straight from the gut !

(By Jaidip Kumar )


"To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour…" ----William Blake
Neev'10 is a coming of age! Of an institution, of a team, of identities and most importantly of ideas!
From ‘Shakespeare’ to ‘Duality’ to ‘War on war’, the themes before have majorly revolved around our manifestations and expressions, on giving a vent to the feelings that arise from within and without.
This year the theme makes an attempt to look inward and appears to be very much in sync with the youth of today. The storm that is raging inside each one of us, the conflicting ideas, the canned emotions, the commotion, the stir, and the volcanoes waiting to erupt.
But it is also about us finding peace with the ambivalence, the confrontations we have with our consciences every day and our coming to terms with it and about our fighting the wars with our inner selves and not caring about consequences.
And on the next level it is also about the most innate and quintessential spirits of man- innovation and ingenuity. At some level, all of us have not only come to terms with the commotion inside us but have also nonchalantly used it to constantly innovate and come up with excellent creations.
All these point at only one thing, the spirit of man to be able to use the chaos within him, his ability to pick the elements from there and ignite that spark of innovation. NEEV’10 is a celebration of that spirit!
It is a clarion call to shed all the inhibitions and apprehensions, of allowing one self to sink in the sea of uncertainty, of closing our superficial eyes only to find that enlightened vision, of finding that exquisite design in the shades of darkness, of humming that enrapturing note amidst all the cacophony and most importantly, in spite of all the turbulence, finding that long held dream… come true…
So, Consider and Explore… The clutter and elegance… The cacophony and euphony… The constraints and effervescence… The callousness and euphoria… The concoction and exclusivity… The cross section and essence…
Come and Experience…
CHAOS and EFFECT!!

Poetic Justice to "Chaos and effect"

(By Chavi Jain)

Amidst the obscure, hidden in confusion,
Lies an effort to achieve a mission..
Our mission, for others trivial may seem,
But its our vision, our life, our dream..
for that - there are tries and retries,
there are many pains but no one cries..
The strength matures to a drive to succeed,
While travelling on your own with no one to plead..
The harder you try, the closer you get,
Though goals remain far from being met..
For all your effort , there is a time,
You finally get your priority prime..
The roads that are blocked, the path unidentified..
amidst the crossroad yet mystified..
When there is no halt and efforts still prevail,
Confused and Obscure you still wish to sail..
Sailing in the journey, a new place you reach,
a different lesson every experience will teach..
That discovery can now be a new mission,
Opening a door for a brighter vision..
Yes, it’s a path whose destination none can detect,
A journey that is called “CHAOS TO EFFECT”...

A take on the theme

( Contributed by Jatin Gajwani )

Chaos prevails in the absence of order and predictability. A situation, where even the unknown may happen, but it will be unexpected. Really speaking, what is unexpected – that the unknown may happen? No, absolutely not. One does recognize the idea that the unknown may happen. But what’s unpredictable is the shape the unknown will take. What will it replace? What will it cause? Will it be good / bad? What it will CHANGE? What its EFFECT will be? Is chaos fearful?

Chaos can be an easier and faster means to desired result. Chaos can be caused to achieve that result. The genesis of every great idea is chaos. Lack of satisfaction with the current, or lack of complete satisfaction with the current. The desire to explore greater depths of satisfaction – an acceptance that the current is not the best, and that better can be found. Through chaos.

Trust a lazy man to find the shortest way to destination. That is the symphony of laziness and efficiency. But are all efficient lazy? No. Are all lazy efficient? Not at all. But both arise from chaos.

A lazy man accepts his laziness and refuses to bow to chaos. Lives life on his own terms. May be disappointed from his current state. But may not do much about it, despite a desire to live and do better. In a way, he defies chaos and fights it, by being the very same.

An efficient man refuses to accept status quo and decides he can do better, whatever be his limitations. His desire to do better, his courageous acceptance that his effort was his best, but not the best. Perhaps the reward of this psychological struggle is an efficient improvement, the result of chaos.

“Chaos and effect” as an idea, can also be measured in terms of the result of chaos, which is, often, different from the effect of chaos. There are various ways in which one can examine the result of chaos. Is result of chaos the change it brings? Or is it the effect? Can it be both?

