I Am...Version 2.0

I don’t like to talk about myself….Really! It just makes me uncomfortable…I’m constantly told that I undermine myself way too much…Don’t know if that’s true…

Anyway…what should I call this…Nonsense verse maybe….Far from Sukumar Ray’s work obviously (And I’m not trying to compare my work to his….There’s no way I can ever reach the level of brilliance he had) but it’s just very random…I guess I was thinking of the things I am, things I have been and things I can be and this is what I wrote…

There’s actually another version I wrote too…I’ll probably put that up as the next post….

Oh…this is not an attempt at self-aggrandizement…It’s not even close if you ask me…Lately stuff’s been happening that has just made me want to you know, introspect a bit…Truth be told, it didn’t really help…I just realized I’m still the same person I always have been….!

Sometimes…that’s what is important…sticking to who you are…being yourself…

This is me…J

I am…

The comic strip that’ll put a smirk back on your face,

The waste paper basket you’d want to throw waste in,

The last leaf that refuses to fall when the wind is too strong,

The firefly whose butt lights up in the darkest of places,

The kid who likes to just sit in the cafeteria and study people,

The turtle that peeks out of its shell,

The fuel that keeps the fire inside burning,

The compulsive brat who just has to know why,

The doodle that suddenly starts making sense,

The peacemaker you might want to keep in handy,

The foodie whose hunger is insatiable,

The eraser to help you wipe off that unnecessary mark,

The realist who believes truth reveals salvation,

The loony canine who doesn’t want to get trained,

The old pair of jeans you just cannot let go,

The eyes that find beauty in nearly everything,

The soul that finds solace in music,

The guy who believes that a smile can say it all,

The nut that’s part of the master-plan,

The weirdo…

…who ended up writing something like this!

I need a new way to sign out....

thenuttyoptimist

We...

So this one is basically...is basically....ok, quite frankly I dont know what its about....

I guess these are just random thoughts of mine that I somehow managed to write down on paper...Dont ask me questions about it...Just read and get what you can out of it....If there is something to get out of it....

And yes, i know some lines rhyme and some dont.....Like some wise person i know said "Dont force anything to rhyme"...

I'm just following good advice....:)

thenuttyoptimist

P.S. Internet...has become a luxury for me! I swear there is better signal at the bottom of the Mariana Trench for cryin out loud!!!!

Anyway...read on...

We share a laugh,

But we find it difficult to smile.

We say we want love,

But do we ever give it back?

We say we have friends,

But we love to be left alone.

We say it’s all about freedom,

Is it something we can actually fathom?

We say we believe,

Still we question so many others.

We say we understand,

But then, do we extend that helping hand?

We say we love peace,

But we fight too many wars within.

We say we love to share

But how many of us actually care?

We say we hate pain,

Yet we inflict it for our own gain.

We sing, we dance,

But do we give others that chance?

We love those who are selfless,

Still we are over-concerned about our wellness.

We say it is noble to give,

Do we take back something in return?

We say we all dream,

Yet we find it hard to imagine.

We say we speak the truth,

But do we say it when it’s needed?

We say we are flawed,

Still we never accept our faults.

We see what we like,

Or do we like what we see?

We take pride in being unique,

Yet we search for familiarity.

We say we are rational,

Why then, do we indulge in insanity?

We say we are human…..

….But we still crave for humanity!

There was a time....

Ok...poetry...clearly not my cup of tea...Not that i hate it....In fact, i love poetry and poets more than poetry...You truly have to be gifted to be a good poet....Anybody and everybody can write a paragraph or two about likes, dislikes, current affairs..BLAH BLAH BLAH....Try to convert that into poetry and you'll know exactly what i mean...
So ya....Poetry is a gift that I have not recieved but I have tried my hand at it....a very few times actually....twice to be exact....and the first time I came up with something so baseless, horrible and pathetic I thought i'd never do it again.....
But.....I did....and what's underneath is what i wrote...I guess i tried to make sense...somehow... I'm not trying to get it published, neither do I want people to make a huge deal out of it...I just wanted to express certain emotions and I did.....sure felt GREAT!!!!
Mind you....when youre reading this, please dont take it in a negative sense and get all depressed and stuff...not my intention at ALL....
Oh and you can totally dislike it and abuse the shit out of it too.....No problemo.....


