Fix You

This is one of Coldplay’s best and my favourite songs.

Till now I used to love the song only for the music. It is orchestral, acoustic, anthemic and a great guitar solo all rolled into one.

Now is when i gave attention to the lyrics as well…

Here it is….

When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
when you too in love to let it go
If you never try you’ll never know
Just what your worth

Lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears streaming down your face and I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face and I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

The quest for ………what?

Now that most of the people who actually read this, though a lesser number now because of the lack of update, are done with college and started with work, I thought it was an appropriate time.

We get out of college, not knowing why we went through the whole thing. All we remember is being together with friends, fooling around, enjoying, shouting, screaming, playing and doing much more with them. But do we remember what we have actually learnt in this time? I mean how many of us will be actually applying that exact same knowledge in work, and we also know people who could have done the same work without even going through all this. But that thought is for later.

For now, we are working!! Regardless of what we did to get here, we are here. We are at a place where we hope to find things to do which we like. Which makes us happy, wanting us to do better things. This is called as a job. We will be doing this now for the rest of our lives. But will we be thinking like this about it for the rest of our lives?

You can’t blame me to think like this. How many people do we know around us, who are 40 plus and are actually enjoying what they are doing, now caring about how much is being deposited into their account. I know that is an important part too, but don’t you think when you see them, that this is the only part that they are working for? If given a chance they would retire the next day. But they can’t. Because they haven’t ‘saved enough’ for the rest of their lives. They are doing their jobs for the quest of what? Happiness? Money? Or maybe retirement?

I have always believed that every human being you see teaches you something. Maybe they are teaching you something. Maybe you love your job now. Maybe you will love it for the next 50 years too. But what if you don’t want to do it after 20 years? What will you do then?

Maybe even you will do the ‘job’ till you ‘save’ enough. We are living in an amazing time now. It’s the best time to live in this country. And if it is not the best, then best has not yet come. But it will. So what does it mean? It means that you will need even more money to spend. But it also means that you will HAVE more money to spend.

So people, start saving up. Use all the lovely tools this free economy gives you. And maybe ask your dad why he is still working.

Rang De…….. Munnabhai !!

A Generation Awakens!!

But did it? Being a part of the generation that we are, we have been witness to events that refused to happen in the space of a generation before. And I am saying this keeping the Indian context in mind.

Ten years ago, and I say ago because it does seem a long time back, hardly had anyone in the country heard of a personal computer. And today you find one everywhere. Even farmers have access to computers and internet thanks to the e-choupal project by ITC. The speed at which this country has developed is something that has not been witnessed by citizens of other generations and neither by those of other countries.

It’s a great time to be an Indian! Well when was it not anyways. Maybe we will talk more on that some other day. For now we go back to the topic in my mind. Rang De Munnabhai!!

With an assumption that everyone has seen both of the movies that I am referring to, I will dive into the topic. There was a time when movies were regarded to be hopeless stories about a man and a woman in love, with the ethereal running around the trees phenomena, with one bad guy and lots of his bald mates. At the end, the good prevails over evil. These were movies that a person with an IQ of a nincompoop could watch and come out none the wiser. They didn’t make anyone think, not surprising that the people who actually MADE that movie didn’t do this exercise either. Nevertheless, time moved on and through evolution, Mr. Darwin smiles again, we got better moviemakers, and more importantly who did the mentioned exercise.

We then saw a breed of movies with messages in it. Not that these kinds of movies were non existent, but they never served the purpose of making money for the producers. The new breed though, hit bull’s eye. People could make a movie with a message in it and people ACTUALLY liked it. These are high budget multi-starrer movies which were just a brilliantly made three hour public service message. But there was an essential difference. People listened. And they liked it.

Now, another question is, do we need such movies? Hell yes we do. If these movies are working then of course it means we need it. Now, another question, keeping both of the movies in mind, which is the one we need more? Let’s see. Munnabhai was a movie which preached old-school values. It told you to go back to your roots as an Indian, and just act, more of a human being. Rang De on the other hand was a movie promising to awaken a generation from its slumber. And it DID do that to an extent. Remember the protests after the reservation proposals? Jog your mind and think, would it have drawn the same reaction had there been no Rang De? I think not. It told you to become a NEW India. An India which party’s, drinks, eats, dances and still wants to stand up for itself. Both were movies that will be eternal.

