What was he* thinking?!?!

Some of the most enjoyable conversations I've had are those which start somewhere, twist, turn, flash, burn and go through winding lanes, across trees, meadows and finally land up in a place that has absolutely nothing to do with how that conversation begun.

At the end of such a conversation I often wonder, "How did we get here?" and then go on to retrace the dialogue back to the original topic of discussion.

Similarly, when I come across a delicacy or a novel idea, I often wonder how this came to be? What was the thought process... chain of thought... spark of imagination. At times it makes sense, for example, Fire. One can imagine the first fire must have been the result of a lightning or a spontaneous forest fire and that gave out heat (a desirable thing for early man). Rubbing hands for warmth is intuitive so someone must have made the connection, did some experimentation an voila FIRE!... but this is an example that makes sense, an origin story one can imagine, but that's not what this post is about. This is about the random things that I am unable to fathom.

Milk - The first person who saw the udder of a cow and went like you know what would be really cool... let me squeeze that and drink whatever comes out ... What was he thinking?!?!?

Sausages - For those who don't know... sausages are basically cheap parts of a pig ground and stuffed into the small intestine of what is usually the same pig. Now while they are really tasty, if you think about it, whoever came up with the idea to push meat down the pigs piping before it goes down yours... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Cheese (Mature) - I can imagine curdling of milk to get cheese must have been an accidental discovery, but who was the smart Alec who decided that it would be a good idea let this thing spoil to the point where it begins to smell and then eat it... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Birds nest - I'm not wondering what was a bird thinking when it decided to build itself a nest. I'm talking about using birds nest in deserts and soup. Whoever came up with this idea must have really had something against these birds. He would have thought to himself, "I will show that bird, I'll eat its family, and its eggs and you know what ...for good measure I'll eat up its nest also"...Seriously... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

And then there are the weirder delicacies in the world which I cant even begin to imagine what was going on in the persons head when they came up with the dish. For example century egg or urine brine eggs ... I'm not going to try and explain what these are (feel free to google them (Not Safe For Work)) but seriously... WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!?!?

If you have had similar thoughts please leave your ideas in the comments.



*For the purpose of this post he= he/she. 

The Party I observed...

Have you ever been to a party and observed... I mean everyone goes to parties and dances.. has fun chills... but sometime.. just once maybe you should just observe ... this post is about the one time I did just that ..

Big party loud music most people are half drunk ... some people sitting others blaring into the karaoke mic... still others dancing to the songs others are singing and there I spotted across a long table a girl ... young, fair don't know her name so lets call her Ying and then there was a guy again young, fair don't know his name either so lets call him Yang, it seemed like he din't know Ying very well ... a friend`s friend I`m guessing. The two seemed to be having some sort of conversation ... the general kinds... safe topics .. about the weather, work health... the party went on Yang`s friend, the same that was Ying`s friend started to get quite high and could not help but sing along with every song and kept insisting that Ying and Yang join the fun ... they both seemed happier with the conversation .. I guess it must have moved on to more interesting subjects.
It was a matter of time before Ying and Yang re positioned their seats to face each other more ... well Yang was practically sitting across the table ... one would get the feeling he wanted to be close to her but I could be mistaken, maybe he was just trying to be heard... I gave him the benefit of doubt, but that dint prevent me from noticing when broke the touch barrier and when she responded with a gentle giggle .. but then again maybe he had just said something funny that I couldn't hear while simultaneously finding no other place to place his hand other than on hers.

The night went on and along comes another guy ... young, slightly taller than Yang again din`t know Ying very well but knew Yang well enough to want to sit at the same table...lets call him Yoong conversation ensued now Yoong adding his two bits, Ying reacting similarly to both Yang and Yoong and Yang does not seem very happy about it.. he needs another drink... gets it and gets back in the game... a few more drinks later its time for Ying to leave and it seems like while Yang is some points ahead of Yoong, Yoong is not letting go without a fight so they both go to walk Ying to her car and she drives off into the ... well its already night so she does not drive off into the sunset but she drives off and I guess she never gave Yoong or Yang another thought..

Please Note: This is not a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of what the author saw. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is because it happened or seemed that way.  

