Names...

[Note: The names and person mentioned here are real, and i dont intend to make fun of those people. I know everyone has extra affection about their name. Even i hate if someone makes fun of my name. But this is just for momentary fun. If your name appears here, please dont take it seriously.]

We meet a lot of people in our life. And coz of that our brain has to use the storage a lot. For few things about the people we meet. Some of those things are face, voice, name etc. But sometimes, we first hear a name, and based on what we think about the name, we create an image of that person in mind. This image is mainly coz of some person of same name whom we have met earlier, or the characteristics, the name carries.

Recently, i was about to meet a person for my project work. He had same name as one of my uncle (actually my uncle's friend, so my uncle...). Since the time i have seen my uncle, he has thick moustache, specs with round frame (with a proper soda glass type lenses in it) and not to forget the gujarati accent while speaking. I wasn't expecting the gujarati bit when i was about to meet the other guy, but i was at least expecting the moustache and specs... When i met that guy, it was total fiasco of what i had imagined. He was just 3-4 years elder to me, had no specs, clean shaven AND he was gujarati.

Sometimes, you make an image from some name from a reknowned personality. I had to meet a guy, Pratap. Now, this name carries some aggressive kind of aura with it.. So keeping that in mind, i went for the meeting. That guy was standing next to me for about 15 mins, with just 'a bit above average' guy standing in between us. But i couldnt see him till the guy in between us left..

To consider my own example, i have an elder bro whose name is Chetan. And i have met a couple of Chetan and Bhushan siblings. But always the younger one has name Chetan. My bro always tells the other Chetan, that he is jealous of them, coz they are younger ones...

I have many examples of this type of mismatch.. Name of the tallest guy in my class in the school was Mandar, And the name of the shortest guy in my class in college was also Mandar. One of my best friend's name is Swapnil. He is extremely restless, chirpy guy. (So restless that sometimes i suspect he has ADHD). And there was another 'Swapnil' sitting next to my seat in office, whom i never used to know, when he came to desk and when he left. I came to know that he got shifted to entirely different building when i heard some noise in his cubicle...

There is a guy i know, with name Kale (means 'black' in marathi), and he was the fairest guy in my class. I met one guy, Krishna, who doesnt even talk to girls. A guy Prashant (meaning extremely silent) in my school never used to stop talking.

In bollywood, one of the most famous names is Rahul. I have met too many Rahuls till now, to make a particular image associated with the name.

What image comes to your mind, if i say Arnold? A big muscular guy who can get away with beating from a fire extinguisher and can still stand.. But, there was this guy in my class with same name, who was nearly 1/3rd or 1/4th of The Arnold.

Some names utterly confuse you, as to whom do they belong.. I mean a guy or a girl. Name of one of the most famous heroes in India is Kamal Haasan, and the name of the maid (female) working at my home is Kamal. In My college, there were a couple of guys and a girl with same name Tejas. Name of one of the most famous personality in Indian Police history is Kiran Bedi, and there is a guy 'Kiran' staying next door to me.

But there are sometimes when you are not disappointed with your imagination of the name. I have a friend, Anand. Just like his name says, he is always smiling. In fact he was smiling even when he had got caught by few seniors for ragging. There was a guy in my school Rohan Tillu who always used to sit on first bench, coz of his height. One of friend Madhura, has extremely sweet voice. So sweet, sometimes the girl sitting next to her is not able to apprehend what she is talking...

Finally, a word of caution, never judge yourself from a person with same name as yours.. Who knows, you may end up being disappointed with your own name...

Have you ever thought?

Have you ever thought, when you think, what exactly happens in your mind? Oh sorry, not mind; in your brain? Actually i started to think about this thought after watching the movie Lage raho munnabhai. Sanjay dutt starts thinking about Gandhiji. That thought, comes alive. I mean, he thinks that its not just his thought but the real Gandhiji.. On the other hand the doc thinks, its Munna's thoughtful thinking which gave birth to the Gandhiji which he sees in real. Wait wait, not real.. I mean he sees it in real, but its not exactly real..

This thought started haunting my thinking when i saw one more movie, 'Identity'.. A movie dealing with a person having multiple personality disorder. Again something related to brain. The guy starts thinking about many people at a time, and all of them come alive in side him only.. Biologically, its only one body, but from thinking or the 'thought' point of view, there are about 10 personalities..! Power of the brain!

There is one more thing, Brain issues commands to organs through electric pulse, and in between the neurons, some chemicals.. So if brain truly commands eyes to see some person, that person will materialize in front of eyes.. Means, the thing is not there, but you think it is there. So when something is there, and if you think its not there, it wont be there. When you think i m not me, you wont be you. And if you think you are me, i wont be you.. What the hell? Sab chemical locha hai bhai...

