Procrastination - Beat it or Get Beaten!!

Recently I noticed that working out at the gym and running had become a major part of my everyday routine. I was intrigued for 2 reasons. One, I was never big on gym or running as I felt that I got enough exercise from sports (Cricket, Badminton, Basketball etc.) Secondly, I was never motivated enough to take time off and run for 30 minutes or go through the trouble of lifting 40 pounds of weight. It was just not my thing. Given a choice I’d rather prefer to play or sit at home and watch Seinfeld.

So the reason for this change evaded me for many days. The more I didn’t know why, the more I wanted to know. In the process of writing this blog I asked myself a question, which (in hindsight) provided the answer to my gym puzzle. “Why am I writing this blog at this point in time?” Because I had decided to work on a report this weekend but didn’t want to. Suddenly I knew the answer to my gym obsession.

It is a mechanism that I had developed to avoid/ postpone a more important long-pending extremely monotonous thesis work. The idea is to choose the less important (but more interesting) task over the more important task. So if you actually do plan well, you can utilize the time to reduce the number of tasks on your list (even though low priority) to be completed. Then all you need to do is set a deadline for the more important task and finish it. However from my experience it is easier said than done!!

The language politics of India!!!

I am from Chennai (formerly Madras), a metropolis in south India. The languages I speak are Tamil (My mother tongue) and English (forced on us by the British who ruled us for over 300 years!!!). I completed my schooling and engineering from here. Madras has a lot of engineering colleges and it is not uncommon for students from other states to come here to attend college or grad school. My class in engineering had a few of these students too!!!

In India, different states speak different languages. So these other students in my class obviously didn’t know Tamil, the local language. They had problems communicating with us as most of them were shy to converse in English. So they (these students from the other states) hung out together and we (The Tamil speakers) never interacted well with them and vice-versa. Surprisingly these other students spoke Hindi even thought they were not all from the Hindi speaking BIMARU (Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) belt. One student was from Kerala, two from Andhra and one I think!! from Maharashtra. (Kerala and Andhra are our neighboring states and don’t speak Hindi).

I began to think that Tamilnadu was the only state that didn’t approve of Hindi (which is true to an extent!!. The reasons for which I am not delving into here) and felt that we were secluding ourselves from the rest of the country by not learning the National Language (I had read that in my history textbook!!). So I felt the need to tell my fellow students to learn Hindi as a language that would unite us and give us an identity outside India. At this time I learn't very little Hindi even though I learnt how to read the script.

After my undergraduate education, I came to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in Engineering. I had to give the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL (“Test of English as a Foreign Language”). It is a common requirement for most programs. The reason I mention this is that the students who get admitted to schools in the US are generally good in English and have a decent vocabulary.

While studying at the US, I met some fellow Indians (the term used to refer to them is “desi”) or “desis” who went to the same school as me. In my experience most of the desis I met here assumed that I spoke Hindi by default and would start of with “Arre, tera naam kya hai?” (What is your name?) or “tum kahan say aa raha hai?” (Where are you from?) (Please pardon my grammar!!!). And since I neither spoke Hindi nor understood it well, I would reply in English that I didn’t understand what he/she asked also mentioning that I didn’t understand Hindi.

Typically, there could be two different reactions in this situation (its almost like a pattern of behavior!!!). Either the person would look at you and say “Oh!!! Tum South Indian eh kya??” (Are you a South Indian?) with disdain!!, or he or she would be totally oblivious to what you just said and would continue talking in Hindi. I can understand this attitude if it was India. People don’t speak English unless it is officially required. But in the United States where they attend graduate school this is not the case. From answering in a class, to shopping at the grocery store all of these students speak English. But when it comes to answering a fellow desi they wouldn’t reply unless you spoke in Hindi.

(However, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention about the few nice people who had no signs of the above problem.)

When I enquired what the problem was, all of them would reply “arre yaar!!! Hindi hamara Rastra Baasha” (Hindi is our National language!!). In effect all of them converged to one idea, that you are not patriotic if you didn’t know Hindi.(!!!!???) So I decided to do a little bit of research in this. Even the constitution of India (Article 343 deals with the languages of India) doesn't mention Hindi as the National language. It is one of the many (if I remember right 23) official languages of the republic of India. All this while I believed Hindi to be the national language as wrongly reported by the History textbook!!! When I told these other desi’s that Hindi is NOT the National Language they would totally refute the fact!!!!

The question I ask here is “Is Hindi language the identity card for an Indian?”, “Is language more of an identity to me than me being an Indian at heart and in my thoughts?” I don’t think so. Would it make sense if I told these people to converse in Tamil?

I am not against people learning other languages. In fact I am a proponent for the same. However if I chose not to learn some language, that’s my choice and should be respected. Respect for freedom of right and freedom of speech has more Indian-ness to it than just knowing Hindi!!

Dad's Dollars!!!

Here comes the halo again!!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Counting the number of shorts... that went past me disturbing my thoughts
I started reading a chapter on stroke... while the blonde who strolled past me left my heart broke
I heard a distant voice, that of my dad... whom I often drove mad
for the next few minutes I got back and read... still thinking of the babe clad in red
not ME!! not ME!! I thought... but my hormones that ought to be taught
not long after, my dad caught me dreaming... and as usual started screaming
I asked him.. 'Do you ever understand? ... that your wish has always been my command?'
he gleamed at me with an understanding smile... that's when I decided to use my guile
Yet unsure whether to ride my luck... I explained to him the crux... was that I needed 500 bucks

--Vijayasarathy--

If you smell...!!!!

The Rock quickly rose to fame and rightfully claimed the title as the most electrifying person in sports entertainment. I remember the time when I bunked school to watch The Rock in action!! Since then my craze for WWE has died out. But here are some videos of "The Brahma Bull", "The Great One", "The Rock" rolling his mouth!


The Rock With La Bamba - video powered by Metacafe

The Rock sings to Happy Birthday!!!

My Little Office

This is my first blog here!! I'm pretty excited about getting my own e-space!!
Just to get started... Here's a little poem I wrote (no!! no!! I'm not a poet!!.. Once in a while I get this halo around my head and then these words pour out!!)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a saturday afternoon... I assured myself that I would wake up soon...

I was killing time, I knew for sure... but drenched in an attitude, 'why do I care?'

I lay on my bed, eternally bored... not minding a beautiful sun that soared...

hours seemed like light years... thanks to the previous nights beers...

then I decided to move my ass... crooning like the next-door lass...

I stepped outside the door... n jumped on my bicycle and rode...

I saw trees swiftly move behind... while running over the go lights, never mind...

n then came the familiar place... where day after day I hide my face...

as much as I hate to say... in there my future lays... in a bit of disarray....

I got down from the bike so slowly... n dragged myself across the alley..

silently I hoped to succeed... and vowed to work for it indeed...

that's the place I call 'my little office', where anything I do would never ever suffice!

-Vijayasarathy-