Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Official facebook URL!

Hello loyal readers!

You will be happy to know that Taking Cover has finally gotten its own Facebook URL! All you need to do now to stay connected to all the latest posts and changes is simply type www.facebook.com in your address bar followed by a " / " and "takingcover". Simple! Ain't it?

So, here's the url. It has been linked to the facebook site, so go ahead and click if you want to take a look at the page right away!


www.facebook.com/takingcover

Thank you for all the support! Here's committing to more twisted articles, reviews, opinions and posts and whatever it takes to let you take cover from life.

Cheers!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Do I deserve any less?

I coerced not; I desired so.
I chose to face the tide.
Firmly grounded, assured of myself,
I was never the one to chide.

Knowing well what lied ahead
I chose to delve in the mess.
Tell me now; I took a leap of faith,
But do I deserve any less?

Beacons aplenty, traversed much,
The roads were smooth and plain.
But I chose not to follow the million such…
…I chose to adorn the path of disdain.
Not because I had no option,
Neither were obstacles the case,
And so I did, I took a leap of faith,
But do I deserve any less?

Rivers wide, I could be a part of,
But I chose to be that stream
Meandering through the unknown trough
I tried to emerge supreme.
Through the alleys of the less famous
I walked through the maze of stress
In everything I did, I took a leap of faith,
So do I deserve any less?

I chose to differ, I chose to change
I chose to alter belief,
I chose to carve a path for myself;
I chose to dig deep.
Moments weak, drained me off,
Stronger responses imparted me grace,
I chose to write my own destiny
Does that make me deserve any less?

I bled tears and mocked the time,
With a smile across my face,
Answer me; will there be a morrow sublime?
Will I deserve any less?

I stand by my choices today.
This hour, and this place,
Tell me now; I took a leap of faith…
But do I deserve any less?

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Its finger lickin' good!

Hey, so it was an usual evening out at KFC the other day, undoubtedly the best food joint for chicken lovers ever, and it happened to strike me as I was feasting on the featured 'Zinger' (probably the best in the business).

 
Now KFC makes good money with "Its finger lickin' good !! ". Well no doubt, it IS finger lickin' good! The food is simply amazing! 

Quite obviously, or you wouldnt have Navjot Singh Siddhu having two Zinger burgers for breakfast! 


The food's enthralling, supple, delicious and makes friends of enemies! So, how about "The hen is mightier than the sword" for a tagline?

Saturday, April 16, 2011

10 situations when you know you deserve to die!

Here's a short list of 10 situations when you know you don't deserve to live anymore! :

1.When you have a TV and don't know what Star World is! 
Hang yourself. 


2.When you don't know who Sachin Tendulkar is. 
The Indian government might put you up in the Most Wanted list for that.


3.When you find Orkut cooler than Facebook.
Its almost like suggesting Rajnikanth movies have better special effects than Spielberg's movies.


4.When you still forward Rajnikanth jokes thinking they are so hilarious! 
Yeah, blade cuts bullet into two! How cool is that? =/


5.When you don't find the Zinger Burger to be the best thing man has done with a chicken!
Consider visiting the asylum.


6.When you think America and USA are two different countries.
Really?

7.When you find Rakhi Sawant or Rahul Mahajan attractive. Stab yourself right now if you find both of them attractive. 

PS - If you are either Rakhi Sawant or Rahul Mahajan, go look into the mirror and then stab yourself.


8.When you're all alone in the darkness of the night and listening to Justin Bieber's song(s). 
Hey, what are you even thinking?! 


9.When you happen to like any of the following image :
(Note : The author of the blog does not take any responsibility for the loss of eyesight, color blindness, Myocardial infarction, severe trauma or any such effects this image might have on the readers)











10.When at the end of this, you're thinking of how to add to this list.
Post a comment. :P

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Baba Man - The father to all

Welcome friends, to this rather sombre story of a hero, a father figure and a legend who shall remain in our memories for years to come. The enigma called Sounak Sasmal might have escaped your attention for all these years but finally, I have taken the burden of sharing the story of the man who changed how the earth looked like (well, literally).

