Fact of the file: The concept of queues has evolved to reinforce discipline in an unruly group. Agreed! However, sublimaly it also indicates us to respect the preceding person , who planned to arrive ahead of us and must have adjusted his or her schedules inorder to be on time at a certain place, which cannot be encroached by elbowing your own way in a crowd. This ability to conveniently grab other person's planned time cannot be deemed as smart and its sheer cheating. No matter how many propogate the idea of being street smart is better than being sincere. I stongly endorse the latter, as it induces a degree of satisfaction for being who you are and not hijacking somone else's time. Thus, it makes us a holistically better person instead of a surface levelled get-the-job done attitude. By this, i do not mean to undermine the outcomes of smart, for being that witty and spontaneously active person will only augment the sincere ground you would have set and ease your job in further activities. It is sad to see the state of affairs in many public locations, where a person attempting to queue up remains alone, often trumped by the hyped smart genre. A recent incident at the Hyderabad airport instigated me to write this post, when a decently educated and civilized looking woman overtook me in the check-in queue just like that, coz I was held up for less than 30 seconds while scurrying my bag for the ticket. When I reminded her about the existence of a queue system, she sounds apologetically naive and reasons that "I thought you stood here just like that". Yes, she is right - I come all the way from the other end of the city to stand in an airport check-in queue just like that. Now, the strangest part is she continuing to be the same and managing to get away before me with the same attitude and not a single trace of guilt even after being told. Thats cool you see! Folks! wake up - its a passe to grab your neighbour's planned time and you are only an illegal entry into the disciplined environment and might even be knocked out.
Here's a list of things I keep experiencing and hearing quite often. I leave the interpretation to my readers, as they are very subjective/
You are a sinner if you have not .....
- pulled all-nighters for essays
- felt serendipitous moments of intellectual jolts
- found the clicking argument of your thesis in sleep or during strage moments of a day (including the biological process of mal extraction :P)
- realized that coffee is your best friend for brainstorming
- drawn into the pull of deep thinking, while talking something else
- been blamed for going into a shell for an awakening and flying out wild after you satisfy yourself
- been awake anytime before 1 am and wake up at 2 am to jot down a new idea
- felt a strong desire to loose track of time and be lost in a space of thoughts
- craved to get critiqued to elicit and squeeze the grey matter firmly
- experienced to stay up late in library, in a hope to find yet one more journal to strengthen your reseach paper
- self-doubted yourself for an non-stimulated thoughtful action
well...social life had its own share
- seen plays at Oxford playhouse
- made it to BOPs
- dined in atleast 3 different colleges per term
- heard the famous Oxford Union debates
- met even a single celebrity or genious student
- punted across Isis
- visited London impulsively
- gone for a run aimlessly to exercise that mind
.....more later
From Rushdie to Recent lawsuit on FB/Google - Censorship reigns failing the nation in its freedom of expression!
I chanced to watch a play - The Heart of Robinhood by David Farr, as seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in StratfordUponAvon. Agreed that, this is not a play by William himself, but this was less to none. The story is about the princess who stole the heart of Robinhood and how she manages to win his love. I saw the play in a more comical light, with brilliant performances by every actor.
The story line premises in a forest (for our very Robin) and a castle where the princess lived. So, the set designers crafted the stage in a super-smart way that it serves dual purpose. For the first time, I have seen the set to play such a major role often offering surprises and swallowing a few unneeded characters. It supported the swings, the ropes, a small water pool, burrows, confession boxes, royal pedestals and everything else required for story. This was complemented by the light and sound effects too.
An impressive ingredient of the play was the human made-up animals, where artists with music instrumental skills played amazingly well, disguising themselves as a dog, a swan and a wild bear. In order to justify the sounds of the animals, they played musical instruments that barked, roared and quaked convincing the audience in a musical way.
The humorous lines were right in proportion and made me wait for the comedians to reappear, for their witty silly lines certainly made the audiences cheer together. Also, other emotions of Anger, frustration, Smugness, Love, Desire, Concern were expressed very diligently and I was intrigued on how the ENTIRE cast marveled at all of them.
