My Blazing Trail

I happily trotted to the Internet Lab here, it’s NITTFEST time and the food stalls are back yet again. As I stepped in, an overwhelming blast of a smell of sweat hit my face. I found a PC, logged in and started surfing the Slonet (That’s what I Call the Internet here ). I just thought I would check on my Facebook profile : Walla ! Blocked for being a porn site !! ( look at pictures below ).

And then I thought I would check up the latest feeds I like : Feedburner -> Blocked. Darnit !

Luckily I had some on Feedblitz too .. But .. Blocked !!

Then I reverted to Google Reader .. Blocked for being a porn site ! Now seriously.. C’mon !

People need to learn to be sensible around here.

Watch Out !

Watch out friends ! Here come the Administrators of the Internet connection of NITT !

The Internet here in college has shown us that Dialup Internet was indeed a truly advanced and superfast mode of accessing the internet. Here, the word “slow” has been redefined. Snails beware. You’ve got a freakin huge competitor to match.

The average load times for some websites include :
Google.com                                 150-180 seconds
Searching on Google.com     400-500 seconds
Logging in to Gmail                   700-900 seconds

These are truly tried and tested, and reveal how amazing an internet connection we have here. We , a tech institute have a ratio of  1 computer (with internet connection  ) : 100 people.

Imagine. 1 : 100 .. Ain’t it cool ?

And while surfing this crappy internet, various sites are blocked :
blogspot.com
any site with a random string results in Chinese/Japanese pornography.  Egs : Gmail, Facebook etc

Thanks to NITT !

Grrrrrrr  I could kill someone right now

If The World Were Color Blind

As the day passes by, the spirit of Holi seems more and more distant from me. Even more distant than the sun itself. I can see the sun and I can feel it. But I really cannot feel the spirit of Holi today.

Maybe Liverpool thrashed Real Madrid, and India did the same to New Zealand, but still today seems so gloomy. The colors on my face just seem to be another symbol. And I hate symbolism. I hate it when we wear headgear as a display of symbolism. I wear a cap because I protect myself from the sun.

Nothing seems to alienate me from the thought (or fact ? ) that the world is spiraling downwards. My friends here in college play around with water and colors as they know nothing. But it’s hard to believe they’re so ignorant. It’s becoming harder to find a reason to smile. It’s so hard to believe the world has come to this.

The (so-called?) God we pray to has become the basis of hatred amongst each other. In the common room next to my room, some students do their Namaaz 5 times a day diligently. I don’t understand what they’re saying. It sounds beautiful. I stand in awe, listening hard, wishing I could understand them, their message, and tell the world how great they are. (I have lived in an Arabian society for over 10 years now in Oman.) But then these students walk past the common room. They scoff and they laugh “Terrorists. “

I fail to believe what just happened. Have my ears defied me ? Should I trust my ears or should I trust the people ? I do not know. I fear to think what’s the truth.

We haven’t progressed much from the Dark Ages. We just don’t execute and kill people the way they used to. We’re not any more humane than they were. We’re just some generations below them. Do we really think we’re civilized enough ? We still think, imagine, in our hearts, how we could punish people that we don’t like. We hate to admit it. But it’s true.

It’s true and the world has only gotten worse. Technology has done it’s part. Before we could love each other and eradicate diseases like communal hatred, we’ve found myriad ways to destroy each other.

On such complicated days, nothing seems to cheer me up. Not even good jokes. They only bring a smile. Or probably two. I go back to my magic, and my deck of cards refuse to vanish like they should when I wave my hands ( I don’t yet have a magic wand…)

I look around and see how colors have made a difference in the world. Skin colors from white to brown to black to yellow. The colors of things around us influence us. Thanks to The Discovery Channel, I know that colors play a major part in our personality, society, development and hence communalism : Orange, Green, Yellow, Blue and the Red.

That brings me to imagine a day we all woke up to be colorblind. Would we still discriminate against each other ? On religion, color, race, sex, minorities, political parties and other interests ? What if all our lives lost color ? Would we be distressed enough to forget our differences ? Or would we get further enraged and kill each other with nuke bombs ? Would we realize that color actually had no importance and meaning in our lives ? Would the European countries be able to distinguish one flag from the other ? Or would we use our memory to record which object was of which color and continue living pretending that we still saw colors ? Would we still fight over shades of gray ?

Pretense has been one of the most important factors for survival in this world. I’m sure someone would’ve said this :

“Shit happens. Just pretend it didn’t and get on with life.”