Born to Organic Chemistry and Satan, Sounak grew up in the backyard of Alexander Graham Bell with an astute love for the sciences. As a child he faced difficulties in being as kiddish and immature as the rest of the "kids". He was far too smart for the rest of the class, so he indulged in various other activities like making a submarine, helping Adolf Hitler with the German U boats in the second world war and also then conspiring against him and joining the opposition and helping the Americans come up with the Nuclear Bomb. His love for destruction was imminent, as he was the son of the bad ass himself, but his violent streak reached new heights when he was convicted for the murder of Janko Tipsarevic, allegedly because he found Janko's spectacles too thick and his name too difficult to pronounce.

Sounak on the verge of doing the "unmentionable" acts while solving Maths
Apart from his off time wonder activities, he got bored of the easiness of his tasks pretty quickly too. In the years of his adolescence and early teenage life, it was in these moments of boredom and in the safety of his basement, that he turned to self pleasure activities and resorted to Mathematics and Calculus, like a whore, gave him the pleasure of survival. He would lie by his books and self authored manuscripts all night and do things unmentionable on a family website.

And as soon as he stepped into the hotch-potch of teenage life, he started developing feelings for a woman named Kolo Toure. Through the eyes of a lover, he would stare at Kolo walking to school from behind the meadows and the bushes. He would keep looking at her for she was all that meant to him. Very soon, he gave up working part time and started writing letters to Kolo in different languages. Although he never got any replies, he kept writing them.. one each day, with the silent expectation that someday she would understand his feelings (since he didn't know what language Kolo spoke).

Kolo Toure's picture that was framed in Sounak's bedroom
He wrote and wrote and kept writing tirelessly. He even rejected NASA's offer to fly to the moon and let Neil Armstrong take his place (for which Neil Armstrong was greatly thankful, a fact he repeatedly insisted upon in his biography). After 6 months and 190 letters, he finally got a reply and with the reply, came a heartbreak.

After a 189 languages, Kolo finally replied to the letter he wrote in Mandarin Chinese. Kolo apologized for her lack of reciprocation and admitted that she always liked him. But she also confessed how her hands were tied (something which got him excited initially) and she could all but return his love for she was already in a relationship with Rohit Verma.

Sounak burnt in fury and couldn't stand this test of time. But his life's worst was yet to come. It was much later when DNA fingerprinting became possible in the later half of the 20th century that Sounak learnt the deepest, darkest secret of his life - his real parentage.

When he went for his regular check up, his doctor told him that Satan was not his real father. This came as a shock for he always took pride in being the son of the 'angel that fell'. All the years, Satan had tortured and abused him and he always took it as a symbol of love from his evil father. But now, all the hatred started making perfect sense. It got too much for him and sadly, on December 31st, 1982 he committed suicide by taking 5 IITJEE papers back to back - the worst form of suicide noted till date.

"Lekin picture abhi baaki hai mere dost" was not SRK's original dialogue. 
   
Yes you guessed it, Sounak was never to die. Within a year's time, a child was rescued in the Terai by a group of Chipko Movement activists and it was indeed Sounak's reincarnation - a theme which helped SRK and Farah Khan earn millions two decades later. 

Sounak striking his famous pose (2000)
(You can find it at all leading Madame Tussauds stores)
Burning with the pain of parental hatred and an unsuccessful love affair with the now dead Kolo, he quickly adapted himself to the trends of the twentieth century. In an attempt to look cool, he put on the Homer avatar - mindlessly eating away everything that came his way and acting nonchalant in every situation possible - Sounak was better than before. In the rage of Satan's misdemeanor, he started calling himself God and adopted the catchphrases "I'm god" and "I'm the one who decides" (although no one quite knew what he decided anyway).

