Epiphany

I'm sitting in my balcony right now, and as I put my head back, deeply inhaling the cool breeze. It smells of something..I try to recall what, but I can't really put a finger on it. Maybe it just smells like the night..with its serene blackness. I look up at the stars. They never fail to fascinate me, the glittering multitude, as they look down upon us. The sky here in Pilani looks beautiful and clear; unlike Delhi where one can hardly see them..its almost as if you can talk to them while they silently wink at you from the heavens.

 I close my eyes and hear the breeze as it rustles through the leaves that are now dry. A cricket begins to chirp somewhere far off. 

I think about everything that happened today. Nothing special. Just a lot of ordinary events,people, conversations..... as they cascade through my mind. 

I try to relax, and not think about anything. Just for the moment,  all I want to listen to is the music of the night and all I want to see is this place bathed in the milky moonlight. 

I switch off my phone. No. No phone calls, no messages for now. 

A random song gets stuck in my head. I hum for a while, and then give up. 

I try concentrating on the stars again, seeing if I can identify any constellations. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll find a shooting star...maybe I'll make a wish. 

Hmmm.. so there's the belt of Orion. And ..erm.... well... I can't really make out anything else. 

Sometimes, when I look at the stars I wonder if they have a mind of their own. Do they look down upon all of us, and do they know my thoughts as I look at them? 

And then a very stupidly sensible thought comes into my mind: Every person whom I ever knew, every person whom I will ever know. Every person who has touched my life.. or who one day will walk into my life.. the same stars shine down upon them. 

Its a very plain, obvious fact, but it still mystifies me. What would they say? Do they have any advice to offer? 

Mirage

"O Poor unthinking human heart! Error will not go away, logic and reason are slow to penetrate. We cling with both hands to false hope, refusing to believe in the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and draining our heart's blood, until regaining consciousness, we rush to fall into the snares of delusion all over again. "

                                                                                                                                - Rabindra Nath Tagore


its a short post...there really isn't much to say........

Icing for your Firefox

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Note 1: This is my first "geeky" post. Pre-requisites for reading this post - you should be aware of what 'Mozilla Firefox' is. If you are not, please close this page RIGHT NOW, you are embarrassing me. :P

Note 2: The list below is only suggestive and for the "normal" junta. Certified geeks need not read it (and hence I save myself from curses from some campus junta through this disclaimer. Phew!)
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You've reached thus far. Congratulations! You've heard what Mozilla Firefox is. But probably you need to know a little more to exploit what Firefox really is. Even if you are aware of the so called 'plug-ins', the list below might help you a lot in enhancing your browsing experience.

Some plug-ins, which I think everybody wants to use, does not because they are not aware, and will get addicted to once they get used to it:


1. Video DownloadHelper

Ever visited youtube.com, or for that matter any site that offers video streaming capabilities, and you pulled your hair off your head because you were unable to download it.

Head straight to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

After installing the plug-in, just visit the site you want to extract video from, click on the DownloadHelper icon, and Voila!


2. TinEye Reverse Image Search

Yup! You read that right. Always wondered what that image was? Try reverse searching the image on the web through this plug-in. Try it. Its amazing. Was looking for something like this for a long long time. This would help you figure a lot about the mysterious image that you had all along.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8922

3. EchoFon

Just registered for a twitter account? But it is a pain logging into it every time to check for updates? Well, there's a plug-in for it. If you keep your browser open all the time (as we like to do), this would help you keep a track of your tweets, and post tweets as well, right from Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081



4. Personas for Firefox

And finally, whats Firefox to you if it isn't you own. Head on to http://www.getpersonas.com/ to get a cool new look for your window to the internet, and make it your own. Check out the cool gallery on http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/gallery/All/Popular


So, that's all folks! Until some other time, when I feel "geeky" enough to make a geeky post.
And by the way, I use some cooler plug-ins too, but they are too nerdy to write about here. If you are interested, let me know in the comments.


PS: For those who in the dark about 'plug-ins', you've got to INSTALL them to use them. :P


Icing for your Firefox...

The Things We Do.

So, ahem....ok......I'll just ....cut to the chase - FAKE CONVERSATIONS
Isnt there something really fun about them, oh-so- thrilling? More so if carried out in public? What if you get caught? - the phone begins to ring or it suddenly switches to loud mode? (!!) What excuse can you possibly give for chattering away merrily when no one else is on the line?!

But I bet you are willing to risk it when situations like the following crop up.
Akward Situation
You are talking to your best friend. Right in the deep end of it..bang! One of his/her friends (who is no friend of yours - yeah Murphy's Law pal!) comes along. Worse...they both talk in their vernacular language.(Aaaaargh!!) So you can either:-

1. Stand around giving polite listless smiles (which only lasts for that long before someone mistakes you as suffering from facial palsy.)
2. Look for an opening so that you can swoop into the aforementioned conversation which never comes (they are chattering away in vernacular, remember?)
3. Unless ofcourse you are willing to try something really outrageous like.... "I've always wanted to learn Telegu/Bengali/etc. Teach me. NOW!" Trust me, thats guarranteed to ensure instant attention - of the medical kind!

OR
You could simply flip out your cellphone

1. "Hello? *get up from the chair*
2. "Hie!!!" *move away from best friend and interrupting jerk*
3. "Right now?" *look for the nearest exit route*
4. "Ok." *keep walking*

:D

Why-Am-I-Talking-To-You? Situation
" And then finally my tonsils got inflamed and I ended up having a runny nose. (No shit! Really?!) I would wipe it with a handkerchief cause when I do it with a tissue I blow so hard, the phlem seeps through the paper and then it comes on to my fingers which is really gross (Seriously? Grosser than this story you insist on narrating me?!) So that's why I use a handkercheif of towel material but then then the fabric hardens because the phlemn dries (I can't hear a thing! LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!!) and then my nose gets a rash........."