The Welcome

There are things in the world that are crazy and then there are those things that we do because they are crazy, insane, embarrassing and at times downright outrageous. Yesterday was one of those days when we did something just because it was just too much fun. A small back ground, Joey, a close friend was interning for the last one month while all of us were sitting in college, he was enjoying life in Mumbai and constantly bragging about all the meetings and deals he was working on. He kept saying things like no one in the firm knows what the deal is about except for him and we were pretty much fed up of it. So we decided to bring him down to earth the moment he was back. Momo and I decided to go pick him up at the station and embarrass him… basically have some fun. Now it just so happened that he called me the night before saying that he had left Mumbai in a half sleeves T- Shirt and that he would freeze here early in the morning and so I should come and save him with some warm clothes, so it was all pretty much set. So at around 6:30am Momo, Vinitha, AK and I reached the station and while the three of them waited outside the station with the embarrassment package I went in to fetch him. I brought him out and what followed is in the Video below, and they say a picture speaks more than a thousand words.

Yes we did have a real live BAND !!!

Welcome back Joey

It was a long night ... part III

I woke up by the strange vibrating sound of the train that sounded like there was some thing definitely wrong, and while I was still getting acquainted with the idea that there was something wrong I could feel my self slipping from the top birth feet forward as the whole train seemed to be tilting gradually till the side finally hit the ground and then the whole thing came to a screeching loud halt that had a silence that was numbing. Then as people began to realize what was going on I caught hold of my laptop bag strung it around my shoulders and tried to figure out where I was, I spotted a bottle of water near my foot I picked it up and put it in the bag. I then took out my cell phone just like everyone around me in order to figure out a way out, I noticed there was no network, I secretly hoped it was just being in the coupe that blocked the coverage. My seat was in the coupe that had the emergency window and for a moment I felt it was a good thing. Of course there isn’t really anything good about being in a small closed place with the only way out being a reinforced glass pane that is designed to be resistant to all Indian weather and traveling through Bihar where often the train is stoned, in terms of relativity I felt it was some what better to be in a coupe with a window that is designed to be removed than any other. One of the gentlemen in the coupe tried to pull the rubber around the window but it broke. The emergency window had failed us. I felt a slight wetness on my hand I guessed I must have grazed it somewhere during the fall but now was not the time to care. One of the people trying to get that window to open asked me for help so I tried to make my way to the window on the top stepping on whatever foot hold I could find in the dark. I tried tugging at the window but it would not yield, then someone from the outside shone a torch inside, and all of us started calling out to the who ever was outside to break the window. While I was still tugging at the window and banging, calling for help, a stone was thrown on it, help was on its way which was my que to get out of the way, which I promptly did.

Soon the window on the top was broken and there were a couple of men outside with a big torch shining light inside, there were lots of bed sheets and blankets scattered everywhere and there was some blood visible, we moved some of the sheets and saw a disembodied leg, following the general direction revealed a hand, someone checked the pulse, there was none. There was nothing we could do about it, no one even knew who this person was. As inhumane as it feels now at the time it seemed more important to get out of the train first and let the experts handle the rest. One by one people were hoisted out from the broken window out in the open, an old lady who was injured went first, then a few juniors from my college and finally I was pulled out into the cool winter air. I checked if my phone had any network, it did, I called up home. It was around 2am and everyone at home was obviously asleep, papa picked up the phone drowsily, I told him the train had gotten derailed and that I was ok and that I really dint know when and how I was going to get home but I was quite certain that I would manage, he really dint know what to say, he was shaken, then stirred and then he gave the phone to mama who also dint know what to say and asked if my luggage was ok, I had no idea where the rest of it was. That is when I realized that I had lost my specs and my shoes. Then I called up Krithika, she was in the sleeper coach of the same train, she was also ok and I tried to figure out where they were. Then finally after figuring out what was where I got down from the top of the train, it’s a little difficult to explain the orientation but basically I got to the ground. My parents called again they had decided that they were going to come and get me right away, that was the first time I wondered where we were, I asked someone, around half an hour away from Jaipur, I told them it dint make any sense for them to come because they would take at least 4 hours or so to get here and there wasn’t anything they could do here that I could not even without my specs and shoes, they decided to hold back a while.

