Whereabouts and wear abouts!

TheNamesake is currently on vacation. While he may or may not have moved on, he has definitely moved out, at least for a while, deciding to stay at his friend's place for a few weeks...
You'll find his friend here..
http://vishwasmysore.blogspot.com/

So long...Take care, and Good luck! ;-)

Blogs, Relationships. The forgotten one with Samiksha.

I, Sthiramathi aka Seizonsha, was reading an old friend's blog this evening/night and what caught my attention was that one of my friends, in one of his posts in one of his blogs (phew!), was drawing a parallel between Blogs and Relationships.
Let me attempt to "formulate" and "shape" his ideas in a more "readable" manner ;-)

1. Start new ones with so much "enthu" ;-)
2. Initially, there is so much charm that the blog/relationship has that we go on and on and on doing what we like together ;-)
3. Sooner or later, the charm starts disappearing, and then we "give each other some time"!
3-a) We either totally lose interest and go back to step 1
OR
3-b) Get back after sometime.

Now, The Namesake, who is a very good friend of mine, to make things clear for all my (Sthiramathi's aka Seizonsha's) readers,
The Namesake, is NOT in a relationship.

But, I have been in quite a few relationships.

Yes, I had been in a "relationship" even before my most recent relationship with "Samiksha", my Non-anonymous blog.
Earlier this year, on the 20th of January to be precise, I "broke up" with Samiksha. The break-up happened during the Semester vacation last December. We wanted to "give ourselves some more time". So, I have not spoken to Samiksha ever since. I really dont know when I will speak to her, if at all I do. You will find Samiksha here - http://vishwasmysore.blogspot.com/
Now, please don't ask me who this guy Vishwas Mysore is! You seriously don't want any more confusion! He is just another average Joe...Average Vishwas to be precise..Nothing more, and definitely nothing less! We'll rest Vishwas' case now, and carry on with mine.
So, yeah, where was I?
Me, Seizonsha had this relationship with Samiksha, and this was my second "relationship".
The double quotes are there because of this funny thing about the English language. The language is imperfect. There are many ideas that cannot be expressed easily without being misinterpreted.
Try reading this...something I had written a coupla years back, about "Relationships"...http://vishwas-mn.livejournal.com/1696.html

Again, summarising for the benefit of MY readers. (I = Sthiramathi aka Seizonsha)
I have had a few relationships (Blogs, and then this one, "one of a kind" relationship you will find described in the link above).
The Namesake, he has not been in a relationship. He is only into "Running" please; no running after anyone for him!

Who is Vishwas you ask?
None of us really know enough to be reasonably sure!

I only hope that after confusing the "average" reader enough, I don't let this current blog degrade into a "Relationship"!!!
So, this blog, Was never really only about "Running", not least as we know it.
Because, "It is not about the legs", you see :P
But, this blog, will continue to "run"...

If you are confused enough, take a break...
I am taking one too! And no, this is not "giving ourselves some time"....
Although this blog has not been like a relationship, I have done more posts than I did in one whole year! (http://vishwasmysore.blogspot.com/ )

I will be back soon....May be after/together with some serious "running", yes, real running....
So long....Take care! "God" bless!

I, banker, say Congratulations I-banker! Congratulations, Mr. I Banker! Congratulations, Mr. Congratulations!!! ;-)

Congratulations man! I mean, Congratulating someone whose very name means Congratulations is rather odd alright!
I mean, if I were to say congratulate you, addressing you by name in Hindi, it would appear that I am just calling your name out twice!
I will congratulate you anyway! You are an I-banker, and I, a banker ;-)
For latitudes may separate us, and even your altitude may do so, but some silly similarities like the "Banker" designation that will be common to us, and the common "New" prefix to the cities that we will spend our "Summers" in; I cannot ignore such seemingly "silly" things you see ;-)
And then, thank your stars that I did not follow you to B-school despite having the exact same Gee-Mat score, albeit with an expectedly lesser score than you in Math!
Because if I had followed you to B-school, "God" alone knows what my company would have done to you ;-)
As if two years were not enough!