Signed
thenuttyoptimist

P.S. Before I forget......Thank you Nithya....for inspiring me.....:)




There was a time
When push need not be necessarily converted into shove
When I dreamt of things I could achieve
When darkness was locked up and stuffed in a corner
When patience felt like a gift and not a curse.


There was a time
When I never used to wake up and feel alone
When I could crack a joke and not worry about the repercussions
When I had those who loved me, next to me
When I could afford to get lost and be reckless.


There was a time
When a good book and not my mp3 player was my best friend
When the lines on my forehead were faint
When sleep was a necessity and not a comfort
When I did not have to see the smile in my eyes flicker.


There was a time
When friends eagerly stepped aside to let me go in front
When I was not judged by marks of ink on a coding sheet
When a smile and not a look of threat welcomed me
When knowledge was shared and not kept a secret.


There was a time
When distance was measured on a map and not in terms of hours
When I would be lost in the ecstacy of fantasy, and not the bitterness of reality
When walls were broken in my mind and not made
When there was no need to compromise on anything.


There was a time like that
Maybe time changed
Maybe I changed with time
But it does feel so long and so far away now
Out of reach but not out of sight.


Yes, there was a time like that
AND YES, I do miss it
But I dont let it bring me down, I dont let it make me cry...
I dont worry about it because I know I can get it back
I keep breathing, I keep believing, I keep smiling.....
I WALK ON.....I......LIVE ON.......

SHIT's Happened!..........

That's right...A lot of shit's happened.

T0o much shit to write in one post actually.....In fact I dont even know where to start....7 months is a huge gap....And i know I don't have a lot of people reading my blog, so I'm sure I wasn't missed. Fact of the matter is I dont want to be missed as well.....It's just that I've missed writing on this space....MY space....the whole purpose of me starting this blog is threatened by my inability to post more frequently....That makes me SAD!....And its not like I haven't visited my blog....It's not like I haven't stared at my dashboard for minutes...It's not like I haven't gotten ideas for posts too. I just haven't been able to sit patiently and gather my thoughts into a stream of words. There have been days when I've watched things happening around me and I've promised myself that I'd write about them when I go back to my room. But the moment I see that blinking cursor I am just not able to concentrate. So what does that say about what's happening around me.......

Am i getting preoccupied with so many other things that I dont have time for one of the very few things I can truly call mine?

Does it mean that life has become a blur where I've been running around mindlessly?

Does it mean I'm losing touch with the guy inside me who loved to write about any topic that came up on his mind?

Does it mean i'm becoming a part of a machine, a routine I told myself i'd never be a part off?

OR

Does it mean i'm just tired....tired of the hypocrites around me? tired of the concerned pleas by those who care? tired of false promises made by people who just wanna use me?

Ya you guessed it.....i'm pretty screwed up now!

Anyway back to the reason why i decided to actually write this post, to tell you in brief what's happened in the last seven months.

Let's start with the things that have remained the same........I'm still studying at SRM Chennai, the guys in my hostel have still not learned how to use a flush(BASIC HYGIENE IS SIMPLY NOT THEIR FORTE), I'm still doing the humor column for the newspaper and some of my work has been really appreciated and I'm told people actually look forward to reading my stuff(I can feel my conscience patting me on the back), still have a wonderful set of roommates and few, but really awesome friends in college. I still have a talk with my mom thrice or even 4 times a day, my phone expenses are still the same and my phone balance is most of the times used by my roommates to talk to random people(which is totally fine by me; better somebody uses that money than it just rotting in my account), I still fall sick after eating the food in the mess, I still haven't found the restaurant with a butter chicken even slightly close to the ones i'm used to in Delhi. Lots more but this is basically a gist of it...........or at least thats all i can think of right now.

Now about the good things...Went on a trip to Hong Kong and Macau at the end of December 2009 with my family and my cousin's family......managed to bond with my cousin after a LONGGG time and it was one helluva trip...I'll probably post a link to the Picassa web album once i have decent internet back home and am able to finally upload all the pics (The wi-fi in hostel takes 5 minutes only to open G-mail's html version.....ironically though facebook opens in seconds!!!!). Went on an "All Boys" trip to GOA at the beginning of this semester......just 5 guys with overflowing testosterone levels, limited cash and a desire to GET away from the heat and madness of COLLEGE.......One week of bliss.....Honestly i felt Delhi was probably the only place I'd love to settle down in India, now i'd gladly add Goa to that list....I am just captivated by the "laid back, CHILL MAN....everything's gonna be alright" attitude the people have over there....That reminds me, another link to be added!...Moving on.......

