Awesomeness!

It was going to be graduation time round the bend. Many of us were going to get an ominous looking fancy piece of paper soon. If your college is awesome it will say “Level up: Life Skill AWESOME acquired.” 

But for most of us it will just say our name and some words and a two digit summary of our  worth in the past 4 years staring us shamelessly on the face.

When I was an undergrad I remember looking forward to graduation so much. I thought to myself on a regular basis, “Just get through this. When it’s all done you’ll be able to make money and start your life.” By the time that day actually came, I was so underwhelmed with the whole "college experience" that I stopped regretting why we don't have a convocation 'cause most probably I wouldn’t have even bothered to

show up.

At least real life had started. And I was off to the races… not really. In the last six years I’ve met people who are in their late teens who I consider peers and equals; people who organize groups, throw giant successful events and still have time to kick college’s ass; people who make these crazy life altering decisions and go through so much for the sake of upholding a benevolent idea. I’ve learned a little bit from every single one of you. And I need you to know something else: You’ve changed my life. 

Just watching you do what you do has given me so much excitement about the world. You taught me the value of college outside of class when we were hanging out in the canteen, dancing, fighting over choreography, calling dibs over better rooms and bigger chunks of chicken, when we were royally ignoring people (or each other :p), or making up over a pan (yeah not bowl ;)) of hot or cold maggi, watching movies in the theatre or singing together. You taught when we were sharing a million stuff knowingly or unknowingly, when you were silent or grumbling or shouting or just texting "dinner?", "Canteen. step up 4 trailer. Awesome" "dup?" "chotto meye" (lil girl, in bengali) and so on and so forth.

Each one of us has some shortcomings and some redeeming qualities about us while some are kind or creative or funny or headstrong or whatever (the list of adjectives goes on and on..), some among these multitudes are good at BEING AWESOME.

What is BEING AWESOME, you ask? Well, there no 1

way to answer that but you can always try reading on:

And so I give you the 7 commandments of Being Awesome:

1. Be a dork. (or in another way Embrace who you are.)

A person who confidently accepts that he/she likes to read is always cooler than a person who wears a gothic Tee and gets hammered for the sake of trying to look cool.

2. Say YES to new things.

They take challenges head on.

3. Don’t take criticism personally.

They don't crib or whine about it on Facebook or twitter (in short the social media). They Listen. Process. Learn. Improve. Thank. <like I'm doing now  :p lol>

4. Embrace failure.

For every 1 good idea there are 10 bad ones to pull it back but these people say "F*ck the haters" and go on.

5. Persevere

They never give up without a fight. And they are amaaaaazing fighters (better than the spartans!)

6. Give everyone a chance.

I noticed something interesting about the people I consider to be excellent — they hang out with everyone. They have the oddest friends and they love them all. This gives them access to all sorts of strange worlds and social circles. Best friends come from strange and unexpected places so try not to judge anyone before you get to know them. This has a cool side effect too — when you try to see the positives in other people instead of judging them harshly, the voice that thinks other people are judging YOU harshly tends to shut up.

7. Life starts today.

Above all else, they realize that they’re already the person they hope to become more or less. They stopped waiting ages ago. Waiting for some day to come when someone else gives you a permission slip to live or validate your existence is a sure-fire one-way ticket to S*cksville.

This stuff is easy. Being awesome doesn’t depend on your parents, or the amount of money you have, or what you’re good at. All you need to do is make the decision to behave in a manner that is more awesome. Saying yes is only a little different than saying no.If you can figure out how to stop listening to the voice in your head that is afraid of the unknown and instead say, “F*ck it, from now I’m gonna be awesome,” then you’ll be on your way to kicking ass in no time.

I can actually guarantee that.

So yeah you guys Thanks!

#LiveItUp \m/

Kolkata - The City of Joy (Ya right!)

Very recently on a trip to the city of joy, I found all joy being sucked out of me. I generally am not the one to pick faults and be negative about anything at the drop of a hat but nonetheless I’m very observant. And here are my observations over the 3 days of my visit.

