Rats Galore

Hogenekkal discovered!

2009-06-01T11:43:00.002+05:30

Yesterday I went on another long drive on my bike. Usually I decide on the route I want to go on in advance, I memorize all the turns, places I want to eat etc their distances down to the last kilometer. Since I dont know Kannada and Tamil I need to do this, because in villages asking for directions can get a bit tricky.

Yesterday I just got up and decided to drive to Hogenekkal. However the internet was not working properly so I couldnt do my research. I knew that the place is about 120 Km from Bangalore, I knew the two major towns near it as well, and since Hogenekkal is quite famous I thought I will just ask for directions. So off I went at 10 am... (without knowing how to get there)

I took the Hosur road (NH 7), drove straight till Krishnagiri. The drive was good, lots of greenrey, hills on either side of the highway and very less traffic. At Krishnagiri I asked for directions to Hogenekkal from a shopkeeper. All I understood was 'Kaveripattam' and 'right'. So I took a right turn from Kaveripattam leaving NH 7 behind. It was a 2 lane road, not very good, leading to a very very small town Kaveripattam. In the middle of the town I saw a small board, ( I almost missed this), pointing towards Hogenekkal 72 Km. At this point I was though about turning back, because 72 Km on that road was a crazy idea. It was already close to 1 pm and I had to go home before night as well.

Still I thought I have come so far, lets check out this road as well. After a few kms I was essentially in the middle of nowhere. It was a one lane road, with enough bumps to make going past 40-50 kmph impossible. Both sides of the road there was just greenrey and hills, and I would encounter just an occasional hut and not a signboard in English!. After a while I decided to call up someone and try to figure out where I was. The signal wasnt great but luckily managed to call up Ashok ( the call disconnected gazillion times in 15-20 minutes). Asked him to open a map, told him how I got to where I was and somehow he figured out that I wasnt too far off the course. ( I still cant find the road I was on in google maps!) He gave me some directions and names of villages I might encounter... Palacode and Pennagram. While redialling Ashok's number for the nth time I had also managed to stop a taxi going in the opposite direction. Luckily the driver knew Hindi. He also gave me the directions( but the distances he told me were way of the mark).

And I again continued my journey, and after about 10 kms reached a T- Juncation on a bigger road. Asked couple of people, and found that one side leads to Hosur on NH7 and the other to Hogenekkal... phew! The drive to Hogenekkal was easy from here on, there were sign boards every now and then and in English! The last few kms to Hogenekkal go through a forest reserve and hills, really green hills I must add, and also lots of monkeys.

Hogenekkal was kind of a disappointment, it too crowded with everyone (old men) getting a oil massage and bathing (sometihng I didnt want to see at all). The falls werent that great either, but were not so bad also. Also it was getting late, 3 pm now, and I still didnt know the way back very well. So I started back, asked a couple of folks about the shorted way to Bangalore, they told me to go to Dharmapuri on NH7 (45 Km) and then follow NH 7 back to Bangalore. But I wanted to take the smaller road to Hosur, as I was hoping that this would be shorter. As I left Hogenekkal there were 3 bikes going in front of me, all three Karnataka registration, so I decided to follow them and see where they are going.

These guys, I assumed were going to Bangalore, headed towards Dharmapuri and I against my better judgement(at that time) took the smaller road to Hosur. This turned out to be a fantastic road. Narrow, winding, 2 lane road with minimum traffic. I even found a 'Panjabi Dhaba' on this road! This road is the best I have driven on till now. Total of 358 Kms in a day, and a nice experience! Getting back to office work now...

Delhi6 - really hits you in the end

2009-03-01T23:57:00.002+05:30

Delhi 6 is much like RDB - A first half of general hulla gulla and some masti with characters being built up. There are some really funny typical "Delhi" moments - like the cop scenes, the one with the politician and pandemonium at the Ramlila. Abhishek and Sonam have done a good job here - the love story is subtle and interesting.

