Just a Picnic??? [Steamer Aground]

Having been to about a dozen picnics, never had I imagined a grounded steamer would bring about such huge dollops of joy!!!

It's 6 am. The incessant rains and chilly weather sends a shiver down my spine as I climb out of my snug and cozy bed.

Damn!!! What a horrible start to the Picnic Day of our department.
The Kurua Island - a wonderful landmass of natural and serene beauty was where we were headed. After a few hiccups, more pathetic jokes( :D ) and still more rain; delayed by an hour finally we set sail at 9:30 am for the island. Amidst the throttle and rolling of the steamer, we enjoy a game of Mafia. Cartloads of frolicking and laughters later we jigged to random lovely music pieces till we could dance no more. Man, that part was awesome. Oh boy, there was more to come...

Three quick hours pass by when we reach the island. The cool breeze weaving a tale of its own welcomed us onto the island. The slight drizzle was the cherry on icing. A short trek to the top of a hill on the island finds us a gallant foggy view of the mighty Brahmaputra river. After a few group images, we headed off to the greener and deeper parts of the island. Time flew, and we were soon back to the steamer for a (quick?) hearty lunch. And only then did we realize we had only about half-an-hour more to enjoy, before we were to head back.

By 4:30 pm we were dragging ourselves back to the steamer well against our wishes, the heart lunging inside to have just one more moment of the feel of the soft, very soft sand of the banks against the bare feet. The steamer set sail back to the downstream Brahmaputra and we got on with a game of Dumb Charades(with some really weird movie names :D ). Barely had the shoreline left the horizon that we were rocked by a VIOLENT JOLT of the steamer!!!

Woww, that was a violent jolt indeed! Some confusion and still more minutes later we realize the steamer had been grounded in a-foot-and-a-half depth of water!!! This meant we would be delayed for at-least an hour. Silently, I was happy, very happy. An hour more with my batch-mates! :D We continued with mimicry of pals (and others :D ), ghost stories (one among them : this) until the pearl blackness of the night engulfed the huge expanse of the mighty Brahmaputra. That moment was just too serene to put into words. But, it was also a moment when we realized how chilly the winds had grown and how the steamer would remain grounded for the foreseeable hours.

As against reaching the Ferry Ghats back at 6 pm, we were stuck here.
At 7:00 pm, arrangements were then made to take us back ashore and then a separate steamer would take us back to the Ferry Ghats. At that point, it seemed like a spoilt day. Nevertheless, in batches we were taken ashore and we lay waiting. The kick finally hit us when we all got jovial and discussed about language, Chanakya( the anecdotes :P ) , about our crushes and what not...

Then, the plans changed (it was 9:30 pm and already 4 hours delayed) when we were informed that autos would be our rides back to IIT Guwahati (meanwhile local news channels were also flashing the reports on the turbulence caused due to the steamer.) Man, the 54 kilometre ride back in the cramped up autos in that freezing drizzling cold weather??? It was THRILLING!!!! :D :D

The ride back reminded me how fortunate that steamer-grounding was and how much more enjoyable this turned out to be. Not to mention, how we got to know each other even better...
So, was it just the picnic? Or the crush stories and silly games? Or was it the ghost stories and the lovely weather? It was an ADVENTURE... Phew!!!  :)

Right-Click : Open Terminal from current directory [Ubuntu]

A die-hard fan of the Linux based systems, I have always been fascinated with the tweaks one can do with the system not to mention the tendency to refrain from the mouse.

Well, observing some people who are shifting to Ubuntu, it feels weird seeing the wincing when manoeuvring to the current directory from the home directory each time the terminal comes up.

Just use this :

sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

killall nautilus & nautilus

Enjoy it!! Ravish the terminal like anything now!!! :D
Cheers!!!

The cozy mind

       27° C                  Precipitation : 60%
                                  Humidity : 82%
                                  Wind : 10 km/hr
                                  Guwahati, India

The relief that the temperature drop and the heavy precipitation has brought forth in the campus is just too hard to put into words.

As the mid-terms draws to a close, amidst volumes of "It's over. It's done" Lord of The Rings' memes floating about the air of the college, one feels really overwhelmed with the sudden shuddering stop in anxiety, only to be immersed immediately into cartloads of assignments and competitions!

"Phew.... Stop!!!"
Time to stop going ballistic all through and taking up the reins of surprises thrown towards oneself.

