For the love of philosophy

Its been a long time,I know.......and now I have things I'd like to writeabout lined right up till the medula oblongata.But let's start with the most recent.
I'm new to philosophy.I'm doing a course on "Philosophical problems" this sem which is probably my first brush with really,really serious mind stuff.One of the reasons why I never ventured beyond the realms of normal talk may be my unabashed hatred for pseudo-philosophers.People who think that they sound profound even when they're making statements like "......and in the end good always wins over evil".I've always been shit scared of venturing inadvertently in the path of such trains of thought.Moreover,such people have a habit of ending most of their sermons with a "......so that's my philosophy of life".No wonder I was apprehensive about the dirty word,philosophy i.e.
Thankfully,though,I was convinced to take up this course by a bansuriwala who lives next door to me.(copulation be upon him).And it was then that I discovered how deep the mind can venture.If you come to think of it,there's a lot to be thought about(Of course,like any healthy young man,I normally think of it to come,not the other way round).
For a thinker like me(hahahaa...I kno its frikkin funny,but please resist the temptation to beat the ground while laughing like maniacs,people around u may not think much of it),this was especially a treat.To be actually able to think about stuff like The Cosmological Principle or The Mind body problem or The chinese room argument against materialism rather than just lying for hours thinking about what the f**k did these Aristotle and Plato dudes do that made such a fuss?You're probably thinking I made that last one up,but thats the beauty of it.They actually discuss stuff like this.Just imagine how frikkin cool it would be to shamelessly start propounding your views on the chinks in the chinese room theory or how the Absent qualia and Spectrum inversion thories basically convey the same thing in front of a largely ignorant audience.Just the thought makes me go muhahahahahaha...
On a more serious note though,the course has left me more philosophically flustered than ever.I never had any philosophy of life,as they say,but previously it was because I was blisfully unaware of the term.Now I know what there is to know but still have no idea what to make of it....
Anyway,after having gone through essays by some of the most revered modern philosophers,it is very clear to me that they're equally confused souls.The only person whose philosophy of life and understanding of the human nature is clearer than my piss after drinking a bucket of water is perhaps
Scott Adams.I'll discuss his great philosophical work The Dilbert Principle at length later in this blog,but for now ,I think a quote from the same will suffice,

"Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion."

Darkness imprisoning me

"A cynical bastard"...yea,that was it!That was the most recent accolade I received.more than that,Mandu said I define the phrase.In fact,the way it was said was,"...so-n-so is almost as cynical as Avichal".needless to say,it has got me thinking.Sometimes I think about the things that get me thinking,which means there are a lot of such things.I do think a lot,which is the probably the first sign of a defeatist attitude.
There is no doubt that I'm a pessimist,a perennially depressed soul who is more often than not in the wallowing-in-self-pity mode.but then,there's no cure to it,cos I enjoy sadness.I kno thts sad,but its enjoyable all the same.anyhow,the reason for my latest bout of depression was somewhat more valid than the usual ones.We're fuckin outcasts in our batch,for fuck's sake!that would have been reason enuf to think of devising new ways of comitting suicide for a true doomsayer,or genocide maybe.but then,somehow i know better,thoh i dont know how.
So i show them the finger,but I'm depressed nonetheless,cos I ask myself why??whats the reason for all the bitterness surrounding me?I conclude they're all assholes,which is another reason to be in blue funk.I'm surrounded by assholes!!what did I do to deserve this fate?
Anyway,like I said before,I love it anyway.I've been listening to haunting music,reading fuckin weird literature,and enjoying it like never before....
I've always maintained depression brings out the best in artists.Roger Waters probably authenticises that philosophy like none else.but then,there are others too.Kafka in literature,Edvard Munch in Art.Munch,in fact,became a more cheerful person towards the latter part of his life,but thereby lost the magic in his art.Floyd's lyrics,in the post-Waters era,became more positive in their message,no more gloomy preoccupations with themes of war and madness,a more cheerful outlook with songs like "learning to fly" and "coming back to life".
but it was hardly the Floyd sound ever again.and Kafka,shiiit maaaan!just read "The Metamorphosis" and am still reeling from the blow.
and finally,to end this depressing post,lines from my favorite suicidal lyrics:
Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings,
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down.
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut

Of Jacobians,Fourier space routes and Kaczmarz algorithms

I do manage to sound like a geek,don't I?But trust me,I'm as alien to all this stuff as any normal being.So I was obviously overawed and intimidated when I saw these things included in my course,which had an equally strange name....Computerized Tomography.Fortunately,I came back to my senses in time and dropped it for a course in Philosophical problems.This one isn't easy by any stretch of imagination,but I'd always prefer a tough humanities course over a tough technical one.Now just don't ask what I'm doing in a technical institute...

