Prepare for your finals – A new perspective

Want to really study for finals but struggling to part ways with your computer? Want to make your parents proud but finding it impossible to stop daydreaming about your special one? Well, here are a few pointers that’ll get you started ~

• Forget it, don’t study ( just kidding ) 😛
  
• Make peace with the fact that you’ll really have to study and there is no way around. Mediate on it. Something like this takes serious contemplation for comprehension.
• Reflect on how amazing the words “contemplation” and “comprehension” are when used in succession.
• Gather all materials you’ll need to study. This includes but is not limited to: textbooks, workbooks, novels, dictionaries, perhaps a Bible, all past notes, quizzes, tests, projects, essays, reports, handouts, reading guides, cross references – basically everything in your locker, everything in your backpack, and everything except for that one piece of paper with the single piece of information that will inevitably compose 75% of your exam but you just don’t know it yet.
• Situate yourself in a quiet place that’s free of distractions.
• Open your textbook.
• Turn off the TV and all the distractions that inexplicably appeared in the room you’ve chosen.
• Flip to the first chapter you covered in the semester.
• Turn the TV back on – it’s Dancing with the Stars night and you never miss this.
• Read the first page of indicated chapter.
• Reread that page because let’s face it. You weren’t paying attention to a single word.
• Busy yourself by highlighting the entire page. This is definitely the important part.
• Take a well-deserved break and raid your pantry, cupboard, and refrigerator. Come back in half an hour.
• Tell yourself that you really have to study now.
• Turn off the TV once a commercial comes on so you aren’t tempted.
• Read over your first page of notes. Underline the words that look important. Open your textbook again.
• Stare at the page for a little bit. This will transfer the information waves from the surface of the book directly to your brain, obviously. 😛
• Experiment with various positions on the couch. Decide on the one that is definitely the least comfortable.
• Wiggle around in that position until you’ve been studying for thirty minutes and learned absolutely nothing. Open your notebook again.
• Discover what an incredible talent you suddenly have for art, and express your creativity all over that page.
• Erase, erase, erase before someone glances at your notes and realizes you’ve been screwing around.
• Now open and read the second chapter.
• Stop after reading a page. Acknowledge that you understood nothing, again. Face the fact that while you were busy not studying, the test has come upon you’re a lot faster than you realized. In fact, it’s tomorrow.
• Reread the first chapter for the four hundredth time, because that’s as far as you get every night and some things just don’t change.
• Scan your notes for anything that looks easy to remember.
• Text six people and post three Facebook statuses about how much studying stresses you out.
• Read the next chapter all while thinking, “how much of this could he possibly put on the test?”
• Absorb the font, degree of boldness and Italicism, and quality of photographs.
• Highlight the words with the most letters.
• Eat dinner. Eat dessert. Shower. Wash your hair. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat. Brush your teeth really well. Make your bed and unmake it. Clean your room for the first time in six months. Discover new items and tinker with them.
• Take a twenty minute power nap until your mom enters your pitch black room and suspects the worst. Become defensive when a parent asks why you’re not studying. Remind them that you’ve been going at this for four hours. Assure them that yes, you really have been learning and you’ve gotten everything under control.
• Close the door behind said parent as he/she leaves.
• Proceed to panic. Stare the living mess out of that second chapter.
• Relieve your headache by turning on the TV and breaking open a bag of chips. Your textbook is still open, so it’s okay.
• Become fed up with the system, everything on TV and everything you’re supposed to be studying.
• Decide that you need a change of scenery. Surround yourself with books on your bedroom floor.
• Snatch up your cat/dog/bunny/fish and develop a new found fascination with your pet. Establish a relationship. Come up with new nicknames. Search for fleas.
• Abandon said pet once it’s three AM and all hope is officially lost.
• Take a step back. Admit defeat. Accept that your fate is failure.
• Cry yourself to sleep.

Tell me what you think about it. Share your views in the comments section.
A lot more is in store. Follow my blog for more featured content.
Liked it? Extend a hand by sharing it over social media. The buttons are below!

Let’s Make Another World

Let’s make another world
Just you and me together

A place blessed with love
And people unaware of separation,
Of the brutal truths of life
And pangs of conscience.