I joined AIESEC Chennai and am working with the Outgoing Exchange Department with one of the coolest and influential students..... I've begun to love and respect them immensely.....AWESOME PEOPLE(well at least in my department)....I'm actually grateful i filled in the form and applied to AIESEC....Though I'm still in doubt about why I joined....but I'm sure if I hadn't I would have missed out on an amazing opportunity to meet and work along with some fabulous people.....Yea Arjun, Aacquib, Moen, Nithya, Juhi, Anirudh, Nikita and Preenish....if you guys are reading this.......KUDOS to you guys....Thanks for making life for a shy, slightly off, semi-loner a little more comfortable in your small but very effective ways. And apologies to all those whose names i haven't written......I just haven't interacted with you guys much but i respect you equally. You know it took me two years to realise what makes a city wonderful are the people who are living in it EVERY SINGLE DAY.....they are the essence of the city, if the city is a body; the people are its pulse....Without good people a city is nothing but a lifeless machine where heartless clones earn their daily bread.....BAD Metaphor, but anyway...........I've actually started relating with Chennai.....i've started accepting the beliefs people have here......I've started understanding how things are done in Chennai and I LIKE IT!

Also I am the proud author of a paper that has been published in the International Journal of Science and technology.....and its up on Google Scholar too.....There's a huge story behind that...Sometime later though.....I fear if I start talking about that I wont stop plus it'll probably piss both you and me off....ask Andy....Him and I had a ball of a time a few weeks ago ranting about all the shit happening in our lives for more than 3 hours.......Aah Andy.......What would i have done without you dude.......Thanks a lot for just being there man!!!:) Cant wait to come back and hang around with you doing completely random shit...........

AAh now about things that have affected me in a negative way......Well first of all there's the publication and the interaction with a certain professor of mine who clearly showed me that we live in a world where the easiest way of getting things done is by sucking the BALLS of the guy on the top.....Sorry for the vulgar imagery....But its true......This professor has just become a major pain in my ass and he openly loves to smooth talk not only his students but also his superiors into believing his BULLSHIT!!! And worst of all he does not practice what he preaches, AT ALL! I mean the guy can behead a human on television and still talk about world peace and how he hates terrorists....PSEUDO to the POWER INFINITY....I'm so angry i came in contact with a loser like him......Interesting part is how he still tries to swing me towards his favour and gives me this respect.....DESPITE knowing i hate his guts and stand against not only his methodology of getting things done but also his ethics and general OUTLOOK...I've met quite a few spineless people and he definitely tops the list....WOW I've never said something so negative about anyone, EVER!!

As a result of this fiasco I can declare that after this semester I've become a more impatient person and i HATE IT......! I've had arguments with the few people i'm close with in college and probably hurt some of them too.....And i feel sorry....very VERY SORRY.....You remember I felt like I was losing a part of myself.....This is exactly what I meant......It's not like me to write about negative stuff, to rant about things or people and to especially not hurt any of those people near me..........WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME..............argh!!!!

Somebody teleport me back home now...........I need it like bad!!!!!

Signed

ME

Ya i'm ending it....Dont know what else to talk about or write.....I know most of it doesnt make sense anyway....I STILL FEEL I NEEDED TO DO THIS AND I'M GLAD I DID...............

P.S. I'm going to write more often.............I really am..........more like I really need to.......!

Please sir, may i have some more....TIME!!

Hey there...this one is on procrastimation....one of my FAVOURITE hobbies.......Writing it again for the college newspaper...hope they like it(ISNT IT IRONICAL HOW MY POSTS HERE ALWAYS TEND TEND TO ORIGINATE FROM THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES I WRITE AND HOW THE FREQUENCYFOR THE POSTS REMAINS VERY MUCH SAME).......oh what the hell. READ ON:-

Hello again.... WHACK here and honestly right now i am in a miserable condition. I still have one record to write, i have a semester practical exam tomorrow, my hands are going to file a lawsuit against me if i write another sentence AND THERE IS A CRATER ON MY BED because of constantly sitting at one position!!!! Im actually at the brink of breaking down....so if you hear rumours about a guy with a goatee and short hair running around like mad screaming “MY LIFE SUCKS” at the top of his lungs.....ummm....well ya that would be me!! Why am i in such a pitiful condition you ask....simple two word explanation for it.....PRACTICAL RECORDS!!!!

