Amit Goes Blogging

I am an avid learner and my interest lies in grappling with underlying concepts. Over the years, I have cultivated a state of mind that is receptive to any form of knowledge and that quickly recognizes the universal behind the particular. I reach for the comfort of generalization rather than labouring under details. I enjoy abstract flights that take innumerable facts in their stride and offer a last word on their existence. I developed a natural taste for philosophy as it perfectly answered my aptitude. I couldn't relish fiction that hangs around characters to unfold the theme.  During my school days, the chapters in the text-book ended with a summary that read 'know to learn', and it never appealed to me. I was happy knowing rather than learning things. This attitude continued throughout my engineering. I did extremely well in my practicals and viva voce as the questions asked were mostly conceptual. I remember my digital electronics viva in which I was asked questions on

He was a devotee and a troubled heart, factors that invariably co-exist. The worldly dross started falling away from his person and the divine made way into his life. He could feel something unearthly taking control of his life. For such is the nature of devotion that His grace and power start manifesting in those who seek refuge at His holy feet . The impersonal polarizes into a personal being to help his devotees even though the hankering for the worldly gains consumes their breath. It happened during an interview. He was worried but not nervous, for he had learned to accept whatever circumstances he was put through. When things would go awry and his last plank of safety was about to deceive him, some unseen hand would intervene and save him from the untoward. So, he couldn't disregard the timely help and arrogate his demands. He was facing the interviewer and suddenly another channel opened to him. He could read the mind of the person before him! The interviewer in her character

Can a boy and a girl just be friends? The friendship between a boy and a girl is a potential love affair. While it has all the ingredients of love, it lacks the opulence of emotion and the touch of closeness. It is yet another possibility to discover love and yet another mutuality waiting at the doorstep. It is self-restraint that prevents it from trespassing the love zone. The relationship that begins with love limps on infatuation. It opposes the realism of personalities and seeks solace in the optimism of syrupy sentiments. It's a shrub nourishing the dream of a tree while cattle are grazing around it. A little mindfulness, and the hollowness of their relationship echoes in the distraught heart of the lovers. But, the love that graduates from the checks and balances of friendship is a new edition of love, spurned of mushiness and surplus on understanding. It has no traces of fussiness or the snares of pretense. Friendship doesn't come tip-toeing; it walks with steady steps t

Very few, if given a choice, would opt for a bodiless existence. I would happily run with this choice. Let me cite one immediate benefit of this during these winters. Bathing wouldn't be a physical act anymore, but a state of mind. Vibes do not stink. A body, though a masterpiece of creation, is a body after all, bringing my creatureliness to the fore . No matter how much I care for it, its vagaries subject me to untold sufferings. Ask me what it is to have an upset tummy marching south and no asylum around. Somebody has said: "How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you happen to be." Even on the other side the things are not always pleasant. Sensing the urgency, at the summons of nature, when I take up the call I realise that I don't command my bowel movement. My body lets me down. After the little that I manage to extricate from the clutches of my bowels, imagine, the tap runs dry and the tissue roll hasn't been replaced:-( After all the

Unlike all other weekends, this wasn't given away at the altars of philosophy. It had a ring about it, a ring that I had stopped craving long ago. Earlier, the anguish would tear my heart out: When would a weekend be something that I would look forward to; not doing my laundry or arranging books, but one that would be spent shopping, hanging out at posh restaurants - a dream which every earning bachelor has a right to dream. But, all I could think of with my limited means is to gorge on food at a nearby hotel, entertain my flat mates with frivolous talk and then bury my head into a book and the weekend would just pass by. But, yesterday, I was available neither to my roomies nor to my books. I was busy shopping! I was at a Reebok store purchasing a pair of jeans. To prolong this shopping experience I went around the store. After two trials with waistline 32 and waistline 34, I settled for W-32. It was ages since I had bought a piece of clothing for myself. Next, I was at Adidas;