I located the others, Krithika and Sindhu, they were fine, they had managed to get their luggage and safely get out of the train even though their coach had also turned to its side. They had contacted another friend who stays in Jaipur, Roopal. She and her father were coming to get us. Krithika had an extra pair of footwear in her luggage so I borrowed her floaters, which fit quite nicely with a little help from the straps. Armed with the knowledge of a certain rescue and footwear I went to see if there was any way in which I could get my luggage back, my beloved digital camera was in it. I went and asked some people who looked like they had an idea about what was going on, I met a gentleman who was also seeking an answer to a question when he asked me if I was from NLU, to which I said yes wondering how it mattered. He then told me that he had seen someone from my college get hurt in the head and she had been taken to the hospital. He then went on to add that it dint look very good

I was naturally scared, I looked for other people from college and if they had any more information on this injured person, I found some first years one of which was missing, a few calls later we learned that Sonal was missing, Satyam, another friend was with her at the time of the accident and he has rushed her to the hospital. Among the same first years was another girl, Kriti who was also looking to retrieve her luggage, she had her class 10 certificates stuck inside. We waited for a while near the derailed metal box that was once our train, which was now being looked at by professionals from the railways. They had these huge lights and oxy acetylene flames and were well equipped with first aid etc.. they were going to cut up the coach and then remove anything that was still inside. I told them my seat number and the fact that there was a body there for them to retrieve.

Word came, Sonal had passed away, and there was no appropriate way for anyone to react, I don’t even remember what my reaction was. We just waited to hear something about the luggage, after a while we met this officer like person who said that there was no way that the luggage would get out any time soon and that we should check at the Jaipur station the next morning.

I got a call from Krithika saying that Roopal and her father were here, so I left Kiriti back with her batch mates and located Krithika and Sindhu and Roopal. We were joined by a few more people from college. The rest of the night was a dream, between sobering from the adrenalin rush and Roopal’s family’s extreme hospitality it passed, with a lot of phone calls from everyone who knew we were on that train. In the morning after a heavy home cooked breakfast, Roopal’s father took us to the station to see if my luggage had survived the train, it had, getting past the red tape took a while, and the fact that not a single cloth in my bag was neatly folded helped convince them that the bag was mine. Finally I was united with my luggage. We then headed directly to the bus stop where we headed to the destination we had originally boarded the train for, Delhi. At around 10:30pm, the night was over I was home.

It was a long night...Part 2

I hurriedly finished packing and in even more haste packed up everything that was there in the room. Then I looked at my laptop and then at my now in a dilapidated state laptop bag, and then looked at the poor laptop that would have to either travel in one of the 2 already over full bags or in that laptop bag that hardly looked like it was in a state of carry it. I decided to put the legendary culcom rope to some use and tied the laptop bag to ensure it would hold its own and then sadly packed the laptop in it.

It was around 5pm and I was ready to leave, I had to take care of some more loose ends before leaving, which I did with a little hiccough and then I left for the railway station along with Preethi and Iti, who were headed to the city for a little after end term celebration. Packed food and the regular take home lassis. Then we were heading towards the train, but there was a very long line for the platform tickets and Preethi was in one of those “lets not break the law” moods, so after waiting for a few minutes we decided that I would miss the train if they waited any longer. So unwillingly Preethi and a more willing Iti came on the platform and made sure I got on the train and all that. I then saw them both stealthily sneak out of station (remember they dint have platform tickets) and then I retired into the AC three Tire coach B2 of the so well known train mandore express.

The train took of on time and I had just settled down and started listening to some music when along came Krithika and Sindhu who were in S1, we chatted for some time and then I went along with them to meet Roopal who was sitting in B1. This was all very usual on this train on the last day of the semester, everywhere there were students, some chatting, some watching movies on laptops, others roaming from one coach to another in search for other friends, it was like NLUs Hogwarts express.

At around 9pm Sindhu and Krithika remembered that they had seats in the sleeper coach and in a while the gate that connected the two classes would be closed and then they would be stuck in the AC compartment till Jaipur. So we bid Roopal good bye and went back to our respective coaches. I was feeling much better now but the fever had left its weakness and I decided that I could do with some extra sleep, so I finished the sandwich I had packed and went to the top birth set an alarm for 5am ( that’s when the train normally reached Gurgaon) and went to sleep.