The 2.5 hour long play was weaved neatly, allowing a good coherence between the scenes. I hardly found any loose hanging threads and more than anything, the play's brilliance has drawn me into its power of drama.
A great show to look for and worth its pricey ticket for a student :P
I know that I am restarting to blog with such a strange topic after a long hiatus. Nevertheless, that’s what has been lingering in my mind for the last few days and hence decided to break the ice with my interesting Oxford experiences so far.
As a graduate student of Oxford, I am expected to research in a highly demanding learning environment. This simply translates to unlimited reading and referring of literature from books, journals, articles in print and electronic copies. So, librarians play a vital role for us to do this reading seamlessly. Let me share that their job is not just to stack and sort the books, but to actually bear the torch for us in our darkest reading alleys. Libraries are the second homes for us here and librarians ease the stay with such invaluable assistance.
Libraries at Oxford offer vast collections of print copies that are diligently catalogued, such that we search for the copies through the centralized library portal. By this search, we primarily learn their location, code, and availability. This search can start from a basic query moving to inter- disciplinary, inter-library, open source databases, and many more repositories. Surprisingly, all the librarians are knowledgeable enough to guide us instantly on the type of search query to be used in order to find a particular book. This is especially handy during our essay crisis time, when we relentlessly read through the entire academia in a time-crunching scene.
Furthermore, librarians conduct several workshops to aid the students find the needed learning resource easily. For example, I've attended a session on Search skills that taught us on strategies (science) of searching and setting a direction for building our future bibliographies.
Talking about their subject expertise, as the entire university operates on various departments; the concerned librarians specialize in the related subjects and guide students instantly. For instance, I have met a Life Sciences library, who was affluent about the medical science books and could rant the sources amazingly.
Another interesting dimension is their latest technology inclination, where they strongly endorse about e-books and even introduced a scheme to loan e-book readers in order to promote e-reading.
Each of them is so impressive that you cannot for a second, mistake them to be trivial, since they talk straight sense. In the initial days, I was puzzled when the past students were appreciative of librarians….now I experience what they did!
He has been ill for the last 2 months and was diagnosed with a rotten gall bladder. Not withstanding the pain and delay of slow-medication, he went on to a premier hospital in the city for a check up, which later turned out to be an emergency situation.
Being a person of crowds, he couldn't adjust to the hospital environment, where he was confined to a small cozy room. He is familiar with living in groups, in a palace like house with numerous relatives scurrying in and out every week and now he is in a secluded room, with visitors limited to one at a time on any given day and time. More than the physical sickness, he was unable to take the Hospital psychosis that kicked in, as he is deprived of people around him.
After less than 2 full days of hospitalization, his mind started wandering relentlessly; tiring him and making him vulnerable to neurological disorders. He succumb to the fear of pain, death and orphaning his people. After consciously battling with Amnesia, Dementia ..he finally gave in for Parkinsons.
Yes, he was well aware of what he is getting into and hence made deliberate attempts not to loose his memory and social behavior. I could see both the shades creeping into him one after the other. If he failed to recognize his people at a stage, he strained his memory to recall the names the very next moment and strangely could spell out their surnames. He recalled bits of his life details and finally gave up.
He lost his words, his thoughts, his actions, and finally his senses. To control his aggravated behavior, physicians have sedated him heavily and they could succeed only after the 3rd injection. He lay still on the bed and his mind was (in a way) force-stopped to think and act. His vitals started depleting and so did our hopes. He was taken into ICU and the life was on the digital boards. We were more than anxious and the entire family came together to face the situation. The beauty of family had then surfaced, to stand for each other and support in every possible way. Every minute mattered and every night was a nightmare as the doctors had called it a Danger-zone with bare minimal chances of survival. He neither responded to medicines nor to the pricks of needle for blood test. He lay still on the bed for 2 days now and then a miracle had to happen.
