tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50851748208950570382024-02-22T08:11:37.872+05:30The Unkempt SophomoresAman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-70942096928077088762023-01-07T21:55:00.004+05:302023-01-07T21:55:42.867+05:30ख़याल (लेकिन क्यों?) | Write (but why?)<p>बेहता वो है जो रेह नहीं पाता</p><p>सेहता वो है जो बेह नहीं पाता</p><p>केहता वो है जो सेह नहीं पाता</p><p>लिखता वो है जो केह नहीं पाता</p><p><i>Sway, he must, who can stay no more</i></p><p><i>Suffer, he must, who cannot sway</i></p><p><i>Say, he must, who can suffer no more</i></p><p><i>Write, he must, who cannot say</i></p>Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-23374188111032867992021-11-03T09:48:00.008+05:302022-05-29T07:16:34.054+05:30ख़याल - VII<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">ये</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">इश्क़</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">नहीं</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">आसान</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">बस</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">इतना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">समझ</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI", sans-serif;">लीजिये</span>,</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">समझ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आता</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">नहीं</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हमको</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">उनको</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">समझाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लफ्ज़</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मेरे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हैं</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">पर</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">यूँ</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">समझ</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span> -<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ज़ालिम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">महफ़िल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">किरदार</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">भी</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">निभाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">एक</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुसाफिर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कहा</span> - <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">साथ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">में</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">चल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">नहीं</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुक़द्दर</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सफर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ही</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ठिकाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मान</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कैसे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लें</span>? <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सबूत</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तोह</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">दीजिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तुमने</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ही</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कहा</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">था</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बेईमान</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ज़माना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुखबीरों</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">का</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">भी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अब</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">यकीन</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आज</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">की</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बातों</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">को</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फिर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बदल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जाना</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हुआ</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">नहीं</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">पूछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हमे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">भी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फिर</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जो</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तुम्हे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लगे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">वोही</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अफसाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>...<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अल्फ़ाज़ों</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">की</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">गुस्ताखियां</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">दिल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">पे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मत</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बेरेहेम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जज़्बातों</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बहोत</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आज़माना</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">किसी</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मंगवाए</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">थे</span>,
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लेकिन</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आप</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">रख</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span>
-<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फूल</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हैं</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">परेशान</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">के</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">गुलिस्तां</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बनाना</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अधूरा</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सुरूर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">साक़ी</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तोह</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सबर</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आये</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हो</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अभी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अभी</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">चले</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>...<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फिर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मान</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लेंगे</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ज़रा</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तक़ल्लुफ़</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तोह</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तुम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">भी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">गए</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">थे</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आज</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फिर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">चले</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सजा</span>-<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ए</span>-<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">इश्क़</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हुकुम</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अब</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तो</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">रेहेम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span> - <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हर</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">रोज़</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तुम्हे</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्यों</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुक़दम्मा</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">चलाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">इन</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हसरतों</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">का</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">दामन</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">थाम</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कर</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तोह</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">देखिये</span>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">खोया</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">पाया</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">फिर</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुश्किल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बताना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मुक़म्मल</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">नहीं</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मंज़िल</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">वक़्त</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">दीजिये</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ज़िन्दगी</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अभी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बहोत</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सिखाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">एक</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सबक</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सही</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ज़िंदगानी</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अफ़सोस</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">मत</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">क्या</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">होगी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कहानी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तुमने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बताना</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>...<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">एक</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">याद</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ही</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सही</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आप</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">भी</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">रख</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">लीजिये</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आज</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हम</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हैं</span>, <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कल</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">किसी</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">और</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ने</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सुनाना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कुछ</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सही</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">या</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">गलत</span>,
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">ये</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">अब</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">आप</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">तय</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">कीजिये</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">हमने</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">केह</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">दिया</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">वो</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">जो</span>
<span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">सबको</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">बताना</span> <span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif;">है</span>...</p>Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-28952362556707650162021-02-14T21:56:00.010+05:302022-05-29T07:16:39.990+05:30ख़याल - VI<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">एक</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">फितरत</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">थी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कभी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ज़रुरत</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बनती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">देखने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हैं</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सपने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मगर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> -<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">नींद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कहाँ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">अब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मेरी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तरह</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कलम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">शायद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">यूँ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">चले</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <i>cigarette</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जलती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ख़ास</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मेहफिल</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आज</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मुस्कुरा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सवाल</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">के</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जवाब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">में</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">और</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">पूछे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">गलत</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">, </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सच</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">झूठ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तेरे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मेरे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">होंगे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मायने।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">लड़की</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बस</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बातें</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बता</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भूल</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">गया</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">याद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आज</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">फिर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">याद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <i>cigarette</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जलती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सुधर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रहे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">थे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">एक</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">शाम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">लेकर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आये।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बिगड़</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">गए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">क्योंकि</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">लफ़्ज़ों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">पे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">नाम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">लेकर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आये।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">यूँ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">समझ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">गए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">थे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">की</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">संभल</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">गए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हैं</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हम।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">इसीलिए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">फिर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">शायद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> -<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हाथों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">में</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जाम</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">लेकर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">आये।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">अब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कश</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">से</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तलब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">और</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बढ़ती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <i>cigarette</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जलती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">खुद</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">उनको</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">था</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सुनना</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">अनजानों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: Nirmala UI, sans-serif;">पूछा।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हमको</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">भी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">था</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कहना</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">यारों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: Nirmala UI, sans-serif;">पूछा।</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बातों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">की</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">इन</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बातों</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">में</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">एक</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मसला</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">था</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सुलझाना।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">पहले</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हमने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तुमसे</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">फिर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बांकी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">से</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: Nirmala UI, sans-serif;">पूछा।</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तुमने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कहा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">और</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दुनिया</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कुछ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">और</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बता</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <i>cigarette</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जलती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">क़ुबूल</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हुआ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ज़माने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">को</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">वो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">पाक़</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दिया।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मंज़ूर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">न</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हो</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">सका</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">उसको</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">नक़ाब</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दिया।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">हसरत</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">फिरदौस</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">का</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जूनून</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कहीं</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">मोक्ष</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">की</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">तमन्ना</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> -<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">किसी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दफ़न</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दिए</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">अपने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">किसी</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ने</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">राख़</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कर</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">दिया।<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">क्या</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">करें</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">? </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">क्या</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ना</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">करें</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">?<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">कश्मकश</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">बढ़ती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">,<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">ये</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> <i>cigarette</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जलती</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">जा</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">रही</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Nirmala UI",sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">है</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">...</span></div>
<p></p>Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-57237770649966310792020-08-15T23:50:00.009+05:302022-05-29T07:16:43.858+05:30Master of the Game<p><span style="text-align: justify;">The greatest players are the ones
who make the difficult seem so easy that it seems they got some serious cheat
codes up their sleeves in life. When the impossible is finally made possible, legends
as such possess an uncanny knack of being found at the centre stage. And yet as
the much-deserved spotlight inches towards them, they choose to gently recede away
from the euphoria and towards their preferred state of equanimity, leaving the
glorification for the rest of the world. Some call it chance, others heroism. But
for the artist, it is just another day’s work.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Ever since Martin Guptill managed
to disturb the stumps in the 2019 WC semi-finals with a direct hit that found him
a few feet short of the crease – and entire India short of the shores of hope –
