Some Fears are true...

Sometimes, reality is a little more than what we contemplate; human thoughts bounded by scientific rationality sometimes fail to see the obvious. What is unknown is not always divine, sometimes it may be demonic. Those who do not respect the line between demonic and divine, make stories and stories live long… longer than the people themselves.

Oblivious of their fate, the three hapless friends, Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun took the room together in the hostel of a reputed engineering college, the Room Number 823, where it all started. I’ve been to this room and what I share with you, is partly the famous stories of the reason why the room is locked today and partly my own observations. We know that curiosity kills the cat, but how many of us would still deter from exploring something that is unnatural or at least appears to be unnatural? Thanks to our scientific acumen, we need a reason to all occurrences, that’s how we declare something unnatural as natural, its only human too search coherence in some randomness when there is none, and no wonder humans could discover patterns, in climate or the stars in sky.
It was a cold winter night, when Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun moved into the Room, it was their “Day 1” in the hostel. Vineet was regularly surfing the internet when he saw a mail from Manad Khandelwal, it had a link to download a movie. Considering it just a random mail from some promoter of a movie, Vineet clicked it. Movie started downloading and to Vineet’s surprise the download happened in just 10 minutes. Which is almost 20 times faster than what it took him to download a movie of same size, from an under loaded server.
It was a horror movie, “The cadaver from Daman”. Some movies do have a strong impact on lives of individuals, little did Vineet know, that movie would have such a permanent impact on his life. Vineet invited Vishwakarma and Varun to watch the movie and they joined. Movie was about the life of a person who had lost his family in an accident and had used demonic powers to connect to his family members. To all the rational minds who doubt this idea, yes it is possible. There have been many theories that explain the existence of disembodied sprits around us, who are sometimes silently watching us as our guardians and sometimes as an indifferent observer. One famous theory claims that these are some un-explored forms of energies and as the fundamental law of energy conservation states, energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. The body is burnt/buried and thus undergoes a transformation but the sprits? Sprits have left the body long before its burnt/burried, where do they go? Hell? Heaven? Hell and Heaven are but myths, exploited by some religious leaders to influence us to do, what they describe as “Good Deeds”.
The movie showed how the man successfully established a connection between his long dead family members and himself. The stories ended on a positive note, a rare thing to be seen in horror movies of late, but this was not the end. The three were rendered bewildered, confused and perhaps with a thought that what was shown was not fake. The way Vineet received the movie, from a random mail addressed by Manad; there were too many co-incidences to ignore. A month passed by, but these three somehow could not get over the movie. Sometimes movies do have a very strong impact on one’s life, there are movies that make one’s life, there are movies that make one hate his or her life and there are also movies that KILL!

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One, night Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun had both drunk a little too much to keep them sober, somehow the movie stuck them again. It was demonic and somehow demons are the new “cool”. They wanted to try the idea of contacting the decreased. Unfortunately all bad ideas do not come with a caution sign. Vineet drew out an Ouija board on a sheet, it was an easy job, the design was explicitly shown in the movie they had watched.
An Ouija board is a very simple arrangement that can be made by writing all the English alphabets on a white sheet of paper or a cardboard, along with the alphabets write numbers 0 to 9 and two words “Yes” and “No” on extreme ends of the page. Place a Re1 coin on this sheet, sometimes people do it with bare hands, however using a coin is advisable, run the coin around the planchette in circular pattern till the coin warms up a little, Make the place dark with maximum one candle burning, concentrate by thinking only about the person whose sprit is being called. One is expected to extremely patient in the process, It takes usually more than three to four trials before success, when the coin moves it’s an indication of the connection being established and one may ask questions thereafter.
With the ambience all set, the three of them sat around the table concentrating.
They tried, and tried and tried for many times…. but to no success, when finally they saw the coin move.
Vineet, popped up at the very sight and asked, “Who amongst us dies first?”
The coin moved to character “V” when the three got frightened to their cores and removed their hands from the board, good friends, as they were, they perhaps did not want to know the answer to the question. The half minded, impatient generation of ours, starts flying before learning how to land. The three of them quietly moved away from the board, they were scared, sweating and could probably hear each other’s heart pounding almost at thrice its normal pace. Not a word spoken, each one of them took the cue, and it was mutually decided that they talk nothing about it and quietly go to sleep.