The Monkeyman menace is fresh in our memory. The director cleverly weaves this into the script by showing how people use the monkeyman for their own ends, to hide their own follies. from the dhongi baba, to the lil kids, the seth's two timing wife everyone uses the monkeyman menace to save their face. How Delhiites blame everyone but themselves is something I have noticed living in this city. Also the mindless religious beliefs, fundamentalism is never far from the surface here. Archaic practises like marrying off girls early and not letting them choose a career is common too. All these are depicted in the film in the most brilliant and subtle way.

The ending is handled brilliantly. With a communal riot brewing and Abhishek taking the hit to save the community. It takes an outsider for the people to realise their mistakes. A must watch film that makes you think. Also look out for the songs - I liked the "maula maula maula mere maula" song ! Maskali is done to death .. hehe :)

Interview experience

2009-02-25T12:30:00.000+05:30

Gave my first IIM interview on the 18th. First had a case study in which 10 of us were given a situation. A panel is unable to decide who to choose for a job from among 4 candidates. We had to write our case study followed by a group discussion. That's where things got interesting - All through the discussion we chipped in with some points in favour or against some of the candidates. A gem of a one liner by me - "Passion is the only thing required to succeed" .. hehe:).. Anyways the group started voting on the candidates names at the end and we decided on 1 candidate. Suffice to say that I was quite involved along with 2 other people.Then a long wait for our interviews - we were (10 of our group) called in seemingly random order. 2 hours I waited before becoming the 9th one to be grilled. One of the profs was sitting there - the other one was outside the room. It started off with a simple - tell me about yourself -- well I told him some things telling him how I would like to learn a lot about management at IIM-Indore - well he indicated that they don't teach anything at IIMs ?? (I was a bit confused with that statement).. He went on to ask me about Netaji Subhas. I mentioned that he died in a plane crash - the prof asked me if it was a crash or a hijack - it was a crash so I said so. Then he started asking me about the IC814 hijack situation in 1999 - that's when an Indian plane was hijacked taken to Kandahar and three terrorists were released to save the passengers. He tried to confuse me on the dates and other details but I think I got them right.Then started a difficult phase - this was a stress interview - where the panel tries to pressurise you and see how you react. the other guy walks in and starts looking at some certificates. Now I mentioned I wanted to go into management to eventually become an entrepreneur and serve my country by providing employment and would like to go into the defence if I can't make it through management so I can serve my country from enemies. Now the guy had read this and asked me why don't you join defence - you can serve the country better. I told him that if our country is economically strong then it will be easier to defend - we need jobs, employment etc. to make our country strong but he cut me off and started asking me to join politics. You see Rahul Gandhi - the PM in waiting is from our school - so a 30 sec 1 way discussion on politics - no scope for me to respond. He(1st prof) then picked up a certi and started discussing what I had done to get it - it was a National award. Then suddenly he started asking me about LSA and whether it is a Single Pass or multi pass algorithms - well I did not know about them and said so - but he persisted. The other prof finally said something - ohh engineer - - well I smiled and said - yes sir - I'm sure you met many of them today (90% of the people there were engineers).. well he smiled back and asked me - well what is engineering? -- I started to explain the difference between engineering and a mechanic - how an engineer knows the design and other aspects - he wasn't satisifed- well after racking my brains I came up with - engineering is problem solving using technology - well that kinda convinced them.The first prof was still looking for me to tell him about single pass and multi pass algos - I again indicated that I did not know what they are :( - we hadn't studied linear programming you see. anyways what is an algorithm and program were discussed followed with a question on 5 major national disaster in India in the last 5 years- try as I might I could only think of 2 major ones worth mentioning.. (I can still think of only 4-- that too after scouring the net ).. after a pause they asked me to leave - at this point I asked them a question regarding IIM Indore case study method way of teaching and how that helps which they answered..Overall an interesting experience ..phew .. im tired of typing..