Suddenly I was shaken awake.

To be continued …

Nostalgic Sunday (Stay In France part III)

Hopefully you have read all the previous posts in this series but in case you haven’t this is where it all started with a flip

Now last Sunday since I was staying in Bordeaux only I decided I would go do some thing totally Sunday like. Now on Friday when I was getting back from work I saw this big board about some international fair in Bordeaux so I googled it and it seemed interesting so I thought it would be a good place to spend a Sunday afternoon, plus the fair ticket came with a all day pass to travel by bus and tram, so even if I did get bored at the fair I could roam around the rest of town. Now in France there is an interesting thing about cigarettes, it can be very annoying at times but everyone smokes, so there are naturally a lot of cigarette shops which the administration has conveniently turned into retail outlets of tickets and passes basically like the mother dairy in Delhi. So I walk to the nearest cigarette shop and buy a ticket for the fair along with which I get a day pass for travel so I board the next bus I see and head to the fair.

If anyone has been to the India international trade fair this one was just like that, only it was a Bordeaux International Trade fair, so they had this one hall that had stalls from all over the world and a few other halls that had French companies with their stalls. I was roaming around the stalls from Africa and was very impressed by some of the wares of the Chinese stall. They had on display all various sorts of knives and daggers including the Samurai Katana which is an extremely interesting weapon. Lingering there for a while I went on to some of the other stalls when I heard some music in the back ground that had me cock my ears and listen with joy.

The music seemed to familiar to be true, and I could not believe that they were actually playing Aaja Nach le, being drawn by the Hindi words I went towards the source of the music to find a stage held by four sari clad girls dancing to the song. The first thing that reminded me of course was Sindhu, and then I thought about it and it had been over a week since I had heard a Hindi song, or spoken to anyone in person in Hindi, and I felt nostalgic about the language. 

Almost as though there was someone listening to my thoughts this voice came from behind me saying ‘aur bhai saab kahan ghum rahe ho?’ a guy from Delhi had also come there to put up a stall. So I waited and chatted with him in Hindi for a while asked him how things were and he told me that business was bad and that no one in this city buys anything, they are all here just to roam around, and when I looked around he was right hardly any one was carrying any bag or evidence that they had been buying something, they were all just roaming around, just like me enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Then I continued to roam around in the vicinity hoping to run into some more people that spoke the language that I did, the dance got over and that was followed by some Egyptian dance. Time and again after that the troop that had done the first dance on the Hindi song kept coming back and dancing on different Hindi numbers, the dance was good for someone dancing on bollywood numbers in France but I was much happier just listening to the Hindi words. While still roaming around I ran into the girls that were the Hindi Dance troop and I just felt like going and speaking to them because they obviously had something to do with India, so I went and congratulated them said the dance was very nice, asked them where they were from, had random small talk for about 45 seconds and then they needed to get back on the stage for another dance so I went on roaming around. Soon the Hindi songs stopped and I shifted to other halls saw some very interesting gadgets that I just could not imagine using back home. After a few hours of roaming through different halls including one that had farm animals apparently in their natural environment, nothing in comparison to what we are used to seeing on Delhi Roads…. Farm animals in the natural environment.

Having spent a few hours walking I decided to get out of the fair and roam a little on the other side of the river. The only glitch with that plan was that I had no idea what was on the other side of the river, none the less, armed with my full day travel pass I got into the tram that was going on the other side of the river, traveled a few stations in until I felt really hungry and spotted a Quick just at the tram station. I got off and entered the burger joint, stared at the menu for a few moments asked the lady at the counter if she could speak English, receiving a negative response I proceeded to point out on the menu what I wanted and within a few moments was served and seated.

Fed and ice creamed I decided to call it a day and head back home. Once I got into the tram I felt this sudden nostalgia for bollywood and Hindi songs in general and then it hit me that I had my phone and handsfree and some songs on it. So I quickly setup the apparatus and was swinging to the tunes of Bollywood.