Where people believe in themselves
And not in superstition
And everybody is equal
And happy in eternal brotherhood.

Where no one knows of jealousy
And of synonymous facts of life
And death is still a thing fantastic
And everyone is contended.

Let’s make a world like this
For you, me, and our children
It’s you, my friend, who brings the change
Yes you can, yes you can.

Of Words & Distortions

I don’t know what’s wrong with the teens these days but they seem to believe in a strange ideology. If being cool is the name of the game, then distorting random English words play down to be the rule. Here’s a list of words I wish to press the delete button on (*smirks*) :

Like : What was meant to signify comparison between two things – “It looked like an original copy” – or “I really like his work” – is now being used as a noun, preposition, punctuation, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction, article and everything else. The lack of a strong vocabulary has given people to use ‘like’ to signify everything that ever existed on the face of this planet.

Example?  “So I was like, ‘what do you mean’, and he was like, ‘don’t say like that, like its a crime or something’ “. Now handle that!

Awesome : A word used to describe something overtly impressive lost all its glory when it started being used to describe your lunch, dinner, girlfriend, mood, dog and even your poop. It has been used and reused and then used some more so much that it’s brothers and sisters ( read : synonyms ) like magnificent and beautiful feel left out. And added to it are the spelling distortions.

Example?  “Oh this is so awesome/awwweessoommee/awezzummm”

Baby : Meant to identify an infant, human or otherwise, it no longer retains its original meaning. Now it can be used to describe your girlfriend, your best friend, your boyfriend and pretty much everyone who you have remotely positive feelings for. Then comes the spelling permutations and combinations.

Example?  “Hey baby/babes/behbey/bby/bebe/babezz” and the list goes on. Yeah this word should rest in peace now.

Cool : A word used to denote a relatively low temperature has now it’s meaning manifolds. It now can be used to substitute a mere yes or even something that can send temperatures soaring ( *winks* ). And if only it had stopped at that! The spellings are not only catastrophic but kinda makes me lose hope in human race.

Example?  “The party is so cool/cul/kewl”

Aww : Anything remotely cute or pretty is aww-worthy nowadays. Just a form of expression, the over-usage of which is slowing driving people to brain-death these days. Have a pretty baby or a puppy in your profile picture? Be ready to be drowned in the “Awwwwww” river now. Two ‘w’s are still acceptable but when the damned word takes more than a five-second timeframe, the numbness sets in. Said in a particular tone, ‘aww’s can be fatal! ( Yes it’s your cue to stay away )

Example? “Awwwwwwwwwwww look at that cutie pie! ”

Peace : “The state prevailing during the absence of war” is taken a little too literally by the youth of today. Every conversation can now be ended with “peace”, sometimes coupled with a V sign. Not only is it pointless but also becomes unbearable when people end up saying, “piss” instead of “peace”.

Example? “Okay then bye. Piss ( peace ) out man.”  Now that wouldn’t really be a pretty sight, would it?

Yeah I’m done but now its your turn. Have a different opinion? Got words that makes you a momentary mean murderer? Take a moment and write me below!

WRITER’S BLOCK. I’m Gonna Be Dead Now!

You sit in with a mindset to write something great. You have the laptop open in front of you with a steaming cup of coffee by your side, some soft rock or indie-pop playing in low volume, a perfect setting to write down the next masterpiece. But you forget His presence. And especially of the fact that He’s in his jovial best.

You calm your mind, murmur some silent prayers and get ready to begin when

….HAHAHAHAHA…..

your ears burst with a riotous laughter in the background with your mind subsequently going as blank as a white sheet. You are confused at the melodramatic turn of events but gather yourself in quick time. Fending off any sign of incompetence, you try to focus again when voila! The damned thing happens again!

Now you are seriously miffed. You make an irritating face and gulp down some coffee. The caffeine spurs you into momentary enthusiasm and in a desperate attempt, you try to indite again, stringing together beads of a new masterpiece. But by this time, the earlier failures take a toll on you. Whatever you write seems incompetent of your standards. Having so under performed, you are now awfully pissed off, gulping down all the coffee at one go, before opening Google Chrome to check your Facebook notifications.

-x-

Wondering why I told you the story?