Endless loop..

When we are young, in school, we hear study well now, you will be able to enjoy in higher secondary school, before the board exams.
When we reach standards just before board exams (8th and 9th in most cases), we hear dont waste time, why dont you start studying for the board exams now only?
So we think, these college guys are so lucky, they dont have to give board exams. We start dreaming about the college.

Once board exams are over, in pre-university(AKA 11th), we hear dont waste time, 12th is very important year, whole life depends on it. Study well, get admission in good degree college, then you can enjoy college life. Now our jealousy and dreaming gets extended to degree college (Engg in my case).

Board exam is done, you get admission in good college, then you know, things are different here. Every year's exam is like board exam. Now we hear, get good marks, get placed in good company, then you can enjoy with your Earned money. Again, we think, anyway we dont have to give exams (Exception those going for higher studies.. Salute to them and their patience..) so at least we can enjoy once we are out of engg college.

Ok, now engg is done, job is secured, we start thinking at least now we can enjoy. But then we face the bitter truth. Here we face exam every day... And we just sigh and 'Gosh, school was much much better than this!'

Welcome to corporate world..

Once upon a time there was a potter. He used to make earth pots and his son used to take them to the town to sell. He used to get decent income for his family of four. Soon he became aged and was unable to make pots as beautiful as he used to.. So he told his son to take over his business, and said that he would do the selling work instead of him. Son agreed, but was very worried about his father, whether he should let his father take the pots to town. 'He may over exert himself' his son thought.

Next morning, his son told him, 'Father, lets hire another guy to take the pots to town. We need to hire him just for an year or so. Soon, my son will finish the school and he will join me.' Father agreed to what son said, unwillingly. Son soon hired a person. The person told son, 'It will be very hectic for me to come here again and again just for few pots. Can we convince some more potters to give their pots to me, so that their work is reduced, and my trip wont be futile?' Son thought hard, and agreed to it. He, alongwith the Person, convinced some more potters for this.

Everyday that Person started to come to village and started taking pots to town. Slowly he started demanding that unless certain number of pots are made, he wouldnt come. Whatever happens, potters had to complete their task. Once that Person said to all the potters, that the business would be good at a farther town, so he may need more money to travel, and he may give less money to them for some days. Potters started thinking on the proposal, but they couldnt resist the prospect of good business. They agreed for this also.

The business continued like this, almost two years passed. The father asked son, 'Son, isnt it time to let your son take over the duty of taking pots to town and selling?' Son answered, 'Father, it is not like the old times now. Then, we owned the business.. Now, i have to ask the Person before letting my son do any of this work. And even i have to see whether my son can do the work like the Person, or if he can meets Person's daily requirements..'

Father thought to himself, "Welcome to corporate world!!!"

Hogwarts...

"When superstars and cannonballs are running through your head..." With Animal song running through my head, i was walking towards my uncle's home. Actually i didnt know the way exactly, and i was supposed to be waiting for my uncle to come and fetch me from stop to his house. But owing to wild human nature (courtesy: Animal song..) i just couldnt wait there. And so, i started walking...

On the way i was also looking around, to see if my uncle is coming. That time only the song changed. My trustworthy phone started playing another one of my favorite song - Theme song of the anime Naruto. And i was swept into total rocking mood.. Practically telling, my five senses were receiving stimulus from the surroundings but my brain wasnt ready to register at all. Suddenly i saw something, which brought me back into the world, but not the real world. It took me to magic world of J K Rowling. I know, some of you would have guessed that i saw harry potter movie's poster somewhere; but hello, new HP movie isnt released yet.. No i didnt see any poster, instead i saw a sign post...


I started thinking, how can it be? According to J K R, it is somewhere in Britain. Then how come its sign board is here? And why the sign board? Most importantly, why am I able to see the sign board? I cant be a Wizard.. If i would have been one, i would have got a an owl post long back.. What the hell was happening? Was i left out by mistake? Or was it because of some ruddy house elf (err.. Sorry Hermionee...) that my letter got blocked? But it was no use now, as i had already completed my graduation and was already earning muggle money. Didnt have no galleons or sickles or even knuts to even try to enroll my name.

But, main question was, why is hogwarts advertising its presence? Was there any scarcity of students? Or there were lack of funds? With so many questions in my head, i started looking in the direction shown by the arrow. I couldnt see anything. 'Maybe i am a muggle afterall' i thought and started walking. But wait, hogwarts is in England. Is there any secret passage from here to there? Or maybe a portkey? My eyes suddenly started darting in search of ordinary looking thing.. But alas! There were so many of those items, i just couldnt finalize which to try out first.. With all courage i had left (yeah 'left', coz bus journey in Bangalore eats up most of it) i thought of trying out the most ugliest looking thing, a rotten shoe.. And just when i was gonna touch it, a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind, bringing me back to world, this time, real world...

