Let there be light!

There was a time when I loved saying "can't beat them, join them" - failing to wake up my lazy ass roomies I would jump right in and we would sleep through the entire day only to get up when the whole of Delhi got ready to call it a day; we were night flowers, vampires - owls to be more precise. Those were the days of denials.

I would love to say again "can't beat them, join them", but now priorities are different. Back then was a different ball game; it's a different game now.

Failing to get any answer to my little "Trivia" I thought "can't beat them, join them" - let this remain a trivia, but no, a certain pesky Assamese friend of mine keeps pestering me for the answer, and so I shall reveal the answer and enlighten all of us or rather horrify all of us.

 

Winter of "Kundos" and "I dos"

Winter is here, I love the chill, all about nice mornings, nice evenings and nice bedtimes. The mind works like a greased bullet in a cool atmosphere unlike in summer when every moment is a torture. Love the winter.

Heading home this weekend to attend two of my best buddies' wedding which unfortunately falls on the same day, a lot of hectic running between wedding venues forecasted.

Roshan Keisham has always been a mellowed Casanova, the epitome of a monkey and a branch "never let go of one till you have the other", but the thing is he is a monkey with a big heart and logical mind, outspoken that he is. Never hurt anybody except maybe some girlfriends who got dumped, he finally has decided to give up his crown and settle down with a like-minded lady, Sunanda, who I happen to know since my schooling years. It cripples the mind how these two individuals ever got hooked to each other, but everything changes for the better and everything happens for a reason. It is a grace though that both of them are certified practicing doctors and very much in love.

Sunil Koijam is finally tying the knot with his lady love of, how many years, 13 if we count 5 years of an off/on relationship, or 8 years of pure committed relationship with Gourika, who also happens to be a very old friend of mine. Everything is great with Ango as we lovingly call Sunil; he is a hardworking guy, honest, straight-forward, ever helpful, gluttonous as a hungry pig, ready to drop everything if eating is another option.

Sunil and Roshan's getting married would make them another two of the gang who are no more bachelors. So it is Pradip, Roshan, Sunil, Dorendro, Sulanta on the other side and Bung, Irabanta, Boney, Robin, Rasho and little me on this side.

It's great though, seeing the gang get knocked down one after another not by hateful bullets but by ethereal "kundo parengs". So, let's wish these two couples who are about to go into Phase II of the three phases of life.

All the best of life and fortune to you guys and may God bless you, as they say "in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer".

I too will be there wishing them with my sweetheart of the last ten years. Home was never sweeter; it surely is where the heart is.

Yes/No, 0/1

Yes/no, 0/1, nothing in between, this is the principle complex softwares are founded upon. There is no "if" or a "but" in between, there is only a "yes" or a "no"; a "0" or a "1".

Life in general would be a lot simpler and cleaner if this were to be the basis of human behaviour. You ask your friend, "are you coming?" He/she gives you a yes or a no, which is a pretty clear answer, which doesn't leave you baffling, guessing. Now a "if", "may", "could" really puts the big "?" on all endeavours. Why can't people be clear about what they want, need, would do, etc.

Now, I'll get to the point I want to home in. Last evening a friend of mine and a little boy were talking about the dinner menu, fish/chicken/beef/pork. Now, there are people who love fish heads, people who love chicken liver, pork fat, cow hoof, sheep eyeballs, dung beetles etc, etc. Me, I am a very clear red meat lover; pure red meat, no bones, no fat, no fish heads, no kidneys, no gall bladders, just plain red meat, be it chicken, beef or pork. The friend of mine insisted he loved pork fat only and it is the only thing to eat of pork.

I disagreed saying a piece or two would be good but I wouldn't bet my money upon pure pork fat dish, and to prove my point narrated to him and to the little boy an incident that happened years back while I was in Delhi. My roomie back then was from "Yaishkul", we were staying in Lajpat Nagar, and he too had insisted he loved pork fat best. One fine day I brought him half a kilo of pure pork fat and another half a kilo of red meat, cooked it together, and made him eat only the pork fat.

He was astounded/shocked but out of standing up to his words ate fat only and me innocently, the red meat.

The next day he was sick!

