What is so unique about experiences?

Most of us have heard in our lives from our parents, " I am more experienced than you". This we hear when we dont agree with our parents about some issue and they only end the chapter with this sentence that we dont have experience about that issue and thats why we can't understand. Similarly when we have a problem at school or college and our parents try to help us, we say that they won't understand because they havn't experienced it all. Then we sure do agree on one thing, that we wont understand each other until we have common experiences.
According to the definition of the dictionary........." experience is the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation".
Experiences are strange. It brings together two different people, even total strangers. "Brings together" here means that they can discuss about it, analyze it and above all understand it. Some illustrations will best describe the above sentences. i am preparing for CAT exams. CAT means tensions, anticipations, aspirations, hopes, pitfalls, strengths, weakness and what not. I strategize day in and day out. I make mistakes, rectify, re- learn even. The whole experience is so full of emotions and passion and i need my friends to understand me. I tried but nobody understood. They tried to help, but they couldnt get me or help me. My best friend told me to try to talk about it with a person giving CAT. Presently I can talk about CAT with CAT aspirants and they fully understand me.
A girl once told me that when she had lost her mother she was very lonely. She couldnt talk to anybody about it. Not even her friends. Her grades fell. And then one day her teacher told her to wait after class. She was her most dreaded teacher, very strict she was. She made her sit on a bench and told her how she had lost her mother at a very tender age. She told her how she had felt. How she couldnt cry and that her grades fell. They both cried that day, in the classroom. This girl suddenly said, "Teacher if your grades fell then how have you grown up to be a teacher?". Teacher smiled and said that she too would get better grades again and since then there was no turing back for the girl.
What we see is that even though we are total strangers, arent emotionally attached, share no warmth at all, still experiences bind us.

FORGOTTEN AGAIN!

Before I begin, I need to say that these days I'm working out in the mornings. That being an intersting topic in itself will be dealt with later. For now I will be focussing on how an incident reminded be about the old Hindi proverb "Musibat mein gadhe ko bhi baap banana padta hai" (When you are in trouble you have to even agree with fools.)

It so happened that my ipod was unable to sync. Now I need music while i work out. And my ipod is very compact, I just need to strap it with my clothing. My computer is not even in the proximity of my room. (It would be wrong to say that according to my mom, who doesnt approve of me listening to the loud music) . So I had the Herculean task of getting my choice of music available.

I thought of shifting my computer in my room, but then I thought better of it. Next I went to get a CD player, but that would have to accompany a TV. So my next option was also cancelled. As my last resort I turned to the tape recorder. The antiquated recorder sat in the corner where my mom irons her clothes. Was that a grin! Nah it cant be. I brought it to my room, but I found that suddenly it grew heavy. Was it due to my reluctance to use it, or was it becaused I had got used to my ipod!? Well I got a few cassettes. Imagine my horror when I discovered that the cassettes were all Ghazals, Kishore kumar's sad melodies, Rafi ji's melodies. Workout and melodies dont go together, ah huh!

At that point I rembered the radio. Although now a days the radio has had a revival what with the coming of Radio mirchi and other FM, I dont approve of the sound quality and clarity in my the reception in my town.

Whatever. I got down to tuning my radio to a station. I often wonder that this trait is beginning to be extinct with revolution and getting replaced my more able fingers for typing and pressing keys. The fingers as a whole arent as much as useful like they used to be, for tuning a radio. Its like they have decided that they also want their own independent existence, with simple tasks of pressing keys and sometimes typing. Hence I did what I knew I could do best. I just tuned to BBC. Now any body would want to know why BBC!(Or may be wouldnt want to know even!). Well, is the days of the super cyclone when all the power, the cable, telephone and every single means of communication was cut off, we at home had our only informer- the radio. Although in the beginning due to broken towers we couldnt use it. But with time it became very useful. I for one found it rather entertaining because we didnt have anyother means of entertainment. The best station that we could reach was BBC. Although the city was gaining momentum again, I had got used to the radio, actually BBC. Somehow the habit died out later on , I cant recall. So with a confidence in BBC I set out for my workout.

Alas I had forgotten that the morning time is for NEWS. And what could one expect in NEWS on BBC other than the poor women and children , AIDS in Nigeria, women in the Taliban area!!!! I was sweating and this women here was repeating the same things over and over again! I was getting all "worked" up. I hadnt expected my morning to be like this!

But hey, I had wanted to have music so I could work out. Wasnt my purpose solved!

At the end of the day my ipod problem was fixed and the forgotten memories were again forgotten.

Some long lost talent

When I was a kid, we used to get loads of holiday homeworks, both during the winter and summer vacations. Most of them were boring and we used to leave it for the last few days before the school re-opened. Those days internet was an alien word to us and using a computer for studies was a rarity. Also, we had to go through the vomitous procedure of learning the lessons by heart in the holidays. How I hated them!

Now a days students get a variety of holiday homeworks ranging from collecting different newspaper articles, making collage from magazines to making a project. I have alwayz liked to make crafts and models. They give me an oppurtunity to play with colours and amaze me that with a few things and even the waste we can make such beautiful cratfs.

It reminds me of the day when I had made a model of the earth to show its interior. If I tell that the whole model was made just with some papers and a few papers, many would think that I am talking about a 2-D drawing, but amazingly it was 3-D. I made my models with ice-cream sticks, matchboxes, straws, papers and colours. Those were the most creative days of my life.

And now when my student brought me a project, I just couldnt say no. This picture on the top is that project which I managed to complete in 2 hours. Its the first 12 letters of my mother tongue, Oriya. Although the choice of colours is mine, the general look is predominantly according to his wishes.

It will be quiet some time when I'll get another chance to portray my prowess in crafts and projects. Till then I'll hold on to the nostalgia of those days!