7 Fictional Characters that changed my life! :)

The title says it all. This apens to everyone. Sometimes, fictional characters are more influencing to your life than actual people. It is especially true when you can connect to the situations the character has been in. Well, this is list is about some of the major of my influences. The list goes as below: (this is exactly how I write my exams :))


1. Barney Stinson: For the obvious reasons. He is simply legen-wait for it-dary! Be it the coolness with which he handles problems, the impeccable suiting-up or the mysterious story-line about his job, Barney simply rocks! If you've never come across Barney, go for any episode of How I Met Your Mother. The kind of gentle comedy (yeah! ;)) and mystery behind his work makes him a sort of idol for me :). And of course not to mention The Bro Code - awesome book. I was rolling on the floor laughing when I first read the book. Rock on, Barney!


2. Eric Cartman: Eric Cartman, the douche-bag from South Park, yes! I know, Eric represents everything that is wrong with the world, for academic purposes, this is probably the most influential of all my influences. I have learnt a lot about the world and people especially from this show and especially Cartman. The "Screw you guys, I'm going home."s and "But, Moooom"s definitely make him the best characters in the show. In spite of being a racist and a pretentious douche, he has touched my life and affected my thinking patterns a lot. Hats-off to Trey Parker and Matt Stone for thinking him up! \m/


3. Holden Caulfield: The protagonist of the popular "The Catcher in the Rye", probably my most favorite book. Well, the informal tone of the narration and the beauty with which he talks about the things around him makes him the frankest character in any book, movie or series I have ever seen. The best part - "All I want to be is a catcher in the rye and not just another phony like everyone else" like Holden says to his sister Phoebe. Awesome!


4. Tyler Durden: Brad Pitt at his perfection, but Pitt isn't why Durden is an important influence to me. The stoicism and philosophy Tyler represents what I would like to be. "This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time." is what sticks. I would highly recommend you watch Fight Club for a better understanding. :)


5. Ross Geller: The geek from Friends. No descriptions, but he has affected me quite a bit. And of course, Science Boy! \m/


6. Bruce Wayne: Typical super-hero inspiration, you might say. But then, there is something very different from any other super-hero. Ever realized that Wayne had no super-powers like the other super-heroes?? All Wayne does is making use of science and technology to get his powers. Wayne teaches me that hard-work and innovation can get you accolades which are usually assumed.


7. Severus Snape: Forget the superb revelations of the real role of Snape in the Deathly Hallows, he was my all time favorite right from the first book. His stoic attitude and the best part, keeping secrets is what touches me :).


List out yours too! :)


P.S.: Feels good to have nothing blabbered at the beginning and the end, right? :)

I, Blog.

Hi everyone! I am the blog writing. No, this time, I have decided to take things into my own hands instead of leaving them for Munaf to sort out. He is such a geek and believes that, if a blog is good, it simply finds acceptance without any efforts on the author's part. Well, duh! I have had enough of this goody-two-shoes attitude on his part. Let's face it, publicizing anything is almost as important as making it good. Hope Munaf realizes this soon. And coming to taking things into m own hands, let me tell you what is important for my kind (blogs, of course). First thing is, of course, readership. More we are read, more we enjoy. But, the story doesn't end there (yeah, you wish!). A blog is a very complicated entity, so to say. We have feelings too. When a person rates a post, we feel proud of our author. When someone comments on a post, it is all the more special for us, because we get to get several points of view rather than the monotonous POVs of our author. When someone follows us, it is even more elating, just because then, we know someone cares for all this *replace with word meaning non-sense* (I'm no Munaf, see... :P) our author has to put up.

Now, that's out of the way, I'll give you what you came for. You all read the posts I host (wow, I'm a poet and didn't even know it! :P). Did you know that, posting a comment takes just about a minute of your time? Now, don't tell me you don't even have that kind of time, I see Munaf and can surmise how jobless his readers can be. (Munaf's gonna kill me if he sees this, he respects his readers a lot, you know...) Do you know how much a comment can mean to the blog and may be even to the author? A lot! If you really like Munaf's posts, please make sure you comment. I cannot, of course, judge Munaf's writings, but then, the few comments he gets tell me he's not so abysmal as I thought. You know, a minute of writing a comment can encourage the author to write better and thus, it makes me look good too :P. Then, following. I, of all people (or should I say things? :P) know how many readers I get in any given period of time and most of them are returning (yeah, I know that too.), If you are so interested in my author's writings, why don't you just follow me. If you use Google Reader, new posts I host will be updated almost immediately and anyway, shouldn't you be showing your support for Mr. Shaik when he, I'm sure, he gives you a couple of laughs at the very least :). Now, all you need to either follow or comment is a Google account and in this day and age, I'm sure no one is without one. It's just a matter of a couple of minutes and makes me look good and consequently my author, better.

