Destiny’s Children. Or another random post.

Life manages to be exciting, yet scary at the same time. But can we help it?

When words want to flow,
Things, they long to happen.
Sparks desire to fly all around,
Let them!

People, they want to be discovered.
Shooting stars await to be wished upon.
Roads, they hope you walk over.
Breathe life into them.

The present will soon be the past.
The past, which will always last.
You shall always remain who you are.
Destiny’s child.

   The above piece of poetry is nothing but the outcome of floating all ‘across the universe’ thanks to The Beatles. It’s much more than a song I say. Lennon, heavily influenced by the ‘Transcendental Meditation’ that he did in India, penned down one of the most poetic song that he has ever churned out. If you have not heard it yet, please do so!
                      
    On a philosophical note, life is like a roller coaster that you can ride only once. It’s free, and for every up there is a down. Reality, is an illusion. What drives you are your thoughts, your vehicle of perception. What white is for you, might be black for someone else. You might ask me what is so unique about being unique itself. Well, it’s not a flashy tag that you can wear around. It’s your attitude towards life, your nature and belief in humanity that rubs off. The more you become a part of someone, you can’t avoid that someone becoming a bigger part of you. If all of this doesn’t make sense to you, be happy. You are different from me. But if you do, take it for granted that you think too much!
     Ask yourself what you will do if you meet your mirror-self the very next moment. You feel that you are the luckiest guy around. But then, wait for a day. He does what you do. He has done and will do what you do. You have nothing to hide from him, no stories to tell or surprises to give. Will that be good or bad? I leave that question for you to answer. All I can tell you is that never touch him. If he is your anti-matter image, you both will end up as a hoard of photons, with no resemblance to your former presence.
    What I tried to convey is that opposites simply don’t attract. It’s the law of nature. It’s not healthy to search for a person just like you. Variety is truly the spice of life! It’s being different, having undergone a different set of experiences that makes this world tick. The rich and the poor, the bus driver and your favourite author. The Suppandi and the superman, they all have a niche for themselves in our life. Well, it’s time we respect these small differences. For if you look at the similarities, don’t crib over the fact genetically speaking that the ape you see in the zoo is 98.5% similar to you! Life might be an exam, but I can assure you that no two people will ever be made to answer the same paper. So it’s of no use trying to ‘copy’ or imitate someone else’s living. Be different and scream, roar aloud riding the roller coaster of your dreams. Well, or do this.

       If you are still awake, let me tell you how the past few days were.
My geology practical examinations took place on the 29th of September. Well, the time limit stressed me out. And yeah, I came home with a bad mood, put on the internet and hunted for peace on my iPod. And naturally, I Facebooked. There, I met this crazy girl who hates veggies, her name being Saloni Sardessai and somehow ended up chatting about Sagittarius. Here is how the conversation was like.

She : Sagittarians are an amazing bunch!
Typical Me : Have ever seen the constellation itself? The Milky Way is soo beautiful!
She : Wow! I’d loveeee to see it!
Me : Do you have a terrace?
She : Not one, but two!
Me : See you tonight!

Yeah, that’s how stuff is with me. I’m pretty instinctive and a man who lives for the moment. And when something is remotely related to astronomy, I don’t see why I won’t jump on it! We added two more people to the list. Maithili ‘sorry’ Shankhwalkar and Akshay ‘oxy’ Juwarkar were ever-willing to join in to do some astronomy for the first time in their lives. It was truly fun, and I naturally can’t describe it in words!
Here is a list of what we saw.

The Summer Triangle. Cygnus, Aquila et Lyra.

Teapot eh? well, our ancestors thought that this was a centaur and named it as ‘Sagittarius’!

   This might look like a M, W or a Σ. I leave it to your imagination! This nineteen century old constellation is known as Cassiopeia and she is supposed to be the Queen! Well, Maithili couldn’t help herself from being happy as her initial is up there in the sky!

