“Ticking away, the moments that makes up a dull day”
Dull days always tick slower. It is an unwritten law of nature. Exciting/Fun/Any other day ticks much faster. I wonder why. It is probably psychological, but I’m not a psychologist or a therapist of any sort, so I doubt I should be dwelling on the weirder aspects of that.
Time is actually quite funny an aspect. I mean, do you know it exists unless someone told you how to read the days and how to look at a calendar. As a kid, you were told, “this is the minute hand, that is the second hand and the other is the hour hand”. I used to like the hour hand. It was small. I’m still small.
No seriously though. How do you know time exists? If someone hadn’t told me that time exists, I wouldn’t bother looking into it too much. Let us just say, I wouldn’t have been one of the “great inventors of the world”, even when there was everything left to be invented/discovered.
Discovery; it mostly happens by accident, and then the people who discovered it are revered and honored like Gods. I wish I could discover something. At most when I’m doing a problem in math, oh God, please let me discover that the answer in the text book is wrong. But no, God doesn’t grant me that wish either. I suppose there’s a reason for that. He probably may want me to prove that MATH DOESN’T EXIST!
*Insert funky Chinese Music here*
I have nothing against math. It is just that I could never do it right. I wouldn’t mind doing math if I didn’t have an examination to prepare for. I mean, it is pretty interesting isn’t it. You’ve to use your head a lot. Then again, I wouldn’t mind doing anything so long as I don’t have an exam to prepare for. Accountancy, Business Studies (Commerce, for those who haven’t read the name on the textbook), English (err) or Math, would be so much more fun.
You know what would be an effective way to grade you? Not telling you that they’re grading you and doing it in secret! Ah, that would be great; no one would pass/achieve great things. There would be no achievers and there would be no under achievers. There would just be people.
How I long for a time when people aren’t breaking their necks, just to prove that they’re better than the other person in the world. Actually, I’m not so sure I would want that, because that’s the primary element that keeps sports running.
Would Man U care to finish top in the table if it didn’t matter? No, I don’t think so. So it should be that it matters in sports and doesn’t matter elsewhere. Ah, what a life!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The most wonderful part of every year for me is without doubt, the monsoon. I love it when it rains. It rains almost everywhere in the world, but rain is most beautiful in Kerala.
My earliest memory of the monsoon is as a kid. When we used to get weekends off, on Saturdays, I would come to the front of the house and sit on the chair three times too big for me and stare outside at the downpour. I would prefer not to be disturbed while doing so, and the maid at home used to be a little concerned. I was probably around 5 (the furthest I can remember). How often do you see a five year old sit on the porch and watch the rain?
It used to be fantastic having to go to school in the rain. It gave me an excuse to get wet. Of course, I used to travel to school by an overcrowded auto rickshaw, but I did my best to get wet all the same. I would leave home wearing a new raincoat (I would invariably lose one every year), or with a new umbrella, either mum or dad escorting me to the front gate. Often I used to have my sister with me in the auto, but there was a period when she shifted schools, so I had to travel alone (ironically, there were about 13 people or so squeezed into the auto).
The auto driver would do his best to make sure that we kids wouldn’t get wet. There was a plastic sheet (blue in color and very dirty I might add) which used to cover both the entrance to auto and the “window”. I used to sit near the window because the sheet wouldn’t completely cover the window because up front the driver (his name was Sebastian) would have to stick his hand out occasionally to indicate the direction he was going to go in.
Of course, the most fun part of going to school was gone. The Physical Education period was gone, when we used to run like mad people on to the field and play a game of cricket. We couldn’t play cricket in the rain, and none of us were football crazy. So we used to sit in class and play indoor games, mainly ones that we made up. There was “chess” (not the real thing, but one that involved a 3 by 3 matrix drawn on a book and a few items such as erasers and sharpeners), Name Place Animal Thing (a fascinating game which increased my knowledge) and word ending (which could be played with normal words or with countries, places, etc). There was also the occasional rebel who used to run around the class and play indoor cricket with a few people he bullied.
Coming back to the topic, I wonder why people hate the rain nowadays. It makes life difficult in a couple of ways. It stops traffic, can cause power cuts (we didn’t have power for three days last year due to a storm) and generally make life hell. But isn’t that the wonderful part of rain, the fact that something as simple as water, can take you away from all these modern inventions and necessities and make you invent new (or recreate old) ways to entertain yourself?
