When they printed it on the back of Whole Earth Catalogue, no one ever imagined that there would be a class of guys, a few decades down in the future who would take this too literally. When it was said, the Web was not yet born and apple was still a fruit. Nothing remains relevant with time (except Da Vinci…[citation needed]? ); same is the case with this phrase.
The Hungry
It comes as a delight. It soothes you more than an 1875 vintage wine. It makes you feel blessed by one of those Gods of pleasure: Dyonysus, Eros or Indra if you go desi. Random people become your best buddies when they say “Let’s go”. This is the magnitude of desire you have for any possible medium of escape from your books which leads to the inevitable relapse. You order, you yap, you gobble, you guzzle. You hold a book that keeps giving you a look, begging “Open me, open me!”
(Pseudo) hunger. High five!
The Foolish
You developed a good taste for music, from Reshamiya to the Rolling stones, from Bollywood to Bob Dylan and the Beatles. You also get to know Brad Paisley isn’t just the name of a random Aussie cricketer , Shooglenifty isn’t a Japanese hero. You start to appreciate the notes of Chopin and his Minute Waltz, the drunk Irish lyrics of Dropkick Murphy’s and THAT whistle from Per Qualche Dollaro, the elegance of the Corrs, the rhythm of Jackson, the rhyming of Eminem to the wit of Weird Al and the baritone of Shaggy.
And sometimes you think, ”Rip that power cord off, (thanks to D Dell batteries),open that goddamn book, Concentrate!” Speaking of which, your distracted mind conspires with the wondrous web, you end up listening to Tibetan Chants , composed in Himalayas, played on Altec Lansing with some serious recreation of Himalayan serenity( yeah the Ambience-mix versions with birds chirping and flutesqué music of breeze). You feel like a Buddhist monk sitting there in your poorly ventilated room, hoping for some focus, trust me! Sir Tim Berners Lee, you are great. How can we forget your beloved creation, the internet! His ruined son, Invention of the Millennium, Mr. YouTube. Oh, and if I forgot to mention, your exam ‘preparation’ is officially on.
So, coming to that bastard again: It was originally opened with lots of hope and enthu for the online IIT Lectures, to cope up for the classes that never existed in your universe. These YouTube sessions start in great style, with Lectures getting downloaded in the background(on IDM) till in a small corner you see something. “What’s that video with “n million HITS? “…and you know the rest. The process continues to infinity and beyond! Unless that over exhausted Shockwave Plugin cries, “Oh Snap! L”.
Then comes the motivated avatar. This stint marks the drastic change in the keywords that Google search witnesses. The transition is just uncanny - from Porn to Procrastination, Sex to Shiv Khera, Adult to Attitude and…… don’t even open that gate. The whole affair subsides when a few corners in the wall still left, are covered with the hand written quotes.
(Irrelevant Note: Even Google’s “Mr. Instant” starts working coz everyone around is fast asleep by that time, giving you their share of bandwidth).
But you are back to form soon :-P. Movie time! Who can miss them? The ideal time for finishing up Trilogies, Quadralogies or even Pentologies (yeah Home Alone) for that matter. You acquire all the ‘gyan’ about eccentricity of Kubrick, style of Ritchie, completeness of Nolan, rawness of Tarantino and grandeur of Cameron. Is the movie over? Yes? Simple, now you end up wiki-ing about their lives and wives.
So where were we colonel?
3 hours to the exam, sir.
You smile hopelessly, pick up your book again only to find that all you have read is: “FOR SALE ONLY IN INDIA, BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN AND NEPAL” in large red letter near the LPE logo.
♫♪♫Riiinnnngggg. ♫♪♫
Birds are chirping, my head’s hurting, but I am too afraid to look out of the window to see the first rays of the Sun, to face the truth.
No! No! No! This is not what I wanted. It’s the 7am alarm. 1 hour to go. 4 chapters left (err. The syllabus), where’s my calci? what’s that irritation in my stomach, why are my eyes burning?
I take a deep breath, regain my calm. Phew.. No, not again! I landed up in the same situation yet again. How can one be so consistently idiotic? Found myself exactly in the same scene again with no idea of how I reached there. Out of the blue, I start drawing parallels with the opening scene of Inception, and I don’t know how I ended up here again. I look at my lappy, to see a face of a rather frail old man, in his fifties, filling my screen. I realized it’s a paused video I must have been watching .It is Steve Jobs from that famous Stanford Commencement. I hit Play only to hear him say “Stay hungry, stay foolish”. And suddenly you experience an epiphany, that you had acted both hungry and foolish and now there is no coming back, so you rinse your face, go to the LTC, find the exam hall and sleep there to rest the thoughts racing through your mind.
EPILOGUE
The Optimist
But, for the entire time you ‘wasted’ on the eve of EVERY exam, that may have cost you 2 extra points in your GPA, there's a flip side: The gain can be invaluable. Of all the arguments you make, these are times when you discovered your inner self, you imbibed new ideas, you reasoned and as they say, always leave on a positive note. It brought the Gentleman out of the man you are.
Did I mention the angry birds? :-P. Pipophany again! Ha ha!
