The ripple, the tide and the tsunami.

Once, I was taking a helicopter ride from one island to another in the Andamans. It was picturesque, certainly! And I was at awe, just gaping at the beauty of nature. And then suddenly, into the calm ocean, my friend dropped a pebble. It made ripples in the calm, so beautiful in the blue. And at that moment, a thought struck me, I learnt a lesson, a very cherishable one. I call it "The ripple, the tide and the tsunami".

Finding some shoes to fit into...

As a 20 year old who's 75% through with his bachelors, you'd be justified to expect a decent amount of career oriented clarity in me. Well, I request you not to. In fact, I suggest you don't expect that from anyone my age in my position! You're asking me why?? Let me tell you a funny story:

Once upon a time, there was a young boy. He never had worn shoes; till the day came when his eyes suddenly looked down. His head fell and he realized every one of his friends wore shoes. Though there were some tailored shoes, most of them wore a single type of shoe : the slip-on. He asked them where they got the shoes and they said they earned enough to buy themselves shoes. So, our young hero told his parents that he wanted shoes. His parents asked him what type of shoes he wanted. And off the top of his mind, he told them he wanted slip-ons.

Leaky clouds and an improbably happy me!

In the UK, gloomy is gloomy. In Tamil Nadu however, gloomy with the smell of rain is almost as good as nature gets.

After a hot summer afternoon, struggling to manage all the shuttling between my hostel and the Instrumentation and Control Department, I went and sat inside the Control Engineering lab for a (yet another, grueling) lab session! And as I sat there, busily(!!). I was running through my mind on how I would talk to the professor who was planning to penalize me for having low attendance in a course. I was desperate. I was imagining staying back on campus when everyone else left for 70 days during summer! I was feeling angry at myself. A rage was tunneling through my veins but it suddenly stopped dead only for me to realize that there was hardly much that could be done.

“If she says you need to do it again, you need to stay back, Deepak! You need to complete the course. You don’t have a choice” I said to myself. “Pity yourself! But seriously, shame on you!”

I was distraught. I was helpless. The summer looked like a dark time to live in and my life seemed to be full of gloom.

Oh Good God!!

Radical. That's how I see religion. It's not traditional to claim something invisible to be something obvious. It never could have been. Religion has crept in through the ranks of society through the ages and in my opinion it is here to stay. Why?? A few things pop up in my mind as an answer to why god is good for man.

A new lease of life.

They were a cute, young couple. When the two of them started going out, they were just about 17 years old. They had no idea how damaging real relationships can be. They were just two youngsters trying to have fun as they built on to the impulsively planned out future. A bright future ahead of them, supportive parents, gushing young blood and delightfully optimistic minds.

Initially, all the newness of a relationship held their hands through. Everything was a first time. The first date, the first big hug, the first kiss, the first time they said the three words. It seemed like they were on a cloud they would never come down from. Top of the world.