Onwards to a New Land!

Hey Guys!
This is more of an announcement that a blogpost. After some issues I had with blogger, I've migrated this blog to Wordpress.com.

Here is the link to the same: http://myuntamedmind.wordpress.com

It's the exact same blog, with all the posts. I hope to see you all there :)

Cheers!
Srdp!

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Letting them wander...

*Startled, raises head from the droop it was in; squints at the brightness; breathes in; smiles*

The human brain. A wonderful masterpiece by The Creator, indeed. It observes. It learns. It stores.

Whats inside!?

The human mind. Some say its part of the brain. I don't think so. Unlike the brain, it analyses. It invokes emotions. And then perhaps, give the analysis to the brain to store!

We are happy, when our mind analyses and gives a positive message as an output. We are unhappy, when it instead, gives a negative one. The thing is, in both cases we are quite clear what we are feeling.
Now, what if the mind gets stuck. What is there isn't any output? Well, now imagine that the brain is still doing its work.  Its still observing and learning. And storing without an analysis.

What you have now, is an overload of information and no idea what it means. In other words, you are Confused. You are unclear what you feel at that time. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you'll just be clogged, dazed. Your mind is 'preoccupied'. And really, that feeling is really, really frustrating. Your mind knows it is in such a mess, yet its helpless.
During such times, anything you do, is, in all probabilities, gonna fail. If not fail, the outcome would really ordinary at best. Which just adds on to that frustration.

There isn't ANY human in the world, who wouldn't have felt this. And getting rid of it is not really a piece-of-cake kind of issue. The most common thing we all try to do is distract ourselves. We try to do things we generally like. And what we mostly end up doing is, get more confused. Why you ask? My reply would be simple: You are still doing things. Your brain is still storing more stuff and your mind is still stuck!!

Much like modern computers, our mind also needs to be defragmented. And the best way, I feel it can be done (which is the way I do it ! :D ), is just hit the Pause button. A time to introspect. And more often that not, staring at an empty, open space just speeds up the process!

Calm. Clarity. Confidence.

How? The stuck mind, is a mess of unconnected facts and emotions. Its stuffed over its limits and we have this illusion of being cramped and stuffy ourselves, because of this. Now, imagine a scenic view. Wide open space and everything in perfect order, The order of Nature. Our mind, loves to imitate. It sees order, it would try to be ordered it self. It sees space. It would try to make space as well! And since we are just taking in a vast, never-ending picture, the brain does no much work. And the mind, well it gets all the time it needs to sort everything out! It unclogs itself and it untangles that mess of facts and emotions! It lets them all wander in that emptiness and they come back, solid and coherent!

When all that is almost done, you droop your head one last time and then you do the first line of this blogpost! A wave of clarity and enlightenment crashes down on you and the world, is understandable again.

PS: This post was in response to the 'Man Staring at the Sky' picture, posted as part of the Pic Prompts challenge in TE. :)
And, I'd love discussions on this brain-machine analogy that I thought up! :)

Share the Joy, Tweet if you liked it :)

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The Lucky Charm

A few days back, a friend of mine, SL, seemed waay more dejected than he normally becomes. Not that he is always sad. Actually, come to think of it, he never is sad. You know, he is that carefree guy, doesn't take anything to heart, has a smile for any situation and can lighten anyone's mood. But no, today, he was visibly sad.
"SL, What's up? You seem dead!" "Yea doode, I can't believe someone would do this to me! Why did they have to steal it!".
Clearly, I deduced that someone had stolen it from SL. Only that would explain, the sadness.
"Dai, you could have lost it. There's no proof that someone stole it, right?", I said, optimistically.
"No. I'm pretty sure it was stolen. I'm going to so lose my Volleyball match, tomorrow."
The time was 5.17pm. The match was at 9am, the next day. I decided to help him find it. For, I was, his close bosom buddy. "Macha, you don't have to help and all, I mean, if its stolen, its impossible to find...", he whined. "SL, what are friends for? Nanbaen da (Friendship, dude)!  ", I said, with a grin. The hunt for the elusive, begins.