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A week passed by and the three friends had almost forgotten about the hard night. It was a sunny afternoon when they decided, planning for an outing. It was a beach party they were going to, the three friends oblivion of the curse that time had lit on them reached the place. The party lasted till midnight, and they finally moved out to get back home.
The roads were clear, unusually clear, as they drove past at a speed of around 90 kmph pumping up the volume of their stereo surround in the car. They were singing along to the tunes of the stereos and were having a great time.
There was skidding, there was a crash and they had hit against a pole. None of them survived, they all died on the spot. And perhaps the Ouija Board was not wrong, among the three of them all with names starting with “V” died, together, but the story doesn’t end here: - The pole they stuck to, ironically had a tourism advertisement, which read, “Come to Daman, Life is beautiful here”.
This is the popular story, of Room No. 823, as I said earlier, I’ve been to this room personally, and I did feel some eerie vibes in the room. There is a spot dark, very dark in the room, like the tar of something that was burnt, people say they were so scared after the incident that they burnt the Ouija Board, but the mark of the same did always remained, somewhere in their hearts they already knew something has gone terribly wrong, but perhaps men chose ignorance against fear.
There have been people who moved to the room later, all died an unnatural death in a less than 3 month period. And since the second such incident and increasing rumors, the authorities decided to keep the room locked.

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Rationality is a choice, one may call this mere co-incidence but I would like to point out some weird things about the whole episode. Firstly: The room number: Room No. 823: the digits sum up to 13, which is considered to be an unlucky number in many cultures. Secondly: The movie:  there has been no such movie as “The cadaver from Daman”, that has been made or at least registered till date. Thirdly: The sender of the mail with the link to download the movie, “Manad”: if you rearrange the alphabets it comes out to be “Daman” (The receipt of the mail has been verified form Vineet’s email account, the link to download the movie, however shows a “Page not found error”). Fifthly: They hit against the pole with a tourism advertisement to Daman Sixthly: The burn mark on the floor, which I have seen and I can’t deny and finally: Why would someone ask who among us will die first? Usually people ask things that keep them bothering, why would they be so worried about their existence?
A rational argument against all this can be, that usually beach parties are followed by alcoholism and drugs, may be they had had a little too much of either or both of them, and were not in their complete senses. Accidents in such situations were bound to happen, but usually the people dying in an road accident have their eyes closed, all three of them had their eyes wide open- like perhaps they had seen something unnatural.
To believe or not to believe, I leave on the readers, but the college authorities have decided to demolish the complete wing where the Room No. 823 is and reconstruct it to be made into classrooms.

The Good and The Evil are but a part of this world and they exist in coalition, One should not discriminate them projecting one as better than other. They are perhaps the two sides of a coin, and it makes no sense to say that the Heads are more important than the Tails, both of them have always existed together and will continue to exist, when The Good needs courage The Evil needs strength. But one thing is certain, playing with things beyond the purview of humans is a crime, it’s a breach of the natural discipline, and one must not do it. Those who claim to be talking to Gods or the popular “Gods men” (considered to be The Good side) are equally a criminal to the natures order as are the people who practice voodoo. As a writer all I can wish for is that the natural order of the world prevails, so that we live a balanced and a happy life!

Thanks!!

Marketing... Indispensable yet dangerous.

Avery old, shortest yet the most apt definition of marketing is the art of “Meeting needs profitably”. But my question today is marketing only about meeting needs? Is profit the only motive to drive marketing? And of course do all the marketing strategies actually meet our needs?

Times have changed, marketing has become an important concern for all companies, and as a result we can clearly observe that marketing has grown beyond just meeting needs to creating new ones. Were we Indians that unbearably stinky some 12 years ago when the deodorant and perfume market was just 3% of its current worth? From a luxury item suddenly perfumes and deodorants started to be projected to people as a necessity and thus a need of the same was created, to an extent that people who did not use them suddenly started feeling less confident about themselves.

Marketing has been in our culture since inception, consider the various dressing styles and dance forms in our country, they were our methods to advertise our culture/state. And that in turn attracted people from other states/countries to come over and thereby increase trade. How do you think Portuguese came over to south India to trade for spices if there was no marketing for the same?

