Junkyard

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I hopelessly stare at the book. And all that is running through my mind is :

Container contentPane = getContentPane();
contentPane.setLayout(GridLayout());

For the non-fellow-classmates, let me make it clear that, there is nothing to tap my back about the above lines of code, since this is NOT AT ALL good, because tomorrow’s paper is AWT and all I am recalling is lines of code from Java (yesterday’s paper!)

Well, I completely realize that I shouldn’t be sitting before my PC and typing the junk out of my head. But, I just couldn’t bring myself from refraining.
On a personal note, I am totally aware of the fact that, this is my final year of the Diploma exams and it’s a “critical exam” (just like 10th or 12th Boards) because "the score" this time decides my admission to a Graduation college. (Wow! Graduation sounds BIG! )

But, nevertheless I am writing this. My mum just called me to tell that, the two round eggs laid by the female pigeon that had chosen one of our plants for the process, have hatched. They are soft and are barely moving legs. But, it looks kind of weird.

I know. I know. I am drifting away from the post’s title.
So, the point is, I am trying hard to memorize (mind well that’s not what you we call mugging up. It’s the random set of ways I try to remember "ALL" the important points! )

The moist air of cooler is chilling me. And I am thinking... will they change the seating arrangement at least tomorrow! I just don’t like the classroom that they have presently allocated us.

Alright! OK! I am going back to that big-bad-book of 400 pages of Nirali Publication. (Well, Nirali literally means “Wonderfully Different”…this is just another of my stupid translations. So Don’t Mind!) But, there is nothing wonderful or so different about it.

And for a leaving note: I just gulped down half a glass of Mango Shake in one go!

Jostling streets. Crowding people.

Every single person engaged in a talk or an activity.

I walk past all such people, everyday.

Be it on televisions or newspapers, all people are doing ‘some’ thing.

Something worthwhile. (Well, not always worthwhile rolleyes)

The world full of thousands and thousands of people. All busy.

But I am not. I am never busy.

The above statement made by me just simply means:

I do nothing. Or I never have ‘something’ to do. But, that’s not true.

I have time for simply everything. Arrange a get-together or just a casual meeting; I will always be ready to be present for the occasion.

I am struggling to learn “stick-to-it-ivity” (that’s a word from my own dictionary biggrin). But, I am never engaged in a task for more than a designated time. I don’t have any long term activities. All that I do in a day is short term and ends “soon” enough. And I am left, wondering, what next to do.

Being BUSY is GREAT.

And I hope one day I will be ‘so busy’ that I would have a sophisticated social or professional calendar, which I would check 5 times before saying a ‘yes’ for an appointment (Does that sound good? mrgreen I don’t think so.) And meeting or talking to others won’t be ‘that’ easy job!

Well, I am desperately waiting for that day.

But I hope that day, my friends and family don’t have to wait to meet me ‘desperately’…the way I wait for them today.

Time holds all the answers. Baghu kaay hota.

The college has ended ‘officially’.
And exams are due in May.
So, I have loads and loads of time, all by myself. :D

And to while my time away, I found a new way.
I am painting my T-shirts. ;-)

I found some old Japanese Traditional Art and modified (i.e. creatively changed them to suit my needs) and in the process, tried my hand at something really new.

I always got B or C grades in my drawing & craft exams at School.
So, now you know that I am not ‘that’ good when it comes down to showing artistic skills. :-/
Thats why, I tried it on some of my old tees.
And seeing the results, believe me, they are way above my expectations! :-)

Check them out:
My T-Shirt Designs

I will be doing more. Just let these goddamn exams end! :P

You sit at the edge for a free fall.

You are so much scared that, you even forget to swallow the lump in your throat.:-? All you can see around you are clouds, clouds and more clouds. Nevertheless, you jump. ;-)

And all of a sudden, you are AIRBORNE. That’s what I want to try. At least once. :-D

Parachuting, also known as Skydiving, is an adventure where a person jumps from enough height so that they can deploy a fabric parachute and land safely.

Imagine, You are there. At some unimaginably stupefying height. And you can only see air around you and green and blue terra firma kilometers away down below you. Wind brushing hard against your face.:-o Your body pulled down by the gravitation. Nothing (on earth) can be compared to ‘that’ feeling.

I have done parasailing once, 2 years back, in Malaysia. In this, you are given a life jacket and a parachute and you run on a platform in water, and a motor-boat is connected to you, which is responsible for the direction in which you move in the air. And as you run, in a fraction of a second, even before you realize what’s happening to you, 8-O you are there, above in air.

But, Sky Diving is different. There, you are on your own.

There is no assurance about: Would the parachute open at right time? For how much time would you be sailing in the air? Would you have a safe and perfect landing? ….And that’s what makes it all the more exciting. :-D

The latest Mountain Dew ad says:

Dar sabko lagta hai. Gala sabka sukhta hai. Par Dar ke aage Jeet hai. :-P

So, it must be worth experiencing. And (I hope) :roll: we can always depend on the safety measures and backups.

