Absolutist’s Day Out – Part 2

VERY IMPORTANT : If you are a student of my esteemed college – READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

“Riders on the storm,
There’s a killer on the road,
His brain is squirming like a toad,
Take a long holiday,
Let your children play….”

‘Longevity – predominantly, though not exclusively – is the prerogative of a literary school which is virtually non-existent today: Romanticism…Romanticism is the conceptual school of art…
Howard Roark laughed…’

The music is much more worthwhile listening to.
“Into this house we're born,
Into this world we're thrown,
Like a dog without a bone,
An actor out alone,
Riders on the storm…”
It’s a round white sun-mica coated piece of wood balanced on a tree stub – the traditional college canteen table. There are eight people sitting around it. A pile of bags rests on the centre of the table. All eight people have books open in front of them and coffee/tea somewhere nearby. None of them are doing what they appear to be doing.
“Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel…”

“Accha shon, magnetometer experiment-e tor M/Bh value koto eschhe?”
- “Aamar khata khule dekhene.”

Does he know what is M and what is Bh, what a magnetometer does? Does he even know the point of the experiment? The only thing he can do is act important and say things about which he has no clue.
“let it roll, baby roll
let it roll, baby roll
let it roll, baby roll
let it roll, all night long.”

“Ki holo, shob shomaye ghum ghum keno? Shara raat porechho nishchoyi?”
- “Na re, vodka hangover”
“ha ha ha, tai?”
What the hell is he laughing at? Look at him, in his excruciatingly yellow shirt with huge red and green checks. Works out everyday, talk about fast bikes and cars, carries an overtly expensive cell phone and hates to take money out of his pockets – your regular jerk. His only achievement in life is doing a rain dance with the gorilla (yes, I mean, the gorilla!) And what is that ‘tumi tumi’ thing? No wonder people suspect him to be gay. The first time I heard about him was when he had a crush on the most ugly girl in our class. Man…what a sad life!
“well, i woke up this morning, i got myself a beer,
well, i woke up this morning, i got myself a beer,
the future's uncertain and the end is always near.”

“Hi!”
- “Hi!”
“I’m organizing war-of-the-rappers, finally!”
- “Good for you”
God! More of his kind! As if one rapper was not bad enough, they are going to have battalions of them!

“Hey! Wassup??”
- “Nothing really. But we’ve got practice today, remember?”
“Hey, I really cant make it dude, I’ve got to meet this jazz pianist blah blah blah…”
Meet the legendary Marru jazz pianist! The most busiest person on earth. He suffers from a phase lag of two months. Any work given to him goes through a fortnight of contemplation, another of processing, another of complete erasure from memory, a week of recollection and the final week of actually doing something. He stands on a huge mound of arrogance, is a world record holder in boasting and gives most people he doesn’t like a very hard time. In a sentence, it’s very hard working with him. Does that bother me?...Naaah!

“If you wanna hang out you've got to take her out, cocaine.
If you wanna get down, down on the ground, cocaine.”
The canteen is such a sad place. Hadn’t it been for the cheap coffee, I wouldn’t think of coming here. Just look around, what a boring bunch of people! The Bcom guys, who stay in college from 10 to 4 just to ‘look’ at girls passing by hoping to get laid someday. The first years, who think they will not make to second year if they don’t study for the class test. Aha! How could I miss her – white top, red jacket and blue jeans. Probably the most glamorous girl in college. English Honours third year I presume. She is just perfect. I could stare at her all day…
“Layla, you got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.”

‘…He knew that the days ahead would be difficult. There were questions to be faced and a plan of action to be prepared. He knew he should think about it. He knew also that he wouldn’t think, because everything was clear to him already, because the plan had been set long ago, and because he wanted to laugh…”

Sigh!

