Technically

This is also a blog entry....:)

P.S. I am a little too tired to write a blog and have to only an hour left to fill the quota for this month. So here it is...:D

Wishing

On the eve of yet another New Year, I have this thought, tomorrow is going to be THE(Valentine's Day could be the other, but there are some morons who think Valentine's Day is a evil holiday) day of the year where almost everyone in the world "wishes" almost everyone they know or meet a Happy New Year. Anyway my thought is what's the whole point of "wishing" exactly. I mean, I understand the literal meaning of it. But just because someone "wishes"(no matter how honest they are), does it make your year a Happy one? How much of a difference does it make in the amount of happiness that you receive in the year to come, if one less person "wishes" you. Instead people should be saying, "Hey, let me know if in anyway I can help you make your year, heck why just the year, say make your life a happy one". I know it's a really long statement to say, but at least that would make sense. Though it's the Cynic in me speaking, but that's the thought I had today. So here I am, NOT wishing, instead informing you that if there is anything at all, that I can do to make you happy even a little bit, do let me know. I will do my best.

See you next year all!!

P.S. This is another of my blogs which I wrote in a hurry to fulfill the quota for this month.

Love and Driving

Ok! So I decided to write at least one blog every calendar month and today being the last day, I have to write something. So here it is, some random thought that came into my mind. Don't read(if at all anyone is reading that is) too much into it.

A good friend of mine once told me something that was told to him by his father. "While driving, if you are 100% you are only 50% safe". It totally makes sense. You could be as sober as you can be, you could be the most attentive driver there is, you could have the reaction time of a hockey goalkeeper and yet if the other guy is a drunk, with an attention span of a 2 year old and has a reaction time of a elephant, you are bound to get into an accident and there is nothing you can do about it.

Love is much the same in a way. You could be sweet, caring, honest, straight forward, willing to make a big fool of yourselves and head over heels in love with someone and express it to that person, but if she/he doesn't feel the same way about you, there is nothing and absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Like I said, i wrote this very little thought so it may not make much sense. I promise to come up with a nice and interesting topic for the next month.

Weaknesses

The other day I was watching a extremely short lived Sci-Fi show called Bionic Woman(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880557/) in which this woman(Jamie) has an accident and looses both her legs and her right hand. Her bf being a cutting edge Research Surgeon in Bionics(obviously), replaces the lost limbs and parts of her brain with Bionic limbs and neurons. This gives her super strength and agility, but only in the replaced limbs. During a fight with another complete Bionic Woman(Sarah, played by the hot and cute Katee Sackhoff), Jamie faces the problem of having only one strong(or as they refer to is, "Bionic") arm, which makes the other normal (human) arm as her weakness. Now if she never had the accident and never got the new "features", the other arm would never be called as a weakness of hers.

The metaphor which is more often to to refer weakness is Achilles' Heel. Now, from what I have read and seen in movies, Achilles is a well built man(though mythical) and I am quite sure that his heel is probably stronger than the best of the best. But because of his mighty strength else where, it's considered his weakness and turns out it was a fatal one in deed.

So, is it our strengths that make our weaknesses visible? or Do weaknesses exist to balance out the strengths?

Chance Encounters

Chance Encounters, Life is full of them. The friend whom you haven't seen in years, runs into you on the subway, which you very rarely take; You pass by a used book stand which is on a route which you had to take because of a construction work on your usual route and find a very rare book which you always wanted to read; winning a lottery on a ticket which you had to buy because the news stand guy did not have enough change or as Mr. Bogart put it "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine". Not all of them are good as the examples above. But when they are, they make the day better, sky brighter and life worth living. Here are two chance encounters that I want to share, which are similar that of Mr. Bogart's.

(A) The year is 2003, the date Jan 4th, the location a Train (AP Express) from Hyderabad to New Delhi. Even though the tickets for our(8 of us) trip back to college for the Spring semester were booked more than a month in advance, we were surprisingly wait-listed until the morning of the journey. When I reached the train station, I was surprised to find that there were hell a lot of students(like 10-15 times more) on the platform, than the usual . Then I got the answer for the mysterious puzzle of not being able to get a confirmed ticket though booked well in advance. It is that a different college students (apparently too many of them) are also taking the same train on that day.