A sketch of a pair of shoes I drew in 2007 (shown above), made me recollect how painstakingly I would sit for hours together seeing the pair of shoes and dish out the still-life object onto the canvas.

While running long-distance in the drizzling atmosphere, the cool whiff of damp Earth strikes me comfortably numb. While the heated up soles(by running) sear your toes real bad, the soothing meaningful music pieces of The Turtles, Pink Floyd, Guns N' Roses and Steven Wilson floor me with the suddenness of how, more often than not, one develops a tunnel vision based on hearsay only to pursue them as the goal of life. In a nut-shell, the crowd behavior..
Oh me! Did we just get tensed and worked up all for this??

Whoa, what are these thoughts swarming into my mind? The suddenness of philosophy..
Maybe the amazing music pieces by Beethoven I am getting addicted to, are to blame. :)

I guess, life is not all about partaking in the competitions surrounding the being, but is a lot more about the passion one undertakes irrespective of the general outlook people shower with. The beauty around the nature and the world. And yes indisputably, learning!!!

Oh, my! This has been the best week of the semester, with such calm composure!!! With such a carefree mind, this cozy mind seeks more adventure and more wonderful thoughts, not to mention great discussions and more XYZs...

The writer now needs to change the battery packs of his table-clock. :)
Au revoir!!! See you next time soon!

#A_light-hearted_attempt at diary-writing

A Clean Slate - On the National Anthem

On the Independent India's 67th birthday...
(P.S. play this in the background as you read on, it would be a much better experience!)

Scurrying the deep sands of time during the school days : waking up at 6:21 am in the morning and hurrying getting ready for the school, I would reach the bus stand just in time : 6:25 am.

The not so comfortable bus-ride to the school would leave the sleepy me with a searing head-ache. The fragrance of the wonderful flowers of the school garden would hit my nose and the unbounded joy would leave me frolicking with my friends across the playground before the class bells chime. Almost twenty minutes of play would exhaust us, when the bells would chime. Oh, the classes!!!

Then the classes would commence. Oh, wait!!!
I totally forgot about the morning assembly. Being a member of the school Choir Group, I would sing the hymns : "Listen let your heart keep seeking...", and prayers of the other varied religions in a particular order.

Yeah, the National Anthem would be sung after the news reading and the "thought of the day". The shiver that I would then have while singing the anthem, has never ever been forgotten. The stirring music would sting and pinch me and send me in a state of happiness and sadness at the same time. Time - the winged bird, spread its wings and then I remember speaking to my friends :
"Dude!!! It's a holiday! What if it is the Independence Day? I have respect for my nation, why should I go to the flag-hoisting ceremony? It's all in the heart, let me doze back to my dream."

It has been close to three years that I have last sung or heard the National Anthem.
A strange quirk of time shoved me into the Cross Country race and so, after ages did I happen to wake up early in the morning, oh gross, that was 5:00 am.... :O

The sorrow of missing out the top ten rankings of the 5 km race by some 3-4 seconds was still rife, but the 12th position was not that bad I consoled myself. Sleepy and dreamy, I went down the memory lane and I randomly searched for a patriotic song to keep with the patriotic fervour of the day.

Youtube returns the National Anthem and like thousands of pins I was stung and bit : "How did I omit singing for the nation the last three years, when even the Sundays at home seemed wee bit gloomy. Yeah I loved my School more, more so the Anthem I would stand erect and a shiver would run down my spine at the potential of India and the sorry day-to-day happenings that the newspapers would report each day. The whole of the searing head-ache would just vanish and fill the little boy's head with great motives and good endeavors, I never did realize it was all about the Anthem in  the end."

During my stay at Manchester for the intern, once I was asked : "So how is the corruption in India?"
I was shocked, but put up a simple (false?) response of : "It has come down a lot, India is getting better and better still with regards to corruption."
I could not help but think : "So, people do not remember the cultural amalgamation of India, but the attention has shifted to the sorry state of internal affairs?"

There were posts by some of my friends who wished that in the coming year, India becomes a much safer place for women... Oh, the deep deep sorrow of some sickening gory incidences!!!

Then I happened to come across the sand filling scam, wherein the IAS Officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended and this video's saddening truth of the words :
"ह्में इतना भी ना डराओ की हमारा डर ही ख़तम हो जाए |" 
[Do not scare us so much that we stop getting scared!]