Writer’s Block, in itself, is a very amusing thing. You seem to know everything but your brain kinda gets lost with words and construction. And the worst part is, there’s no particular solution to the problem.

As the saying goes, “If a problem stops you from writing, write the problem instead”, here’s my jibe at something that’d troubled authors ( and me ) for ages : The Writer’s Block.

Troubled for the past many days, this is an attempt at overcoming the wretched thing, and with the way the words have arranged themselves, I’m seeing light at the other end!

New Look

I have always maintained that the theme is the soul of a blog. Put on a monotonous theme and no matter how good the content is, nobody’s got time to read it through; now put on something colorful and festive, and everyone suddenly sits up and takes notice!

It’s a simple psychological state of mind, you know, that when we see something colorful and vivid, we automatically presume it to be good content while at the same breath, when we see something a bit off-color, we presume it as unlikable and boring.

Guys who’ve been in my blog before would know, I previously had this theme called Forever. A beautiful theme with a white background, it was any blogger’s delight. But, my friend, there is no word called perfect in this transient world. It posed a severe problem. The font size was extraordinarily small ( some microscopic level ) and there was no way I could customize it. I even had some of my readers write to me complaining about their difficulty to read my articles because of the small font size. Also, I felt, it was kinda monotonous to some extent – everything in white and grey. So I felt I should change it. And here it is!

I found this one randomly and the color so caught my eyes that I immediately decided upon it being my theme for the time being. Though I realize Christmas is far away, I kinda enjoy the festive mood the theme brings to the table. Told ‘ya, being colorful always draws more attention!

A ‘novel’ Idea!

How hard do you think it is to write a novel?

Pretty hard, I’d say.

Frankly, I’ve been conceiving this idea of writing a novel for quite some time now but every one of the attempts had dissapoined. Now before you make that I-know-it-all face and think its because of probable lack of  imagination or experience, let me say that I’ve been writing since I was 4. Now don’t look at me like that, it’s true!

So let’s tell you what happened. I am settled comfortably on my couch, my laptop sitting authoritatively on my lap with a MS-Word document open, the plot racing vividly at the back of my mind and the brain knowing exactly what to do. I’m excited and I reach out to type the first letter when

KABOOM!

I’m completely blank.

It has always been a major concern, right from the school days. I’ve always worried about the beginnings, I don’t know why. I have the whole plot up and running in my head but I fumble with the keys wasting hours, only to construct a mediocre beginning. Or maybe it’s my obsession with fantastic beginnings that make ’em feel worthless. I hardly manage two pages and I lose interest. And that is definitely not how I’d like my novel to be written.

I once asked a teacher of mine, a very authoritative man on creative writing, about the problem. He smiled and answered, ” Begin when you have something to say, and finish when you have nothing more. ” Though it sounded pretty mundane at that time and I had a bad time finding sense in those words, a few while in history, everything became crystal.

It’s simple, you see. You don’t have to try and craft out a wonderful piece when you know you’re struggling with it. Just keep it aside and write what flows through the nib. Just because you want the start to be impressive doesn’t mean you have to write it in the beginning itself. You can always come back later.

Sometimes we writers kinda have these bad days when things don’t quite go our way, but what the heck? It’s your book, you can always amend!

Lets make money, ONLINE!

Searching for an effective way to earn some pocket money from the internet? Type Earn Online on Google and voila! A million results smile at you, each one promising you a fortune by just filling out survey forms. You click on one such link and they ask you to register for $20. Or maybe order their instruction kit for $40. Yes, my friend, there is no free lunch.

The virtual world is littered with crooks these days who make use of every opportunity to extract money from you. So when you think you’re registering to earn a fortune or ordering the manual kit for details on how you can be the next big internet entrepreneur, these crooks laugh at you, not to mention pocketing your money at the same time.

So here’s an advice : Never sign up for an online institution that charges you a fee.

So are there legitimate ways that can help one earn money? I say Yes Sir!