Absolutist's Day Out - Part 1

VERY IMPORTANT : If you are a student of my esteemed college – READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

“..sho you see, the randome probe-a-bility dish-tribootion eez a phunction oph eksh gibhen by the dobol integral blah blah blah…”, the bell ended the agony. Place: room 42, Time: 1230pm, Subject: Maths (probability), Professor: A prospective farmer from the North 24-parganas who could not express any mathematical idea to save himself. The only time he used probability theory was ‘probably’ while buying cows to guess their virility. He had just joined as a part timer.
Prof.: Wheare were you for all this periods?? (there was a distinct tone in his voice of a farmer haggling over the price of rice-seeds.)
Me : Sir, you sent me out of class a month ago.
Prof.: Sho, aajke eshchho keno?? (just got a ten rupee discount on the price of a bag of seeds)
Me.:Thik achhe sir, porer din theke aashbo naa.
Prof.: Dekho, aamar aar tomar moddhe kono shotroota nei. (help, where are my cows?)
Me.: Yes sir, ofcourse not.
Prof.: Dekho class na kora bhalo noi, porer din theke regular class koro. (brilliant harvest!)
Me.: Cheshta korbo.
Last time I did his class, he did not like my guts, asked me to leave if I was not interested. Well…I left, obviously. Where do they get these people? He has a lot to learn.

This fat guy wobbles up to me and in his siren-like voice says, “kire? Porer din theke class korbi toh?” I head for the stairs, “Nah”. He gives an incredulous look, shrugs his shoulders and stares at a girl passing by.

Still walking down the stairs…it’s a long walk. The reading room on the right. A place haunted by academically frustrated individuals who try to show off their non-existent intelligence by staring at the thickest books available on the most obscure subjects in their curriculum. I hope they find peace someday.

Ah, the field, the sun! Damn those school children, always running about and screaming! I forgive them all, I feel like… A girl passes by glaring at me for a moment. What the hell! What did I do to her? Yes, I hate her character and the people she hangs around with but I never told her that directly. Maybe someday I will. Somebody has to bring her down to earth. Being a good singer doesn’t mean everybody has to worship her. Wannabe Indian Idol…that’s a laugh!

“Hey G, wait!” Why cant she just leave me alone for a while? Cant she see I’m not in the mood? “Do you know what happened in class blah blah, and he just screamed at her, blah blah”; “Tai, how interesting…ami icecream khete jachhi.”

If there is one thing that can soothe my nerves, it’s a bar of choco-bar. Just cant wait… Well, well…those three are sitting there as usual. No point approaching them, they behave very strangely when together. Sometimes I get free icecream treats from one of them though! Nah…I’ll just say ‘Hi’ and move on. One of them smiles and says ‘Hello’, the other two behave as if I do not exist. Who cares! Let me just have the icecream.

Aah! The smooth cream and sweet chocolate…A hand appears out of nowhere and grabs at my icecream. Oh, its that seahorse again. I snatch the icream way and look at her as if she was a seahorse. She is umperturbed, “I’m hungry”, she says in a slur which is hardly understandable. “Go get your own stick”, What a prick! She looks at me as if I was the most evil man on earth and oscillates away. That will keep her away for a few days!!

Thank god my icecream is over, there comes my overtly boring classmates. “Doing the class??”, I ask, hoping for a negative answer. “Na na, PKC’s class, cannot miss.” I don’t think I will survive Electronics. But there is nothing else to do, so might as well.

Room number 6 is already half full. Specially the front benches. There’s the daughter of the HOD, dressed strangely as usual and with a Margaret Thatcher look on her face. She thinks she has a great personality…that’s why she hates me. The fifth bench is always empty because people know that I sit there, behind everyone else. “Hi! Shor, Boshte de”, she just barges into the seat. Oh, now I have to listen to her blabbering. All that gossip and bitching, and ofcourse I’m the only one who would listen. Atleast I wont fall off to sleep.

God! Those two have started again. It is just so annoying to sit near them. They just cant keep their hands off each other.