     One of the only constellation that actually resembles the object that it is named after is Scorpio, the scorpion! The α star, Antares was as red as a traffic signal. What a sight it was, this majestic constellation!
I saw a sporadic meteor streak past, but unfortunately these people didn’t get to see it. They were all pretty much amazed at how small and insignificant we are on the cosmic scale. Yet, we cry over small things. I just can’t stop getting philosophical!!
Although we did not see the Milky Way, we had an amazing time at Saloni’s place! If not for astronomy, we always had some gossip! And the best part is that the girls built up some curiosity about Greek mythology into me! Life was at its best. I had my chemistry practical exams the next day, but I was pretty much confident about them. Moreover, I had a life to live and constellations to hunt on Akshay’s iPad!!!

These Facebook statuses sum it all up.

Yes, I am using Facebook’s new ‘Timeline’ feature before it is even released! Boo you!
     Talking about yesterday, there was this quiz organised by the PTA of GVM’s Higher Secondary School and was quiz-mastered by Wilson Vaz, who is an amazing physics teacher and person besides being a really cool quiz-master! It was to be my last school quiz ever!!! Now that’s something really emotional!
   Now what is life without a little bit of thrill? So let there be spice. Me and my partner Pradnya Rane were told by the school authorities that the quiz beings at 10:30 am. But on the day of the quiz, reading the circular I realized the time for the preliminaries was 9:00am. I looked at my watch. It was 9:01 am. And then we just panicked! But we had a lot of luck, so we made it.
     Me, Pradnya, Shantanu Kulkarni and Akshay Juwarkar finally reached Kala Academy, the venue for the quiz. I was participating in a GK quiz after a year. I had lost my ‘Midastouch’ in quizzing, or at least that’s what I thought! As per me, we fared badly in the prelims. Little did we know that others had it worse! Akshay constantly told me that people there feared me more than anybody else. I had developed a killer reputation two years ago, and that is still imprinted on their minds! But I was like “Dude, I am no longer THE quizzer! I have come here for fun, and not to win it!”.
     But destiny had some other plans for me. Fast forward, it was a easy ride and I scraped through with a mere lead of 5 points. I felt that I had won this quiz merely on my past experiences and not on terms of my usual heroics and buzzer tearaways! But it counts as a victory!  The second place went to Mushtifund-Aryaan HSS, it’s all in the Mushtifund Saunstha I say! Shashwat and Tiwari were amazing competition and Akshay along with Shantanu proved to be a real good ‘support staff’! Not to forget, Mushtifund HSS wouldn’t be up there if it was not for Pradnya! Hats off to her! Yeah, that’s what they called themselves! I am leaving the field while I stand at the peak.
     Quizzing was, has and will be an integral part of my life. I dedicate the nearly 15 state victories to all the people who make me up. If you think it is you, give yourself a pat on the back! Thank you!
     That’s a small part of what all happened this week. It was really exciting. Like nothing before! And yeah, I have some amazing announcements to make and will blog about them real soon!

Till then, Clear skies!!
thebiggerbang

DREAMS& Co.

Yeah, Hope!