Anyhoo, we finally get to our seats(which are not all together by the way), we see that there are some seats in our cubicle(a section of 6 seats) taken by the students of other college that I mentioned and surprisingly all girls, Woohoo (give me a break I was 18). After a while of awkwardness, we all got introduced to each other. Among them was this cute girl who surprise surprise started a conversation with me, WITH ME. Asked me if she knew me from some where. I was like, I would know if we had met before (because she has this sweet smile on her face that no one could forget). And so it began, the most memorable train ride that I ever took. We ended up exchanging emails (well it was 2003 and we dint have cell phones yet). We kept in touch, became good friends. I started to like her and wanted to be more than friends, but unfortunately she dint feel the same.

(B) The year 2008, the date Nov 10th, the location Starbucks @ AstorPlace, NYC. I have been having some money problems and had to take up a tutoring job in addition to my job on campus. So I get a assignment to tutor Statistics to a Nursing student at NYU. That afternoon I had an assignment midtown which ran a little late, so I texted the student saying I am going to be late by 10 mins. She replied back saying it was ok. When I reached the Starbucks(which is my favorite Starbucks location in NYC), I couldn't find her right away. So I called her and finally saw her sitting at a table all obediently and cute as always, with the curly hair and a smile on her face. I introduced myself and sat down across the table. She said "I never had a tutor before, how does this work?" I said, whatever she wants to do is fine by me and I asked her "Do you want to learn the subject or just get a good grade?"(I always think of asking my students that question, but that was only time I ever asked anyone that question). She said "Wouldn't you get a good grade if you learn the subject?". Right then and there, I liked her for the way she thinks. I liked the interest that she has shown during that session. We had 7 more sessions after that and the more I knew about her, the more I liked her. I also got to know that, lucky me, she has(had then) a bf. She had almost all the qualities that I wanted a girl to have and also (though she doesn't know yet) we seem to be very much compatible in a lot of ways like two halves of a medallion. Though I haven't seen her since Dec 16th 2008, we still keep in touch and also she is single now(knock on wood). So being an Eternal Optimist, I am my keeping fingers crossed.

Though the first of my Chance Encounters did not end the way I would have liked, I am sure and confident that the second one will(hey, a guy can dream can't he?).

1440 times

One of my favorite songs of Broadway musicals is from R.E.N.T. It's the opening song "Seasons of Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8iTeDl_Wug . I can't really say about 525600 minutes of the year, but I have something to say about 1440 minutes of a day, any day.

1440 times a day, I think of You,

Believe me my dear, it's true;

Even when I sleep at night,

Hoping bed bugs wont bite;

I wish to see You in my dream,

Making it a lovely theme;

The next morning, if my wish was fulfilled,

I feel like a rainbow, formed over a field;

And the cycle begins again,

With the thoughts of You, in my brain;

1440 times a day, I think of You my dear,

Wishing all the while, You were with me right here.

Another reason for me to choose to this as the name of the poem is because, someone knows about 1440. Though it is very very unlikely that she will read this blog, I wrote it anyway, because, if and when she does read it, I want her to know how I feel about her.

P.S. Don't ask me who she is. I am NOT gonna tell, just yet.

With You!!!

Paul Dirac once asked Oppenheimer "Oppenheimer, they tell me you are writing poetry. I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write a poetry at the same time. They are in opposition. In science you want to say something that nobody knew before, in words which everyone can understand. In poetry you are bound to say...something that everybody knows already in words that nobody can understand" . I am not a full time Physicist (yet), but i would like to think of myself as a part-time Physicist , so i should be explaining something which no one knows in words that everyone understands. At the same time i am not a Poet either not even a part-time Poet. So i am trying something new. I will be saying something which very few people know and which I am expecting some of you will understand.

I may not be rich yet, but when I do become rich,

I would like to share it With You.

I haven't won the Nobel Prize yet, but when I do win,

I would like to be there With You.

I am not a Pilot yet, but when I do become one,

I would like to soar the skies With You.

I haven't seen Hailey's Comet yet, but when I do see it,

I would like to see it With You.

And when the sun goes down and night falls,

I wish you will be there with me,

to bring light into my life, My dear Sunshine.

As all of you people who are reading this know that i am not so good with the punctuation, so forgive me if i used any of them inappropriately. And as always criticism is very much welcome.