Once, I was suggested to strive for Civil Services as a career, but I could not bring myself to such an understanding where the general perception of such a career would be great privileges but some shady descriptions of the same.

So, much for the talking, I was perplexed when after the Cross Country run, the participants were strewing the empty food packets across the ground, even if the waste-bins were nearby. The little things, in my humble deduction is what matters the most. Rome was not built in a day...

Maybe it will take ages to finally see India as a first world nation, and not a third world nation. But each of the Indians should be put in the little effort it takes to make India a better country to live in.
The apathy I had developed for the nation's news in general in the recent past was in terms of stopping the reading newspapers for I could not imagine more gore in my dreams and decided to live by the sweet surroundings of IITG and face the world when the time comes.

No, today I actually repent not having gone to the flag hoisting ceremony, not that it is my duty, but that it infuses the spirit in a person by the cleansing and inspiring words, such that one may derive more courage for the things one stands notwithstanding the consequences. On a similar note, the  Joker of Batman has been immortalized by the way of he thinks. It is the courage to do things which matter, the good things would flow into an untrammeled head on its own.

A Russel Peter's comedy episode mentioned this :
"There is a difference between Terrorists and Indians; Terrorists hate people.
Indians hate ......... Indians...."
The audience actually laughed and it seemed funny how the most welcoming of the nations has been turned to such a gory piece of satire.
Two things have struck a chord in me today :
"The way to increment India, by the littlest of the things; and Helping people - brotherhood"
(Russel Peter is funny, no doubt about that; but the facts just stand out.)

जन-गण-मन अधिनायक जय हे
भारत-भाग्य-विधाता ।
पंजाब सिंध गुजरात मराठा
द्राविड़ उत्कल बंग ।
विंध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा,
उच्छल-जलधि-तरंग ।
तव शुभ नामे जागे,
तव शुभ आशिष माँगे,
गाहे तव जय गाथा ।
जन-गण मंगलदायक जय हे,
भारत-भाग्य-विधाता ।
जय हे, जय हे, जय हे,
जय जय जय, जय हे ।।

-Indian National Anthem,
Tagore, Rabindranath

Musings

How many times did I strive to come up with a blog, only to aspire to make it a perfect one. Aspire I did!!!

But....
Perfection is not what comes out in itself, what does come up is spontaneity.
I don't seem to have much time to pour out my feelings with all the lovely people out there in the world (IITG here) preparing for the midsems and the heartless, ruthless weather continues to bring dear sleep to our tired eyes tempting us with the dear cool weather. But, there is this shower of the blessings of Goddess Saraswati. The awesome weather just reminds one of the greater world left unexplored with the base feelings of competition and hatred in some sense to be blamed.

For one instance, I have decided to forgo the harsh hatred of grammatically incorrect and other nincompoop issues and attempt to publish this blog without much ado. I beg forgiveness for the errors that might have crept in.

On a similar note...
Some days back while I lay relaxing, struck numb and mesmerized by the beauty of IITG's play-ground and  was pondering over the motive of life of man in this vast world, the chuckles of some freshmen who were attempting to learn the nuances of playing volley-ball hit my ears. I noticed the free will within them. Not one stroke seemed to get right, but yes they were happy, and jolly - their spirit. Does everything seem to be balanced out in this materialistic world? Perhaps not. But what harm does come off attempting to be that one set of constructive nut-bolt in this world of creaky, cranky machinery.

One must just set up a different pair of glasses just to weigh down the options one has and attempt to derive the best pleasure and spread the message out to the world. The words seem to be coming not from me, but the sunken eyes and the soothing breeze of the mother nature. On a lighter note, yes the general aim of mine to fill up some more space. :)

The beautiful music by John Lenon's - Imagine and Adele's Concert just flood the brain and the heart with beautiful and great thoughts. These have drugged my conscience and with them in background, I feel a child reborn out of the hard cocoon of stoic and heartless expressions and have enjoyed every piece of today's experience.

The first time I thought of writing something for the web-portal, I desired to write something about Ubuntu and other customizations, but the thought kept on slipping. Incidentally the title consisted of the words 'Musings' and here I am with some musings of mine.

And, Oh yes!!! I have an examination morrow. Adieus amigos!! Meet sometime later. Maybe with some better thoughts and not just some musings.

Hope you have an awesome Mid-Semester examinations!!!