Amit Goes Blogging

In today's world, smart work has eaten away at the importance of hardwork. To emerge victorious is all that matters. So, carrying chits to exams is seen as a smart option, especially by engineering students. Is it wise to invade the enemy camp without a fall back plan? (That's the introduction straight from a filler article in a tabloid!) There are different kinds of 'malpractioners' depending on their preparation and fortitude. This also decides the size of the chits that range from a list of formulae on a post-it to a mini photocopy of text-book. Most of the times, the battle is fought with only fortitude on one's side. The courageous (who rely only on fortitude) are thorough going cheaters and are looked upon by others for their valour. The amateur cheaters seek their guidance. They train them in the psychological warfare to be adopted in the exam hall. The courageous hold divergent opinions on things like where the chit should be hidden, the appropriate tim...

(Dedicated to all smokers and ...) I celebrate the unwinding that occurs as I breathe in the first puff of smoke. If breathing has ever been a pleasure, it was while smoking. Each puff that you inhale in a relaxed state is a unit of satisfaction. Well, four thousand chemicals contribute to your joy of smoking. And, once addicted, you admire your ready loyalty to it. It is a very subtle love affair that you strike when cigarette starts obsessively intruding your thoughts. And, this devotion thrives over all opposition. Neither the fear of being calumniated by society nor being put under oath nor the pinching of the purse nor a terrible denture nor the blackening of lips nor the statutory warning can derail you from reaching out to those 'coffin nails'. I am not undermining the harmful effects of cigarette. They are all there and every smoker is aware of its dangers. I am only referring to the sense of belonging one feels to the butt and how it carves a place for itself in our ...

Such a dreadful thought! What if it becomes a reality! I admit my fear although it exposes me as a male chauvinistic pig. The fear does not arise because of her financial independence but the financial might that mostly decides what is right in our lives (it also decides 'who is right'). Money and resources is what it takes to empower a man or a woman and also to overpower others. The spirit of manhood is something that a boy grows into. The idea takes root in him when he looks up to his father as the salvager when difficulties strike the family. He sees that a male figure heads the family in all its important decisions. I have no idea of how it is in other countries, but, in India, a boy is regarded as the 'lamp of the family' and before he merits such eulogy, he has to burn. Manhood is an outcome of gruesome severities of life that attend upon him. He is called upon to live up to his family's name. He pays a price for it. Education is the first ordeal that he is t...

As children, we end up performing such rare feats of bravery that have no parallel in our adult life. The games that we play, the conditions that we play in, the rules that we frame at these games match the valour of knights, only in place of a dagger, we had a heavy plastic ball or a rubber ball and instead of killing we had to injure that came very near to killing if you could see someone writhing in pain. It was a game of seven stones. The stones were arranged vertically one on top of the other. Boys divided themselves into two teams and would throw the ball, by turns, at the pile of stones and scatter them. If the other party caught the ball before it fell on the ground, the team lost a point. Otherwise, the team that had scattered the stone would rearrange them. It was not as simple as that. We had to arrange them while dodging the ball hurled at us. Sometimes, when the 7th stone was about to be enthroned, the ball would come aiming at your eye and blind you for the evening. ...

There is a lady working with a renowned company. She is well-educated, soft-spoken, beautiful and married to a polio patient. She never allowed gloom to descend over her life on account of this alliance. Her gorgeous appearance seems to wage a fight against destiny. Through her mute dalliances and make-up that's excessive for work she stands out among the entire staff at the office. A guy saw a connection between the sprightliness of this woman and her disadvantaged husband. Day by day he drew closer to her, and found his way to her desolate bed. What leads to such marriages, is common knowledge. But, how the equation stands after such marriage, is what I was curious about. My friend had answers, which, however, were mixed up in sleaze. The guy enjoys a bash on that bed where the lady lay for years hungering for that touch. She has two kids: a 12 year-old daughter and a 10-year old son. She loves her children as all mothers do, but the mother isn't loved by her husband. Thoug...

Dear readers, I am taking a month's break from blogging. ...... No sighs from you! Very unfortunate that even after my tireless efforts at giving you such rare gems of writing, you do not feel sorry at my absence. But this isn't going to let me down, you hear me! I shall be back with a vengeance and shall blast you with one post after another. The days ahead call for intense effort, mostly mental. And, difficulties make my melancholy picture-perfect. It shall definitely find lodgement in my blog. When it comes to retaining ideas, my memory is phenomenal. I will have enough time to organise my thoughts and maneuver them into a surprise attack when other bloggers shall be celebrating my absence. Over and out!

At times I feel I am one with Buddha. Honestly speaking, Buddha and I are cut from the same cloth, only separated by time. It must be clear to you that I am a fool. But,.. enlightened? Is it possible for anything short of enlightenment to realize one is a fool! The awakened one is addressed as Buddha. It's an honorific title that marks his victory over self-ignorance. And, what are the traits of Buddha? It would serve our practical interests to define him for the modern times rather than eulogising his place in a historical backdrop. How would Buddha conduct himself in a world that's constantly introducing us to a new lifestyle against the times where one cultural pattern outlived many generations. Does Buddha have an answer to erratic lifestyles we can't help adopting? Or, he answers only to a period where faith is an inheritance from past and to tend to ethics an honoured calling? Buddhahood is an ever existing possibility. This time it is expressing itself through this...

Happiness is not always a result of our efforts. Most of it passes by like people scurrying past us. Happiness is not an achievement, it is an endowment unto all who have been chosen by existence to live and breathe. It does not proceed from either competition or personal ambition. It is like sunshine; move out of your home and you are basking in its warmth. And, our lives are filled with numerous occurrences that fill us with joy and take us away from our preoccupation with worries. The anxieties of the work-a-day world not only disrupt our leisure but also disturb our sleep. Mornings that wake me up fresh from an undisturbed sleep are deeply satisfying. The world seems awash in tranquility and nature at peace with herself. The twilight on the horizon, the chirping of birds and the tinkling of pots at the water tap are so very soothing. And, when I have a pleasant bowel movement clearing it all in one sitting, it betokens an auspicious day ahead! I am getting late for my office, where...

Blessings are not valued until they are lost. You realise this once you offer the fun and freedom of bachelorhood at the altars of marriage. The pleasure of cohabitation doesn't multiply on receiving a social sanction. Rather, with monogamy as the order of the day, it gets monotonous and obligatory. When the ore of mutual love heats up in the furnace of marriage, it is love that first vaporises into thin air leaving only the scum of regret. Either a hellish lives of compromises or groaning under a broken marriage is the fate of all married couples. And, begetting children only adds to their woes. I am certain of a heaven on the other side of the grave and do not wish to settle on an apology for it in this life. To me, marriage is to bring your weakness home, make her sit next to you and give her away your 'better half'. If my wife dumps all the garbage into the neighbour's compound, I got to support her and fight her case. Our children are the only innocent ones,...

We are living in times of unprecedented change. The change is quite perceptible in the field of technology. Internet, mobile phones, digital cameras and gizmos that assimilate the features of each of those have flooded Indian markets. They have improved the quality of our life marking a departure from the encumbrances of the previous decades. Also noticeable is the pace at which these inventions invade our lives and become a part of us. We seem to share the same necessity that drove the scientists who invented them. But, we do not take into account the accidental misuse these technological masterpieces and their applications are put to. Look at the adolescents wielding these gizmos and you will witness the havoc they have created in their lives. Even I am guilty of this abuse. I remember being part of the chatting fixation that had taken youngsters by storm. Cyber cafes were crowded with boys and girls who found chatting an economical way of making new friends. Terminals were booked ...