I mean, last year, as I mentioned, we didn’t have power for three days. Terrible storm it was, it happened when I was out. I got wet obviously; I enjoy walking in the rain. Anyway, we didn’t have power, and so going online was ruled out, turning on the TV was ruled out. My source of music was cut off because the computer couldn’t be turned on. So what did I do, I called a friend over and we played scrabble. I practiced on my guitar more frequently. I wrote a couple of poems (about the rain, if you must know). And I also went for walks in the rain.
I love walking in the rain. It refreshes your senses and clears your thoughts. Of course, if you are walking in the rain, I recommend you wear three fourths or shorts. Do not wear jeans, the bottom will get dirty and it will just annoy you throughout your walk. Don’t wear sneakers, floaters are fine and preferably water proof ones. I mean the ones that don’t absorb water.
Walking in the rain in my opinion is the most effective way of relaxing. Especially in West Cochin, when it rains, it practically brings life to a stand still. So there’s very little traffic around, which is a good thing for your walks. No traffic, no noise, more time for thinking. Thinking about what you may ask. Anything, think about anything; The India US Nuclear Deal, the Railway Budget, your past, your future, your present or even why you like walking in the rain. For those who live in Kerala, if you haven’t tried it. Try it this monsoon.
While walking in the rain, you meet an occasional nut who will ask you why you’re walking in the rain and will suggest to a friend or relative that you are mentally unstable for walking in the rain. In Kerala, it is impossible for people to mind their own business. For example, yesterday mum looked out of the window and saw someone walking. The person looked like someone we knew, so mum thought it was him. The man came down the road leading to our place and mum shouts to dad “Just check if it is so and so.” It wasn’t so and so, it was probably some man walking to reduce his weight, something I might suggest to both mum and dad.
Anyway, the people who call you insane don’t worry about them. Just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re missing out on. What is better than walking in the rain is walking immediately after the rain, before the sun comes out? After the rain, there’s a beautiful smell that fills the earth. The smell supposedly attracts snakes, but I don’t care. I’m with the snakes on this one. The smell is heavenly.
For all those people who haven’t witnessed the Kerala Monsoon, I say, come down here and experience it. Its magnificent, it is beautiful. Do nothing other than stare at the rain falling down from the heavens.
My earliest memory of the monsoon is as a kid. When we used to get weekends off, on Saturdays, I would come to the front of the house and sit on the chair three times too big for me and stare outside at the downpour. I would prefer not to be disturbed while doing so, and the maid at home used to be a little concerned. I was probably around 5 (the furthest I can remember). How often do you see a five year old sit on the porch and watch the rain?
It used to be fantastic having to go to school in the rain. It gave me an excuse to get wet. Of course, I used to travel to school by an overcrowded auto rickshaw, but I did my best to get wet all the same. I would leave home wearing a new raincoat (I would invariably lose one every year), or with a new umbrella, either mum or dad escorting me to the front gate. Often I used to have my sister with me in the auto, but there was a period when she shifted schools, so I had to travel alone (ironically, there were about 13 people or so squeezed into the auto).
The auto driver would do his best to make sure that we kids wouldn’t get wet. There was a plastic sheet (blue in color and very dirty I might add) which used to cover both the entrance to auto and the “window”. I used to sit near the window because the sheet wouldn’t completely cover the window because up front the driver (his name was Sebastian) would have to stick his hand out occasionally to indicate the direction he was going to go in.
Of course, the most fun part of going to school was gone. The Physical Education period was gone, when we used to run like mad people on to the field and play a game of cricket. We couldn’t play cricket in the rain, and none of us were football crazy. So we used to sit in class and play indoor games, mainly ones that we made up. There was “chess” (not the real thing, but one that involved a 3 by 3 matrix drawn on a book and a few items such as erasers and sharpeners), Name Place Animal Thing (a fascinating game which increased my knowledge) and word ending (which could be played with normal words or with countries, places, etc). There was also the occasional rebel who used to run around the class and play indoor cricket with a few people he bullied.
Coming back to the topic, I wonder why people hate the rain nowadays. It makes life difficult in a couple of ways. It stops traffic, can cause power cuts (we didn’t have power for three days last year due to a storm) and generally make life hell. But isn’t that the wonderful part of rain, the fact that something as simple as water, can take you away from all these modern inventions and necessities and make you invent new (or recreate old) ways to entertain yourself?