His youngest son who lives in a distant foreign land arrived and barged into the ICU. He saw his dad lying dormant, living on artificial limbs. He couldn't take it..and shook him in vain, in a hope to respond to his teary eyed plea. After repeated trials, a slight trace of eye ball movement was noticed by his son, which was deep-suspected by everyone. The night passed on and never seemed to end for us, who were simply awake imagining the forthcoming times.
Few youngsters tried to lighten the grim face of the entire family, but nothing could help until the next day morning.
It seems, the patient had shown some stimulus that night and the life boards started beaming the readings with pride. A group of attendants were waiting outside the ICU, in a hope to catch a glimpse of this suddenly recovering phenomenon.
One of this is me, a granddaughter of the Him I've been ranting about. My taatha (Grandfather) is an 83 year old walking encyclopedia, who replaced my Dad a decade ago. Since then, I grew special bonding with this noble man and this write-up is a narrative of the very recent tragic incident that had blown the family.
Flying back to the ICU, we bribed the security guard to let us inside one after the other and my turn too came by. I walked in to see an extremely tired human figure lying on the bed with hands arrested to the bed. He had his eyes partially opened and an oxygen mask against his mouth. When he saw me, his eyes gleamed and the face tried a faint smile. He was trying to convey something vague, but I could connect my dots with "UK, Oxford, Visa". Bang! he recovered his memory and has definitely come back to us. I saw him nearly dying the previous day and now he started being a (little less than) normal, and each one of us were found in a pool of relieved tears that the person is gonna live. At that aha-moment, I did not want anything but my grandfather to breathe normally. Each one of us came out only to find out that tears were certainly rolling down our cheeks and all of us sighed a deep relief!
Grandpa, at the age of 88 still remains the same loving husband with his amnesiac wife, who often forgets to live the life. On a certain day, she forgot where she last placed the kit of her daily medicines. He searched nook and corner of the place and finally succeeded to trace it right under her pillow. He gave her the medicines and comforted her to sleep. Later, he told me that it’s an everyday affair to search for the kit!
A royal owner of a brand new Fiat car, who drives away in his new possession with great pride, is found in different perspective. People always framed him to flaunt his super-ego attitude, but this incident changed my opinion. I chanced to meet him at a movie theater, where he was found helping a physically challenged person. This person had to walk 1/2 kilometer to cross the road, as he could neither step up the foot-over bridge nor jump off the mini-divider in the middle of the road. So, this Fiat owner offered lift in his car and drove him to the other side only to drop him. I later learnt that the challenged person was a complete stranger!
An uncle organized a great get-together for his daughter’s homecoming. She came home after a long trail of marital issues. Let me tell you that the uncle simply recreated her childhood, so that she can turn a new leaf. He co-ordinated with few close friends of hers and got the entire bunch together. He arranged a reunion meet of her classmates, teachers and childhood friends. What a warm welcome!
On the account of some birthday party, one of my friends who is known for his sleazy attitude had suddenly seemed appealing for once. This is purely because of the way he was handling a tiny tot. He seemed such a charmer with children and I was definitely flattered by the way he pampered and played with the kid. I could surely find the mellowed version of this rugged person who he usually is.
Many more wonderful beings exist in and around us and if noticed make us smile :-)
! -- an amateur short story--!
It was 7 am on a Saturday morning, when I rushed to the nearest Raitu bazaar (local vegetable market) to pick up fresh vegetables. In the hustle-bustle of the busy market, I was helping my Aunt select the best brinjals, when I chanced to see someone noticeably outstanding in the crowd.
He was clad in a simple cotton blue striped shirt and a jeans. He seemed to be quite acquainted with the farmers who smiled and served him with admiration. At the corner of his eye, he certainly smiled at me just like how he did at many others. I was certainly bowled by that brilliant and chivalrous upward curve of his lips. It was no ordinary, since he spelt some magic and consequently my eyes just followed his footsteps. He looked pretty average with light brownish complexion, but carried a mysterious charm that intrigued me for the rest of my time at the market. I was only physically standing next to my Aunt, but my heart was busy longing to catch a glimpse of him.
