here be all voracious readers.

I stumbled upon this treasure chest, the spoils of which shall be revealed!

It is a collection of writeups on every random thing on the planet and it was compiled by oxford university, aptly titled, 'Very Short Introduction to X' (although 150 pages is not really that short after all)

Anyway, from logic to chaos theory, from fundamentalism to sexuality, from dada and surrealism to human evolution, they have a short introduction to Every friggin topic and its no B.S.

For the entire list, refer to the all and mighty wiki :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Short_Introductions

If you are unable to find a hard copy anywhere (and if you please let me know as well), we have to resort to unscrupulous ways of hunting them online.

so everybody who can visit torrents, go to isohunt.com and search.

If enough people want it, I can upload it as well.

Cheers and keep reading!
Gagan

you know

They mould you, they pamper you,

And you know they don’t give a damn for you.

They stay by your side, spend time with you,

But it’s only a deception, one day they walk right past you.

They hate you, try to gag you,

But never forget to hail whenever they encounter you.

They mimic you, joke about you,

But invariably say “I do respect you”.

They may need you, maybe not,

But what about the person who himself is lost.

They make you happy; make you feel complete,

But they are not the ones you presently need.

They made you love, they made you loathe,

But it’s time you throw them out of the gate.

You trusted them, treated them as friends,

But now it’s time for you to not give a damn.

Ahoy, sailors on board! After that deluge we witnessed with a bit of everything from scathing attacks on matters of urgent concern to some hard hitting speeches, maudlin sentiments and some very pensive and elegiac poetry, its time to move on. Calls for a topic change. So the topic for the week is "The luck of the draw". So, pen down anything that comes to your mind, be it prose or poetry...

So, lets paint a montage out there.

P.S.-Please keep the tips handed out to you as comments in mind.

Happy Secy Speaketh (title lifted from Mr Raina without permission)

Verve Ended (finally) after the never ending rounds of group discussion. There were a few laughs, the odd heartbreak, the odd spelling disaster and lots and lots of people - but we did manage to (the ambition right from the very start) pull off VERVE at a level never seen before.

The first and Second year surprised me,honestly,with their incessant publicity and marketing drives and the huge participation from within PEC - if you can sustain this kind of energy level, I really do see some good things in the future.

Everyone in the third year, I'm grateful for the immense help you guys were, at the cost of sessionals and classes and MBA classes and what not - grateful really is my word for this fest.

Kshitij, Gagan and Angad - this club really is as much yours as it is mine, and each of the events you guys handled was spectacular in its management. It really is a dream come true to have my own year do as much work as me on the two days of VERVE.

Short descriptions of the event, for the few super seniors who like to know :)

The debate had 80 participants almost in the prelims, has to be some kind of PEC record I'm sure.
3 out of the 10 finalists were from PEC, and both the winners from outside college (although Avneet did only just lose it) - yet both the participation and the quality of it from PEC was quite something. A big thank you to everyone who was in that Audi for the rebuttal - the judges were amazed with our response.

The quiz was conducted in a different and rather fun format this time, 70 teams in the prelims (YES!, be suprised), the quizzing strength of PEC really did shine through, completely steamrolled the event inspire of all the competition.

JAM and twist a script were fun, and very well contested.

The GD did drag on a bit(thanks to our guest from Bulls Eye), but had a lot of wisdom hidden away in the numerous rounds.

Verve is done,I hope everyone is as pleased with it as I am, I'm going on a SAASCless Sunday vacation - but lots of big things to come, I assure you.

Purple Hibiscus

I am writing a book review on a book set in Nigerian culture. I am sure very few people would have read this book and i would like to introduce you all to Purple Hibiscus By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This book was long listed for Bookers Prize.

What I like about Purple Hibiscus is that the protagonist Kambili is just like any other teenager whose life is circumscribed within her family wall. She has to deal with her abusive and oppressive father as well as her caring mother, navigating her way through life while trying to follow the rules her father has set for her.She is often confused with the kind of feeling she has for her father.Since her father is a well respected man in the community , she is proud of him .Yet he is so abusive that she cannot help but hate him.

Kambili and her brother Jaja do taste the freedom,when their father leaves them with their aunt,due to the political unrest spreading in Nigeria.Even while they are there ,every time the phone rang,Kambili shook with the fear,fear of her father.

Then suddenly, all around them,Nigeria begins to disintegrate and the same begins to happen in the family. A violent coup causes her aunt to go to America.The unrest shakes the family and aggravates the feeling of violence.Kambili, Jaja and mother learn to live without papa.They have freedom but a questionable one.She begins to realise that the bad part of her father were more of his personality that she may have previously understood.

The title of the book is Purple Hibiscus just to show that, the freedom and happiness Kambili looked for ,are fragile like the flower,as compared to the harsh world.

Midnight Fireworks

I know its way past the deadline of wednesday night and Im really sorry Im late. I really din't know what to write about plus its been a while since i wrote anything but songs (nearly 6 years).Thankfully, I came up with this during a random moment of inspiration last night at around 3. Couldn't post it then coz, well, i was too lazy :P I'd love to read what you'll think about it.