At the risk of coming across as a sentimental idiot (which I very much am I guess!) in a blog post, writing about senti stuff about friendship, I can tell you that you're one of the best of friends I have ever had, and I cant forget how touched I was when you recollected all my stupid GeeTalk status messages and nonsense theories!
Major ego massage I tell you dude! And you for one, don't even have an ego that can be pleased!

I only hope that you, in keeping with your name, continue giving me opportunities to call you by your name, and congratulate you just as often ;-)
Good luck brother, but of a different father and mother ;-)
While I don't wish to take away anything from your brother, I wish we never forget each other, brother! ;-)

So what if you, or I for that matter will only be an "Intern",
We sure will have our turns to avenge all evil in turn,
So what if people think there isn't enough evil around,
Our friendship spreads enough jealousy and malice around ;-)

Yes! And Congrats, Little Sister.

If you started reading this post because of it's title without thinking twice, I will excuse myself saying that you should, by now have known better than that.
So, leaving out the "And", please connect the rest of the title with what follows, and you may even be able to follow! ;-)

Now what you see displayed on your left is, as far as The Namesake is concerned, just another StumbleUpon (No, I am not talking about that Web 2.0 service! If you don't know what Web 2.0 is, you are doomed! But here is what another Web 2.0 service has to say on StumbleUpon..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stumbleupon)
Now, before you lose track, let me put you right back on track...(And yeah "writeback", that famous OLAP jargon is something anyone has anything to do with Business or Intelligence cant afford to forget, forget Business Intelligence Consultants)..
So, the image was something he stumbled upon online, doing what he loves doing most, surfing, searching for something and all other things related and unrelated....What normally happens is that the line between (relatedness and "unrelatedness") and (belongingness and "unbelongingness") disappears when one starts following links to various things related at various levels and depths simultaneously..

Yes!
If you haven't so far understood most of what you just read, you can still read on..
What happens when all of a sudden the evening seems to be boring, and having finished talking to people who have to be spoken to and can be spoken to, there is nothing much left to do really!
And when nostalgia loses its Marginal Utility, Alfred Marshall cannot be blamed either!(yeah, that Father of Economics who hypothesised about the Diminishing Marginal Utility/Satisfaction; if you don't know about him or this, you are probably not an MBA student, and then thank your stars!)...
So, what happens when nostalgia too loses its charm when indulged in repeatedly (basically that is what I was trying to say above, albeit in a rather convoluted manner!)....
When something becomes boring, one does some other thing that one does when bored!
I suppose each one of us has this All Time Favourite Pastime and The Namesake had one too, that of thinking about something and then setting out to look for things related, ending up finding things unrelated as well ;-)
There is this bank that was the "Seed" that evening. He was going to be away in The Capital, for a full 6 months, and there was not too much time left before the fire of "The Summer" would swallow him...He had been banking on thinking all along, and all the same thinking about banking as well...
Only that, that evening (was closer to dawn really!), bored as he was, and bored as the others he spoke to seemed, he thought harder, taxing his bird brain, and started looking at The Bank's annual statement. After looking at the interesting things, he started "looking up" his style on where else than The Engine, that Search Engine that has these days become a synonym for searching as well as finding, although the latter two were indeed equivalent!
Web,News, Images...these mostly being the interesting modes of The Engine, he had found this image on that last mode, and decided to use it to show himself off on JeeTalk and a related Social Networking site.

Before anything including the dawn itself could dawn on him, he had then promptly forced himself to sleep, planning to sleep for more than 6 hours in order that on an average he would end up sleeping for atleast 5 hours over the last two "days", or two units of approximately 24 hours each.

I have taken this long to explain the "Yes!" and the image. God alone come to your rescue if you are reading on or are going to read on!

