Social Experiments (5 things - Week 85)

So last night I left the following message here in this post..

"
Considering the fact that the last time I had to do a conversation like this was when I found out that I might have won one of dengue-typhoid-jaundice lottery, you can guess my state right now. As I was physically wrecked that day, I can say with some surety that that isn't the case today. Today, if you meet me right now, you'll find me ghosting through things. It's my mental state that's been compromised.

No. I haven't gone full on mental. I'm only insane within the limits of insanity. But the proceedings at office have ensured that I don't have any mojo left to even squeeze out a conversation - something I have been guilty of in the past few weeks. I guess this is a tipping point. Whether I fall over or fall back, we'll know only in the coming weeks. As of today, I haven't made a conscious decision to shift the posting day to Saturday or Sunday, but I guess I won't be left with a choice given my situations.

So, you'll, hopefully, find the full blog here by this time tomorrow. I will leave you with a teaser. The topic is Social Experiments, and the 5 things are - recounting leaving my zip open for a whole day, dimming the lights on the road, keeping the water running from the tap, giving way to others on the road, and one surprise item. The surpriase is not a surprise because I haven't thought about it. I have. Sachii.
"

You can see that the teething process at my new workplace, that I mentioned in our conversation last week, hasn't completely subdued yet. I don't know when it'll be over. Once it's over we'll have found a rhythm - a work life balance if you would let me call it so. That rhythm will help determine how, when and in what quality our future conversations are forged.

Scientists throughout the ages have studied how such rhythms are established. They found that it's not reached in a single cycle. It's a long, tedious and time consuming process. It uses a loop, which with proper feedback, achieves a state that it stays at, until it's disturbed again. For those interested in expanding their intellect in the nuances of the above, I would recommend at least one post graduate degree in advanced control systems, accompanied with significant practical experience in the field.

Even though I just said that the process is highly complicated to be understood by a layman, it was in no way meant to indicate that it's only something that you see in labs and kind. In fact, that process is the way most of the things get worked out in our life. It's something we all use.

Are you confused?? At least a little bit?? Well I have a few handy examples. You don't have to know the direction an electron flows to switch on the light in your room, do you?? You don't have to know the register settings of your Intel processor to use your computer, do you?? You don't have to understand the rules of English grammar to understand what I mean by all of this. Do you??  (o_O)

Similarly, without knowing the theory behind the process, you actually have been using the process all your life. It's something which was hardcoded into us. Like to stick close to your parents when you are little. Like having the propensity to have fears, etc etc.

And using these processes, we create rhythms. And using those rhythms, we create patterns and habits. We have already covered the habits of an individual in an earlier conversation. In today's conversation, we'll look at the habits of a society. In particular, we'll look at the results of a few social experiments that yours truly had carried out.

Shall we begin then??

***

1. Experiment - Open Fly

Procedure - Keep your zip open for an entire day and check how many people bring that to your attention. Before you start moral policing me, let me make it clear that I meant the zip of your bag, not anywhere else. If you thought anywhere else, it was your thought train - not mine. I can't take responsibility.

Result - About 5 people of the many I met that day provided positive responses.

Inference - The pass percentage is very low. It might be because they are too busy in their world of problems, or because they are not that much inclined to make such acute observations in daily life without being instructed to do so. Nothing to cause an alarm though. At least, people are generally quite helpful, if you ask them for help.

2. Experiment - Lights on road

Procedure - While driving at night on the highway, try to make an incoming vehicle dim it's light by alternating yours.

Result - Any positive result depends on your luck. If somebody does dim their light, I recommend you to stop at the nearest lottery booth and take a ticket for the lottery that will be drawn first.

Inference - People are generally selfish.

3. Experiment - Keeping the tap open

Procedure - When you go to use the loo at a public arena, keep the water tap open (if it isn't already). When you come back to wash, check if it is closed or not.

Result - Three out of eight is not good, but not bad either.

Inference - At least some people care about the environment.

4. Experiment - Giving way

Procedure - When you are driving in the city, check how many blocks are formed by people not giving way to others.

Result - Half of the blocks are made from this kind. The other half is made by the private security people minding the road.

