Inspiration Gtalk...

There is one thing in life that i respect more than anything else..The Human Mind. The Beautiful Mind. Its not really surprising that many of us actually fail to see the point. It takes effort, time and above all, tenacious curiosity to do it. But to those of us who have discovered it, the experience I'm sure would have been unsurpassed. This post is first of the (hopefully)series, wherein i shall pen down some insight that I have personally gained into this amazing thing called the human mind. Not some ground breaking revelations but interesting all the same.

Having spents hours at an end chatting on Gtalk, some things have become become glaringly evident. So, much so that I' m longing to devote an entire post to it. Here goes...

Hidden behind the 'screen', an online Mr.X ( sex no bar, and I'm seious!), is way different from an offline Mr.X. Its not a conscious effort to project oneself as someone he/she is not, but rather an outcome of a beautiful mind game. Online, its an alltogether different arena, a different game. When you communicate with a person, in person, the mind is at work processing a countless different things of which the owner is not even remotely aware of. But he/she reacts to it all the same. When you think that you are just talking the person, your mind is busy doing things much more than just listening to the verbal communication. There is a lot of non-verbal communication that goes on in tandem with the more evident verbal part. The mind picks up subtle information, or rather tries to infer information from the other persons body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, tone, etc. The processing and the resulting information greatly varies from individual to individual. Like for example, different people form different opinions about the same lecturer even though they all hear the same thing. The mind rewires and reorganizes itself constanly to adapt to its environs, hoping to help it better cope with circumstances that are to come. This, to me, seems to be a natural outcome of Darwins Theory of Evolution. The better I am at reading you (not just listening to you) the more I understand not just what you say, but also what you actually think. So naturally, the more we communicate. the better I get at it. Hence, during an actual face to face communication, the mind is not only busy reading signals, but is also busy sending the right signals across. In a nutshell, this seemingly innocuous talk is much more than a simple exchange of words. Mind you, the brain goes into an overdrive if you are communicating with someone of the opposite gender. There is an entire new spectrum of data processing that needs to be, whether you like it or not ...Probably one of the reasons why heroes get tongue-tied when trying to propose the heroine !?

But that is not the case when you are online. All that the brain is doing is processing a plain, flat, string of text. It means what it means. Period. It does not have to give a damn about anything else and so is at ease and does what is does best...think. The net outcome of all this that when online, I feel much more at ease expressing myself. I freely put across whatever I have to, without any fear of misjudgement or any urgency of having to be spontaneous . I am actually being more of myself.

So, the next time you are online chatting your time away, just keep this in the back of your mind. You may be a very appeasing and loved character online(or god forbid, a despicable and blunt person)....but then, life is a game played offline. Its an all together different arena, and a different mind game...

The Day Schi

I belong to this very rare species of students in a largely residential college (if it were to be purely residential, we would never even have existed), fondly called Day Schi. Even after 6 totally disparate semesters, I have not quite been able to gauge, as to if the mathematics of this decision have quite worked out in my favour or not. I have always taken pride in the fact that I am a day schi. But, I still have always been profoundly attached to and become a part the hostel wings of the dearest of my friends. However, situations have often pinched me back to the ground realities...not without a feeling of agonizing bitterness that is...I'm still JUST a day schi. Over the years, its been an achievement in itself to have patiently explained to each one of my (curious/considerate) friends, every single time he/she demanded an explanation to my not being an hostelite. Yet, every single time that I did it, I couldn't help wondering how things have worked into this rather unconventional way. Well...Circumstances.
More than anything else, I (enviably) enjoy great home cooked food. And the fact that my Mom makes a great cook (that is, in addition to being a wonderful Mom) only makes people going green with envy turn purple. So, I have always made it a point to share my good fortune with the (less fortunate) lot. In the early years, it was a mighty easy job to invite a few people home for a grand dinner (not to be confused with its messy counterpart) every now and then. But with every passing year, as we began metamorphose into factions and started occupying entire wings, the proposition of a dinner has become more of an organisational challenge. The only options now are to either call the whole wing home for dinner (that's more than a dozen people) or just do nothing. For all practical purposes, the latter is the easier(or rather, the only) way out. So, an occasional offhand invitation for lunch and packets of tindi are a prudent way of keeping the critics in check. By saying all this, I'm not trying to brag but rather, trying to drive home the fact that an abundance of our species is a benefit for the junta at large.
Living in one's home comes with several privileges, often unnoticed, untill one starts living in a hostel. Plainly put, I dont have to bother about washing my clothes and getting them pressed, I have absolute privacy whenever there is need for any (it includes uninterrupted studying hours on days preceding the exams), I have the liberty to decide when to eat, when to bathe and the list goes on. But there are facets of hostel life which make all this trivial. Privacy jaaye bhaad mein, you have the company of friends in the blocks. Mess food sure sucks but then those chats over the dinner table are something I've always fancied. The birthday GPLs, the overnight movie marathons, the lengthy discussions over topics ranging from Hurley's Marriage to JohnD's wig are savoury experiences that bleach away caustic memories of waterless days, unpalatable meals and dark clammy powerless nights. I'm elated when I get to be a part of most of these. As for rest, shrug! All my luxuries ain't come for free..
We're almost there. Just over a year left before we'll be leaving behind this wonderfull place called Engg. college. Its a slightly different perspective from where I am, but an idyllic one all the same. Despite all the stresses and the strains of being in Tronix, some of which have driven me to the brink of despondency, its all been one cherishable experience, a once in a lifetime experience. I'm probably telling this a year too early, but there's one fact that will make me happier than anything else. No Regrets.

A long Shot..?

Inspired, intimidated and impressed by many a bloggers out here, eager to prove their writing prowess, i've finally decided to try it out myself. What intrigues me even more is how effective a media this (blogging) has been to umpteen souls, who believe me, are at times physically and physiologically entirely different from the pictures their writings portray. Though the motives and the motivation behind creating ones blog and maintaining it is mostly unknown (and hence, not easily appreciated), the very fact that the owner(s)/creator(s) has taken pains to do it commands respect.
I hope this venture of mine is a rewarding experience, both to you, the readers and to myself. Though at times, the sheer pleasure of being able to pen down your thoughts is a reward unto itself, it human to expect admiration as mark of accomplishment. Cheers, Happy Blogging.