Fudge for thought #8: Moral Victories

"In defence of those who come ill prepared during exam, aren't we the people that are actually trying to apply our brains and use actual common-sense and logic to tackle the questions rather than rote learning entire answers and spewing them out? Isn't that the point of a 'test' ?

In the Heart of Darkness

“Hear your general!“ , he shouted and so he began:

“Now go forth comrades into the heart of darkness

Where you shall find floods of blood and piles of flesh;

And you will feast upon them.

They will come running towards you like a pack of hounds

 But you are stone, with heart of gold and prepared to sacrifice.

It is not a question of victory or defeat; it is now a test between courage and cowardice.

It is the question of your dignity and loyalty.

We may be outnumbered, but we have the zeal,

 And something that will rival thousands of mere flesh and mortality,

The fact that we fight together, as brothers, as equals.

Now march forth into the heart of darkness,

Hand in hand, shoulder by shoulder.

The objective is clear and the time is near.

Now march forth into the heart of darkness;

March forth into the hallowed halls of legend. 

A game of life

Hear Ye ! Hear Ye! and play the game of life !

T'is a game of marvel, wonder and rife !

yes you and you! , the little boy in blue, come and join the ride !

Enter a world full of challenge, for food, shelter and care

But beware;  it'll start easy but later you might feel a tad uneasy

For you will compete against a world, full of obstacles and people against ya' !

T'is the race for position and reputation !

You feelin' scared you say ?!?  But you haven't heard the reward ?

a time of enjoyment ! , pots of gold, and nobody looking at ya twice to steal y'er loot.

and for the victor of victors,

A day in Paradise, full of lush and green, cascading rivers of heavenly beauty !!!

So boy, don't think,  and hitch a ride !

or else,  make way for the one on your side..........

Fudge for thought #7: Best survivor

"Darwinian evolution says that the best survivor is the one who adapts to its environment, but Humans in the modern age seem to be an exception. So who is correct ? "

Fudge for thought #6: Irony of blogger

"The word blog actually registers as a false word......on Blogger"

Fudge for thought #5: Nice Guys

"What kind of a world we live in, where being 'good and honest' (countlessly told in our mythology and scriptures) in reality could be actually a bad thing ?"

Fudge for thought #4: Ideal person

"Before feeling disappointed over an uninterested crush, ask yourself this:

 would you have been the best person for her/him? "

                                   

Why Do We Care ?

"My age old question"

There are many times where I often feel that my actions are somewhat very highly influenced by people around me, friends, family and people close to me in general. Its like they have this sort of hold on me (which I think is pretty much in my head, but I feel nevertheless). For example, if I do something that my friends don't like, I try to change immediately and feel quite sad about myself as if I am a disappointment to my peers and parents and myself in general. And during these quite sporadic phases in my life, I always wondered, Why do we even care about other people in the first place

In my opinion there are two qualities that makes us 'humans' different from 'animals' which are: Imagination/Creativity and the other is the fact that we are the only species that cares or at least thinks about the person other than yourself, which is beyond basic survival instincts, that we share with our distant relatives.

For many of us, things matter, people around us and what they think, matter. There is this constant need to be the best of our potential, and contribute back even if its as small as adjusting a little bit of ourselves to conform to social needs. These things truly accentuate the adaptive ability of humans, we can adapt to anything and everything, it is what made us the most advanced form of life on the planet. But what makes it different and special in this context is that these adaptive changes are made by choice, consciously by us.

It seems that with the evolution of the mind, we have also become more complex as living beings of this earth. Our needs surpass than that of hunger, thirst, clothing and shelter. For we need affiliation, we need someone to fall back on, to trust, to love and to care for. We want someone to be there for us as much as the person wants you to be there for him/her .And you can be damn sure that each and everyone of us will do(and probably does) everything to keep those ties intact. And we feel bad when we are not able to deliver, we feel inadequate, incomplete and a sense of disappointment eclipses us, even when we try to ignore, it just sort of comes back and haunts.

