Pointlessly interesting

It was nearing five twenty. A ten minute ride was more than enough.. I hurriedly pulled on a tee and my faithful pair of jeans. I was on my way to this rather embarrassing thing called lab class, necessitated by the awesome faculty we'd got for our electronic lab sessions in S3.

The key was in ignition and on kickin the starter, dad's old warhorse the CD100SS roared sputtered to life. I downed the visor of the huge helmet I was wearing (Trivandrum cops were now in the no-helmets mode for the past one week) and started off. I made it slow this time.. going leisurely at under 40kmph, singing Stairway To Heaven to myself, and trying to imagine how Vincent in Pulp fiction must've been feeling when he drives his car, havin taken coc, to take Mrs. Wallace out for the evening :D

Past the hustle bustle, going up the flyover over the Vanchiyoor bridge aka Uppalaamoodu paalam.. I spotted something. Hurriedly braking and takin a sharp right, I let gravity guide me down the road.. past the smelly fish-hawkers' place and the various shops that adorned the side of the road. At the bottom of the slope, I saw what I was looking for. I pulled over, turned the bike off and took off my helmet.

One of my most familiar and relished sounds.. the chugga chugga chugg of the diesel warhorse of IR, the good old WDM2 idling at the TVC home signal with the afternoon passenger from Kottayam hit my eardrums. To anyone who must have been following me on the road must have quite arrived at a certain conclusion regarding my sanity now.. I was standing, just a couple of metres from the tracks, watching the 'engine'. I knew what I was doing, though! I was doing precisely that. The passenger was no doubt, waiting for the outgoing TVC-MAS express, which, I knew was coming in a few minutes now.

Here I was, in the evening sun, enjoying the breeze and just watching a loco idle away. I had nothing else in mind right then.. Exams were over, lab exams were still weeks away, and I had nothing to do for college the following day. Joblessness at its height... and under such beautiful circumstances, even a thing as pointless as standing by the side of a road, watching a train feels insanely fulfilling.

A short toot from the distance told me that I was in for another sight.. Slowly, the beast came into view. A brand new WAP4, #22806, hauling the late afternoon superfast to Chennai.. The loco pilots exchanged a wave and the beast passed me, its traction motors grinding away loudly while it accelerated.. the thud thud at the rails and the onlookers at the doors.. the last coach was easily doing 40 when it passed by.
Now the fellow waiting leaned on the horn and departed in classique diesel style.. the looooong horn, a tug at the coaches and the rhythmic beat of chug chug chug, slightly smoking away.. The chugging grew a bit faster and the loco disappeared out of sight.. People were already waiting at the doors to get down at the station and continue living their own little busy lives. Time.. business.. strange.

I took the U-turn, went back up the road and continued.. I was late for the class, but I was not complaining. It was back to working away at the world of resistors, capacitors, bootstraps and schmitt triggers.

Being 'crazy' over lots of things makes you insane in the eyes of people.. but it makes your life interesing. You enjoy doing something which otherwise means nothing to people, which they would just pass of as something part of the city or the world. They gain nothing from it.. and you lose nothing, but you gain the little pleasure you derive from watching a robot work, building a linux system from scratch, watching in dismay as an IC dies drawing a lot of amperes, or looking at and feeling a 3000hp beast chug off while its V-16 engines beat away in harmony.

Maybe I'm just crazy. But I'm not complaining :)

Mediocrity and Pissed-off-ness

Disclaimer: For the uninitiated, this post drips a vain and high-n-mighty attitude. If you know me well, you'll understand. If you dont, and still think the post oozes all that, fuck off.

College really pisses me off sometimes. Yes, I have an awesome set of friends in there and they are the reason why I go to college. But apart from them, the whole atmosphere there is, I may say, really disillusioning.
A thick fog of mediocrity hangs about forever. It's very disappointing. The average person on the campus is someone who comes, sits and gets back to his place. He comes to college for a degree and to sip his cup of chaaya. He doesn't care what's happening around him (as in the world), for he doesn't process such stuff up there. Thank god college is not filled with these species, for a lot of unfortunate people would have gone for the rope (or the dope) had it been so.

So here's something I'd really love to tell the faceless person in the crowd someday. Maybe I'm just exaggerating but again, if you really care for your time, go read the newspaper or soemthing.

1. Dont be the Average Joe. If you still are, understand for Gods sake that the Average Joe isn't very proud of being so. He's just a dumbass.

2. I dont need to have a goddamn reason for everything I do!! Just cos I wear a smiley badge to college one day, it doesnt mean I'm now a vaastu or tai-chi or whatever person. I wear it cos I can. Go dig your nose if you have any problem with that.

3. Sitting in the back row doesn't necessarily make you god. And for the fools who ridicule the guys sitting right up front, lemme tell u that we laugh our asses off, get online and tweet about it sitting there, while your sorry arses get picked on to answer a question by some prof.

4. Movies is not always equal to malayalam movies. There exist English movies that are not equal to porn. And English movies are not always equal to action/thriller.

5. Oh yes, a lot of people dont give a damn about politics. Maybe we're just not that passionate. Also, see #6.

6. When I say Fuck off, I mean it. Nobody says fuck off for the panache.

7. Nobody needs to turn heads when someone talks in English or uses some expletive. Sonofabitch is just the same as panna naayinte mone.

8. If you dont listen to metal, you can have my sympathy (and my collection if you bring a portable HDD). If you show your disdain/disgust(god save u!) for it without being asked, accept the finger.

9. There exist a lot of people who have interests other than what's required in the syllabus of the goddamn university. Just because someone reads a book on python or microcontrollers it doesnt mean you need to panic.

10. Relax, goddammit.

11. Girls, wearing tshirts is sweet :D The ones who usually don't needn't be embarassed to do it the first time (pun unintended :P )

Feels good to have administered CPR to the blog :) S4 starts soon. Hmm six semesters to go...