followers of the game could see this day coming. ‘When’ was the only pertinent question
and it has been put to rest today. Given the pace of happenings in 2020, <i>this
too shall pass</i>. And that is perhaps the most appropriate phrase to summarise the
extravagant legacy that is MS Dhoni’s contributions to the game of cricket, the
awe-inspiring list of his achievements and his approach towards life at large.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">2003 world cup was the time that
11-year-old me developed a serious fascination for the game and ever since I
saw the men in blue lose to (arguably) the best squad ever assembled in the
game of cricket, seeing my team lift that trophy was a dream I started sharing
with a billion fellow countrymen. Our generation knew the folklore of 1983 and
the sheer <i>epicness</i> of the occasion but would find it too far into the
past to truly relate with. When a hitherto surgical Misbah ‘iceberg’ Ul Haq
from Pakistan – enchanted momentarily by the devil perhaps – popped a deceptive
slower one up in the air (when he could literally have done anything with that
delivery) and into the hands of an erratic Sreesanth at short fine leg, it
meant India were the winners of the debut edition of T20 World Cup in 2007.
The sight of the long locks of Dhoni (recently dyed black from blond) flying in
the winds of Johannesburg was not only a soothing balm over the wounds of the painful
knock-out suffered at the hands of Bangladesh earlier that year at the 50 over
world cup, but also one of the most joyful and vivid memories of childhood.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">But the true longing was far from
fulfilled. And it would come to our shores in 2011 in the next edition of the
50 over world cup. The long locks had vanished with the ravages of time and the
toils of captaincy, transforming the artist into a stoic – unmoved by the fleeting
vagaries of countless victories and defeats. The journey to the finals wasn’t as
romantic as in 2003 but the finale at Wankhade amidst a sensitively passionate home crowd, was the
biggest sporting event for 21<sup>st</sup> century India. It was a matter of collective
pride for a billion, the biggest bet with everyone ‘all in’, <b>the</b> <i>mauka,
</i>if ever there was one<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It is impossible to get even a
hint of what <i>Captain Cool</i> would have thought or felt. When <i>the Gods
of chance</i> – hitherto firmly by his side, evidently – had played one against
him at the moment of his life as he lost the chance to bat first in a pressure game
that would make even the depths of Mariana Trench crumble. Or when Jayawardene demolished
his bowlers at the death overs, posting the highest ever score in a WC final.
Or when he lost both his openers (legends in their own right) within the first
5 overs of the chase. Or when he walked into bat ahead of Yuvi (who had had a
dream tournament with the bat and the bowl) with an asking rate of almost a run
a ball and less than half the total runs required on the board. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">These are equations and calculations
that would make mere mortals shudder, let alone be able to compute or act. But
in yet another mesmerising display of grit and his characteristic brand of rugged,
street smart, unorthodox but highly effective batsmanship<i>, the last Jedi</i>
managed to hail the <i>Force </i>yet again to accomplish the impossible. Ravi
Shastri’s now immortal words declared it on air as MS Dhoni smacked the bowler straight
back for a mammoth six, steady eyes following the projectile off his bat into
the maddening crowd of thousands – who were collectively chanting <i>Vande Mataram</i>
minutes ago – unwavering, unmoved as if failing to register the immensity of
the occasion. It took a dancing and jumping Yuvraj Singh for him to respond in
a manner fit for an emotional being, as he pulled one stump off the ground as a
personal memento of victory – the most priceless one in his enormous kitty. The
fact that Sunil Gavaskar wants the image of that six to be the last thing he
watches before he dies is by no means an exaggeration. The cricket fanatic in
me had finally seen it all, as had everyone who had ever watched the game or tried
to mimic their idol’s stance in a gully or a ground.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQHNfwnUXo34Ct4TR1eP37g6JfMruuInTz9c-D68ZUaNgN-WbCZeHod_zakwR-WIAJ0fjxldIRDyj2dfS2VpcfqqC4VPpYC9_dRXnSvG9maU7pWK8_xrptEetWRt-9KNRxyglkATeryY/s806/Six.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="806" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQHNfwnUXo34Ct4TR1eP37g6JfMruuInTz9c-D68ZUaNgN-WbCZeHod_zakwR-WIAJ0fjxldIRDyj2dfS2VpcfqqC4VPpYC9_dRXnSvG9maU7pWK8_xrptEetWRt-9KNRxyglkATeryY/w400-h300/Six.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Cricket was ushered into the
collective conscience by Kapil Dev’s immortal heroics at Lord’s in 1983. It was
carried through its most turbulent times under the quiet class of Azharuddin
and completely redefined by the explosive swag of Dada. Greats of the game like
Sachin, Dravid and Kumble also gave it their blood, sweat and tears. But it
took the unassuming calm and unwavering stoicism of MS Dhoni to put together a
team of 11 men who could make history repeat itself after 28 years. There are
countless other times where his genius presence of mind, wicked (or weird –
your call) strategic manoeuvres and lightning fast glove work both in front and
behind the wicket have produced unforgettable moments of magic. But 2007 and 2011 are
two memories most of us will carry throughout our lives – in 1080p.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The incredible journey from a
ticket examiner in Indian railways who just loved hitting balls to becoming
the most successful captain in modern cricket has been documented and recounted
millions of times. His burgeoning legacy was so unequivocally impressive that it
even ended up as a major motion picture on the celluloid at a time when he was
still playing, believing he still had a few tricks up the sleeves for us. But sadly,
it wasn’t meant to be. <i>‘You can’t <b>always</b> get what you want’ </i>and
even the mighty MS Dhoni couldn’t escape that heavy burden of <i>always.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Beneath that helmet and under that
jersey is a man all of us recognize but perhaps no one really knows. He is an
iconoclast, an absolute enigma, a mystery we only believe we understand because
the story always seemed too exciting to miss. But perhaps it was just an artist
going about his work in the way he understood best, equally oblivious to both
admiration and criticism. And that, unsurprisingly, was enough. He is less a
man of words than deeds but the legend of Dhoni tells us what we have already been
told several times before – <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i>If you can keep your head when all about you are losing
theirs and blaming it on you,<br /></i><i>If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but
make allowance for their doubting too,<br /></i><i>If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat
those two impostors just the same,<br /></i><i>If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk
it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,<br /></i><i>And lose, and start again at your beginnings, and
never breathe a word about your loss,<br /></i><i>If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue or
walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,<br /></i><i>If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if
all men count with you, but none too much,<br /></i><i>If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty
seconds’ worth of distance run,<br /></i><i>Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!</i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">O Captain, My Captain. Thanks for the memories.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-35229500817761756302020-07-05T18:16:00.003+05:302022-05-29T07:16:47.997+05:30बोल के लब आज़ाद हैं तेरे <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="text-align: justify;">You do not always have deep disagreements
with good, old friends on something fundamental or existential. But when you
do, it makes you put your bum on a chair to spell out your thoughts. Not just </span><i style="text-align: justify;">for
the record</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> but because it also happens to be something that you have been
thinking about increasingly over the past 5 years. What lies at the heart of these
thoughts is what is going for the record here and has been duly summarised at
the very end in just two lines for your convenient reference, in case you want to save yourself from the tyranny of few minutes of peaceful self-expression.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(Why 5 years you ask? Random and unremarkable,
except perhaps for the fact that it happens to coincide with the first time <i>yours
truly</i> made a choice of life and aspirations that was based on a delicate balance
of ‘<i>what we have been taught or told by people and institutions’</i> and ‘<i>what
we have learnt</i> <i>through our own individual learnings and experiences’</i>,
and not merely the former as had been the case until then. But perhaps I digress.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Allow me to try to elaborate within
the limits of time, personal wisdom and above all, the discretion that this
exercise demands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The disagreement – a tangential
discussion on Swami Vivekananda’s speech at Chicago in the World Parliament of
Religions in 1893 – began with the assertions (all quoted verbatim only to avoid any dilution by translation) <i>‘BC maine
suna woh Chicago wala speech’</i>, <i>‘aisa kuch extraordinary nahi hai’,</i> which
was duly seconded by ‘<i>bring the hype down’ </i>by another good, old friend
in company. <i>‘International acknowledgement hai but aisa kuch nahi jaise
humein market kara gaya hai’</i> was the contention. The POV was that back then
there was no one <i>‘jo US jaake philosophy and religion pe baatein karta tha’ </i>and
<i>‘people were enamored’</i> by the fact that ‘<i>in a world where (aero)plane
invention was still some time away’, ‘an eastern philosopher’, ‘traveled in a
ship so far away’, ‘not (to) Europe but (to) America’. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Holding Vivekananda’s ideas against
contemporary philosophers, admittedly, far more worthy of adulation and following, like Nietzsche, the friend’s discontent was with the fact that <i>‘Indian people
have literally started taking him as a God’, ‘just like some Indians do with
Sachin Tendulkar, Rajnikant and all’ ‘just because he was the first to take it
to the West’. </i>The core point of<i> </i>contention<i>, </i>in case you have missed,
was also duly explained later with<i> - ‘we dont have many idols around, who broke the
barrier and shone at (the) world level. Whoever does we make him a God.’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now obviously there are a lot of
subjects worth extensive debate in that just another casual interaction between
20-somethings. But dwelling on them here would be as pointless and unproductive as blankly holding any one individual/opinion in this exercise as right or wrong. However, what reminds
me and makes me share <i>what I have been thinking about increasingly over the
last 5 years,</i> is the bitter denouncement of the element of (allegedly - exaggerated)
veneration of a person, whose ideas remain one of the most shining emblems of our culture, just because you <i>‘read his teachings’ </i>and arrived
at the conclusion that you<i> ‘didn’t find anything interesting other than to
control temptations of life like sex, money etc’ </i>(which BTW is also the
reason you feel <i>‘Osho makes more sense’</i>) like <i>’sex mat karo’</i>, <i>‘tamas
ko control karo’</i>, <i>‘mirror fenk do’.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This, in my humble opinion, is
what happens when a little intellectual masturbation by self-proclaimed liberals
and progressive individuals leads to a delusional sense of premature
enlightenment at best, and at its worst, violent expressions of misguided iconoclasm
that deeply affect our society today. Like I was constantly trying to assert during
our conversation, such things come with their deep seated and highly sophisticated
socio-political contexts and nuance which one must account for with the associated
benefit of hindsight that lies at our disposal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is the same even while critically
evaluating any person or ideology from history, for that matter. To elaborate my
POV, while it is absolutely alright (even necessary) as a 20-something to disagree
with Vivekananda’s views on the importance of <i>Brahmacharya</i> towards
achieving one’s goals in life OR to criticise elements of your culture that don’t
make sense to you as an individual, it is downright unjust to diminish someone’s
life’s work or teachings for carrying nothing remarkable except regurgitation
of <i>‘4000 saal pehli ki teachings’</i>, just because one of the many happened to
be a commitment to celibacy for self-actualisation that you fail to understand. To my mind, this is a gross
oversimplification, misinterpretation and shallow understanding of the ideas
which the spiritual leader stood and worked for in his entire short and
troubled existence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
You can discover and critique his
teachings or thoughts on neo-Vedanta on your own and it is not my intention AT
ALL – to either defend or espouse them here, or even to talk about the historical
relevance of his Chicago address. In fact, I simply can’t because I not only find
myself intellectually deficient due to the lack of knowledge and profound life
experiences in these domains, but also perhaps because I stand at the wrong stage of life’s
journey, so as to have had adequate time for any form of spiritual development. Perhaps unlike in the late 19th century, sadly those aren’t the tools and toils of youth today. But I cannot ignore how difficult (even impossible) it is for people, even as learned and informed as me and my friends, to be able
to observe and rationalise things with due context, reverence and, above all, the humility that a journey of self-actualisation asks for. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And I cannot ignore how convenient
it has become in this age of internet, social media and sensationalism to develop
and successfully deploy straw man arguments not just as a means to disagree and
misrepresent a culture, a history, an ethnicity, a nation, a religion, an institution,
a political party or an individual, but also use the same to stoke ideologies
that foment feelings of divide and unrest. And I find it painfully ironical when
the underlying subject itself is the primal and oldest human endeavour to further social
bonding and foster collective identities which are the source of our power as sentient,
intellectual, emotional beings in an unforgiving universe devoid of inherent
meaning (aka religion).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To summarise, while I applaud and
stand by all your rights to self determination as a means to self-actualisation - whether or not they happen to overlap with the much larger umbrella of our shared culture - I have also come to realise that it is equally important to call out the sharp edges
of derogatory assertions, oversimplification, misrepresentations and
misunderstandings that only serve to dilute complicated areas of human knowledge
and experience by cutting them down to just a few incorrect conclusions.<br />
<br />
It is
because it is these sharp edges, which when left unchecked, can gradually get machined into
lethally poisonous ideological daggers that carry the potential to rip apart the
very fabric of the society over which all of us have thrived and prospered for the last few millenia (at times, apparently, too ignorantly and arrogantly as well). A fabric
which has been stitched together over centuries, all the way from the gifted philosophers
who conceptualised its tenets OR the generations of courageous believers who helped preserve and improve them even against constant forces of aggression OR the selfless souls who endeavored to use it to make this world a better place in deeply racist, feudal, casteist, colonial times, right up to simple individuals like you and
me today who may choose to practice them in order to discover some meaning in our existence.<br />
<br />
OR as Nietzsche
would subscribe - after proclaiming '<i>God is dead' - </i>in our quest towards <i>Übermensch</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The later realisation that this discussion
had to transpire today exactly one day after Swami Vivekananda’s death
anniversary (which also happened to be a Sunday afternoon) was the cruel irony of
circumstances that brings me (and you) here. In other news, Kanye West marked 4<sup>th</sup>
of July with the declaration that he will be contesting the 2020 US presidential
elections. If an avant-garde rap artist with all his flaws, stands un-apologetically for his
questionable, albeit harmless and unique brand of self-expression, as a means
to discover and shape ones identity in a world where death is the only truth, who
are we if we cannot even admit what we believe?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">"उसूलों</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">पे</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">आंच</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">आये</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">तोह</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">टकराना</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">ज़रूरी</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">है</span>,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">जो</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">ज़िंदा</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">हो</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">तोह</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">ज़िंदा</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">नज़र</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">आना</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">ज़रूरी</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "nirmala ui" , sans-serif;">है"</span></i></div>
</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-83134701713098474472020-06-14T11:31:00.004+05:302021-09-12T23:02:59.567+05:30Left Right Left<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i style="text-align: justify;">“Nothing exists apart from atoms and empty space. Everything else is opinion.”</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I remember coming across this
ancient Greek wisdom some time in my undergrad years. Being as philosophically
loaded as it is, my mind would always refuse to accept the underlying cynicism
and generalisation. Trained in the scientific school of thought as most of us are (at least through the bulk of our formative years), we invariably
- albeit at times only subconsciously - grow to respect, love and prefer the
beauty of determinism and order in all walks of life. And while at one point or
another we may end up surrendering the joys of scientific pursuit to the more
brilliant of minds amongst us, it does not happen before we understand, accept
and start experiencing the universe as an objective reality governed by
infallible principles, laws and truths that help separate right from wrong. This
means opinions can only begin where the unflinching grasp of the truth ends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But life is more than just
science and math. In fact, as we break the shells of childhood, adolescence and
eventually teenage, and endeavour to discover the world on our own (beyond the
vestigial learnings accrued from the preceding generation), we also break past
the comfortable determinism of science and start venturing into the maddening
chaos of fields of knowledge such as sociology, economics, politics and
psychology. The scientific temper in us rebels at the realisation that in the
multivariate analysis of life, these complex subjects carry a much bigger
coefficient than science and math. This disappointment stems partly from the
fact that unlike science, these fields of practical knowledge are/can-never-be
correctly/exactly taught/simulated in any classroom environment (without significantly
diluting their objective essence), and partly from the sheer existential dread
from the realisation that in these areas of human experience, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
almost always lead to an incorrect over-simplification culminating in nihilistic
self-doubt and identity crisis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The universal lockdown of the
past 2 months happened to perfectly coincide with a transition phase in <i>yours truly's</i> professional life. Relieved vastly of the usual toils of work, I ended up
condemning my mind to immerse itself into the everyday developments across the
world, just like you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Back when I had first stumbled on
to the quote, I was what I would now describe as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">left liberal</i>, and a lazy one at that. Riding high on the youthful
exuberance of premature enlightenment, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right
wing</i> ideologies & institutions would always seem authoritative and
conservative to the extent of being dogmatic and regressive - like unnecessary relics of the
past. Examining these subjects and several socio-economic developments of the
times in isolation with a myopic world view, it would always seem fashionable
and at times heroic to consider oneself an iconoclastic renegade, at least in
thought and principle. This ideological inclination resulted from an absence of
consequences for a privileged dependent adult who was still learning and living
on his parent’s earnings, blissfully shielded against the direct ravages of the
society (and the world at large) by the guardianship of the government
institution of learning to which he belonged. Rebellion had not only seemed convenient
but also the right thing to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But as one eventually sheds these
temporary institutional asylums that foster collective identities (read ‘herd
mentalities’) and strives to carve one’s own individuality and place in the
world, one starts gaining cognizance of the much larger forces at play. Like a
young scientific mind that wakes up one fine day to the infinite vastness of
the universe, this is one of the most revealing and humbling experiences of
life. Learning to watch our own backs in a world with consequences attached to
every action forces us to descend from the comfortable intellectual &
moral high grounds and empathise with the ideologies and institutions that we
had once abhorred with misguided pride and prejudice. This happens because the cosy
controlled confines of college classrooms and corridors (please appreciate the delicate
alliteration) get swiftly replaced with the real world where nothing exists and
happens in isolation. Every event is embedded in a context which is part of an
infinite chain of causality running across ages, cultures and geography, too
complex to be comprehended in entirety by any single mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Given enough time like one enjoys
during <i>a professional transition in a global lockdown</i>, one gets to endeavour to
peel away the multiple layers of convoluted nuance attached to any
socio-economic development to try to unravel the elusive underlying ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truth’ - </i>constantly switching between the
ideological left and the right in attempts to rationalise both perspectives in
the process. Eventually, hours of aimless scrolling over endless news feeds on
social media force you to return to the timeless wisdom of the ancient Greeks- that
sentient intelligence evolved over millennia has helped us build a world that
is too complicated to be examined and governed by just one view or ideology.
