Friday, November 4, 2011

Above Average : Some lines

I did complete this book : "Above average By Amitabha Bagchi " . Here are some lines which i noted down while reading it. My thoughts on the same have been added after each line.

Here it goes....

1: " Some lied brazenly like Kartik , others went about it more subtly. Some lied just to others, some to themselves as well."

This did remind all moments when i lied to me and tried to fool myself knowing i what i was doing.

2: " The averageness that i was ashamed of showing became my most intimate friend."
The averageness is scary , we try to hide it from outside , but from inside we become friends with averageness.

3: " I pooh-poohed the board exams because everyone in the school did."
This did remind me my class 11th days when everyone was crazy about IIT. Most made into IIT as well. I was fashion to solve

physics questions in maths class and Maths question in physics calss. The path was obviously difficult one , but everyone was walking on it ,together.

4: " We always ate rice for lunch and rotis for dinner . I thought to ask why."

My mom still wonders how i ate just roti in the lunch and just rice in the dinner. Something become so common in homes we notice , but we don't ask the reason.

5: " The evening was reserved for going to people's houses and eating sweets and then waiting at home for people to come to eat your sweets. It was only after this was done that the proceedings turned whole heartedly pyrotechnic. " .

This does remind me the diwali celebration in my family. With all efforts made to appease goddess laxmi.

6: " When abhilasha emerged from the prayer room , platter laden with diyas in hand , wearing a heavy silk sari , it was like a life insurance ad , an Asian paints hoarding come to life. "
I would call this a cute of a line. Its surprisingly happy moment to see b'ful girls in sari.

7: " Shit man, whispered Ghontu. 'Antakshari! These people are such locals!'."
This did remind me all antarakshari sessions , most importantly when we 5-6 friends trying to win the moment against one guy

very good at singing. He used to sing 4-5 lines of the song, we used to revert back with one liners. Not so sophisticated game , but yes, we enjoyed.

8: " Either I was to get into a management school or i was to go abroad to study or I was to take the civil services exam. It was a crossroads where to my mind , the first arrow pointed to money , the second to the pursuit to knowledge and third to power."

I did not understand what problem different career choices can throw until i had to face the same. Its uphill task to choose the correct option without knowing if any choice provided is good enough.

9:" Its a rule one of them said . If you have a partner , the two of you are entitled to play . If you don't , you have no rights . There are carom room rules. "

This brings back to me the sweet memories of carom room and wonderful friends i did made at carom boards. Yes, getting correct partner added to the fun , specially if you did involve in sleding and played scary shots to overpower opponents.

10: " you could stay but you would inevitably become the only one left behind , lonely and dissatisfied."

The side effect of walking on unknown path. One should be prepared to face the loneliness and set backs.

11: " TK's nickname is an abbreviation of tension Kumar,nothing to do with real name . Every batch in every hostel is

supposed to have a tension kumar , it is a designation , rather than a nickname. "

This happens everywhere , tensions-loadus-fratus are in every college , every dept and of course in every college hostel. So many souls depend of them for their academic progress.

12: " why climb a mountain? ...because it is there. " :
challenges do inspire people. I have seen people toiling hard at difficult things with full dedication without thinking about reason for doing the same. Passion they said.

13: " Strongest and the deepest bonds we form in our lives are with people who know how to hurt us in the most devastating ways." :
Ironical line , but very true in most situations.

14: " He was ranked in the bottom ten of the class , a badge he wore with pride. " :
Its not difficult to find guys who did not give a damn to the GPAs.

15: " I had no real passion for anything i studied , although some of it interested me and i was competent at all of it." :

simple confession is hard to make , we do many good things which may not be core area of interest.

16: " For me and my friends , SPICMACAY was an organization you joined if you wanted to meet girls.The common perception was that you went to SPICMACAY concerts for same reason you joined SPICMACAY : for the women. And to make such public display of frustration was not allowed. ".

Days are not far away when i was in this group when talking to girls without any reason was considered derogatory and act of desperation . It was not a secret , everyone wanted nice gals around them , but they refrained from showing it. Once my pen refill has exhausted , to make matters worse , that b'ful asked if i had extra pen . Since that day ,i carried two pens , but that questions never came again i.e " Do you have extra pen ?" .

17: " You don't have to be a doctor or an engineer , just do something you like. I used to worry that i'll never find something that i like . It was scary . "

No other words, its really scary , i don't know what i like.

18:" In the past whenever i wrote something, i would always daydream that i had a girlfriend whom i could read. " :
There can be no other better person to review what you write . For brief period i had this privilege , other times you have to be your editor.

19: " I pass people coming from work. They seem to be serving a sentence. confinement in isolation. "

Its good time pass to see frustrated people head back home from office ?( obviously when you are not one of them )

20: " A half solved crossword torn out of times of India lying on his lap. " :
I had seen this live many times. Many guys had this strange habit of cutting the crossword part from reading room news papers.

21: " There were people to poison you , to push you down . But when were you down there were others who would help you up, who would heal you with touch. " :
It very easy to find good , bad and ugly , and the situation worsens when bad people conceal themselves as good one.

22: " loneliness is a disease whose symptoms grow worse at night."
How many times this happens , its 3 o'clock in the morning and you are unable to sleep.It great to have 3am friends.long live all those 3 am friendships.

23: " I don't even know what i want to do, I just do what everyone else does. "

We are helplessly guided by our surrounding , 'can't help situation' .

24: " We aren't what we do or what we achieve or what we become , we are and we always will be what we want."

Very true , but its so dynamic , we keep on wanting one more thing or the other.