Now as such that’s all that happened, I listened to music on my way back, but the feeling was very different, and so was the effect. Now till a point I can take a tram or a bus but beyond that I need to walk and that is roughly 5 and a half kilometers from where I stay, so I was walking in the direction of the place of residence snapping my fingers to ‘kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar’ when I thought….if I started singing loudly no one would understand what I’m saying so it really wouldn’t matter, and that’s what I did, I started singing on the top of my voice that song and the next until my phone decided that it was time to take it to the next level. It played ‘masakali’ now we all know that its impossible to not sway to Rehman’s tunes when ‘masakali’ plays. So I was not only singing on the top of my voice I was also swaying to the tunes on the road while cars are passing by at all sorts of speeds. The most interesting was this car had stopped at a signal and I needed to cross that road, now I was a little far away from the crossing and pedestrian signal turned red so I stopped still swaying with a tune on my lips and earphones in my ears and the lady in the car signaled me to keep going even though she had the right of way, I think it was because I was practically dancing while standing there but it could be she was just good natured and normally lets people cross, either way I’d like to believe it was the former. I got back listened to some more Hindi songs for a while changed the songs on my phone and now when I’m walking I’m singing. 

Song Unsung

Well coming back from memory lane here is something that is very fresh written just early this morning, the pic does not explain too much but somehow fits its something that can not be told.

Song Unsung

Another day another thought

Another way, today I sought

I path less seen I chose to choose

I believed in it and let faith loose

I clambered upon another soul

And lit a candle in a deep dark hole

The soul met another and the word spread

The word moved on long after it was dead

On some silent nights even now

If you listen properly I’ll tell you how

You can here me singing a song I know

A song that’s in the head I’ll let you know

It is a voice that can not be sung

It’s a feeling that lingers on every rung

The closer this song gets to thee

The better you know yourself and me

Kanishk Kakkar

20/06/2008

0033

Life

Life is good and life is strange

You never know when things will change

The kind of things that come by

Can make you laugh, can make you cry

Joys and sorrows, I've seen them all

I've been lonely, I've had a ball

There are times when I sit back and think,

About adhoc events trying to find a link

But no matter how hard I try to understand

The truth will stay beneath the sand.

Kanishk Kakkar

24/7/06

The question to life the universe and everything

Well most of us know and well those of us who don’t better know that the answer to the life the universe and everything is well, 42. For those intelligent souls that wish to ask 42?? What 42??? Well that is what the answer to the life the universe and everything is which is what the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy tells us, that there is a theory about the universe that says that the only reason the universe still exists is because it is not completely understood, the moment the universe is completely understood poof it’ll be no more. Well if u actually come to think of it isn’t it the same thing with every other thing as well. As in, is it’s always the question that is the problem it is only because of questions that we exist if there were no questions then there would be no existence, now for example, we already have the answer to the life the universe and everything, its 42 everyone knows that, but what is the question to the life the universe and everything, to which the answer is 42? Similarly the curiosity the matter of interest remains only until we don’t understand, once we actually do understand something we tend to loose it, it doesn’t matter anymore, it in effect gets lost, poof.

Now taking the theory literally we would stop trying to find out about the universe because then it’d run out of existence but well its more like run out of attention, out of interest, out of sight and out of mind.

So now the question is this, what should we do? Do we stop looking for answers to questions? NO!!! the answer this time is literally a question, we are not to stop looking for answers we are to never stop looking for questions, because once the questions stop coming that is where the end lies.

The Past, the future and the package of life

Long time back I read this nice thin book by Robert Bach called ‘illusions’ it was about how a man becomes a messiah. One thing this book talks about was reiterated very recently when I was chatting with this highly spiritual relative of mine. It says a good or bad experience is not one that is positive or negative, but its more to do with what the learning from that experience is. If there is learning then it’s a good experience and if there is no learning then it’s a bad experience as simple as that.

Now also there is another saying that everyone’s life has the same net amount of everything, all the essentials of life, happiness, sorrow, tears, laughter everything.

Now looking at the two theories together it all makes sense and it actually hit me like obviously that what it is.

