Of Boys and their Bikes

The funny thing about the objects we love is that we reflect the animate while designing the inanimate. Now generally we limit this to sculptural inspirations of form or adapted functionality through biomimicry etc., but with bikes I think we may have finally succeeded in capturing the essential character. What am I on about here? Well read until the end and I’m sure you’ll at least think about it before you dismiss it.

The reason I think this character thing is more with bikes than cars is that bikes are far more interactive a contraption, ironically because there’s less of a cocoon around you and you are more connected with the real world, exposed to the elements.

The first time you rode a bike. Remember that day? You always wanted to and you wondered why people spoke about biking so passionately but never really understood why? You get on, not really knowing how to handle everything, you’re unsure and shaky, your balance might falter and you might scratch yourself in a fall but you get back on, the gears are difficult to get used to and its rough initially, but the first time you take it a long stretch it’s exhilarating and new! Its mind blowing-ly awesome and you know now why it feels great! And you get off not really wanting to, the curfew of petrol and other mundane life chores, but you itch to get back in the saddle and long to see her again.

The first bike you’ll ever own, you’ll race her down the streets, go faster than you should and you’ll never listen to what it’s telling you. You’re brash, always taking chances trying to show what a macho dude you are almost killing yourself. Never serviced on time and it always sounds like its screaming. It started out as fun, but then you realize that u went wrong somewhere and you’ll have to go back and sort things out, it works out sometimes, but sometimes you’re just too far down the line and have to let go. It might not have been the best, but it was the first, you’ll remember it and hopefully learn from it.

Done with college, this time you’re on your own and the selection is more careful. It’s beautiful, better quality, and stronger. You choose it because you resonate with it and it feels just right for you. Long rides seem effortless and pleasurable and you still want to get on every time, you look forward to a nice ride just to relax and leave the world behind in the slip-stream. The focus shifts from riding faster to riding better: every turn at its apex, every shift timed to perfection and the pull the accelerator and press on the brakes just enough, you ride in tandem, listening all along the way – the machine is an extension of your self. You always kiss it goodnight and wish for another magical, dreamy, tomorrow.

And then there are those that you don’t understand. It looks old fashioned but in a retro cool way. It takes on a style of its own and has a strong sense of character. You’re drawn to it but you can’t seem to fathom why, it’s rounder and bigger than the sleek shiny ones but that doesn’t seem to matter. She’s loud and noisy but you know you’ll get along just fine. It’s not easy to manage on the road and difficult to control sometimes. Not easy to maintain but you still take the pain and do most upkeep yourself, just the specialty jobs go to the experts. You’re concerned about every little finicky detail and try to keep things perfect. She might not start in the morning and can fall shut at the worst of times but you still love it and keep polishing it on the weekends. Love’s like that - irrational but passionate all the same. You know this one will be for life, you’ll trip on it for hundreds of miles on the highway there’s nothing than can make you feel more like a king. You’re a hero with it and incomplete without it.

It’s funny how much bikes can teach you about life and love if you care to think about it.

I still have many miles to go. But I’m in love. And she’s my baby gurl ;-*

Cheese-y Shaayari

Guwahati mein aaj kal Thand ka mausam chha gaya hai. Suraj jaldi dhal jaata hai, shaam ka taapmaan aur chalti hawa ghumnae ka achcha mood set kar dete hai. Chandani raat ho, jab campus mein light 2 min ke liya cuta jaati hai - mann karta hai ki phir shuru na ho

magar kya karein ghoomein toh bhi kiske saath??

Yeh Shaayari mere jawan dosto ke naam jo apne khaas se duur ho chuke, aur unkae liye jo meri tarah tamanna le baithe, par sabse zyaada uss Apsara ke naam jiske pyaar ke intezaar mein hum tadapte hue..

Padiye... aur buraa lage toh kisi aur ko na kahiye ;)


Suhana yeh mausam hai
Chaand khil raha
Thandi hawa chal rahi
Teri raah dekhta mara

Kohraa chhaya hua
Duniya khamosh, so gaya
Haath milae chal
Koi na dekh raha

Aaj tak may na pi
Sirf pyala dekhta raha
Teri zulfon ki mehek
Kis nashe mein kho gaya

Meri jaan tujhpar fidaa
Chupke se tujhae kaha
Tu kya sharma gayi, haaey
Mein aasmaan chhu aaya

Tujhae har chehre mein dhuundte
Shayar bann gaya
Teri mohabbat karte hue
Dil dard karta hua

Elixir

(My entry for the creative writing (prose) competition at the inter-hostel cult fest “Manthan” at IIT-G)

They hypothesize it emerged in a primordial ‘soup’, a mix of alien and terrestrial spices that fortuitously lent itself to the origin of self realization. Though how things have changed. What is life now but these myriad experiences we share that lend themselves to multiple interpretations, for each one unique, combining into this unfathomably complex roller coaster ride.

All these events added to our lives, individual ingredients governed by a pre –determined recipe written by fate? The magical formula of our lives being brewed with a spell uttered over by the soul of the universe – a ‘God’? Or just simply random events thrown together in the chaos which are but chance and probability, yet seemingly to us a perfect blend of energetic boils and contemplative simmers?