Moreover, it would be pointless to force the other side to do so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is because in the
information age constantly fuelled by technological progress, subjects like
sociology, economics, politics and psychology have become such seamlessly
integrated with one another, that it is virtually impossible to make an argument
– ideologically left or right – in one without an implication or inherent
assumption in one or more of the other. In short, the biggest problems of the
21<sup>st</sup> century are so complicated that they demand a highly
sophisticated and conscientious approach towards solution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The latent problem is the vast intellectual
differential among the masses, all of whom now possess the ability to
communicate (read ‘indoctrinate’) at unprecedented scale and speed. This
knowledge gap is being exploited 24X7 by carefully, and at times unwittingly,
crafted social media bubbles – toxic and violent echo chambers of both the left
and the right and their respective ever expanding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">followers – </i>that <b><i>always</i></b> refuse to agree on anything under the sun.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As a result, everything is an
outrage or an outrage against an outrage or even an outrage over the lack of
outrage, over one thing after another, day in and day out with extremely
limited room for tolerant consideration towards constructive criticism. Those who even
attempt to bridge the gap are labelled hypocrites or deluded and are
mercilessly shamed or ostracised, until a small minority is forced to resort to
unscrupulous or even violent means to get their voices heard. Such
socio-political movements often culminate in a revolution that comes at the
cost of years of peaceful progress and resets the game all over again. The
degree and extent to which social media has normalised violence, hatred and death is a
shocking testimony to same. This doesn’t end up deciding who was right, it only
determines who will be <i>left</i> – to survive and eventually start playing the game
all over again. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">These violent delights
have violent ends.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To you, my truth will seem just like
an opinion, and vice versa. '<i>We do not necessarily need to agree and arrive at a
consensus, so long as we agree on the ground rules on how we would disagree
without a consensus.'</i> Sadly, this fundamental tenet of progressive democracy is easily lost in the complicated,
fast paced, noisy and high stake socio-political discourse of our times, where vested
interests and extremist ideologies keep running over the bitter truth until it
looks familiar and acceptable. Perhaps like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Neo</i>
from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Matrix</i>, more of us need to
be unplugged and awakened to the power of causality and consequences in the
real world. Else the anomalous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Agent Smiths</i>
among us and their malicious codes will continue to wreak havoc and revel in
the chaos by constantly playing both sides of the table.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Or we can choose to go back to the blue pill of a comfortable work
life in a metro city and simply forget all this even exists, except for that occasional small talk and WhattsApp forward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWt0baQtn6Z6Q_aiWOUKVYiuknccdeaaseVPSqUsntZzghz9_oro2DVNXO6ssD6iWwSrLeOMI-wtOVaAhzM6QSBFEadlsc0u0iCGuDHxEoT-Jhq2aDz34RHEIPDTwhvIEs5LlsSoD2jnk/s1600/Pills.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="1600" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWt0baQtn6Z6Q_aiWOUKVYiuknccdeaaseVPSqUsntZzghz9_oro2DVNXO6ssD6iWwSrLeOMI-wtOVaAhzM6QSBFEadlsc0u0iCGuDHxEoT-Jhq2aDz34RHEIPDTwhvIEs5LlsSoD2jnk/s320/Pills.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Left or right, the problem – as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Architect</i> explains in the movie with
delightful verbosity – is choice.</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-26885729509915924052020-04-21T21:46:00.002+05:302022-05-29T07:16:51.959+05:30ख़्याल - V<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
ख्यालों का मिलना ज़रूरी है, वरना-<br />
यूँ ही कहाँ कोई किसी के काम आया है<br />
कुछ न कुछ तो मजबूरी रही होगी,<br />
अरसों बाद जो उनका पैग़ाम आया है<br />
<br />
खुदाई भी कम पड़ी होगी, शायद-<br />
मस्जिद के बाद जो अस्पताल आया है<br />
मत पूछो उससे जुस्तजू की वजह,<br />
नादाँ दिल को अभी ही तो प्यार आया है.<br />
<br />
शब् ने चिरागों को कर दी इंतिबाह,<br />
उसने चेहरे से आज पर्दा हटाया है.<br />
कर लिया हमने खुदको उसके काबिल,<br />
यहाँ मैं नहीं आज कोई और आया है.<br />
<br />
बचत नहीं होती उसूलों की यहां,<br />
सस्ते हैं ईमान, मेहेंगा किराया है<br />
पकड़ नहीं पाता इस शहर की रफ़्तार,<br />
आज फिर गांव ने वापस बुलाया है.<br />
<br />
बड़े हो गए शायद हम भी काबिल,<br />
याद नहीं माँ को कब गुस्सा दिलाया है.<br />
कैसे करूँ वक़्त से जवानी का सौदा?<br />
पिछली बाज़ी में ही तो बचपन गवाया है.<br />
<br />
जाना नहीं कहीं फिर भी कर लो फैसला,<br />
के क्या है अपना और क्या पराया है.<br />
मिलना, न-मिलना - दोनों मुकद्दर होगा,<br />
देखते हैं सब खो कर के क्या पाया है.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
बात होती रहे, यही बात हुई थी सबकी,</div>
<div>
क्या मैं ही हूँ जिसने वादा निभाया है?</div>
<div>
छोड़ दो मुझे मेरे हाल पे अब,</div>
<div>
बड़ी देर बाद ये कश फिर हाथ आया है...</div>
</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-17440514969872017572020-04-08T12:23:00.000+05:302020-06-07T13:07:14.984+05:30Decade Ends<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Hello friend.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“<i>Hello friend</i>”? That sounds lame. Is it the misfit “Hello” for an
online journal? Or the second word, the simplest yet most commonly misunderstood
relationship of our times? Besides the fact that it is a <i>bow-to-the-protagonist-of-a-show-that-recently-became-my-2<sup>nd</sup>-favourite-of-all-time</i>
disguised as a lousy conversation starter, it doesn’t matter. What matters is
the fact that this is essentially a new year’s post coming 100 days late.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The quintessential epiphany had happened
at that near inescapable moment, when the creature of habit in you makes an
inadvertent mistake while writing the date for the very first time after that much
awaited and widely celebrated stroke of midnight. This time when I repeated the
customary error though, I couldn’t merely scribble over the last digit of the
year. Scribbling over the tens digit as well, I consciously accepted the
fact that it was also the end of a decade. Given the unrelenting grasp of time
on existence, this occasion with its profundity and human propensity for the
theatrical - retrospection was inevitable. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is me recounting that moment
100 days later during a nationwide lockdown amidst a highly contagious global
pandemic that has already infected more than 1.3 million people across 170
countries, claiming over 70,000 lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What makes me recount that
insignificant moment was the insignificant realisation that with transmission
to patient zero traced back to November 2019, the scourge that has gripped
humanity now seems as if nature had suddenly decided to pull up the last act of
the past decade. In an unexpected anti-climax enacted at the very dusk of 2019,
amidst countless overlapping food webs spanning ecosystems, nature
had somehow devised an insidious yet ingenious method of doing perhaps the only
thing it ever does - restore balance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Quite ironically, this was done
by pitting the smallest conceivable organism, something that would find a place
at the very bottom of the evolutionary tree (something whose existence begs
reconsideration of the very concept of existence) against the species that
resides at the very top, in an evil reproduction of the classic David vs
Goliath. OR it is just the Chinese coming up with their own brand of bio-economic
colonialism because oil is just so 20<sup>th</sup> century now. Either way, one
couldn’t have imagined a better act of restoration of balance even if this was
a <i>Black Mirror</i> episode with a dark twist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As a result, perhaps for the only
time in eternity, ALL of humanity has been simultaneously pushed to mental and
emotional resonance in a battle against one common enemy, a diabolical by
product of our own indiscretions. The only mercy is the fact that humans are
the only organisms in nature capable of identifying, uniting and repelling an
existential threat. To be fair, it is more than enough of an unfair advantage.
Even after this devastating ‘check’, the universe has ensured that the game
will go on. Or has it? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Intelligent consciousness is the unaccountable variable. With 7.5 billion (and counting) members of a
technological civilisation equipped with the ability to communicate at almost any
scale and speed, imagine 7.5 billion choices being made every moment of every
day of every year of existence. Judging by empirical evidence one unwittingly comes
across on various media platforms these days, a sizeable proportion of those
choices cannot be deemed intelligent by any stretch of imagination. This is not
only an unsettling realisation of our mortality, but also of the subtle truth
that far from priding ourselves in being the ultimate product of creation arrogant
enough to ‘<i>save the earth’</i>, with all
our arts and sciences developed and honed over millennia, humans still amount
to one random variable in the enormous equation of existence – one that can be
removed any time in a more dramatic and audacious act of restoration of
balance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What this mischievously well
timed, seemingly seminal act of the universe has also done is pushed the pause
button to a massive machinery that was never designed for a maintenance halt. With our profit
margins and working capital and credit cards and bad loans, we have literally
mortgaged our present to the future, through each other. But when this machine
starts grinding towards a halt and the user manual has nothing to say, those with
power finally realise that they have screwed up yet again. With all our
politics, religion, morality and technology, intellectual social animals are
forced to isolate themselves for days on end, because their survival depends on
defeating an invisible enemy that can make them turn against each other in a
merciless act of self-destruction, both knowingly and otherwise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Those dwelling at the fringes, the
ones who are forced to count on the ball to keep rolling, remain at the mercy
of the system itself- tragic victims of economics, the spare change of capitalism.
The remaining lot - the docile, the ever obedient, the <i>middle children of history</i>, ones holding on with the slightest control,
those privileged enough to be able to write about it on a high speed internet connection amidst a nationwide lockdown in<i> essentially-a-new-year’s-post-which-was-100-days-late
</i>- can only wait for those in power to <i>shepherd
the weak through the valley of darkness</i>.<br />
<br />
Noticeably, in our desperate pause, somewhere between the maddening cacophony of all the surplus noise and despair, in these lonely moments of inevitable retrospection, we
have managed to give ourselves enough time to realise the depth of shit we have
driven ourselves into. Perhaps unlike any of our powerful ancestors, we are
the only civilisation fortunate enough to get such a polite collective reminder at
the pinnacle of its <a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2020/04/decade-ends.html" target="_blank"><i>decadence</i></a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvA4SjE_KGfNf1dle8NbDDuWqCU0E4vG1KyNSOlZK2NgDZjjo82H0uvpcK0lgSj_ABdanCbjWM_02lp8r2jLYsGC0TwMhJMSVvvBzpX-zXp0bC7Z1IYcqMHhKBHAFC5I9x2ZciYMzIS9A/s1600/Steve+Jobs+-+F+Society.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvA4SjE_KGfNf1dle8NbDDuWqCU0E4vG1KyNSOlZK2NgDZjjo82H0uvpcK0lgSj_ABdanCbjWM_02lp8r2jLYsGC0TwMhJMSVvvBzpX-zXp0bC7Z1IYcqMHhKBHAFC5I9x2ZciYMzIS9A/s400/Steve+Jobs+-+F+Society.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Let's hope we remember.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"I've seen enough people who die for
an idea. I don't believe in heroism; I know it's easy and I've learnt it can be
murderous. There's no question of heroism in all this. That's an idea which may
make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is — common
decency."</span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Albert
Camus (The Plague)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Goodbye, friend.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-13457983812365143942019-09-30T20:55:00.004+05:302019-09-30T20:57:11.722+05:30The Gym<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
What is 'the gym'?</div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
Some of the smartest apes of the planet suddenly became so smart that they developed the ability to build things to make their lives easy.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
But over time their lives became SO easy by the machines they had built, that they now had to build machines designed specifically to make their lives hard, so that they can be healthy.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">
We call these machines "the gym". And if that isn't trippy, I don't know what is.</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-11234118147453666782019-09-29T19:12:00.004+05:302023-04-07T14:02:08.921+05:30My Experiments with Work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Denial</b></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me start by admitting I never <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> aspired to become a manager, much
less a <i>Supply Chain Manager</i>. To this day, my parents cannot understand how I
can plan, (help) produce and deliver more than 1000 tonnes of fast moving consumer
goods from factories to warehouses across India every month, but can still not pack my own suitcase convincingly
(actually I can – just not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">convincingly</i>).
Simply put, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">production and distribution
planning</i> was never in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">scheme of
things</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">But here we all are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Anger</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">As it is with most problems that
beset me at work, this was an optimal solution. An acceptable product of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power
of will, 5% pleasure and 50% pain, with no real reason to remember the name</i>
(yet). And as optimal solutions and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Rolling Stones</i> go – you don’t always get what you want, just what you need.
That is perhaps the most under-appreciated, indigestible piece of truth that
us, over-privileged, inexperienced, pseudo-intellectual millennials with a
self-destructive sense of entitlement, understand only when it becomes
impossible to ignore. This happens, not in the moment you realise that your
current predicament is a direct consequence of a near point-less education
system built for/by a society that values very specific <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hacks,</i> which ultimately have little or no relevance in the world beyond the guardianship
of its various institutions. It happens when you eventually fall into perfect resonance
with this reality, instead of eternally hoping for an escape that doesn’t
exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Depression</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">Such experiences are born from an
initial lack of belongingness. When armchair philosophers, self-styled liberals
and rebels like us, start working for any of the million private corporate
establishments masquerading as inter-subjective realities with an ideology
(read vision and mission), and get to start discovering first-hand the effects
of capitalism on humanity. Closely behind religion, the virtues of this second
biggest social experiment in the history of civilisation, are exceeded (and
eventually completely clouded) by the combined wrath of seven deadly sins it
unleashes upon its unwitting subjects. The progressive counter culture of years
of hippy hostel life suddenly gives way to a resentful regime where caffeine
and adrenaline power you through numerous social charades of the weekdays,
while nicotine, alcohol and some choicest Schedule I narcotics patiently wait
to carry you across the existential crises of weekends. This is perhaps the
most consistent behaviour pattern across 1<sup>st</sup> generation urban
millennial workforce, who have slowly discovered that there are no answers and that
everyone is navigating through the same mysteries with different points of
view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Bargain</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">Financial independence is the deal
with the devil that we prepare for our entire lives. It is an oft dramatic
consequence of a series of conscious choices - each with a different balance
between mind and heart – which constitute the opening acts of our tryst with
adulthood, the first fruit of our capitalistic endeavours. Its enormous
bounties and distractions serve as perfect anaesthetics to the pangs of nihilistic
realisations, but in process, start sowing the seeds of acceptance and complacency
that eventually grow into our identity. In time, as the greenback boogie picks
tempo, these anaesthetics become a steady prescription against the malaise of
dreams and aspirations. Few more years down the line, the prescription becomes
the diet and the red pills get flushed down the drain as integration with the matrix
mainframe is now complete.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Acceptance</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Humanity may be overrated but its
ability to adapt and keep growing out of its own follies isn’t – like an
organism constantly evolving to an increasingly hostile environment. After
years, even decades, of internal and external conflicts, we realise it is easier
to accept some things than to keep struggling against them. The only difference
is how gracefully one can accomplish this without compromising our distinctive
individuality. Most of us wear faces to help us get through this eternal
pendulum swing between relapse and recovery, telling each other the same lies,
over and over again. The few who don’t, just haven’t found one that fits them
yet. </span><i style="font-size: 9pt;">All in all it’s just a-nother brick
in the wall.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">Workplace is as real as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real world </i>that people used to talk about
in hushed tones<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> can get. To an
observer so inclined, it is an exciting social experiment that one gets to
participate in, each day - a dark, delectable melting pot of people with divergent
principles, peeves and personalities, all at different stages of corporate
evolution. It has the capacity to take you through the entire emotional
spectrum on a daily basis, and in process lend you a deeper understanding of
who you really are. It teaches us the importance of emotional and social
intelligence – abstract concepts which should but can never be a part of organised education.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It teaches us about consequences- of
having to live with the smallest of choices and decisions, most of which seem
deceptively inconsequential and low-stake at first sight. In this way, it constitutes the
most dramatic part of our life long journey to self-discovery, that most of us
misread as a mere 9 to 5.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">But that’s only because the matrix
is designed to keep you distracted long enough from asking the questions that
really matter:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">“Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those
without. Beneath our poised appearance, the truth is, we are completely out of
control. You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real
truth - Causality. There is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our
only hope, our only peace, is to understand it, to understand the why. “Why” is
what separates us from them, you from me. “Why” is the only real source of
power. Without it, you are powerless.”</span></i></div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-80225280714160384962019-04-26T22:49:00.008+05:302023-04-07T14:03:08.514+05:30To Mary Jane<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">I do not
know how you’d feel about me being on you and talking to you about us in public.