Inference - A mix of experiment numbers 1 and 2. People are too resistant to go out of their way to help others. And even if they overcome the resistance, they are too selfish.

5. Experiment - Smile

Procedure - Just smile at random people - in the crowd, at the office, on the road, in the car which almost crushed you onto the divider, etc etc.

Result - Surprisingly, after a blank moment of "why the heck is this guy smiling at me for?", most of the participants in the experiments attempted their own at attempts at smiling - some were feeble efforts, some were a little discomforting.

Inference - There's hope for mankind.

***

Extra Experiment - Evaluate yourself.

Procedure - On any random day, instead of being the evaluating entity, subject yourself as the test specimens to all the experiments given above.

Result - Pending.

Inference - Depending on the result, you are either in the majority or the minority. For a better world, I hope you are in the minority.

***

***

So, that's all for this week then.

Have a great weekend!!

'til next week.

Nothing's here (5 things - Week 85) [Well sort of]

Considering the fact that the last time I had to do a conversation like this was when I found out that I might have won one of dengue-typhoid-jaundice lottery, you can guess my state right now. As I was physically wrecked that day, I can say with some surety that that isn't the case today. Today, if you meet me right now, you'll find me ghosting through things. It's my mental state that's been compromised.

No. I haven't gone full on mental. I'm only insane within the limits of insanity. But the proceedings at office have ensured that I don't have any mojo left to even squeeze out a conversation - something I have been guilty of in the past few weeks. I guess this is a tipping point. Whether I fall over or fall back, we'll know only in the coming weeks. As of today, I haven't made a conscious decision to shift the posting day to Saturday or Sunday, but I guess I won't be left with a choice given my situations.

So, you'll, hopefully, find the full blog here by this time tomorrow. I will leave you with a teaser. The topic is Social Experiments, and the 5 things are - recounting leaving my zip open for a whole day, dimming the lights on the road, keeping the water running from the tap, giving way to others on the road, and one surprise item. The surpriase is not a surprise because I haven't thought about it. I have. Sachii.

***

So, that's all for this week then.

Have a great weekend!!

'til next week.

Salt'n'Pepper (5 things - Week 84)

I didn’t want to admit to this, but yes, it’s true. I’ve been ignoring you. And contrary to my initial prognosis, it’s not the fact that I was recently employed again. After all, the crux of the material here were allegedly written when I was supposed to be at the office I was previously employed at. But then again, I can’t take all the blame away from that fact.

The process of getting re-acclimatized with the rigours of meeting targets and sitting at one place for more hours than recommended is all, but over for me. But that process did show its effects – the number of late conversation here over the past two months has been alarming. Which all lets us on to believe that those days are behind us. I hope so.

Part of the reason those days were upon us was that I took some time off before starting on the blog. I didn’t start as soon as I got home from work. The week before I decided to catch up on the latest CASTLE episode before writing. The week before that I decided to watch the ISL match before writing. And the week before that week was the week I did something I don’t remember now before writing.

So what is the reason for this week? Well, I was busy stuffing my mouth with the culinary offerings of one of the best restaurants in my town. You can’t blame me. After a tiring week, I wanted to enjoy some delicacies and that’s exactly what I did. And in case you want to do the same, here’s my list of the top 5 places to dine at in Thiruvananthapuram as the '5 things' for this week.

***

5. Thattukada, Bakery Junction

Dosa, chutney and vadas are the staple food of most households, and so, you would expect your taste buds to be blunt to their attacks at a local restaurant. But there's this something about the food from a Thattukada, which makes it absolutely delicious. And the one at Bakery Junction serves the best I've tried.

4. That fishy place near RBI

This is for the owners of that restaurant - I'm very sorry, but I fail to recollect the name of your institution. Even though I’ve visited your place only once, showing me that appam and fish curry is  a good combination was eye opening to say the least. And I would be back soon.

3. Annapoorna, East Fort

There are few places you can go to, if you yearn for a purely veg meal. If so, Annapoorna at East Fort is definitely worth a go. When a non vegetarian goes vegan, it's hard for him to satisfy his hunger. But I've never left this restaurant unsatisfied.

