An Incredible Quiz Competition

After a completely boring week of very little work at the office (whereby I was practically reading novels, surfing countless sites and doing small work in between), Friday evening set the tone for a terrific weekend. We had a quiz competition at the office. Well the groundwork was laid on Thursday itself when we had an informal discussion (more like a knowledge sharing session) on a wide range of topics. It was enthralling especially after a whole day’s toil at the office. People left the office in earnest and in slight preparation for the demonic questions to be unleashed on Friday evening.

Was I anxious? Was I earnest for the quiz to begin and may be win it? I am quite sure my answer was “NO” for both these questions and for any other related questionnaire including the quiz. The day (the nine hours of torture) passed on with me spending most of the time by reading “The Testament”. The plot has been very nicely woven by John Grisham with some fabulous narrating techniques and an amazing climax (a most unexpected one). I spent the entire day absorbed in the book, oblivious of my surroundings and with no concern whatsoever for team registration for the quiz. In fact, I had planned to leave the office before the quiz began.

Well, the evening finally arrived and I could not find an escape route for myself. So with no aim to progress beyond the first round, we registered ourselves as “Gajab Pagle” and “Ajab Pagle” (the names were supposed to be honest conclusions about ourselves and not euphemisms). Earlier in the day, I had broken my spectacles (aankhon ka diya) which had me pissed on myself (both for my laxity and for the astronomical sum to be spent on it).

So, the first round began with 20 questions to be answered in a sheet of paper. The questions were being displayed on a TV and unfortunately I had a strain my eyes to the fullest to get a fair view of the question. Questions were bizarre, some easy, for quite a few you could do nothing but stare at other people (who appeared to know the answers; not sure correct answer or not), and for the rest you could take a wild guess. Well, we rode on our luck amidst all the fun whereby the “Gajab Pagle” proclaimed to know all the answers. We struck off some answers, and then wrote a different one, but however rewrote it to the original one. Amidst all the fanfare in our group, we finally submitted our answers, with no hope of progressing beyond this round.

As the answers were announced, we were the happiest faces around. We cheered and at times jeered at the other teams too. Finally, I guess we got the maximum correct answers and to the surprise of everybody passed on to the next round in flying colors. Well, among the four team selected for the final round, we were again being mocked at both by ourselves and by others. There was no hope (at all) of answering the super tough questions in this round. After the first round, we were trailing by five points (our team had scored a duck in this round). In the second round, we scored a bonus point and now languished at the last position as other teams had again scored heavily in this round.

The third round started in earnest with each time wanting to make the best of it. However, nothing exceptional happened to our team as we were able to another five points and now were demoted back to the last place. Unfortunately for us, we got all the tough questions and could never lay our hands on the easy questions (they used to exhaust before reaching us). With no hope of a win, we decided to have a little fun around and make fund of everybody. However, seems destiny had some other plans for our team. We scored a full ten point on a guess (oh the lady luck was sure on our side now). As if that was not enough, we capped our stunning scoring run to score another five points on a passed question. Well, the other teams could only shake their heads in disgust to see us leading the competition now. No other team was able to score any points in this round, which augured well for us. So, we were leading by full ten points after the end of this round.

Hey, the “Gajab Pagle” had surprised the audience and the other contestants to win the Quiz Competition. Hurrah, we jumped in air and there were rounds of “High Five”, handshakes and hugs all around me. The underdogs, the outsiders had stormed the event, surprised one and all. Well, the celebrations which started then finally came to end after an ice-cream treat at Corner House.

Cheers to Kush, Vibhav, other team members and not to mention me!!!!!

Revelation – The darkest fears come true

My sincere apologies to all the readers who had been waiting eagerly, since what seems like eternity for my next blog entry. J Unfortunately, I can’t count even a single person who was even remotely waiting for my next piece of article. As for the title of the blog, I do not wish to surprise or create panic among my well wishers, but rather seek prayers and condolences for the stark revelation made at the end of the blog.

