Soldier of Fortune

Born to be a Soldier, of Fortune
little did he know,
roamed around the cities of desert
with the colors & music of sand

Amidst the clanks of Kanche
& strums of Gulli Danda
little did he know,
he was born to be a soldier, of fortune.


Lone, he moved, authoring his own strokes,
sorting the terrene riddles,
little did he know,
whats waiting for him, next

The storms of desert erasing his footsteps,
come to rest in the sands of time
little did he know,
'A stitch in time saves nine.'

The Loner clamped the company of sailors
He danced on the deck, savored the crab, relished the salmon & fancied the crazy claim
little did he know,
accidents do happen, out of the blue

The horizon on the sea, beautiful,
waves, calm & composed
little did he know,
face facts of the sea, chivalry of Poseidon, deceit of pirates and rivalry of sea & desert.


Born to be a soldier of fortune,
fighting a lost war
little did he know,
he will never be a loner again

Accidents do happen & will never cease to happen,
All good things comes to, who he waits
Born to be a soldier of fortune,
little did he know.



Saurabh.

Conversations! (for the, by the, of the, Research student)

An old friend after having some regular chit chat and greetings, asked me about my current lab. How is your new lab.? Are you fitting in? 

(How can I tell him/her that I always fit  in the lab, somehow just not the Boss.. :D)

He continued, " Are you satisfied?

(Tell me one research student satisfied with his lab and Boss at the same time, :P. And I will tell you, you know what, its not the Boss's fault too. I have heard it a lot from respectable personalities, some of them retired scientists of a premier research institute in India, that G N  Ramachandran (Fame - Ramachandran maps) was a horrible guide. When I say horrible, please don't imagine your Boss. He used to ask his PhD students to work from 7 am to blah blah and a lot of more blah blah. Oh! Did i just interrupt your interest? Boooom. You thought you are going to read some shit about some great personality. Nopes.. these things are fun only worth listening from fellow research students. Well when I was gossiping about this with my flat mate, I got to know that his mother was a PhD student under G N and she told him that C V Raman, Boss of G N Ramachandran was more of a tyrant. People who think G N was something, C V would have been a real monster to them. So, you see, my point is G N behaved as his Boss did with him. This is why I think that there is no point in abusing the Boss, because some day we might also become like them, and then there will be others abusing us. :D)

After a flash of all this I thought of replying, "Yes, I am", instead I went ahead with changing the topic.

Are you done with shopping for your wedding? (He is getting married soon. Its a punishment for a punishment (PhD), yet a dream of every research student.)

But he is quite strong willed person, ignoring my question, he continued, " Are you planning to join a PhD./?/! (Since there were no punctuation marks, I thought of all of them, but couldn't get it anyways.)

Of cos, 'm trying.

 He continued,"You have to change your life." 

(That I did, when I thought of coming to research.)

But I went ahead like this, " What are you talking about? (I really had no idea, there are so many things in my life, what to change?)

Are you trying to get a PhD?

Of cos, 'm.

Then join a PhD?

For that, I should get a position.

I will give you an advice. 

("Ok, here it comes." I thought.)

Change your life./!/? (I hope, by now you know what it means.)

Explain.

You know what I am talking about. (For God's sake and Devil's heaven, I don't know, really)

This is not what we have been taught.

Explain in detail, don't talk riddles.

I think I am very clear, you have to change the way you think. OK! let me re-frame it. You have to change your path, the Path of your life.

(Oh, damn it, its too late to leave Science, I can't even appear for any of the civil services now.)

What can i do? What are you talking about? (Its like an Immunology class I used to take, where the Prof. used to jump from one thing to another unrelated thing and after a while I used to loose track of the original. I can bet, even the professor used to.)

You can do a lot! Don't waste your time on all these. Time is very precious. You have to start thinking something on other lines. If you want to join PhD, then be direct.

(Oh God, finally I got somebody. with whom I can discuss about her. Oh God, finally somebody is interested in my old, boring, weird story.)

I wish I could waste my time on her. But I have a lot of problems to deal with besides her.

I am not talking about her. (Day Dream crashed). She will be yours, if you are truthful and not stupid.(However lame, but it felt good)

After talking about the research and the life associated with it for a little while longer, we said good byes and here I am to write all that off.

TO BE CONTINUED..
(in the next Conversations!)

Saurabh.

Note - This is a spoof of the conversation I had with my friend. In case you find it boring, its because, I spiced it with the flavor of a normal research student's life and you are definitely a research student then.