Marketing as a broader concept aims at increasing sales, and if the process demands creating a need/hype for a product, then that’s how it’s done. However sales alone cannot be a driving factors for marketing, brand building is another very important aspect that a marketer needs to take care of. Some famous researches show that it takes almost 5 times as much to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Customer loyalty has got a lot to do with the product quality and pricing too, thus marketing cannot really operate in sedition to the operations/manufacturing cycle, in fact there has been a consistent focus in this direction too and the term “complete marketing campaign” has become commonplace. Marketing campaigns ensure production to delivery to exist in a chain closely linked to each other and not as independent activities.

Many eminent personalities have already sung praises for marketing and it’s not completely incorrect to say that it is perhaps the most important activity that drives sales. In such uncertain times such as ours when the buying habits have become almost impossible to predict, the ethics in marketing are an equally important concern and should not be neglected. If it comes to a particular brand of perfume or deodorant, and one claims to better than other, it may not have long term adverse effects, but imagine if such ideas are applied to life saving drugs or other medicines? A very simple example of the same is the growing culture of having carbonated drinks, or eating fast food, marketers have managed to show it as “cool” and “hep” and perhaps if you are a part of our countries youth you should better be drinking more and more of a particular brand of carbonated drinks.

Having said all this, obviously we cannot really judge the right and wrong in marketing. It’s an indispensable concept and perhaps shall always be on the top priority till we have needs,(both real ones and ones created by the marketers), I would only suggest that all marketing campaigns are backed by strong ethics keeping the larger good in mind.

Education and Modernization.

Education makes people  easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern but impossible to enslave”: This not only serves as a famous saying from the Scottish lawyer Henry Brougham, but also as a definition for education itself.

                Ever since the first idea of formal education was introduced around 200 years ago, education has undergone tremendous transformations, from just enculturation and socializations which have always been the primary objective of education to analytical and rational abilities. These objectives give you the sanity to discriminate the correct from incorrect, again the exact definition of which has never been understood.

                This reminds me one of Shakespeare’s’ plays “Julius Caesar”, how the supposedly illiterate and therefore fickle minded mob (around 60 BC) of Rome are driven by mere speeches, from supporting Pompey to Caesar, from Caesar to Brutus and finally from Brutus to Antonius.

                Educated minds are rational; they make their own decisions which are usually backed by strong reasons, either emotional or analytical. In fact I’ll like to take it a step ahead to say that those educated people who lack these abilities are perhaps a failed product of our modern education and societal system. Educated minds are flexible, adaptive and open to ideas, they know what their rights are, and are not ignorant to allow themselves to be enslaved. Democracy, I believe is the true outcome of educated minds as it gives the people liberty to choose the head to bear the crown. In one sentence the educated people are easy to lead because they choose to be led; obviously all leaders and no followers shall lead to a state of anarchy.

Thus education gives you the confidence, to allow, being led or governed but at the same time enough fire not to be driven or enslaved.

Keeping Emotional Detachment... pushing your boundaries by miles at ones.

I usually begin all my blogs by asking questions, so here are my new set of questions:-

Have you ever felt that your are so frustrated that if you get a chance you will run away from life? Have you ever felt that since nothing is working in your life, you have no confidence to pick up any new idea in life?

To all those people who feel this, what you need is Emotional Detachment. To all those people who say they have never felt this before, well you are doing great, Life is easy for you, this article is not meant for you, you may stop reading here.

For all others, thanks for your time to read further. Now what is Emotional Detachment?

Emotional Detachment is not bearing a callous attitude to your work, Its nether the middle-path/work-life balance shit that many people will offer you. I agree to Buddha's middle path philosophy for most of things but sometimes they are too ideal to be used in the real life situations. Life's penury can often render you crestfallen, what middle path do I chose after reaching such a dramatic state in real situation?

“Emotional Detachment is the state of being detached to your job thinking of something big to happen and as far as possible taking necessary steps to ensure that big thing happens. “

Sounds nice but any philosophy is of no use if one cannot preach how to practice it. So here I list the methods that will help you be emotionally detached to your work in life, but before that we need to analyze the reasons for we being in the technologically up-fired yet emotionally unhappy race.