A grand party, his coming of age.
My cute baby brother, his fifth birthday.
The whole street on our terrace that night,
a grand spectacle like Bilbo's eleventy first birthday.

Fun, frolic, games , food and yet more fun,
the part had it all, even gifts and toys.
I watched my parents from the corner of my eye.
Both of them, beaming with joy.

While my parents went to sleep after the long night,
after the huge party and the heavenly food we had.
My baby brother and I tiptoed our way to the terrace,
to count the stars, in an unknown street in Baghdad.

We laid down, huddled together, counting stars,
drenched in sweat after chasing each other around.
Suddenly splendid lights appeared in the sky.
Are they shooting stars or falling meteors ?, I wondered.
And then Kahlid screamed as loud as he could,
"Look Fathima, the beautiful bright lights in the sky,
The 'midnight fireworks' on my birthday night".

Walking around the house where I used to live.
Blood splattered all around, in every nook and corner and debris covering the ground.
An eerie silence, there ain't no sound.

Memories keep flooding my head.
The games in the corridors, chasing my brother before he used to fall with a thud.
The heavenly aroma of Ami's food in the kitchen,
now filled with the saline smell of stale blood.
The fun story times in the night in my parent's bedroom
where now holes complimented the painting adorning the walls.
"Stupid architect, we need more sunlight", dad used to say.
With tears flowing down my face, I said aloud,
"Wouldn't you be pleased now Abba, there ain't no roof now"
The only piece of furniture left intact,
in the most cruel of ironies, is khalid's crib along with his pillow.

I still remember that dreadful day,
left without a family and a home to stay.
Celebrating my baby brother's birthday that night,
the food was heavenly, the atmosphere divine.
And lying down in the terrace with him into the night
when he screamed as loud as he could, his voice to hear, a delight,
"Look Fathima, the beautiful bright lights in the sky,
The 'midnight fireworks' on my birthday night".

Fight Club Review

I’m an avid movie watcher, and I just finished watching fight club (with an enhanced senses, if you get what I mean). Here’s my review for one of the seminal films of the 90’s, and one of my all time favourites:-

In the start, the narrator, Edward Norton’s character is a nameless, boring drone who leads a shallow, meaningless life as just another cog in the great corporate wheel. He spends his time buying sofa-sets and basically indulging in the huge façade that is today’s materialistic and fake society. As he puts it: “We used to read pornography, now it’s the 'Horchow Collection.'”

But he isn’t satisfied with his life. There’s always this nagging feeling, deep-down, a hint of discontent. He becomes an insomniac. With a stroke of luck, he discovers therapy groups, and there, on the pretext of a terminal disease or an addiction, he cries. He cries about the hollowness, and the utter futility of it all.

This daily discharge helps him sleep. Until, that is, chain-smoking, messed-up Marla Singer starts coming to his therapy sessions for a similar purpose. Seeing another ‘tourist’ there bursts the happy he finds bubble of the narrator and insomnia creeps back into his life.

Then he meets Tyler Durdan and he’s drawn, like everyone else, to his magnetic personality. One night, on a whim, Tyler asks the narrator to hit him. He complies, and thus begins fight club. Fight club transformed into a nocturnal activity in a basement where semi-naked men expressed themselves in a purely natural manner- by pummelling each other senseless.

That’s all that I’m going to reveal here. But let’s talk about Tyler Durdan. For it’s not possible to talk about fight club and not talk about Tyler Durdan, a character who was recently named the greatest movie character of all time by a magazine, beating out competition from the likes of Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, The Joker, John Rambo etc.

Brad Pitt outdoes himself in portraying just about the best example of an alpha-male you’ll ever see. Tyler epitomises the saying about Bond (“Man want to be him, Women want to sleep with him”) more than any Bond. The rugged Daniel Craig, the cool suave and sophisticated Brosnan and Connery all fall flat in front of his sheer charisma. His laid-back, casual attitude tells of a man who has not a care in his life. The conviction with which speaks tells of a man who’s got it all figured out. His radical thoughts and ideas tells of a fearless man, not afraid to go against society. And the small, condescending smile he occasionally afforded the narrator te;;s of a man who kno’s just how superior he is too everyone. Tyler Durdan acts the saviour of the society’s repressed men and frees them from it’s clutches.

Edward Norton does a brilliant job as the narrator, and his boring drawl as a narrative paradoxically draws you further in the movie.The dialogues are smart and some of the lines have now achieved cult status and are often quoted to each other’s by today’s hippier-than-thou teenagers. The cinematography is completely in sync with the somewhat non-linear storyline and is so good that it somehow distracts most watching it for the first time (including me) from a very obvious truth which makes you feel really stupid afterwards. Because of this, Fight Club, has, for most of the stupid audience (which constitutes an incredibly large number of us) and also the ones who think they’re too smart (the rest of us), a huge twist that leaves you gasping, adding to its excellent plot.

The film does tickle the fancies of many, despite the film’s anarchistic messages being tempered down with wry humour. Fight club preaches about evolving beyond the endless pursuit of perfection by today’s superficial society. Fight Club is about showing on your face what other people hide in their closets. Fight Club is about exposing the dirty underbelly that every household inevitably has. But it also preaches against taking its own ideas too extremely. But above all, it entertains. It is more than two hours of intense entertainment.