We first began by scouring his room. As expected, that wasn't of any use. SL quickly deduced the reason for our less luck. " Dude, we forgot to use them!" he remarked. I got what he meant. And scam! I scooted to my room and brought, The Dectectives' Hat. 
I asked SL,"When was the last time, you saw it?" "It, as in the hat?" "No da.", I said with a 'Duh!' look. He smiled. That old carefree one. Almost immediately. he became solemn, and replied, "This afternoon, about 3. Right before I slept off." SL and his sleep. It was the most talked about thing amongst us. "I guess, I guess it was stolen, when I was sleeping. I think my roomie didn't lock the door." he continued. "Well, that's obvious...", I thought to myself. SL gave the brilliant idea, of enquiring the neighbours.
IG comes along, all smiles. SL and I give him the lowdown. He smiled again. "I'll tell you all now, You will not find it. You will fail!", he said, with that teasing grin, followed by a chuckle. We were not disheartened. No, cos this was usual! And it was our lucky charm! Friends, they sure have their own ways to bring luck into the mix!
Vader, a wingmate, told us that a creepy guy, hooded and big, was seen lurking the walkways of wing 10, at around 5. "Must be him!", Vader concluded. We agreed. Backtracked to SL's and this time, with the hat, our luck was better. On his cupboard, there was a Pepsi can. This was great. Why? Cos, We drink, coke!
Problem? It was waay to high to reach, even for SL.
In all our previous investigations, like The Case of the Screaming Closet and The Case of the 100-Watt Smile, the hat was an integral part. Now again, it was to be used. Fortunately, our hat was boomerang-able. Gently, yet firmly, I threw it  towards the can, and dutifully, it fell down. On further investigation, (ie. opening removing a note that was inside, and licking the remaining drops of pepsi in it :P),  the note read as follows:

'Hello! I'm thinking you would have noticed the loss by now. I'm CR. And yes, I did take it. And I shall tell you where it is.... Na-ah! Not so fast, U gotta solve a riddle first! Here it is.
"Where is it, you ask? Alas, The last of this, is in me, and you, my dear, are the one before. Yet, it wanders, lagging behind the first of the last. But, dear, in the end, who is first? Seems like, it is, the second in our family... I'm there where it flows, where many live and die. I'm there where its not dry, come and find me, can you?"
Best of luck, SL. And you too Peri, I know your helping. 3:) '
The time was 7.23pm.

"That was weird. Since when did CR start writting riddles", asked SL. Valid question. Now onto solving this riddle. "SL, The second part, 'I'm there where it flows...', it means, water, right?", I ask. "Yes, it seems so. And the first one?", he wonders. A few minutes go by. "YES!", SL exclaims! "Peri, peri, see! 'Last is in me', 'you are the one before', 'first of last', 'second in family'...!", he says, all in one long breath.
It dawned on me, " 'E', 'U', 'L'... second in family ah!?" "Umm, family? maybe...its..." "Alphabets,'B' !", we shrilled! 'BLUE'. "The note, referred to 'Blue Water'. ", SL, jubiliantly said. Bracket, who had just taken a bath, passed by and heard this. "Oh man, you people planning to go to Blue Lake now? Nice, I'll join!", he said. I shot a look at SL. "Blue lake!", I whispered. "Yea Brakky, We're going there now, come!" "Wait wait, let me put on my pants!", Brakky said as he ran to his room, with a towel around his waist. Time was 8.16pm.

We reached the lake in about 15 mins. On the way, we gave the situation to Brakky, and also, we had to spend some time, searching for the hat, which blew away, while riding. We were greeted by the huge 'Beware of Crocodiles' sign. Goosebumps.
When we reached there, Brakky lead the way, and we searched the banks. In vain. On our way back, still walking along the banks, SL noticed something different. A particular part of the forest was unusually, lit up. Lit up by LED light, as pointed out by Brakky. Being the smallest in the group, I was made to go into the forest and check it out. Carefully, managing to reach the light, and saw another short note.

'Congrats. You've made it. I didn't think  you would though. Its here, just look around.'

And sure enough, it was there, in a plastic bag under a rock, that looked very much like CR's face. I picked it up, and ran back to them.(sustaining a scar on my hand... oh well!)
I saw SL, wide-eyed, happy. The SL we all knew. He grabbed the bag, and took out its content. His favourite Orange Underwear. The match would be won, after all! :D


[This was part of a challenge, taken up by fellow bloggers. Topic: To write a post connecting Friends, Underwear, Hat and Blue. And this was my reply to it! ;) ]

Like it, Tweet it :)

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Lemon Revolution!