He told me he had gotten up at night to puke and confessed it was like drinking "Dhara" refined oil. Since that day he is a 70:30 man, 70% red meat, 30% fat. We laugh over that incident now.

To sum it all up - why can't we be clear about what we want! Why can't we be disciplined with our wants and needs.

If you ask me, there should only be a "yes" or a "no" to everything. For me "yes" to what I want, "no" to what I don't want. No maybes, ifs, buts, which reminds me, can none of you educated and exposed people take a wild guess and tell me who that person is in the snap?

I will give you one more update time, keep guessing and to help you a bit here is a painting done by this guy.

Trivia

Good to be back. Been a long time since I updated my blog. Few reasons I was off: One, I was net fatigued; two, I was and am busy still; three, inspirationally bankrupt.

But the events of the past few days and the promptings of a few friends have me hitting the buttons again.

For starters, can you identify the person in the snapshot? Go on, try, wrack your brains!! Will follow up.

No Child's Play, This!

Just when I thought I knew everything, trust my lady to bring up a subject which gives me sleepless nights just trying to figure a way out to show her I know it, that I am her God of Knowledge, whew! what have I  gotten myself into?!

Fourth Dimension, E=MC square, hoo da haah, whatever! I mean, I was a whiz kid in my younger years, teacher's pet, the teacher's apple boy, etc. But it is also a fact now that mathematical integration can beat me to a pulp!

Why did them bright guys had to trouble us with their fourth dimensions and energy mass equations and relativity theorems and quantum physics and what not. Notwithstanding the fact that they have made our lives easier: Computers, Internet, Cell Phones, MRI machines, Nano technology so on and so forth, 9 out of 10 people do not know how a cell phone works except that it has to be recharged and the buttons are to be pressed.

Coming back to the issue, I had to read all over again the concept behind the fourth dimension. It's like this: a point (a dot) has zero dimension; a line is one dimensional (has length); a square is an example of two dimensional figure, (has length and breadth); a cube is three dimensional (has length, breadth and height). Okay, now the hard part is the fourth dimension - time.

Honestly, it still boggles my mind, like stuff you can theoretically do, stuff that dreams are made of, time travel and all; you could go back and see your grandparents, watch yourself evolve, maybe go far into the future and see what HG Wells had seen, beautiful Elois and the horrendous Morlocks. I understand the concept but I can't explain it for the life of me!

But worry not for we have a saviour, "leave it to the experts". The only thing that's needed is an open mind, one that is ready to learn. Open your eyes.

Enjoy the scenery, I'm going to be busy.

Work season, so busy, but you can enjoy the view in the meantime, be back blogging soon. These are some of my favourite wallpapers.

Three rights make a wrong, huh!

Good to be back and updating my blog.  Had been and still am busy with my work. It's seasonal and have to put in extra hours during seasons.  I have a good reason to be blogging, like yesterday I experienced a funny situation where something got screwed and it wasn't anybody's fault, perfect setting, three rights don't necessarily make a right!

My friend, a Haryanvi Brahmin, wanted to have chicken for dinner, but being really naïve in the art of kitchen shopping, asked for my directions. I educated him on the necessity of learning this art (in case he wanted to surprise his future wife with a romantic dinner), and I gave him the directions to the nearest meat shop. He went away, came back happy he had a bargain.

Now, when I took the meat out to cook, lo! there was pork, no chicken. He was surprised. What had happened was he had taken the route as directed, but unfortunately came to a pork vendor first, and uneducated in the art of recognizing meat (remember he is a Haryanvi Brahmin), he without much ado and inquiry got a kilogram of it, believing it to be chicken.  The vendor didn't find it necessary to tell him it was pork, because it was  pork.

I was not at fault, he was not at fault, he was following instructions, the vendor was not at fault, and we ended up having pork instead of chicken. Three cheers.

Just in passing, Mahatma Gandhi's "The Story of My Experiments with Truth" is a must read.

Interesting Things

The world is not such a boring place after all, one just needs to look and observe. Take this place for instance, it rains every alternate days and the roads come thigh deep in water and it's a pleasurable nuisance coming back from work, feeling safe yet at the same time vulnerable. The people here never swear, almost, I've never heard any of the auto drivers swear, which speaks tons about the general attitude of the people here, (it's a different story in Delhi).

Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" has a certain moralistic story inside the major narration wherein it is shown that true happiness is in being neck deep in flood water yet thanking the Gods for the rain...or sort of...it's the way how one looks at it.

So even if you are fallen atop a cactus "praised be the Lord, the plant is safe!" and "what nice flowers" is exactly the secret to everlasting happiness.

I just remembered, my blog/diary would never be complete without a mention of individuals who have inspired me (asides my family and Fiancée)... Fr. Francis Xavier, SDB, who last I heard was in Dimapur; the late Prof. Jaffri, English Department, Jamia Millia Islamia, and among my peers, Guneshwori Philem, who inspite of certain traumatising events, is today a succesfull mom; Dr. Supriya Keisham, hardworking, fussy mademoiselle.

My respects to you all.

Editorial Hilarity

I always wondered how the jobs of smart drilled HRs must be years back when I was searching for work! Years later when I now decide who I hire and who I reject, I come across myriad personalities! Eager beavers, intelligence reborns, knuckleheads, "dumb blondes", pseudo intellectuals et al.

Now, take this for instance, I have here compositions by two editor hopefuls. I was blasted when I went through them, and had to give it space in my blog for hilarity's sake.

Get a grip, this kicks ass!

"Geography: Geography is a important subject of all student. Geography means, "geo" means earth and "graphy" means study. So it is called study of earth. There are seven country and five ocean in the earth. The seven country are---Asia, Eurup, North america, South America, Asteliya, Affica, and North Pole. Asia is the biggest country of the world. Our India is situated in Asia country." 

"Sex: sex is feelings of mind. There is two type of sex in the world. i.e. one is male and one is female. Basically the male person are more interested on female. In another words we all are depends on opposite sex. Less no. of person can live without sex. Less no. person has sex. They are called Hijira. They are most unhappy person."

This literally kicks ass!!

Not surprisingly these guys didn't make it to the official list. They were invited for an interview but they absconded.

  

"Manipur:Countdown to Annihilation"

I chose this heading to exactly describe the feeling I came back with after my brief visit to my homeland...I mean, how do you describe your family that's gone rotten to the core, without being passionate about it, I can't do it. 

I had gone home to Manipur after a gap of a year and a half hoping to find wrong all the vile inputs I had been getting from news and views and I was distraught to find them all too true. The roads had gone to the dogs, electricity the source of development was conditional which directly resulted in all business requiring power to go back to the stone ages;  thieves were ruling the roost, and petrol pumps played the perfect joker displaying "no stock" in anticipation of higher prices whence they could sell their avarice at a higher price; killings left and right, usual nationalism excuse, I can go on and on...  

The 6 days and 6 nights I spent there, never did a day pass without me thinking how this would all end and I wished a thermonuclear device would explode right over this valley taking everybody with it and sparing only those deserving of life and continuity; O how I wish a Hitler would rise and strike an iron hand and smite these worms and pests that wriggle in and out of the sludge and then plough the land for a new begining where there would be no worms and pests.

Where are we? What should we do? When...

"James says"...who has the time to listen to whatever I have to say?!  Well, my friends of course. Let me see, there were twelve of us, a gang that always was twelve wherever we went, whatever we did. There was me, there was Rashobanta, Newton, Boney, Irabanta, Dorendro, Sulanta, Pyarelal, Sunil, Robin, Roshan and Pradip. Rashobanta is a school teacher now; Newton is a Coast Guard pilot, Boney - the last I heard had become a pest; Irabanta is a computer software engineer in Chandigarh; Dorendro recently got married, is settled somewhere in Guwahati, an MBA topper; Sulanta is with Computer Associates, Hyderabad; Pyarelal, I honestly do not have a clue; Sunil is in Delhi, a lecturer; Robin, well, he runs an Airtel counter now; Roshan is a doctor, and Pradip chose to work in Sudan, UN mission, Satellite communications engineer, hmmm. What better way to start your blog than write about your pals!

I am James Sapam, and I'm here in Guwahati, managing an editing office; look no further, for we shall gather again.