I mean, last year, as I mentioned, we didn’t have power for three days. Terrible storm it was, it happened when I was out. I got wet obviously; I enjoy walking in the rain. Anyway, we didn’t have power, and so going online was ruled out, turning on the TV was ruled out. My source of music was cut off because the computer couldn’t be turned on. So what did I do, I called a friend over and we played scrabble. I practiced on my guitar more frequently. I wrote a couple of poems (about the rain, if you must know). And I also went for walks in the rain.
I love walking in the rain. It refreshes your senses and clears your thoughts. Of course, if you are walking in the rain, I recommend you wear three fourths or shorts. Do not wear jeans, the bottom will get dirty and it will just annoy you throughout your walk. Don’t wear sneakers, floaters are fine and preferably water proof ones. I mean the ones that don’t absorb water.
Walking in the rain in my opinion is the most effective way of relaxing. Especially in West Cochin, when it rains, it practically brings life to a stand still. So there’s very little traffic around, which is a good thing for your walks. No traffic, no noise, more time for thinking. Thinking about what you may ask. Anything, think about anything; The India US Nuclear Deal, the Railway Budget, your past, your future, your present or even why you like walking in the rain. For those who live in Kerala, if you haven’t tried it. Try it this monsoon.
While walking in the rain, you meet an occasional nut who will ask you why you’re walking in the rain and will suggest to a friend or relative that you are mentally unstable for walking in the rain. In Kerala, it is impossible for people to mind their own business. For example, yesterday mum looked out of the window and saw someone walking. The person looked like someone we knew, so mum thought it was him. The man came down the road leading to our place and mum shouts to dad “Just check if it is so and so.” It wasn’t so and so, it was probably some man walking to reduce his weight, something I might suggest to both mum and dad.
Anyway, the people who call you insane don’t worry about them. Just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re missing out on. What is better than walking in the rain is walking immediately after the rain, before the sun comes out? After the rain, there’s a beautiful smell that fills the earth. The smell supposedly attracts snakes, but I don’t care. I’m with the snakes on this one. The smell is heavenly.
For all those people who haven’t witnessed the Kerala Monsoon, I say, come down here and experience it. Its magnificent, it is beautiful. Do nothing other than stare at the rain falling down from the heavens.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
I've been pretty busy since the last post. Sleeping consumes most of my time. Fascinating really, how much I can sleep. I think I can quite a bit. I mean, I sleep in the afternoon. Sleep in the morning (for about an hour or two) and sleep at night.
And yet, I feel sleepy. Plus, the television has decided to show good movies. Oscar Fever. What a time.. geez.
Coming to the reason why I should be kept away from the internet. THE BOARD EXAM *dun dun dun*
The Board Exam was devised as a way to equally assess all the school leaving students of India. Very noble thought. Obviously, if colleges looked at your school leaving marks, "certain" schools would do their best to give you the highest possible marks.
It is not equally assessing shit. There are three sets for each paper. Everyone knows that. Set A, Set B and Set C, but that okay, because the questions differing in each set are pretty much the same level.
Whats NOT fair, is that there are three different papers ENTIRELY. They're called "Foreign, Delhi and Outside Delhi" (There's also the Compartment for those who are interested). I've got this book that has question papers of the past 6 years. Of these, it has the Delhi Papers and the Outside Delhi papers and the Compartment ones.
It doesnt take a genius to figure out the fact that the Outside Delhi paper is tougher than the Delhi Paper. Then I wonder, why does Delhi have a paper to itself? Because its the capital of the country. I would like a paper for Kochi, because, say.. its the Queen of the Arabian Sea. If there any CBSE Personnel reading this, please leave a comment and tell me why Delhi gets a separate paper. Is it too exclusive to fall under the Outside Delhi Category?
Screw the fact that papers are different. Our exams are subject to the "Human Element", as they say in our Business Studies Textbook. Meaning, our answer scripts are corrected by Humans. What Fun. That means, they could be in a good (generous) or bad (stingy) mood. Depending on your luck, you get a good examiner or a bad examiner. I pray I get a good one :D. Doesnt everyone?
Our papers, one year of hardwork (okay, maybe one month, one week or one day) are tossed around in these huge sacks and carried around from place to place. Who's responsible for the loss/destruction of the answer script. What does the CBSE care if one answer script is lost/destroyed? What does anyone care.