Hi there!

Hope you all are in the pink, maroon and violet of health! I was pale pink, if you all wanted to know :)

Well, as an Indian, the past month has been tremendous. For mainly 2 reasons:

• Epic World Cup win \m/ and
• Anna Hazare's fast and victory [regd. the Lokpal Bill]

Since I've already talked loads about cricket, in a blog as well as a video, I wanted to blog on the bill today.

Being the patriotic Indian that I am, just like everyone else, I too joined the 'India against Corruption' motion. Why?  Because, even though I (and basically millions of other people I guess) had no idea  about the bill, I did know one thing. Apparently, this ensured a 'Corruption free India'. And I loved the concept!

Few days back ( accurately, 10/4/11), I was interested in knowing what I/we had campaigned for. It was just a matter of time that that feeling comes in any of us! I g-searched quite a bit aand...

The Lowdown:
Well, the most important change, is the establishment of completely independent institutions, namely Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in each state. Point to note, I guess, is that no minister or bureaucrat can influence investigations. They have the powers to initiate any action on its own, without any need of permissions from any other authority.
The selection committee seems to be broad-based. It is said to include members from judicial background, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General, retired Army generals and outgoing members of the Lokpal. [apparently ensures that there is no govt. influence, whatsoever]
The CBI's corruption branch will be merged into the Lokpal, which simply means that the Lokpal now would have powers to  register FIRs, conduct investigations under the Criminal Procedure Code and launch prosecution.
Cases against the accused will be seen within 1 year and the trial will also be completed in the next year, thus ensuring that the corrupt politician/officer is sent to prison by 2 years. [that sounds awesome!! =D]
If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose fine on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.
 __
Yeah, well, that just sounds awesome, right? Feels uber-empowering. It like it is the one-stop, one-shot solution for the rampant corruption in dear ol' India!
Its super that most of India voluntarily rose up to this movement, and has shown spontaneous interest in bringing about a desperate change in the current state of affairs.  But, here's the catch.

• The Lokpal has wide ranging, potentially destructive powers, from dismissing a case outright, to blacklisting a firm. With such unrestrained powers, all we can hope to do, is to appeal to the hearts of the panel members, and hope they are benevolent!
• The selection policy is really screwed up. Since the Lokpal is given such immense power, an important question is, Who will wield this power? As such, there is no way to make this selection, idiot-proof.

• Apart from the people mention in the previous section, Nobel Laureates (Indian origin), last 2 Magsaysay award winners (Indian origin) and Bharat Ratna winners will form part of the Lokpal. The first thing I found weird is, 'Why should Nobel Laureates, who have spent their entire life, outside India, have any say in the Lokpal?' And whats the point in bringing in Bharat Ratna winners? Why not Padmasri awardees then? I found the selection way too random and senseless.

• Lokpal, apparently is to be a deemed police. They are also the court. Thus, they have, seemingly taken the security and judiciary positions as well, reducing the 'burden' on standard courts and police across the country. How can you confer such powers to a group mentioned above? Insane is a mild word to use.
• We are a democratic nation. Infact, India is the World's Largest Democracy. Keeping that in mind, its outrageous that unelected people will take decisions on who will be arrested and who should not.

Well, that's about it. I still, have utmost respect for Anna Hazare and I am NOT saying that he fought for a wrong cause. The Lokpal bill should be amended. It should be made more democratic.
It cannot blatantly seize property, shut down establishments or act as the court. It should, rather, accept complaints from the public, file reports, get evidences, and share it to the general public; the media and us bloggers will surely gobble it up!
If not, an important question would arise:
"Who will guard the guards?"


(*In the title, lemon refers to such a scenario. Looks beautiful outside, but may be sour inside =D )

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In-Spired!

G'day people!
It's a  great day! Mom's back home, and Ive finally managed to write a poem after a huge 9 month hiatus!
This is the first one I'm posting on my blog! Your comments are expected :D

Why do you elude me?
For you I wander, night and day;
Peeking from and sinking into the sea,
Hide and seek, you play with me!
Ages have passed, wanting you
And every second, the mirage grew...

You should know you are ruthless.
With ‘The Sound of Music*’, I find
Fleeting seconds of happiness,
and then you are ‘Gone with the Wind*’!

To spark the flame of my imagination,
To lift me to heights of elation,
To unleash my inner potential,
I need you, in amounts torrential!

