Off The Record

There were many things which I saw tacitly get added to my list of Shared Human Experiences on this planet during the time I saw myself attached with Renesa. If we were to speak of last year in particular, the period where I had the most fun, I can distinctly put forth an experience which I wish people reading this right now should get to have. Which is what are, in journalistic parlance called - The Off-The-Record Conversations.

I used to conduct a regular feature – Walk When You Talk (Which still is carried by the current team) Up in where a Nokia 5300 device used to keep recording every tick and turn of the conversation which later used to go and lap-up verbatim in press. But what I cherished the most was the inevitable conversation that followed the said On-The-Record talk. Where I used to get invited to the interviewee’s residence and, besides availing periphery benefits like home-made tea and morning snacks (Dr. Porey had a remarkable snack-sense, so to speak, I remember.) I used to ask them various question, share many an uncomfortable opinions and ideas and the same used to happen from the other end.  Be it Dr Porey emphasizing the need to “Own the system”  or Dr Joshi discussing about his ideas on frugal living, or Dr Naik discussing further on the topic of Ethical-Bonds, or Dr. Vakharia speaking thinking aloud on the topic of freshman orientation, or Mrs Porey sharing her views on ‘The Idea That Is Love.’ And amuse at how her name happens to be ‘Kiran’ her husband’s ‘Prakash’ and her son’s ‘Deepak.’

To append to the list- The numerous, free-wheeling, and endless conversations with Dr. Banerjee was something, which I guess, made me more clear in the head all-the-while leaving a lingering sense of chaos for it to get further transformed. After a particularly heavy Idea-Bouncing session I remember him saying to me “Remember, always, Truth with Tact.” The way it encompassed the zing in the air at that point in time is remarkably unparallel. A discussion on the matter of Education with Dr. Channiwala, at his residence in his study (If you ever get a chance, do visit his place. With his permission, ofcourse.) made a lasting impact and further made me raise more questions to myself. Talks with Dr. Christian, Dr. Urvashi Kaushal, Dr. M.N. Mehta, not to forget – Shekhar Bhaiya and many many more teachers has given me perspective about things which broadens my own spectrum of thought and amplifies the log of avenues where more efforts can be put so as to streamline the solution-lending process.

The one thing which remained constant between all these talks was the statement “Please tell them to...” which typifies the overwhelming need on the said person’s side to reach-out. Which makes me infer that not many outlets are there, present, for that to effortlessly happen. They all, also, expressed a need to have more pupils come and share their opinions with them personally. Yet again a thing which I don’t suppose happens much. So, before I get carried away and spew out a quintessential didactic screed – Talk more, share more, Know more about the other side of table, yada yada – let me just put it On-The-Record that being conversant with both my friends and them the teachers, I have come to realize how very important it is to view a thing from point of views of people placed some 20+ units apart on the age-line. It has, if not anything, made me understand me more. And how you can’t believe on Wednesday what you believed in on Monday without taking into account what happened on Tuesday. And, although, I did delink myself from the Newsletter owing to ideological differences- consensus on which would have over-shot the time-boundary which I could allot to the idea - I am happy that I never and neither did they, stopped sharing and talking. Off-The-Record.

Does It All Really Matter?

  

Think about it for a moment, does it? Even if it be a plea from an energy-to-mass-to-energy converting rabble rouser of a certain contraption called “life form” who has revolved only of a total of 22 times around this 1,292,200 kms diameter-ed ball of Helium and Hydrigen illuminating what period we call as “a Day.” Seriously, think about it. 

Our vaunting of a certain aspect of our shared human experience to heights of such greatness that tantamount to some sort of deification or even the downright rejection of the same, interwoven with a certain creed of rage possible only off a high-levelled cock-surety and the farce that is the self-make-belief that one can actually “know it all.” Ask again, does it all really matter? 

Does it all really matter when you imbibe within the results put forth by Stratigraphic analysis of layers and layers of sedimentary rocks and the geo-logic time frame it sets out for us to gape at? Does anything really matter in the larger scheme of things? In the boundless infinity of the ever expanding Universe, where time is measured not by transient human experiences but by huge scale evolutionary changes and cascading magnanimity of this very hugeness that we’ll ever grasp? 

Does your “opinions” your “ideas” your “initiatives” your “wants” hold any true value as a cognisance of anything “real”? When juxtaposed with the vastness of time-space continuum it appears to be nothing more than the speck of grain on the shores of oceans which will inevitably be groped in by the high-minded force of the wave. Does it all really matter when you very well come to acknowledge that in about as small as a morsel of “Time” in the context of planetary geo-chronology, the whole idea behind existence of the Sun, the moon, the Earth, Sachin Tendulkar, you, me, will vaporize and render itself the colour of vagueness? 

Your hyperbolic reverence towards anything does as much to the whole “what matters” part as does you vitriolic bile. Would not all your personal pointless mooning, disdain and woes be forever put to mum by the inevitable spiral of ever increasing entropy? Would the blithe instance of your feeble, fickle existence upon this planet mean anything to the Byrd glacier moving silently through the calm whites of the Antarctic taking almost 10,000 years to do so? Even the faintest of the memory left behind by us bipeds will be lost in the incessant collapse of all the matter under its own self-weight in a sudden spark of cataclysmic catastrophe at a point in the Time dimension. Then, behold. Pause. Aver. Think – Does it all really matter? 