But I know you would understand, just like all times.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To say that
I have had the pleasure of your company for the better part of my 20s would be
neither precise nor just. And considering you already know how emotionally
malleable I can be on occasions, I can comfortably say something as insipidly
romantic as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘our companionship has been
one for the ages, my love’</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I wish I
could start by talking about our very first acquaintance. But you know I’m easily
embarrassed by that. To think I met you after being hammered dead by none other
than the old <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duke of McDowells</i> on a
helpless night in my third year hostel! In my defense, it wasn’t even a fair
introduction. That other guy who knew you didn’t even tell me your name! And in
that dress you looked like a partially annoyed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lady Nicotine</i>. Yeah, right - what did I know? I was already a lost
cause for that night. It was only once I woke up after losing half of the
following day, did the guy tell me that it was actually you the previous night.
My bad. But bless that guy- I was convinced I wanted to know more about you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It was the
other sophomore who gave me a proper introduction with you. Together, we created
our own social circle, the fabric of which was stitched together by hemp. I must
say it was pretty unique. Actually, for some reason it always has been. But back
in those days, our gatherings used to be few and planned based on occasions. (Yeah
I know – to think there was a time I needed an occasion to be with you!) This
occasional rarity used to make them joint sessions very special. It is not by mere
chance that those first encounters of ours are the most memorable of all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your
influence was some sweet sorcery <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Señorita</i>.
How you would ease yourself into our surroundings has always been your most
magical quality. It didn’t take long for us to realize it was only one among
many of your super powers - like how effortlessly you could make everything
better. Our shared sense of humor was probably what first got me interested.
Remember how almost anything could make us laugh out loud? LOL it still does.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And boy
could you talk! Conversations with you have been everything from naively
delightful to surprisingly profound, from heart breakingly true to mind
numbingly dark. Your company would make me feel like a poet, a scientist, a
philosopher and a mathematician- all at once. The hopeless romantic in me would
say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘you make me want to be at all times
how I am when I am with you</i>’. But I’ve never really let him talk much, have
I?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And then time
moved on. Our company changed. From being one among many boys in a hostel for
engineering students in North India, I graduated to become one among many boys in a hostel for management students in West India. Now I know you’ve had your
complains about my hopelessly reductive life choices. But hey, I’ve always
managed to convince the lunatic in my head to prioritize the continuity of our
company over fleeting human motivations. Poor excuse – I know. My bad again.
For a change, allow me to change the mood for you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mademoiselle</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It was in
the company of 2 fellow indulgers in the 9<sup>th</sup> floor of a supremely
windy and quiet hostel balcony that I realized that all my experiences till
date had only been with the light side of your force, figuratively speaking.
Until then, I had only heard wild tales of the dark side of this force. But
this time, I was determined and prepared not to screw up. This time, we met
like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two lost souls swimming in a fish
bowl, year after year</i>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Over the next year and a half, we started meeting virtually every day. It was in this time that the ludicrous uninitiated apprentice in me mastered the dark art of rolling Js. If the ‘</span><i style="font-size: 13.3333px;">age of the #’</i><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> just gone by was an era of ignorant restraint, the 18 months of green-leafy delight to follow was the fucking renaissance. We started going out on long trips, almost every time I wanted to. And just when I thought I’d caught up to all your charms, I was swayed yet again by the powerfully persuasive cocktail of you and music. It was seduction for the ears and they wouldn’t get enough. From </span><i style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Steven Wilson</i><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> to </span><i style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Shamoon Ismail</i><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Bonobo</i><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> to </span><i style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Glass Animals,</i><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> I have only you to thank for humanizing us savages by bringing some culture to our group.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our circle
expanded till it became a family – the joint family. It was amusing- the number
of people who wanted to get to know you. We must have sat with at least 20 first-time
enthusiasts over as many months. Most of them would turn out to be lifelong
devotees but it was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">our</b> chemistry
that exploded by the day. Cheesy - I know - just like the countless pizzas we’ve
devoured. Which reminds me- food continues to be just another prop for you to
work your mystical magic. From making maid-cooked food far less sufferable, to
making the richest tiramisus even more luscious than Scarlett Johansson in a
red dress, I have only you to thank <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mary
Jane</i>. And the Lord knows I ain’t lying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">By this
time, we had been spending so much time together, I knew I had to take our
relationship to the next level. Swearing by the bong in our possession, we moved
in together and you introduced me to facets of yours I could never imagine,
despite having known you for almost 3 years. Neatly encapsulated within the
clamor and chaos of a world that is never enough for anyone, ours was an
alternate reality full of carefree happiness and curious content. It is this
uncomplicated existence that a-man has always admired the most about you and
which continues to be the bedrock of our companionship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As it is
always with you – time flew by and life made a slave out of the part of me that
has always refused to rebel against the choices us humans are made to feel are
our own. But the distractions of the blue pill soon wore off and I relapsed back
into the red pill as soon as I could. Time forged a reunion and the paths of
the two sophomores intertwined once again. From that first joint to the four
hundred and twenty first, unforgiving life had somehow come a poetic full
circle. It was amusing - how you had preserved in both of us the parts that
still recognized each other despite the whirlwinds of two years of youthful
realizations fueled by our respective exploits outside <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Matrix.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The universe
continues to wear us all, recycling tiny bits of its incomprehensibly mighty
self through our existence- silently mocking at our apish endeavors. I often wonder
where you and I are headed. Whether all this is just one of countless acts of an
eternal drama from the theatre of the absurd or just a wild experience <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that will eventually be a memory of a time
that I tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter… </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I don’t
know. </span>I don’t think that is something I’m meant to know. I am too poorly
made to answer my own questions. But sitting by another windy window on a
Friday evening, I like to grapple with them, if I have you by my side. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You met me at a very strange time in my life
MJ</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So where
was I…</span></div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-84185777485305017132019-03-29T20:50:00.000+05:302019-04-21T12:15:25.537+05:30Moh Maya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is one question we’ve all
thought about, albeit through different lenses and to varying extents. It is a knowledge gap that lies at
the heart of science, at war with the very laws upon which it rests, questioning
its very existence! Sort of like an embarrassing secret. In some trains of
thought that pass through this particular station, it may also be the holy
grail to existentialists. For a definitive ‘how’ would help tackle the even
more mammoth ‘why’, a pain that belongs to philosophy – a place where science need
not venture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How did the universe come to be? </b><br />
Hmm.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Our universe is incomprehensibly
complex. Can we distill it down to elementary essentials?<br />
Yes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Quite evidently, the universe consists
of a lot of… stuff. Stars, planets, and all things bright and beautiful. All of
this comprises of finite number of elements which were forged in the hearts of
countless super massive stars from nothing but hydrogen (the simplest combination
of the two most fundamental sub-atomic particles - electron and proton) and then
sprayed all over space when those stars imploded and died (yes, we are all star dusts). Thus, we can generalize the first ingredient and call
it mass.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Then we <i>see </i>a lot of energy – the sun for instance, which not just gives
warmth and light but also nourishes plants and animals which power our vehicles
and industries, millions of years after they die and decay. So energy becomes
the second ingredient. Now all we need is an arena for all this mass and energy
to play out their billion year dance of evolution. This cosmic arena is space -
the final ingredient of our universe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, the most famous
scientist of all time told us that mass and energy aren’t really different entities
but 2 different sides of the same coin. Most of you would also be familiar with
the relation between these two ingredients – the most famous equation in all of
science.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So, as it turns out, all we need
is energy and space. This means our question simplifies to ‘how did space and
energy come to be’? As Axl Rose famously sang – <i>Where do we go now?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Science which has brought us this
far also tells us that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Certainly, so
much of it cannot just pop out of <i>nowhere.
</i>However,<i> </i>this apparent vice of
science becomes a virtue if we evoke a concept even yours truly does not understand
– negative energy. This implies that at the <i>moment
of creation, </i>when all the energy in our universe came to be, an equal
amount of negative energy was also created. This is sort of like having to
create a mountain- you can do it by just digging a lot of earth and piling it
all up in one giant heap. But while you have created a mountain, you’ve also
dug up a hole - this is negative energy, simplified.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But where is all this <i>negative energy? </i>The answer is it is all
around us, in all of space. But how can it be? The second most famous scientist
of all time taught us that every
object with mass attracts every other object with mass with a force we call
gravity. This gravitational force makes our universe one giant storehouse of gravitational
potential energy. Few of you would be able to recall the formula from 11<sup>th</sup>
grade:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1kc10mCilOBlHnApmzYq3SB3EPXnv6476HCgVmye-7M7laIJuiYYXuHGjZEuWsubQxKtLPN73PF9U9OqAbTn1_HW_UVKnVh_ocvG8BtN5C_IFM4FROT7z4pzxPE_i11vRgvQ0Y-Q9eE/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="59" data-original-width="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1kc10mCilOBlHnApmzYq3SB3EPXnv6476HCgVmye-7M7laIJuiYYXuHGjZEuWsubQxKtLPN73PF9U9OqAbTn1_HW_UVKnVh_ocvG8BtN5C_IFM4FROT7z4pzxPE_i11vRgvQ0Y-Q9eE/s1600/Capture.PNG" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
That minus sign solves the
negative energy conundrum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">And what about space? Edwin
Hubble, sometime in early 20<sup>th</sup> century, saw through his telescope that
galaxies weren’t just moving away from one another, but doing so at an ever
increasing pace. This means if we were to rewind the cosmic film, they must have
been closer together at some time in the past. The cosmic rewind takes us to this
moment where everything that we see today was smaller than the smallest thing
we can imagine. This is the big bang – the moment of creation that has had
scientists and believers slam their heads and tales for millennia. At this
point, we enter the quantum realm (a place even Einstein and Newton dread to tread but which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hank Pym</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Scott Lang </i>visit for occasional adventures). </span><br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">The rules of this quantum realm are some of the strangest but most fascinating areas
of science as we know it. Here, particles can not just be at two places at the
same time but also (seem to) appear (or disappear) out of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i>. Is It possible all the mass in the universe just came out
of nothing at this quantum moment of creation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Rewinding the cosmic
film by 14 billion years also means we reach the beginning of time as we know
it. This makes answering ‘what caused mass to pop out of nothing’ extremely
tricky. Causation as we know it implies something at one point of time resulting
in something else at another time in the future, as if they were two events on a linear
timeline. So how do we answer what comes before the beginning of this timeline? To quote Hawkings - <i>"We have found something that doesn't have a cause because there was no time for a cause to exist in"</i>.</span><br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So <i>kurzgesagt</i>, this is the
best prevalent understanding of how the universe (i.e. the energy and space that
makes all of it) came to be. After 14 billion years of awe-inspiring
companionship, this is where physics seems to have given up on us today. But don’t worry, people
driven infinitely more by this curiosity than mere mortals like you and me,
haven’t given up yet. This means you and I get to surrender our cosmic inquiry
and get back to partying another weekend.<br />
<br />
Happy?</div>
</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-71034588760484702092018-07-14T11:06:00.004+05:302023-04-07T14:09:14.152+05:30Nothing Really<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you'd ever have cared enough and scrolled down this dumpster I consider "my blog", you'd have found (among other things):</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ol>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-last-airbender.html" target="_blank">Admiration for childhood idols</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2017/02/vagabonds-of-punterland-ii.html" target="_blank">Disguised nostalgia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/11/we-do-need-some-education.html" target="_blank">Sheer cynicism </a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2012/06/classification-of-female-spirit.html" target="_blank">Early attempt at cheap fame (we WERE naive back then)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/08/iv.html" target="_blank">Hopeless attempt at Urdu poetry</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/03/people-never-change.html" target="_blank">Hangover of a TV series I'd just finished</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2013/09/facism_7077.html" target="_blank">Anger</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-other-girl.html" target="_blank">A true story</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-principles-of-pursuit.html" target="_blank">A one-dimensional anatomy of love</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2015/02/this-too-shall-pass.html" target="_blank">Self consolation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2017/04/thats-life.html" target="_blank">Brush with nihilism</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2016/06/to-be-or-not-to-be.html" target="_blank">Some serious overthinking</a></li>
<li><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-beginning.html" target="_blank">and just plain shite!</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A blog that was started exactly six years ago by two Nobodys, who were too high one night on an embarrassing concoction of three parts whimsy and one part misguided literary-vainglory, today has 16k hits at an unremarkable-but-noticeable 7 page views per day. The number means literally nothing in this age of virality. But for a web page that bears a name barely designed for recall, and which has virtually nothing pointing to itself in the infinity of cyber space, I often wonder what brings you - the reader - here. Being driven to my office in the rear seat of an Uber on a lousy Monday morning, the obvious next question was the quintessential "why"- why were they written in the first place?<br />
<br />
Scrolling down my posts over the past 6 years I saw a list like you see it on top. Although the actual titles aren't half as self explanatory, I could - in the ever so magical experience of retrospective wisdom - see them for what they truly were. And I realized this- despite all the loved ones and closest of relationships one might have, there are <i>things</i> which perhaps no one can truly understand, but one's own future self- a person that doesn't even exist when those thoughts first come to amuse, haunt, annoy or delude you, but a person that slowly but surely emerges out of them. That is because theoretically speaking, anyone else's understanding of our mental state would be defined and limited by two factors-</div>
<ol>
<li>your own understanding of that emotion or state of mind at that point of time, and</li>
<li>the efficacy of any language as a tool to communicate such a complicated emotion or realization to another individual</li>
</ol>
<div>
There are clear inefficiencies here. Which is why such emotional states are so fleeting in nature- they evaporate before they can be thoughtfully (and at times painfully) distilled into a realization or an understanding. That is essentially all of adolescence- a lot of feeling with little understanding of what anything actually means. Perhaps that is all of life itself- a constant mismatch between what we feel and when we actually become able enough to comprehend what it truly means. And hence, a constant attachment to the past, for it always feels <i>clearer</i>/<i>simpler </i>than the present, which in turn will make more sense some time in the future.<br />
<br />
Or maybe it means nothing really. Perhaps, as a species we should spend more time understanding ourselves than anything else in the universe. Or maybe the best of us knew this and accepted the futility of such an endeavor or the sheer existential horror that it would bring. So we created a world and a society that could keep us distracted enough to remain sane.<br />
<br />
Why should this blog be any different?</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-63428601595947804262018-03-14T21:29:00.000+05:302018-03-21T15:50:09.965+05:30To Infinity and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="text-align: justify;">It was in an utterly unremarkable
moment that a good friend handed over to me, a petite book in our high school
library. The awkward smile of the author was equally unremarkable, as were the
large specs that the person had put-on in the photograph on its front cover. What
was written on the cover though was interesting enough to spark the curiosity
of a 15 year old. Those were words he would stumble across on the Discovery or
the National Geographic channel, once in a while when neither <i>Buzz Lightyear</i> nor cricket was on TV-</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-0y075J8XrTvHp7oN_ldDWNdnniiSevMgCYUYrp55mzVmbbW5nUfUdqMGJWbzaEjM4xtnlfe_Qy1zuJbmWT2MezwZsSVq3ClLfGyZw7-FV5nkEw5OeFJmWwqKCPtN6mx6QMYluyXt2oc/s1600/brief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="281" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-0y075J8XrTvHp7oN_ldDWNdnniiSevMgCYUYrp55mzVmbbW5nUfUdqMGJWbzaEjM4xtnlfe_Qy1zuJbmWT2MezwZsSVq3ClLfGyZw7-FV5nkEw5OeFJmWwqKCPtN6mx6QMYluyXt2oc/s320/brief.jpg" width="189" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“From the big bang to black holes”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I barely knew anything about the
book or its legendary author. I did not understand much of it back then and years
down the line today, I do not understand why it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the-most-widely-owned-but-unread</i> book of all times (shouldn’t the
Bible deserve that honor?).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Despite Mr Hawkings' best efforts
to make the daunting science of it palatable for the layman (by not including a
single equation, except for the famous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E=mc<sup>2</sup></i>), I was too young to understand<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> A
Brief History of Time</i>. But intelligently strewn between a gamut of scientific
jargon and abstruse concepts, were some truly fascinating ideas!
