"Evolution of a Butterfly" (the Title has no relation with the story) was a book five of us co-authored as part of an assignment given to us in our behaviour classes. We were all free to write anything we wanted. Just one constraint: The book should consist of 20 chapters of around 500 words each. Our book captures a person's life during his four years at graduation.
Following is the Cover design, Introduction and the 4 chapters that I wrote as my contribution to the book.
This edition published 2005 by
© Biotics Publishing House
Section C, PGP1, IIML,
Lucknow, 226013.
Biotics® is a preserved trademark of
Biotics Publishing House.
All rights reserved. This publication may not be
reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or
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without the prior permission of the publishers.
This book is dedicated to all the giants
On the shoulders of whomWe try to stand.
Introduction
Evolution has always provided greater sense and sensibility to a being. Today, when we observe life in its innumerably different shades, we seldom stop to think that this vision has been a product of the evolution that has been occurring since geologic times combined with the evolution we undergo in everyday life. All learning, explicit or implicit, evolves us and gives us the vision to see the varying shades of life.
The learning of behaviour science has expanded our range and resolution of observing the colours around us. Life is an ever going education and transformation. Similar to how a caterpillar transforms it into a butterfly, we cross stages of our life transforming ourselves into better beings. A caterpillar is the learning stage, when all it does is to unnoticeably nibble on leaves. But in the times, it is preparing itself to fly a colourful flight one day. And then, the day arrives when a dull looking parchment breaks and a thousand hues appear. A butterfly is born- bearing and capable of seeing a thousand hues and shades of colours.
Evolution of this kind occurs on every scale in our lives. This book is the story of a person, starting with his entrance to college graduation. His life there accumulates various dreams and experiences, both good and bad. Experiences and dreams are what life is made of. This is a story of both, seen through his eyes.
This is a story of Dreams- discovered, invented and borrowed. This is a story of the expected, the unexpected and the expectedly unexpected. This is a story of the common man with common tastes to achieve the uncommon. A story of an individual in a crowd, of his hopes in despair, of turnarounds on highways, of perceiving the perceptions.
And then, each life is a book on evolution. Some get written.
Biotics
{Manish Sachdeva , Neeraj Trivedi, C Raghavendra, Vivek Singh, Sushant Kumar}
September 18, 2005
Lucknow
Chapter 4
Of Tom, Dick and Harry
There are certain things that ironically everybody believes. For eg. That he/she is the coolest guy/gal in the world, that he has got the best mother on earth and that his life has been full of most typical people worth mention.
And I am no different. Since the first two points are too selfish to bore the reader with. So I will talk about my third belief. I believe with the utmost depth of my heart, and I will let u believe it by the end of this essay, that my life has been full of such people; and that anybody who didn’t get a chance to encounter them, has missed a something substancial in his life.
In view of space constraints u still will be missing description of lots of them.
We had one Mr.Puxie. The first thing u will notice about him as a stranger is that he has once played at state level football. Now how does a stranger notice that??? The answer is the fact that before u end up noticing him, he would have invariably desperately told you that he has played at state level. Well, I won’t comment anything about quality of his play because obscene words aren’t permitted in literature. Not everything bad, he is a guy who is energetic, and is passionate about his team winning the game. He is a bit hot headed and argumentative too. But then, I personally got along well because I could anticipate what broil his bullhead was going to do and thus I am able to plan my escape from the scene beforehand.
And we had Mr. Sandy.
Scene 1: The mid-term exams have ended. And lots of batchmates are watching movies all night. Enter Sandy. Sandy: Hello vivek. It seems you are watching movies all night. It is 2 o’clock. I am going to sleep, wake me up at 3:25. Please. I am feeling sleepy and I am not able to concentrate on the heat transfer chapter. I will do it when you wake me up.
This was the one who was worst affected when his team lost a match. He used to be defender in football, and a carom board player too. And we used to discuss the matches. And he told me his philosophy. He played exactly according to what seemed to him an algorithm and method of playing the game. And he would not accept my points that methods are dynamic and flexible things.
Me to myself: How’s it possible that there are superhumans who study just after exams too?
And then we had three people from our branch who used to get the admit card for exam only after writing a undertaking that in future they will be disciplined and would attend classes. And then, they repeated the same indiscipline and the same undertaking the next semester too. “What will you write now? This is your last sem.” The head asked. And they wrote that if the department pardons them they won’t repeat indiscipline ever in their life.
