Snippet of life : Truth

Sometimes your senses deceive you, they simply fail for that matter.
They don't exist at first place.

What you see, hear or feel is not true.
The truth is something big, something different,...... something unacceptable.

Four years- a memoir

The autumn of 2004, pants folded and the furious rain trying to snatch away the umbrellas. First rendezvous with the Electrical block of NIT Hamirpur (my college) & I grinned: Ah! this magnificent building is going to be my department for the next four years and somewhere I knew that I've made a wise decision.

Happiness, excitement, fear, anger, friendship, love, success . . . . . .endless memories hitched inside the heart.
These insured four years of life are about to end and soon the things are going to be different. I often wonder: why do things have an ending? Is it to make a new start? but the new start again heads towards new end. After all why do things come to an end?

Making of an electrical engineer

First Year of college
Teacher: Define Ohm's Law?
Student: Sir Ohm's law states that the current passing through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points, and inversely proportional to the resistance between them.


Second Year of college
Teacher: Can you define Faraday's Law?
Student: Well Sir em...well....Faraday's law is a law given by Faraday. It finds its application in electrical engineering.


Third Year of college
Teacher: Do you have any idea about Gauss's Law?
Student: Sir it can be defined as em... well it is defined as.........are you asking about Gauss's law?.
Sorry sir I forgot the question could you please repeat it?.
-----------------------------------
Sir i shall come prepared next time for sure.


Final Year of college
Student: Sir what is Newton-Raphson's method?
Teacher: It is $%)%#!%^* given by +!*(&%##@&** and used for %$*@(&^$% !


And finally the student becomes a full time engineer (maybe).

Strings of Life

I often get engrossed in the word 'Life'. What is the meaning of life?. Is it happiness? Is it Love?, or is life some sort of gimmick played upon us by some higher power?.

One day pondering over such questions I subconsciously sketched a guitar on the paper at hand and titled it as 'Strings of Life'. Later on this became the title for my first blog.
The idea behind Strings of Life was to create an online souvenir where I can express myself, share my thoughts and discover the meaning of Life.

The new face of Strings of Life:
The two year journey from 2006 to 2008 was like sea waves, full of highs and lows.
Now I've moved Strings of Life from Google owned domain(www.sunilparashar.blogspot.com) to a custom domain SunilParashar.com so as to make a fresh start.
Whereas the theme remains same: Life.

Rejuvenation

Bhola! So you are busy enjoying your cigarette here. Who’ll serve the breakfast?
Coming Sahib {Sir}! ~Replied Bhola.
Adjusting the cigarette between his pale teeth Bhola headed towards his masters room.

Bhola! These days you are not paying attention to your job. Is everything fine? Sahib asked Bhola.
Yes….yes Sahib, replied Bhola, and his face reflected deep melancholy.

What’s the matter Bhola?

There was a pause for a moment and Bhola started:
Sahib! My Biwi {wife}! Again there was a pause. Finally clearing his throat Bhola started: Sahib! My wife has made the world impossible for me. She rarely talks to me nowadays and when I’m back-home after a days work, she doesn’t even have time for me. There was rage in Bhola’s voice and the Sahib listened patiently.
Bhola went on….: Sahib! Sometimes she turns out so grouchy that I feel like running away from her.
Did you ever tried to find out the reason behind this? The Sahib asked.
I tried Sahib; every time I ask her she reiterates the thing that: I don’t love her as much I used to at the time we got married.

The Sahib thought for a moment and then spoke with an authority.
Bhola, I think she is right. ~There was bewilderment in Bhola's eyes.
The Sahib went on…: How strange that love between a couple starts dying as their relationship progress on. And the object once most cherished becomes an object of disinterest. Why Bhola why? Have you ever asked this to yourself?
This happens because any relationship, be it that of husband-wife or friendship needs rejuvenation time and again. We start taking things for obvious, but don’t you think that after a days work when you go home there’s someone who probably might have worked more than you did and that individual also demands attention?

But then Sahib, doesn’t one get habitual of the same face-the same person? Bhola asked.Isn’t it that a person is always enthusiastic to make new friends? Isn’t it that we are least interested in books we’ve already read and are excited about reading new ones?

A point well asked-Sahib replied. It’s true that we are enthusiastic in meeting new friends and exploring new books. But don’t you know that in the end only rare books manage to become your favorites? A good book enters your heart, soul, and mind. Stays there forever and time-again makes you think about the philosophy infinite hidden therein. The more you think about, wider horizons you explore and the more you expand. Same is the case with relationships. Remember Bhola; Life is expansion under the arms of your beloved. So this time you go home remember to keep the person awaiting you in mind and rejuvenate your love.

It was third consecutive day and Bhola didn’t turn up for the work. Finally there was knock on the door. A stranger stood asking; Namaste Sahib {Hello Sir}! Bhola went with his wife to her parents place. He’ll be returning after a week, till then I’ll manage the work. May I ask you one thing Sahib? And Sahib nodded.
Sahib, are you married?
The Sahib couldn’t hold his mirth and smiled……..a smile which conveyed nothing.

Where to go?