The “All Problems have solutions” philosophy.

Why do we try to find solutions for all problems we encounter in our life? Cant we just let go? Time... my readers is the answer to many problems in our life, Its we the humans who try to run ahead of time. Why is it so difficult for us to understand that human abilities are limited to present and we have no control over past and future. Why do we get so impatient that we want all answers to our questions now?

Its like, I want to put 10Kg sugar in a 2Kg box, I know I cant but I keep thinking why can't I? And then end up unhappy and dejected.

The “Fish can live without water” philosophy.

Can a fish live without water? Exactly fun and celebrations are extremely important. Why is time waste considered so taboo? Well its the free mind that produce the creative Ideas. Have your share of fun its as important to brain as water is to a fish, all work will make you even more dejected. So next time your over dejected, keep your calm and go for a break, have fun. Waste some time get back and try it again.

The “Life is Transitive” philosophy.

The law of transitivity says, if a=b and b=c then a=c. And the rule of life says LIFE IS NOT TRANSITIVE. Please stop putting everything in life on a balance and analyze analytically, life does not work that way. Its completely ok to have some equations unbalanced. To those scientific folks who are reading it, well there are too many variables involved in the function of life and so far scientist have not been able to identify all of them. So function is something that comes much later, we humans are yet to identify all the variables involved in it.

The “My current job is Ultimate” philosophy or commonly known as “This is what I want to be” philosophy.

Well no job is ultimate, keep pushing your boundaries in life, Think of something bigger and make a move towards that. Keep a safe foot hold in your current job and try something bigger in life, Dream of the time when you achieve the big thing you have thought of. It will obviously bring in detachment to your current job.

The “Life is Permanent” philosophy.

Friends life is temporary, this point can be considered to be an extension of the previous point, If you keep moving towards a bigger thing in life it will make you feel your current job is temporary and so are the troubles associated to it, and will help in detachment from your job. Life is a short wonderful experience, Live your life its a one time opportunity.

Well now that we have identified the reasons that keep us disappointed and the old philosophies that we have not dared to challenge so far. Its time I reveal how to reach the state of this emotional detachment.

Forgo the above mentioned five common philosophies or I may call/refer to as cancers and you shall reach a state of emotional detachment. This explains what is emotional detachment too. And that's what I define as Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Thanks!

The Spirit of being BLANK

How many times have you been rendered quizzical by, things happening around you? How many times do you feel, “What should I do now?”.

To all those people who say they have never had such feeling I've just two things to say:-

1. Buddy! Please stop doing the same mundane work and try something new, and then you shall feel what I've said above.
2. Stop reading further! Because you cannot value it unless you feel it!

Well the situations described above, I call it being “BLANK”. Now being BLANK is good, Its very different from being confused. Well I should first explain why being confused and being BLANK is not the same.

Suppose a problem is posed to you:-

Three things can happen:-

1. You know all possible solution and have tried them all and know whats the best way out.
2. You know all possible solutions but you have tried only some of them.
3. You have never seen a problem like this before and you know nothing whatsoever.

Case1: If you have tried all the possible solution, your job is mundane I repeat again, Stop reading further and try something new.

Case2: This is an exact case of confusion, should you try the age old tested methods that you have tried already in past? Or do you try something new? My Dear reader “You are CONFUSED”.

Case3: “You are BLANK”, you know nothing and will try seeking help from people who according to you are smarter/or have done it before.

Being BLANK is good! Being CONFUSED is bad! But its extremely important to know what state are you in?

Why is Being Confused bad?

When you are Confused you tend to start making Assumptions. Well I'll go an extra mile to say “A confused man is a useless man!” Now as per your assumptions you shall accept one solution as more viable and discard the others on those grounds, Unfortunately in your hear of hearts you know, that what you have made the base criterion of selection and rejection is but an assumption, direct consequence of this will be half mindedness. You shall be doing the more viable solution, but would not be able to stop thing about the rejected alternatives. Which is dangerous! Again, heaven forbid what decision you chose goes wrong you shall repent even further thinking wish you had the other alternative because its only human to consider assumptions are closely linked to your fate. :)

Agreed, but how is being BLANK good?

