Enter Title Here.

It is 5 AM by the Wall Clock (and 4:30 AM by the tiny Windows Clock), but I am awake enough to type without confusing "i" for an "o", which reside next to each other on a standard alphanumeric keyboard. This particular post is special, if not extraordinarily distinctive. For one, it's the 50th post, which means that I am liable to a meaningless dance to a meaningless song for a (seemingly) meaningless reason. For second, it succeeds 3 essays (2 Published, 1 saved as Draft), and believe me when I say this: It is the highest number of essays I have ever cared to write (in a row) and boldly consider them as essays at all. For third, my vocabulary is at an all time high. I can now make sense out of abstruse words without confusing them for their mundane counterparts. Though the thought of SAT takes the living daylights out of me, I still manage to "devote" a decent amount of time everyday to its preparation. Just yesterday, as if motivated by a sudden momentary impulse, I went to School, to discuss SAT with my English Teacher (Ms. Gilani), or perhaps I should just settle down with the memory that though the discussion didn't revolve much around SAT, I still managed to get her views on the essays I had written. "They are fine for me. I don't know what the Foriegn Univs are looking for.", is possibly the only statement that was predictable, after the unpredictable 30 minute wait for her, and the unpredictable ease with which I managed to dodge out of my Chemistry teacher's sight. For fourth, it is the only post I have ever (and ever will, hopefully) typed with the middle finger of my right hand; it is substituting for my index finger for the time being, as the latter got injured in an unforseen accident involving a sharp-edged computer table and a pack of irritating mosquitoes.

It is 6 am by the Wall Clock (and 5:30 am by the tiny Windows Clock). Time to sign off.

-| AG.

Practice Essay: Edison and the Moth.

"Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginnening of education." - Jon Hersey. To support your view, use an example or examples from history, literature, the arts, current events, politics, science and technology, or your experience or observation.

Failure strengthens the developing minds of young students, who yearn for recognition, distinction, and achievement. Struggle and exertion are indispensable to achieving anything in Life, a Journey that constitutes failures and successes; loss and victory; adversity and glory. A student needs to experience the distress of failure in order to earnestly taste the glory of success. Thus, Jon Hersey rightfully asserts that failure is crucial for learning to take place.

Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2000 times to develop the carbon filament of an incandescent Light Bulb. When asked about it, he said, “I didn’t fail. I just found 2000 ways of how not to make a Light Bulb, but had to find that one way to make it work.” Failure points us to the direction that leads to the correct solution and the satisfaction got from achieving our goal can only be truly felt after the trepidation got from a debacle. Success and Failure unify to give an inevitable conglomerate at all times, irrespective of the task at hand.

Beginning of Education is the start of a struggle, a struggle for learning, to stay ahead, to achieve distinction and success in life. Learning requires continuous efforts from the students to renew their knowledge, in order to prevent it from getting lost; just like it is continuously required to clean the sand off the marble statue set in a desert, to prevent it from getting covered up by the ever-flowing sand. This struggle, with its inevitable failures, fortifies our soul for what lies ahead. We understand our weaknesses and work upon them till we reach our ultimate goal. After experiencing failures, we realize that it is crucial to be prudent and vigilant at all times, and never take anything for granted.

Speaking of the necessity of struggle in life makes me recount the phase when a Moth struggles inside the cocoon. A tiny hole at the top of the cocoon is all the space it has got to get out through. If any external agency helps it by cutting open the cocoon, although the Moth will be free, it will soon die, for it would not be strong enough to survive by then. Struggle is Nature’s way of strengthening, and the failures involved are crucial and obligatory to survive.

-| AG, 20/04/2006

Practice Essay: Crichton, the capricious stickler.

Prompt: Tell us about a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed or add a category of your own.

In December of 2004, while browsing through a local bookstore, I came across a novel (which would have looked like a thick, white book to an apathetic passer-by) that went by the name State of Fear, succeeding the name ‘Michael Crichton’ written in humongous red letters. I quickly scanned the back of the book, eyes darting from side to side. I had deep reverence for Michael Crichton (pronounced Cry-ton). His classics Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Timeline, Sphere, among others, had not only been all time best-selling Novels but also all time Blockbuster Movies, which had managed to capture the imagination of the world. I quickly made the payment and settled down to read the book.

