A Brief History of Change

BC 65 million:
An Asteroid Strikes; Wipes out Dinosaur Population, the course of evolution of Life on the Planet Changes

BC 10 million:
An ape takes a small step upright; humanity takes a leap forward, the saga of anthropology Changes

BC 3200:
An Egyptian develops hieroglyphic writing, the process of communication and knowledge aggregation Changes

BC 509:
Roman Republic is founded, political and social setup of human civilizations Changes

AD 1:
The Christ is born; A Mel Gibson gets the subject for his passion; Eras of Beliefs and Calendars Change

AD 820:
An Al-Khwaizini invents Algebra; Comfort levels of Generations of High School Students to come Change

AD 1492:
A Columbus discovers America, the destination of freedom and prosperity seekers for generations to come Changes

AD 1776:
A James Watt invents steam engine, an Industrial Revolution Changes the scale of Human Enterprise

AD 1879:
An Edison invents Incandescent Bulb Power Equation of Day & Night Changes

AD 1969:
A Concorde is airborne; the relative Speed of Transatlantic sound waves Changes

AD 1991:
A Manmohan Singh assumes office; a nation’s economic orientations Change

AD 2000:
A Y2K bug mania bites computer Systems, the face of Indian IT Industry Changes

AD 2007:
A magazine by the name of THiNK is published in BIT Mesra.


Crash! Boom! What the Hell!


Wait a second! I thought we were talking about change here?!
Yeah!

Change.

That's what THiNK is all about.
About stepping out of the cast mould. Away from the mindless rush of life to ascertain one's identity. No, THiNK is not a movement. It's just a thought. Exhorting you to THiNK.

To stay hungry. To stay foolish.

In these two lines lies the paradox of this idea.
Stay Hungry.
For more knowledge. For more of everything in life.
Stay Foolish.
Not dumb. Not arrogant. Humble. plain ol' simble you.

Like all good things under the sun, this idea was born during a time when ideally the idle mind where it sprung to life should have been doing something else. Like studying Electromagnetic Theory. or Linear Control Theory for that matter. But it was elsewhere. Musing to itself, to try and do something different. Something off the beaten path. I think the original idea came to me sometime around idle week following the mid-term papers, when we were preparing to return home and stuff our faces with good food. It went something like this:

Left> so what are we gonna do this semester?
Right> something different?

{
Note to reader:
Left and Right (L & R henceforth) can be freely interpreted as per the limits of your imagination. They are however to be both treated as mutually exclusive integral parts of the author. Suggestions include parts of:
a> the brain
b> vacuum occupying the place of the AWOL brain
c> alter egos - without the obvious political leanings of course
d-z> your imagination?
}

L> let's continue blogging.
R> Na, that was last year's idea. Something else.
L> like what?
R> how about actually writing?
L> you mean like a novel? That will take umpteenillion millennia to finish, and longer to spell-check, proof read, plus it will never be published.
R> hmmm. Point.
L> so what to we do?
R> you temme.
L> ahem. I know this may sound lame, but how about resurrecting Zog's idea?
R> which one? Starting a movie library?
L> No dude. The other one.
R> Ok. You mean setting up a propah coffee shop-cum-eating joint near the library wi-fi hotspot, right?
L> seriously! I am surprised I happen to be connected to you. I am talking about Buzz-In-Town. R> What! Not that Gossip rag! Isn’t that the reason she buried it in the first place?
L> exactly. Let's come out with something more like, you know, my style...
R> you mean a half-baked re-incarnation of Douglas Adam's writing that no one this side of the galaxy can interpret?
L> uh.........
R> loaded with brain teasers, quizzes, useless trivia, comic strips, smart alec comments on everything under the sun and over it, et al?
L> uh.........
R> that is sure to ruffle some feathers and other appendages of most people that hear about it? That will be another time sink for you?
L> uh.........
R> Well, You are absolutely right. Sounds exactly up your alley. Let's do it. But how are you gonna mange it?
L> uh........., what?!
R> I said, how are you gonna manage it? What form will it be? What will it be called? Who’s gonna do the designing? Who will contribute to it?
L> I think I need to sit down.
R> what you need is another shot of caffeine.
L> yes that will do just fine.