Random thoughts

2009-02-09T22:50:00.002+05:30

Hey people - technically been a member of this blog but haven't contributed at all. Can't sit in front of the computer screen and write - being a software engineer I become sick when I see my home PC despite it's obvious speed, ease of use and efficiency (It's a first class P3 450 Mhz 16 GB Hard disk, 256 MB RAM :P oh and did i mention Win 98! )
I prefer to converse preferably one way conversation where I give my "considerable gyaan and wisdom" to any soul unlucky to come within my range. Off course this means that while Abhinav buys a car, Danny travels, Deepak gets a bike and Anish an SLR I pay hefty phone bills!
All this leads me to the perfect profession for a guy like me - a manager.. Somehow managed the mini miracle of clearing the unpredictable CAT this year -three calls the best of which is from IIM B. What's interesting is the one month after I got the news. I have seen the reaction of people around me - mostly happy with my mini-success. I have another obstacle to surmount - The interview and group discussion (GD) session.
A GD - more like a place where your true self reveals yourself. I have had people trying to shout me down, impose themselves even make wisecrack statements in the middle of a serious discussion. Nothing is more entertaining than a GD where the topic is abstract - I have inwardly laughed at some interpretations people provide.
The interview - well this is where the candidates whole life is laid bare - you have no idea which part will be picked on next. Some technical, some HR, some philosophy and a great deal of tension and stress.
An interesting concept was the Bootcamp session I attended. 2 days at a hotel with 99 other IIM aspirants from diverse backgrounds. A mix between a batch get together (there were 7 NSITians from our batch!) and a serious preparation session. Yours truly took everything seriously - there were others doing the same - still others indulging in fun and games - some guys chatting up girls (yours truly was on probation clamped by you know who).. I met some interesting young people - budding managers of this country. Some aggressive and pushy. A doctor - the most popular guy in the session and having a heart of gold. A naval officer who tragically has lost the use of his right arm in an accident while on duty - off course I chatted him up on all topics Naval in nature. Found him to be a rather bright and courageous man. A girl - soft spoken and quite shy but with a smile that lit up the room.

Also present was the redoutable Banga - with his baby face and sweet voice - ever helpful, always jovial. And Bansal - we two must have listened to a particular Ghajni song (guess which one!) 25 times (Banga might disagree here - it seemed like 150 to him!).

All in all a fun lil trip

Moving my stuff

2009-01-24T10:44:00.000+05:30

I am moving all my personal (and non NSIT-group related) posts to http://anotherratintherace.blogspot.com/. I am hoping to clean up this blog and use it for what it was meant in the first place. Catch me at both these places now...

Of Crucio & Verbalists

2009-01-16T23:22:00.003+05:30

Quite some time back, I had gone for a particular quiz where the audience was asked to explain the meaning of the word 'cruciverbalist'. Being a bit too immersed in the Harry Potter lore, I shouted out "one who hurts others by using harsh words" (I am sure most people can understand this - whether you have read any Harry Potter or not). Only when the quizmaster actually laughed at my answer did I realize that I had done something quite stupid. And almost instantly I realized that the word actually refers to a person who solves crosswords.

And well, that seems to be the flavor of the season - Crosswords. To be precise, as Thomson & Thompson say, Cryptic Crosswords. I first came to know of this kind of crossword in college, when a few school friends of mine (and at that time in a different college) introduced me to the world of cryptic clues & crosswords. But it was only at Adobe, that I managed to get a hang of it. A colleague of mine & I would sit down and attempt the crossword, regularly. But we were never really able to proceed further than 10-15 answers. And we thought, that even that was pretty decent, Hindu crossword's difficulty level being what it is. That was until now. We just picked up this old habit again. After a long time. It has been 3 consecutive attempts in this second stint of ours & Lo Behold..! We have come close to cracking the entire crossword ( bar 3-4 clues each time) twice. Yes, we believe that the crosswords are sub-par, and we vent out all our frustration for that on Nita Jaggi ( the current Hindu crossword compiler ), but still, solving almost the entire crossword is another feeling altogether. Conceded that we had the help of an ace quizzer cum cruciverbalist today, but we were matching him as well..!