The cleanest city in the country

Thats what the grapevine(read my bro) told me about Surat.I was pretty eager to see that for myself,and thats partly the reason why I endured that painful train journey described below.Already I was conjuring images in my mind of an Indian city like Singapore.Pretty obviously though,I was disappointed cos I realised later that it takes more than being a clean city to come even remotely close to S'pore.
Surat is a very clean city for sure.But it might not immediately strike you as being one,cos its also an old city.There aren't too many fancy malls and glittering lights.Most of the city consists of old and not-particularly-attractive buildings.However,as you'll notice later,trash mountains,blocked sewer lines and stray animals are conspicuous by their absence.The best thing that I found about the place is the 4 parallel and almost alike bridges over Tapti.Standing over one of these at around 11 in the night,I enjoyed the most pleasant breeze,and still can't believe that it is a regular feature,as my bro told me.The breeze was unusually strong to flow everyday,but he assured me it did.
The place does have its share of multiplex theatres and Pizza parlors too,and I made full and shameless use of those(I love my bro).However,I still got to explore a lot less of the city than I would have liked too,cos my bro works and lives in Hazira,an industrial hub around 25 kms from Surat.When I say industrial hub,I really mean one.The place has industrial setups of Reliance,Essar steels(where my bro works),NTPC, L & T and Kribhco.It is an awe-inspiring sight for a first-time visitor.And the fact that the place still manages to be exceptionally green and is flanked by backwaters on one side definitely helps in increasing its beauty.I reached there at around 7 in the morning and the weather was overcast with a pleasant breeze all over the place.Pretty breathtaking stuff.
I've always liked company townships,and Essar steels was no exception.Personally,I feel its a great place to live in.Add to that the fact that my bro avails the best of facilities:air-conditioned room,T.V.,a fridge that he had stacked full of chocolates,cakes,chips and colas(I love my bro) and a DVD player.Not to mention the movie and Pizza in the evening.After just a day there,it got so that I never wanted to leave the place,definitely not for a sleepy eastern UP town like Allahabad.It was like living my dream.After breakfast I'd accompany my bro to his office,spend an hour or two there-the first day he took me for a conducted tour of the entire steel plant,another awe-inspiring experience-then come back to the room and spend the rest of the afternoon lying on the bed savoring the goodies at my disposal while listening to Pink Floyd.I doubt there are more gratifying experiences in life,other than of course....ahem!
However,the stay was painfully short,cos we had to be back in time for my mom's birthday.and the fact that another 24 hour train journey stared me in the face didn't help matters much.Thankfully,though,this time I had the company of my bro and The Dilbert Principle,quite simply the single most humorous piece of work I've ever come across.Scott Adams is da man!and of course,so is my bro...

What's a train journey to you,David?

