Delhi

Delhi,13.09.08,6:13 PM: Noise.Noise.Colossal Noise. Silence. Blank Noise. Connaught Place saw a bomb explode. Within half an hour, Delhi saw six other bombs take off. Gaffar Market and GK-1, M-Block Market, places excessively crowded on a Saturday evening,were targetted.Again it leads us to question ourselves and the system: What is terrorism?? Why is it?? What can we do??
Terrorism, as I see and define it, is a mere political weapon. Its efficacy and immorality far exceed all other methods of destabilising a regime. At the risk of sounding a superficial reader, I quote Dan Brown on this: "Remove the facade of infallibility of a Government,and you remove its people's faith". That is precisely what this attack has done. As a resident of Delhi, I shall never again feel safe in a DTC bus. The end objective of terrorism is not to kill and cite retribution as a reason, but to achieve a political end. We had a recent debate in class(With extremely juvenile views on terrorism being expressed) over this and it was astounding that no one saw terrorism the way I did.Enough said.Moving on to generality-

I shall land in Delhi on the night between the 1st and 2nd of October. I can't predict what I'd do once I land. Once the gravity of it hits me. Being back in the city I've lived my entire life in. Too much in love with it to appreciate any other, almost prejudical in my ignorance of them. Reading about the Sultanate period, I realise how much that city has to offer culturally. There's a separate pride in me when I count myself as one from Delhi. The smell of her land, the people, the manner of speaking and the courtesy, the tiffs in the DTC buses, the perpetually under-construction bridges, the lanes of Vasant Vihar, the times in Kaushambi, the last ride through Delhi. Magical city of mine, Je t'aime beaucoup.

The times they are-a-changing

Pakistan has a new President: Asif Ali Zardari. I am unable to understand the psyche of the people of Pakistan(DISCLAIMER: I do not believe in the typical Indian sentiment towards Pakistanis). They have,albeit in an undemocratic manner, elevated to the post of President, a man whom they once jokingly termed "Mr. 10%"(a reference to the amount of commission he used to demand for his facilitation of a mercantile transaction, in the capacity of the PM's husband).
Asif Zardari is the son of Hakim Zardari, an industrialist and the leader of the Zardari clan(Originally Baloch Jats). His marriage to Benazir Bhutto led him to be one of the most important men in South Asia. He is alleged to have abetted the death of Mir Murtuza Bhutto, his brother-in-law and a potential threat to his '10%' activities.
I do not question the political knowledge of the Pakistani people. What I don't realise is why they don't ever express dissent towards blatant misuse of power and for that matter, unworthy people usurping power. I believe this silent repression is a direct consequence of the feudal structure present in the states of Pakistan, from pre-partition times.
Whatever the case may be, I believe this decision is one that Pakistan will regret.
In a lighter vein, a mention of Pakistan makes me want to watch Dhoop Kinare and listen to Nayyara Noor.

NALSAR

As promised,the NALSAR post. Left Delhi on the 27th of June 2008. Going to college is generally a mixed bag of emotions, from excitement to anxiety,elation to melancholy but for me it was all sadness. Leaving behind the city I grew up in, leaving behind a home I knew would change beyond repair by the end of my course, leaving behind a world, perfect in every aspect. Landed in Hyderabad at about 11:45.Went to the RBI guesthouse.I had my interview on the 28th.Mighty misnomer. It's just an advertising session on the part of the VC.
Joined the hostel on the 29th.The most terrible night ever(Considering the fact that I had 4 months at NALSAR in front of me at that time; DISCLAIMER: Nothing against NALSAR).
Classes commenced on the 1st of July. One week into the NALSAR life and I had friends, friends who'd be with me these 5 years, I had my prejudices, prejudices against people whom I deemed arrogant berks(A foolish thing to do for a lot of people;Some I guess will be addressed that way for all of the 5 years).
Made trips to the city. Had my life's first solo adventure trip on the 2nd weekend of August.Did projects.Got ragged.Stopped hating it.Started getting along with seniors.Preparing for a cultural fest.Introductory Moot.Sleepless nights.Long phonecalls.A vision of the future with the person whom I adore the most.My roomie,the authority on History and one of the most genuine people I've ever met in life. My moot partner,high on life, redefines assiduous.All my friends, the best there can ever be.The late night birthday bashes(which well,as the literal meaning may suggest, involve a lot of bashing,especially that of the posterior).Cheap movies. Songs off the LAN.