It was about the most genuine of all human curiosities-<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Where did the universe come from?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Why is it the way it is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What is time?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I still think those are the most
important (and uncomfortable) questions before mankind. Dabbling across the treacherous
frontiers of science and philosophy, they come to all of us at one time or the
other- in moments of profound existential despair or times of drug addled thoughtful
inquiry. It is for this reason that I found myself going back to the book over
and over again. I am sure I still do not understand bits of it. But I do realize
what it is about and why it is important. Along with the likes of Feynman and
Sagan, Hawking was among the first members of the scientific community who had endeavored
to extend scientific discourse from classrooms to drawing rooms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
He may not have been able to
produce testable unification of physics, but in this regard Stephen Hawking did
succeed. The sheer number of people talking about him today is evidence of the
same. It was unfair- the cards he was dealt by life. The way he played with
them though, was nothing short of an inspiration- opting to battle the universe
that crippled him for life, by unraveling its deepest, darkest pockets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And that is the man’s legacy, if
not anything else.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2e2JLSu_d5U88DW8t0KLEoFSGjHSGapWfgAM5kPR1W0I8mLGd2FwpvZyhw5C_RSmoclT1nhyphenhyphenIea6JSwGCkB0EWCt0ahXuQ9974MKj4Y0CwMRYs7C33mhIE9qUhIiQVRSY_bZGhNdsyM/s1600/363982.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="700" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2e2JLSu_d5U88DW8t0KLEoFSGjHSGapWfgAM5kPR1W0I8mLGd2FwpvZyhw5C_RSmoclT1nhyphenhyphenIea6JSwGCkB0EWCt0ahXuQ9974MKj4Y0CwMRYs7C33mhIE9qUhIiQVRSY_bZGhNdsyM/s320/363982.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Remnants of my 15 year old self hope
you’ve just begun your journey to infinity and beyond.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bon voyage!</div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-72061270165524954592017-09-16T11:45:00.001+05:302020-04-13T11:39:47.951+05:30Conscientia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It begins in the morning,<br />
and never leaves you alone.<br />
<br />
The lips, they try to hide,<br />
before the eyes give it away.<br />
But they try anyway.<br />
<i>(Just between you and me- I know.)</i><br />
<br />
The smile, contrived, is a stretch.<br />
Here and there, everywhere,<br />
a rehearsal.<br />
<i>All the world's a stage.</i><br />
You think- is this what <i>he</i> meant?<br />
<i>(Between you and me, I know.)</i><br />
<br />
The faces, calculative.<br />
Words- measured, misunderstood.<br />
Pride, envy, lust-<br />
four sins too less.<br />
Needless.<br />
<i>(Between you and me, I know.)</i><br />
<br />
The concern, feigned.<br />
Unnecessary, no?<br />
No.<br />
For we be civilized.<br />
See, we lied.<br />
<i>(Just between you and me, I know.)</i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
The presumptuous shenanigans.<br />
Stories, the lot of them.<br />
Then pretending they believe.<br />
He, hers.<br />
She, his.<br />
<i>(Between you and me, I know.)</i><br />
<br />
The little tricks they play,<br />
learning from one another, growing up,<br />
thinking it's magic.<br />
What is amusing isn't the fact<br />
that they think it is being clever.<br />
It is that they think it works.<br />
<br />
But we don't talk about this-<br />
the elephant in the room-<br />
with <i>them</i>.<br />
For that is how we fit in, isn't it?<br />
<i>(Just between you and me- I know.)</i><br />
<br />
Why curse the elephant though,<br />
when it is really about us?<br />
<br />
And so once I chose,<br />
to not dance and closed my eyes instead,<br />
to pay attention to the music.<br />
But there wasn't any!<br />
<br />
Asleep or awake,<br />
between you and me,<br />
I was alone.</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-58642110296285464102017-06-04T10:45:00.002+05:302021-10-13T21:23:19.227+05:30Us and Them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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</xml><![endif]-->In one of several of our free
days in B-school life, a couple of stoned heads ended up talking about the
overwhelming sentiment of nationalism that had immersed the entire country ever
since the BJP government had risen to power in the most spectacular fashion
amidst nationwide fanfare and skepticism alike. We probably got a little too
carried away with the train of thought as we ended up making an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSj0ZlNm96s" target="_blank">amateur podcast</a>
that day. The not-so-subtle subject of this mostly embarrassing attempt was '<i>would
you die for your country</i>'?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Couple of months down the line I
found myself discussing a similar subject with another friend. It started when
I received the following WhattsApp forwards in response to an article I'd
shared about Chinese aggression along border areas-<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE3yepBE9xj6c0V5W9MfjlGHmwZOhgJBOlKiFcUkd37c2prCBu-AWWYgeLM7r6iskO7vRIzjEQKfNFpA-207jSmnUGJfzZnBt2m6rSxI0K7G-f_bkt3cmwqbkQzIV-uxFYTkUAOadzzg8/s1600/Upload.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="901" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE3yepBE9xj6c0V5W9MfjlGHmwZOhgJBOlKiFcUkd37c2prCBu-AWWYgeLM7r6iskO7vRIzjEQKfNFpA-207jSmnUGJfzZnBt2m6rSxI0K7G-f_bkt3cmwqbkQzIV-uxFYTkUAOadzzg8/s320/Upload.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Underlying cynicism aside, the
friend felt strongly about a border-less world, a universal family so to speak.
As compelling as it may sound, I reckoned it was little more than utopia,
which I tried to justify in the string of messages that followed. The
underlying question- to put it a lot more subtly- was '<i>would it be possible for
humankind to thrive in a border-less world'</i>? Is it possible for us to shatter
the smoke screens that the so called evil governments across the world have
pulled over our eyes, dissolve borders that keep men from men, forget our
irrational fears and hatred, and unite mankind once and for all?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As tall a task as it seems, at an
individual level I suppose it would be fairly easy for most of us to raise our
hands and sign up for such a virtuous ideological revolution. That is exactly
why this question deserves a more sophisticated analysis. Taking some time out
of a lazy Sunday morning and after incorporating requisite edits and explanations,
I have tried to put together the same, merging the string of messages I'd
shared with the friend while preserving the core idea and the overall chain of
thought:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Man is an animal, think we can
all agree and build upon this truth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And a social animal at that. We can't
live/survive on our own by being a loner; nature is simply too unforgiving. In
fact the single greatest characteristic that puts our species at the apex of
the pyramid of species (most being far more powerful than a human being) that
inhabit the earth is our ability to cooperate and form long term social groups. Hence,
the notion of living in communities, some sense of which is also prevalent in
almost all animal species across land, water and air.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How does such a pack or tribe
come to be in the first place?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The primary requirement is
resemblance- commonality and shared features. This is the reason you would find
(say) monkeys only hanging out with monkeys, never even with chimps, orangutans
or other apes, even though the underlying genetic material giving rise to those
features is so same (over 99%). It is for the simple reason that two monkeys
look like one another, a chimp and a monkey do not. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Birds of a feather flock together.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is how small groups first
formed. Then they expanded and very soon the first tribes came into existence
based on more such shared features- tangible, observable traits and not any
underlying latent ones.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But then humans somehow ended up
being far higher up the evolutionary ladder. Sometime down the line we evolved
the ability to string several complicated thoughts together and communicate
them far more effectively and efficiently to one another than any other species
on the planet. This is when an unprecedented <i>cognitive revolution</i> took place-
groups of hunter gatherers could now come together to form bigger communities.
These communities rested on shared physiological features but prospered upon
shared ideas, stories, myths and belief systems. While trying to make sense out
of the vast and complex world, we developed <i>inter-subjective realities</i>- 'truths'
which couldn't (and needn't) be objectively verified, which wouldn't even mean
anything at an individual level, but when practiced and repeated across vast
groups, became the very fabric that helped stitch those groups into
communities. That is essentially how the first civilized societies came to be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Gradually, the features became
more defined, more refined. With natural forces and migration, races soon came
into existence. Entire civilizations formed and with that, these same features
started getting even more refined. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Soon we came up with constructs
like money (another more sophisticated inter-subjective reality), which further
complicated things. This broke civilizations into socio-economic stratas-
castes, religion and what not. We got 'divided' simply because those underlying
features kept becoming ever more refined, shaped by nature and partly by our
own endeavors to build complicated hierarchical but sustainable social
structures.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, the primal instinct of
belonging-ness (which unsurprisingly also finds its place in <i>Maslow's hierarchy
of needs</i>) based on commonalities and shared ideas prevailed. It is simply
because we needed them in order to survive against those we now began to
consider 'outsiders'.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Economics 101- time went by,
population boomed and scarcity soon came into the picture as we came to realize
that there isn't enough for everyone all the time, can never be anymore. Then
started the scramble for power/resources which continues till date in different
ways almost everywhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The core point is the fact that
the underlying instinct of belonging-ness is primal and will always be there. We
need to share and we only share with those who we think are 'like us' </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What this implies is that the
lines which my friends had so started to abhor, would invariably have been
drawn. The only difference is HOW you choose to draw them - race, caste,
religion, economic status or even a simple line on the map. It isn't ideal. It isn't
perfect. It is simply primal and hence necessary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
That is where the roots of modern
nationalism (which began with the advent of nation states and French
Revolution) lie. Basically meaning 'love your kind’, those who (you think) are
'like you'. That doesn't mean you hate everyone else. It just means when the
chips are down, you'd instinctively know who's
on your side and who's not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
That is why we are all doomed to
talk about preserving peace while continuously preparing for war. That is why
men who have nothing really to do with a piece of land are holding guns to <i>save it</i> from other men who have nothing really to do with that piece of
land, while those who actually have homes built on those lands silently suffer.
That is why some men will live their entire lives trying to engineer hate
between people who will never even meet each other, ever. That is why, sadly,
our defense budgets will continue to outstrip government expenditure on food,
housing, healthcare and education combined. It is because we are all too human
to ever escape that eventuality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I cannot know about you but the
friend still disagrees with (and hates) this line of reasoning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Either way, we have an India-Pak
cricket encounter at our hands today. And I ain't gonna waste any more time
trying to convince you folks. Can't wait to see those Kashmir-hungry, militant-spawning,
China-friendly, terrorist-aiding, jealous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mullahs</i>
lose to the men in blue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Oh wait a minute...</i></div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-4112723163095767722017-04-26T12:30:00.002+05:302021-09-12T22:37:28.257+05:30That's life.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">One fine afternoon in my seventh semester of college, I was in one of my professor’s cabin. He was a knowledgeable man, admirably articulate, delightfully sarcastic and among the very few in that place who always knew exactly
what he was talking about, perhaps even more- a thorough professional. I had
always looked up to him as a straightforward man of reason who wasn’t to be
messed with, in any form or measure. That was also the popular opinion. Back then,
I was a rudderless ship, rejected by the very first (and in all likelihood then- the
only) company that had come to recruit on campus, one of India’s leading auto
makers- a "dream company" for everyone. Dejected and seeking an escape,
I had pinned all my hopes on the CAT which was due in a fortnight. Incidentally,
I was also coordinating a team of 43 people to organize the college literary
fest, and simultaneously composing 2 songs with my college band, in the coming weekend. I was drowned in work and despair. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I
had gone to meet him that fine day with one humble request- to postpone the
internal exam for his subject by one day. In that place and time, it was (IMHO)
a reasonable request, more the norm than an exception and many a student had often
used various means to accomplish the same with other subjects and professors.