• Blogging : Blogging is a wonderful way of earning money, and more so because of the absence of any third-party in the system. With the advent of Blogger and WordPress, blogging has never been easier, not to forget, absolutely free! Create some mind-blowing content, sign up to Google AdSense, sit back and relax! Google will take care of everything, handing you an handsome amount by the end of the month. Too good to be true, isn’t it? Indeed it is! You need to have a steady traffic to earn that handsome amount.
• Freelance Writing : Another great way of earning money for creative people. The main objective for these kinds of job is to create quality content for different organizations. While there are several online portals that offer this kind of jobs, there are plenty that operate offline too. The catch? The fee is lower than what an established writer should expect. But if you’re a college student or even an high-schooler, it’d suffice as pocket money.
• Photography : People these days are now going gaga over photography. A DSLR sling to the shoulder, now everyone is a photographer! If you too belong to that everyone, why not earn something through your photography? Just register to a free photography site like ShutterStock or iStockphoto and they’ll pay you everytime your photo gets downloaded by an user.
• Hawk Your Skills : Another great way of earning some quick bucks, you can advertise your skills over sites like Fiverr that gets you paid $5 at completion of a gig!
• Do the old survey filling : Though most of the survey jobs available online nowadays are scams, there are a few that really pays money at completion of surveys, though its  a very mediocre amount. SurveySavvy is one such site that lets you earn some money off filling survey forms and by referring their site to your friends via social plugins.
• Sell old stuff on eBay : Have a lot of old and unused stuff? Sell ’em on eBay! What is useless to you maybe is priceless for somebody else. And what’s more? You can earn some good amount in the process!

So here’s my list on how you can earn online. Think you know another foolproof way of earning some extra bucks? Tell me your ideas here and I’ll add them too in this list, of course with due acknowledgement to you. And for everyone else, Happy Earning!

I Loved You

Time stopped when we met,
We both in whites and blue
We looked into each other
And I’d fallen, I knew.
 
The rest is history, they say,
Day by day I grew
Growing to like you, growing to love you,
Growing to be one from two.
 
But I feared to tell ye the truth
That I hath fallen for thee
Fear or losing friendship ceased me
If ye don’t feel for me.
 
When I braved mastering my mind
It was too late I guess,
You were already someone else’s
Love shone on your face.
 
I blame you not for choosing someone
Other than me as your guy,
Only I’m to be blamed for my fate
A truth I cannot deny.
 
Your last blink, your last touch, your hand waving goodbye
I cherish the feeling all alone, I smile and I cry.
I loved you, I love you still
‘cause love is never gone
I live my life, I’m still alive
Rugged, ruffled and forlorn.

Earn Online : Is It True?

Ever came across an ad claiming huge incomes just from filling up stupid forms? Or maybe getting free cell phone recharges for completing surveys? Too good to be true, ain’t they?

Get ready ‘cos I’m going to shatter your dreams :

NONE OF THE STUPID SURVEY JOBS GET YOU PAID. THE THIRD PARTIES JUST USE YOU TO GET THEIR WORK DONE.

And it’s not really that hard to figure out either. I mean, if you think about it, ever wondered if we can make thousands of dollar doing some simple jobs from home,then why the hell they’re putting so much effort on selling a $20 service to you? They could have easily made more than that doing those ‘simple jobs’.

Lets discuss why the concept of online earning was conceived in the first place. That will give you a clear understanding.

Online jobs were first invented by big world-wide companies having only one thing in mind: Saving Money. Big companies need a lot of advertising in order for them to keep growing and expanding all over the world. Doing this offline (ie. television, radio, banners, etc.) costs a whole lot of money. Since the internet had grown exponentially by the year 2000, the entrepreneurs that were aware of this new source had the big idea.

The internet had expanded so much that it was reaching all kinds of markets and nations. So, it happened. The big entrepreneurs made this new concept of advertising that would cut their expenses by 70%! It involved common internet surfers to work for them for a fraction of the cost that they used to pay. Of course, this kind of pay was enough for the average person to make a living from home.

The truth is some people online have seen an opportunity to rip other people off. And that is exactly what I am going to warn you about. With this new concept in place and big companies hiring people online to work for them and paying a very decent amount of money online, there are some crooks online who had another idea behind this.

If you have ever tried or joined any of these scams, you should know by now how they work. Google has this advertising system that is called Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a very profitable tool, but you have to know what you are doing. Anyway, the important point here is that the scammers I am telling you about tell you that you will be paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars a day only by typing jobs. And that is not the truth.

