A funny incident

Now, the interesting thing about putting the word FUNNY in the title is, it raises the expectation of the text written below and by the end most certainly it won't be funny any longer. But still this is the best possible title I could actually think of. So, here it goes:

This particular incident happened somewhere around my 3^rd of Engineering. More on that later but a bit of background before that. I always had this habit of copying stuff from somewhere and putting it somewhere else as my own. As people who know me, already know how crappy my writing is. Things were much worse than they are now (w.r.t my writing). So…. I adapted!!!

My first attempt at plagiarism (creative writing if looked from my perspective) started when I was in 6^th std or somewhere around that, when I copied Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem "Aa Rahi Ravi Ki
Savaari" and replaced only the word "RAVI" with "SURAJ" in the entire poem… So my poem became "Aa Rahi suraj ki savaari". I was proud of myself as the poem looked spectacular. Submitted it to my Hindi teacher (whom, I expected not to notice. After all, my innocent mind never thought anyone would be knowing some dude called Harivansh Rai Bachchan). Now expecting appreciation I was eagerly waiting for my teacher to call me, but that call never came. Instead my parents were called to school and rest is history. After this I realized Harivansh Rai Bachchan was not just another dude, who none knew.

My second attempt, was in 11^th std. U see some habits never get cured. This time I see a nice little fiction story written in my brother's school magazine. Found it very interesting and copiable J. So next, my school magazine invites people to submit articles to be published. So, I did what a respectable gentleman should do, Copied the story, changed name of characters to that of my class mates(to look authentic) and submitted. And what happens when the magazine comes out, the story gets published on the 1^st page. Instant celebrity status, only to get abused by the classmates who's name were mentioned. That was OK but now, problem arose when one of the teacher, whose child was studying in my bro's school had already read the story… The rest is again history…

Then I joined Engg… J My skills were put to best use here. So, coming to the final funny incident which I had intended to write. There was this social club in my college called LEO club and TOI used to print these poems in their editorials under the Title ,"The Speaking Tree". I guess rest of the incident can be understood with just this information, but I still will continue my story. So again, the same thing happens, LEO club invites all students to submit articles for its college magazineJ. I normally don't understand most of the poems, in general (may be bcoz I hardly get the metaphors used), but this poem in the SPEAKING TREE "seemed" spectacular (as I couldn't understand it again). It was about some blind child taking a dried & rotten flower to a lady who was sad, only that the lady was so dumb that she didn't realize the child was blind, something like that.. So, I did again what I was good at, copied the whole poem, omitted a few stanzas (as it was very long) and signed below and sent in the entry. Was pretty sure people would have already read it in the newspaper and in no way would get selected.

But, here came the turning point. The General secretary/Chief Editor of the club calls a friend of mine and asks him if he could meet me. I said, "It will be difficult (as those days I had a very hectic schedule of sleeping and watching FRIENDS), but OK J ". So, I went to meet him all set to get abused for copying stuff and for thinking they were idiots etc etc. I meet this guys and believe it or not he was f*cking impressed with my writing. He asks me, if I had any other compilation. He was so floored with "my" style of writing. Said no way it was my first piece and that he and his club would love to do a complete publication of "my" work. Vaguely I remember some of the lines he said, "You must be maintaining a diary or something with your "other" compilations. what motivated u to write such a beautiful poem. how do you get such beautiful thoughts. I think u should leave engg and become a poet(ya right!!). You r so talented. Please promise me that next time u write something u will fwd it to me.. blah blah".. Now, unfortunately this fellow was a dude (only that I wished he was a pretty girl).. Anyways, I decide not to b a spoil sport and decided to play along. My replies were something like this, "Ya, I do have a dairy(not diary), but it's at home in Delhi. I just scribble at times, I don't think I am such a good writer(u see I was telling the truth here), sometimes I just sit alone and think about people & how they behave with the world outside, which gives me ideas for such poems. I think u just say this to flatter me. Ya sure will send u next time anything I write but can't promise if u would like it.. blah blah…"

In the end, I almost started thinking that all I need to do was just to write a novel and will directly get nominated for the booker's prize or may be b win it. So I go back home with my head held high and feeling like DiCaprio standing on the edge of Titanic… Proudly I tell my roomies abt the outstanding poem I wrote etc… told them just to wait till my poem is out in the publication. Finally after couple of weeks, the magazine wass out and surprisingly my AWESOME poem was not published. So, I ask a friend who knew the magazine editor , "What happened??" He just said 3 words ,"He Found OUT"……. And after that this editor guy never talked to me till the end of my Engg…. At times, I do wonder what he could have said had we met. J

After all these years have passed, I have decided to do what I am good at, professionally. I have joined the Great Indian IT Sector, and now I do ctrl+C and ctrl+V the whole day and get paid for it J