STAR SIGNS AND THEIR ACCURACY!!

Recently I have been feeding my weird urge to read as many stuff on my zodiac sign.
I have continuously pouring over different sites which includes Linda good man stuff.
I have to admit, they are some what accurate in how they describe me.

Of course now I wonder is that just wishful thinking about how I want to be. I wonder if what ever I read is something that I wish or think I am and all these description is subconsciously twisted by my brain to appease me. If that’s the case, then whoever wrote this are the best at the business of suggestive writing.

But on the other hand, there are many things about the universe that isn’t known to us. Astrology in the end talks about the effect of different stars and constellations effect on human beings. We all are continuously being bombarded by rays from all these cosmos inhabitants. More comforting is the fact not any astrologers (professionally respected) tries to claim that zodiac signs have any connection to a supernatural being. It is a supposed science. So there is some validity in it. In fact I seem to agree with most of the description about my sign.

So what does all this mean to me?

I have found it all a bit comforting and giving clarity to what I am about and what I probably am. It gave base to some nagging suspicions I have about myself and confirmed some others.

Is this ok to do?

As some friends suggested you end up stereotyping yourself to situations and instinctly dealing with them.

So I guess I have to react to situations instinctively but immediately see if the description holds true then.

Let’s see what the stars make me do!!

The Cycle Trip

It was in the monsoon season 2005 and i was in my 3rd year of mechanical engineering. i studied in NITC ,an esteemed college, which has a lot of extra curricular clubs. One of these was the ADVENTURE CLUB. My good friend, who was the head of this club, organized a cycle trip from our college to a waterfall spot around 25 kms away.

There were 6 of us. 5 guys, 1 gal. The route was a scenic passing through small towns in rural Kerala. The flipside of riding through this scenic, rural atmosphere is that we get the amused, astonished and curious stares of the local inhabitants. I don’t think they have observed that many young people riding on bicycles with a backpack wearing t-shirts and three fourths. Needless to say, we were a sight for them too.

Around half way into our trip, one of our friends cycle got a puncture. Our initial rudimentary attempts at fixing it on the spot were very unsuccessful. i shall admit at this point my feelings for my good friend who organized the trip wasn't that good. Me and another of the adventurist decided to take the damn wheel and walked back to the nearest town where we hoped we might find someone who knew better how to patch a tire than us.
Of course once in the town, the sight of two long haired, unkempt youths wearing t-shirts, bermuda and carrying a tire along with them invited a lot of smart ass comments.

One such was “I think they fell off a plane"

The trip wasn’t that fruitful. The next step was that we had to bring the entire cycle back to the town. We went back, got our entire group together and started back. Of course we all were pushing our cycles.

Then it started to rain. The thing about rains in Kerala is they don't drizzle, they just don’t fall lightly. They pour. They pour so hard; you are wet to your undergarments’ in a minute.
There we can’t hope that we find a shelter and it will get over fast. It rains continuously for hours.
So now here we were 5 guys and 1 gal wet and walking. Shoes sloshing, specs fogged, feeling really cold. It was miserable at that point. But when now i think about it was fun.

So we walked in the rain all the way back, again inviting even more smarty comments about idiotic wet kids. We fixed the cycle and went all the way back to our college in this rain.

It was miserable then, but fun when you think about it now.

Of course a week later my good friend did the trip completely with out interruptions. i decided not to join.

Because it was raining!

Arrested Flight

Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time is moving slowly

Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time is sailing further away

Tick… I am Bored
Tock…. I am still bored.

Birds, weather, landing gear crappy..who know?
But for some reason… my flight at ‘Tick’,
Doesn’t even come for ‘Tock’

Tick… I open my book
Tock….I don’t wanna read it.

Tick…. A plane lands.
Tock…..Not my flight.

Tick…… I look at my watch
Tock……Only a minute gone


I can’t count ticks and tocks in 40 minutes
But I realize there are 2400 of them.

Tick … I see a pretty girl
Tock…..I see her beefy boy friend

Tick…. I order coffee.
Tock…..I order another.

Tick ….. I get an SMS
Tock……I get another bloody one.

The time kept ticking away
Till all seemed rather surreal.


Then the fight landed!

I HELPED!

Most of us have really pumped up opinions of ourselves. We have images and notions in our end about how we would act in face of certain situations. We imagine ourselves fighting off a mugger, intimidating an eve teaser, saving some one from a fire or some other danger. I dream and have notions of myself about such stuff. I assume most of us do. Most of us pass our lives never getting an opportunity to test it out. But a recent experience made me wonder. Is it that we don’t get chances or that we do but we fail to meet the expectations of our notions or worse we decide to not recognize such opportunity due to the inconvenience it causes us. I fear it is the last.

I believe people do the latter cos they are sure if they do recognize they will end up proving their notions wrong. So rather than face such truths, people rather act as if particular situations don’t meet their specifics. They console themselves that a particular situation can be ignored as it doesn’t rate the magnanimity of their time. Maybe I am being too harsh but the harshness is needed cos that is what probably will jolt people out of their false reality.

The incident which resulted in such reflection was simple. I was passing by the road to go to the laundry, where upon I cam across this female sprawled on the road. This road wasn’t deserted. For those who are familiar with the area, it was directly in front of a restaurant near lokandwala circle in kandivili. People are not gathering around her. They stand at what they believe safe distance and observe her. People like me pass by, see her, make a wide arc around her avoiding what I believe was some aura she was emitting. To summarize what was happening, it was walk, stare, avoid, stare some more and walk away.