How I wish I had a scanner and could upload these 3 attempts of ours, all the insane & inane) rough work, guesses, cuts & crosses. But alas..! Still, for now, crosswords rule..!! Cryptic Crosswords, to be precise.. :)

PS: The blog post is badly structured for a reason. Look out for the cryptic clues embedded within the post... :)

Life on the Farm

2008-12-27T19:41:00.003+05:30

Clarification :(especially for Stanford people) this is a real farm, my father's ancestral place in Kerala.

Three roosters they were true,

all day there'd be much a cock-a-doodle-doo.

Then my uncle caught one,

a Christmas stew was done,

and now there are left just two.

[well, the cow is getting old,

and the goat is a mite bold,

I guess their turn would be coming soon too...]

3 things my friends should/need to know about me

2008-12-11T00:26:00.005+05:30

1. I love to drive with my car's windows rolled down & my elbow on the door.

2. I love sarcasm & subtleties... And nobody does it better than johnny.

3. I get angry & out of control very quickly...

3 things most people do not know about me

2008-12-11T00:17:00.003+05:30

1. I love the number '3'. I consider it my lucky number... :D

2. My first nickname was krishna.. I was born on janmashtmi, and barring this year & 1998, it has always rained on my birthday. Plus, the year I was born, my dad could not see me till about a week after my birth 'cause all train services had been disrupted due to torrential downpours..!! :-)

3. I love palak paneer (Ok.. this one some people might know... :-D )

My lost Photoshop Express account

2008-12-11T00:04:00.002+05:30

Long ago, I had made an account on photoshopexpress.com (henceforth, psexp). Now, to create an account there I needed a US residence address. So I created a whole new email-id with a US residence, and I created my photoshop account.

Much enthused by this 'victory' I uploaded quite a few pics and played around with them. One result is my profile pic on blogger. I quite liked my work ( my only digital art, per se ). But, pretty soon, I managed to forget this email-id which was my psexp login id as well. I haven't been able to log-in since and my album is lost!

I request all & sundry to make various combinations of abhinav & gupta & '.' & 101 & mail them to me. I am sure the email id was something of this sort.. I have tried quite a few combos but none have worked so far...

examples:

abhinav.gupta101

abhi.gupt

abhinav.gupt101

abhingupta101 etc.. etc..

Any help is appreciated :-) you know where to reach me..!

3 Answers

2008-12-11T00:00:00.002+05:30

And now for some answers.. you could frame the questions as you wish:

1. Hurrr.... !!

2. Mard bano.. be a man..!

3. Pimply pimp...!

A 'chocolat de France' for anyone who can guess the 3rd :-)

3 Questions

2008-12-10T23:56:00.003+05:30

I have just 3 questions that I want answered. Let's begin:

1. How many people does it take to read the time off a binary table clock?

2. How many people does it take to make a binary table clock?

3. How many people does it take to actually make a person shut up from talking about binary table clocks?

Answers when you answer. :-)

Happy Birthday Johnny

2008-12-10T23:54:00.002+05:30

Hey John, here is wishing you a very happy birthday indeed! :-) Have a great day mate..! Remember, "this too shall pass...!" :D

Tere Bin...

2008-12-07T14:50:00.003+05:30

Random post.. absolutely love the lyrics.. It is the only punjabi song whose lyrics I do understand..!!

Rabbi's good..!