A line that may make you feel, exactly the way I feel -

Only Sky Divers know why the birds sing. :mrgreen:

Yes, the title is inspired from Harry Potter’s famous tag line:

“The boy who lived”

Let me begin,

I had heard that, the only ones who took admission here were here because; they couldn’t ‘get-in’ anywhere else.

I hated being a part of this. I could get admitted in any college of “my choice”.

I opted all the best ones out and joined the college which I least wanted to be in.I thought I’d made the wrong choice back then!

I called this place names! I would say it out loud, even in the premises that I want to ‘just get out of here’ as soon as possible.

My favorite line last year was, “I want a button for a fast-forward this year.”

I was horrified by the ugly looking faces of other students in my bus every morning. The seniors (both students and other elderly people) were such that, there was no trace of smartness or a single glimpse of a scholarly or extra-curricular act on their almost-always painted clothes or faces.

About the Lecturers, I think, most of them (not all, but most), never knew the subject well. Sometimes, they confused us. They could never answer our queries. Well, eventually we stopped asking them any. (May be because asking them queries was like challenging them. And that would annoy them. And if we did that, we would not have left ourselves any chances of getting good ‘internals’ and we would be rather the target of constant humiliation , taunts , dark looks or what we call ‘khunnas’ )

What about the infrastructure? If you ask me that, the answer is: They promised us world-class infrastructure in those ‘glossy’ brochures. But, the building wasn’t/isn’t even painted. Sometimes in initial days, while entering we even had to make our way, on one leg, through bricks, big stones, cement and sand. And the Accounts Section, Students Section or Library facility almost would threaten/haunt/harass/bully us.

What else is left? The atmosphere was good only when it rained. Rest whole year we would be ‘ever shining’ with the scorching Sun rays.

Apart from this for past three years, (Yes! I have stayed (or should I say somehow survived) in such place for 3 long years), if someone inquired about my college and if I said polytechnic, their faces would invariably be ‘the look when one is disappointed, but doesn’t what to show that, and says, “oh!” The face is sympathetic.

So, It’s hard to describe in words, but I still am unable to resolve how did I manage to survive in this place, where I would be, for 6-7 hours each day, each week for about 30-36 months or what my friend calls : “1095 days”. In short nothing was, ever ‘cool’ or ‘nice’ about my college.

But, I don’t have second thoughts, while saying, Now that it’s all about to end,

“I miss it. I miss my college. I miss it all.

And I won’t mind spending some more time here.”

See, Datta Meghe ji, we are willing to stay here, but please don’t ask for more money. We have paid enough. But, we never have had enough.

I must have been 5 or 6 years old; when we went together each evening to play “dukaan-dukaan” (I don’t know what we can call that one in English!). Invariably, I used to be the seller, almost everyday. :razz: And he used to come and buy things from me. He never even once showed me how stupid he thought the game was! But, each time he used to come with a serious face, even bargain on some items and buy something.

Every summer, we (his grandchildren) used to gather at his place. He has a big garden surrounding the house. I and my sisters used to fight on who will water the plants. He would divide the area for us so that we could water the plants turn by turn! :grin:

Whenever we got bored, he was ready for playing cards with us ‘anytime’ of the day. He would team up with my youngest sister and play against the rest of us.

He was a doctor by profession. He lived in remotest areas in Maharashtra and served innumerable poor people. And though he said that his knowledge is outdated (compared to the new technology antibiotics), His medicines always worked for me.

His life was full of adventures and breath-taking encounters. And unlike many of us, He remembered all the incidents clearly. He had an amazing ability of describing his stories to us, as if they were happening right in-front of your eyes. What can I say; we could almost feel those stories.

Apart from his knowledge of science, I always thought of him as a great-thinker. His knowledge about Politics, Economics and History was fantastic!

He always said, “If I had not been a Doctor, I would I have liked to be a professor of History.” :shock: He would tell the ‘exact dates’ of any historical event accurately in no time at all.

There is one more thing, about which I have always wondered since I was a kid. It is his skill about analyzing things and convincing it to others.

Elders in the house would always sit and discuss any current issues or some past events (like why/how this happened?)

While playing nearby, I kept my ear to those discussions. And I don’t know how, but he always analyzed the thing so properly that his side only proved convincing to me.

For e.g.: If asked, why would the saints in India, thousands of years ago just did yadnyas (light a big fire and say mantras out loud sitting beside it) the whole day?

On this he explained, “The TV Serials are idiotic people. They take the meaning of the written words as it is. Why would those people sit whole day and put ghee in the fire? By ‘yadnya’ our fore-fathers wanted to say that, the saints did deep thinking and focused on developing new technologies.”

