The boat of life

I was a kid then , fascinated by the sea . I had spent my child hood down the sea side . The holy sand was my palyground and waves my bets friend .I always wanted to go to the sea just as my father . I never missed an opportunity helping my father launch the boat though my help was insignificant to my father .My favourite pastime was looking into the sea for my father to return .The first sight of the mast enthralled me so much .
And then one fine day i stole into the boat .It was the greatest moment of life for me .Even my father did not scold me , perhaps he found me prepared for the ocassion. But it was just a beginning .It was an insight into the harsh realities of life .I came face to face with the obstacles and then started the learning process which has never ended since then .
There was so much to learn .Putting up the sails correctly , steering the boat , anticipating the climate , looking out for the catch and the most important was the track of time .Every day a battle was waged against the mountain tides , the ghastly winds and the sands of time .I learnt how life was no bed of roses .Everything came at a cost .It took a lot of physical work , mental ability , art and patience to remain afloat .
Sea has been a teacher since my childhood .I have learnt so many facts of life from the sea. There had been situations when my boat had almost capsized .My last resort was only to try hard and i put up the maximum i had , somehow i managed to survive the deadly whirlpool .Since then i have never given up on things .It's great spectacle to be surrounded by sea on all the sides .Sometimes it gives me the feeling of eternity , another time it revealed the unboundedness of human mind and imagination .Sometimes when i was all alone in the sea it made me realise the truth of our solitary existence .
Even the nature of ses was different on different days much alike the human nature .Calm sea was the perfect day for a smooth sail and a good catch .The calm sea parsonifies calm attitude .It's so easy to deal with calm people and the result,s are also good . Similarily the rough and turbulent sea represents other aspects of human nature .
The color of sea was also an inspiration for me .Even the color of sea changed with depth. As one moves more deep into the sea the color becomes more brighter . This depth symbolizes human knowledge and perception which clears the dark mist leading to enlightened souls.
I can never forget the happiness of seeing the land .The land was always a feeling of hope, security and victory to me .Each time i returned to land , it felt like a king coming back home after a long and tiring war.
Today sitting by the seaside i feel that all our lives is a boat plunged into deep seas of time .All through our life , this battle is against time to remain afloat in the ghostly seas. This battle makes us what we are .
It reminds me of a childhood poem
" row row row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily , merrily
life is but a dream ."

Namesake!

Well i always wanted to write about this especially after Chandi's viva. I am Abhinav , the first roll no. right from my school days to here .The first name to be called at the start of the day , first name to be called anywhere in a group. But it has been a difficult path being the no. one.
The most sardonic part is that in any exam you have to sit on the first bench . Especially if it is a BT101 exam and you are made to sit in the first row ...(thank's to RANVAH he saved me somehow). Ya but it is great if you are prepared for an exam and want to put r.g.
If someone ask's me "tell a name you hate the most ??" . The answer is "Abhishek " . There will always be a Abhishek to follow Abhinav .Never ever i got a chance to have a female in any lab , any assignment all because of f...... Abhishek.
Then comes the part of result declaration . Oh no excitement , i know my name will be the first one called . If a football team name is being called out
and the first name starts with a B , i know i am not there.Any result being put up i dont have to go through the whole result only first five names will suffice.
The most painful part .....Any viva , any presentations , any assignment "roll no one please come in .". However in my school days i made a lot of use of it .Once i come out of a viva i become the most important person .I still remeber the attention given by the girls,me putting fundaes to babes( ob in (dps ). But things have changed since i entered here .
If a class is being scolded that's it!!!! I will be the first one to be picked up and half the teacher's energy will be spent on me.
Last but not the least if roll no's are given acoording to the surname , i think again i will be the first one.

SEMESTER IN PICS

Making of the 20 years

Bihari Productions Presents

I ,ME AND MYSELF

I still remember one lesson taught by my grammar teacher " whenever you are writing stuffs like mentioning 3 friends it should be ram shyam and me and not me, ram and shyam ."I feel that people have forgotten this very basic lesson for now wherever we find we see a predominant "me ".Even by nature i think its "me" for if i point a finger to someone the other four finger's still favor me.
Talk to a person and then hear his "me" 's." What are you doing this for".The answer is "me ".
We dislike politicians but still we all become so because even in our quest there is that "me " element .
Even in our context it's very true
1. Became a gen sec but there was an inherent desire that if i become one i will be short listed
in a particular company.
2 "Dude i am doing this because this will be a point in my resume"
3. "This proff gives only 2 s grades so ....."
The failure of the nuclear deal was also an outcome of "me"
In this fight of "me " we are getting away from "we ".let's build this gap of "me " and "we".
All thru' the day I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
All thru' the night I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.

