Stereotypes

It was my first week at IIT, I was new, full of innocence (relative) and enthusiasm. I had been born and brought up like any other guy, having a very rigid frame of mind towards all social, financial, political issues. Seldom had I come across someone who thought otherwise and If I met, me and my friends would treat him/her like an outcast and ridicule, pain him to the edge of insanity.

Catching a whiff of the fact that my parents have left for home, seniors immediately started calling me for ‘ragging’. It was at this point of time that my world of beliefs turned upside down, perhaps for good. Highlights of some:

1)

Senior 1: “So do you have a girl friend?”

Now, knowing that these guys are perennially deprived of girls and were outright rejected by most, I said,

“No, I just like a girl, its like a crush.”

Senior 1: “So what do you like in her?”

I silently waited for a better (more answerable) question to come by, but our hero Senior 2 interrupted.

Senior 2: “Why do you like girls ONLY da?”

I had a sudden urge to go back in time and answer the previous question instead.

Me: “Well, because one day I will marry a girl only.”

Senior 1: “Why will you do that?”

Me: “I am supposed to. Everyone else does.” Gathering courage I added, “Won’t you?”

Senior 1,2, all in chorus: “DONT BACK ANSWER. Will you do something just becuase everyone does?”

Me: “Dunno.”

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Another similar one, which took place towards the end of my first year.

2)

Senior X: “Do you think gay marriages should be legalised?”

Me: “No.”

Senior X: “Why?”

Me: “I stay in guys’ hostel, I don’t want to live in a constant fear of some guy coming and raping me or sniffing my undies.”

Senior X: “What da? Why will a gay generally come and do something to you da?”. After a pause he added, ” Gays can be normal da…”

True. it had never struck me though. This conversation left me wondering.  I pondered on my perception of the world. Why was it that everything had be in a predefined way? Perhaps it were parents. But no, I shudder to even think of a moment when I am discussing these things with them. So who was it? Perhaps it was the TV, or the uncle and aunty walking together on street, or movies making fun of eunuchs, gays and queens, or maybe it was the presence of all together. And so it had begun, it had sown into me the seeds of inquisivity against Stereotype. (Please note that it did not force me to change my sexuality and I am very much straight.)

The consequences of “stereotypical” behavior go way beyond gender preferences. Anything out of place is deemed funny or lowly. When a girl tells her parents that she wants to become a pilot, her parents aren’t willing. Maybe they think that it isn’t respectable for a girl.  When a boy returns after studying abroad, he is treated as a hero. But when a girl studies abroad, people may doubt her character. If someone gets more marks than me, I would rather call him ‘ MAGGU” than to accept my inferiority but if someone gets lesser marks, I would call him a dumbass.  If a guy gets into IIT, he has to be nothing less than newton himself. And to me and my friends, nothing seems funnier than a guys girlfriend being taller than him!

We need to overlook these prejudices. We should respect people for who they are and respect their choices. We should encourage creativity so long as it does not become destructive. Most importantly our opinions and decisions should not be biased towards the conventional wisdom.  For what is the use of the freedom of expression unless you can really be what you want?

Last IV years of life

Note : “This is a work of fiction (not mine), all characters, their intentions and personalities are poorly imitated and portrayed. It contains laxative thoughts and should not be read by anyone.”

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.” I came to know of this when I saw a movie called ‘The Happening’ (don’t watch it coz trust me there is nothing ‘Happening’ in that movie). And after a few days, I found out (which kind of freaked me out) that indeed bees had been vanishing from the United States! Such times bring best out of some people and worst out of the others.

So I rushed to people to get their reactions on the topic, here is what I found out.

At the national level -
Beurocrats  :  ” Give free electricity to all farmers “
Farmers :  “Damn it, just make SUICIDE legal.”
Sonya    :   ” Ill be the next PM.”
HRD min. : “All colleges to be named as IITs.”
“Special 5% reservation for open category.”

In the insti -
Students               : “We want Net for 24 hrs”
Din                        :  “Cut net for whole day, let them study for last 4 years.”
Diro (Impressed) :  “Din’s tenure extended for 4 more years.”

In my hostel -
Dum Dum (A guy paranoid about AIDS) : “Kill all HIV + people.”
HIV+ ppl : “Infect everyone with HIV for equality, coz as such everyone will die.”

Diqbal (no offence to him) : ” All should convert to Islam-ism.”

Samadhi ( a self proclaimed gay) : “I want to sniff all remaining guys’ undies!”
JOJO ( while listening to Mozart) : “42″
Anniyan : “The end of the world will be caused by a VORTEX.”
PS :
1) Abiraam (psycho) couldn’t be contacted coz he had already committed suicide.
2) I started writing at night, so I couldn’t see Bhanu

3) Bajji had shifted his room to library.
4) HB couldn’t be contacted as he was already scribbling in his blog

Chemistry and life, love etc.

Chemistry is an integrated part of JEE preparation (if you want to clear ie) or any other syllabus for that matter. So while preparing for this dreaded subject, I used to find many ways to remember it easily. Later as I found out, it bears a striking resemblance with real life!
Here is what I observed :

What it is in Organic chemistry	What it means in real life
1) Opposites attract; likes repel	Well, this made sense to me until I found about gayism. But later even gayism made sense when I read about ‘short range’ nuclear forces. J
2) Force of attraction is inversely proportional to distance squared	The closer you are to a person (mentally or physically), more you like him/her (or both). One way of looking at it is, you would not have been close unless you liked the person. So be it. For me its one more formula learnt.
3) Polar bonds are unstable in a Protic solvent and may dissociate.	A strained (polar) relationship is easily broken by an external factor, like Extra marital affair (solvent molecule!)
4) Intra molecular reactions faster than intermolecular ones.	The nearer a person stays to you, more are the chances of your fling.
5) Neighbouring Group Participation	Just an extreme case of No. 4.
6) Free radicals are highly reactive species	Well, obviously you must have met people putting N fight to pair up.