Which again brings me back to the fact that we want to contribute back to society, even if its as small as just listening to a friend talk for half-an-hour, of things that could be out of your comprehension. One becomes the greatest laughing stock of the century and tolerates since one realises that 'you know at least my friends are happy and not cursing me or wishing something bad to happen to me'. Caring is a choice that we make as social beings, to spend our energy thinking about others viewpoint and lifestyle as well, to appreciate those who support you and to support those who are in need of your help. We want to know how other people view us as a person and want to know whether we are contributing or not. If not, then we try to work upon it.

Then comes the question, that amidst all the people and their opinions and the process of trying to be 'better', how do we know that we are not losing ourselves(and what makes us unique) during the process? How much do we allow our surroundings to mould us into something that we are fundamentally, not? That is a question for another day.

Fudge for thought #3: Ideas

"Do ideas come from inspiration? or does it emerge from the questions that we ask ?" 

Fudge for Thought #2 : Marks Race

so when you are in the last year of school, on the verge of entering into the 'real world, all of a sudden there is the huge rambling about marks and how much it matters how high you score. Everyone expects a high score out of everybody ! 

But imagine a point in the future where everybody is scoring full, 100% and loaded with A's. Well then what will happen is that the 100% will become the average and since the position in colleges will reduce drastically, to distinguish the smarter they will have to up the marking scheme over the 100% bar to something higher. Thus we enter into an endless, vicious race for marks which really is as good as a dog running after its own tale. 

Just a thought..........

Happy Birthday

So today is my birthday and I turned 17 today !

 Its so amazing to have a day every year to have an excuse to go crazy, have a crap ton of gifts before reality hits you in the face. So we should all have fun on our birthdays while it lasts cause it is really one of the days that you are really 'on the top of world'

 

Who needs Horses?

"Who needs Horses when you can ride Dolphins !!"

Fudge for Thought

Be like an Island

Be like an island, in the middle of the open sea;

whose shores gives refuge to sailors after harsh waves.

Be like an island, in the middle of the open sea;

whose trees provide food and shelter to those who come by.

Be like an island, in the middle of the open sea;

whose lands give you the hope to return.

The Truth Of Life

"The 'modern' life summed up in this 2 minute video"

True story isnt it

The Fault In Our Stars

" OMG! him copying a title from a John Green novel!...Blasphemy!!! "

Ever had the feeling when you thought, maybe I was born in the wrong the house and my parents don't feel like they should have been my parents? Its often a situation where a story of 'an infant baby being taken to the wrong home' does not feel that outlandish any-more. We feel like our purpose lies elsewhere and there this that inner eagerness to just run away and explore.

Often there are times where we feel that no one understands us, our friends do not seem like our friends and the whole world just seems..pointless. In these times it does become hard to actually find a purpose and reconcile with ourselves and just tell us, that there is more to the world and we are still young and life is not that short as it seems to be. We did not have bad stars when we were born, no one did. The problem is just really us (even though it sounds a bit disappointing) and how we perceive our world. In contrast these bad times also gives us the opportunity to retrospect and acknowledge about the good things in life too, and I feel by actually concentrating on those we can feel better and not lamenting about what we don't have that others do because it might be very likely that the person you are comparing yourself may be thinking about the same about you to.

And also lamenting can make the situation worse than it already was, making you feel more miserable than you were  before. And the truth is everybody understands you to some degree, but someone would really understand you if you are true to them but mostly if you are true to yourself. In this process we learn more about ourselves and realise its really not in the stars after all.

The Tree of Life

"a befitting analogy"

A parent is like a gardener and the child  is like a seed;

He never knows what kind of a tree you will become, or which kind of fruit you will bear;

His only goal is to nurture it and make it a tree, luscious and strong,

for which He would devote His entire life.

And in the end when this seed grows into a healthy tree; the Gardener only has to put the water, trim it and shake the old leaves for new leaves to grow,

And He has the faith in his efforts that it will sustain itself.