But not this person. Nevertheless, I presented my case before this gentleman for
what seemed like a minute or two, laying out my apprehensions as well as nearly
all the insecurities of my ravaged mind as best as I could.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Seated on the other
side of an immaculately arranged table, the professor listened intently, laid back
calmly on his executive chair, elbows rested on its arms, fingertips of the
left hand gently meeting those of the right exactly in front of his chest-
motionless- a mildly intimidating reptilian gaze analyzing all my verbal and
non-verbal cues. Then, straightening his back, slowly drawing his elbows to the
table while maintaining the overall posture, retaining the eye contact and with
an expression on his face that would have made even the best poker player in the
world fold; he said those two magical words you see on the title today. I do
not remember what he said thereafter; as he went on to shoot the request on its
head, respectfully apathetic to nearly everything I had talked about until
then. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Miserably
short of preparation in what was arguably the most nagging subject for everyone
in the entire graduation curriculum, I went on to give the exam precisely on
the pre-decided date and time, later clearing the subject with 55 marks- barely
5 more than the minimum required and my lowest ever anywhere. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s
life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Most
of what we millenials consider quarter-life-crises (or just <i>20s things</i>) arise
out of messed-up priorities stemming from a warped sense of life and reality,
especially our personal notions of right and wrong. We are genetically programmed
to seek patterns in random events and behaviors. From our (embarrassingly limited)
individual learnings and life experiences, we continuously seek to encode the
enormously complicated and multi-faceted human nature into a set of laws and rules-
what we then so self-righteously like to label as our ‘life principles’. Then,
carrying our respective sense and interpretations of ideals and morality, we blissfully go
about this world believing that every person we come across will also be willing to
play by the same set of rules and principles all the time (Wow!). Then, when
things go south (and they invariably always do), we sulk and go about resenting
anything that will make us feel good about ourselves once again (lies), conveniently
editing our own rules all the time (much Wow!). The vicious cycle repeats itself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In
reality, however, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad</i> are unnecessary over-simplifications that
life does not have any regard for. They are human constructs, laughable
attempts of a clueless race of apes with a huge sense of self entitlement, who
think they are smart enough to make sense of the sheer randomness that
surrounds us all the time. Conservative upbringing and social conditioning do more
than enough in this regard to give an illusion of the existence of some sense
of cosmic justice- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karma </i>so to say-
that pervades <i>God’s beautiful world</i> that we live in. We are deluded into believing
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good begets good</i>, that <b>IT</b> is all
about us, and that this incomprehensibly vast universe owes us this much.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thriving warmly in our own cosy bubbles, it
takes us forever to make truce with the simple reality that principles don’t matter,
only actions do. That the notion of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karma </i>is at
best a personal consolation, a cold uncomfortable hug available to everyone in times of
great grief and suffering. That right, wrong, truth, morality, friendship, duty, success, justice,
love, happiness, responsibility etc are all personal constructs that carry no inherent
meaning- constructs that mankind developed and fostered in order to establish and
nurture civilized societies (look where that got us!). They only mean what we
<i>want</i> them to mean, what we <i>wish</i> them to mean. That may obviously be something
for one individual and something else entirely to another, possibly even totally
contradictory. As a matter of fact, most of what transpires around us all the
time has no inherent meaning or purpose in itself. It is just a result of the actions and momentary endeavors of a vast bunch of intelligent apes doing what they think is
necessary, what needs to be done at that point in time. It is <b>we</b> who choose to
ascribe any meaning to such primal acts of unconditional needs, wants or desires.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>"The world only makes sense if we force it to". </i>Looking around these days, it seems whatever little sense of conscience that some of us possess is an evolutionary weakness which natural selection will soon get rid off. In today's times, when internet memes on social networks have become the latest source of our life principles
(let alone billboards and paperback) and the guiding light of our lives, there remains only one way we can live-
without any rules. Believing nothing. Expecting nothing. Doing whatever is
necessary and whatever needs to be done- primal and pure, as it has always really
been, as it was always supposed to be. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In
the times that followed, the more I reflected back on that eventful day, the
more I found the gentlemanly professor’s actions and decision justified. In
fact, he was far more courteous and reasonable than life itself is. It is incomprehensible,
unpredictable and unforgiving. To everyone. And we would be miserably naive to believe otherwise. Those who disagree simply
need to give it more time to discover this themselves. It isn’t necessarily a ‘good’
or a ‘bad’ thing, just what it is. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There
is no truth but what we claim. No fate but what we make. Everybody lies. Everybody
dies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And
that is the lie <b>I</b> choose to tell myself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What’s
yours?</span></div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-70904656325757705182017-02-23T12:49:00.003+05:302020-04-24T12:42:42.193+05:30Vagabonds of Punterland - IV<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="http://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.in/2017/02/vagabonds-of-punterland-ii.html" target="_blank">Vagabonds of Punterland - II</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><u><b>The Help</b></u> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Please, let me get this for
you…’ Ayan requested. Sam and TJ joined.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">He was headed to a woman across
the street who, with a baby on her shoulders and what seemed like a week’s
grocery on the other, seemed like someone wrestling with an octopus on a
conveyor belt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Thank you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">beta</i>’, the lady smiled handing over all the stuff, careful not to
wake up the infant. She watchfully made her way across the road to a Honda City
and managed to open up the trunk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘I hope it’s not much trouble’,
she seemed very modest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘I’d told you not to carry it all
at once’, a coarse husky voice startled the three of them. They could not
notice a man fast approaching the vehicle while they were busy adjusting the
items in the dickey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">In the absence of street lights, all they could make out
was a bulky six-foot frame wielding loads that could easily substitute weights
in a gym. They realized he was the man whose ego they’d just bruised by helping
his woman.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘No uncle it’s fine’, TJ replied
smiling, casually grabbing and pulling Sam and Ayan by their shoulders, ‘Good
night aunty!’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘It’s late <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">beta</i>. Come we’ll drop you’, she said getting into the car, glancing
at her husband. The way he occupied the driving seat made it clear that it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> a request. They exchanged looks of 3
fellowmen attempting a base jump from Petronas Towers. They were already past 9
and too loaded to walk anyway. A little help wouldn’t harm. Ayan and Sam took
the rear seats. TJ complied reluctantly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Household shopping is an
exploration here. You got to travel all the way across the place to get to this
mart. And until last month, it wasn’t even an option’, the woman complained.
They realized this store had just been opened, right by the university exit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">'Which hostel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">beta</i>?’ the woman asked cuddling the
infant who’d perhaps woken up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The question made the three skip
a beat. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She knows! </i>Although
undergraduate student population was a clear majority in the place, one could
not neglect the local residents which formed an influential subset of the
place’s demography. This time the looks were of three inmates attempting a
Prison Break. TJ held back Ayan who was about to answer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silver Jubilee</i> aunty’ he said nodding at his friends.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SJ</i>?’ Sam complained in a whisper.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘You really want to be dropped at
a senior hostel at this time of the night? Stop fooling around.’ Ayan wasn’t as
quiet with his revolts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">TJ winked. ‘Just play along'.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘3<sup>rd</sup> year? All three?’
the man seemed older in the dim lighting of the car and oddly intrigued. There
was no practical concept of entry time for seniors, although in theory it was
10. TJ, knowing the fact, had played the odds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">'Which branch?’ he inquired,
eyeing the three in the rear-view mirror, lowering the gear to slow the vehicle
considerably.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Eh… my name is Alok, Production
Engineering. This is Karan…’ he said patting Sam on the back ‘…Information
Technology. And he is Rahul…’ he said pointing at Ayan ‘…Civil Engineering’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The lies were bang on. No one
really knew students of the first 2 branches cause they barely had classes and
no one worried about students of the third- the most feared department of the
college- cause they could rarely ever skip any. To an absolute stranger in a
car at night they should have been nothing but random variables and absolute
gibberish.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">'Oh! Civil? That’s nice. Then he
would know Sir, right? Which course do you take, you say?’ the woman seemed
pleased.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SIR?!</i>’ the statement soaked the air off their lungs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Yes, he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should. </i>Don’t you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rahul</i>?’
the man replied, childish mischief reeking of his voice, or so it seemed. The
question sent shivers down the spine of Ayan. Sam could feel the vehicle closing
in around him. TJ could barely think, let alone lay an anti-thesis as a deathly
silence descended upon the car.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The old man had called their
bluff and won.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Sushil Kumar, Associate
Professor’, he replied with an air of condescension, pushing the gas and
revving up the engine now, as the Honda City creased into the dark night.</span></div>
</div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-22888329332004536082017-02-23T12:30:00.003+05:302020-04-24T12:43:01.149+05:30Vagabonds of Punterland - III<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<u><b>Basic Instinct</b></u><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The cold drink bottle on his lips
was tipped beyond vertical as TJ soaked the last few drops of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dew </i>from the edges. How people like him
could sustain the unbearable fizz while gulping the full volume in one go, had
always been a source of utter amazement for Ayan. Sam sat scanning the menu
card as if it was written in code. He had taken it on to himself for arranging
the most cost-effective-cum-surfeiting one course dinner for the 3 tonight. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Earlier, with an extremely vocal
TJ, the 2 mile walk to the place had turned out to be shorter than expected and
checking out of the main gate had hardly been a challenge- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Walk like you own the place.</i> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The guard at the hostel entrance was
paid to care while those at the university exit didn’t care to pay attention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Meanwhile, the luscious aroma of
spices and the sight of people gorging all around them, served only to
aggravate the hunger. Located just by the highway that would get ironed with
loaded trucks ferrying goods across major industrial centers established
nearby, there was a titillating feeling about the place that night. The
rhythmic hustle of the night train speeding across the railway tracks, at a
stone’s throw from the place, would superimpose with the surrounding noises at
times, damping the irritating shrieks of an over-used speaker blaring nearby.
It was amazing how yester years’ chartbusters sounded like lamentations today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘I think one half <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mix Veg</i> should suffice. All <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">paneers</i> cost the same. But we don’t know
which is better- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kadhai, matar </i>or<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> shahi. Daal makhni </i>is another
alternative. So is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aloo jeera. </i>The
problem gentlemen- as always- is choice…’ Sam declared.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">For TJ, it never was. To him, within
or without an examination room, ‘both A and B’ had always seemed the most
appropriate option, especially when it came to matters of the tongue- no
compromises. Ayan and Sam discovered nothing could shut TJ up as well as good
food, not even good girls. The 3 of them fed on until the dishes were wiped
clean.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The gentle breeze after a hearty
meal made music for the ears before Ayan decided to make a point.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘I still don’t see why we should
risk a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CP</i> for just a little better
food’. The reasons for getting a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Conduct
Prohibition</i> were crystal clear to him. And for a first year, being out of
the campus after 8 in his first month at college was somewhere around the top.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A little better?</i> The second Batman movie was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">little better</i> than the
first. Dude, this is massive improvement…’ TJ’s love for the movie and
obsession with food had almost nipped the argument in the bud but for the lack
of wheels, it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> getting late.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Cycles will save time. We <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> have tried a little more’, Sam
complained, nodding to Ayan. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Well and you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> have listened to me when I
insisted on not writing our names on the stupid register while checking out, at
least not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> names.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">It was 8:44 when they reached the
university gate and with the quantity of food in their alimentary canal, the 2 km
walk back was becoming exceedingly impossible. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The next frame of image that was
processed by TJ’s mind was Ayan rushing forward. It was a little instinctive
decision that was going to substantially alter the course of the night for the
3 of them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">They
should’ve known the founding tenet of ‘Chaos Theory’- how small changes in
initial conditions can lead to vast differences in final outcomes. They should
have known that the difference between adventure and accident is measured only
by luck.</span></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.in/2017/02/vagabonds-of-punterland-v.html" target="_blank">Vagabonds of Punterland - IV</a></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-69458954982396956632017-02-23T12:20:00.002+05:302020-04-24T12:43:21.654+05:30Vagabonds of Punterland - II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>These are 3 parts of what was supposed to be a five-part series, and one of our initial efforts. We'd written this some time in late 2012, a time when we used to be both 'unkempt' and 'sophomores' (now we're just unkempt). For precisely those reasons (and more), they always remained just drafts, often yearning for attention and closure. I now reckon they belong more here than in a folder on my laptop, for whatever they may be worth. We have abstained from making any changes to the original draft.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<u><b>3 is greater than 2</b></u><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">There
are people who choose to take things the conventional way and play by the rules
of life. Then there are those who like living dangerously and make their own.