'ere go the lyrics :

tere bin / besides you

sanu sohnia / my love

koi hor nahio labhna / i shan't find another

jo dave / who'll give

ruh nu sakun / peace to my soul

chukke jo nakhra mera / and indulge me

ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia / i have gone and seen it all

amrika , roos, malaysia / america, russia, malaysiana

kittey vi koi fark si / there wasn't any difference

har kise di koi shart si / they all had some condition

koi mangda mera si sama / some asked for my time

koi hunda surat te fida / some were fascinated with my face

koi mangda meri si vafa / some demanded my fidelity

na koi mangda merian bala / none wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

mangni merian bala / wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

karni dhup vich chhan / shall shade me in the sun

jiven rukia / (the) way you paused

si tun zara / slightly

nahion bhulna / i shan't forget

main sari umar / all my life

jiven akhia si akhan chura / you said, looking away

"rovenga sanu yad kar" / "you shall weep in my memory"

hasia si main hasa ajeeb / i laughed a strange laugh

(par) tu nahi si hasia / but you didn't

dil vich tera jo raaz si / you had a secret in your heart

mainu tu kyon ni dasia / why didn't you tell me

tere bin / besides you

sanu eh raz / none shall tell this

kise hor nahion dasna / secret to me

tere bin / besides you

peerh da ilaaj / what druid

kis vaid kolon labhna / has the cure to my ills

milia si ajj mainu / i found today

tera ik patra / a note of yours

likhia si jis 'te / on which you had scribbeled

tun shayr varey shah da / a varis shah couplet

park ke si osnu / upon reading which

hanjnu ik duliya / a teardrop fell

akhan 'ch band si / what was locked in the eye

seh raaz ajj khulia / was revealed today

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjnu / these tears of mine

kise hor / won't be kissed by

nahio chumna / none else

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjhu / these tears of mine

mitti vich rulnha / will wither in the dust

Courtesy : rabbism.blospot.com

07/12/2008

2008-12-07T14:48:00.001+05:30

To all those who know what this day is ... Happy seventy-twelfth..! :)

Happy 13th

2008-11-22T22:26:00.003+05:30

It is the 13th of something that had probably gotten over around the 8th... :-D But still happy 13th..!

And yeah, this time around, it was Thursday, the 13th... Fingers crossed...! :-)

Disappointments

2008-11-22T22:01:00.007+05:30

October 2, 2008

2008-10-02T22:15:00.006+05:30

October the 2nd is here, and diferent people remember it for different reasons. During one conversation at office, my manager was talking about it being a dry day, a colleague (who loves to just go home & chill-ax) was jubilant about getting a holiday mid-week, I was thinking of all the markets being closed ( & dad and Sandy being unable to book their cars today ), while another colleague ( Bulb ) was plainly pre-occupied about it being the day on which Ramadoss's anti-smoking law comes into force. Still others were busy planning out-station trips to make use of this extended weekend, while others, who have come far away from home to work at Adobe, were going back home. The jigsaw-dudes were busy putting the pieces together (and mighty long it is going to take them to do it), while the newspapers were busy telling us that Gandhi is the toast of the web-space this week...

But there was one person who had nothing to do with 2nd October on her mind, all she cared for was catching a glimpse of Imran Khan. So we went, 4 of us from office, to the

neighbourhood mall, to sneak a peak of Imran Khan & Minnisha Lambha. Well, we managed to see 'Suited-Up' men with their trophy wives & kids tagging along, lots & lots of bouncers, even a trained K-9..! But nahh, an hour passed, we finished our cups of mochas & cappuccinos, but they were still nowhere to be seen. But just as we were leaving, the 'little one' did manage to see someone.. Here is the pic.. Guess who ?

Of Japs & Brits

2008-10-02T21:53:00.004+05:30

There is this one particular author whose works I really like, Kazuo Ishiguro. I have read two of his books so far, Never Let Me Go & When We Were Orphans, and currently have a third on my shelf, The Remains of the Day. I hope to start reading it soon ( like 5-6 more ).

Despite the fact that I don't usually go for books by their popularity and just pick them off the shelves, I find it quite surprising that almost nobody I know has read his books. If anyone is reading this entry, well, I would recommend his works. You would be pleasantly surprised.

And yeah, as you must have guessed, he is a Japanese. And this leads me to a confusion, do I call him Kazuo-San or Ishiguro-San ? Hmph, I'll never get the hang of this.