These 2 months have been less of an experience and more of a lesson. I've learnt how not to be cocky, how not to be verbose, how not be a smartass all the time.I've learnt what genuine hatred means.I've learnt how much I love my city.I've learnt that I'm much more confident and strong(in the sense of courage; for my external strength, I believe the maxim of 'res ipsa loquitor' is the most appropriate one to cite) than I thought I am.I've learnt what 'multi-faceted' truly means.

I won't say I love this place. It's too restrictive to love it. I do concede though that I love my hostel life. I now realise what my parents really meant when they told me about their college experiences.College life is an altogether new experience with its highs and sobreties(pun,if found,intended).

5 years down the line, it won't be me. It'll be a different person sitting here and posting.With due regard to my future self, I hope I don't change beyond recognition.Deep down,I always wish to remain the person who boarded that aircraft to Hyderabad and before doing so shouted out in rem(Do excuse the legal jargon;One of the irrepairable things law school does to you), "Delhi I love thee".

To one and all, This blog stands resurrected.

Ni Ni Ni Ni

Long Long Time.
15th June 2008.2 days past my 19th Birthday.12 days left before I go to Hyderabad.17 days to class.5 years to Graduation.65 years to Death.
Next Post about NALSAR.

Killing in the Name of

"Mazhab Nahin Sikhaata , Aapas Main Bair Rakhna
Hindi Hain Hum,Watan Hai,Hindostan Hamara

Iqbal!Koi Mehram Apna Nahin Jaahan Main
Maloom Kya Kisi Ko,Dard-E-Nihaan Hamara"

(Taraana-i-Hind by Sir Muhammadal Iqbal)

Here We Are Now

Two images.One of a wounded child begging in Connaught Place(Clicked by me).The other of billionaire,socialite Vijay Mallya.Both revealing a different obscenity.One,the obscenity and indignity of poverty.The other,an ostentatious exhibition of affluence and supeficiality,almost grotesque in nature.

This is what we have to show for 60 years of self-governance.A nation divided on the lines of Region,Religion,Caste,Economic Status and so much more.

I do not say there is no hope.The hope is me.The hope is you. The pain in me,is the pain in you.

2008

Another year over.I'm 18 1/2.I started drinking in '07. I quit smoking in '07.So its been quite an eventful year(as far as vices are concerned).Oh and I also lost faith in '07.

'08 has started on an extremely happy note.I just hope it continues that way. I've gained something too precious to lose.

Things I'm currently in love with:
1.Shona
2.Episode 1108('Make love,not Warcraft') of South Park
3.The 'Dead Parrot' sketch from Monty Python
4.J.J.Cale's 'Cajun Moon'
5.Rene's Magritte's 'The treachery of images"
6.His Dark Materials(Its so friggin brilliant)

New Year Resolutions:
1.Work as hard as possible to find Rakhi Sawant remotely hot.
2.Work as hard as possible to consider 50 Cent remotely music.
3.Work as hard as possible to read an Erich Segal novel and actually like it.

Happy New Year. Hope its a great year for you.Its turning out to be brilliant for me.

Cheers
Anjaney(Pronounced:un-juh-nay)

The End of Time

This is not about an apocalypse,as the title might be appearing.Its too random to categorise.