The point is: If you ever find yourself cribbing about how your present isn’t as good as how you over-glorified past was and how your future won’t be as exciting as you want it to be. Then, I am sorry to say this but you have whacked away that brief window of being a cognizant blip on the radar of this Universal timepassery given to you by Nature and the Unknown force of a much much bigger wisdom. 

It will almost be a Laugh Out Loud situation if I were to ever be that person to tell you how better you could utilize this puny tiny little duration of sentience by loving everything unconditionally. Go tell someone you love them and why you don’t know why you love them. And how loving them is not the equivalent of “I want to posses you too.” Call up your 4th grade teacher and tell her that something she told you then makes sense only now and how. Write a heartfelt email to that someone whom you bid farewell at not that hunky-dowry a moment. Then, breathe. Breathe well. Breathe deep. Take stock of the intricate beauty of a dew-flecked cobweb shall you will. Smile. Talk. Live. 

In the end, though, even these all won’t matter either. Not at all in the great and ever-widening chasm of geological time. But, maybe, in these scrawny ticks of the clock and emotion is when and how you’ll be able to guilt-freely escape from the existential dread of your daily self-over-thunk “predicaments.” Trust me, if that matters to you that is, the past is nothing but a collective memory subject to permanent annihilation shall there be a sudden world-wide Amnesia attack. The future is nothing if a hasty asteroid floating carelessly in the deep of the dark decides to direct its trajectory and renders it a direction which culminates upon your living room. It’s all here and now. This moment, yes this one – The one that just came in as another one just went by – is, maybe, all that there is. And, at the risk of sounding sure, all that does matter. Or doesn't.

Ed's note. Enlightenment. L&T. April-2011.

Cricket. 

Yes, we know you are not going to read this until and unless there’s some sort of a proverbial clock needle pointing towards this particular aspect of our shared human experience. So, even we have decided to go with the vibe and replace all our ‘Hello’s and ‘Hi’s with this little seven letter word. Go, relish it. 

Cricket happens to be that fulcrum in course of every Indian’s life about which the extremes of emotion pivot and try to balance each other out in the long run. Hence, in one moment you saw yourself inadvertently utter many an unprintable words as came along the news of Ashwin being dropped out. In the very next you saw yourself praise Ashish Nehra for his deserving-of-all-of-that stint. And, mind you, our friends from across the border aren’t much different either. They went from “Wah, wah” –ing Wahab to mentally trashing Afridi for having played that shot which made him Shaheed Afridi without imposing a batting PowerPlay. And now, as this is being written, we look forward to another, not to mention - special, one-day run of Ramayana on television only with a much much larger audience on 2/04/2011 coming live from Mumbai. And the holiday declared in lieu of the same is as breezy and soothing a gesture as the spray of a fairy’s sparkledust. All said and done, it boils down to this: It’s just a game – But, what a game it is. If you are not a citizen of CricketCrazy-istan yet and need a confirmation, ask around from people for those snaps they took at 1740hrs near the punch-out machines at the ground floor on 30/03/2011. And you’ll flatly know what this whole paragraph was all about. 

The month of April’s up and so is the demand for Air-Conditioners, Coolers, those jute-shield-with-high-water-retention-capacity thingys and, most important of all, prickly heat talcum powder and decilitres of Lemonade. And the fact that IPL’s almost here doesn’t help the whole Heat matter at all. (Okay! No more Cricket henceforth!) Besides the customary beginning with celebrating the global April Fool’s day and the pranks that it brings alongwith, what’s even more so special about this month is that almost all of the distinct and immensely colourful cultures that this great nation houses finds itself celebrating their respective New Years in this time-gap. Thanks to the Lunar based calendarery we’ll have our friends from North celebrating Baisakhi and Navreh. From West you’ll see the merriment of Gudi Padwa erupt. From down South you’ll have Vishu, Ugadi and Varsha Pirappu make their share of noise. And the Eastern terrains will see themselves go gala with Bihu and Naba Barsha. Also, there’s Cheti-Chand too. So, much sweet-distribution and exotic dinner invitations await us all. Be on your toes to milk as many delicacies as you can! 

Forget at your own peril the International Earth Day on April 22 and be trashed by those Environmentalist colleagues of yours at the water-cooler for two weeks straight. The news from L&T’s annals feeds in all that customary dosage of positive information with which we have all become so used to. It’s still as invigorating as ever, nevertheless.   

Our Pic of the Month contest saw the Cartier Bressons of our campus put out their lens muses up for everyone to see and rate. Find the ensuing results here. Also, do not forget to turn in your own pictures for this whole cycle to repeat again for this month. 

As we go on to embrace yet another set of 30 days, let’s keep a thought reserved for all that happened with our fellow life-forms, Humans and every other species, back in the lovely nation of Japan. The resilience and queititude with which they endured what was clearly one of the hugest natural calamities in recent history is a mark of definitive maturity and clarity of the head off which we all can learn a thing or two. Here’s hoping for everything in Fukushima to get back to normal as soon as it can. 

So, here’s signing off with the hope that you’ll receive the sections tagged alongwith this release with as much warmth and click-preponderance as you all always do. Wishing for you a great period of ephemeral happiness and aplenty life-affirming epiphanies ahead. Breathe well. Keep smiling. Till the next time, take care.