C.R.A.C.K. on the other hand has gone off to sleep, so has most of the hostel. Crazy he might be, but the fellow always manage to finish all his records on time.....W.H.A.C.K. is busy flirting with some random girl he met on a social networking site. He too isn’t that much worried about his pracs and seems to have finished his records. In the past week it has been reaffirmed in my mind that most humans are nothing but a lazy bunch of evolved monkeys who love to procrastinate......including yours truly. WE ARE CREATURES OF HABIT and once we get into the habit of delaying things we just continue doing it for even the smallest of things...(THAT EXPLAINS THE UNCONTROLLABLE OVERGROWTH OF FACIAL HAIR ON MY CHIN....just don’t get my hands to pick up the scissor and trim it)..Seriously though, its not just us students who end up doing things at the last moment.....many a times we get the printouts for the practicals late, sometimes the sheets take time to print, sometimes there is a delay in checking, policies are implemented later than required.....The basic point is that we are all FLAWED somehow or the other and that is what makes us human. The concept of doing things IN TIME for a particular task is just a mangled piece of thought in a dark corner of our oversized brains.

 Its times like these when you wish for an extra day in the week or even an extra hour in the day....IRONICALLY enough we finish everything. EVERY SINGLE THING is done a little LATE but hey, its done right!! You got to award some marks to us humans for at least finishing everything....HOW MANY SMART AND INTELLIGENT RACES ARE THERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHO FINISH THINGS EONS BEFORE THEY NEED TO BE IMPLEMENTED....None yet, right! So its our little old lazy selves in this massive universe and we might as well enjoy our lives till we get wiped out by the swarm of flesh eating HELLO-KITTY lookalikes from outer space!!

Its also during crunch time when your friends actually help out the most. W.H.A.C.K. left his anonymous female friend to get me something to eat and C.R.A.C.K. offered to write whatever part of the record was left....NO i am not going to cry like a baby and get all emotional but it really feels good to see that someone out there ACTUALLY CARES for you!!! I guess i understand why OLIVER TWIST asked for another bowl of soup and why that scene is etched clearly in history.........BACK TO FILLING IN MY INDEX now....oh CRAP i don’t have the dates for the experiments...............................

thenuttyoptimist

 

The battle of poori!

hey sorry i couldnt update....exams and assignments...never knew that theyd actually grill us in engineering...anyway im sending this one to my editor(there have been major changes in my college newspaper management....more about it later)...Anyway this is the unedited version of something very close to my stomach....all of you eho stay in hostel know that food over there tends to be oversucky.....especially if youre not in your hometown!!! so here goes....ENJOY?!??!

WAR.....hate it or love it, you just cant ignore it. They say war affects everyone, young and old, loudly obnoxious and weirdly silent, FAT and MALNUTRITIONED......everyone! Its easier to start a war amongst us adolescent hostellers with soaring adrenaline levels....it takes a minor bone of contention for us to shed our images of “humble” social animals to bloodthirsty rampaging guinea pigs....YES GUINEA PIGS....dont let their whiskers fool YOU!

About the battle....well, it takes place on the days when we get poori in our mess (actually we have an erratic schedule in the mess....it never fails to STARTLE US...which isn’t a bad thing). There is something about those little round, oil laden deep fried snacks that just grabs our attention.....maybe its the beautiful golden texture, maybe its the oil oozing out, maybe its the intoxicating odour.....and C.R.A.C.K., W.H.A.C.K. and me LOVE THE POORIS HERE....no matter how many gelasils we have to gobble afterwards!

The entire hostel somehow gets the smell when there is poori in the mess (C.R.A.C.K. says that the ability to detect good food is in our genes!). And once those gates open....its all about how fast, how ruthless, how selfish and how tactful you can be. The first tray is brought out we pounce for those cholesterol ridden treats in a manner that would put savage, flesheating werewolves to shame. In fact its so intimidating that even the guys in the mess prefer to stay inside the safety of the kitchen.......The battle rages on for the most fluffy, the most crisp and sometimes even the largest poori....and chaos reigns.......Pooris fly around like bullets....There are of course casualties, some get hot oil on their hands, some burn the tips of their fingers, some even drop food on their clothes while fighting for these WMC’s(Weapons of Mass Consumption). The facts are simple;”FIGHT OR STARVE!!!”