The Kant family has specialized in refuting all existing arguments and conventions of the day.Immanuel "Why-the-fuck-am-I-so-obscure-and-gay" Kant rejected various arguments concerning the existence of god and rejected the idea of the knowledge of an object in its true form. His great-great-great-great grandson,who incidentally was born in India due to imprudent disposal of a condom, has rejected classical mechanics and all that Sir Isaac "I'm-gonna-screw-the-lives-of-all-sciencees" Newton stood for. He is our very own Shivajirao Gaekwad aka, Rajini-KANT. His rejection of gravity drew Erwin Schrodinger to suicide(but not before stating his famous equation whose textual form resembles ancient cave drawings),Albert Einstein to a haircut and Wolfgang Pauli to heterosexuality.He is what Friedrich "God-my-moustache-is-just-so-sexy" Nietzsche described in his magnum opus(Thus Spoke Zarathustra) as the Ubermensch(or the overman).

Nietzsche:

Behold!I teach you the ubermensch

NT Rama Rao(With Grand Heroic Entrance):

Screw you bunghole!We've got our own.

He is the saviour:Krishna Part X,Jesus Part II and all those who're supposed to come down to earth someday.Worship Him.

Another Prick Amongst Us All

Long Time.
2 kids in Gurgaon (Aged:14 and 13) killed their classmate by pumping six bullets in him.Guys who've barely come to terms with puberty are shooting their fellow students at point blank range. The Richard-cranium filled media wasn't patient. Aaj Tak went to the extent of extracting the report cards of the shooters and informing the public that these kids used to flunk or barely pass.This is why their minds are messed up. I'd be a mass murderer by those standards.

It's not the kids who're at fault.It's the way we're bringing up our kids. 8 year olds(Seen this myself) in my old school are calling each other "Bhenchod".No understanding of what it means.No clue about why it's offensive.Saying it because they sound "adult" when they say it.Spiders help us.

I belong to what I call the 'Porno' generation. We discovered the internet at the age of 10-11 along with the darker side of it.We were the frontrunners of what is today a full-fledged billion dollar industry.Social pressure is such that 13-year old girls need to wear extremely short skirts to look cool. 13 year-old Guys need to have a Ciggie in their mouths to look cool.Where are we heading??
Rhetoric question.No answer though.

Absurdity

Albert Camus once said " Any man appearing for competitive exams in India is liable to look like a geek and hence has to not have long hair".

Bye Bye Long Hair.

The Present:

When the Hymen Breaks

The title is irrelevant in a very relevant manner.

The state of the media is getting worse by the nanosecond. Plug in to a Hindi News Channel and this is what you get:

Anchor: To ab Salman Khan aiport pahuch chuke hain.
5 mins later...
A: Ab Salman Khan gari main baith chuke hain...
1 second later...
A:Ab Salman Khan ki gari chal chuki hai...
THIS IS NEWS. SPIDERS HELP US.

I need a break.I was solving the integral of (1/x^2 +3x +2) in my sleep last night. IIT JEE has put a stop to my wet dreams.This is worse than the thought police.Winston atleast screwed Julia before being tortured.(Those who haven't read 1984 and are therefore clueless about the previous lines,kill yourself.)

Recent Acquisitions

I've been on a book buying spree for about a week now.The Delhi Book Fair was a huge disappointment.No Camus,No Kafka.Yet,I did find a lot of buy-worthy stuff.
Them Being:
1.The Prophet-Kahlil Gibran
2.Essays on Aesthetics-Jean Paul Sartre
3.English Translation of the Adi Granth
4.Animal Farm-George Orwell(Brilliant is a grave understatement)
5.Paradise Lost-John Milton(")
6.Crime and Punishment + The Idiot- Fyodor Dostoevsky
7.Rashmirathi-Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'


P.S.Catch-22 is an amazing book.It personifies the term Dark Humour.

The School That Was,Is and Shall Remain

"DPS R.K. Puram has ranked first among the top 10 schools in India, in a survey conducted by IMRB International- India's No.1 market research agency (a constituent of WPP Group pic, London) and Education World.DPS R.K. Puram stood out on infrastructure provisions, quality of alumni, integrity/honesty, selectivity (in admissions) and parameters."

