While eating my lunch today i realized how lucky I am . I do not have to worry about where my next meal will come from . I have numerous options in terms of what to eat. The food i get is hygienic (hopefully) and nutritious ( subject to the amount of adulteration of course).
Stumbled upon this video showing a cute lady demonstrating how to cook meals as she did during the great depression . I see people around me engrossed in the pursuit of worldly gains. Their happiness , contentment and just about everything else depends on how they can satiate their desires. I confess that i also belong to this category , howsoever i might try to remain detached . And it is fine since everyone is free to do what he thinks would give him/her happiness. Human race has progressed due to the ambition of restless souls.
But I feel that people forget the value of having this meal everyday. It is something that they are so used to that they don't think about it . Think of the millions across the world who sleep with an empty stomach and eyes brimming with tears.
We might feel that we are different than those not as lucky as us but are we really?
A street dweller sleeps with the hope that he will get his meal next day. A CEO sleeps with the hope that he will get his BMW soon.
Just finished watching a movie titled "A serious man " by the coen brothers. It is based on the Book of Job , where God tests Job's faith on him . There can be two interpretation , as i see it, of the movie.
The first one being that everything just happens. There is no deeper meaning, no rationalization . It's something like the fact that earth was created after the big bang because all the conditions happened to be there at the right moment. A slight variation and i would not be writing this.
The second could be ( in line with the actual Job story) that till the point the protagonist remains true to his religion he faces a number of grave problems but none actually materializes. And even if they do, he is in some way able to face them. But the moment he sways from the righteous path , as shown at the end , imminent catastrophic dangers happen.
What i want to ask is the relevance of destiny in our lives. What we are today or will be in the future , is the result of our actions alone or other factors . I know we are taught to work hard and do our best et al. But does the happenings in our lives, incidents around us have a more important role ?
What chance does a child born in abject poverty in one of the forgotten villages of India has ,even if he possess the same brain capacity as that of a nobel prize winning MIT physicist ?
After an exceptionally pathetic operations surprise quiz on Friday , i was greeted by a misty Saturday morning. But soon the mist lifted to give way to a bright and sunny morning. A fitting start to Chaos, the annual national Cultural festival of IIMA.
Rushing to the Hospitality desk of the event i witnessed a huge crowd of students waiting to get their accommodation. This was to continue through the next 2 days with the maximum participation of out station students in a long long time at chaos.
Officially the event had started the previous evening with an exceptionally stimulating performance by Grammy award winner pundit Vishwa mohan Bahtt.
Over the next three days there were hoards of events full of color, music, creativity and fun. The Fashion parade by NIFT Gandhinagar and NID were just amazing. I was totally blown over by their creativity. Same was the case with the choreography performance by IITB and NID . The local teams of IIMA gave a commendable performance considering the short time they had for preparation.
But the best part of the whole event for me was the music. After such a long time i got to head bang to some metal in a live concert. The performances of the various amateur college bands , solo performances and finally by Outro , a delhi based band were awesome. The crowd turnout at the Sonu Nigam concert was tremendous.
There were some brilliant musical and street plays which culminated with the performance of the play scripted by Anuragh Kashyap starring Tom Altar . A number of informal events like pulsar stuntmania and MTV Wassup kept the participants enthralled.
All in all the, 3 chaotic days were among the best days of my time spent so far here at IIMA. Maybe it was due to the events ,the performances , the semblance of feeling that i was in college or just the fact that it was a break from the normal pressurized and competitive life at IIMA.
Whatever it might have been , IIMA makes you come back to your senses soon enough. How ?
Greeting the happily chaotic 1st years by a horrible out of course decision making quiz a day after Chaos ....