However while there are gardeners, there are also the owners,

who think more of the fruit; and the time it takes you to grow.
                                                                                         

Midnight Oils and Ticking Clocks

"They say that if you never spent the midnight oil, you never worked hard. So what about those of us who spend it on a daily basis?"

Most of us have been there, under the midnight moon, tearing our hair apart as we finally realise the size of the mountain in front of us. The ever-consuming feeling of the weight of all our work, huge question banks, test preparations or any work... and submitting it the next day. The stress is so much that it makes the job of a bomb disposal officer look less frightening.Stress at that time, affects us all including me, and with tiredness also creeping by at that time makes the job even harder.


It is all the culmination of  properly lazy-butting the whole day, watching TV, playing video-games, reading magazines, typing a new blog entry. And that especially happens when in the morning, confidently discern that this work take 'no time at all', a piece of cake. But really it becomes a piece of cake too sweet to eat and too sugary to swallow. I have faced such situations too frequently now, it happens cause I am just lazy, and it is a complete day spoiler that makes me hate myself. However, it is one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had (nothing like a good adrenaline rush). And it is a proper do-or-die situation like if you fail to complete the work during those final hours, even of the teacher pardons it and gives a day more to complete, in a part of the mind, there is always that feeling of failure and incompetence, on the contrary if you do complete it, there is an all-consuming sense of accomplishment that puts you on the top of the world, that feeling of telling to a class-topper that "you might be punctual, but try completing all of it in one night !".

And I think that really relates to our craving of pushing ourselves to the extreme, challenging ourselves and  succeeding, for example climbing a mountain or bungee-jumping. In a way that makes many of us a bunch of thrill seekers .During those moments you think about nothing other than your work and often, fall into a trance, tapping into a higher level of concentration. I think that is what this so-called 'midnight oil' is, burn it and find yourself workin' harder and faster than ever-before (so it's like a nitrous oxide for your mind'), and conquer the enemy of time. And when you submit the work, you do not care what anybody says about it cause that time in the head there is only one-thing, "man !, I just defeated time itself."

Annoyance: a humble apology

"if you are one of the unlucky ones who have faced my overexposure of annoyance, then I hope you understand my feelings.If you are not, I hope your time isn't wasted and you are having the utmost pleasure as I beg for forgiveness" 

Dear Annoyed Buddy,

Often we always try to find a single word, or a single trait that defines us makes us unique in our own right. Some call themselves bubbly, while another call themselves 'stylish'. If you ask any members of my friend circle, they will have one word for you.... annoying.

And truth be told I admit it, I am a bit annoying, up to a point where that you guys would actually start to avoid me and  give me constant rants in an eager attempt to shut my face like a mortgaged shop and not utter a single word. And with each passing comment somehow I magically add even more anger and contempt, lameness as it seems has become my forte. And truth be told I really don't know how it happens every single time of the day either the world's a bit of a tough crowd to please or I am somewhat defected in my sense of humour( I have a bad feeling that most people would go with the former). Sorry, for all the lame jokes I ever made, looks like it went out of style, even if there was a style. Many feel I am inconsiderate towards others' time and constantly trying to strike up conversations through text messages and phone calls at twelve in the night, and yeah I agree its highly inappropriate to call someone in the middle of the sleep, so now I really think twice before making a call, texting  and posting any comments, in fear of the backlash cause then the situation becomes more like Frankenstein's Monster getting chased by an angry mob and the Monster's thinking "what have I done?". So sorry for all those ill-timed calls I ever made. I guess I still have much to learn about social circles and how to maintain them, and the last thing I want is you guys to be angry (and resort to means that suit better to a Mafia crime-lord). I hope you are feeling immense joy of the fact that all those tantrums, rants have had the impact, and i do not wish to be potentially scarred in anyway.

So, I shall try my best to restrain myself , but of all things you may call me, I am honest and therefore I make no concrete promises, but I guess you all will have to learn to live with me too.