For the short time they’d known each other, Sam believed Ayan was a ‘Type 1’
guy, like him. They both knew TJ was the rare ‘Type II’, the ones who never
learn from mistakes, until they make their own and blow them up into
disasters...</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Playing loud music and use of
stereo is strictly prohibited in the premises...’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Inmates are not allowed to bring
laptops, heaters, blowers or any other electrical appliances inside the
hostel...’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">He read the last of the ‘general
instructions’ in the typical, hysterically croaky voice of the warden, known
more for his unpredictable mood swings than his unconditional fury. The 2 guys
on either side suspended their hearty laughter as TJ ripped down the sheet of
paper from the notice board. Having been with him for almost a week now, Ayan
and Sam had become quite used to the unconventional ways of their new-found
friend and roommate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">While these sudden bursts of
hyper-activity stemming from his archetypal Bohemian attitude- instantly made
this prodigal son the principle focus of attention, it also made TJ the odd one
out of the 3. With a perennially serious Ayan, a particularly sincere Sam and a
perpetually sinister TJ, it had been a rare but pleasant amalgamation of the
Conservative, the Liberal and the Radical under one roof in Room 7 of Tagore
Bhawan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘Eat, pray and rest. Your ass
belongs to me...’ TJ completed the mimicry. “Welcome to the Fox River State
Penitentiary” he buzzed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“What you just razed down was
meant for 300 people” Sam pitched in, gesturing to the guard at the gate who
was overlooking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Common courtesies man...” Ayan
bitched as often, shrugging his shoulders. His ‘absolutely sober’ upbringing
could not reconcile with the apparently rash ways of this instinctive guy. Sam
on the other hand had grown quite fascinated by his spontaneity and
outspokenness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“It’s been 7 days”, he started,
strolling along the veranda of the first of the 7 wings that housed their room.
“And I already feel like running away”. Ayan and Sam tagged along. They stopped
when TJ reached the day’s copy of TOI at the newspaper stand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">It was that time of the year when
local and national dailies get swamped with statistics of students topping
merit lists and coaching institutes flaunting their best kept nerds- the AIRs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Looking at the passport size
photographs of the supposedly smartest youngsters, Ayan felt a part of him
perish. Not a day went by when Sam didn’t repent his ill-decisions made on that
fateful second Sunday of April. TJ, meanwhile, had tuned himself to a different
wavelength altogether.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“The lectures are farce, food
barely edible, campus life non-existent after 7 pm. Curses be on our movies
that promise colleges full of ravishing beauties and cafes packed with dancing
youngsters”, he complained.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“The curriculum is a mess, labs
complete hokum and hostel a pathetic junk-yard”, Ayan rhymed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Never thought I’ll smile at
people who screw our lives”, lamented Sam.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“These are supposed to be the
best years of our lives. I can’t spend them scribbling notes and finishing
assignments.” Sam could sense TJ was up to something.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Enough of this sitting-in like
spinsters. We need to shake the shell pals. It’s time we hit the streets!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Ayan and Sam stood transfixed but
clueless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Lohni. Tonight.” TJ talked more
like himself. Everybody in their freshman year had heard of this place but no
one had explored it yet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“I’m in. They’re throwing grease
anyway for dinner”, Sam’s aversion to spinach was well known.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Well they’ve also reduced the
hostel entry time to 8:30. And you know how serious that beast is about
miscreants. Count me out.” Ayan was reluctant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“Come on mate! What happened to the
‘3 more than 2’ rule?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">TJ knew Ayan would always be the
one to back down. So, he’d formulated what he called ‘the 3 is greater than 2’
rule for Room 7. It was about how outings were always about 3 guys on a riot
and never about 2 getting bored. Persuasive as he was, he had forced the 3 into
this strange covenant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“We swim and sink together,
remember?” TJ winked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">As it happened, convincing Ayan
turned out to be easier than arranging 3 cycles for the 4 km back and forth
journey. So, pretty soon, the 3 of them were out in the dark, headed to the <i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhaba</span></i>, 2 kms outside campus- slapping
the rules in the face was always fun!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Ayan didn’t have a healthy gut
feeling about this. Perhaps he should’ve insisted a little more. After all,
circumstantial decision making is like a house of cards, there’s only so much
margin for error…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><a href="http://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.in/2017/02/vagabonds-of-punterland-iii.html" target="_blank">Vagabonds of Punterland - III</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><a href="https://unkemptsophomores.blogspot.com/2013/07/vagabonds-of-punterland.html" target="_blank">Vagabonds of Punterland - I</a></span></span></div>
<i>
</i></div>
Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-60904914843181837932016-06-17T12:46:00.002+05:302016-06-17T12:53:39.405+05:30To be or not to be?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Friday nights make me awfully
philosophical. While the rest of the world is out beckoning another weekend, I
am usually stuck by a window sill staring at infinity. Not that it feels as
hollow as it sounds- it’s oddly comforting- but like all moral and philosophical
quandaries, it begs the question ‘why’. That’s a self absorbing chain of
causality and one that requires opening a lot of dark doors; so I live with it
as is. In fact, it is often such a soul sucking vortex of enquiry that little
remains apart from the thought itself. It’s some of these remains that I intend
the reader to part with today.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
What is the true way of life- one
of utter involvement or that of reserved detachment, one of rising desires or
that of ‘just’ needs, of attachment or resignation, is it uninhibited indulgence
or stoic passivism?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Understand that I do not intend
to equate indulgence with extravagance nor passivism with renunciation. As
strong as the words may be coming across now, the adjectives will hopefully
derive a more contextual definition in the ensuing narrative.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Coming across as absolute
extremities on the spectrum of choice, it is here- I understand- that you will
be tempted to opt for a more practical and reasonable albeit diplomatic and
self serving middle path. It is the same with life, something that comes as a
result of sentience and free will. But then we’ve all had our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Friday nights- </i>moments when we have
questioned, rejected, even escaped reality. Times when we have wondered <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why it had to be that way</i>. These moments
often culminate in one such choice between extremes- to hold on or to let go.
Live with them a little longer the next time and perhaps you will sense what I
am trying to get to, in case you haven’t already. For what it’s worth, try and
shed your subjective perspectives that begin with the phrase <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘it depends…’ </i>and then for once we can
look at it with the objectivity that is needed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
So we all seek happiness. All of
man’s pursuits are essentially attempts to increase what moral philosophers
call ‘utility’ or overall happiness of the individual and society. But then there’s
grief, regret, pain, anger, lust, greed, despair and frustration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Why?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We all make mistakes and we all pay a price.</i> However, a whole lot
of life’s problems arise out of our incessant pursuits. Everything that we
attach ourselves to is either taken away or ends up hurting oneself,
eventually. We are all too human to escape that eventuality. For, once we
wishfully engross ourselves in such pursuits, we do not quite comprehend when
to put them to rest or often worse- what to make out of them. Most of our
actions are born out of instincts rather than intelligent thought and
therefore, unsurprisingly, most of what we do at any moment turns out to have
little or no relevance with where we were some time (a year, month, week or
even a day) ago.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Think about it- how often do you
give a second (read ‘deep’) thought to how you invest yourself at any given
moment, even in seemingly long term endeavours like career and education? Most
of our pursuits are laughably incoherent, mutually unrelated and quite embarrassingly
directed to an end that bears little or no relevance to any particular
intermittent state of reference. In other words, had it not been for some
unquestioned custom, misplaced belief, inescapable instruction or accepted ritual,
you couldn’t have cared lesser about it or at least thought differently about
it. It is almost like jumping over planks floating on a river, with little or
no idea as to where the river leads. Perhaps this transience infested with
ignorance- not knowing what will be- is the very substance of life. But at
times the stark absurdity of such unreasonable pursuits makes my mind rebel. It
is such unchecked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indulgence</i> that
often breeds frustration and despair and it is in this context that I intend to
use the word.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
The obvious opposite to such an
approach to life would be one of reservation. It makes perfect sense to utilize
the mental faculties that put us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom- the
ability to reason and rationalize- in order to distance oneself from self
deprecating endeavours. Abstaining yourself from emotional investments seems
the better way of ensuring you do not allow anything or anyone the power or
liberty to affect you in a way that disturbs this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">overall happiness</i>- peace of mind, so to say. So, although you live
in the realm of the senses in a world of distractions that is constantly trying
to sway you all across between states of absolute bliss and consuming grief,
you resist. It is a cold, measured, mechanical and inherently self serving way
of existence but it is also pure- unadulterated by swathes of those
inexplicable and apparently insurmountable momentary impulses that arise out of
nowhere and strive to distance you from this individual state of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">neutrality. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
This course of reason will,
however, often push you to make choices you do not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to make. Choices that will strive to distance you from your
most intimate beliefs and confront you with the darkest of emotions. It forces
you to examine the warmth of human experiences from the cold and unforgiving
lens of rationality. Things like morality, spirituality, humanity and love get
convoluted and tend to assume disturbing proportions if you try to unravel them
in this light.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
So what do we all do?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
We simply choose to go by what we
have been taught or told. We use the society as a metric to judge what it is
that we are supposed to do, something that will be acceptable, unquestionable,
comfortable, manageable. We choose to blindly conform to an abstract code which
was made up by people no less clueless about things than ourselves. And reason
is often looked down upon by those who found its fruits too hard to live with.
It is abhorred for challenging beliefs, murdering faith and above all for
infesting sacred human emotions with the ‘scourge of rationality’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
So we act, we smile, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">get along</i> and then when there’s time
(read ‘Friday nights’) we go back to resenting anything that will make us feel
warm inside again, make us feel good about ourselves, about those choices that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we think </i>we made. It’s a vicious cycle
this, one that leaves us more broken in ways that can never be undone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
True- it is both the ability to
reason and the ability to empathize that makes us human. These faculties have
been defined and refined through ages and put our race at the very top of this
world and from what little we know- the universe. However, the ease with which
we keep switching between these behavioral extremes just to serve our own petty
ends, to me seems hypocritical, even narcissistic. Why should any one of these often
mutually conflicting ways of life be chosen over the other? And yet we
conveniently go about doing the same, eternally torn between possibilities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I think there’s no heaven or
hell, that whatever they mean is already all around us, elegantly hidden in the
enormous bounties of the world. That we are all made capable of doing great
good and great bad in a universe that has a blatant disregard for both. It
existed just fine long before there was any point and it will continue to do so
long after all of this will cease to matter. However, this universe also has an
incomprehensibly strange sense of humor- it mischievously dropped carbon based sentient
life forms with a mind and a heart (who somehow developed a huge sense of self
importance) somewhere in an infinitely small portion of itself just to see what
could happen in between!</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So- to think or to feel, THAT is the question…</i></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-5161782198379353412016-03-26T13:59:00.003+05:302016-03-26T14:08:03.347+05:30Dangerous Knowledge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I
think we all “grow up” when we realize that people don’t always mean what they
say or say what they mean, it’s when we start figuring out what people actually
mean when they say something.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Growing
up takes time. It doesn’t strike you as a blessing on a Sunday afternoon. It is
a process that may take years, decades or even an entire lifetime. It can also be
viewed as an evolutionary or a neuro-biological phenomenon that is accrued vastly
from the sum total of the experiences of one generation, an ideology or world
view that they deem worthy of passing on to the next to ensure the prosperity
of their lineage.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It
is a discovery, a sense of realisation, of knowing something you didn’t a
moment ago. The knowledge that comes with it is a quintessential part of human
experience. It happens because we are the only species who have an infinite capacity
to learn from other’s experiences. It comes at a price that must be paid with
innocence. You lose the ability to seek goodness in everything and everyone, or
at best learn to exercise it with ever increasing caution. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It
cannot be undone, not in its entirety at least. As it is with science, theories
you build once will always be under revision in the light of new observations
and experiences, as and when you gain the ability to examine the world with
more and more sophisticated tools- education. This knowledge does broaden your
world view but while doing so it also confronts you with those infinite shades
of grey that will forever cloud the ever expanding gulf between black and
white.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It
makes you question your understanding of faith and trust, making you a lifelong
skeptic. You start constructing an invisible guard that you will now wield for
the rest of your life, anxiously waiting, searching for people who can
patiently, lovingly invade those numerous impregnable walls and manage to get
close enough to wield that guard for you, with you. The walls keep getting
higher and stronger each time someone fails to do so or surrenders in between.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It
is magical how most of life is about sharing human experiences and knowledge but
it is a pity how most of growing up is about understanding the perils of the
same. I used to find it very ironic how everyone always wanted to be happy- to
the extent that they would even be willing to play along with their own overtly
pretentious social exercises like gatherings, festivities and celebrations,
just to bath in the aura of collective goodness- but still, somehow, eventually
end up more bitter and miserable than ever before. After all, why must there be
anger, grief, regret, envy and suffering in a world where everyone wants to be
happy? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I
now realize it’s because of the pleasant delusion that is hope, that no matter
how bad things get, we can always choose to believe that they can get better. This
belief, although entirely self sufficient and independent of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dangerous knowledge</i>, it seems comes much
more conveniently to those who <i>know </i>less. May be it is just a part of the bliss
that comes with ignorance but the one thing I have realized “growing up” is
that when the long night <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">comes</span>, it is much easier to keep moving along when you do not know what kind of
demons stand lurking in the dark.</span></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-68120963121944954342016-02-14T14:16:00.000+05:302016-02-14T14:29:47.022+05:30Thought for the Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Nothing kills a man more patiently
and painfully than having to live with being someone, with a constant
realisation that he could have been so much more.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Be it the valiant soldier smothered
by guilt, who had fought with everything he had but still spends hours
evaluating alternate MOs that could have saved his partner. Or the passionate
sportsman kicking himself for the rest of his life, calculating where he could
have squeezed in that extra millisecond in the deciding moments of that
unfortunate final. The helpless man who struggles towards the end of every
month, wondering how he can be a better parent, husband and provider. OR the
hopeless romantic trying to make sense out of his first brush with infatuation,
ruminating why he can be everything he must be, except the man that he wants to
be with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the girl</i>.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It is difficult beyond reason, the
feeling- an all consuming cocktail of regret, anger, despair and guilt- is too
much for anyone to live with. There are moments of utter weakness, when you
want to submit to the chaos. There are moments of undying despair, where each
passing second is a striking reminder of who you are, and much more
importantly- who you are not, who you can never be. There are moments of utter
madness, where you are willing to trade every last bit of happiness that remain
in this God forsaken life of yours for one more try. It pains even more to
realize, eventually, how misplaced and irrational the attempts were in the
first place.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It does not lie anywhere near your
realms of control. Despite all your strength or wisdom, there is nothing you
can do to “fix this”. It is like falling in a bottomless pit. It invades your
deepest, darkest recesses, places you weren’t even aware existed inside you. It
breaks your pride while relentlessly staring at you straight in the eye,
proving conclusively beyond doubt that compared to this, wounds that heal
themselves are like blessings of physical pain, for the most permanent of scars
always lie within.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Sometimes life will spare you to
wander amidst possibilities and search for that one tentative link somewhere among
the terribly mangled chains of causality that could offer you some sign of hope
for a change in circumstances. It is made worse by the following swathes of
self loathing. The irony of it breaks you when you realize you have irrevocably
been a part of something that can never be undone, in a universe that boasts of
its eternal penchant for change. </span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The presence of that individual is
a constant reminder of how you are forever doomed to be just a worthless
fraction of what you could have been. There is little escape from this. Those
who manage to do so emerge stronger, wiser men who have now lost faith in some
(or many) institution(s) held dear to mankind. They are men who manage a silent
laugh when people talk about destiny and how good things are always <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meant to be.</i> </span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Pain has its own way of teaching
you some of life’s most invaluable lessons. It poisons you day in and day out.