Little Sister would be the first one to notice the new image, and she tells him 10 minutes before he had fully woken up that it was "awesome"...Almost 3 years since he had received such praise for his display image ;-) Yes, the cartoon Avatar had received some praise, from who else than Little Sister herself!
Apparently, this image above is
"crude and assertive, to the point of being commendable",
"crude n assertive who doesn't need to speak"
" actions speak for themselves kinds"
and as if by carefully planned coincidence, "Congratulations", his thus codenamed friend now in New York comments although by "scrapping" him, that the picture seems to him as if The Namesake, our friend, had set off on a "Mounavritha" OR "I wont talk anymore" mission.. ;-)
If two people very close to him think that the picture is apt in that it eliminates the need for The Namesake to talk, we have enough evidence to conclude that he indeed talks a lot, or used to talk a lot in the past :-)

If a boring evening can lead one to conversations one would otherwise probably not have, and all after an interesting study of a balance sheet of a bank, one can rest assured that it could not have gotten any better!

Unfotunately, boring evenings can continue to encounter each of us, and we will still be left behind grappling with our "Struggles". ;-)

Such is "Life"!

International Women's Day.

My good friend, The Namesake wanted to make an admission today, and the T-shirt he wore was designed exclusively for that admission, only that he was making an admission on behalf of his good friend.
All the world is a stage, but the play is badly cast!
Sometimes, some people steal the show at the very last moment, and even if this were to happen inevitably so, it is indeed misfortune, unfairness.
But then, what one has to do, one has to do..and what one has been asked to not do, one must try never to do.
Forced by circumstances to do some work, especially of the "admissions" variety, he, The Namesake was left with very little time to come up with "original" philosophy that Saturday...

No!! He is not making excuses for not doing anything special on Women's Day. He had wished those who had to be wished, the previous night/dawn itself, and again wished the women (he knew) as he met them the first time for the day..

But, hold on...When one doesn't have to say much, one can reflect, and recollect...
Last year, this time.....

http://vishwas-mn.livejournal.com/8914.html

Wish all women I know a very Happy Women's Day!!!

Eat! And eat more than just people's heads ;-) Have some food....for thought, and otherwise...Otherwise...

Remember the times you, as a kid were reluctant to eat a dish your mom had prepared with a few unappetizing ingredients or unexciting and unacceptable vegetables ? And then, not being aware of options such as "eating out" or "eating something else", you would eat (humble pie!)...
The past few days have been comparable to those days; in the sense that the days have themselves been as if they were forced upon me by a Mother ( a Mother of all things, if you will!) I don't disagree with the fact that one can never expect to exercise full control of all events related and unrelated to oneself.
But, the point is that the kind of events that have happened in the last few days have only reminded me of those early days when I would not even protest (not that I even knew that I could or should protest!).
Yes, very young kids know not any protest; just like as ordinary mortals (and immortals alike), most human beings know not any escape from circumstances surrounding and hounding them.

Having said this, I would like to briefly recollect The Namesake's childhood stories of escaping from food when not escaping from circumstances.
He would never like Pongal (no, not that sweet dish; the sweet kid he was, he would equally sweetly devour anything as sweet, just as sweetly as ever!).
And from as back as I can recollect having known The Namesake, I remember that he would somehow manage to escape from the dish, (yes, Pongal of the spicy variety) using some or the other tantrum. But for this, he was not a kid who really threw tantrums, and that is probably why he got away with the tantrums he threw over Pongal.
He would have bread, if available at home; and if bread were not available at home, he would ask for a tenner, which would be given to him as soon as he had finished asking. And the fact that he was in Class 5 or Class 6 would not hold him back from wanting to "eat out" in one of those fast food joints on his way to school... Spoilt kid, did I hear you say?
Well, if he was given this option at that young an age, may be you could assume/presume that he was trusted to be mature enough to have his way, and have food his way, on his way... Because, except for this one "aberration", there were very few tantrums he ever threw! And yes, since I have known him for really a long time now, you can indeed take my word for it!
Growing up, he would have better options such as making Instant Maggi Noodles for himself. He would by Class 8 certified at home as the best Home-Maggi Maker. The extra butter, extra spice and garnish, and the extra love and passion which went into preparing something as seemingly simple as Instant Noodles would make it delicious and hence, deserving of that appreciation.

Now, life is exactly like this, if you ask me or The Namesake.