Regards,

Lame Guy from School

Fever and Friends

"  So do you wanna know how a bacterial infection relates to friendship?"

By the time you will reading this entry I would be bedridden for the rest of the day, while my classmates would have completed the field trip to a mental health institute (which is very cool). While I shall be on the bed, thinking about the things I missed and how my friends would react to this notification at such short notice.

I think that really relates to the very human sense of responsibility towards your friends, your work and your interests. The longing for interaction and belongingness and the moment you feel that it is getting threatened, (in this case a viral fever that forces you to quit from a trip with your friends) we experience all sorts of fear, whether I have betrayed them, would they understand my situation and god knows what not. Its like we are consumed with anticipation of future events. But then there is no reason not to cause you don't want to betray your friends or whatever reason you claim it to be. But if we really look at it from a distance, aren't we rather being selfish as to focusing on our own interests and the repercussions we would face rather than actually thinking about the feelings of our friends.(not true in every case, last thing I want is an outrage). Our minds make these false justifications every-time to convince us of our decisions. We will never really know what our friends will be thinking, they might be angry or they are having such a good time that they might have not even noticed your absence. And it is to only some extent we can anticipate a situation. And if its a case of a fever you should probably be more focused on getting well rather than lament, which causes stress and could actually worsen the case altogether (personal experience, though at the time I didn't lament, I was worried for exams, but that still counts as stress !). And at end of the day all of the effort that you would put on anticipating may not even amount to anything in the end so it just devolves into a complete waste of time and energy



So to answer the question above, I would say that it may relate to friendship quite a lot, but it depends on how you think and react to the situation. If you truly know your friends, you would know not to worry about it. And not stretch yourself too far in fear cause even the most elastic rubber band will break at some point.  

Exotic Wildlife: Girls

"Let us take some time off to admire this wonderful creature"

Girls are wonderful beings of the ecosystem, they are the last sanctuary of the craziness that is left in the world. Wildness can be defined as a state of nature; not tamed or domesticated. Girls can be said, are 'wild' in the truest sense of the word. Their prey being the opposite gender and their habitat, the hallowed halls of school-life

However it really depends on how you perceive wildlife, a teeming boiling pot of barbaric creatures ready to consume you the second they lay their eyes on their prey or the serenity and beauty which makes them unique. If we apply such a question in the case of the scientific study of girls then we can assume that generally it may be both. And this is what makes them unique, exotic in nature.They are able to use these features in a complementary fashion .This makes them that much more dangerous and alluring, like sirens in sea waiting to devour sailors. Like any wildlife it is recommended that one should be cautious in the vicinity of them. One can apply his observational powers to understand the underlying patterns of behaviour in a girl, and this can be used advantageously to delicately position yourself in what many researchers call the 'safe zone' where you have no vulnerable area to which they can strike. As per covert operations carried out by researcher, it has been noticed that girls are pack animals of a loyal nature. Yet it is one characteristic generally found in girls that often hinder this loyalty, their heightened sense of mood and sensitivity. There exists a delicate balance between the two and when that balance is broken it threatens the integrity of the pack, characterised by periods of depression, it is also noticed that such groups do come back together which indicates the re-establishment of that balance/homoeostasis. Therefore, it is imperative to always keep check of this balance while interaction, as in the anger, they devolve into an instinct-dominant form which can immediately devour a person.

At this point we have paid much attention to how to be safe around them, but one must remember that being too cautious is not good as well, at it can often make you too distant in approach and therefore, would also land you up in an unfavourable position. One must acknowledge that there is no harm to open up once you have established a safe zone in the group. On the contrary, you will be rewarded, with a group of caring beings .This is where we play with the duality of girls' nature; loyalty and hostility and its delicate nature. If you are able to truly understand the interplay you will have successfully understood the basic social behaviour of girls in the ecosystem. To finally find pattern in this seemingly erratic behaviour.