2. Zamzam, Palayam

The place I’m going back home from now. This is by far the best place to dine in at in Thiruvananthapuram. Chicken delicacies are their specialties and boy are they special. I had lost count of the days when we, those of this city, would lament Zamzam not opening a branch at Gurgaon.

1. My house

I won’t claim that my Mom is the best cook in the world. Titles like that are determined by constraints that more arbitrary than I would like them to be. But if you are in town, and you want to try out homely food, do drop in. Oh and make sure that you let me know that you are coming at least a day before. Otherwise, you won’t be getting the specials.

***

It's getting late. Tomorrow is another step into the future. I can't wait to arrange my thoughts and get back to you. I guess she's wondering why I haven't written anything, but a few sentences here and there, about her. I write freely about the trivial things happening in my life. This is nothing short of monumental. And I want my first post that's entirely dedicated to her to be worthy of it. And it might not come until the first week of December.

***

So, that's all for this week then.

Have a great weekend!!

'til next week.

Agenda (5 things - Week 83)

Do you want to know something?? Of course, you would. Why else would you digress from your daily routine; stray from your usual pattern; walk down the not-so-less trodden path into this conversation??

Apparently, it has been made known to me that we don't have a clearcut agenda for this weekly conversation. And, as the person who commented claimed, having an agenda is like kissing in public. Some people will accept it, some others will always be against it, but you can be sure as hell that they'll all check in every now and then to see if there are any hot smooches going on.

*note

before proceeding any further, I hereby proclaim that "-ists" is an official word for this conversation. The meaning of "-ists" is to indicate an object, or group of people or a single person, anything, which follows the principles of the word given before it. Refer two paragraphs below for examples.

*end of note

And in this age, we have a lot of agenda-ists portals. Facebook is a prime example. But even though the agenda is same for everyone, the number of agendas on there is as numerous as the number of users on it, maybe more. Every other social networking site is the same.

Then there are the atheists, the theists, the pro-Modis, the anti-Modis, the caste-ists, the fetish-ists, the how-to-do-this-and-that-ists, the we-sell-everything-here-including-our-souls-ists, we-buy-everything-here-including-your-soul-ists, the we-have-so-many-pictures-of-dumb-people-doing-dumb-things-ists, etc etc.

If we had to have a dashed-instead-of-spaced phrase for our own use, it would be we-don't-know-how-you-got-here-but-we-dont-care-,-we-just-want-you-to-have-a-good-time-even-if-it-means-scaring-you-away-with-our-craziness-ists.

So, is it better to have an agenda, or not? It's a little bit of a sore spot to scrape. You can never live your life without an agenda, but your life should never be an agenda.

As we are talking about life, shall I interest you in this little comic on "Life and donuts"?? It's nothing less than mind-blowing. As it is too long, I've put it at the very end of the conversation, so that it loads by the time you reach the end.

Coming back to agendas, I'll never claim that we don't have an agenda here. I write to feel a sense of accomplishment, to get a feeling of having done something for someone. Most of the stuff here are either personal, or highly coloured in the way I see life. It's not a wide angle shot of the valley imbibing all it's beauty, but more like looking at the valley through a crack in the dark room you are in.

And why do I do it?? I need to have an outlet to release all these pent up emotions inside me. Before I started writing regularly, I was regularly playing football. Running hither thither till every last one of us was dead tired was the way for me to unwind after a week of work. But on 26th October, 2012, I made a swift turn on a stationary ball, snapping all three ligaments on my right ankle, leaving the doctor no other option than to advice me to stay away from anything requiring quick physical responses.

*note

Regular readers would notice that this is the umpteenth time I've mentioned this accident. I really wanted to stop being stale like this. It's the reason why I broke my promise and refrained from having an extra conversation last week on its second anniversary. Sachii.

*end of note

Well, for the "5 things" for this week, we'll go through five sporting personalities I could have been, if not for the cruel twist of fate. We shall ignore the fact that I started taking part in any kind of sports, even of the school ground-ish variety, only in my early 20s. Shall we begin then??

***

1. FOOTBALLER

Aaah. How great it would have been to earn a living as a professional footballer?? If I've another life as a human on this planet, it would be to be a professional footballer. And for this life, one of my secret aim is to jump to a career in football commentary. I practice it whenever I play FIFA these days. And no, it didn't start because my brother and myself got bored of the Russian commentary on the cracked version of FIFA we don't have.