If you don't like the food that is available, you "eat out". And since you cannot eat out all the time, you force yourself to eat food that is available and at the same time edible (even if not exactly relishable!)..
Eating, like sleeping is a healthy thing to do, and one must do it in proportions and quantities as required.
One should not consciously make an effort to change the very required measure itself.

And when one fails to do this.....Well....you know, many things can happen...

Acidity, gastroenteritis, constipation, nose bleeding, headaches....generally, any manifestation of sickness.
This is what will await any person who attempts to evade food as if they were events which human beings so easily try to evade and avoid.

Think about this...This is food for thought....

And if you haven't already figured out, this post, while tangentially being reflective about situations and circumstances and how we try to "deal with" them, it is essentially about something else.
The metaphor of circumstances has been used only to indirectly talk about people's eating habits, or lack thereof! :P

And, this goes out to two of my very good friends. What about The Namesake himself you ask?
He is of course a very good friend, but he has enough food...for thought, and otherwise. Otherwise....

March Forth.

This one is for you Dad ;-)

Samiksha, The Namesake, move over all of you..
As the author of this blog, Sthiramathi aka Seizonsha needs some space to talk about his Dad...
Any idiot gets to post what comes to his or her mind anyway! And not like I am any different!

Why reserve it for Fathers' Day? ;-)

Dad, today's date reminds me of one of the various things you had told me when I was an innocent kid :)

"What day of the year sounds like a sentence?"

Much as it might seem like a trivial thing to talk about today; I may be a "grown up man" about 25 years of age. But all that doesn't matter...Today's date reminds me of what I had heard about it from you, and with it, all of what you used to tell me :-)

Saying "Thank You Dad for all that you have done for me" is not going to be enough. But, I am going to say it anyway!
I still remember all the things you would tell me and teach me...You were my second teacher, but second to none else in what you have taught me!

I still remember how happy you used to be when I combined words with effort and your help to complete reading a newspaper! I still remember how happy you used to be when I used to recite Shlokas that Grandma had taught me...

I still remember reading your student diaries and the quotes and expenditure records...

At the risk of coming across as a sentimental idiot, I started writing this post...But I have to close it now, and what can be better than the quotes you used to read out from your student diaries!

"The heights by great men reached and kept, were not by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

And then the one we both liked the most!

Peace of mind is a treasure,
of greater worth than gold;
More precious than a jewel,
and if this prize you hold;
You're rich beyond all telling,
For even if time may prove unkind,
it cannot rob you of the treasures,
Of a peaceful mind.

Light Boy!

Now, one of the advantages of "moods" is that things and thoughts you least expect happen to you...
The Namesake had decided to stay up until daybreak that night...and finally gave up after sunrise...

Choosing to go red on Jeetalk has its own advantages, and one of that was the good news that he heard late that night/early that dawn...
LightBoy had been a great friend during college days; not that he is not anymore today, but distance always takes away the camaraderie of the friendship. He had been thinking of LightBoy just the other day, and how "the gang" had really influenced each other (I should talk for myself the most!)...One's friends always go a long way in shaping one's thoughts, and even personality and outlook if you will...

So, LightBoy who had gone away in search of greener pastures was coming back for about a month.
If that was not good news enough, he had also landed an internship, and was more than happy with what he had got.

But, Light Boy has changed a lot apparently! He can now cook, and he talks of saving money!
You've made me proud my boy, Light Boy! After all you used to make fun of my making fun of you for spending/splurging money on original Reebok bags ;-) and what not!
See, even if temporarily, you will need to go into "saving" mode some or the other time in life, and then you should remember friends like The Namesake who used to be frugal at least in college ;-)
By the way, The Namesake still maintains his expense register and promptly records expenses on his cellphone when travelling, just so that he can later transfer those entries to his expense register...

Coming back the Light Boy; He and The Namesake exchange "cross border current affairs" and then talk about "product offerings", "bundle of benefits" rendering the customer speechless, and then how they both need to "identify gaps in the market" and draw "market entry strategies" to "time the market" and gain marketshare as well as mindshare.