Yea I know it's obscure,the title I mean.But this is what comes of being confined to the insides of a train for the better part of the last 10 days and then having watched "Vanilla Sky" recently for the umpteenth time.Anyway,for me it is quite a pain-in-the-ass thing,a train journey I mean.I find it hard to fall asleep,even in an a/c comptt,and I hardly talk to anyone at all.I get bored on my usual 3 hour sojourn from college to home aboard one of Indian Railways' monsters,most often the Rewa Express,so when I had to make a 24-hour journey from Kanpur to Surat to visit my bro,I knew I was in for a hard time.
Firstly,the train in question:Awadh Express.If ever I've hated a giant piece of steel,this has got to be the one.Ever since my days in Agra when I had to board it to reach Kota,it has been tormenting me.It is almost never on time,especially when it starts from our beloved Railway minister's home state,which leads me to wonder why don't they actually change its time to a couple of hours later.For now this is added to the many unsolved mysteries of my short life.So this time too,I was pretty sure I'd have to figure out a way to spend a couple of hours on the platform.And it was only an hour and a half late to begin with,but then,they kept adding 30 minutes after every 30 minutes,until it finally arrived 4 hours late,at 3 in the night.That it was a rainy night on a dirty Kanpur Platform and I was accompanied by one particularly irritating junior of mine did not help matters,obviously.Finally when I got aboard,however,I quickly forgot my troubles,for I was terribly sleepy and soon got lost in the dreamy world of dreams.
As it turned out,the morning that awaited me wasn't going to change my views about train journeys one bit.As I slowly gathered,still sleepy eyed and gulping down tea and coffee like those were going out of fashion,I was surrounded on all sides by IIT JEE aspirants on their way to the coaching hub,Kota accompanied by their parents.I was presumed to be one of the lot,too,until one of them actually asked me,"Where do you study?".This was probably one of the very few times I rued reveling my professional identity to anyone.No sooner did I say IIT Kanpur,they were all upon me,literally.The usual,"Bhaiya,kitne ghante padhna chahiye?" is still okay,but to be the target of such redundant queries as "Bhaiya,assignments regularly karne chahiye kya?" is particularly painful.WTF,man!!even an ass would know you ought to do assignments regularly.However,if they had gone on to ask whether I used to do that or not,they would have caught me in an embarrassing position.Poor souls,actually....they had to find me of all IITians to advise them about preparation techniques!!
Anyway,after the crowd alighted at Kota,I discovered to my great pleasure,that I had the entire compartment to myself.Also,my dear cuz Shalabh had brought me enif food to last upto Surat and back,so I organized myself one sumptuous banquet.Having enjoyed my lunch,dinner and snacks combined,I proceeded to read the many comics(5 Dhruvs,1 Batman,1 Spiderman) I had purchased on Kanpur station.I discovered yet again that I prefer travelling absolutely alone.I hate trying to start conversations with strangers.Obviously I'm not a people's person.
But the comics didn't last half as long as I'd expected them to.So I had to pick up another novel.Now I admit P.G.Wodehouse is hilarious.His brand of humour is exactly what I dig.But you can't read too much of him at one go,if you know what I mean.So soon I got bored of it too.The journey had turned out to be never-ending,exactly as I had feared.How do you spend 24 hours in a train if you can't sleep well.If somebody figures this one out,please please tell me!!

Up next,my eventful but painfully short stay in Surat....

Sin City

This is a review of Sin City, the movie, that I posted on IMDb.

Loud and Nasty,my kinda movie!

The truth is I didn't know nuts about the comics or Frank Miller so when I first heard the name "Sin City",I expected to see lots of naked chicks dancing around the place.Well,guess I was right about that part after all,but in a very different mind blowing kinda way.Man,what a trip!!This has got to be the most stylish movie I've watched since "Kill Bill",and though Tarantino is only a guest director,so to say,he has his name written over all those bloody gory,and oh-so-cool scenes(makes me sound like quite a pervert!).Rodriguez,'course is the epitome of style,and so all those big,mean lugs,and hot-as-hell but meaner-than-the-men chicks deliver an unparalleled style statement.The action scenes,though obviously digitally engineered,are absolutely edge-of-the-seat.Hell,the entire movie is edge-of-the-seat!I read the comics immediately after watching the movie,and now watch the trailers at least 24 times a day,apart from listening to the soundtrack all the time!What hasn't ceased to amaze me is the amazing frame-to-frame transformation of the comic to the movie.All the characters and scenes look exactly the same.A special word for Mickey Rourke and Benicio Del Toro,who brought the characters of Marv and Jackie Boy to life in an unimaginable way.Well,gotta end this here,haven't watched the trailer for almost an hour now!

another blog?

Well I have good reason for that.My previous blog is fast turning into yet another forum for me to discuss music,and I was getting too many "Oh no!Not again!"s.So I've decided to keep it that way,and make a seperate blog for more general issues on which I wish to publish my mostly worthless opinion.