      The one thing that drives my life. I am sure it drives yours too.  They tell me that it was this hope alone, this very dream and determination that got the Wright Brothers soar in the skies. Where will my, where will your dream take you and me? I am tired of playing around with my backspace key for the zillionth time now and I still hope to complete this post before I loose my train of thoughts.
     This post will be a frank account of the roller coaster of life that I have been on for the past few years. And of course, most of the people who have been with me through this trip. I will declare names at my will (it is really tempting to do so!). So, if you wish to start, lets get going!
    The first things first. I am a human and it is human to dream. Therefore I dream. But they never come true. If you know me well, you must be cursing me right now. Fine, I am not being modest, but what is the harm in listening to my side of the story? I agree I have been an achiever in life, high achiever some would say. But that is in the eyes of the world. “Who am I in my own eyes?” – Isn’t that the real question that matters? I believe that I shouldn’t care for what the world thinks about me, and yet go ahead with pursuing my goal. I believe that we should let our passion shape our self and not our marks or whatever for that matter.
   Allow me to cite an example. In the 9th grade we had this Science Seminar competition and seeing my senior do a very good job at it I was really motivated to make to the Nationals like him. Unfortunately for me, I did not manage to even clear the school round. Oh yes, I had the passion, I felt I had whatever it takes to make it there. I ended up 3rd, a miserable 3rd in my own eyes. The world thought I did a good job, hah! It still has an impact every single time I dream of something.
  Another event to be mentioned is this particular quiz, the Monginis Quiz that used to take place every year in the state. In the second edition, Shantanu Kulkarni and me ended up second, just by 15 points.  We had a fair chance of winning it, all roller coaster all right! But then it was a fair win for the champions. I realised that only losers give excuses, and the people with the killer instinct just accept defeat! Now we did not think we were petty loosers, despite just being in the 8th grade. Our hunger just grew! The next year I teamed up with Jayant Karn just for fun, and lost to Shantanu and Ashray on the last buzzer. The wait just grew longer. The most desired victory just eluded me. The next year I did not give up, but the sponsors did. Another title gone forever. Yes, I did manage to convincingly grab the TOI Big Quiz 2009, but…..the inability to get the Monginis title still pricks me. It is like you yearn to meet your favourite movie star in your childhood but you end up meeting his super-duper star son decades later. But hey! you still didn’t meet your favourite star!
   I dream of things, they never end up happening right. Instead things that I never dream of just happen! I couldn’t clear the Balshree regionals, but I ended up topping another national level science exam. I still didn’t get what I wanted. I know I am being a jerk, one should be happy what he has and blah blah. Frankly, what would you do if you were in my position? Hasn’t such a thing happened to you too? However big or small it might be? These were my thoughts, and I would be rather disappointed if all of you reading this (piece of random bullshit?) agree with it.
  Back to the present. I idolize Rakesh Rao. I idolize him for whoever he is. It would be not good on my part to talk about his story but just to summarize, he has had his share of struggles and difficulties in life. Overcoming all that, he has just come back from Antarctica and he is gunning for more. That sums it up really well. However I would like to share with you two things that he had told me on ride back home. At that time I was going through a rather frustrating and (cant describe the feeling in words) phase. I still remember two things that he told me. He might have forgotten the incident, but not me!
1) ALL BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO PEOPLE  WHO DO GOOD
2) THE MIDDLE FINGER IS THE LONGEST FINGER, JUST SO THAT YOU CAN SHOW IT TO THE WORLD WHEN IT TROUBLES YOU
     And he topped the last one with “A great person once said that” to add to the drama and the person turned out to be he himself! Heh! I am not trying to make a point that ‘I am a person who does good all the time’, but rather hope that you remind yourself of it whenever you are feeling low, for it at least  keeps you going!
    So what do I do? Stop dreaming? Give up hope? Hell no! Let them crash. Luck favours the brave right? So let me be brave, let us all be. I plan to dream bigger this time, my career is at stake. So what? Doesn’t taking risks make us brave? Travel the road least trotted upon. One thing for sure is that we will never know where we would be if we had chosen otherwise (even if they had parallel universes). What happens to me, how high I (or for that matter, anyone) will only be known after we bat our last ball, take our last breath.
   To sign off, let me quote a great man.

“If life is a joke played on you, make sure you have the last laugh”

No prizes for guessing who the great man is

The Start of a new journey...

Hmmm... a month back i got unlimited internet access (broadband has become a fundamental right in Finland!)...but today, i have kind of grown tired of the same old FACEBOOK-WIKI-TWITTER-MAIL-YOUTUBE routine.. and as it is, i have not started any kind of serious studies but instead i have gone ahead in restarting an SMS quiz initiative of mine. I have got tired waiting for blogs to post new questions...(although I agree that i can't even get a light year near to cracking the tuffies!)..I have decided to start a blog quiz of my own. SO THIS IS INTENDED TO BE MY LIFE+QUIZ+GUITAR+REVIEW blog... So welcome and happy following!

Link with me on FB, mail and Twitter.

To start off with a question, here is one!

CONNECT

Answer- Mahesh Yogi, The Beatles ka Guru

Till then Aproveite a vida!