In the fall of 1999, he moved to California and started working professionally as a cross dresser, posing in different ways in front of lustful bachelors from all over the world - an art in which he aced. He featured in the King'd'isher's calendar of 2010 where he came up with the best pose of all - the " I'm a pretty girl " pose - as it became famous. Over the years, it has achieved a cult status with models all over the world attempting it in all ways possible.



Sounak performing with Opeth - well pretending to at least.

Soon, the members of the much famed band, Opeth called him to be their official head banger and he accepted the offer without any hesitation. But his relationship with Opeth didn't last very long because he grew to be the focus of attention during their live performances, to the extent that people started visiting only to see him. 

Consequently, Opeth cancelled their contract with Sounak and after returning to India in 2007, he joined the school in the ninth standard at the age of 24. His many talents from his past life never ceased to exist and very soon, he was back to Calculus even before he grew a beard (at 25).
Sajal "The player" Chowdhury

It was his love life, though, which was not to be the same. Having realized the worthlessness in loving a woman, he decided never to have feelings for a girl anymore. Very soon his dreams came true as a handsome boy named Sajal Chowdhury joined school. Sajal was very muscular, heavily toned and fancied keeping pictures of naked men in his facebook account - something which had attracted Sounak. In his own words, he explains - "I felt like the central point in a current loop where the Magnetic Field intensity (B) is equal to (Mu-zero x N x I / 2 x a) ... " and he started to figure out the actual force acting on him at this point and made himself unavailable for any more comments.

In the days ahead, their relationship grew and happy days came by. The know-it-all guy blossomed under the chaperon of his love, Sajal and grew to the reputation of the exploits of his previous life. He became the best scientist in the years to come and invented the Neurtino telescope to read messages from aliens and won a Nobel prize in for his book "The Definite Integrals of love".

History is often manipulated and so far, our authors have overlooked this great man. But, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and a Sounak in each one of us.



Pictures Courtesy - Soudip Dutta. (and if you're planning to sign him to shoot your next calendar, Dr.Mallya - you're going to have to give me permission to see the photo shoot too :P <eager eyes> )

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The window of opportunity

The last time I blogged was so many days back that I really don't remember when it was! Well, credit goes to the highly efficient education system that our country has. The last two months have been the roughest in my short life. First, there was the ISC and then the much hyped IIT JEE.

Well, I wouldn't really admit I aced either. I had made a decision early into the last two years of my schooling that I would not sell out my participation in school for the sake of cracking the JEE and needless to say, it messed up my preparations pretty effectively. I wasn't an "all in for the IIT", but it was something which always had the appeal. Cracking the JEE     is an achievement, but an achievement I wouldn't have the distinction of making.

Yeah, as I said, the last two months have been very challenging, on emotional and psychological grounds. Being thoroughly under prepared, thanks to my over involvement in extra curricular, I was practically left with a months' time to prepare for my school-leaving board examinations, something which would single-handedly     become the deciding factor while getting admissions into colleges. I crammed up as much as possible and took the examination amidst an homely, yet unsettled environment.

Then came the "2 weeks before the JEE" and 18 hours a day didn't help me this time. I tried hard, very. But, sometimes all you can do is accept what destiny has for you. I could have changed it all, but then I didn't. Do I repent my decision? No. The two years at school, living each day for the friends, for the teachers, for the passion - nothing can overcome those moments. 


So, what is this writing all about, then?
No, its not my mind giving excuses and explanations for why I failed. Thing is, I never failed. No one can. Life is too short to fail. In the loving it lies the essence of living it and I love my life too much to fail.


Life will go on, as it always does. And pretty soon I may start believing in myself yet again and eventually might even pursue a career based on my passion. Someone had scripted "Whatever happens, happens for the good". I may have long denied the existence of what people call "God", but maybe there is a higher power which decides what is best for us. An opportunity missed is not a failure but just God's mysterious way of reminding us that it was not the right door.


The right door is always just round the corner, all it takes is a bit of courage to take the path that leads to the door. If life is all about choices, go by the heart. For the heart is stronger than the mind and reason can never defeat passion.