It’s unfortunate on my part that space constraints stop me from telling about more people. One of them was not a person, but a big stomach instead. And another would get up at 7 in the evening and sleep at 7 in the morning, another who thought he was Encarta encyclopaedia, another who was under the illusion that all gals were desperately wooing him, and then there was a gal who would share jokes with u one evening and then fail to recognize u the next morning, and people who would suddenly switch to English when drunk. Space does not allow me to pay my deepest regards to my good friends who would never tell me that I was disturbing them, who are responsible for all I am today, who were so special that I won’t forget them ever. I don’t know the meaning of “ever”, given it’s the greatest truth that all things are mortal. In spite of that, we all have people we won’t EVER forget. There are certain things that ironically everybody believes.
Chapter 5
Making of A Bond
The popularity of “The Bond” seniors and the prevailing urge among all students to attain that status had long ago brought me to a point where I had to choose between my studies and my image. And the decision wasn’t a difficult one. It was too easy to fall for the illusion that studying was the job of nerds. And that sports and extra curriculars were the “in” thing.
And so positioning my studies on shelves I would never think of revisiting, I devoted myself full fledged in “the making of Bond”.
I wanted to be among the people the crowd cheers up to. Since I wasn’t one already, it called for extreme hard work. I understood that cricket and football were fields that had too many people trying hard into them. So instead, I chose to try in arenas where excelling was easier. It started with cycling and then I landed up into a basket of athletics activities. As time went by I kept on taking myself closer to the grandest title to be won…the SCHROETER.
Schroeter was the annual sports tournament at our college. But mark this, it was much, much more than a tournament. Each hostel participated as a team in the variety of events that would take place over a week. Each event would be allotted some weightage points. Games as hockey and football had 20 points to be collected by the winning team. Other such as all the athletics had 10 points to take home. The cumulative of points earned by each hostel would finally rank it as the champion.
And for the first time in my life, I saw such a blatant mockery of the term “sportsman spirit”. It was such a sports event where people gave in each drop of there blood to win the event they were into. And in the background of sports would run emotions so high that it seemed that throats would have been slit if there had been a way to.
And here I saw the treasure I had long been struggling for. I saw people emerging as bonds, as idols that were the object of discussion in hostel common rooms and on street corners. People who were cheered, fan-fared, and called ‘the men of the day’. I had longed to get such an opportunity and the opportunity was close by.
I had excelled myself as a runner and as a cyclist. Among nervousness and expectations and ambitions I participated in a variety of events and did a great job bringing home a lot of victories. I was transformed from a no-one to someone whom scores of people cheered, who had crowds to see his victories and to whom my hostel looked up to as a great contributor to the final victory.
And for me there was a personal final goal, a goliath to be killed, a mega event for the athletics …the “Triathlon”. It was a body and soul breaking combination of 2 kms of run followed by 500 m of swimming followed by 2 km of cycling to reach the destination. I was good at two of these but swimming was something that would break me down. But this event was the greatest monster to be killed in the arena. And my hostel judged that nobody but me should venture into doing it. I couldn’t let them down.
And only if pain could be given words…the Triathlon was an event, which I always use as a source of motivation now - as an example of victory of will power over pain and adversities. All exhausted and unconscious, I emerged as the champion conquering “Triathlon”. And out of exertion and joy, I fell on the ground after my victory, only half conscious.
In that half conscious state, lying down on ground, I could make out…
My hostel warden was sitting beside me, all proud of me.
My hostel mates were trying to revive my energy level by offering me drinks.
Words of enthusiastic crowds congratulating me were entering my ears...
A loud speaker was announcing the incremented score of my hostel...
My name was being uttered lots of times…I didn’t care why. I lay there tranquil…I had done my job…I had brought home the triathlon.
Most of all…I had achieved the status of “The Bond”.
Chapter 6
Birds of Same Feather
And then there weren’t just typical individuals alone. Birds of same feather flock together. And here was a good example of ‘One and one make eleven’. The group forming is such a spontaneous and natural phenomena that in no time one will find comedians of all variety together in a group, villains in another group, and lazy good for nothings in a third…so on. And the aggregation obviously tends to amplify the effect.
Here are some of the groups that were distinctly decipherable in our batch. Though I am talking of a small batch of just 40 people, I feel that is enough a size to see the phenomenon of aggregation and segregation. I myself belonged to one of these groups but I will try to discuss the scenario as unbiased as possible.
There was a group of carefree guys…whose only aim in life was not to give a bit of importance to anything. They would sleep two third of 24 hours, and spend the remaining one third in the most non-conformist ways. These were people who were always late to class if they ever felt like attending, the ones who were called to see the director and then they would be days late to meet him. It’s obvious they were the most cool ones in exams too. Nothing on earth could give them a positive or negative incentive.