See its like this, now there are two types of learning, a conscious and a sub conscious learning, often life takes us through such things wherein we don’t consciously learn anything but subconsciously in effect we do learn things. Like for example, if today I am cooking in the kitchen, and by mistake I burn my tongue while tasting the dish, the next time I will automatically cool the stuff in a spoon before putting it in my mouth, now I don’t need to consciously think that ‘oh… last time I was in the kitchen I burnt my tongue because there was something hot that I put in my mouth and so this time I should cool it else I’ll have the same effect this time as well…’ that way.

Now another observation and more or less accepted theory is that one learns from ones mistakes and you won’t raise till you fall etc… so clubbing it with the theory that every one get equal of every thing.

So now it all becomes very simple and obvious, if u have bad times in the early part of your life, you will learn from it and be better equipped to face the future, so u cry first and are happy later, on the other hand, if u have a very smooth beginning, you are not well equipped and hence will face trouble later and hence the tears will come later, all equal after all.

Now this is obviously not something that will be true to the book but largely will follow and will obviously be dependent on the kind of person and the capacity each individual has.

laugh and you laugh alone

This is a very common saying that laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone. i found this statement used in a friends blog(http://poignantrose.blogspot.com/2007/05/exchange-offer-p.html) and either contextually or even otherwise I'd like to differ on.
i would like to humbly submit that the statement 'you laugh and the world laughs with you' is not true and i will provide multiple explanations for the same.

First: when ur happy and laughing u don't see the people who are crying and think that the whole world is sharing ur joy.

and lastly: often people only seem to be happy when you are and that why you think so. in fact the other person may well be quite sad and the fact that you are happy may only trouble the person evermore.


furthermore, when you cry, anyone and every one whose lives you touch to a certain deep extent will be hurt and will in effect be in tears.

so the net number of people who will support you whether ur happy or sad is the same and more often that not it is the same people also.

so ending this post here keeping it short, i think what is important is that you should have people to share things with be it happiness or sadness for that matter and that is what is most important, everyone needs a ear.

Life is a Game

Life is a game, the game of the ‘AMAZING RACE’, which is a show on AXN, Action TV. Now let me explain how this game works before I go on to explain the proposition of it being correlated with life itself. Now what happens in this race is the teams have a common destination a common goal, but all along the way they have choices to make, paths to choose every path will take them to the final destination, some may be more pleasurable others may not. It’s all a matter of making the right choice and doing the right thing. People enjoy this race, each one reaches the end, there is no choice about that, but some reach there faster than others, some have more fun, others may have to toil, again as everything this definition of fun is also relative and different for different people so lets not have any debates about that.

Now relating this entire thing with life, what is a life? It’s a journey, the amazing race. It has a common start and a common end, but different people find themselves in different situations and take different decisions following different paths all along the way. Some people may go forward with a positive frame of mind and enjoy life to the fullest while on the other hand there will be people who will crib there lives away finding difficulties in solutions and sadness in a bucket of joy.

Kanishk Kakkar

11/5/07

1826

Future

When it comes to pol sci and staying awake in class the two things don't quite gel together with me. So i needed a good method of staying awake, for some time taking notes helped but not for long, i needed something more interesting and something that could keep me busy, which is when i wrote this, very bored of the pol sci that was being taught, although i don't have pol sci anymore, the poem is still there. The reason i call it Future is because i could not think of anything else...

FUTURE

FUTURE


Is today the day that I live to see?
What can I expect how will it be?
The mystery exists but is not here
Is seems so but it isn't clear
Every morning is a fresh new day
What will happen what can I say?
There is so much that's going on
Wonder what story will be born?
If there is anyone who can tell me so
Tell me where I am going to go
The only certainty of the hour
That certainty is very far
So forgetting predictability for once and for all
Just enjoy each day and have a ball.


Kanishk Kakkar
25/07/06
0930

Life isn't fair, if it were it'd be boring

Every now and then we complain that life is not fair, but if actually sit and think about it, well if life were fair, would it be worth living? I think not. If life were fair, every individual would be bestowed with the same qualities, the same features and the same potential, then well we would not be individuals anymore, men would be like bots. There would be no individuality and life would be sooo boring. As it is well known that change is the spice of life, if life was fair to you it would be fair to your neighbour as well and well then your neighbour would not be your neighbour but he would be you, and that is not only boring can even get very scary. So be glad that life is not fair and enjoy the variations of it cause if they are not there life wont be life at all.