In the journey named life we often come across situation when we have to make a selection-selection out of two paths available for the unknown destiny. It's hard to choose because on one side there are expectations and duties on the other are things you like-things you love doing.

If you follow the first path, you come up to the expectations of the world and hence become a success in the eyes of people concerned with you. But if you hold the later one-you meet failures in the first path {which you've to trudge non-willingly}, hence life results into a chaos.

It's really hard to decide whether strike a balance between the two or keep following the path you love.

Only for you

I’ve drunk to your health in taverns,

I’ve drunk to your health in my home,

I’ve drunk to your health so damn many times,

That I’ve almost ruined my own!

-unknown author

This one is only for you and no one shall have it. This was the response of my friend when I denied a peg of vodka on my birthday.

C’mon mate! Don’t be paranoid. Just have it in one gulp and you’ll feel earth revolving west to east. It’ll remove all your worries & frustration.Just take a dip into the bliss infinite.

Upon my assertion the quantity of peg was reduced to one sip, and it really worked. I felt if earth is revolving, though I don’t remember it revolved west to east or east to west. It also reduced my pain {that caused by b’day bumps}. Above all I felt bliss also coz next day was spent sleeping which is bliss itself :).

Just one sip of alcohol had such an effect on me. Since that day I m wondering: why are people so attached to alcohol?
Is it the taste? No! It doesn’t even smell good, taste is the last thing.
It removes worries & frustration: No! All it does is reduction in the activity of mind for few minutes. so how can this remove worries & frustration?

Is it a matter of style & status? No! This option is also ruled out coz a person looks better with a glass of juice than with a glass of this foul smelling liquid.

So what’s the thing which makes people have it? Why don’t people have juice while in frustration?

Undefined Emotions

They are an group of children from the nearby slum area.
When the clock strikes 5:30 pm they can be seen striding past my hostel, towards the academic block of my college.

They have their own world which is difficult to express in their terms but in my terms it is: under-privileged, lacking sanitation & hygiene. In a broader sense: for them suffering and compromise has no meaning, its life itself.

Few days back I was in hurry towards my hostel. Overtaking one such group I heard a voice from behind: “BHAIYA! AAP HUMEIN AB KYUN NAHIN PADHATE?” {Why have you left teaching us?-(Sense of the line, not the exact meaning)}. The voice had such an impact on me that I lost control of my thoughts and turned back. They all were gazing at me. Literally speaking, for a moment my mind was fixed on the question and I had the feeling of weightlessness {like the one we feel inside a lift}. I turned each and every grey cell of my mind but couldn’t get any satisfactory answer so I replied: “AB KOI AUR BHAIYA PADHATE HONGE.” {Now some other person might be teaching you}. From their expression it was clear that this was not the answer they expected. As I had some important work I moved forward.

This incidence brought back the memories of days when I was member of the Team Literacy {A group of 20-30 engineering students who teach poor children}. It was two years back & now I’ve even forgot the name of my students {I taught fourth class}. One name which I still remember is Puju.
Well Puju was a student from first standard but she never attended classes with her batch mates. She would either sit with her sister {who was in fourth standard} or she can be seen dozing somewhere. As soon as she was provided with any question, she would close her eyes and start dozing then and there. :). Only time span when she was active is that when chocolates are distributed to the students. - Very funny indeed. :)

Due to various reasons I wasn’t able to continue my service into this mission after my third semester. But whenever I happen to come across through any such group of children, there’s a completely different feeling inside me & me searching an appropriate name for it.…….

Ordinary things

What is ordinary?
According to the oxford dictionary, ordinary is normal or usual. I would say "conventional". But now who’s ordinary?
-Is the person who’s always a topper ordinary?
-Is the person with good looks ordinary?
-Is the person with rhetoric accent (which generally impress people) ordinary?
Well ordinary is a relative term & depends upon the personal conviction of an individual. Here’s my perspective about "what is ordinary"?
As stated before, a person doing conventional things conventionally is ordinary. Then the question comes is, are not we engineers & doctors (Or any other existing realm) conventional? - Yes we are. Because most of us just follow the paths traced by our predecessors & hardly try to accomplish anything out of box. As a mountain appears more beautiful to the distant observer than the mountaineer, same is the case with any realm. But this is not my topic today. I’ll take it some other time.

So let us calibrate ourselves whether we are ordinary or extra ordinary or prodigal.
Blessed are people who have abilities or eye of appreciation for unconventional realms such as music, art, literature & much more to name. Because he/she is more near to him/her self. - We may say that the Person is spiritual (Note: I’ve used word spiritual and not religious. I believe spiritualism is not the attainment of god but attainment of the purpose of our very being because that itself is god, which is bliss-the ultimate happiness. I would place such people to be of highest order.).

Coming over to ordinary.
Ordinary is a person who does the job assigned to him to an apt level but that is the only maximum he can put into it & nothing extra, nothing out of box. & that’s the end of his vision. Or say the upper limit of his horizon. A real life example is: "Getting Placed is the foremost big thing for most of the engineering students". This is what is called a limited vision.
Ordinary is a person who doesn’t have eye for things worth appreciation (Art, music……).

Being a teenager I would like to bring up the most discussed subject amongst people of my age group. - Yes, You got it right. I m talking about so called the art of attracting fairer sex (talking about both). I call it flirting & time waste whereas most of us call it as the ultimate happiness. Getting attracted to a person at very first sight (termed as love at first sight & the reasons being conventional ones such as looks, style, size of purse etc. thing in which I never believe) is an ordinary thing for which you don’t need any delicacy of thoughts & perception. We may say it’s just an ordinary thing & such things happen mostly with ordinary people.

So in a nutshell extra-ordinary is a person with traits such as:
-Strict disciplinarian.
-A deep thought of purpose-a philosophical mind.
-Even mindedness: A person who’s neither jubilant at any achievement nor sorrowful at any colossal loss.
-The one who is ordinary++= extra-ordinary. For example:
An engineering student is by default an engineer (an ordinary thing) but the thing which makes him extra-ordinary is these pluses.

One sure trait about extra-ordinary people is that in spite of fewer in number they are easy to be noticed & I’m proud to have met such rare minds.

One day out of Life

Is Life all about running & catching things?

Hello Friends,

Recently met a chatting friend of mine, he's a computer engineer & working with a software firm & drawing handsome salary. When I enquired about his life, all i got was an incentive to write this article.
He missed his college life immensely & myself being a college student dedicate this article to him. Coz his experience led me to think about my life & here i discuss one day out of my daily routine.

Well, before entering into this professional field i was a hermit who loved his grotto immensely coz it protected him as well as provided isolation.
They say,"experience makes the man". But what if the person doesn't have adequate time left in his hectic schedule to sit and analyze his experiences?
so here i begin with:

It's 7:00 in the morning and the blaring sound of mobile alarm makes the Hermit (used throughout this article as alias for the author) wake up (mammas good boy,gets up early in the morning).
With a bit of anticipation, this hermit turned professional (or you may call him "the Monk who bought a Ferrari") move in for a light jogging. After few minutes of slogging outside it's time to change and stride towards class. usually he's the second last person to enter into the class(last being the teacher) & last bench is the best option available to him. Last bench coz the teacher can't figure him out and also he respects the fact that some people are sleeping & they should not be disturbed by asking doubts or making any kind of noise. For him lectures are nothing but making the exact copy of his teachers notes(which obviously that teacher got from his).


When the going gets tough this hermit takes a dip into a novel where the hero(Robert Langdon) is trying to decipher the codes hidden in the famous Mona Lisa painting by Da Vinci, or Whiteny is about to die on the very next page of the novel.
The electrical teacher points out to him and asks: you back-bencher, tell me that "when will maximum power transfer take place across a transformer"?
The reply generally starts with emm,sir emm..... probably when the copper losses are equal to the Iron losses..... And....Yes!!, Robert Langdon entered the right code. also the answers end with etc's, inorder to show that he knows much more than what he just spoke.

Now 1 hr is left for the lunch & the haughty rookie shall be taking the computer programming class and this time Mr.Langdon is not able to break the codes, coz he's entrapped by the infinite loops & runtime errors. As the rookie's regime ends, it's time to stride fast towards the hostel mess. 10 minutes for lunch and after he gets logged-in to chat with a yahoo friend. But within no time the guy next door enters into the room and makes him realize that there's nothing to exult about the friends list in the messenger coz there's an assignment to be submitted within an hour or so.

The world around him seems to be crestfallen and Google is the only option left with him for the assignment(these situations make him realize that Google is the greatest invention of man, not the wheel).With the assignments submitted it's time for the electrical practical, here in lab all the Einstein's surround the instructor's table as if corpse of any famous personality is being dissected. The instructor makes every one proud by endorsing emphatically that "an electrical engineer deals only with 440 volts", but the statement becomes clearer when someone touches a live connection-("electrical engineers deal only with 440 volts but they also die coz of 440 volts").

As the practicals are over every face is filled with a strange kind of mirth. After this whole days tiring schedule, a cup of tea or coffee at canteen is the best option available, or else a hand into counter strike (a game about killing & getting killed) or chat with a yahoo friend relives from the whole days stress. by the time the counter reading enemies killed starts counting fast, its time for the dinner.
As the dinner is over it's time to handle multiple tasks on the pc like a screen slave. One hand at yahoo chat and another at web editing or writing a blog like this one. All these things are accompanied by some catchy oldies or gajals of Jagjit singh or Gulam ali.

So when the clock strikes 12:00hrs in the midnight, its time to log off all the chats & turn the pc off. coz at 8:30am it's power systems class.With this the hermit's day comes to an end.
Usually the weekends are met with a trip to the nearest town and watching a late night movie along with friends or just sitting in the balcony and staring at the beautiful sky in amazement.

Friends this was the glance of one regular day out of my life. by the time i was about to finish this article i got a bit nostalgic about my college life. I don't know why but, when i am away from this life the moments of laughter spent with friends make me cry and those of crying makes me laugh.
I remember the words from the movie 'finding nemo':
"Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go;
be what you want to be,
because you have only one life
and one chance to do all the things you want to do".
Bye........