Google Chrome logo

2008-09-28T00:33:00.002+05:30

Amidst the hue & cry raised by Google Chrome, a small albeit decent amount of attention was focussed on the logo of Google chrome. Check this story out for more details. Do not, for anything, miss the video on the page as well...!

Raman

2008-09-27T23:22:00.003+05:30

I have been working at Adobe Systems for over a year now. I have written about my life at work & my friends a few times. But I haven't yet written about the man to whom I owe it all. Raman Nagpal.

He is a true leader, a man with a towering persoanlity ( both literally & figuratively ). Ask anybody in my team , and I mean the 100+ strong Print Technologies Group, and they would all tell you that they are inspired by Raman, awed by him, shocked by him, and most importantly respect him. A lot. Every man & woman here knows that he is a brilliant person, with a razor sharp mind, it is never easy to fool him, as emplyees frequently fool their managers ( :D ) He needs just a couple of minutes to get to the bottom of any problem, and see the idea in its entirety. I could go on & on... But that is not why I wrote this post.

His most endearing quality, and that is the reason why I work at Adobe, is his knack of picking a person and backing him to the hilt. That is what he did to me. While in my last year at college, I was offered an internship by Raman, during the course of which I worked on an interesting project under him. On the basis of my work, he offered me a job here. And that was despite my disastrous interview just a couple of weeks back. He called me & told me that while he knew that I had basically sucked at my coding interview, but he had received a very positive response in others, and he personally also felt the same after having worked with me for a better part of my 4 months at Adobe. And the reason he was offering me a job was nothing but his willingness to back me inspite of my having been rejected in my interviews.

Since then, well, I have had the good fortune of having worked with him on something or the other a number of times. And each experience leaves me further in awe of his ability to think of crazy ideas, execute them, and prove to the (higher) powers that be at Adobe, that it ain't so bad to think out of the box, something that Adobe magnanimously fails to do...!

Time & again, he thinks of crazy stuff and it is precisely this crazy stuff that helps me land up a patent here, a spot award there & many many interesting interactions with great minds at Adobe, be it Shantanu, Naresh or Ajay.

It might sound very inane & tacky, but I am forced to make a comparison. Harry was accused of being Dumbledore's man through & through by Rufus. Well, I confess that I am Raman's man through & through. I hope, as he put it, that I don't let him down. This one is for you Raman.

Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh

2008-09-27T23:06:00.002+05:30

This is a beautiful comment I read on Mayur's blog : "The light burns dim in the lamps of the needy, and in such light a thousand revolutions thrive!"

Naaiice..!

Anwar

2008-09-27T22:28:00.004+05:30

Nauheed Cyrusi..

That's the name that has been stuck in my mind the last couple of days. And some can guess why. She has acted in all of 10-11 movies, one of which was Anwar.

Though this movie was trashed at the BO, and though I haven't yet seen it, still, the songs are awesome. Songs like Aankhen Teri, Javeda Zindagi are quite

beautiful. And so is Vijay Raaz, a wonderful wonderful actor. He lies firmly in the list of the precious few method actors that Bollywood has produced. I have been t

old that, if not for the story, Anwar is a must watch for his acting.
I would love to watch the movie, if anyone is willing to watch it with me..! :)

Btw, all the TV Channels are hell-bent to inform me that it is

Daughter's Day tomorrow. All right, I give in. Happy Daughter's day to all daughters of the world..!

Friends, Indians, countrymen...

2008-07-21T07:22:00.004+05:30

... lend me your tired eyes. Long overdue, I confess.

Life has been quite a roller-coaster for me here in the US. From the studies at Columbia, to keeping up with the pace of New York City. It has really been a wild ride and I've cherished every moment of it! Not only have I enjoyed my time here, I feel like I've grown tremendously as a person, in a relatively short period, may I add. My outlook on life has changed (that is a dramatic statement, but I feel it!). I've learned lessons that I will never forget, and that will hopefully help me be more successful as an individual.