He always said that, our ancestors were much advanced in every aspect than what we are today. And the wisest part was that they knew which knowledge to pass on to coming generations and which not to!

That’s how my grandpa was. Though a bit ‘backward’ for 21^st century, but way ahead in thinking capabilities of any of us today.

Sadly, he passed away yesterday and is no more with us to give us that kind of teaching.

I will miss him a lot.:sad:

Dear Aajoba,

Though time has left us being slightly apart,

Just know that, you will be remembered always by heart.

Now I have been on the social networking sites for a quite a good period of time. (Actually not for very long, just for a few months after I turned 18) And I know it will be hard to digest for any OR all of you, but I am unable to figure out what am I supposed to do there.

Well keeping those things apart and getting to the point:

Once I log on to my account on any of these sites, I see my home page. And then I see a big collection of “profiles”. I know many people on these sites personally. But, when I see their profiles, I feel there is not even slight similarity between their original self and the ones they desperately try to portray on the profile. Be it their display picture or the tags to support their names. :neutral: Be it the “about me” section or their personal likes/dislikes. :neutral:

I think these people have real dumb personalities in real. :eek: :eek: But, they try real hard to get that, ”cool” factor on the display.

And, not-so-surprisingly, they terribly fail at doing so. :razz:

I laugh uncontrollably when I see one of the following:

1. A display picture or tag line such as : “Down to Earth, But Above you all!!!!!” OR “My attitude in LIFE: Say ‘Try me!!!’ Not ‘Why me?’

(Thanks to ctrl+c - ctrl+v, or what would these people have done! :cool: )

(Note: Give special attention to the exclamation marks above. :wink: )

2. In a section:

First thing you will notice about me : My eyes or that I am a ‘straight-forward’ person.
OR In the images : the ‘dashing-pics’ of their favorite Film Stars (invariably from Hollywood)

3. A page full of description about their persona! Like:

• I am a nice and sweet girl (but in reality she is the one who creates *helluva* problems! :mad: )
  

• I hate liars (And this person lies before you/to you about 10000 times :mad:)

Well, I can go on and on about these profile observations! But, there is no point in jotting them down here.

I just have one question! Why the hell is this longing in your minds to be called as or recognized as Mr. / Ms. COOL fellas! High but fake attitudes in virtual world. And a load of garbage and rubbish in reality!

Just think boys and girls! Doesn’t a calm person, who is good in thoughts and well in manners, appear COOL to you? :???:

If not, then I think, may be, I should have been born in the 18^th century! :shock:

I just completed the last assignment of my current college. It was a report on the topic: "Access yourself: Are you an entrepreneur?"

It's idiotic. We have to write all sort of theoretical stuff which has nothing to do with either entrepreneurship or business. But at my college, the motto for students is "Mind your own business!" :mad:

I wrote 6 pages full of non-sense about: If I have so-and-so skills, I will make a good entrepreneur! The blame does not go to the folks at my college. They are doing their job (i.e. minding their "own" business)

But, as I was over the last few lines of my assignment...
It occurred to me that I have a one month long vacation before my final exams,
And a break of about 3 and ½ months before I take admission to a graduation college.
And I started feeling terribly bad. :cry: I hate vacations.

I don't yet know if I am a workaholic or not. But, I am surely scared of being idle for so long time! I have no plans of outings and I have made no arrangements to keep myself occupied. :cry:

These thoughts started to drift away as I again looked up at the monitor screen.

And suddenly, I smiled. :grin:
And I wrote the conclusion. :grin:

(P.S. Entrepreneurs don't take vacations.
Because they LOVE what they do. And so they don't need breaks!

Accessed myself: I am a wanna-be entrepreneur.) :cool: :cool: :cool:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting you.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies.
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating.
And yet don’t look to good, nor talk to wise.

If you can dream and not make dreams your master.
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make trap for fools;
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken;
And stoop and build them up with worn out tools.

If you can make heap of all your winnings,
And risk it on one touch of pitch-and-toss,
And lose and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they’re gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you.
Except the will which says to them, “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is earth and everything that’s in it,
And- which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

My fascination for bridges has been for years.

I don’t know why, but somehow I always find myself having a great deal of interest on the issue of bridges.

Bridges not only connect two pieces of land, they are according to me Man’s greatest adventure.

Discovery Channel once featured a documentary by the name “Man Made Marvels” On that day, they showcased the world’s most famous – The biggest, the tallest and the highest bridges.

I watched the show for 60 minutes without even once taking my eyes off the TV Screen. (Ignore the boring commercials)

I have huge collection of photos of bridges.

My Desktop Wallpaper most of the times has one of them.

It just feels BIG and NICE to look at a Bridge.

Have a look at some of the Best Ones at:

Bridges