One night at taramani

I feel that after coming to IIT one thing i have mastered is procrastination. However that saturday was no different . Though it was very late we decided that we are any how going to participate in this "short film making " competition, and why not the whole brigade was awesome ... moli and mamme ... best cameraman and editors in the insti. Doodh can copy anyone given a chance , and NETA had reasons of his own . I had not acted since a long time but the story which we had decided upon was one of my favorite ...." o henry 's after 20 year's "
Thank's to mamme and moli the script was finally prepared by 1:00 a.m . So we had around 5 hours time to complete the film in time . We had decided to shoot on a place away from insti and on a rainy night taramani bus stand had all the glamour . The yellow light , deserted bus stop was all that we wanted .
Then what followed was an experience of a lifetime . All the camera angle's possibility exploited , max utilization of space , repeating the same dialouges again and again , forgetting that you are facing a camera . Just shooting for two minutes of the movie took over 3 hour's .The best part was the get up of doodh and mine , really according to character.
After the whole exercise i have started appreciating every movie i see , as it's a very rigorous process to make a movie .
DIRECTION AND SCREEN PLAY " MOLI AND MAMME "
CAST BACHCHA (ME ), DOODH AND NETA ."

DOUBLE MEANING

Well looking at the above picture the black spells "good" and white spells "evil".This is the whole point i want to put forward . I was attending a workshop on film making today and by chance i took down some notes too. But there were some lines spoken which had double meaning(however the speaker never intended the other meaning which i am talking off) . You can interpret only if you think in my way . So these are the lines ...........

1. The equipment is not a small toy which you can play around with.
2. It did have jerks but you can improvise.
3. You have to go down , go up , it is very difficult you have to practice .
4. I brake the rules i use jerk.
5. Start up with the hut and then come to the village.
6. If you go for a high angle shoot , the mood enhances.
7. It takes time for chic to come out but seconds to destroy it .
8. Story , plot , characterization , crisis , climax.
9. The position with you catch the characters is important.
10. Close your eyes and visualize the story.

SAVE ENERGY

SAVE ENERGY!!!

Well this is the theme for the annual tech fest of iit madras .
Luckily i got the opportunity to appear in one of the posters .It depicts that a time will come when whole of the earth will be submerged and so we must be prepared for the future.
The situation is very alarming . I list some of the facts :
1.Past 12 years have been the hottest since 1850.
2.It takes 10 times more energy to produce frozen
food than fresh food.

3.40%decrease in thickness in arctic ice pack from
1960 to 2005
4. Developed countries have 20% of world's
population and consume 60% of total energy.
"Overall its a request from iit junta to switch off their comps, light and fan when not in room. Let us all make a beginning ."

Live for the family....

"I dont care how poor a man is , if he has a family he is rich"
Yesterday while talking to some of my friends i was completely overwhelmed . I came to know how important a family means to some of us.
One of friends lost his father recently. In his words"you know my father was a very happy man when he was dieing . He wanted to meet all of us and luckily we all were present at that time . I came to know how important the family means to him and just that he could meet his beloved once for last time made him happy . My father had gone through many hardships for us . There was a day when we did not have money to buy woods for cooking .It was a great feeling , we were happy that we all were together into this.I felt the hidden love and respect among us.The most moving part was that my mother stole some woods from the neighbours house just because we were hungry."
This discussion really moved me . We tend to forget our family sometimes but situations make us realise their importance . When you are in despair family come' s to your rescue .
Another friend came to the discussion . In his words" during the vacations i was infected by malaria . None of my friends were here . I have spent much of my life in a residential school and so i am not that emotionally attached with my family. I even feel ashamed to ask my parents about their health . But the care they showed during my illness brought us together .I realised that they are the once who will always live with me and you can approach them anytime you want."
Its really wonderful that by berth we have been bounded to our family. Its something which is permanent , meaning to say that friend will come and go , you may feel that someone is very caring but in the long run its the family which is the ultimate saviour .
This blog is just meant for some of us who dont realise the importance of family or just take it for granted .Friends let's be a strong link in this bondage.

Spare the rod , spoil the child ....

There are some memories that keep coming back making you realize the importance of those moments . Yesterday while having an ice cream an event occurred to me and made laugh .
I Accept that i was a hooligan and that was the reason i got beat up regularly by my teachers and by my mom. I was in std 1 may be six years of age but this incident is still fresh in my heart . I was given 21 bucks to by the sports t shirt which was a uniform to be worn on fridays . The period in which i had to submit the money to my teacher was after lunch .Somehow my friends came to know that i had money and insisted me for buying ice creams for them .I couldn't say no to them as i had enjoyed many ice creams with them on their money ofcourse . When i went back home i saw that my mom was not at all in a good mood and those days we were not very financially sound too, and 21 bucks on ice cream was a big issue.So i restrained from speaking the truth at that instant . But after getting constantly pained by my teachers i had to say it somehow. On one evening , i found my mom happy and so i thought that this was the apropriate time to cash on the opportunity.But it turned the other way round for me . The walloping still is fresh in my mind .It was a lesson for a lifetime . I was not beat up for ice cream but for telling lies .
I would also like to mention late "mrs francis " , she was the principal of the primary section. Somehow she saw that i was a prank master and whenever she met me gave me a lecture on moral responsibilities , discipline , responsibility. I hated her lectures very much at those moments and generally used to hide away on sight of her.But she in my 10 years in school always made a point to speak to me .
In fact i was so notorious that i got regular whackings in school . In fact i got a total of 32 beatings with a cane on my butts in std 10 itself . "I can still feel the pain of the cane "
But today i realize that all these things were responsible in turning a village kid to a man .I was fortunate enough that people cared about me and also led me to the correct path , which has made all the difference . In the words of the holy Bible "He that spareth his rod hateth his son,but he that loveth him chasteneths him betimes".