An example – When Benazir Bhutto was martyred, there was a thought in Pakistan, if it could survive as a state. She was after all the – ‘charon subon ki zanzeer’ (Bond of the four provinces) – the beloved leader of her people. Were they Muslims or were they pro or anti PPP? Were they all Punjabis, Balochis, Sindhis, Pasthoons and Mohajirs? Or were they Pakistanis? Could they be all? That was the chaos. And the result was the violence that followed her death. The effect was the unpopularity of Prez. Musharraf. But the result was Zardari coming on national TV and saying – ‘Pakistan Khape’ (we want Pakistan). To assess the chaos, we saw the effect of it – the manifestation of chaos. To address the display of symptoms of chaos, we had the result. Does chaos exist in mind alone? Not in this case.

We visualize chaos through the effects of it, its best manifestations. But, its visible manifestations. How does one examine from the outside the struggles within the mind? What portrays outside that envelopes the struggles within?

Does chaos always throw up a leader? It certainly made Mr. 10% of Pakistan look like a perfect practicing democrat, unaffected by the ills of democracy. It threw up a leader, an alternative. Was it a better alternative? Yes, to the extent that the cancer of the past was eradicated. The unwanted were removed. That was the effect of chaos. That the effect dint live up to the expectations was the result of the chaos.

If necessity is the mother of invention, chaos is the father. Perhaps it is chaos alone that makes a dissatisfied person an inventor. The chaos enables him to travel the journey from inquisitiveness to answerability, from asking the right questions to offering the correct solutions, from the unknowns of the dark to the enlightenment of the bright.

Maybe chaos should be read and understood from the effect it has on each one of us. Does it make us explore more territories? Or do we want to live with status quo? Does this depend on what we think the unfolding of chaos will bring about. Do our responses differ on our innate abilities to experiment and take risk? Do we actually decide what our responses are?

Or does fate play a role? Really, to go back to the example of Bhutto, she landed amidst more chaos in October 2007, when she returned to her homeland. There were nearly 2 million people out on the streets celebrating her arrival. Her cavalcade was attacked. But she lived through it – through the chaos, killing. Her journey from the known to the unknown was unscathed. Was that not her fate? But, that didn’t stop her from meeting her end two months later. Towards a larger unknown!

Chaos and Effect : Theme Introduction

"Do I dare ,
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse"

- The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock (T.S. Eliot)

Behind every invention lies buried a story that is not too enticing. The journey of all inventors is characteristic of pain, suffering , inhibitions and an overwhelming CHAOS ! A chaos that persists within the mind of the inventor , keeps misguiding and guiding him on his odyssey.

It is easy to succumb to the temptation of leading a life that is clinically correct. A life where each day is spent pondering over dental health , social gatherings and board meetings. To smile back at fake smiles of recognition , to show concern for issues that don`t actually bother and to tie oneself up with laces of relationships is something that is bred into the bones and happens effortlessly.

Right from birth each freeman is entangled within a web wound by education , morality and religion. In such a situation there is not much element of chaos involved . Chaos begins from the moment of hating the wrong that pretends to be right.

Chaos is the journey between what I hate and what I am or may be what I could be.
Between known religion and an unknown realisation comes Chaos.

Chaos is a state of mind where the age-old customary thought process is strangulated and killed.
A state where the genesis of a thought is independent of all existing knowledge.

Chaos breeds hatred for everything that is obvious and everything that is worshipped as convention. Chaos breeds selfishness in the form of not caring much for the world around. Chaos trains the mind to deal with rising eye-brows with a state of arrogance.

Chaos is hated by the god-fearing because each and every tale of chaos has consequentially led to a change that was lethal for previous knowledge.

Chaos leads to invention. Chaos calls for redefinition. Chaos causes a storm that uproots the firm pillars of establishment and mutiliates well loved facts beyond recognition.


NEEV '10 is a celebration of this million year old omnibus of stories of "Chaos and Effect". It is a tribute to the inventor of fire , the man who rolled the first wheel, the man who pressed the first trigger , the hand that waved from within the first engine that ran and each and every change that converted the garden of eden to the world today.

NEEV ' 10 salutes all warriors who fought not knowing who is an ally and who belongs to the other side of the fence.