Please comment and let me live. Also follow to make me look good :). And of course, try to write a blog yourself. We are still a rare race, make us ubiquitous :D. And keep enjoying my author's posts!!

Deify (or may be not)

My second post in two days. Looks like I'm on a roll, but then, let me not get over myself here. How I am doing this is, I have a folder on my system with text files named after each topic I want to write about. This list is being accumulated from about a couple of months (ever since I got this machine..) and I haven't worked on them until yesterday. Alright, none of your business, right? I know. but then, it feels good to be sharing these things with friends. :) Well, I named this text file deify and hope the title stays the same at the end too. Just a declaration :). Anyway, I am enjoying the first few days of my holidays very much, what with nothing and yet, everything to do. Why, just today, I enquired for a course to learn Spanish and was astounded by the exorbitant price and decided to download one instead. Typical Indian, you might say, but then, lack of resources and the exorbitant price makes me do that, Fine, jokes apart, what is this post about? Well, this is something we see virtually everyday. I'll barge into the post, because one of my friends (and avid reader of this blog) doesn't apparently like my dragging on the first few paragraphs of each post.

You might have seen people praising people. That's pretty common, I am not saying praising people is bad. But sometimes, what happens is, people just deify (I don't know a more superlative word for this...) their peers (yes, I forgot to mention this, just peers and I'm gonna make an elaborate argument stating how everyone is a peer. :)). Fine, let me start off with some building statements. Everyone is equal. People who have achieved something have done so just because they have worked hard on it. Having said that, I'd like to play a bit with the borderlines of religion here. Let me state some more things here. God does not play cricket. God has (most probably) better things to do than making you laugh by enacting a bit as your favorite comedian. God does not get a paltry 10 Lakhs per annum package for a job. And there are many more things on those lines. I have seen people (quite many around me) compare people especially peers with God. Let me stop being religious here. Let's face it, Sachin is not God. (A post on my views on games and stuff might be just around the corner) (this is just an example, no offence to you hardcore fans) This has become a common practice, at least I believe, in the recent past. Let me move away from this, you may prefer to call celebs whatever you like, but let me get to my point.

Fine, coming to peers. A guy gets a good score on a test, or may be a fine placement, I dunno why some of us are compelled to deify the person. He may be whatever he/she is, but then let me put some perspective here. Did you ever notice that, by deifying a peer of yours, you are simply creating delusions to yourself that you are a good-for-nothing person? A person may deserve praise, I'm all for it. But do that in a way that is not pretentious and constructive to yourself too. For instance, call the person up, talk to them and congratulate on the achievement. I don't see any reason why a successful person needs to be deified. Get inspired, yes, but there is no reason to deify the person and least of all to tell the person himself/herself. You know, your peer probably got to be good just because he worked hard to get there, so just simply let him be and for once, be selfish. Being a guy who thinks a looooot, I know what kind of effect deifying people has on your own efforts and may be even you levels of confidence. So, simple solution - do not deify. May be revere, may be just respect, but deifying is completely not in the same league. And about everyone being peers, this is not the right place for it. May be another post :). But thing is, I haven;t thought out this whole post a lot, I must be better prepared for future posts :).

Ok, almost sleep-time, I'll leave it here. I think I have made a statement of sorts with this and my previous posts. I have my own thought process and ideas and for all I know, they might be as twisted as a mobius strip. What I actaully want to do using this medium is - urge readers to think about these topics and build their own opinions. I shall never rub my personal thought process on anyone at all. *batting eye-lids* :)

And of course, the disclaimer at the end of the last post applies here too :). By the way, I lost all my ":P"s if you haven't noticed. :)

Nighty Night!!