Rain rain come again wash away all my pain

"MY HAIR IS WET, MY FEET ARE WET,
I COULDN'T BE MUCH WETTER :
I FELL INTO THE RIVER ONCE
BUT THIS IS EVEN BETTER"

The road from gc to hostels was all deserted and me with some of my friends were returning back to hostel after attending the "Lehman brother's " workshop. Its fun getting drenched in the rain especially in chennai .It starts raining and you can't stop yourself jumping in the rain .
But today something more interesting happened . I saw a car coming very slowly . The car appeared to be new i thought that perhaps there would still be plastic cover on the seats and so the rider can give us a lift to the hostel's. I just looked at the car in a gesture to get a lift.
Well the most memorable things in life are those which occur unexpectedly and it so happened.The car stopped some metres from me and the side window rolled down . As i approached the car i could smell the sweet fragnance . i was astounded to find a cute girl almost of my age inside . She was well dressed and had a boy cut hair , there was a confidence in her a voice and most wonderful was the kind gesture .
She asked "i am going to the hostel do you want a lift"
My reply"ya it would be fine if you could drop us to ganga hostel please ".
But then i noticed the seats and decided against it . It was no point in wetting the seats .
My reply " actually we all are wet enough to wetten your seats . Thanks a lot ."
I walked back to the hostel carrying the sweet memory in my heart .

Contemplation

"Few people even scratch the surface , much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience "
I was once very touched by Anton Checkov's story "The Bet ". Its about a lawyer who becomes wise by living in solitude . i tried this out. There was an empty room in my house , small , no windows and no furniture at all . I just locked myself with no mobile , books ,clock , absolutely nothing .
you know it was an entirely different world inside the room. damn silence , white walls which went black as i switched off the lights . i felt that when you are alone thoughts start pouring in and the same happened . I started thinking wisely . " i realised that we are slaves , we are slaves of our dreams , our thoughts .We dont know where we are heading to just moving on life's course blindly .People talk of "pursuit of happiness " but ask them i am sure they cant define happiness . happiness is a very difficult thing to understand . we are becoming materialistic in our search of glory . we have become slaves of the system .Mere materialistic things cant make one happy , in fact that happiness is an illusion .
I have heard people saying " i am feeling lonely or saying "missed you alot ". In fact we are always lonely in our life . relationships are meagre boundages but the whole idea is that we lead the whole life for our own , we come alone we go alone . our life is much like a link in a long chain with a very important difference that the others link are unaffected by the other link .
We all are aware of the three dimensions but there are many other dimensions which can be perceived in solitude . Introspections are important part of life . May be shear silence can illuminate our dark misdirected life .

Bringing Light

"Where knowledge is free , where the world has not been broken into narrow domestic walls".
So great were RABINDRANATH TAGORES words but we have totally deviated from his thoughts .
I have spent first 6 years of my life in village and i started my primary education in the village school . Even today when i visit my village school i am amzed that nothing has changed in these15 years , the same blackboards, children sitting on shacks and half the year the school closed due to lack of teachers ,rain or social issues .
i am talking of the villages where if a family member dies its happy news as there is one stomach less to feed . Where the whole family commits suicide as they can not sustain the survival pressures . i have seen people kill , fight for very small sum of money . all of this is due to ignorance , lack of guidance leading to poverty that makes them commit heinous crimes or resort to suicide.
During my summer vacations i saw the same situation in a colony near to my home .I used to go for milk in that colony and saw how small children spoiling their future . The children there never go to school and spent the whole day looking after their cattle . Some of them were also addicted to smoking and gambling . I was overwhelmed by the situation and decided to do something for them. i persuaded my mom to take out some time for these downtrodden .
my mom agreed and she started free night classes for the lot . It started with 2 children and today there are 20 of them .
Well friends let's bring hope and light in others life , you will be blessed.

my first blog

"whenever you are away ,
i crawl up in a corner
to watch the minutes pass
i can't take the miles"
these are some of the lines taken from the movie " serendipity". literally speaking serendipity means good fortune .
well this reminds me of last diwali. i had to travel 70 km to catch a train from kharagpur and there was no bus , taxi available . i also knew that even if i get a bus i will not make up in time . all i needed was a bit of luck and it came . i asked for a lift in a car and the interesting point was that i got it in the first try .this reminds me of serendipity .
freinds also if you have not watched this movie its a must watch sort .