I tried to maneuver my way through the crowd, so that we are always standing at a visible proximity to him. I knew that he is aware of my stare and could sense that he looked away, as if oblivious to my vibrations.
I was slightly dejected at this negligence, but was not disappointed and further my heart demanded a smile from him. I was not ready to give up and hence convinced my Aunt to buy vegetables at those specific stores where he passed by, so that I will be graced of a quick glimpse, for that smile simply haunted me.
In a hurry not to miss him, I lost my track and my eyes displaced him in the sea of consumers. No sooner that my Aunt declared that we were heading home, I started to wish for a last gaze in an attempt to embark the smile for some time. My eyes sifted the crazy crowd in all directions, but luck was not in my favor. He seemed to have left the place, but he infected me with his smile, which I continued to show up on who ever crossed my way.
When I was about to leave the premises of the market, I suddenly sensed a strange familiarity behind me that made me turn back and you know what usually happens :-). Needless to say that, it was him standing near the entrance, smiling at me and only me!!
My heart missed a beat when I first saw you in the much acclaimed DDLJ. I kept on re-watching the movie in a hope to find the lost beat, but could never succeed till date. With your every new movie, my love grew by leaps and bounds and yearned for more of you.
Did you know that I actually wrote about you in my intermediate English essay, claiming you to be the most talented and lovable actor ever? Back then, people named my adoration as infatuation, which I totally agree with, but apparently the attraction lasted so long and will continue to continue.
Hrithik's entry raised few apprehensions about your existence, but I was so confident of your undisputed charm and prevalence that none could replace. Your KKHH, Dil tho pagal hain and Pardes have left all the old and new bunch of actors behind, raising you to the King Khan status.
Your flirting stares and magical sensuous interactions with Kajol in many movies made me dream about my dream man with many similarities. People then called it cliched to like you anymore, but your Dilse once again smashed all the remarks and you took the high pedestal of bollywood.
With time passed by, you faced your share of failures but that did not inhibit your spirit. Your Swades and Chak de reminded audiences of your natural talent as an actor who comes without a Godfather in the Bollywood.
You may not dance as good as your contenders , but does grooving alone makes a movie hit? You simply dispelled the idea of a ideal hero who is muscular and can dance around the trees. You proved that average looks combined with strong roles and performances can spell bind the viewer. Many of my age dislike you, as you seem to cast roles that are younger to your age, how does that matter anyway? I am blind to your flaws and still adore all your roles in nearly all the movies.
This space may not be sufficient to talk about you, but to end it..I've been to your Mannat recently and spent an hour on the beach road waiting to catch your glimpse. I could actually feel a strong invisible connection like million others who pass by your place.
Thanks to my cousin vineetha (who incidentally dreamt that you asked her for a date), who made this possible to wait for you in front of your home while having a tasty elaichi tea.
A never ending battle, a legalized crime, a civil movement for a right to live - racism as they call it, is the discrimination between white and black. Few countries advanced in including a couple of favorable laws for those with darker skin tone. But what about the mind set change? Can they ever achieve it?
In the Indian context, I want to change all those color blinded hearts and minds that usually demean and undermine the dark colored. Generations passed by and I still notice concerned mothers pleading their dark skinned daughters to apply a fairness cream. I would have better understood skin nourishment, but not this fairness mania.
A stigma engulfs when a dark baby enters this world and it worsens if it is a dark female child. What on earth is stopping the child to grow normally as others?
Have they ever considered our geographical-tropical locale of the country that lies next to equator? The ever darkening skies induced by UVB-radiation resulting in the production of melanin. Now, this pigmentation is sent down to generations without the knowledge of the future borns. Whom do I blame?
Fuelling the fire are the super-creative commercials that go on to label the dark as losers. They must be banned ruthlessly in the lieu of Complexion insult or discrimination.
Next, comes the clan of dreaming-big grooms who want nothing less than a super-fair lady. I agree looks matter to a few, but what is it to do with super-fairness shade?
It is unfortunate that many still look at the dark melanin in the foreground, neglecting the bright intellect in the background. I seriously wish to see a change in frame of mind that embraces black as white.