I might be overreacting (as most people who have already written their boards will say), but I would like to know the answers to these questions
PS: Fulham lost to Man U
late winner by Cristiano Ronaldo. Matchwinner
And yet, I feel sleepy. Plus, the television has decided to show good movies. Oscar Fever. What a time.. geez.
Coming to the reason why I should be kept away from the internet. THE BOARD EXAM *dun dun dun*
The Board Exam was devised as a way to equally assess all the school leaving students of India. Very noble thought. Obviously, if colleges looked at your school leaving marks, "certain" schools would do their best to give you the highest possible marks.
It is not equally assessing shit. There are three sets for each paper. Everyone knows that. Set A, Set B and Set C, but that okay, because the questions differing in each set are pretty much the same level.
Whats NOT fair, is that there are three different papers ENTIRELY. They're called "Foreign, Delhi and Outside Delhi" (There's also the Compartment for those who are interested). I've got this book that has question papers of the past 6 years. Of these, it has the Delhi Papers and the Outside Delhi papers and the Compartment ones.
It doesnt take a genius to figure out the fact that the Outside Delhi paper is tougher than the Delhi Paper. Then I wonder, why does Delhi have a paper to itself? Because its the capital of the country. I would like a paper for Kochi, because, say.. its the Queen of the Arabian Sea. If there any CBSE Personnel reading this, please leave a comment and tell me why Delhi gets a separate paper. Is it too exclusive to fall under the Outside Delhi Category?
Screw the fact that papers are different. Our exams are subject to the "Human Element", as they say in our Business Studies Textbook. Meaning, our answer scripts are corrected by Humans. What Fun. That means, they could be in a good (generous) or bad (stingy) mood. Depending on your luck, you get a good examiner or a bad examiner. I pray I get a good one :D. Doesnt everyone?
Our papers, one year of hardwork (okay, maybe one month, one week or one day) are tossed around in these huge sacks and carried around from place to place. Who's responsible for the loss/destruction of the answer script. What does the CBSE care if one answer script is lost/destroyed? What does anyone care.
I might be overreacting (as most people who have already written their boards will say), but I would like to know the answers to these questions
PS: Fulham lost to Man U
late winner by Cristiano Ronaldo. Matchwinner
Thursday, February 08, 2007
And the reds go marching on…
After the away defeat to Arsenal, it was up to the Red Devils to prove that one defeat did not see them slip out of the game.
Did they do it in style or what? Consecutive 4-0 wins in the premiership against struggling side
The second one was what shut up critics (maybe not ALL of them). They played a first half that was smudged because of referee Mark Clattenburg’s decisions. He had a tough time from the first whistle. Scholes going in for a few rough tackles early on. It is difficult for referee’s to hand out cards that early in the game. It would set a standard to which they would have to abide throughout the game.
However, Clattenburg got a few crucial decisions wrong. Henrik Larsson was fouled in the penalty box and a penalty wasn’t awarded to United. Clattenburg wasn’t placed very well for making that decision, but that’s not an excuse. Its his job to be placed correctly.
United Captain Gary Neville, for reasons best known to him, grabbed on to Spurs defender Chimbonda as a free kick came into United’s penalty box. I underline CAPTAIN, because Neville shouldn’t resort to such methods to hold off his opponents. Would you see John Terry or Steven Gerrard do that? And Neville has more experience than either of them.
Now the third decision. Ronaldo is such a convincing actor that when he dived, Clattenburg was SURE he was fouled and awarded United a penalty! Ronaldo converted, put United up. 1-0 united.
Halftime
Second half and United win a corner. Now, John Terry is in my opinion the best header of the ball presently. There are only three people I think are capable of winning a header against Terry.
1) Peter Crouch – because of his sheer height
2) Fabio Cannavaro – On his day
3) Stand up.. Nemanja Vidic
The way Vidic attacks the ball as its flighted by Carrick is a sight. He sees Ronaldo go for the same ball and decides, no no, this is mine. It found the back of the net.
The third goal, Paul Scholes, perennial, nearly made a mess of it. He does his best to screw up but the ball says, oh hell, I’m going in!
After three goals, Spurs marking was way off. Their defence was in shamble. A fresh pair of legs come on in the form of Louis Saha and picks out Ryan Giggs with a fantastic through ball. Giggs has only Robinson to beat, and he finishes.
United did make a few mistakes towards the end. Ferdinand gave the ball away to Keane, fortunately Keane couldn’t convert.
I also found out what position John O’Shea plays best.
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