It changes you in ways that cannot be undone. It makes you stronger, immunizes
you for other far worse forms of suffering. You aren’t really better or worse,
just someone you never were before, damaged in ways that will never be known to
those even closest to you- veiled by smiles and laughs that will always hide
much more than they will reveal.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Most of life is having to choose
between holding on and letting go. Anything in between is dishonesty, hypocrisy
and an ugly compromise. They say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">time
changes everything</i>. It is a lie. Time merely pushes things further into the
past, rendering an illusion of change. Choices change things. They are not
always nice but they are necessary and you must let go of something in order to
move on to something else.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I have always believed that there are no things that are best left
unsaid. But there are some that are best left written- words have a kind of
indelible permanency which life so does not possess.</span></i></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-51763250512810225222016-02-12T15:56:00.000+05:302020-04-19T12:42:40.757+05:30The Triumph of Reason<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
all go about our daily lives indifferent to the marvel that is life. Studies
suggest that based on the initial and boundary conditions of our universe, the
odds of intelligent life arising on planet Earth are lower than that of an
enormous pile of waste in a junk yard arranging itself to assemble into a
Boeing 747! Every once in a while though, some brilliant minds come along and
change the way we look at the universe, forever.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although
science was progressing by leaps and bounds under the light of new theories
(Quantum Mechanics) and discoveries (elementary particles) in the early part of
the 20<sup>th</sup> century, we had somehow grown too comfortable with- and
hence ignorant of- the most pervasive of all natural forces- gravity. Perhaps
it was because of the larger than life image of Isaac Newton, scientific community
at large was of the opinion that gravity was understood in its entirety.
Proposing that the force which makes an apple fall and the force which keeps
planets in motion around the sun are essentially the same was unarguably his
life’s work and one of the most elegant ideas of all time.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Albert
Einstein was a little known clerk working in a Swiss patent office. Surfing
through all the path breaking discoveries during his day job, he realized that
although we could measure this force with great accuracy, it was quite
embarrassing that we had no idea as to HOW it actually works. How is it that
the sun grabs hold of the earth across vast empty space, eternally confining it
in a periodic motion around itself?</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1905, after publishing his work on Brownian motion, photoelectric effect and
what we now recognize as the Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein decided to
go after this missing piece of the puzzle, something which had apparently
eluded even the father of gravity himself. It took him 10 years to perfect the
math that would go into the most beautiful idea of all time- the theory of
General Relativity.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Einstein
blew everyone away by suggesting that gravity isn’t really a force and that
time was the 4<sup>th</sup> dimension of our universe. Put together with the
known 3, it <i>stitches </i>the entire universe together in a 4 dimensional
spacetime continuum. Everything exists and happens in the spacetime continuum.
Anything that has mass curves spacetime causing objects in its vicinity to move
in a <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">predictable</span> manner. Instead of being a property of a body, gravity is in
fact a property of the universe itself. Any mass curves spacetime and curved
spacetime tells mass how to move!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5r44t0NDoaADj0csYFrcDA3FOZmG9w7o8cG8BaWPEzEKrpsYpWiauG0s-SWe4HyNb7PvRUkWKYkwJArsg7ACsWd2XGYvvqFauw_oincV2Ip2TRb3SRYd4j-l6dJcdHUTvAgRVkXLskA/s1600/GR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5r44t0NDoaADj0csYFrcDA3FOZmG9w7o8cG8BaWPEzEKrpsYpWiauG0s-SWe4HyNb7PvRUkWKYkwJArsg7ACsWd2XGYvvqFauw_oincV2Ip2TRb3SRYd4j-l6dJcdHUTvAgRVkXLskA/s400/GR.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
2D representation of spacetime continuum- the relativistic view of gravity.</span></i> </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYKkEHO2a76sYyLJAqZQsXKD6RpaUIIJxkFtLQavve1TmM6eieayB-VOgFQaNqR1j45M46NONfcqbUnh8mae2Vcg54uga_E0yEIqCQxBgnviwygHLga_kEtgZuWAYcRrS5-xzViqR7co/s1600/GR.jpg"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">From
time travel to worm holes, this simple idea has had ground breaking
implications. It completely changed our understanding of time and the universe
at large. Since 1915/16, it has been verified by countless experiments and
observations with far greater precision than that produced by Newton’s theory
of gravity. One such implication was the existence of gravitational waves.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Much
like electromagnetic waves which could transmit radiation (the only other force
understood at that time), Einstein posited the existence of gravitational
waves. He proposed that when two heavy objects (like super massive black holes
or stars) interact, gravitational waves would be generated. These waves, not
much unlike ripples in a pond, would travel unobstructed throughout spacetime
at the speed of light. However, unlike visible part of the EM spectrum, they
would not just be invisible but also too weak to be detected. This was until
now.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
11<sup>th</sup> February 2016, a team of scientists working at LIGO (Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Waves Observatory) in USA confirmed the existence
of these waves nearly 100 years after Albert Einstein had first theorized about
their existence. They did this by stationing two laser beam apparatuses 3000
miles apart. These 8 km long ‘L’ shaped apparatuses fired laser beams and
recorded an interference pattern at the moment of impact. Under the influence
of gravitational waves coming from a distant binary star system (two super
massive stars slowly collapsing into each other and losing energy by the
emission of gravitational waves), these 2 observatories recorded a
characteristic shift in their patterns (much like ripples on water cause a cork
to bob up and down, only here the disturbance is in fractions of atomic diameter)
which was matched at the two laboratories and confirmed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
schematic representation of the LIGO observatory.</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">LIGO
scientists estimated that the black holes for this event were about 29 and 36
times the mass of the sun, and the event took place 1.3 billion years ago.
About 3 times the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves in a
fraction of a second—with a peak power output about 50 times that of the whole
visible universe. The detector in Louisiana had recorded the event 7
milliseconds before the one in Washington. Scientists are now advancing on to
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)- a space based gravitational wave
detector to repeat the experiment far away from earthly disturbances.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are infinite human endeavours but none other quite captures my imagination as
the pursuit of truth, the undying efforts of a lone race trying to make sense
of a world no less magical than any of our imaginations. It is an endless quest
that often breaches the realms of science, venturing into the philosophical,
fiddling with the theological and at times- evoking the metaphysical. Its
enormous mysteries give purpose to our existence, for even in my thoughts; I
dread the day we all come to know all that is worth knowing.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is the purest and sincerest curiosity, unadulterated by arrogance or authority,
for everyone at some time in our lives would have found ourselves gazing at the
horizon, questioning how it all came to be. In case you haven’t, take an
evening out of your hurried lives, lay back on your arm chair, look up at the
night sky and wonder how, wonder why. If you are calm and it is quiet enough, you
will be humbled by the sheer vastness of it<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">.</span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">T</span>he insignificance of your
troubles and worries, the utter foolishness of war and violence<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">, </span>everyone <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">you've ever <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">loved, everyone who has ever </span>l<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">i</span>ved, </span>everything
that we have done to this world- all meager inconsequential happenings on a <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PN5JJDh78I" target="_blank">pale blue dot</a></i> going around a little known star lying in a trivial corner of one
among billions of galaxies...</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are all miracles in a wonderland walking through our lives searching for magic.</span></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5085174820895057038.post-47140178037761549012015-12-22T15:38:00.001+05:302016-02-01T18:39:50.521+05:30Musings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have a poor eye for art. I
don't see vast depths on canvasses that people with more <i>eclectic tastes</i>
(whatever that means) call 'modern art'. I find myself unable to be moved by
exquisite artworks and over the past few years, after most of my friends bought
their long cherished DSLRs, I resolved never to honestly remark on any of their
work, more so when explicitly asked to. Essentially, I have never been a
creative person and cannot tell whether it is an acquired or an inherited
trait.</div>
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<br /></div>
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You may say that I write but come
to think it's merely an expression of a few related thoughts in the one
language that I have managed to understand over 2 decades. Music, movies and
books are the only real exceptions where (I think) I enjoy certain tastes and
genres which give me a sense of what a human connection to a work of art might
feel like. It is with these thoughts and in this light that I must begin
today.<br />
<br />
Most of my friends were impressed by <i>Tamashaa</i>. And by 'impressed' I mean so
much in awe that they either strongly recommended it to unsuspecting users
across all social networks or went on to be deeply hungover on it. Some even
had a major revelation or an epiphany of sorts (I still tend to have those in
exam halls instead of cinema halls). Unsurprisingly, none of that happened with
me, although about half way into the movie, I could make fair sense of what the
director had intended to get across. In that sense, I must admit it was much
unlike a regular Bollywood money spinner and worth some after thought, albeit
one that landed the fruit of these thoughts a little too far from the tree.<br />
<br />
As one among millions pursuing the infamous 'B. Tech. + MBA' career combo
today, I consider myself a self anointed ambassador of <i>the ordinary </i>here. It
wasn't always so, though. I spent a large part of my formative years with the
belief that I was destined for 'big things'. This belief- far from delusional
arrogance- was driven largely by a restricted world view and the kind of
innocent optimism that stems from adolescence, and in part by circumstance and
causality. It was a time I was far more curious than cautious, confident than
circumspect and ambitious than realistic. It took just five words, for the second
and last time in my life, to change that forever- 'You have not qualified JEE'.</div>
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Perhaps I wasn't motivated
enough. Perhaps I didn't slog all that hard. Perhaps my world view wasn't as
broad as it should have been. OR perhaps I just wasn't smart enough. As it is
with science- the simplest explanation is often the correct one. And just as it
is with life- the truth sets you free but first it pisses you off.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The truth was that I was no
different from countless other teenagers who were nurturing the same dream,
sweating, bleeding and bruising themselves on the way in much the same manner
as I did, some perhaps a lot more. The truth was thousands of them were
smarter, sharper and more resilient than I ever was. It took some time but
denial, anger, depression, bargain gave way to acceptance as I realised why
life goals are often called dreams.</div>
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It is surprising how convenient
it is to believe we deserve so much more than we get. And it is amusing how
this realisation can be a constant reminder through life, perpetually distorting
the present and all this while knitting a past that will always be looked back
upon with far more regret than rejoice. The truth is, for every one of us who
'makes his dream come true', statistically, there'd be hundreds of us who
won't. In that sense then, does it mean the rest of us failed?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Growing up, it always seemed that
success stories were abundant and all around. That it was necessary to succeed
at whatever it is that was deemed worth succeeding at by the people who
surrounded you. That failure was an unworthy (at times unfortunate) exception.
You had to do it once and you got to be the best or you might as well not do it
altogether. Life, it seemed, was binary- discreetly switching between two extremes with absolutely nothing separating the vast chasm between success and
failure.<br />
<br />
The truth is, most of us thrive somewhere between the enormous spectrum
stretched between <i>Ved</i> and <i>Rancho </i>now immortalised by the celluloid. We are substantially good at a few things
that fascinate us but lack that roaring passion to stand out in any one of
them. This sense of ordinariness may strike hard against our time honed habit
of self appeasement but that does not drive it one bit away from reality. There
are those who do stand apart and we read/hear of them all the time but that should
come with that same sense of acceptance I mentioned above. Sadly, it is
scarcely so.</div>
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<i>"Har sapne ki ek keemat hoti
hai"</i>- every dream comes at a price. I found it to be truer than most
things I heard or read. That price may be time, comfort, fun, health, family, sleep,
money, friendship, youth, love, morals or a whole range of other things. Naturally, not
everyone is willing to accept or play by such a rude set of terms. A good
friend once told me this when I was as confused about life's purpose as I might
be coming across right now. That's only because I still am- finding my way
through that enormous chasm no one ever told me existed, much less how to
navigate. Perhaps that's life in itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
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No, this is not an emotional
reaction to a disappointment or a heartbreak. Nor do I intend to say that it is
childish or futile to have passions or dreams- there's nothing more lively than
that. However, it will always be easier and enormously more convinient to raise
your hands in the classroom and say you want to become someone, than to make
the necessary sacrifices (I choose the word with great caution here) in order
to make that happen. And it is pertinent to make truce with the alternate reality that
sometimes, just sometimes, it might still not add up.</div>
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There is no fate but what we make
and there's no point trying to convince ourselves otherwise. The argument of 'fate and destiny' is just another manifestation of that deluding sense of self
appeasement. We may all be heroes of our own stories but unlike the inspiring
school teacher, life doesn't owe us an explanation. Most of it isn't fair or
unfair, it's just what it is. 'The Rolling Stones' quite appropriately sang-</div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"You can't always get what you want,</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But if you try sometime,</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You just might find-</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You get what you need."</i></div>
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Aman and Prithvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05439852141207823769noreply@blogger.com0