One of the interesting happenings of the day was the nukkad event - Our team did brilliantly but that is not too much of a surprise really. What was more amusing were the ever-so-shockin' beginning some of the Nukkad entries had. One moment there was a small group sitting near you, quietly, and before you know it they just dash off to the centre shouting at the top of their voices. In a scarier one, I saw a girl heading in my direction, pointing her finger and the next moment she grabs the girl sitting next to me, drags her by her hair and both of them jostle for some reason... naaiice!!
Day 3: New day, new stories!
I will probably be a bit more concise with this day as most of our activities repeat themselves henceforth. Get up in the morning... have Hindi Dumb-C which doesn't seem to be a Dumb-C event at all. We are kicked out in round 2. See a bit of the JAM where jam-master J.Das emphatically announces that "self-banging" is allowed. The crowds find it too gross and leave (Ok! That is not true :D ). Gen Quiz takes place in the afternoon... we miss out by less than a mark - disppointing! Take a bit of rest... see the Mridaksh prelims on Mall Stage... find them extremely soporific.. exit. We enter the discotheque... 3 dudes... decide against dancing, begin to leave, meet two geeks (also close friends and cool people!) who are extremely enthusiastic to shake a leg : quorum complete... we head to the dance floor - an enjoyable hour follows! Time for the Bolly Quiz - new team, the quiz turns out to be a farce... we don't qualify again... but sit through as the "nOOb" quiz ends in a jiffy! Time running out to make our last Antaragni outing a quizzing success... retire late to bed again, after the usual hanging around! Some interesting Dumb-C participation late at night... acquainted to the "Thakur High-Five" - don't worry, that's an esoteric joke!
Day 4: That's all, folks!
Well, here it is... final day of the final edition of Antaragni! Another day with a fresh bit of hope that this day will be special! What do we do in the morning... hmmm... oh! the usual... return to the SAC for some more guy-guy hanging out. Oh ya, did i mention that every morning I woke up to the blaring tunes of Salsa numbers with pairs of boys and girls dancing, hands-over-hips, right in front of my room. Bhhaammm! It hits you... get out and get goin'. We miss the comics quiz and a mixed bag of word games... maybe I did repent that a bit... but as I said before enuf of those events for me, really! Then we get together for the MELA quiz with a junior completing the ranks with me and Raju. Did pretty well... As Raju put it, atleast we didn't go out for a duck like Sourav Dada! No prizes for us tho... a first for my Antaragni career.
Then came in the climax of the festival... the prof nite with KK on campus. Began with a disappointing opening by "Faridkot" but KK managed to take the fun a notch higher. Hung out with one set of friends for the first half and then met up with the quintessential geek group - An AIR 5 (now a Fulbright scholar), an AIR 10, a PhD student (female) who is about to get married Jan next yr and some other dudes who love to hang out but derive most of their humour from highly skilled wordplay. Not the group you would associate with the usual definition of "fun". But boy! Did we have some fun that night! It was an amazing show, not because KK was exceptional, but because everybody was so keen to have a good time and succeeded! Weird and hilarious dance moves, Venkat's "Uchcha Lamba Kadd" performance, and our dear friend Bong flashing (his receding hairline) on the giant screen... all elements for some moments to remember for a long time. Pretty tired, we come back to SAC... I meet my Student Guide (Baap), here for Antaragni, eat some food and then resort to playing Dumb-C again! Very unwillingly, we call it a day at around 3 and bid farewell to a not-entirely-awesome but definitely a special Antaragni!
P.S. I tried to write the above in the form of an ongoing commentary. As the events were already in the past by the time I wrote them, there might be tense inconsistencies at lots of places. If you give a damn about that, get a life!
A special mention for the little girl who hung out with our gang and actually went out of her way to dance with us on the prof nite inspite of her sociopath friends' efforts to dissuade her! Also to my MME buddy "ak100ak" for raising the 'fun' bar, his long sojourns to attend calls notwithstanding...
Ciaos Antaragni!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
GRE-at Expectations
This is an article I wrote for the recently published edition of my college newspaper "Vox Populi" which currently has me as one of its editors. I thought it would be interesting to share it with other people too... so here it is:
The first two years in this college are sheer bliss. All you know are instances of illustrious seniors lapping up prestigious jobs with mind-boggling pay-packages. Enter third year, and the harsh realities begin to surface. You realise that not everything is as rosy as it seemed to be.