Never before had I truly realized the importance of optimism. And the value of THIS moment - NOW! So much can be accomplished in a very short period of time if one is truly positive and enthusiastic. Hot-dog vendors, construction workers, taxi drivers, investment bankers, traders... all have something common among them. A positive outlook. Passion. No regrets. No complaints. Everybody takes pride in his/her work. As a result, the job is done and it's done well. Not a moment is lost. There is time for work and there is time for fun - the two are rarely mixed (not that work cannot be fun!). I'm reminded of the verse in the Geeta where Bhagwaan talks about the two paths to Him - one is the path taken by asetics. The other is the path taken by men-of-action. Of the two, he says, the latter is superior. Live in the moment and give it your all, he says, that is your duty, it is not for you to worry about the consequences thereon. It's strange how people in the West seem to be leading their lives based on this philosophy, and how we in the East have never been further from it.

Now is when I'm also realizing the importance of this "golden" period of our lives. This is when we can take risks, this is when we can truly live it up! This is our youth, and its not coming back! This is it gentlemen, make the most of this moment, seize the day, carpe diem!

Truly Rats Galore...

2008-07-20T18:22:00.002+05:30

Many a times I have been asked for the reason behind the name of our blog ( in fact I started up another blog with a name in the same vein ), and whenever I explained the reason, the reactions I received from the incredulous to the amused to the downright irritated. And I was always like.. ok.. whatever... !

Anyways, so the reason this thought popped up in my head, yet again, and is fast becoming an obnoxious little blog post is the spate of 'RAT'ty things happening of late. The movie Jane Tu... Ya Jane Na (which is not a bad movie by the way), the dead rat in my auxiliary bedroom, the movie Ratatouille are all having a very Rat-ish effect on me. Whatever that means.. Blah...!

Waise, Ratatouille is a cool movie...!! First and foremost, it is set in France, in Paris...! Secondly it has a rat as the lead. Thirdly, the awesome animation. Fourth, the love angle and lastly (and quite importantly) the delicious looking food ...! This movie is a must watch, if you have missed out. (Though this review(-ish) is kinda late in the day, but still).

Talking of nice, off-beat movies, one must not miss Juno as well. It is well, different, and cool, and fresh, and nice, and... you get the point. Juno is Good. Period. Watch it.

All for today, gotta go back to my usual slumber and recharge myself for the god-awful week at work coming up...!

Cya

Hello world :)