Sadly to say, this is what I did initially, I saw her, walked by her, stopped and stared and walked away. All this while I was convincing myself like all the others who passed by with excuses. “It is the police or municipalities job”, “probably a drunk”, “some one must have called the police already”, “maybe she is dead already, shouldn’t get involved”. Telling myself these seemingly valid excuses, I continued down to the laundry. But due to a nagging conscience, I tried to pass the buck. I told the laundry guy that there is some woman sprawled on the road, she might need help. He took this news as I expected him to and answered as I expected “it is the municipalities’ job”. Then my mind started negating all excuses. If it’s the municipalities’ job, how do they know some is sprawled? How do I know for sure it is a drunk and if she is ok? How can I be so sure that some one might have called?

All these thoughts was churning on my return trip. I saw that the lady was still lying there. Then I decided to do something, I found the police emergency no and called it. Gave the description of situation and where she can be found. I waited in the general area until the police van came. They attended to her. I decided I should approach the cops and identify myself as the caller. They took down and my name and address. I wondered what the need of that is. There was a worry it would trouble me. But the biggest kicker of all in this situation was that the female was indeed drunk. My battle with my conscience was for some drunk.

But in the end I was happy. Even though late in reacting I did stand for something of what my notion of myself demanded. Of course I should have reacted faster and immediately. I am still ashamed that I had to convince myself into acting. But I least I am glad I acted.

I now wonder did the others who passed lost the same battle, or consoled themselves in the way I initially did or didn’t even bother to face such a battle and pushed it out of their minds

I ask those were not present there, what would you have done?

Cheated

Some body made a promise to me. 4 hrs later he broke that promise with a remark ‘promises are made to be broken’. The feeling I felt then was the pinnacle of series of frustrating feelings I had been feeling over a period of two months at the end of which I was cheated of 15000/- of my money. I was naïve. I did a lot of mistake dealing with the guy. I have been a fool. All this doesn’t mollify the anger I feel at being cheated.

The kicker is he could have only cheated me of 11,000 of my money but simple nature of giving benefit of doubt to people was taken so much advantage of that I ended up giving him 4000/- bucks more as bail money. Why bail money? Well the guy was a drunkard. He was basically trying any ways to get money to get booze. And he used to end p in trouble because of his drunkenness. Police came knocking on the door, dragged him away. I ended up paying the bail money. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t.

Even as I write this, I feel anger and also a bit of hope. A hope in honest nature of people. That said, I have become so untrusting of people. I am now looking at all dealings with a fear. I don’t like this fear. Probably this is a rude and painful way to make me learn about not being too trustful. To have any transaction in writing. To not expect people are as straight dealing as you are.

But no matter how much learning I may have from this bitter experience. It still hurts and I so badly want revenge.!

LINES

Simple lines drawn over a plain surface. Life is full of simple lines. They say there are no curves. Just a merging of simple lines. Every thing in life is simple lines. To see what’s at the end of the curve requires just to follow lines.

Lately whenever I am bored, I just draw a random line. Then using this line I build on some shape. The shapes mostly don’t have any meaning. Some times they take some shape. People say the shapes are a peek into what’s going on in my mind. I really don’t know what to say to that. I nowadays really don’t know what’s going up there myself.
But I do know that drawing these lines relaxes me. I let me direct all nervous energy and thought to a paper.

I been lately doing the above a lot these days. Nowadays I kind of wonder people whose work involve drawing lines, about how much relaxed must they be. The truth could be far from what I am thinking. Their lines may not be random. They may not start with a couple of random lines. Even if they do, theirs must make sense at the end.

Or do they?

Architects, fashion designers, stylist, car designers, interior designers etc etc. I wonder what fun or tranquility they would be experiencing. If they are not, what feeling, they should be experiencing.
Now I am curious. What do they experience when they make those lines? And what do they experience when those lines become some hard object they can feel with their hand. Is what they feel then something real strong?

Some may ask me why I aint in those fields.

Simple fact is , many can draw a line. Few can even make some shape of the lines. A small percentage can only make that shape mean something to the rest.

I am not in that percentage.

So I rather sit and draw lines on my own for my own viewing and tranquility. At least I know I get peace from them even if the professionals may not. But I think never will experience the feeling when you see your lines on paper as something 3D.

But one can still dream and hope.

The robbery

Yesterday while going back home, I witnessed my first crime. A simple robbery.
The perpetrator supposedly snatched something from a lady in the bus and escaped.

Some of you may be surprised how I in my 23 years of existence never witnessed one before. Simply because of my 23 years of existence , 18 were spend in an Arab country where thieves once caught ended up losing a limp as punishment. Anyway back to the account.

I should feel sorry for the lady, but frankly I was excited and impressed by the simplicity of the robbery. The bus was traveling on the highway. The perpetrator after snatching some thing from the lady jumped the bus, casually ran across the highway to the opposing traffic lane and crossed that and hopped behind a biker who was waiting for him and drove away. It was obvious at that point they choose that spot because of the speed of the traffic and presence of the bus stop. The entire crime took him like 15 seconds from point of snatching to escape on bike.

I have always hoped to witness some crime. Simply because I always day dreamed to be jumping to the rescue and saving the day. Well in this case, before I could even realize what was happening, the bugger was across the road and approaching the bike. I was watching all this inside the bus talking to some one on the phone.

Damn I didn’t have sense and jump out the window. Damn there was no abandoned vehicle nearby for me to give chase. Damn the robber for not stopping and showing his arrogance, during which time I would have been ready to chase him.

Anyway most of us in the bus just stared dumbfound, some of the fellow passengers chattering something in Marathi. After a few minutes, we continued on our way, the incident mostly forgotten. I too could have. But I decided to pen it down would be doing justice to that lady.

Of course my motions would have been totally different if it was from me something was stolen. I would probably want to murder the guy. But he made a wise decision and went for the lady’s stuff.

Suffice to say I am glad I decided to go by bus that day!