They send you to Google AdWords and tell you to make an account with them and put up some ads. I will tell you how Google AdWords work. AdWords is a system to advertise on Google’s search engine. If you go to Google.com and type something to search for, you will see some “sponsored ads” to the right; those are Google AdWords.

Those ads are not free. You have to pay a few cents everytime someone clicks on your ad. And that, my friend, is not even close to the things they promise on their website. AdWords can be very rewarding and you can make a lot of money, but you have to learn how to do it and these scammers don’t tell you how. Of course, you didn’t want to do AdWords in the first place.

That is why online jobs are not as trusted as they used to be anymore. Back in 2000, everyone who’d jumped on the opportunity was very happy to be earning a nice income from the comfort of their own home. But now the scammers have defaced the concept and people don’t trust online jobs anymore.

So what is the future of online earning? 

I invite you to dig deeper into this topic. You may wonder: “Are there still any legitimate online jobs available that really pays?”. I say yes. Read on here!

Nation Cries At Untimely Demise

Credited for ushering in a new wave in Bengali cinema by his trailblazing films like ‘Unishe April’ and ‘Dahan’, director-turned-actor Rituparno Ghosh was known for glorifying women  besides exploring the touchy subject of same-sex relationships.

As someone who had a different take on sexuality, life, filmmaking and equally adaptive to the trends and changes of contemporary filmmakers, Ghosh blazed the turf of Bengali film industry with his works.

Ghosh played an important role in the revival of the film industry post the nineties with his arty and sensitive films like ‘Unishe April’, ‘Dahan’, ‘Chokher Bali’, which were not essentially melodramatic.

A self-confessed Satyajit Ray fan, Ghosh’s films glorified women, their inner feelings, passion and sufferings. The filmmaker also explored same-sex relationship in his last release ‘Chitrangada’.

Fondly known as Ritu da, Ghosh was never apologetic about his cross-dressing or his sexuality and in Kaushik Ganguly’s ‘Arekti Premer Galpo’ and Sanjoy Nag’s ‘Memories in March’, he played pivotal gay roles.

Born on August 31, 1963, Ghosh grew up in Kolkata. His father was a documentary filmmaker and so he was exposed to the world of art and cinema right from childhood. He started his career as a creative artist in an advertising agency, and later shifted to films. He made his directional debut in 1994 with children’s film ‘Hirer Angti’.

His second film ‘Unishe April’ starring Aparna Sen and Debashree Roy won him his first of the 12 National Film Award.

Having an uncanny grasp on the acting prowess, Ghosh has been credited to discover the other side of commercial actors like Rituparna Sengupta.

Earlier only known to be part of hardcore formula Bengali films opposite Prosenjit Chatterjee mostly, Sengupta’s second innings as an actor began after starring in Ghosh’s 1997 film ‘Dahan’, which earned her a National Film Award for Best Actress alongside co-star Indrani Halder.

He later shifted from working with only Bengali actors to Bombay-based ones. He worked with Kirron Kher in ‘Bariwali’, Raakhee in ‘Shubho Mahurat’, Aishwarya Rai in ‘Chokher Bali’ and ‘Raincoat’, which also starred Ajay Devgn.

For his first English language film ‘The Last Lear’, Ghosh roped in megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal. Bipasha Basu also made her debut in Bengali films with Ghosh’s ‘Shob Charitro Kalponik’ in 2008.

His other National award winning films include ‘Dahan’, ‘Asukh’, ‘Chokher Bali’, ‘Utsab’, ‘Raincoat’, ‘Shubho Mahurat’, ‘Abohoman’, ‘Shob Charitro Kalponik’ and ‘The Last Lear’.

He hosted two celebrity chat shows- ‘Ebong Rituporno’ and ‘Ghosh and co’. He also was the scriptwriter of hit soap ‘Gaaner Opare’ for few initial episodes.

His last release was ‘Chitrangada’, a modern take on Rabindranath Tagore’s tale of the same name. The film won the special jury award at the 60th National Film Awards.

The cherished film-maker passed away of cardiac arrest at his south Kolkata residence. He was 49. The nation cries at the demise of a legend who is rightfully cremated with state-honors.

May his soul rest in peace.