So,
:-) May Mysore get to be in Bangalore in May :-) .............and "May" good sense prevail over "Er... What's 'in' a name!"... "Light Boy" is a nice guy after all..So what if he is not a "Good Boy"....He is a nice guy after all!!!

Too much of a good thing is not a good thing after all...

"I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray Ch. 1

That is what he was reminded of when he first set out that night...
He doesn't really know why he was reminded of that line; it at least seemed out of place because he hadn't really come face to face with anyone that evening...It was the weather outside instead...The mist was in the air ;-)
Believe me, the weather has a personality of its own, as he discovered that evening; He is not as good as Oscar Wilde...nowhere as good..That is his justification for popping quotes at the slightest opportunity...But then, he has a better alibi...That words; Words do injustice to most ideas and experiences - The moment one starts describing an idea or experience in words, one already dilutes the intensity...So, it is better to rely on others' words..especially in the manner Oscar Wilde has put together above ;-)
And apart from the weather having a personality of its own, it struck a "chord" with his personality...It may seem outlandish...But ask the weather of that evening and all you'll get is complete agreement ;-)

He really must thank "Cloudy" for telling him about the mist outside..He may or may not eventually have seen it for himself if and when he went out for tea...But, he did go out for tea soon after being told..And then he would use the tea break to decide if he wanted to waste more time outdoors...I mean, one really has to weigh his options about how one apportions one's wasteable time between indoors and outdoors ;-)

He first set out walking, and having decided that the experience should be as long as possible..If it can't be a Test Match, it should be atleast a One Day Match...Not a 20-20 match..But a "match" nevertheless...So, he walked back and set out again on his "Nitrogen" - his bicycle, aptly named "Dwichakra".. Little did he know that he would return only 2 hours later...
He cycled past the circle near the Bharatiya Institute of Technology's main office - and did what he does every single time he goes past that board which reads "Dedicated to the service of the nation"..a level under the institute name.. (Don't ask me what he does..Ask him!)
He then reached his School building..The digital clock above read 12:04.
He cycled beyond without stopping by or pulling over to the side...

The prison cells part of the Detention Camp always had their charm for him, and so what if it is past 12? He wanted to see if he would be scared by the combination of solitude, mist (reduced visibility of only about 12-15 metres) and a night past 12...
He cycled back a while later...The digital clock had promptly moved 40 minutes ahead..It read 12:44 and he pulled over to the side to smell the flowers near the School's building...

He then cycled around in circles - First, the big oval route which runs around most of the campus; and at each circle(junction) on that route, he branched off and resumed only traversing the path to the edge of each branch...On one of those branches, some of the street lamps go off or come on all of a sudden...Just like he had seen with his friends the other day when they were joking about ghosts!
This time around, his laughter might have scared any ghosts around ;-)

On his first round on the Oval, he had found some dogs and on unplugging from the music device had realised that they were all barking. Slowing down, he had thought about how dogs were a real scare compared to the imagined scare of ghosts...He thanked the good sense that had dawned on him - the one of cycling around!
And, as evidence to the fact that when Life has come full circle, things would be different..He did not see the dogs there during his second round...
Even at the end of the second round, he had found all the cyclerickshaw wallahs asleep in the rickshaws..the imagined comfort of the rickshaws...

Now, two rounds of the Oval had been completed and he had spent two hours outdoors in all..

Two much of a good thing is not "a" good thing after all..
Too much of a good thing is also not a good thing..

So, he decided to go back after a cup of coffee at "Eggies".



How much I love you! You do not know...
But I can't live without you...

I have heard that people "lift" the pangs of separation
I don't know how people pass the time of their life..
Even a day seems like a year here!

How much I wait for you..You do not know...
But I can't live without you...

If someone else "sees" you, my heart would burn;
And after a lot of difficulty, my heart regains its "balance"
What all I go through and undergo - How would you know!

My heart is so restless..You do not know...
But I can't live without you...

Old music has its own nostalgic charm..(Translate the above to Hindi please!)
As the above song drew to a close, he sipped his coffee and left...With a sense of satisfaction of wasting time well (spending time well if you insist!)...