Yet potions may be poured together and infused to create new ones. Are we not those? Each a different colour, exercising the variety of the spectrum – wonderful indigos, healing yellows, vibrant reds, jealous greens, toxic oranges and poisonous fluorescents – added by drops or bottlefuls; stirred in or distilled. The ripples of an addition disturbing the globular cauldron that is the world; alive in itself yet receiving energy from the ever burning fire of a glorious sun.

And still this world is part of a greater whole – a ‘Milky Way’ – the swirl of a galaxy, spinning around stellar matter in a vortex, forming the sparkling elixir of the universe of our existence.

-the poem whose name i still dont have-

(My entry for the creative writing (poetry) competition at the inter-hostel cult fest “Manthan” at IIT-G)

Distant memories
Of a time long past
My remembrances alive
Always seem to last

For you a gift
I forged from stone
Forgive me, my Love
Oh, had I known

It holds no value
For you are now gone
Yet your scent, in the air
Still lingers on

The seasons change
With the march of time
They say it heals
With the pass of time

Yet the scar still hurts
And keeps me from sleep
You face holds me awake
No counting sheep

In the freshest of mornings
My toes in the grass
Your fingers in my hair
Please, let this pass

Noon, under the boughs
Of our shady tree
Softly you sing
Now the notes pain me

The Sun moves to dusk
Your hand around mine
Sitting in the sand
A lonely glass of wine

You laugh out loud
To the open sky
Twinkling like stars
The trinket catches my eye

The sea tries to touch
But cannot reach
Retracting its hand
Along the beach

This wretched world
Now tries to take
Your last sign
With anger I shake

So I pick it up
From the froth
As it lies there
The anklet upon the seashore

Just an Idea, Sirji!

Over the past few days I’ve had a thought, rather a train of thought, running through the grey-beige jelly that is my cortex which I shall now share for your reading pleasure. It concerns the uniqueness and originality of ideas and also how we derive inspiration and let them out into the world.

Have you ever wondered how unique your idea is? No doubt its original, true, but apply the rules of probability to the question of whether anyone else ever thought up the same thing and then it doesn’t seem that impossible. There are, after all, 6.8 billion people on this earth (citation required) and that’s not counting the dead guys – and there’s quite a few of them too.

It doesn’t take similar experiences to add up in one’s cranium and churn out the same brilliant, light-bulb-glowing, eureka-screaming, kiss-ur-lab-assistant-even-though-he’s-a-guy flash. Sometimes 2 completely dissimilar sets can intersect over the same domain that encompasses the region of interest of the idea. So be skeptical at first when someone has the same idea as you, but be not surprised. Rather curiosity into your counterparts thought process could bring valuable insight and open further avenues of exploration that build up to a wonderful collaboration.

But, it still remains that we aren’t all that egalitarian. A lot of work goes into fleshing out and detailing an idea to make it useful and it is only jus t that one be credited for one’s hard work. I believe that the easiest way to ensure this or to ‘lay one’s claim’, as it were, is to tell the world about it. Keep your work secret until you develop and build up to a certain level of credibility and then scream it out on the rooftops with a megaphone – the louder the better. It’s a time worn observation that the first to get the word out is the primary in getting credit. This helps in more ways than one – talking to the world about your idea can get you fresh eyed inputs that again offer novel perspectives that you may not have considered.

Come to think about it, the funny thing in this whole argument is that idea is self applicable. The idea that ideas aren’t unique itself may not be unique and by corollary is recursive to the point where it loses meaning.

To conclude I’ll just say this –any idea no matter how unique or novel to its ideator, could have been thought up by others at any other point on the globe and at any time in history, but the lack of technology, will to pursue it or just plain laziness may have prevented that idea from sprouting into the world.

Wave Theory

Have you ever thought about how relations between people can be well simulated by wave interactions? It’s a simple analogy; if you consider the two people in the relation as two normal sine waves you can easily see how the interaction of waves can predict the outcome of the relation.

Take a look at the first case, the most positive of the lot maybe, where the two individuals share the same frequency and are in complete sync with each other; don’t bother bout the amplitude, because no matter what it is, the positive effect of each wave on the other leads to a resonance fed by both waves and hence leading to a final where the sum of the two is greater than the whole. The two people magnify each other’s characteristics and help them achieve things beyond the scope of what they might have been able to do individually.

The next situation is the completely the opposite where the phase difference between the two similar waves where the peak of one corresponds to the dip of the other. The two waves maybe the same but bad timing just annihilates the relation and there’s nothing left. This perfectly displays why sometimes two people who are completely alike may not be able get along with each other sometimes.

How about a phase difference between the two where the crest of one times with the node of the other? The result is a mitigating effect where the high points of one of the twain offset the depression of the other to regulate and prevent the sum total from deteriorating to the extreme. You will still have highs and lows but they probably won’t be as potent and therein lies the catch, you might not fall as low as before but you may as well not be able to jump as high as you could.

But life doesn’t work in static phases. People are constantly varying and therefore so are their phases and maybe even frequencies. The interaction between people is all about beats created in the interaction and the music it becomes which corresponds into the unfathomable magical feeling that it brings to our hearts. The music may be anything from rhythmic to melodious, a complicated symphony or a cantankerous cacophony, it may even be silence, nothing at all, or a growing crescendo that peaks and then fades flowingly, beautifully into the distance. Then is that how we must live life? As a ‘jugalbandi’ where we are constantly tuning in and out of each other and trying to perfect the mix as it happens, learning from the mistakes and incorporating new bits and pieces to enrich the acoustic total to feed and nourish our souls?