Yea Ascom when was the last time you received a smirk, or worse, a snort when you told them what you were doing at college? Shouldn’t be in the distant past I suppose. Anything I tell you, anything other than engineering and medicine is looked at with scepticism.
“ Communication? Wow, great scope! You could try doing space resear-“
“ Urm.. Mass Communication not Electronics and Communication”
3 minutes of silence and a couple of disapproving expressions later
“isn’t that like a de.. de.. degree course( read nemesis) , huh?”
SO WHAT? How does that affect them? Some of them look at you as though you just expressed your deep desire to jump off the PETRONAS towers. “Degree course”. B.S.
Why on earth are we Indians so obsessed with engineering? How many of us doing that actually understand it? Let alone like it. in a country like ours “ fitting in “ or rather following the crowd is what is deemed appropriate... bramin- pray , kshatriya-fight , vyshya-business , shudra-the rest.. the new caste system- high-business, engineering, medicine , low- “degree course”.. Follow the pied piper.. join the Indian club of elite engineers! Please don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against engineers, or for that matter anybody else doing what they really like and believe in. It’s just that look of doubt that you get when you tell that u aren’t following the pied piper.
Yes I admit, some of us have taken Mass Communication not for the passion for it, it’s rather a means of staying as far away from equations and sums as possible and a few embarrassed (unnecessarily) because they couldn’t afford the high sums the management quota seats so covetously require. But don’t brand us incapable just yet..there are a substantial number of us who from the very beginning knew that all we ever wanted was to write or report or whatever! And do not underestimate those of us who have strayed into Communication unawares.... it could be love after marriage! Difficult perhaps but not impossible!
What if one mouse decides that this whole following thing isn’t meant for it? That its passion lies elsewhere? Can’t the pied piper just let it be? Can’t the other mice understand? Well, unfortunately they don’t . I desperately wish they would but they don’t. But, naah.. I’m not gonna give in just now.. throw all the looks of distrust and scepticicsm u want at me.. I believe that those of us who have estranged the pied piper will someday.. may be not right now, but some day soon be triumphant.. yea ascom we will..hum honge kamiyab ek din.. :)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Temporary insanity triggers an urge to write :)
This story was written in a fit of anger at 1:00 a.m. during our first semester exams after I fought with my two best friends Fareeda(codnamed the ‘caveman’- owing to her messy hair)and Niranjana(a.k.a . midget ) . Fareeda was someone who read the zodiac sign characteristics religiously, and judged practically everyone based on what she read (i.e. until she read my story- now her zodiac books have been thrown away and forgotten!) in the story her alter ego the caveman does the same. He draws meanings from the positioning of the stars.
Legend of the caveman
The dark clouds whirled and thunder struck, caveman opened his eyes and scowled, he looked out of his once pretty castle, now the castle had changed, creepers had spread and strangled all the sides of the castle giving it a scary satanic appearance. What is most dangerous about the caveman and the castle is that initially they look like a handsome prince and his welcoming palace. For the first six months that you enter the ambience remains the same but, it is after one looses half a year there that one realizes that one has been deceived ... trapped...caged...forever. For Ever. Enslaved in a place where gloom and sarcasm prevails, honesty and warmth cease to exist. The prince will shed his mask of deception one earthly day at a time and when it seeps into you that you had believed and laid trust too soon... you realize that you had been deceived in the worst possible way.
The caveman looked up above at the stars, and he saw not twinkling, sparkling dots but masters providing instructions and guides to knowing the character belonging to a mortal or the future that spreads infinitely beyond our eyes, real yet so unreachable. He drew his opinion looking into the eyes of humans and drawing meanings from what the stars his masters, or so he considered them to be, had taught him.
And then he met the midget.
He liked the midget at once, an incomprehensive feeling of comradeship engulfed him and he decided that his true ally had come. To others when he gave a feeling of non existence, a sort of invisibility, to the midget he gave pride and control.
The midget like the cavemen know did not the meaning of honesty. His life was filled with lies and false flattery for ulterior motives. He betrayed not one but many and even more minds did he cloud with false loyalty. Yes, many had been drowned in the dark waters of treachery.
And the sun arose one day majestically, claiming to rule the world in unexplainable dynamism, moved to the zenith and then declined. As he prepared to be swallowed by the mighty ocean he promised to be back in full power the next day. When he disappeared darkness overpowered the paradise and earth.
The midget yet again displayed his cruelty... and this time none but the caveman did it affect and in the worst possible way. He fell to the ground and ceased to exist, the life in him ebbed away. And before he died he saw the stars and realized that they were nothing but sparkling objects, as he deceived people the heavens deceived him.
And as the sun promised it dawned again and once again a new day was born and those of whom who had been cursed into non existence by the caveman walked on the earth again in flesh and blood.
P.S. I read the story to my caveman and my midget , they loved it. And needless to say we are best friends.
Legend of the caveman
The dark clouds whirled and thunder struck, caveman opened his eyes and scowled, he looked out of his once pretty castle, now the castle had changed, creepers had spread and strangled all the sides of the castle giving it a scary satanic appearance. What is most dangerous about the caveman and the castle is that initially they look like a handsome prince and his welcoming palace. For the first six months that you enter the ambience remains the same but, it is after one looses half a year there that one realizes that one has been deceived ... trapped...caged...forever. For Ever. Enslaved in a place where gloom and sarcasm prevails, honesty and warmth cease to exist. The prince will shed his mask of deception one earthly day at a time and when it seeps into you that you had believed and laid trust too soon... you realize that you had been deceived in the worst possible way.
The caveman looked up above at the stars, and he saw not twinkling, sparkling dots but masters providing instructions and guides to knowing the character belonging to a mortal or the future that spreads infinitely beyond our eyes, real yet so unreachable. He drew his opinion looking into the eyes of humans and drawing meanings from what the stars his masters, or so he considered them to be, had taught him.
And then he met the midget.
He liked the midget at once, an incomprehensive feeling of comradeship engulfed him and he decided that his true ally had come. To others when he gave a feeling of non existence, a sort of invisibility, to the midget he gave pride and control.
The midget like the cavemen know did not the meaning of honesty. His life was filled with lies and false flattery for ulterior motives. He betrayed not one but many and even more minds did he cloud with false loyalty. Yes, many had been drowned in the dark waters of treachery.
And the sun arose one day majestically, claiming to rule the world in unexplainable dynamism, moved to the zenith and then declined. As he prepared to be swallowed by the mighty ocean he promised to be back in full power the next day. When he disappeared darkness overpowered the paradise and earth.
The midget yet again displayed his cruelty... and this time none but the caveman did it affect and in the worst possible way. He fell to the ground and ceased to exist, the life in him ebbed away. And before he died he saw the stars and realized that they were nothing but sparkling objects, as he deceived people the heavens deceived him.
And as the sun promised it dawned again and once again a new day was born and those of whom who had been cursed into non existence by the caveman walked on the earth again in flesh and blood.
P.S. I read the story to my caveman and my midget , they loved it. And needless to say we are best friends.
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