Of Life and Love

Winter has one good thing after another piled up for anyone who cares. Let me begin at the very beginning. First there is the laziness and coziness of the morning, the bliss of the beckoning sleep; and the feeling of stepping out of the pace of life by refusing to wake up. The fun is in the rebellion, the mischief of saying ‘boo’ to life and it’s fast paced rules. Second, there is this morning full of a shy sun trying to break out from the tyranny of the clouds and struggling to give us some warmth. And the tussle the two opponents have: sun and wind, fighting for supremacy. Third is the absolutely relaxing time post-lunch when not a single soul, XL dogs counted, can refuse to stretch out in the smiling sun and indulge in some gossip. Or maybe sit alone and think! That’s an uncommon way of relaxing but quite a few people like it, including the dogs (always) and me (sometimes). Then there is this evening thing, the rapid decline of the blooming day into the potent dusk. I can never help...

Scene 1: (A hostel room, most likely in GH III XLRI; the incumbent is asleep, sound asleep; evening time; the room is otherwise in good shape except for a confused pile of academic paraphernalia on the reading desk and an assortment of wires, mouse, keyboard et al that pop out here and there). A guy knocks on the door. No answer. A friend knocks louder. No answer still. “He’s asleep, strange. I’m sure he called us at this time.” The first guy seems amused and hesitates at the door, knuckles held back inches form the wood. “You know, this goes to show we juniors are exceptionally committed to this work, rather far too much if we wake a sleeping soul in XLRI. You understand we are committing a crime?” They both have a hearty laugh, pitched high intentionally to help the inmate out of slumber. No response. The first guy tries at last, only this time he calls out a name. They hear the inmate stirring inside. Bingo! Shuffling steps, someone comes to the door, some scratchy sounds an...

Now I don’t want to launch into a personal tale of what kind of breakfast I like most and what could the B-school (XLRI) offer and what eating habits you should develop if you want to survive management education. These are all great topics in themselves and perhaps I will do justice to them some other day. But today’s agenda is simple: I’m going to talk about the one big change in winter lifestyle I have had to undergo due to my shifting quarters from a premier engineering institute to a top-notch B-school. Engineering (at IT-BHU) was fun! Winter in BHU is again a separate topic but life in winter always has one component that applies anywhere. You just want to remain tucked into your quilt and let the urgency of the morning wither into the laziness of the afternoon. Now what if I told you that it was possible (not always) during Engg? I remember the days, the chill in the air, the supreme reluctance to step out of the room and into the freezing hostel lobby, the frozen dull sunshin...

Abhishek Tripathi Posted by Hello

Well, it is a very long time since my first and last post but i'm not surprised. I haven't taken to blogging in a big way and my word files are enough to placate the writer bug within. But there is one more reason. XLRI is a place that sucks you into its vortex; heady, stormy and satisfying. And i'm not talking satisfaction only for those with an acute academic view of life, but also for those who have a different prism to gaze it through. The campus is small and yet it is this that makes it a happening and fast-paced place. I know almost every soul in my batch of 180+ and an amazing number of seniors here. It seems so very cliched to hear this but it is a big family out here. But being from IT-BHU, I simply can't put the campus at the back of my mind! BHU is one great thing that happened to me and I knew it then and I know it now. BHU is a terrific place to be in if you are in IT-BHU. Forget the vast, dreamy, foggy, chilly, green campus during winter, forget ...

Just got curious and wondered...aw no. Let me not spin yarns here, it's my Blog right? So, I read a very interesting thought in one of Isaac Asimov's stories. Where do jokes come from? He argues, and very cogently, that whenever we hear of a new joke and try to trace it's source, we find that everybody in the link had heard it somewhere. No one has ever been able to trace a joke to a person who claimed to have created the joke! Of course, this excludes the possiblity of peole trying to claim false glory. Now I really wonder, where exactly do these jokes came from? One more thing, most new jokes are just old wine in new bottle, rather new hi-tec, digital age bottle but the theme remains the same as found in many old versions. So...where did those originals come from into the collective consciousness of humanity? Did anyone plant jokes in our minds? T..h..i..n..k..