Months, it’s been since you touched.
Lo! In one swift golden motion,
Onto my head you've firmly clutched;
Immediately creating in me,
An awesome emotional eruption!

Inspiration. Once it comes, hold on tight! :)

Through my head, to my heart,
Down the veins, turning my blues to red!
This happiness, sweet as apple tart,
Compensates, for all the red I bled!

My world’s spinning again, I smile.
Finally, I breathe fresh and free.
Thanks to all, for being there all the while!
Now I can face the world, gleefully!
And as the mature in me feels empowered,
The kid in me, dances with ecstasy! :)

[*-Both were blockbuster Hollywood classics :D ]

~Sreedeep Sreekanth
   2.12am, 9th April, 2011

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New Era in Indian Cricket.

Hey folks!

Its been a very long time. Have been really busy lately... And my computer still isn't fixed up. Somehow, blogging in someone else's lappy just doesn't feel right.
This isn't a real blog post. As you all must be knowing, India won the ICC World Cup, on home soil; the first time any team has done so, in the process, shattering many, many well established jinxes.
In a previous post, I had written about cricket in India, the sheer intensity it creates. And HA! I predicted the winner too xD

Along with a set of buddies, we watched the match at our college's open air theater. Sheer awesomeness throughout! And we took a video of the post match celebrations.
This post is just to share a video I made. :) Hope you like it!

I'll surely be back soon with a proper blog post!
Till then, revel in the fact that we are now, World Champions \m/
Peace out! \/

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Politico!

Howdy! :)

Been a while I suppose! What with my lappy having power issues and numerous other obstacles, blogging took a back seat.
And fine, I did fall into a lazy patch too :P

Politics. One the few relatively sensitive topics people love to discuss and debate on. Personally, I hate discussions on politics. The discussions are generally about who is better and frankly, unless in those once in a Very Blue Moon (VBM) cases, I don't get how anyone of the (Indian) politicians are better!

One of those VBM cases was when IIT Madras held its elections for various Sec post, both at Insti and Hostel level, about 2 weeks back. That was when I first witnessed, in first person, a full scale election.
And believe me, I was awe-struck at the sheer depth and planning, at just the college level!

Voting - Choosing from different shades of grey.

Coalitions, Spies and the sort are stuff I've just read about in various articles in newspapers. My mind always said, "Newspapers! They exaggerate everything!". Post elections, the mind said, "Sonu, anything is possible in this world!". [Note: Sonu is what I'm called by family. You ppl stick to Sree/Srdp :P]
Intricate webs of wacky alliances, false masks, vehement campaigning and anti-campaigning... We had it all!

The fun part of election is obviously, when we get to question the candidates. This is when the general public literally, verbally 'rapes' the person on the dais! Some helpless candidates almost pee in their pants when struck with an awesome question! :P

In today's politics, the trend is 'To Hell with Manifestos!'. So what is the deciding factor?

Answer: Votebanks. A term we (painfully) read throughout civics without really actually knowing how powerful they really are. Insti election showed me just how powerful they can be. To win an election, all a candidate really has to do is to appease that votebank! IITs have the general tendency to have more Telegu population, more so in Madras. After election, a running joke among us was, if you wanted to win a post here, the only requirement was to say, 'I am from Andhra Pradesh and I speak Telegu.' xD
On a more serious note, winning the elections for someone else, all depended on how they manipulated the majority votes, by making really crafty alliances with other candidates.
Something like,
A-"Ok macha! We'll deal up. I'll put coordship benefits to your people, if you ask them to vote for me"
B-"Hmm, What about the allaince between C and D?"
A- "Light le, Ive sent spies to cup their plans."

[If the language stumps you, that is close to a typical convo in our coll. :D]

Here is the funny thing: If say, the majority is supporting the cause of some fellow and the 'group leader', who may have had sudden diffrences of opinion, suddenly comes and says, "This guy is waste, lets vote for that other guy!". Everyone, without even thinking of batting an eyelid, switches decisions!

So, when all this goes on, a real, deserving candidate, who may as well have the power to bring radical and useful changes in the existing system, is sidelined. All because, he was not from the majority!
I just feel that the very purpose of holding elections is defeated, if such a situation arises.
But then again, Who is the deserving candidate? 

The answer to that, maybe you should read the Blog's subheading. :)

Cheers! :)

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