In the last year or so, the economic downturn has just made things worse. The hordes of third-years lining up for placement preparation sessions and the so-called “personality-enhancing workshops” bewilder me. These “troubled times” have also got people thinking about continuing their education and avoid the messed-up placement scenario altogether. This has led to something which I would like to the call ‘the GRE phenomenon’.
Suddenly, everybody is queuing up for the hitherto little-known and “not so happening” city of Allahabad (oddly, one of the two centres for GRE in the north). People who, till yesterday, swore that they would die rather than continue in their current field of study are cramming thousands of words, only to pursue “higher” education in their respective fields. Every place you go, you find people racking their brains over a list of ‘alien’ words and strategizing for the test on war footing. Only, this war has a different kind of ‘Barron’ as its indisputable hero.
These GRE ‘maggus’ are becoming a pain for the other half of their peers, the GRE “muggles”. These innocuous beings are made to brook their ubiquitous “Barron’s”-wielding cronies’ persistent rambling in an array of stilted words. You definitely understand what I intend to convey, don’t you? I mean what were these people thinking when they designed this test. Someone must have said, “Hey! Here is a list of some really nasty and useless words you need to mug up. If you’re ready to do that, you must be really desperate to get to the US and we’ll let you in”.
It is common to see students stashing some “not-so-flashy” flash cards (for the uninitiated, these are word-meaning lists) inside their notebooks, and anxiously taking a peek at them when the professor looks away. So ugly is the rat-race that it has gulped up some totally clueless “muggles” who, realising that their friends were into GRE, have begun vigorous efforts to increase their vocabulary, just so that they are not left behind in any way.
Joining the rats in this race for a successful career are the CATs. They were recently seen to be at the peak of their activity when they were remarkably stumped by an apparently confusing form to be filled, merely to register for the Common Admission Test, which, actually, should have been the puzzling part.
Well, in the fact that all this preparation leads to people joining hands to improve upon their skills and aim for a better future, there is a beauty in this mess. But, as they say, pulchritude has cutaneous profundity... – “beauty is skin deep”, yaar!
The first two years in this college are sheer bliss. All you know are instances of illustrious seniors lapping up prestigious jobs with mind-boggling pay-packages. Enter third year, and the harsh realities begin to surface. You realise that not everything is as rosy as it seemed to be.
In the last year or so, the economic downturn has just made things worse. The hordes of third-years lining up for placement preparation sessions and the so-called “personality-enhancing workshops” bewilder me. These “troubled times” have also got people thinking about continuing their education and avoid the messed-up placement scenario altogether. This has led to something which I would like to the call ‘the GRE phenomenon’.
Suddenly, everybody is queuing up for the hitherto little-known and “not so happening” city of Allahabad (oddly, one of the two centres for GRE in the north). People who, till yesterday, swore that they would die rather than continue in their current field of study are cramming thousands of words, only to pursue “higher” education in their respective fields. Every place you go, you find people racking their brains over a list of ‘alien’ words and strategizing for the test on war footing. Only, this war has a different kind of ‘Barron’ as its indisputable hero.
These GRE ‘maggus’ are becoming a pain for the other half of their peers, the GRE “muggles”. These innocuous beings are made to brook their ubiquitous “Barron’s”-wielding cronies’ persistent rambling in an array of stilted words. You definitely understand what I intend to convey, don’t you? I mean what were these people thinking when they designed this test. Someone must have said, “Hey! Here is a list of some really nasty and useless words you need to mug up. If you’re ready to do that, you must be really desperate to get to the US and we’ll let you in”.
It is common to see students stashing some “not-so-flashy” flash cards (for the uninitiated, these are word-meaning lists) inside their notebooks, and anxiously taking a peek at them when the professor looks away. So ugly is the rat-race that it has gulped up some totally clueless “muggles” who, realising that their friends were into GRE, have begun vigorous efforts to increase their vocabulary, just so that they are not left behind in any way.
Joining the rats in this race for a successful career are the CATs. They were recently seen to be at the peak of their activity when they were remarkably stumped by an apparently confusing form to be filled, merely to register for the Common Admission Test, which, actually, should have been the puzzling part.
Well, in the fact that all this preparation leads to people joining hands to improve upon their skills and aim for a better future, there is a beauty in this mess. But, as they say, pulchritude has cutaneous profundity... – “beauty is skin deep”, yaar!
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