To ESCAPE all of the above and fast!
Simply flip out your cellphone and repeat steps 1-4. Oh! and skip steps 1-3. :P

Please-Notice-I'm-So-Cool Situation
Finally...not very sure how this is gonna look. But..what the hell!
So this hot girl/guy is totally checking you out (By the way - Hypothetical Situation. Hot people are usually too self-absorbed to be checking out anyone except themselves) How do you show you are totally checkable? (Did I just invent a word? Did I just deviate?)

Flip out your cellphone and walk back and forth gabbing in English (always in English!), raise your volume, laugh a lot (not like a hyena) and spout all sorts of cool sounding phrases like :-
"Puhleeze!"
Whatever!"
"Awesome!"
"Totally!"
P.S. : These almost never work. Yet its entertaining to see people try (oh-so-hard!). Personally I would rather a person flirt right back rather than jump verbal hoops with his/her cellphone. Bleh! But then, thats what I think! :)

The Cynic in Me?

Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss. Sometimes you really Really REALLY wish you didn't know any better.

So much of cynicism in the world already. That teeny-meeny capsule of hope, faith, kindness, and everything 'nice' (As Powerpuff Girls say it. Dont you just love the 90's? :)) just keeps on shrinking in your heart. Add to this, a daily dose of crass, grating reality which instills and reinstills the eternal maxim of survival-"Never take people at their face value. Ever."

Happy people, Sad lives, Sad stories, Sob stories, Story book romances, Hardly-So realities, mixed in a pot pourri of truths and half truths. A face you knew....a face you 'thought' you knew....and then face's' you wish you knew! The Manipulating and the Manipulated mixing as neatly as sugar in water and yet leaving that familiar bad after-taste. In this case, feeling like a royal fool.

" Oh! Come on he/she can't be that bad! Look rumours will always be there.....pinch of salt....but surely not in between friends? Wait...what?? No way! I refuse to believe...I...look I'm gonna give him/her the benefit of doubt here...." and Voila! ___________ :

Sometimes its best not knowing too many people too well....too much information....too much details. It clogs you mindspace and keeps you tense, suspicious and second-guessing perpetually. And what category of 'happy' does that slot you in??! (Presuming that is what everyone's gunning for after the customary money--mercedes-mansion chase)

Perhaps you were better of being in the dark about someone than reliving your bad judgement calls everytime that person passes you by in the hallway. Perhaps you were better off wholly unaware of reality than being continously haunted by your acts of misplaced faith each time that person's name pops up on Facebook/Orkut (Seriously?)/ Twitter (jobless, much?) ??

Perhaps all that you really want is to to return to what used-to-be. The old familiar cocoon, warm with memories of being able to share your innermost thoughts (the silliest, the creepiest) with someone without a second thought, to hold nothing back in distrust and self-preservation, to fall easily into the pattern of hushed confidences between classes and smothered laughter in the library.

Perhaps what you really wish is for a person to say what they mean and mean what they say.

And perhaps you are tired of being made a fool of. Each time. Every time....

Just Saying. (Part 1)

The Brits gave us the railways and the telegraphs, the English language and Christianity, the ......
Yes! they gave us the Jallianwala Bagh and Partition, the Gora Sahebs and the Memsahibs, the...
But most importantly they gave us _____(Hold your breath) ______ (You are not really holding your breath, are you? :D) _______AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX.
Yes! You read it right folks!

So much so that the English language has been imparted a divine status. Dare anyone pronounce 'sheep' as 'seep' 'yesterday' as 'yusturday'- WOAH!!! Grammatical errors - 'I goes' but she 'returned back' - HAAAW!!
I'm sure you must have noticed...its a common enough trend. For example : In class, the moment the teacher who has a 'funny' accent begins speaking, a wave of giggles passes through the class with a couple of kids mouthing the wrongly pronounced word.
OR If a student gets up in class to read and his accent is ___you guessed it - 'funny'(!), other kids will glance at each other or snicker softly.

Look, I'm not advocating wrong pronounciation, just saying that its interesting how people go ga-ga over Brit pronounication, American accent, Austraayelien twang but not us, never us! When it comes to a slip of the tongue by an Indian - Oh My God?!! Did you hear him speak?So desi!!!

After all, its a language. Its supposed to be twisted into, played around with or it will never evolve.
I mean if I look at any of the vernacular languages. For example : Sylheti Bengali widely differs from Bengali spoken in say...Kolkata. Or Telegu spoken in the Telengana area differs from Telegu spoken in many other parts of Andhra Pradesh.
But I doubt if that difference is treated with scorn or ridicule.
Wonder why we as people are so skeptical about anyone who doesnt conform with the rules in English? And who decides these rules anyway? Whats wrong with Indi English? Every other European country seems to have their own version.So why not us?

Underneath Your Skin

 Psst-I'm listening to Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd.Its been an age since i blogged,and it seems all new again. Blogging sorta,is like thinking out loud,so many times you end up with your foot in your mouth,or you offend someone who would probably wanna gut you alive!! But besides all the blonde moments it is awesome in so many ways!

Any how,this song here is called "Comfortably Numb". There are a million question we seek answers to,and most of them can never be answered. Its heavy stuff,overwhelming actually.

The song has dark undertones,a little pessimistic. Its like when you know how a neo-noirmovie ends,and you still see it,just for the fun of it. Its amazing how we do things just for kicks,get into things and hope to get out of them.You get those cliches everyday,and you use them abuse them,not even amazed a little by how true they are. We go the full circle.......sometimes getting lost midway ,cocky fools we are!:P

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.