Till fall of 2004, “Global Warming” had been one of the many scientific terms that were 'just words' to me. Owing to the propaganda fueled by Environmental and Media Agencies alike, although I had managed to store those 2 words in my memory, I never really knew what to interpret from them, despite having the "general idea", like 70 million others. State of Fear explains just that and its surrounding issues. Alongside the discussion on Global Warming, the book constitutes a riveting plot involving a couple of MIT Scientists who try to save the world from a deadly man-triggered Tsunami attack. This book sparked off my interest in Global Warming, and following Van Der Meis's advice "God is in the Details", I read various environmental articles, ranging from those published on NASA’s Website to those in The Washington Post. In the aftermath of reading this book, I often found myself sitting in silence and pondering over the present state of the world, a world where science and politics were often mixed and muddled up, to the advantage of the latter. Interference of Politics with Scientific Research has led to the death of millions in the past. Politized Science is Dangerous. Period.

Michael Crichton is one of the few Science Fiction Authors (more commonly known as “SciFi Writers”) who have a perfect mix of scientific facts and storyline in their written works. Michael Crichton made me fall in love with Science, particularly Environmental Sciences, and Genetics.

- AG, 14/04/06

Ref.: Why Politized Science is Dangerous - Michael Crichton, Pg 575, State of Fear.

God is in the Details.

As a means for personal amusement, these days I tend to change the title of a post several times, though you see the content of the original post remains un-altered except for the little updates made here and there, in order to bring more clarity.

Alright, I know that I haven't posted in a long time and that you have probably gotten sick of staring at the corny title of the post (which was ripped off from Scary Movie 4), but what with all the Entrance Exams and Application Forms to fill up, I haven't really been able to spare a thought to post something on this idle blog of mine. And while I am on the subject of Application Forms, I might as well bore you more with my drivel on their tediousness (My fingers were sour by the time I got to "completely" blacken all the little circular things). Though I had thought that I won't be seeing the plain buildings of Ramjas again till we had our class reunion when we were old-er and grim-er and more screwed up than we are right now, I got to go and visit that place thrice in the attempt to get my forms attested (which I managed to get on my 2nd and 3rd visit).

Apart from all that, I manage to cool off by watching a couple of movies with a sack full of ice resting on my head, held in place by the head phone blaring Audioslave and a soda can in my hand. Lord of War was a fantastic film and Wedding Crashers was mildly funny. While not in the mood to either watch Movies or bully my brain to adsorb stuff from the Coaching Books, I read a novel (Right now I am reading Disclosure, a Michael Crichton Classic). Oh, and I saw the Scary Movie 4 Trailer as well, and I would have made it available here if I had the Video Embedding Code, the Quicktime version of the same and if the Lawyers from the Dimension Films weren't breathing down my neck. The Movie spoofs War of the Worlds, Million Dollar Baby, The Village, The Oprah Show, The President of the United States (of America), etc.

Everything Scary - Scary Movie 4

On such occassional occassions that I manage to set aside a huge magnitude of free time to devote to my Computer, downloading an MP3 (MP3s, depending on the number of Songs that have managed to put me in a trance) is always on the priority list, besides checking E Mail, Web Logs, etc. Alright, and what is the aftermath of the MP3-Download? Playing it in WMP and pressing Ctrl+T which enables the Repeat function. So, I end up listening the song a dozen times and call it a day by burning it on my lonesome CD-RW (I don't consider a CD-R for this purpose at all, god me no) and playing it again on my CD-Player. The present favourite list Songs being ...

• Out of Exile - Audioslave
• Be Yourself - Audioslave
• Show Me How To Live - Audioslave
• Gasoline - Audioslave
• Superstar - Jamelia

These songs were compiled over the past fortnight.

Audioslave ... *salutes!*