However in these desperate times, C.R.A.C.K. and me depend on our only ray of hope.....W.H.A.C.K.....There’s a reason why he’s known as WEIRDLY HEROIC AVERAGE COLLEGE KID. As soon as we grab our plates W.H.A.C.K. makes a run for the tray of pooris as if it were a portal to Willy wonka’s chocolate factory. He dodges the huge dogpile of humans and forces his way through the heaviest of crowds...HE’S LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN USAIN BOLT AND A WORLD CLASS RUSSIAN GYMNAST...watching him get those little buggers is like watching a perfected dance routine!

Somebody needs to stop this battle....it often puts us in weird situations...You know how we always tend to take more than we eat...OK, MUCh MORE!....and when W.H.A.C.K. sees his hard earned pooris being thrown into the bin, he obviously gives us this expression.....C.R.A.C.K. and me feel bad and instead of owning up, we start pointing fingers at each other, sometimes even coming up with silly reasons like “the fly in my poori was actually moving”. Who could’ve thought that something so tiny could actually lead to up an article in the college newspaper!!!! Funny eh.....

thenuttyoptimist

The thing about vulgarity......

Firstly sorry for the late post....been a bit busy....Anyway this one is gonna be about a baffling fact that has confused me for a long time.....

VULGARITY.....We all are vulgar at some point of life, even though your two-toe goody ass may not accept it now...REALLY ALL OF US HAVE MADE SOME SORT OF NASTY OR DIRTY COMMENT AT SOME POINT OF LIFE! ok if youve not made it, at least youve thought about it......take for example calling the guy who almost runs you over with his brand new BEAMER, an ASSHOLE! Or calling that teacher of yours who never ever does anything in class but always ends up giving you loads of assignment a LAZY GOOD FOR NOTHING FAGGIT.......All of us have at one point or the other spoken it out or at least imagined something "vulgar"....then what is the big deal about VULGARITY????

I mean, seriously I fail to understand the perception people have of vulgarity.....youre called a dirty little piece of rotting soyabean by people if you curse or swear or even hint at using the eff word BUT the people vindicating you will be saying SHIT and CRAP at least 50 times a day.......I mean is there like a legal document that provides light over the different types, levels and degrees of intensity of cuss words and toilet humor....IF there is id sure like to get to the section where there is a mention about which word is punishable and which is not!!

There are apparently also these rules youre supposed to follow if you have even the slightest hint of vulgarity in you. For example youre never supposed to talk about vulgar stuff in front of your elders....even if theyre debating about which picture of RAKHI SAWANT's shows the most cleavage or which outfit SARAH PALIN looks most foxy in! There is also the rule about minding your tongue in front of girls....we're supposed to act like those overrated chocolate bollywood superstars...In short we're suppposed to be unreal and fake, and sadly that is appreciated....NO WAIT, ladies dont get me wrong.....I believe you should always be courteous and polite in front of the fairer sex....but i hate it when someone gets glares for making some sort of vulgar joke...what happened to the phrase JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS! Where does all the camraderie and good sense of humor disappear and why does that obnoxious TCH TCH sound come in??

Everyone enjoys a good vulgar joke if some douche bag comedian makes it on the screen, especially if its accompanied with some sort of awkward pelvic movement...HOWEVER, as soon as you make one in an ahem social gathering...everyone glares at you like the last piece of tandoori chicken left for a flock of chicken crazy DElhi-wallahs......WHY?

OK ive come up to the conclusion that there is something horribly wrong with my brain right now to write something like this on a public place like the blogosphere...OR what i say actually makes a tiny bit of sense...even if it is infitismally small....YOU DECIDE!!!

Anyway if you ask me the bottom line is that people all around are actually as confused about vulgarity as yours truly......And as opinionated as us humans usually are, nobody falls back before labelling something as vulgar(especially the government, what was wrong with AXN again???)...If you really REALLY think that the guy who cracks a non veg joke in front of you...or takes a double meaning for something you said is as cheap as those fake AIR-JORDANS in Pallika...YOURE MISTAKEN.......look around you and you just might find someone meaner!!!!!!

ASOmewhatreLievEd
thenuttyoptimist

P.s. I am not angry so dont worry about the tone in this article

P.P.s. I LOVE TOILET HUMOR....no matter what you say about it......