Post Caffeine Ingestion

L> hmm. Name... the obvious moniker will have to serve as a placeholder till I THiNK of something better.
R> and what’s the obvious moniker called in these parts?
L> think.
R> I am.
L> no, THiNK.
R> Huh, why can’t you just say it?
L> i already told ya. T H i N K.
R> oh. Right then. What about the....
L> you know what your problem is? You never...
R> Eh? Which one?
L> What?! Now how am i supposed to know which one?
R> you should. You are the one that brought it up in the first place.
L> ya right. So why don’t you just make a proper numbered list of all of them and we could check later which one it is that we were discussing, or add it to the list if it isn’t already there.
R> ok.
L> as i was saying, your problem is...
R> but what am I gonna call it?
L> call what?
R> the list of course.
L> how about things that aren't right?
R> but that describes you doesn’t it?
L> yes, but not exclusively. Or completely.
R> ok. "Things that aren't right" it is. You were saying...
L> saying what?
R> that my problem number is...
(whispering- x being a placeholder for its number on the list you see).
L> ah yes. Since you ask, just not these down. Firstly …
R> you are dictating a list.
L> that’s right, and you are to be taking it down without interrupting me, get it?
R> ok. Go ahead, make my day
L> ya rite. Ok, where was i?
R> 3rd rock from the sun
L> i mean where as in...
R> Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
L> Jesus Christ Bananas!
R> Alright, alright. Firstly?
L> God! Yes. Firstly, you never stop
Secondly, you make hyperspace jumps at every pause for breath on part of the other person communicating with you, or trying to.
Thirdly, you leave all others confused, dazed and tired from jetlag / spacelag / whateverlag, trying to keep up with you
Fourthly ... what are you doing?
R> … … …
L> hello? I’m talking to you.
R> … … …
L> will you bloody answer me?
R> No.
L? No?
R> N. O.
L> why?
R> I’m trying not to interrupt your stream of thought, seeing how hard it is for you to get into it in the first place.
L> ok. I give up. What do you say we do?
R> are you sure you can handle it?
L> ya
R> absolutely?
L> yup
R> positively?
L> yes
R> lock kiya jaaye?
L> Y.E.S. Is that clear, or you want it in writing on stamp paper, signed in triplicate, attested in duplicate and sealed by legal counsel?
R> Nah. that will do.
L> so...
R> so what?
L> WHAT DO WE DO?
R> oh that? Yes yes.
L> well?
R> ya. catch some carbon based life form, show it how hard it is living the way we do, with this endless stream of ideas and thoughts, focus on the one's about fun, food, enjoyment, college and print THiNK diagonally in bold across it.
L> and?
R> that should be enough to put things into perspective. Meanwhile we can think of more things to shock the living daylights of the poor thing. What say you?
L> Seems like a plan.

Ok.
(deep breath)

So that is something of what went on in the devil's workshop before i manage to dupe Mr. insaneunknown into listening to my latest brainstorm
(believe me; you have no idea why it is called a Brain-STORM!). He further suggested SS (Not the Schutz Staffel, in case you were wondering) & logistics undefined. I decided to call everyone to a war conference at the canteen, threw in the zog as part of a forgotten package deal and Voila! We had the editorial team of THiNK ready. That left the creative group/team/person issue dangling. At which point the lioness was lured in, putting my fears to rest (in pieces…) with sharp measured ninja chops of creativity. Whatever that means. So the next day at the canteen, i managed to dole out the stuff swimming in my mental cavity, between bites and sips of a free treat from idontknowwho. Well, that's that, and this is THiNK now.

What originated as a bored gestation of thought seems to have picked up some wind, even if it should only be from half a dozen individuals, at least it's there.

So come the Ides of March in the year of our lord 2007, THiNK shall be distributed as a PDF on orkut, Gmail and bit-mesra.ac.in (God & Pant Sir be willing).

Dear weary reader, if you have managed to reach here unscathed, drop me a line and I promise to treat you to a coffee at the canteen and a copy of THiNK.
Alternatively, you can also take your revenge by sending in your contribution to bit.think@gmail.com


Auf Wiedersehen
(Google it out if you don’t know German! that's what I did.)

And meanwhile,


THiNK
stay hungry, stay foolish.