My uncle was shouting at me, 'Are you mad? This is the dumping ground of this area. What are you doing here?'

................................................

Most used alphabet 'e'

Scene: Cryptography class

'The most used alphabet in english language is e', He kept on. 'This is key point in solving any coded language.' Some of his students noted this down. But he noticed that one of the last bencher wasnt writing anything down, instead was smirking... Feeling offended he asked that student to stand up. He asked that guy if there was anything funny or unusual with his sentence. That was the basic clue to solve almost all the cryptographic languages. But that student kept smirking, and started writing something on a paper.

The student gave paper to him and said, 'Sir, last week i deciphered this code after trying out for 3 days, give it a try...' He took that paper, started working on it. But something was not proper with the cipher, also, he was getting restless because of the student's smirk. Finally, after 1hr of hardwork, and after getting nowhere in solving the cipher; he asked student to help. Student wrote a line below the ciphered paragraph, 'ts mdrn dys sir. mst usd alphbt s nt 'e', instd ts mst drppd alphbt...'

Fr frst tym in hs lyf, he ws spchlss.....

On time...

ring ring... something shook in his pocket. He had not got used to new cellphone. To be comfortable, he had kept the ringtone which reminded him of his old phone back at home. He took out the phone, and saw the number. Thinking, 'Isn't it a bit too early for this call?' he checked the number once more. He was missing his pager, where he used to get instructions directly. He never felt comfortable talking to the other party. Letting other party hear his voice, was like losing a bit of self information. But then, he had to be update with the latest technology.

After few seconds, reluctantly, he answered the call. From the other end, he heard a husky voice 'Its me'. He thought, i know its u, now just tell me the job and let me go for it. But he said, 'Yes.. Tell me.' He got an address from the man on the other end, and also an order that the work should be done exactly at 3:ooPM. He had heard that in this job many clients have strange requests, but such request was even more peculiar. Most of them want their job to be done during night time. But anyway whatever you hear, is not always correct.

After noting down the location (mentally) he started thinking the ways to approach there. So that he will be able to reach there by 3. He planned out everything, and started executing it. He reached nearest bus stop and caught a bus. 'Thank god, its not the rush hour' he thought, 'Otherwise i wud have had to change the plan' He noticed one thing, the co-passengers were curiously looking at him, for he was carrying a strange package. The one who was sitting just besides him, was keeping an constant eye on him, as if he had carried a bomb, and gonna leave there.

After getting down at the desired bus stop (with the package) he hurriedly entered the railway station and bought the ticket. Again, thanking the client, for choosing good time, he boarded an almost empty train. He sat in train recalculating the time, and he found a mistake in his planning. Mistakes was rare in his case, but still it happened; owing to his first on field experience. He hadnt considered the preparation time. Also the time to get away from there, for next job. Yes, there is next job waiting for me, he reminded himself. He corrected his mistake, and this time he found out that he would have to almost run. As soon as he got down from the train, and he came out of station; he started brisk walk.

Finally he reached the destination, just in time. He had 5 mins for the preparations. Plenty of time, he thought. He started unwrapping the package he was holding and took out the thing which was inside. Carefully setting it on floor, in front of the door mentioned in the address, he serveyed it from all sides. Everything till now was looking perfect. Only remaining part was, the last blow. He checked the watch again, 2 mins to 3. Anytime now, his mind racing.. And again, something disturbed him. ring ring... It was 'him' again. To check if everything was in place.

Exactly at 3, He set the timer in the thing placed there. His job was done. He would leave now. But before leaving, one final check.. Everything was just perfect. He was going to get awarded for the first job well done. Then suddenly he remembered, last thing to do. He went ahead and pressed the doorbell. He need not wait to see what happens next. He was informed, only the target will be home, alone. So, he left as soon as he heard footsteps coming towards the door. He travelled a li'l distance and stood there in shadows, appreciating his work. The door opened, and precisely at the same time the timer also timed 0:00. It was time.

The lid of the box suddenly opened, and with a small blast, the woman opening the door was showered with rose petals. She scremed with rejoice, 'he remembered not only my birthdate, but also the exact time..' He saw the intense reaction on her face, and knew by instinct, that her husband had made sure that her birthday would be as memorable as possible, for her. 'Timing..! Need to be on time in this job...' his brain was reminding him. His phone rang again, this time for saying congratulations on first job, tailing with order to come back to office as soon as possible. Next gift was waiting to be shipped.

He said to himself, 'C'mon, hurry up you goddamned legs.. No time to rest. Need to reach on time..'