And do we need more of these movies? YOU have the answer.

A Generation Has Awakened!!

Wassup !!/??

Now what is the deal with this word?

I mean why do people say it? What I mean to ask is, should one add a question mark at the end of it or an exclamation mark?

To know that we will have to trace out the history of this word, or rather phrase.

This phrase was first made popular in 1940 by the very popular and favorite cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Remember “What’s up, Doc”? In the series all the words were pronounce as per Standard English usage. The more standard one would be ‘What is up’. But that would just sound weird. Then the phrase somehow got fused into a word. So then came ‘Whassup’. This further shortened to ‘Wassup’. This can also be pronounced as ‘Wussup’ or ‘Wuzzup’. This phrase was made popular by the African American Community and was then later taken advantage of by the popular commercial series by Budweiser.

The evolution of this word didn’t stop there. This evolution would put Darwin to shame. The word got further shortened to ‘Ssup’ and later to just ‘Sup’. These versions though are more popular among the internet community.

Now we come to the question that I am addressing to. What exactly do people mean when they say wassup. And more importantly do they expect an answer in return or just another wassup. And even more importantly, what is the answer that they expect? Among Mexican-American street gangs in California, the phrase ‘what’s up’ means ‘there is going to be a fight’ when opposing gangs confront each other.

As far as I am concerned I go all blank when someone says this to me. What is it that I am supposed to say? The bigger reason for the confusion is that people say this in motion and don’t stay for more than a second to even listen to anything I would want to say. Well if you don’t want an answer you might as well just say Hi!

I think it is about time that people think about this. Technically thinking isn’t it a false show of concern? I mean someone can really get hurt you know. Now please leave your comments and tell me what IS the deal with this phrase.

CAT

its that time of the year again….

its the time when the most awaited exam of the year takes place…..its been happening for YEARS till now and will keep happening….but i m noticing it this time….cos i am in it….

it seems as if they are hyping it all up THIS year…cos i never saw the CAT SCANS and BELL THE CAT series in atleast ten channels and newspapers last year…..but maybe i never noticed it….

yes it is one of the biggest exam of the year….no exam one ever gives changes the life of a person like this does…..if u crack it u r half way through to earning a starting salary of 10 lakhs per annum…and that is only the starting salary….

but is it fair that this ONE day…..this TWO and a HALF hours…decides the future of two lakh students….

yes its a record breaking two lakh students giving CAT this year…..to think of it in a different way…it means an income of TWENTY TWO CRORE Rs to the IIMs by forms alone…..now do the math on how much each form costs : P

ya…so is it fair??

one might say its not….can a person cramp his capabilities as a future manager in two and a half hours and maybe sixty darkened circles on a paper?? maybe not……

but what i have learned is different….what i have come to know about this exam….

its not an exam of Quantitative Ability or Verbal Ability or Data Interpretation as the IIMs say in their bulliten…..

its much more than that….

COMETH THE HOUR…COMETH THE MAN !!!

cliched though it may sound…this is wat its all about….it doesnt matter if u know the whole quant section or vice versa…..its all about converting them into MARKS in those two and half hours…

its all about the attitude and who holds their nerve better….

if u have the attitude to think that you are better than the rest…..chances are they will take you….cos that is what is needed of a manager these days…..

its precisely this…..it makes thousands of people think how fair it is……and the rest who cut through all this argument…..make it…..

its about forgetting all your past mistakes….all your past scores…all your past AMAZING scores and equally disappointing ones…..

its about focussing on what you are doing at the PRESENT in that class room and what it will transpire into, in your future…..

after all……isnt THAT what LIFE is all about?

take care…

and i need LOADS of luck and prayers….no thinking abt ‘i will get it if i deserve it’ shit this time….so PRAY people…..

love you guys….

i will soon post about my experience