second breath

second breath is typically defined as something which u find when u really crave for it... though in the dictionary it has several words like doggedness, perseverance, persistence, tenaciousness etc., I like the sound of "second breath".



the term is usually associated with sport, that's where Rahul first heard it at least... it was one of those days when he was literally tricked out of bed to go to jog (don’t get the impression that it happens every time… just once in a while)... ok...when you know one of your best friends is on his way to keep a commitment to go to jog and you're still with your lazy ass in bed, what do u do? Usually it becomes too much to handle for a mind that’s just started to get used to the fact that its morning already and that’s when you in some freak moment decide to keep your side of the bargain...I know u might feel I’m exaggerating but it can be totally vindicated... especially when you are an eighty kilo, big ass bum, who has up to now blamed the same guy for not waking him up...



ok so moving on… they go to jog, and Rahul wont pretend that he’s used to it, as it is that’s hard to do, I guess it all shows when the huffing and puffing almost sounds like the rhythm of a toy train, and the heart beat is like drums as in some metallica song, only out of tune. Of course his friend can’t feel that way, as already they’re running too slow by his standards which can be described by his winning of badminton championship and records in swimming in running waters of the Ganga… and in a sudden caprice to converse, he decides to help him out… he said “keep running… you’re close to the second breath”…



now this was after they’d run some 200m and it did come, I mean Rahul felt like dying at that particular moment and suddenly it was like his muscles had found a new oil well… they ran till the college gate (that’d be another 500m) before he asked if he’d have any third or fourth breaths … he still wonder what was it that was so funny about it, because he smiled, and said “no my friend only one second breath”… and they decided to walk their way back to the hostel…

rahul learns to fight

rahul became a part of the 'music cult' when he was 11 years old... the first songs he heard were of aqua, vengaboys etc. but as he grew, tastes changed, "its my life" by bon jovi caught his ear and he's been a fan ever since. then he understood the beauty that lied in the lyrics, the way those hardly decipherable words made amazing rhyme and meaning was much more than captivating and that's where he found another spring to derive inspiration from. since then music had played an important role in rahul's life. the fact that one can almost always justify the happenings in one's life and relate it to some song or the other is nothing short of baffling. hats off to lyricists worldwide.just read the lines below and maybe u'll understand what i mean more clearly...



"i've been knocked down so many times,


counted out, six seven eight nine


bring it off like some bad deal,


if you're breathing you know how it feels,...





chorus:


call it karma,


call it luck,


me i just dont give up


bounce bounce nothings gonna keep me down,


bounce bounce stand up shout it out...


i play hard, i play to win,


count me out count me in


i'll be bouncing back again...






this aint no game i play it hard


cut around all stitched and scarred


i'll take the hit but not the fall


i know no fear still standing tall…






chorus…"



now this tells you, there are times you'll get hit, but nothings wrong in that, everyone does, for if you come out of a battle without any scars, one would only assume that you never entered the battlefield. you gotto have scars, bitter memories, which will help you fight the next battle, and thats why you should not run from it "i know no fear" but go right in, "still standing tall".



he first heard this song when he was preparing for iit-jee. at times when he was angry with himself (various reasons can account for that), he'd tell himself that the goal lies at the end of the crusade and that he has to keep walking. he cant afford the luxury to be displeased over a failure. any ways iit didnt happen, and probably you'll now conclude that "i knew these things are not practical... they just look good in books", but lemme tell you they do work, what happened with rahul was not because the principle is wrong, but because he failed to apply it fully.



if one tries to fathom the depth of the lake with a stick and realise that the stick one is using is not long enough, then not many have the inspiration to go and find another becuz one would have to unclog the sweat glands which you havn't used ever since, and even if you do and go and find a bigger stick, chances are that it's still not enough... that's when one decides that the lake is actually an ocean and "i cannot measure it, others might have done it, but the've just been lucky". yes they were lucky because someone told them that patience and persistence are two prerequisites one must possess and practise continuously, not because someone gave them the stick of the right size first up.



now as he listened to this song just before he is to start preparing for his next exam, all these thoughts come back. he feels now that he is better prepared for his next battle.

brainy wave

*continued from brainwave...



so rahul finds this particularly interesting, i.e., saying a punchline and then interpreting it in different ways.



one... the obvious, i.e., you can surely save your jeans by rolling it up. two, if one thinks in the broader sense then one might say it shows that rahul is flexible, i.e., he's not one of those people that would do just anything else but to look back unto themselves and say "this is where actual work is supposed to be done... on me" or it might show your confidence (in analogy to rolling up your sleeve, for the ones who find it out of place, i'll clarify that it was a suggestion given by my roommate).



but here is what rahul actually thought. being a thinker and having asked himself many a questions about life (and many times at that), he has somehow tuned himself to learn from whatever life brings on and here one can see that when someone is confronted with a problem, the solution is awfully close (though one cannot generalise this, well if tomorrow you come to know that you have lung cancer, you cannot do anything abt it, can ya, oh... you can stop smoking... anyways... you get the point)...



here's another angle to it, one has to do everything bottom up, actually it should be inside out but one can adapt him/herself to conclude the same...
and one more... when one sees in a distance an uneasy journey approaching its usually better to equip him/herself before you begin.
i think i've used more brain cells today than i usually do so i'm gonna stop there... however let me tell you there could be more entailments, so people keep scratching...