One period later, room 43, maths again. She looks so much better after the holidays, new hairstyle, new wardrobe. MIT, Stanford graduate, currently doing research. Stuff of dreams. She is very good at what she does. Most people think I have a major crush on her…well, most people think I have a crush on a lot of people. No, but I admire her. She’s definitely better than that farmer.

That was a good finish to a day of expressing unparalleled contempt towards fellow humans. I think I’ll play basketball for a while and then leave…

LIVE!!

.

This was probably the best time I had on stage! Everything was so perfect! A great venue, a good crowd and a magnificent performance...you are looking at pictures from 'Live at Heritage Institute Auditorium'!!

The song list was mixture of some classics and other utterly worthless compositions:

• Coming Back to Life - Pink Floyd
• Bandeh - Indian Ocean
• Mama I'm Coming Home - Ozzy
• Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
• Aadat - Jal
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Greenday
• Raatri - Original
• Icche Dana - Lakkhichhara

I'm particularly not too proud about the last song, but sometimes you have to do stuff just for the crowd.

The ocassion was the Heritage Institute Freshers Party and I was the guest guitarist because apparently there is no bassist in the entire college!! But most people say that this isn't true and that I was invited because I'm a good friend of the college band members. Well, I'm still not convinced...not all colleges are as rich in musical talent as Xavier's!!

Our lead guitarist - Utsav.

And thats me...the Blazing Bassist!!

When the ambience is good you dont have to concentrate on playing, you start enjoying the whole performance. That's the good thing about this auditorium, its a cool place to perform at. The crowd was very annoying at times though, requesting Iron Maiden, Fossils, Megadeth, Hindi film songs and one guy even had the guts to request Bombay Rockers. That is sickening!! On the whole I had a good time. By the way I was a bit high during the performance on a couple of Crocins and a fever of 102 degrees!! Thats why I look pale and always in the same pose!!

Sorry for the poor quality of the pics...the a.c. was too strong and the camera-person was shivering in the cold!!

Bliss

Oh Well! The results are out…flunked honours paper 1 and barely passed paper 2. Probably got the lowest marks in class. But for no obvious reason I’m very happy, especially after knowing that I got zero in one section. Why do I have to study again?? “To earn lots of money”…Oh yeah, that one! Anyway, let that be. This not the first time that I flunked but definitely after a long time. Maybe that’s why I’m happy. Well, I really intend to study a bit this month…yeah rrright!

One of my jobless friends send me a “Numerology Chart Analysis” of my life. It was extremely annoying. Let me just quote a few lines…
“Everything that is you existed in potential, much like a play that is about to begin. Your entire life exists as a potential that has been prepared for. Gairik, you have ultimate freedom to do with your life as you like: To fulfill its potential completely, or to make some smaller version of yourself. It all depends upon your effort and commitment. You make the decisions to fulfill, to whatever extent, the potential life that exists within you. That is your choice.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean?? The POTENTIAL LIFE?? Where is the fun in that?
“Gairik, you are the philanthropist, humanitarian, socially conscious, and are deeply concerned about the state of the world. You have great compassion and idealism. You are a utopian, and will spend your life trying to realize some aspect of your utopian dream, sacrificing money, time, and energy for a better world.”
Concerned about the state of the world!?! Never thought of anything besides food, music and myself. Utopian Dream…what is this some kind of a joke??
“You have a broad outlook on life. You tend to see the big picture, rather than the minute details. The person with a 9 Life Path is rarely prejudiced or accepts social biases of people. Instead, they evaluate people on the basis of what they can do for the larger cause. Gairik, you are imaginative and creative, especially at harmoniously arranging the beauty already potential in the environment. You have a controlled enthusiasm and the ability to finish what you start.”
Weeeeeeeell, somewhat true!! :-)
“You are highly attractive. Many men with a 3 Personality are very handsome; women are often strikingly beautiful. Your vibration is full of life. You are uplifting, inspiring, and charming. You are a fun person to be around. Your wit and sparkling personality make you the life of a party.”
Whoah…that went a bit overboard. Hilarious even!!

