From shadows to the stars

It was a Tuesday. That should've been a clue. Tuesday's are inauspicious and I should've known better (Mars 'rules' on this day of the week.. and you know how that works out, right?). But I had no choice. My college was starting on the next day and I had to get settled into the hostel. Okay, I'll be honest. It wasn't all bad. But experiencing stuff like an electricity transformer exploding, getting drenched thrice in the rain, sleeping on a bed with no mattress and waking up to find that a cat had given birth in your room – and all this in the space of barely 12 hours – is one hell of a roller coaster ride, don't you think? Oh and did I mention that there was only one cot in my hostel room that was supposed to accommodate two people. One heck of a way to start a new chapter in your life. After I had dumped my stuff off in the room, me and my roommate (who I was acquainted with even before joining University of Hyderabad) wanted to get to the ce...

RO #1 Have you ever thought about the expression 'lost x kg'. When someone says, “I lost five kilograms in the last month”, isn't the expression weird? It sounds like when this particular someone was walking, suddenly a blob weighing 5 kg fell out of their pocket and they did not notice. Or someone broke into their body and stole 5 kg while they were sleeping. The expression “I shed 5 kg in the last month” sounds much more accurate in describing the process that this person has gone through. RO #2 When a food item smells good, does the taste of this item also automatically feel good to the person eating it? I am not trying to say that if we were somehow to make rotting food (or other disgusting items) aromatic, we would delude ourselves into thinking its good. Consider your daily meal. If we were to make this meal smell better than it usually does, would we feel that it is somehow better than it is every other day? RO #3 I know that they say when in love yo...

He who does not learn from history is bound to repeat it. During most of the 20th century, large parts of Europe were under Fascistic or totalitarian governments. Such a large occurrence cannot be construed as a coincidence. What could be the reason behind this simultaneous sweep of dictatorial governments across Europe? The people wanted a 'strong leadership'. Rattled by the war (the First World War), most of these countries were in disarray. The economy was faltering, the morale was low and people were desperate for a 'strong leader' who would lead them from gloom to glory. This strong leadership is of course a politically correct way of saying 'dictator'. This mood of the people was exploited by fascists to seize power and instill their conservative, authoritarian and totalitarian governments. Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Stalin and Ataturk all came to power due to the desire of the people to have a strong leadership (of course, their own c...