Of people from various persuasions, the ones that I am quite wary of are health freaks. Though such associations were few and far between, even the little time spent paying audience to them is nerve-racking. They are the most unproductive and annoying moments. You will hear them go gaga over their abs, biceps, triceps, the number of push-ups and pull-ups they manage...things a normal individual will never relate to. I call them maniacs because their hangover from the workouts is incurable. You will see them nursing their hand over the muscular wobble on the chest, flexing their biceps while having food, as if every morsel lodges directly under the bulge; while walking they appear a heavily ironed garment after a starch dip - hands thrown apart, flaunting a pigeon chest and wading their way in quarter turns due to taut muscles. Natural food cannot cater to their bodily requirement. They need amino mass, protein supplements and other body-building potions. I had witnessed this activ

The other day, I read in a newspaper about two separate incidents of a 9-year old and a 10-year old kid found involved in sexual activities. Reacting to this some activists opined that it's time we set-up condom vending machines in schools and some even talked of introducing sex-education from preschool. The incident and the reactions to it have both set me worrying about the future of human society. I pondered deeply on this issue. When I say deep, I mean to have begun from whether this issue has to be reckoned with as a problem in the first place, to identifying it with a cultural decadence that forebodes a doomed humanity. And, deep thought has always driven me to suspension of judgement. All the views and the counter views on this subject have only scratched the surface without getting at their implications. None of them seem to sufficiently gauge the magnitude of the problem. Those who have offered a solution seem more concerned about their view than the issue. Dread of p

In this age of self-help books and personality development courses, certain one-liners have played havoc in the contented lives of the masses. These one-liners are sustenance unto millions who suffer from lack of self-worth. They are charged, as it were, with divine potency, making the repetitioner of them surmount incompetency. "Believe in yourself", "You have it in you", "You can do it" and many more such tug at the human gullibility for self-belief. You will agree with me when you see girls of all sizes and shapes flocking to air hostess training institutes. Girls, regardless of their vital statistics, seek admission into these institutes on the strength of that woeful one-liner, "Believe in yourself." And, none of these girls wants to work for a domestic airline. They want to be on the aircrew of either Kingfisher or Lufthansa or some renowned international airlines. Hats off to the counsellors who convince these girls into dreaming such s

In the years gone by, I had the rare privilege of meeting some extraordinary people and even a brief time spent with them was a learning of a lifetime. Each of them had something to give unasked, something to share lovingly, something to evoke gently in me. Among them again, are a few sweet ones I hold close to my heart - my girlfriends of all ages. From them I learnt how powerful a women gets when she embraces her femininity. Their femininity comprises their tenderness, their innate charm, their subtle creativity, their vibrant love, their balmy touch, and other magical ingredients. Glamour doesn't define a woman; geniality defines her. It is one thing to be simply charming and quite another to be charmingly simple. It is all the difference of a rhetoric prose and an absorbing poetry, a difference of a moaning sensuality and an amusing lisp of a child; a difference of a booming excitement and a meditative repose; a tickle of a gossip and the solace of a gospel. These sweet

'Live-in relationship' is a dream I have cherished since my college days. Not me alone, but innumerable others who are victims of a disturbing sex ratio, and are left out in the competition, also cherish this dream. It takes tons of good deeds of past life to enjoy this premarital privilege. Each day opening my eyes to a sultry face sleeping next to me; nudging each other, only to come back in snuggles till the rug tatters in the heat of passion; and, watch the girl grow shy on realising that we had slipped into each other's clothes - celestial feast, I say! But, will it ever come true. I shall celebrate the feminine presence in every nook and corner of my adobe. Wish to catch a glimpse of my fantasy? Standing under the shower, I would consider it Grace, if her brassiere hanging from the shower slips and hangs from my ear. Wow! And, I shall encourage this impropriety without ever complaining about her uncouth habits. Let her scatter things, turn the room into a maze but onl