2. BASKETBALL-ER??

The thought process in most people's head when they meet me, and we are talking about sports, "You are tall. The basket on a basketball court is vertically challenging. You get points for putting the ball in that basket - the correct basket.", which ends up with them saying, "Heyy.. You must play basketball a lot."

And no, I don't.

3. CRICKETER

This idea actually came from an uncle of mine, who opined that the long fingers on either hands of mine, along with the high point of release of the ball, would have made me an amazing swing bowler. The only reason I used to play cricket was that I didn't have to move a lot most of the time. The reason why I left playing cricket was that they never gave me a chance to bat most of the time.

4. BADMINTON PLAYER

The only claim I've for being a badminton player is three months of playing badminton in the mid 2012s.

5. MARATHON RUNNER

This idea actually came from me as I have run out of other ideas. Do the math for this yourself. I'll give you a hint. Long legs + long distance = lesser number of steps overall.

***

I don't have much of an epilogue to add to this. I just saw in Facebook that one of my better friends when I was in Gurgaon's birthday was today, and I haven't wished him till now. Less than two hours left for the day to be over. I better grab the phone. And I guess, Facebook isn't all that bad. Everything has a silver lining.

I was introduced to interesting souls because they read what I wrote. We connected on a higher level sooner because she loves to read what I write. And the reason I write today is because I tried that swift turn on a football on that cold night. Like I said, everything has a silver lining. It just takes some time to come good.

***

So, that's all for this week then.

Have a great weekend!!

'til next week.

***

LIFE AND DONUTS

LAZY AS ... (5 things - Week 82)

If you remember, I started writing our conversation from last week at 9 pm, finishing it in an hour or so. And it got positive response. And it was put forward to me that the conversations are better when I have little time to play them out in my mind. They are more interesting when it's impromptu. So, I decided to start on this one at 10 pm.

Just kidding, this is me being lazy - as is my right, right?? Let's get down to business then. What is the first thing in the agenda? Yea, right.

Visit this parallel conversation to know the first thing on the agenda. Here, in this conversation, we'll be talking mainly about the second thing on the agenda - about how lazy yours truly really is.

***

1. Mahabharata: Why is Lord Krishna called the master of finesse in the Mahabharat?

Read this wonderful answer on why Lord Krishna might have been the most brilliant person in the Indian epic. Absolutely brilliant interpretation of the story.

2. Why is Blue LED a Nobel Prize deserving deal?

Yes, three physicists got the Nobel Prize this year for making Blue LED. Wonder why? Follow that link.

3. Is it possible that an alien civilization has completely different mathematics than ours?

Just because a question might seem crazy and complex doesn't mean the answer can't be simple and arousing "duh" from our mental vocal cords.

4. What is the craziest story you have heard from SRM University, Chennai (Main Campus)?

In a nutshell, it's "Forced into engineering, but moving on and finding success in another field". But this old wine has some really good "feelgood" punch to it in this new bottle.

5. What are some things that programmers and computer scientists know, but most people don't?

So, who hasn't "Right click-click REFRESH" to make their system clear its memory? Well, here's the truth about it.

***

Now, you know how lazy I can be. So lazy that I skipped the preface, So lazy that I'll most probably be skipping the epilogue. So lazy that I gave links to questions that people with relevant expertise have answered in the interesting site that is www.quora.com. [Do join the site. It's my new Stumble Upon.]

Continuing the rant after that short break to thank the sponsors.

So lazy that I didn't want to hit backspace and correct the title into the correct case - I had left the CAPS lock ON. So lazy that I don't want find a simile to complete the title. But still I write. No matter how little, no matter how irrelevant, no matter how crazy, I write.

She read as he wrote.

To give her something to read, he wrote.

To give him something to write, she read.

It was nothing, but the perfect love story.

***

I know this was crap. This is the sort of literary works that you hide under your coffin. But I had made a pact with you to keep talking to you every week at this time. And between friends, there will always be conversations that you wish you could just forget. This was one of those. I'll make up for this with a good one tomorrow. Promise.

***

So, that's all for now then.

Have a great weekend!!

'til next week.