What have we become...!

When i was little, i used to hear a story from my grandma about how a king tests if the people of his kingdom are lazy. He does so by putting a stone in the path commonly used by many. He had put a sack of gold coins as a reward for the hardworking one. He waits by the road to see who wins the reward. And to his surprise, everyone take the route around it and go their way. Tired of waiting for finding the suitable, king himself steps forward and moves the rock away. Revealing the sack of gold and saying its fruit of his hardwork, he leaves.
While coming back home from office, i faced similar situation today. On the way there is a newly installed counterweight rod gate [word coined by me ;)]. Well, this 'newly' installed gate had malfunctioned. The rod literally bent at the base and had closed off the road. When i reached it, there was a guy trying to hold it up so that his car can pass through it. As soon as the rod reached a certain height, bikes and cars started hurling past the person holding gate, without even thinking of helping. Absolutely tired and helpless, that guy left the rod back to the original position. Traffic on both ends stopped still! He had to say 'stop' to make people going around him, realize that he is just a person holding a big long heavy rod.
Finally three of us shouted to everyone to rest their engines and moved the rod completely out of the way.
Just like the story above, what have we become!!! Don't we have a simple civil sense? There is a single person trying to carry the burden, and No one is helping? Everyone is just squeezing through!!! On top of it, some ********* driver from back in the queue was even honking! Just wanted to scream or break off the horn of that car!!!
No moral of the story...No learnt lesson...Just food for thought... Think about it while you drive past things like this...

How to drop your phone and get away with it...

Weird title.. Thats what you thought right? But hey, i already told you not to waste time in reading the title.. You should listen sometimes!

Anyway, the things mentioned here are strictly hypothetical. Not to be tried at home, even if you try, please do so at your own risk.

Just recently i saw a public page on facebook saying 'Thanks phone, for being strong everytime i dropped you.' I know mistakes happen; but dont know why, after reading this i started thinking about 'dropping' the phone.

For guys there are many ways of accomplishing the target, but mostly the altitude of the fall is restricted to height of the pocket from the surface on which the phone falls. Where as for the girls, above point is valid when they wear trouser. But if their dress doesnt have pockets, then the height of the fall maybe same as the distance of hand from platform.
This can be done by:
1) While keeping the phone back inside the pocket. (Most common, so no thrill in trying out.. Kinda boring..)
2) Keep the phone in right pocket and when the phone rings just when you are washing your right hand. Then while trying to take out the phone from right pocket using left hand. (This one needs a bit of luck, but its my personal favourite.. You can actually get away with it just by cursing whoever is calling)
3) Keep the phone in shirt's pocket, Then while picking up something that has dropped (intentionally or unintentionally) on the floor.
4) Classic example: when you are working on something, talking on phone while holding the phone in ear and shoulder.. The chances of dropping the phone greatly increase with the 'thin'ness of the phone.
5) (This one is valid for most girls and maybe some boys) If you keep the phone in bag you are carrying, then while removing something else. (in most cases, that something would be home keys...)
6) (This one happened with me recently..) While working on something, keep the phone on your lap. And after some time get up from your place... Works almost everytime...

But the key point in any of this, is to get away with dropping the phone. So it should be done in such a away that it should withstand the fall for the next 'experiment'... So its necessary to plan the thing properly before trying it out. Need to put those Devil's workshop to work properly.. Or its bye bye phone... :D

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?'

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