Then the great drinkers and smokers were the other group whose group activities were very happening. They needed a group meeting every weekend complemented with liquid and smoke to discuss all the emotional, political and humorous topics. And they had a very loyal following of juniors and extra-branch people who would never miss a single of the weekend group meet. And a practical learning I had from observing this all was that even if blood is thicker than water, its sure alcohol is not too far behind. The loyalty of these members was cashed when this group engaged itself in a violent power show somewhere.
And then there was a group with the sole aim to gain popularity in female community. Though this was a drive across all members of all groups, but this group no. 3 was characteristic in the fact that they will be found either cracking jokes before female members (who usually were ready to laugh even before the joke was shared) or speculating whether their cracked jokes produced the desired effect. Some members of this group had succeeded in obtaining full time audience and others were struggling performer, still waiting for a 24 x 7 dedicated audience. This group voraciously used all modes of communications, be it spoken, written, body language, over the phone…I don’t know if some innovative modes of presentation were in place.
And then there were groups of girls, some that would require a supercomputer to predict their next occurrence. There were others that will invariably be seen at the samosa and juice corner. And then there were ones that had devoted themselves as full time audience of particular comedians.
Here again, space does not allow me to elaborate upon the group of Studious friends who have the credit of helping all the class pass. We tricked them into sacrificing their good times to get the whole branch passed. In addition, it will be too forgetful not to mention the Rock Music group who supposedly had the Best understanding of life through the teachings of Led Zepplin and Linkin Park. And this extra understanding had to be prevented form escaping from their heads with the help of their long and entangled hairs.
Chapter 16
Swimming with the Tide
Excerpt from an e-mail
To : supernova@yahoo.co.in
Subject : hi bhaiya
From : ravindra007@yahoo.co.in
……
Bhaiya u had devotion, planning, blah…blah…blah…thori CAT ki tips de do humein bhi. I feel like I am lost. U is god. … I wish I was as determined and concentrated as u were……me has poor skills in data interpretation and logical reasoning…what to do?
...…
I receive a dozen mails weekly from my juniors asking me tips for qualifying the CAT. And I religiously tell them the things that require to be done.
And then sometimes I look back…to revisit the road that has brought me here. And I conclude that actually its great results that make great people. Success does not necessarily arise from planned approach, perseverance, inspiration and blah... blah... blah… Sometimes u get success and then your followers give such good names to whatever wasteful activities you did. At least I know my story.
Why did I give CAT in the first place? Because others did . Had my friend circle not been taking CAT, I too wouldn’t have. I still remember that until late I was undecided about giving CAT, GRE or the UPSC. All these were shortcuts to success. And though it was very little time that my generation used to devote on planning life, almost everybody sure wanted one shortcut of these. Choice hasn’t been too difficult for me ever. This is because I have kept on procrastinating till only one option is left in hand. Since GRE required decent grades and good terms with the Professors (both of which I had lost irreparably), I was knocked out of that option very early. Soon some time, I realized that Civil services examination would require an amount of preparation that left very small chance of me coming out alive. So to save my life, I opted out of it too.
So with all my sincerity(???) I realized that it was management that I had always wanted to do. And I led myself to believe that I wouldn’t have taken GRE and Civil Services even if they were possible for me. Same were the realizations of my friend circle. And so we all joined the RAT race to catch the CAT.
One of my other friends had been writing this essay today, if he happened to have discovered the miracle that I discovered then - In the first mock test that I took, I turned out to be the topper. Why? Genes of my parents had planted certain aptitudes in me that I chanced to cash on. I discovered I had excellent speed of answering questions. Now what else does a lazy man want??? Who will want to work if he gets salary delivered without any pain???
And thus days passed. I am sorry for my not so lucky friends who sincerely put in some labour to improve themselves, but in vain. It’s a fallacy CAT exam has no way to measure and credit the labour put in.
And since I had no affection towards management career, I wasn’t as desperate to crack CAT as some of my friends were.
What was the effect? CAT changed its pattern vastly. My desperate friends lost their performance in their desperateness. I treated the paper as coldly as I had always. Things often work the opposite way. It’s a fallacy CAT has no way to measure and credit people’s dedication too.
And thus it was one day people were congratulating me for what they thought was my hard earned success. Thus making mockery of these great terms I had became a symbol of ‘planning’, ‘concentration’, ‘devotion’, ‘perseverance’…blah… blah… blah… You’ve read the excerpt from the email.
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Thats it Folks..
Its still some time when my beloved people can get my book on bookstands...
Live nicely till then... you may figure in.