It was a 16 page document covering every aspect of my life. Amazing, how much a person can tell from your name and birth date! What do you say? Isn’t it a bit corny?

Tomb Raider!

Thin white sun-rays were such a relief after the teasing bout of tropical rain. The bright green leaves were still full of water and there were huge water droplets dripping from leaf ends. It was mostly bright green or damp brown – huge tree trunks with a dense canopy of leafy branches. The sunlight was streaming in through every inch of void between the leaves, somewhat illuminating the sandstone path ahead of me. The path was almost overrun by very intimidating roots. They were huge, larger than the branches and looked like devilish serpents straight out of fantasy! It took me quite a while to negotiate the undulations and reach a small hillock in the middle of the dense rain forest. On top of it were several unnaturally large heads made of stone which looked very familiar. I learnt later that there were over 200 heads smiling peacefully and watching my every move. It was the ruins of an ancient civilization. Relics of a 12th century Hindu Empire built according to the whims of King Suryavarman II. The heads surrounding me were those of Vishnu of whom the King was considered to be an incarnation.

The temple complexes were huge, extravagantly built and intricately carved. What was most fascinating were the tree roots wound around the stone walls and doorways, pushing them out of place over the centuries. It was as if the forest was trying to reclaim what was rightfully her’s. The scene was straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. I was half expecting natives in war paint swinging through the trees and shooting poisoned arrows at me!!
Exploring the numerous shrines and dark chambers I discovered an abrupt clearing in the forest and the sight was just stunning. A huge temple complex, reflecting the red glow of the setting sun. Surrounded by a moat stood the most magnificent of Cambodia’s ancient temples – the Angkor Wat. It is an example of architectural and artistic perfection and has an aura around it matched only by the temples at Machu Picchu. The moat is crossed by a 200 metre-long and 12 metre-wide sandstone-paved causeway, lined with lions along its sides.
Entering the lower enclosure I was greeted by galleries of bas-relief. They represent “legendary and historic scenes for the enlightenment of the faithful.” Some of the scenes were pretty familiar : like the Battle of Kurukshetra, "The Churning of the Sea of Milk" and The Battle of Lanka. Others were not very discernible. The upper level was awe-inspiring! The gallery, named “the Thousand Buddhas”, dates from the Middle Period, when the prestige of Angkor Vat spread across Buddhist Asia. Over the course of time the faithful erected here a great number of statues of the Buddha in stone, wood or metal. There were rows and rows of statues neatly aligned and exquisitely carved. It was a great feat of faith and devotion.
Originally the principal sanctuary of Angkor Vat's uppermost terrace was open to the four cardinal points, and probably sheltered a statue of Vishnu, the supreme god of the temple. Later, when Angkor Vat became a center of Buddhist pilgrimage, the four entranceways into the central sanctuary were filled in with sandstone blocks; each of the newly constituted walls was then sculpted with a deep relief of the standing Buddha. In 1908 archaeologists opened the southern entranceway. In the place of any original Vishnu statue, they found multiple statue and pedestal fragments, as well as a sarcophagus. Further research carried out in the well of the central sanctuary in the 1930s revealed, at a depth of 23 meters, the temple's original foundation deposits: two circular gold leaves embedded in a laterite block! Very mysterious indeed!
Here, at the top of the most remarkable temple in Cambodia, I could see the sun setting behind a silhouette of tall trees. Who needs to go to Peru or Mexico, when we’ve got ancient wonders of equal stature in our own continent! Angkor Wat was absolutely mesmerizing but the jungle ruins were more alluring in a mysterious way. The moon was up now, reflecting in the wide moat surrounding me…It was time to go home…

For those who are curious to know – I have never been to Cambodia or anywhere near it but plan to go there as soon as my worthless graduation term ends!