And thus the Dipsite conquered them all....

Ingmar Bergman(1918-2007)

Ingmar Bergman is dead.I saw 'The Seventh Seal' again and bits of 'Through A Glass Darkly'.Cinema has lost one of it's most prized directors.Bergman's movies were nothing short of art.The witch-burning scene of The Seventh Seal can move the hardest of men for it's strength lies in the eyes of the child to be burnt.The concept of playing a game of Chess with Death lacks originality(It's a part of Nordic folklore),but in it's cinematic form is brilliant.
INGMAR BERGMAN R.I.P.

P.S. The oddest and perhaps the saddest thing(for movie buffs)...Michelangelo Antonioni died on the same day.

Fuck You Okay??

VMC + LST + ADKTU

He who joins VMC and LST, is an idiot.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


Yesterday, I enrolled for LST's Plus programme. It's nothing extra or fancy. That's what they call their classroom programme.In the coming week,I'll be enrolling in VMC's correspondence programme. Thank God for regular names.

If a 'fucked up life' could ever be personified, this is it.


Ayush came up with a paradoxical question(unconsciously(OBVIOUSLY)).

Ayush V/s 'Excretally' challenged Southie (Sometime in May)

ECS: Jo bolna hai mujhe bol,meri family pe mat ja.
Ayush: Kyon be,tu apni family ka part nahin hai kya.

This reply may seem like one of the lamest comebacks ever,but delving deeper into this seemingly innocent question,you discover that it is in fact, THE question. It promises to shatter the foundations of logic. It is one the greatest paradoxes to be ever stated.Logicians like Godel would've wetted their pants if they weren't dead already. For my comrades(no communist feelings),logic is dead. It has been replaced by the Das Kumar Tiwari Usha school of Logical Negativism. Grunchspeak and ShitHeadThought is the order of 2007(Sorry George). A man,who puts you off track by growing breasts and singing 'Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha' while scratching his crotch, is in fact Big Brother. Men,he's watching you.Women,he's watching you in more ways than you can think of.If this made sense to you,go drown in the Arabian Sea,take birth again and kill me in your next life.

Mee Anjaney Das Boltoy

Tomorrow I shall not be here.
I shall be in the good land.
The dowry of Princess Catherine of Braganza.
Leased to the East India Company for 10 Rs.

Maximum city,here I come.

The Resluts

I got a 90%.That's Nice.

Here Goes:
Chemistry: 84
Physics: 85
English: 92
Maths: 93
Computer Science: 96

Domi doesn't noe

Been a long time since my last post.

6th May 2007,2:15 pm,UPSC office,New Delhi:5000 people. 2 hours.160 questions.80 seats.Concisely put,NLS.

The dreadful period of competitions is slowly waning.As is my hope of getting through somewhere.Sad.

For months now,I've been searching for 8 1/2,La Dolce Vita(Italian) and The Seventh Seal(Swedish).Futile. For instance,

Planet M, EDM:
Me: Do you have any Italian movie?
Salesman: No sir. We don't keep those kind of movies. You can find them in the store across the road.
Me: Look,I'm not asking for Porn.
Salesman: Oh! You want a real Italian movie? As in, one with Italian dialogues in it?


So, After many such futile searches, I finally resorted to the option I knew would fail:Palika Bazar.

For those unacquainted with Delhi, Palika is the biggest grey market in Delhi. From Undies to CDs, everything's fake(Fake undies are a scary thought;not so much with CDs). I went to the nearest not-so-shady-looking store called Electronic Zone. With half a mind to leave, I asked him if he had any Swedish or Italian movie.I knew,a nanosecond more,and I shall see those yellowed teeth leering at me.The response,those golden words, "Haan! Bergman ki mil jaayegi....italian mein movie ke naam batao". I wanted to hug the guy but realised that Section 377 of the IPC is still in force. 1 hour Later: "I met death today; we're playing chess".