Some Vogon Poetry: August 2006

Discover: The Bike & Biking

Posted by Dev | Filed under Life

It's been two weeks since I have been riding my new bike, Discover from Bajaj. As Chit asked for the pics, I thought that I might bundle a short post along with those, detailing my first experiences of riding in Pune, which is considered the two wheeler capital of India.

When I took admission in Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics, [SIG for short; ] I had realized that I would have to bike everyday to college, since it's about 7.5 K.m. from home, and no India city can boast of such an efficient and comprehensive Transport system like Mumbai.

With this am in mind I had asked my cousin brother to teach me some stuff, coz he is a total petrosexual, and he bikes to his college in Andheri. The first two sessions went exceedingly well, but at the end of the second session, after riding beautifully for two hours, I skidded on a turn, just below my house.

After scraping my skin and injuring my ego, my knee was immobile for almost a fortnight, so practicing more was out of the question. By the time I could flex my leg, it was time to shift to Pune. Thus When I bought the bike, and took delivery on the 31st of July, all I had, was the experience of about 3 hrs, that too on safe roads which were unfrequented by traffic.

So Was I prepared?
No.
Was it stupid and naive?
Definitely.
Was it fun?
Not so Much.
Am I better off because of it?
No doubt about it.

The roads in Pune are terrible, and with the incessant rains, they have literally gone down the drain. You cannot figure out whether you are driving on Gravel or the ruins of a road. And on my everyday route, they are building a flyover. This has slowed down traffic so much that it takes about 25 minutes on a 600m stretch. The portholes on the road are numerous, and the surface would provide excellent practice for future astronauts, wishing to travel on the moon.

It was in conditions like these that I am learning to ride. The thing about learning on your own is that there is no one to tell you where you are going wrong. In fact you do not even know whether you are going wrong or not. Thus you keep on repeating the same things, and wonder why you are not getting the expected results.

For example: My bike is a 125 cc, electric start version. The important point is that you don’t have to go in neutral every time, and kick start it. You can just press the clutch, press a switch, and the engine roars into action. This means theoretically you can start in any gear, though it is not recommended. What happens when you do this is that you have to delicately let go of the clutch and rotate the accelerator at the same time.

As it is, my hands are not very delicate. They are digital, not analog. I can give either full force, or no force; something in between is very difficult, and almost impossible to control. Because of this, the engine used to stall, frequently with a lot of traffic honking behind me. You can imagine how difficult it must have been for me, and how much of a handicap I suffered.

Today, it struck me that I did not suffer from this problem when I was using the kick start, and this solved my dilemma. While using the kick start, I used to start the motion in first gear, which is made for exactly that reason. Using the electric start, I used to try to start moving at a higher gear, and these usually fall when the bike is in motion.

If someone was teaching me, he would have found this fault long back, but learning on my own, I had to figure it out by myself. After this, I truly enjoyed riding for the first time in a fortnight.
It was this moment of self discovery that I truly cherished; I also understood why I love Physics, but still hated it in TY.

It was this self discovery that I was missing in TY. Earlier I could calculate and derive formulae and model situations, and they corresponded to reality. In TY, I could follow the derivations, but they did not relate to an immediate reality for me. I was missing the feeling of figuring out things on my own; the mythical 'Joy of finding things out'.

On this note, let me show you my bike

The Great Divide and Biases

Posted by Dev | Filed under Introspection

There has always been a wall, on the wrong side of which, I often find myself. This wall apparently divides the fun loving people from the serious minded people. I call it apparent, because I do not think that this distinction is a valid one.

Most of you, would have been accused of being serious and sincere [I am not quite sure of what sincere exactly means in this context, though I include it, because I have been accused of being so, more then once], because you love doing things, which the world at large, finds to be boring and useless. But we still do them. Why? Simply, because it is fun.

I read Shakespeare in archaic English, not because it makes me look smart, but because it is so much fun. I love having discussions about philosophy and finding answers to abstruse questions, because it is fun, and I find it enjoyable to do so. I find Physics wonderful and interesting, not boring and useless.

This wall exists for people who do not find these things 'fun'. They would not willingly undertake tasks like these. It is for this reason that they think all those who undertake these 'endeavors' are serious people who are different from the world at large. What hurts even more, is that they assume I am incapable of having fun.

This just goes to show that we are so keen to label people and slot them into certain stereotypes. We would rather believe people who are different to us in certain things, to be different in other things as well. It sure is difficult to know a person, but I bet that you'll find you have plenty in common with any given person. You just choose to notice the differences, focus on them, and use them to define a Person and judge him.

I believe this stems from the old Brain/Heart divide. It is often [and wrongly I might add] assumed that evryone has an emotional side, while only a select few have an intellectual side. This makes it socially acceptable to have 'emotional talents' like singing and dancing, while Intellectual pursiuts are only for the chosen few, as it cannot be apreciated by everyone.

I have often seen that those who the world calls 'serious' do not make this mistake; this is really not surprising. I would not call someone who loves talking, singing and dancing fun loving, because according to me everyone is fun loving, the only difference is the source of their enjoyment. This view I derive not from some intellectual reasoning, but from everyday experience. I know people from both sides of this mythical divide and know that they are not unlike each other. Sure, if given a choice I would spend my time with people who have more things in common with me, but that does not mean I don't mix with the 'other' group.

This quality has given rise to humorous comments from others. Like yesterday, a girl asked my friends, 'why does he hang out and speak to you?’ This question is a loaded one, and has two implied meanings, none of which I agree with. Firstly it implies that my friends are not worth hanging out with and talking to. Secondly it implies that I should not hang out with people who seem different to me. Both of these, as you can imagine, are totally unacceptable and ideas
not worth following.

Only if people did not jump to conclusions, rush to judge people, and be content with their judgment, the world would have been an easier place to live in.

Some Things That Amaze Me

Posted by Dev | Filed under Introspection

It is said that when one spends time along with oneself, it will lead to self realization, about self, about the surroundings and and finally the universe.

Here are some things about me that amaze me: