The Future Looks Bright

It was rather cold today. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Indeed, yesterday and today make up the two coldest days i can remember(in Delhi, that is). No amount of warm clothing or blankets could manage to keep the cold from reaching my skin. The small opening in my window that cannot be closed didn't help either. The Delhi(or should i say Gurgaon) smog persisted for these two entire days, an occurence that i have never before observed.

I was in the kitchen today, helping my mother make Gulab Jamuns, partly because i had nothing else to do and partly because the kitchen is the warmest place in the house, and since i had no intention of sitting motionless in front of a heater, i sought refuge there. It is a most delicate procedure, making Gulab Jamuns...making small balls, frying them with the utmost care, dropping them in a sugar syrup and all the time making sure that the balls retain their shape and texture. I was responsible for the frying part. For some strange reason, it struck me that frying G-jams is a lot like raising children...the jams must be exposed to the oil for a very correct and precise period of time. Fry them a little longer and they end up charred black; a little less makes them reddish, raw and undernourished. We must make sure that the correct amount of oil reaches the jams in a period of time, and turn them over when they reach a distinct colour; else they do not make good eating.

For some inexplicable reason, this reminded me of the big fight we had at MIT just before the exams. It was three days before the exams when some twelfth block guy made a pass at some fifth block dude on Orkut. This, it seems, was enough reason for the fifth block guys to gather a hundred people and beat the devil out of the twelfth block dude. Thats fair, a hundred to one. This was not the first time something of this sort had happened; a similar situation arose three months before this encounter, culminating in the same way...a hundred fifth and sixth block people beating the shit out of some poor guy.

Three days before the exams and organising a gang war, now thats something. Either these guys don't care about their result or they already know everything, and something tells me the latter might not be the correct option. Why, i ask myself. An outlet for there supressed anger, perhaps? Maybe, though where the supressed anger originates, i have no clue. Any reason will do...all they need is a chance to crack their knuckles and join in the fun.

Where did these people go wrong? Perhaps they were exposed to the oil a little too less, or turned over at the wrong time. Who knows? It makes me sad, to tell the truth. Here are a hundred well educated people, who are supposed to belong to "good" families and will make up the cream of tomorrow's engineers. Behaving in a way unexpected, bizzare and worrying, to say the least. The future looks bright.