For all those who haven’t seen Fight Club, go watch it right now!

9/10

Crescendo Innuendo

Who has the right to judge? Why have people started to resort to truculent belittling? Is it a voice to safeguard the “devouring” morals and ethics left in our society or is it just a hidden act of one-upmanship?

You turn around and see a friend. You turn around again and you see two more. You turn around again and you see their minds insinuated with dubious thoughts for what you stand for, as if they were to decide the running morals of our society.

One speaks of what is right and what is wrong as if there were a fine line of distinction between the two. If you think about it, it’s just a relative term. Taking an example as quoted by a friend, why do people insist on vegetarianism to be the ethical thing to do? If killing of animals is considered a savage act, perhaps a mark upon ones morals, then what explains the theory of “Survival of the fittest”? History of mankind and all evidences intact shows man to be an omnivore. According to many articles there hasn’t been a culture that has thrived as vegetarians. If at all it did, the human race would be wiped out completely! So if I am a meat eater does that make me a sinister being? For some people it does, for some it doesn’t. Going by scientific research I’m just doing my bit to keep the human race going, but for some my eating habits might be a proof of me bearing unscrupulous morals.

I am just trying to find answers to an array of simple questions- who decides what is right or wrong? If at all we do find a decision maker, are his beliefs ought to be just and credible? If there doesn’t exist such an almighty jotting down morals for us, then why have people started to cook up their own theories and judgments to target one’s reputation? It could be a strong sense of jealousy and competition, to prove one better than the others or not. Everything we do has become an allusion to sinful behavior, it is frowned upon. The society we are living in has reached a confused state of what I would like to call “crescendo innuendo”.

The world is set on the fire of problems. While we are trying to combat the perennial social evils like child labour , dowry, human trafficking , we have encountered environmental problems which started as a ripple and now have transformed into a giant wave. Moreover this world still has many global issues like corruption, terrorism , global warming to be solved. The world is caught in the cobwebs of deadly and fatal evils and we need to take immediate actions to solve these problems. I do not want to write this article discussing the problems, the people responsible for it, the causes, the effects on the society or the ways to solve these issues because that is known to all of us. This article urges the reader just to take a step and do something.
Some great personality said" whatever you do in life is insignificant but it is important that you do it because no one else will do it for you." We all are aware of all the social evils and other problems that are present in the society and we often talk about them. We have always been discussing , criticising , writing about the flaws and faults in the world. Moreover there has been a lot of discussion over what needs to be done but how many of us have actually done something to eradicate such evils?
The need of the hour is not the discussion anymore but is the action that needs to be undertaken. We really need to stand up and do some "work". There is an utmost need to bring a change in our carefree attitude which often says " what can I do?" Or " my solitary action will not bring about any change." Let us just perform our action. We need to take an initiative ourselves. These little actions will surely help in making this world a better place to live in.

I see you

I see you

Lying in front,

Flat on your back.

Asleep after a long day at work.

Your face looks tensed,

All nerves bundled up.

Your sleep disrupted,

Your eyes shut tightly.

Is it just a bad dream,

Or a sad thought

You’re trying to evade?

Your shoulders are arched.

Oh how I wish to climb

Just like when I was a child.

All happy and playful,

Always ready for a piggy back ride.

A stroll in the park, and

An ice stick would suffice.

You promised, I remember

“I’ll show you the world from here.

High mountains to climb,

Distant stars to reach,

Wide waters to swim.

Just flap your wings and fly.”

Now that I see you,

I want to clasp your hurting shoulders

And take the pain away.

Your hands move

In an impatient rhythm.

Almost counting something.

How my hand

Would wrap around your pinky,

To take journeys unheard of.

All I had to do

Was tighten my grasp,

And you would know

Any discomfort I suffered from.

I want to clinch on

To your hands so tight,

To compensate for

All the unsaid aches.

Even when you lie awake,

I see you thinking,

Staring into nowhere at times.

I wish I knew

What haunts your mind,

What keeps you oblivious

From what surrounds.

Your mind has always raced ahead,

Is always aware of the next step to take.

You asked me to do things,

I saw no meaning in.

I cried, at times howled

To show my resentment.

You still pestered me

Into doing what I detested.

Now I realize,

They are what set me apart.

Even now, there are times

I feel like sharing.

Telling you what haunts me,

What makes me weak at the knees.

Yet, for some reason ciphered

I decide not to.

If you have your way with me,

I have my way with you too.

For matters of the heart

You have never triumphed.

All your logic seems to fail,

When there is something

For which I wail.

You got me all things

Bright and beautiful.

My desires, my whims, my fancies

You met.

I remember once you told a friend,

“Anything that makes her happy.”

You never tell me,

What your heart desires.

I think I am old enough

For at my age,

A life you had started to make.

Let me in to your secret land,

I promise not to tell.

I hope some day

I can put together

All my gumption,

Tell you how I feel.

For

I can see you.