With reference to my previous post

The worthiest professor of physics would be one who could show the inadequacy of his text and diagrams in comparison to nature and the higher demands of the mind.
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If only I was Endymion...

The end is near...The end of days... thats what the rain gods seem to believe anyway. The last 2 days, it has rained like the gods know of no tomorrow. IIT has been totally cut off to the outside world what with Mandakini hostel's ground floor completely drowned( a repeat of events 4 years ago), and we Alakites also suffering from no cable and internet.

This being the information age,The complete lack of any information is disconcerting!
1.I havent checked my mail for the last 2 days, something almost unheard of here in IIT.
2. Havent logged onto orkut.. God knows there are plenty of scraps to reply to.
All said and done, the only positive I can think of is that I had plenty of time (for a change), plenty to catch up on reading, on movies and on thinking(do not LOL gentle reader, its true I do think a little sometimes). Although ideally I should have utilised the time for mugging for Physics GRE, but this kind of weather is just too (in?)glorious and positively somnolent for any studying to be done.

I watched The Godfather after having had the movie on my comp for a record time! Enjoyed it although I felt certain parts were a drag.
I also watched the last scene of "Scent Of A Woman" for the umpteenth time where "when in doubt, *uck" Al Pacino sizzles as a blind Colonel.

Although I have managed to pass the time pretty well and just about survive to tell my tale of woe(of not orkutting), but what rankles is the realisation that a slave I have become to technology, how dependant I am on it for information and how restless I feel just because I cant check a few damn scraps.
Instead of appreciating the beauty and power of nature, here I was cooped up in my room watching movies on an ugly, no less idioter Box and fretting about all things big and small. Although I knew about my addiction to the Internet beforehand, but never before have the withdrawal symptoms struck me so severely before.
This cannot and should not continue!!
I have now resolved to make more time for the beauties of nature, for observing the beauty and fragility of it all!!
To contemplate the awesome destructive power of nature and man's helplessness in the face of nature's fury.
To realise the insignificance of mankind in the grander scheme of things.

And most of all to realise, in the words of Keats that
even in a world of ugliness, beauty can triumph!

I would like to end by quoting a few lines from his famous Endymion...

A Thing of Beauty

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

Easy to write it all down, but I dont know how I am gonna keep my resolution. Maybe to do that, I will have to go back in time and become a child again, maybe only in the age of innocence can you truly observe and appreciate the beauty of innocence, of nature.

But I am gonna try
for sure, I am gonna try!

To the Virgins, to make much of time

I recently watched the movie "Dead Poets Society and a chap quotes this beautiful poem by Robert Herrick about how life should be lived! and happily the title's quite appropriate too!

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying."

Beautiful!
I have a new motto in life!

Birthday Baby!

2nd October was my B'day and boy what a B'day it turned out to be!! I certainly will remember it for a long long time to come, and that too for plenty of reasons.

One shady reason was just before I got up, I had this dream that it was 2nd September and that I had forgotten to wish my parents on their Marriage Anniversary. So half-asleep I immediately called up my mom and wished her Happy anniversary only to realise that it was 2nd October. People would have heard of sleep-talking and sleep-walking, but sleep-calling?? Woah!

The number of people wishing me was stupendous, and it dint do any harm to my self esteem. Hey people seemed to like me! :)

The Mess Tatha was in a particularly benevolent mood and gave me enough sakarapongal to even satiate me!, me who has an insatiable appetite for Sweets.

I donated blood for the first time in my life and felt satisfied with myself about having done my small bit for society, inspite of the nurse bulbing and inserting the needle wrongly and giving me a big ugly lump on my hand.

My girl friend wanted me to come and pick her up from the main gate(of the insti) amd visit all the temples where presumably she prayed (for my good health) and I goofed around; occasionally trying to recall vestiges of the many slokas I had learnt in my childhood, a long long time ago. After the temple visit was completed we were to go to the stadium where I knew that
some of my friends were also to come and we were to just have a quite get together.
But as I enter what do I see? My whole gumbal had turned up and were all waiting for me. After the customary cheery greetings and my expressing great pleasure at their all being there, they got down to the primary business of giving me birthday bums.
The girls started it off and I as is my wont couldnt keep my mouth shut, I just had to comment that I could hardly feel anything and that it was like a soothing balm for the bums I had already recieved at midnight. That was just the kind of encouragement the guys needed and they set to work with a vengeance. Pointy put all his footballing skills to good use, and ghattu pulled his weight around well for the cause. But the surprise winner bummer was Rakesh Garwal, aka PK,who looks nerdy and one wouldnt normally expect it out of him. The $#$@*$# packs a reall punch! But he will get his just deserts soon as his b'day is approaching!. I cant wait.

So after the guys had derived sadistic pleasure from bumming me(or rather my ass) black and blue, they settled down to watch me cut the cake and after that broke into a cacophony singing happy birthday. A slight diversion here to describe the cake, it was a lovely piece of work shaped like a heart and pale pink in colour(MY gf's handiwork I presume) with Ashwin (thankfullynot katta or it would be katta kutting a cake)written on it. I then got cake plastered all over my face, but anyway it felt good to have my cake and eat it too. After the cake was polished off, it was time to open the gifts they had got me! Yeah, Gifts! and there were so many!!
There was a beautiful alarm clock shaped like a house (Sigh! guess I cant bunk classes now
with the usual excuse of having crashed off), a nice T-shirt, greeting cards that made me go weak in the knees, Books(I love them), a rather nice ceramic doll which depicts a man dancing with a girl(I like to imagine thats me and my GF) and then of course a most beautiful watch (of which i have written before!).
So soon after much back slapping and pulling each other's leg, everyone started dispersing and I rounded the great day off with another trip to the main gate with my girl friend,
where we went and had Badam Milk(totally mind blowing) at Hot chips. Sometimes I feel it got over too soon. I had so much fun!

Forgive me guys for putting senti and all, but Thank you all for putting so much fight for me and arranging all this. It felt really great and your warmth and affection overwhelmed me.This certainly was one of my best b'days and certainly the best I have had in my last 4 years at IITM.
Thank You all! thank you Ghattu, Pointy, Sunt, Undi, Pyaare, Jumper, Whykaas, Matcha, PK, Pingala, Swathi, and last but defi not the least, thank you Rohini(for everything!!).

P.S: For some reason or the other 3 of the guys couldnt turn up, Jumper because he was doing duty for IITM in Roorkee thulping others on the way to 3 silvers and 1 gold, Vikas because he had gone to visit his friend, and Matcha because he couldnt be found on time! It would have been totally super if they also had turned up. Missed you all!