Researchers have given their lives in the study of girls, to understand them better and respect them for who they are (cause we can't change them anyway). They are truly one of a kind, exotic in its ecosystem. And to understand its behaviours and patterns in their habitat enables to appreciate it place in the ecosystem much better.

My Car, My Friend

                         

 " How much does your car/bike (or an auto-mobile) mean to you ?"

Did you know by the end of 2013, we have completed 127 years in relationship with the auto-mobile. That is a ridiculously long time, it is almost like being in marriage for generations. In that time we both have grown as drivers/passengers and cars. It seems that cars have grown above and beyond from being just an engine in a metal carriage which is used to carry us along for long distances. It has evolved into almost a self-identity, statuses are attached to cars much like shoes. People form close bonds with their cars, they become their mates.

I always felt that there was so much more going on in the relationship between man and machine especially when it comes to their cars or bikes. Many films/tv often very comically portray husbands who are working on a car in the basement garage for days while her wife will be having an affair up-top. Though thoroughly amusing, it gives a very nice insight into the man's love for his car, he would probably give up his house rather than his ride. My father has owned quite a number of cars and whether it be a matchbox-small Maruti 800 hatchback or an enormous Jeep, you could be assured that it got better care than me. And I think that is what makes this bond special, the feeling of responsibility towards a car, like a baby or a small puppy(just to be cute). And you could say the best part is, the auto-mobile always rewards you for all the care you gave to it, by making you look good as you drive, giving you the drive of your life and so on so forth (I think that's why many men prefer cars over girlfriends). And I am certainly no stranger to this fact, my family has a Jeep which is officially one of the coolest in my town and whenever it rolls down in front of the school gates, everybody is jaw-dropped, every time. I am known in school by my Jeep, its like my identity in school, its more famous than my name. Though this reason may seem to be selfish, it is still true. Such instances stand testament to the evolution of auto-mobile in general. We expect more out of transportation, we want it to be exciting and eventful, and that is the thing that many forms of public transport don't provide. This is why we cherish of possessing a car or bike, the feeling of freedom to go anywhere at your own pace, without any constraints of fixed routes. So again in turn for all our care we give to our cars, the cars always reward it back to us tenfold.

People love their cars even if it is a sad little bucket-of-bolts that breaks down every day on the side of the street, or a blood red Ferrari. Cars would be littered with stale food and empty bottles, but the same cars have names given by their owners because the feeling of freedom and the sense of adventure it provides is unparalleled and utterly 'fun'. 

A Tribute to Nuggets and Fries

" dedicated to fries and nuggets, my mother and all my loyal customers"

If you came and told me five years ago, that a couple of frozen fast food commodities will change my life. I would have ignored you, but ever since French fries and chicken nuggets came into my life, they really turned me around.

Some of you who may be reading this may remember me as that shy little kid in class who did not have that many friends. But all changed in eighth grade, when a desperation of eating fast foods at home came into me. I constantly nagged and god knows we tried to exactly replicate what we ate at the restaurant at home, but it never quite lived up to our expectations. So one can imagine what happiness i felt when I first ate the newly discovered Mccain  French fries and nuggets (BTW free publicity Mccain). It was not long when i started to bring them to school, everyone ate it, i felt sad first but then before I knew I started to meet all these new people i never even knew existed, though they were in the adjacent class and some even in the same class! And that was beginning of a tradition I started for myself in school and you can say business was booming. Whether be seniors or juniors everyone came from the word-to-mouth by who ate before. "Its just like McDonald's" everyone said (BTW free publicity McDonald's, not that you need it) and that was the exact reason i loved it in the first place. And after time my mother perfected the recipe and even more people started to eat and those who ate before like it even more, it was heading a business, students became fans of my mother despite of the fact they haven't even see her face. In the coming years I met so many random people who came, dug their hands into my tiffin and take a mouthful, and eventually there came a time when there was actually a queue for my food! It was one of one of the first times I ever felt truly happy, like it was a community service. All my so-called ex-bullies turned into good friends and in a blink of an eye I actually started to socialise and become they person i am now