Well certainly this would not be the best state to be, in a real life situation. But its better than being confused. Firstly:- Congratulate yourself that you are doing something that’s not a mundane activity for you and that you are doing something that you have never done before. Secondly:- When you are BLANK you shall be open to ideas, you shall make no assumptions as you know nothing and you shall be over cautious in each and every step you take.

Also the main secret of the universe, Taoism one of the oldest philosophy describes: If something is meant to happen it will happen, so Chill! Just try and device new ways of making sure that the others around you know nothing about the BLANK space inside you. Rest will work out automatically!

Well now that you know the secret of success, Let me tell you, We are all but at some point BLANK about the things or problems in our life, its high time we give this state its due credit. Why being BLANK is bad, its at least better than being confused in life! And to all my confused audience chose a side which you are clueless of, this will bring you to the state of being BLANK, and as the rule says:-

“BEING BLANK IS GOOD”!!



Being Blank!



Thanks!!

My Nation, My Generation!

The “Generation Y”, the adjunct for the “Generation Youth”! What does it mean and how is it different from the “Generation X”. Well certainly, the more stubborn,sophomoric generation, which shapes the future of our country... was never so rebellious before. Is it the new events or the frustration carried from ages which against as expected fails to deplete?

I think its but the combination of the two... The frustration carried since ages in them that they could not defer anymore, and the current set of affairs that provide the vent for this fury to come out. Never seen my nation in this much action before... The “The Jessica Lals' case”,”The Anna Hazares' Movement” or “The Delhi Gang rape Incident”, there is one thing that is common among all such cases, the youth participation!

The jocose youth has now chosen a different path, they are not scared of any edict or punishments that that their actions might bear, in a so called, “Democratic” country of ours. They have risen and aye, don’t consider this to be any less of a revolution, its the uprising of the youth supremacy! A paramountcy that can be controlled to no decree! Its this revolution that shall give the threadbare “Democracy”, a complete turn around!

The intrepid “Generation Y” is in making, and at its apogee it shall forgive none! My nation is shining, and it should not stop to do so. Youth is the lifeline of my nation and now that they have realized it... We are not very far from being the superpower.

So come join the “Generation Y” and shape my nation, I'll quote Frost to the, 'would-be stars' of our nation:-

                         “Woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I've my promises to keep;

                              and miles to go before I seep, and miles to go before I sleep”

Whats wrong with our countryMEN?

 
I was going through my routine daily reading when I came across an article about women empowerment, and couldn't resist myself from penning down some of my thoughts. Not that I believe something different from what you, or perhaps most people believe, I'll however like to revisit some thoughts that seem to allude us in our daily run for bread and butter.


I belong to a very healthy family, a family where women are given equal rights, and I can't thank my luck any less for the same. Since time immemorial we have seen one law of nature, The Drawins theory of the survival of the fittest, has never made more sense to me before, We men scared of the women doing better than us, have decided to kill them at the time of birth. What a display of masculinity and chivalry on our part! Alas! If we closely assay the situation, the wraith that this scene carries, the curse we are oblivious about! Who shall pay? My Friends we alone.


For every girl who is killed, along is killed a Mother,Sister,Wife and for gods sake a life!! However in my view a society which cannot respect the women is a way more in-human society than a society that kills a female infant. Its better she doesn’t come to this world where she is pounded upon by all men with only one intention! How Disgraceful!!


In a world such as ours where humanity stands on a precarious hold, a world where" whats true is untrue and whats untrue is true! ",don't we realize that this world is but united by women and divided by them too. Are we not scared of their potentials? Why do we chase them then? Why do we agitate and swirl a turmoil in them, one day when they realize that its too much for them to bear they shall rise and finish it all. And that my friends and dear readers shall be the dooms day. Even the history stands a proof the wrath of Kali needed the Lord of the Lords Shiva to fall on her feet. Then who on earth are we?


What are we waiting for women to fight back? If yes please wake up... Woman is Kali!, Women is Durga!, and we should not mess with them! These cases of rapes and molestation are but omens of the worse! Stop them and save us!!



Thanks!