Picture this, I’m on a local bus beside a huge man and hardly have any space to seat myself on the already tiny seat of the bus. I’m waiting and waiting and waiting, along with me everyone else too but there’s no sign of the driver. After an hour or so he appears, betel chewing and looking like a slumdog hero right out of a hindi movie. So the journey begins. There are more stoppages on a half hour stretch than are overs in a T20 match! Super irritating, yeah but wait that’s not all. Passengers keep filling in. There’s no limit to the intake. People are hanging from everywhere. Some are hanging from the rails above and some are hanging on to the person beside them. Nobody knows where hundreds of pairs of feet are placed. For all they care some might be stamping on them while hanging, but of course they don’t care! I thank my lucky stars for having got a seat at least no matter how small. Everyone around me had a hollow expression about them! Most of them were daily passengers returning from their workplaces in different cities to their homes. I wondered how they did it every day of every year for the rest of their lives. While the driver kept driving like he was part of the NFS videogame, everyone clung to their dear lives and prayed that they should be alive by the end of it. After a 4-hour hanging between discomfort and likely-death, I reached my destination (which should have taken only 2 hours)

Next day picture this again I’m on a local train, with lots of office-goers around me. The person sitting in front of me has food stains and dust marks on his shirt. But it doesn’t matter I guess cause he’s just gonna shrug and say “local train” when his boss yells at him or maybe his boss too reaches office on a local bus or train. A man sitting by the window chews betel and spits out of the window. The man sitting in front him protests “ki holo apnar buddhi nei? Apnar pik ta gie oi dorjae darano lok gulor opore podbena? Jokhon janen felar jaega nei tahale khan keno?” (Translation: don’t you have brains? Can’t you see your spit will fly into those people standing at the train door? When you know there’s no way you can spit out here, then why do you chew betel in the first place!). The assailant didn’t say a word but didn’t seem like he would change his ways either.

On the other end of the aisle, there was a teacher checking exam papers while sitting on the window side with his earphones stuffed comfortably, maybe listening to Rabindra Sangeet. But I didn’t see a single tick on the poor chap’s paper which was being corrected. All I could see was big big circles and crosses and question marks and sentences underlined in a scary red. Soon I reached my stop and had to climb into another local bus to reach my destination. Didn’t get a seat this time and had to hang like most others. The driver again was in a death race. He was applying brakes like a total freak. Never did he stop his bus at 1 proper bus stop and was flying his machine even before passengers had mounted or departed the bus properly. Apparently he was running late and was behaving like a maniac to escape penalty! Wow!! My shoulder joints are sprained (I hope not permanently!) I admit I’m a short person and reaching for those rails overhead felt like reaching for the stars!! Shouldn’t short people have some kind of facility as well? Poor me!

Finally on the Third day I’m in a taxi. A yellow dilapidated ambassador- the king of roads in the ‘70s but now mere junk! The bihari driver is cribbing in his heavily accented tone, “kya korbo babu, police ar bus driver gulo jeena dubhar kore dieche! Kichu ho jaye bas lathi humko ar humare gadi ko pode!” (Translation: what to say sir, these police and bus drivers have made our living hell. Anything that happens in these roads, irrespective of whose fault it’s only me and my poor taxi that gets the cane!). True to his words I noticed all the buses were blocking the roads. All of them were driving on the right and not one of them let the taxis pass no matter how much they honked! To top all limits of dadagiri one of the bus drivers even stopped in the middle of the main road to pick passengers!!(It wasn’t even a bus stop!) And no police said a word in protest.

Once I reached the famous railway station in Howrah, I was kind of relieved to be getting away from the place when I encountered this: A man urinating on the station building wall and another man coming from the opposite direction interrupting him angrily, “ki babu eita motar jayga?” (Translation: “what sir is this place for urinating?”), the creep scampered away tucking away his pants!

Totally disgusted! It is not a city of joy; rather it is a city of mindless, careless zombies! It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, whether you own a car or bike, because the roads are ruled by buses and no one can escape them. So, one is better of complying. I could only look into their eyes and see emptiness, tiredness and surrender. Kolkata is not for those with weak stomachs. It is for the brave, strong and outspoken.

Disclaimer: This was just an observation and I do not have anything against Kolkata or its people. They are the sweetest! \m/

LOVE J

Yummy Fish Fries and Delicious Mishti Doi

ADITI