They were like pocket soldiers in my tiffin box, who held me up high, supported me and in many times saved my life out of near relationship crises and though it may be a bit selfish, gave access to other people's food.Who knows if i didn't bring French fries and nuggets, i wouldn't even know more than half the people i know today. Food is important to everybody and everyone like good food, this experience taught me to share, make friends, have fun. It is almost unbelievable that food could teach things to you. I am convinced now that fries and nuggets have enough power to solve the global crisis, diplomats should be using these, As a wise person said "All debts are solved with Chicken Nuggets" .They truly are one of the unsung heroes of my life and this note is a tribute to all those moments when a person came and downright stole my food from me and of course to all those fries and nuggets that were eaten by them.

 

A Roller-Coaster Ride Called Friendship

"Friendship, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary, refers to 'the emotions or conduct of friends or the state of being friends'. Special emphasis should be given to the words conduct and emotions, because in the end I believe that makes all the difference."

Friendship or any relationship in the whole wide world has its ups and downs, exactly like a roller-coaster:

It ascends in the beginning to great heights; there is an air of excitement, and people are eager to see the events unfold as they look towards the sky. Then it drops and thus the journey begins. At the start, everything is a blur as this ride whizzes past, everyone is having a great time. Then it gets all topsy-turvy with horizontal loops, vertical loops and loops of all shapes and sizes that are designed to test this roller-coaster's limits. Many people stay strong, others pray to god for dear life and then there are some who just outright vomit and make a mess of everything. After that, things settle down a bit and people think about what happened and make the decision to prepare to face the worst the ride could offer but little do they know what it has in store. And the roller-coaster comes to a corkscrew, spiralling down to the ground, the passengers, open-eyed, are scared and face the final challenge. They fall, down and down and down. People are on the edge of their seats, fearful of each other and what will happen to them, crying and praying to let it all end. And then as if He heard their prayers, in a blink of the eye, they are on the ground, stable and peaceful. Their hearts are in their throats. In that roller-coaster, there will be people who will be frightful to go through it again; but they will also be others who had a blast, appreciated the time they spent and will cherish it for all their lives.

Who knew ? 

Significance of Stories

"In a bedroom near midnight, there was a little child tucked in his bed by his mother, his face glowing in excitement as it were morning, “mummy please tell me a story”, he said. So the mother takes a book from the shelf, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The boy listened, mesmerised by the story of her adventure.  At ten past midnight, he went to his slumber, the window through which he will meet the Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in his Forest of Dreams"

                                                              

Stories are fascinating things; they are limitless and unbound to any medium.  At the surface they may look like a bunch of words on a paper or pictorial scribbling on a cave wall, but in actuality they are much more. They represent adventures, emotions and dreams, to take you on a journey you will never forget, to the lands of ancient Egypt or to a little island in the sea on a hunt for gold. They transcend they medium and become much more, filling our heads with all sorts of ideas and inspirations they pave path to the future of mankind. Where would space travel be if there wasn't  an Isaac Asimov, or an H.G Wells. Millions of scientists grew up watching Star Trek and now look where we are in telecommunications and aeronautics.  Stories not only is a provider of information but is also a critic in itself, analysing and commenting on today’s scenarios and the world on general inspiring future leaders in the hope of forming a better future. Stories comfort us, making us believe that there is still hope in this world and that we are not worthless as we think we are. They make us laugh and cry and take us on a trip to worlds that we have never seen before that it almost becomes a bit outlandish. Stories immortalise great people to create greater people . And it is quite amusing to know that stories often always inspire other stories giving way to whole new range of emotions and scenarios.  Stories are special because of their ability to tap into our most innate and advanced abilities, imagination, fuelling it and making us think and realise about the world around us, to take something from it, whether be a message or a sense of gratification. They inspire us, make us dream and force us to act. Stories are for everybody and everybody has a story to share.