If nobody has said it before, well it was just too general and accepted a fact to be even stated explicitly.

Today literally has no significance to today. All we can do is go back to our lives and look at the simple things in life. That brings me to the age old question asked by so many wise men and women:

“Why are we here?”

And I say we are here to enjoy the simple things in life that delight us. For me it’s chocolate. Chocolate has helped me resolve many a strife, and many internal disturbances. Chocolate is one of the biggest motivation factors for me. I’m off for a bar of Cadbury’s.

Happy Holi.

Teachers 2.0

This is a further to my last post. The following is an incident that took place in school in 12th Grade. I’d received my Physics paper, being awarded 2 marks out of 6 for a question ( because I didn’t do the proof the way it was taught in class.. ).  I asked my teacher ( Mr. Ventriselven) but he redirected me to the HoD (Physics) as he had corrected our papers. The HoDs’ name was Vijayraghvan ( if I spelled it wrong.. Deal with it ! I didn’t ask you to keep such a long name ) .. He used to take tuition separately, but I used to attend Physics tuition at a wonderful teachers’ place ( Mrs. Suju )..  Now here is the conversation in the staff room :

Me : “Good Morning Sir“
V : (grunt)
Me  : ” Sir, Mr. Ventriselven sent me to clear this doubt. ” ( Showing him the answer paper )
V : (grunt) “Is this the way you’ve been taught in class ? “
Me : “No Sir. But it is an alternative method shown in the text book. “
V : ” Hey don’t act smart. This is wrong. ” ( Putting another big cross over my answer )
Me : ( showing him the solution in the text. ) “Look sir.  Here it is. “
V  :  ( not bothering about looking at the text book. ) “ I told you this is wrong “
Me :  (now getting agitated) ” Sir this is an NCERT text approved by the CBSE. If this is wrong then probably this school shouldn’t be affiliated to this board !! “
V  : “Get out“
Me  : “I’m sorry sir. This proof is correct. And if required I’ll approach the principal. “
V  : “How dare you talk to me like that. Kneel Down“

(Quick Note : This dude was like 5 foot tall. So he used to ask people to kneel down before him so he could slap them. )

Me : “For what sir ? “
V  : ( Looks confused. Seems like nobody has asked him that before. )
Me : (repeating) ” For what sir ? “
V  : (shouts) “I said kneel down. “
(Not realizing the whole staff room was staring at us now. He shouted again. )
Me : ( making sure everyone could hear what I said ) “Why should I kneel down sir ? Do you want to slap me ?”
V : (now realizing the silence and the attention, growing red in the face ) “ Get out. “
Me : (nonchalantly) “I’m not going without getting the marks sir. “
V : “Go complain to whoever you want to. I’m not giving the marks. “
Me : “OK sir. Thank you”

I walked directly to The Principal’s office, and he personally added the 4 marks, and when I said he was ready to physically assault me, Mr. Principal hurriedly said he would speak to Vijayraghvan and explain him.

As I walked out, an overwhelming sense of victory came inside me. I just threatened to get a man sent to jail and I felt like I’d never felt before. That ought to teach him a lesson. After that, the incidents of him slapping people became unheard of.  I really didn’t care about the marks. It’s just about RIGHT and WRONG.

Schools tend to drill the mentality into the students that they’re always wrong. And the teachers are always right, no matter what. Believe it or not, so many students get harassed by their teachers just because they’re students.

Well, for me. Everyone is equal. I attach the SIR at the end while speaking to teachers because it’s a ritual. I do respect some of my teachers. But most of them are a bunch of idiots.

In my world, everyone is equal. Whether you’re a parent or a child or a  teacher or whoever. These teachers are the very people who’re responsible for corrupting the minds of the children, brainwashing them into believing stuff they want us to believe.  Children are just geniuses. You ask them for an idea, and I bet no adult would come up with such a clean, pure and mastermind of an idea.

These very teachers don’t want us to think outdside the box, think for ourselves.Because this is what would happen. To an extent I did learn to think for myself and disregard them as jokers, making my classes very interesting. If every student actually thought for himself, the world would be so far ahead, even I find it hard to imagine.

Sadly, nothing much can be done about these teachers. If you’re a child and have a teacher who actually lets you think, it’s great. You’re a rare commodity and I guarentee you’ll change the world.

As for me, I’ve been brainwashed too much. It’ll take ages to get all the  bullshit out of my head. All the drilling of over 15 years. It’s really not easy. I’m at a conflict with myself.