Midnight

I am 22 years old and i am living with my parents. Apart from it being a clichéd way of telling someone that you are a nerd, its also a way of saying that you are naive. Not only is it against your development but it is also counter productive. I need to find a(ny) job which is available as soon as possible. Life sometimes smacks you in the face. Well you need to realise when it has. And when you do, pick yourself up and get working towards your goals. There is no need to stall when you are hit. But don't speed up and break the traffic lights (which means don't let others get affected, the ones you care the most). Appreciate the fact that you are down, naked, drenched; you have nothing, so you have everything to look forward to. A world ahead which you dream often but have undreamed can be re-dreamt. Build it as huge and beautiful as possible because that is what is going to drive you through the pain and embarrassment. Your undying thirst is going to drive you which when quenched will mean the end of a trek through the desert. Hunger, thirst and nakedness is what every living body  comes down to in their dire hours, so does every mind. Somehow take a deep breath, clean your mind, take perspective, take a leap of faith by believing in yourself; your goodness, your intentions, your ideology, your path, because if your path is grassy (that is healthy and life giving) then it must be the one less travelled by. 

Green eyes

I have often wondered what i would have been had it not been for a couple of my decisions.The olympic possibilities of time travel would then crop into my mind.JK Rowling was only one of the many artists who have very luringly depicted time travel.Brings a smile to your face doesn't it?
What would have happened if i had not woken up when i did on that day,what if i had missed that bus,what if i had not brought all of my certificates,what if...
My experiments with truth by MK Gandhi was one book which has made a psychological impact on my mind despite never reading it.Somehow the thought of experimenting with truth interested me to follow the thought.How naive of me to think the way the mahatma did,not knowing that truth is a weapon of the strong minded not otherwise.

Now or never

Just a couple of minutes before i started writing this, the "Time Travels" title reminded me that a lot of time has passed from the last time i visited my empty blog. However sad and ironic that may sound, but it wont change the fact that time is flying and how. I dont mind it though, because i started my year flying (literally) and i guess nothing is going to change it throughout 2011.

Recently i completed a journey that i had been longing to undertake for a very long time. In the superficial sense of it, it was just a week's holiday to Bangalore, and people may take it just like that. But what i experienced was far  from it. When i was a kid, i used to think of the time when i would be able to compete with my father. Well not as much as competing with him but at least finding out why he is a better man than I. Well finding this was easy. Just give the SSB (Services Selection Board). Right? Well partly. It wasnt a piece of cake. First give the CDS (Common Defence Services) exam whose center is allocated to some distant corner of India, then clear the exam despite of sleeping through half of it (try giving an exam after a night-train-journey), have patience to await the results and a call letter, then get a suitable date for the SSB so that you wont miss a semester exam (or a friend's birthday!) and you have your SSB experience. After all that hype, it had to be now or never.

My SSB center was Bangalore. "Thank god its Bangalore, because of the weather and pubs" was what i said to Nitish when we both read our letters. Later i would realise that not only was i not going to enjoy either the pubs or the weather but also the bed bugs, the food and the water there too. Let me not give the wrong impression. The stay in Bangalore was truly enjoyable inspite of the above mentioned things. 

The first day...

I arrived in the morning and whiled my time away till the reporting time which was at 1500 hrs. The use of 24 hour clock feels apt here! Well little did i know that that was the last time i would consciously be aware of the time because after the first day, time was not allowed to be saddled on my puny wrist. The bus ride gave us little time to discuss anything. Next, everyone was herded into the reception seating area where we were supposed to fill the PIQ (Personal Information Questionnaire) forms. What we did not know was that the rejection process was going to start straight away. This meant that whoever amongst us did not have the required documents were supposed to go back home right then. This was unjust in two ways. Firstly the smallest of deviations from the paper they wanted was a no-no and people didn't have train tickets to go back home!

The PIQ session lasted till 2030 hrs by which time we were ready to drop dead. Not just because we were exhausted and starved but also because of the amount of time we waited doing nothing. Let me add that during my stay the only thing i hated was the 'wait'. The wait for the officers to come, wait for the food to be served, wait for the guy to come out of the loo,wait for beds to be alloted, wait for the interview to start, wait, wait, wait. I guess 'waiting' in line or more correctly having patience is part of joining the armed forces.
After being fed and watered, we were ready to relax. Not yet though (We werent completely relaxed untill day 5). The thought of waking up at 0330 hrs stirred us up, not to forget the bed bugs. Still, most of the 95 slept knowing that tomorrow will be a tough day and that they might have to visit the station again if the screening didn't go well.

Writing about the whole SSB experience at one go won't do justice to it, so i'll walk you through it one day at a time. There is so much to say about each day but i'll end ' Day 1 ' with the thing i learned that day;

        "always carry your original documents and never sleep bare chested on a bug infested bed!"