P.S.: Please give your opinions too in the comments section :)

Chapters

Alright, end of exam season and finally, I am almost an Engineer, just waiting for the results and my convocation. Actually, I've decided not to make any promises about the frequency of posts coming about this season of the blog (yeah, right, I like to call them seasons :P). Anyway, let me start off by giving out my current state of mind. Well, people around me are all acting so mature and grown-up, no one (except a couple of them...) is fooling around, people are going around Visa offices and keeping their fingers crossed about their MBA entrance results (not you mama, you're handling it very well... :P) and here I am, just sitting and planning on going abroad in he coming Spring. Actually, there is not much planning, it's almost all set. Anyway, at least, I now have the gift of time. Sounds a bit too sanguine, but then, it pays, You know, I now have new and improved (how can something be new and improved? Don't ask me. :P). respect for the Uncertainty Principle. No comments about that, find out and assume things at the link on this blog. Gift of time. A lot of things that can be done and a couple of things that must be done along with the one thing that gave me this break in the first place. Of course, I am now totally enjoying the 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid and loving messing around with people and computers as usual. Well, what is this post about? The age old question. Well, this is a timeless post. It is at the same time about the past, the present and the future, Kind of oxymoron-ic, no? (Pardon my Indian touch to my English, I'm trying to lose it. :P and I shall try to lose the ":P"s too :)) But of course, let me get into the post.

Well, this post is coming mainly from my experiences. Also, the timing for the post is also kinda perfect because I have just completed one of the most important and enjoyable things I ever did. Nothing so mystic though, it is just my Engineering. Come to think of it, it has become so ubiquitous at least in our part of the country. Actually, I don't feel any different after finishing it. No, I just don't have to worry about not caring for important things. I'll be honest, at least here. I will definitely miss those days, but then, it's not like I'm moving to anything less fun than this. No elucidating here, mainly due to FUD regarding TUP (don't even ask!). Anyway, I'd rather have my peers see the change as a positive thing, mainly due to the development each of is most likely about to see in the near future. Most of us are now gonna get paid, for crying out loud! I'm digressing here, looks like the long stint away from writing has done no wonders to my writing skills (much like my project did not to my confidence, but then, that is a whole other story altogether...). Damn, another lengthy paragraph and I have not stated anything that is not obvious! I gotta pull up my gig now.

Let me start with a for-instance. Let us say you have a life decision to make that is certainly going to have you relocate (for want of a better word...) to a new place. Now the question I pose is not such a difficult one, in that, first of all, it is not even a question so much as a matter of opinion. So, in this situation, would you prefer to have a good friend of yours (at least an acquaintance for that matter...) and continue your life, so to say. Or, simply don't even care whether or not anyone you know is at the new place in hopes that, you can start afresh, so to say. Now, I have not been so articulate in the above few lines, but I hope you got what I meant. Now, here cometh my take.

First things first, I metaphor-ize my life as a set of short-stories. One story ends, the other one begins, and of course both stories need not correlate in the least. But, morals and lessons learnt from the precious stories always find use in making decisions in the next story. In simple words, I like to have a fresh beginning each time I take a turn in my life. No, I'm not talking about ditching my old friends and go finding new ones. Old friends are important but then, they have their own _things_. Time for elucidation. See, I make mistakes and have flaws in each stage of my life, like anyone else. Old friends have the incorrigible habit of nagging on these subjects even though the things happened like ages ago. That's just one side of the coin. Old friends aside, it is also important to bury the skeletons you have in your closet, right? (totally figurative, I have no real skeletons in my closet, you can come and check!) A new place for me, is usually a way to clean my slate and start building a new life for myself. I have done this about 4 times now and have loved the way things have turned out. You know, you usually get to live your fantasy. Tell tehm you were Superman and you are golden! :) That does it, huh? Well, of course, that's just me, trying to bury the skeletons in my closet in any possible twisted manner and living out fantasies. Well, doing this has its downsides too. you need to be patient at the start of each story and by the end of the story you have new skeletons in your closet (I'm using this a bit too much). So, after this part of my life I called Engineering, I will most likely start a new story. This is just my preference. If I had no choice, this chapter would continue for a little more time.

Fine, this was probably one of the not-good posts, but you gotta know I've been away from this for quite many days and this is just like a warm up post. Don't stop reading the blog just because of this post!

Write your own stories. And live your fantasies like you want, because life is too long to be a single chapter, better break it up into chapters. :) :) :)