Little Heart

A friend of mine once said, "It is toughest to know that a person is dying and be next to them and see them dying". I told him then, "Do you really think so? It is equally tough when you do not know."
Death is a humbling experience. It shows us how little control we have over the next second of our life. Money can do little much to control our lifespan, really.
Everyday, there occur a number of unexpected deaths, of middle aged and young men and women, leaving behind a lifelong gaping hole in the hearts of their near and dear. And in this same world do exist an almost equal number of people burdened by infirmity and deadly diseases with no return from the path to death, waiting and abiding their time, suffering excruciating pain. It is then that I wonder how incapable a being the human form is, how very incapable in front of God and Nature. We cannot control when we can die; rather, we can just wait and bide our time, meanwhile trying to make our existence as meaningful as possible for ourselves and others around us.

P.S. : The title of this blog was taken from the bed sheet that covers my grandmother's bed.

pgp_iimb_2010@yahoogroups.com

It has been almost a month and a half now since I graduated and vacated my “2 year home”. I have been missing all of what I guess everyone else has been missing which includes the midnight chai at Athicas, endless discussions on nonsense, sense, the world, some globe and a little bit of marketing, bracket spams, mess ka khana, and so on. In order to reduce the intensity of senti, I have been filling my daily routine with an hour of compulsive browsing of the various photographs I shot of campus, with and without people, at all times of the day, but it has not contributed much to the cause except for making me miss the past even more.
In the midst of this misery, a fachcha posted a link to the yahoo group that would welcome and clear the queries of the incoming batch of 2008-10 on BR and then ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. Yes! I am back to my old routine of almost night outs, sifting through hundreds of mails, laughing my head off, starring the “star mails”, reading and re-reading them and musing over how much my seniors would have laughed reading our mails to a similar group two years back.
The prim and proper ones introducing themselves with “Name:”, “Grad College:”, “Work Ex:” etc. are a tad too boring and do not catch my fancy. Nevertheless, they do tend to remind me of my own first mail which was equally boring and mini-resume level and probably one of the safest ‘cos of its obscurity. They also include some common place queries like “How many suits would we need?”, “What’s the dress code?”, “What is the minimum attendance requirement?” etc. And, there are hell a lot of boring ones on the loan process and laptop configurations, which, contrary to the popular belief of every incoming batch are extremely hassle free and easy to acquire. And, yeah, every one of these mailers solemnly promise how much they are looking forward to joining B blah.. blah.. which is totally true I think, for after all, I too said and expected the same and got more than I asked for :D
But, there have been some queries which are real gems. And, I wonder, I do wonder, about the first week of the poor pitiable guys who generated these queries :P
Here are a few:
• "Who bears the expenses for the exchange program.. self?" – Well, what the heck is that supposed to mean? If you are trying to ask about scholarships etc., why not make that clear rather than getting into trouble with Arbit of this kind?
• "Someone posted that there are good reasons to stay back during term V at IIMB. What are those?" – The answer to this one is extremely profound! It was something like “Because in an exchange system, when you give something, you get something in return.” – Now that is one hell of an answer which made me laugh for 10 minutes straight
• “Though most of my questions have been answered but I was just wondering if we are allowed to visit anyone's room late night as well, considering that there are mixed hostels??” – It is intriguing what is really going on in that mind which posed this question. Extremely fast that one! But equally kiddish too! 'Allowed to visit' I believe.. Haven't heard of such stuff in a post graduate environment!
• And, some of these “I am handsome, I have 1 GF and expect to have many more” level intros which must really be pissing off those poor fachchas interning away to glory promptly evoking responses like “C'mon guys this is not some orkut community. And we seniors are not jobless at all. Its high time you realise that you will be entering a Post grad. campus and professionalism is expected from each and everyone here.” – Oh man! Sometimes or at least most times, even words in mails get passed down from one batch to another
But overall, the fachcha batch seems to be most creative and enterprising in its endeavour to help out the incoming batch what with the 11 p.m. rule and “Peace Club”! IIMB Rocks as always and am still sifting through hundreds more of these mails laughing every other second. Some way of time pass, that, at least for the rest of the month!

P.S. I was terribly hungry at 2.30 in the morning today and missed Athicas like never before for 2 hours straight before dropping off to sleep again :(