As I sit contemplating what I should be scribbling on this piece of paper, the harsh realization (that has been bothering me since time immemorial) again sets in. These are the darkest fears within me, which have been burying deep into my psyche. Having left the calm and cloistered abode of the unconscious, they have started infiltrating even the conscious and the subconscious; an uncanny resemblance to the emergence of the SIMI activists in Bangalore and the subsequent bomb blasts. Thank the Almighty for my safety and Mother Earth for bearing the burden (me) for all the wasted years. As an afterthought, I realize that my survival was apparent and in no doubt whatsoever as the world has yet to learn a lot from me.

The whole world is crumbling around us, especially the financial state of the world’s economy. The credit crunch troubling banks around the world has created a feeling of hysteria and a terror of an unimagined kind among the people. Going back a year in the past (2007), who would had imagined that a company like Lehmann Brothers would go bankrupt or Merrill Lynch and AIG would need major rescuing from the brink of bankruptcy. Rising prices of all essential items has led to a constantly ascending inflation rate and is another agonizing fear for the common man. The only consolation amidst the high cost of living is the gradually decreasing oil prices, thanks to the credit crunch; a huge irony in itself.

Coming over to the office life, it’s the most boring phase of my life till now. How I wish to get back to the old school days! The fact that the office life is not going to culminate in happiness for years to come causes greater anguish. Well, I am not staffed on any project now and have nothing to do at the office. So, here I am using the free time to write a blog entry. This reminds me of one of my colleague’s remark that – “One who does the work fast, does it with a lot of mistakes”. The jive was aimed at me, but I guess the statement is another display of ignorance and failure on his behalf (trust me; my remark in no way reflects any form of vanity). I have always been amazed and equally admired people who appear busy for nothing. I have several such acquaintances; some at Kgp and few over here too. I have never been able to understand the tradeoff between efficiency (i.e. completion of tasks well before deadline) and putting in the requisite maximum number of hours for the task or being busy for a specified period of time even when the job can be completed well earlier than the defined completion date.

The India Australia cricket match is very delicately poised. Having watched the last two days of the match in the stadium, I surely miss the action sitting over here at my desk in the office. Let the rain gods play havoc in Bangalore today so that the Indian batsmen do not face the ominous task of saving the test match on a pitch which might very well start behaving like a demon about to be awakened by the Aussie bowlers.

Coming over the revelation that I was talking about, it might very well have gotten obvious. My mind flirts with so many different thoughts at the same time with many of those (ideas which occurred in less than a minute) not even listed over here that I fail to find any coherency in my thoughts or between what is going on in my head and what comes out of my mouth (definitely not talking of any kind of saliva, like the professor in “Main Hoon Na”). Ideas come and vanish within fleeting nanoseconds. Memory lapses within picoseconds; I am not even able to remember the things done in the last five minutes. I am also reeling with full time short term memory loss which may very soon propagate to a long term memory loss. So, let no one be amazed or disgruntled at me if I fail to recognize or respond to them in the near future.

Reflecting back to the cause of the above problem, I firmly believe that the root of the cause does not lie in my job type or my IIT education or an accident or any other obvious thoughts that come to the mind. The brain has got saturated and the saturation level is gradually decreasing, thus making me more like a leper. Though, I was always afraid that this situation was bound to attack me; but the gravity and seriousness of the attack has only now become crystal clear. Let no one shed a tear for me or put in any words of sympathy.

I declare myself officially “DEMENTIC” and “SCHIZOPHRENIC”.

Ehsaas

Humko kuch karna tha bayaan …
Intezaar … Beintehaah Intezaar …
Isi ki kashti mein sawar …
Waqt kat taa gaya …
Kinaare ki khoj mein …
Saalo Saal beet gaye …
Saal … Dar Saal …
Ek naya Saal aaya …
Khamoshi bhara toofaan laya …
Is toofaan mein hum kahin kho gaye …
Toofaan ko ek jhoka samajh kar so gaye …
Jab aankh khuli to ehsaas hua …
Ki woh ehsaas kahin kho gaya …
Ehsaas … Tailashe Ehsaas …