Been a very long time since I blogged.

Can’t say that I was busy, but yeah, I didn’t find time for this. For the past 5 months, I guess I was actually taking in other people’s words and worries for a change, instead of rattling about my own.

The harder you listen, the sharper you grow,

As long as its not outside my door                                                                                                 

Been going for Keyboard classes and I am surprised to find that I like them! I mean, I usually drop out of classes as fast as I can but this time, I just feel like staying on. My classmates are all younger than me and maybe thats one of the reasons. And one fellow in particular, aged not more than 4, is too cute for words!

My college life is at an all time low level and am suffering because of that. All major subjects and am not interested even in one!

But my literary world has been good and keeps me happy at all times. Started on Wodehouse on bro’s compulsion and found his works to be marvellous. Jeeves and Wooster make a pair and Psmith (though I read only three of his) never failed to amuse me. Wanna read all of Wodehouse’s works that bro has.

Got to buy IBSAT and CAT forms this week Hope I’ll get through them with flying colors. Okay, that was a bit too much, sorry :p

That is all for now, will try blogging once every week.

  My results for the third semester will never be published I suppose Of course that’s good in a way, but at least if it is out, a lot of unwanted tension could be avoided. Right from 28^th January, the sky is thick with rumors, and the latest news, oops sorry, rumor is that, since they had had some problem with the stupid OMR sheets, it would be out only before Feb 15^th… At least they can give some information regarding the results in Madras University’s site (www.unom.ac.in)

These words catch our attention for at least a few moments (usually found on compound walls and on those small posters stuck in buses). There is no denying this fact. I notice them too, but I never had any idea of what they do there, most importantly, what they want you to do.

Recently, one of my friends invited me for a “seminar on career planning”. Yeah, those were the exact words. And as I had already listened to one of them the previous week and had found it highly interesting, I politely excused myself by saying I wasn’t interested. But as all my old friends, whom I hadn’t met for several long years (not really, just 8 years), had agreed to come, I was asked to come too, for the sake of meeting them. I was promised that we didn’t even have to get inside the “seminar” hall; we could just use it as a meeting place. So, on a lovely Sunday, which I would otherwise have spent in reading a novel, I found myself in front of that hall. I met the others, and was forced to register my name and go inside.

Once inside, we were asked to maintain silence and switch off our mobiles. And so, I waited for some guy to start ranting about IT sector and all that. But to my surprise (and most of the others’, I later learnt that they were tricked into coming too) six to seven people in complete formal attires started talking about some product of their company (which came up to some seven thousand rupees).

All this was okay, but then, they started about this “Multilevel Marketing”. After buying their product, we have to bring people to the same hall, convince them to buy the product and at least two should. We get some money for that, and then, the people who were doomed to buy their product because of us, bring two others and this goes on. Each time someone joins our team, we get money.    

They showed proof for their genuineness through the checks some of them had obtained. And by this time, almost all of us were brainwashed (completely or partially). Next started their session on teaching, “how to get money from the parents for this product”. “Lie that you have to pay your semester fee”, said one. “Take without their knowledge”, said another. “Never tell them the true reason”, was their advice.     

At last it was over, we were permitted to go. I said I had to think about it and somehow got myself away from that place. When my friend (who had lied that it was a “career planning seminar”) asked again whether I would buy it, I almost said yes, but on second thoughts, refused.      

I thank my stars that I had the sense to refuse, because, not long after this happened, I read about these people who trick others into joining these multilevel marketing businesses and was horrified to know that they were all tricksters. I don’t really know about the genuineness of some of these companies, but don’t you think it is better to just stay away from such “money-making ideas”?

Almost always, certain things tend to happen when we dont want them to. For example, you will be very seriously talking to your friend on your mobile about important things like, what she was upto at that instant of time or whether she had her lunch or whether she was still hanging out with her latest boyfriend or whether she had ditched him. And exactly at that time, the landline rings. What will a sensible person do? Ignore it, but of course its optimism which turns into foolishness, to expect sensible outcomes here. We will answer the call, only to know that its a wrong number!

Thats just the way things are, i was told, when i asked about this to my friend (By the way, she was in a very dejected mood when i asked her about it, so the answer i guess). I had this collection of extracts and essays called ‘Words of Wisdom’ as my English text for my first year, and one of those extracts was ‘On Not Answering The Telephone’, by William Plomer. It was a very funny one in which he explains why he says ‘No’ to a telephone, and how he lives without it. The way he spoke about it, had me in a kind of anti-telephonic mood for a few days, and atlast I decided that I would try life without my mobile.

Making this decision was pretty easy of course, but living it? I decided to try. My point is, there are so many people without a mobile, and they look perfectly happy without having to worry whether their mobile model looks better then their friend’s, is their bluetooth working fine, and so on and so forth. So with this feeble fact in my mind, i thought i will bid farewell to my mobile at the end of this month, when my validity would expire, that is, May 30th.

But i guess, my fate and the Airtel fellows, had some other plans for me. Now, rewinding back to a few days, i had a message from Airtel, asking me whether i would like to choose an hello tune for my callers, and if yes, i should reply as Music and they would call me and let me select a song, whereupon my call charges would be saved. Now, if i had been sensible, i should have ignored that message, but living in Chennai and of course, being a citizen of India, i wanted to try it out not only because of the charge saving thing but also because i wanted to see whether they really will call back and immediately, found out that they did. I chose a song, quite a good one of course, and Rs.30 was charged for it with an additional Rs.15 rent for each month.

I quite forgot about this, as of course, i dont call myself and yesterday (13th May) i had a message from Airtel saying that my monthly rental charge for the hello tune has been taken. I checked my balance and found that it was an all time low, a negative value! I neither could call nor message anyone, and if i start talking about the disadvantages of Prepaid connection, that would go on and on forever. So, anyway, i decided that the time was ripe for the pre-planned mobile-ditching operation.

I topped up, and after the negative balance became positive, i was left with Rs.4.88, i informed all my friends about my decision and then, to use up that balance, called my friend. I not only wasted my balance, i wasted my time too. But then, certain things are destined to happen and we, mere humans, cant stop them.

And so, i said Goodbye to my faithful companion, took out the sim, and there started my experiment of a “Life without a cell phone”. The only bad thing about this is that, i had to give up my brand new LG mobile to my mom. Well, as i said, things not only tend to happen when we dont want them to, but they dont happen the way we want them to either.