2008-07-18T02:50:00.005+05:30

Long time since I last wrote anything non-technical (well, you haven't seen them, otherwise you might have some complaints about my technical writings also :) Things have changed with my writing style maybe. Like, I can't be bothered to write complete sentences, have been thinking in these staccato clauses for some time now. Must be a hangover from all the Facebook and GTalk status msg updates that I have been making. Have to consciously make the effort to add the 'I's and 'you's. Hopefully people would be able to look past these flaws...
OK, so now I have to think about what to write about. Considering it's been an year (or more?) since my last blog-post, this is not an easy choice to make. Mmm. So I am France right now (hopefully that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone :), on internship at Xerox Research Centre in Europe (XRCE), in Grenoble. It's 11:30pm, and I should probably go to sleep early if I want to wake up refreshed and ready for work from 9 onwards. OK, who am I kidding - I am in all likelihood going to be up till 2, and sleepwalk my way around at office in the morning...as usual :) Can't help it - these are the perks that come from the supervisor being on holiday.
I don't know about everyone else, if you guys have managed to get any better idea of where your life is headed. Mine is still kinda up for grabs. I alternately switch between dreams of a life in research, and a career in something management-ish. The lack of passion for either is telling...or maybe I should call it equal passion for both ;) And the last year at Stanford hasn't helped much either way. I have alternately sucked (admittedly, earlier in the course) and excelled (when I was wise enough to work with project partners who were better than me :) at the technical courses here. And I did like the two management-ish courses I took. I am actually continuing working on one during the summer - one of my professors from (don't laugh) 'Business Management for Electrical Engineers and Computer Scientists' is coordinating a collaborative book on case studies in the emerging energy sector, along with other alums from the course.
So, besides the obvious reasons (it's in France for 12 weeks, they say you can't work more than 35 hours per week in the contract...grab on and don't let go idiot!) I like to think that I was being a bit proactive, and gauging whether I can handle research in a real industrial lab. Ok, as real as they get outside the US (for some reason, call it Protestant work ethic or what-have-you, the magnitude of research results from the US simply swamp the rest of the world...but you knew that already)
Among the other things I had planned to do this summer - complete a course in Statistics and Probability by myself, read a book on preparing for Case Interviews along with a Stanford friend in NY, practice and get better at swimming, travel all over Europe and so on. Of course, plans have changed a bit since I got over my initial naivete regarding my work here (it's a whole second course in Machine Learning, a course I majorly bombed in the first quarter..and I end up at work from 9 to 6:30 generally). And of course, have not all of you heard me(at least on GTalk :) crib about the money they are paying me ( = zilch). Well, Europe is a lot more expensive than the US, and the falling dollar isn't helping. Hehe, the prices for things here must sound astronomical for you ppl in India - like, a most ordinary meal cannot be had for less than 5 euros. Bye bye , travel plans. Ok, not nearly so...I am trying to convince myself that I am not going to get this chance again anytime soon, so I might as well get ready to blow up my savings from the States. Haven't planned anything major - but watch this space, travelogs from Paris and Amsterdam might be in the offing.And instead of swimming, I am going to try to pick up tennis instead. The other interns in the student residence where Xerox has put me up are making full use of the dozen or so tennis courts right outside our place. I am planning to buy a racquet and join them in whacking the ball, starting tomorrow.
And surprise of surprises, I am actually sort of liking the work at XRCE. Now that I have had some exposure to all the math involved in data mining algos etc at Stanford, things actually manage to make some sense some of the time :) I am finding it quite interesting to read up papers, tutorials etc on some obscure algo, and understand enough to implement a prototype, try an iterative approach over some data-sets, sit and discuss ideas with my supervisor, attend talks and seminars at the centre and so on. Sure beats software development anyway :) The pity is that any longterm career in research would involve getting a PhD, something I am not prepared to get into yet. Well, hopefully by the end of the internship I would have learned enough about research areas that pique me to keep me on track for a short-term job (2-3 years) in some company's data analysis division or somesuch after the Masters. And then..let's see, perhaps I would know enough then to decide...
Though, chief among the lessons I thought I'd have learned by now, I realize that it is ok to be uncertain about the future. Rather than doing all things possible to make the future secure (get an engineering degree, focus on safe careers like software engineering, ...the list goes on), I now know that it is important to seize the opportunities one gets today. Learn all you can, experience different things..while you can. Like a friend back at Stanford told me: Paise kamaane ke liye to poori zindagi baaki hai...
Ok, that's enough for now. I think I will try a stream-of-consciousness style next time. And maybe even get sentimental about the old days :D

Ahh.. Slides...

2008-07-09T01:58:00.003+05:30

So, slideshare seems to have taken my office by storm. It seems as if now everybody is making slides & uploading them in the hope of their being adjudged the World's Best Slideshow. Well, no, I am not going to end up making one (that doesn't stop me from dreaming though). This post is firstly to say that hey Akash, well done, and secondly to give you a link to a very good slideshow indeed. Check it out here.

| View | Upload your own

The new Bangalore international airport

2008-07-07T18:54:00.002+05:30

In recent months, this airport has resulted in numerous heated discussions in Bangalore. You would hear things like this, its 60 km away (for Bangalore 60 Km is a lot!), it takes 3 hours to reach there, traveling to the new airport itself is very expensive, the old airport was just fine, we don't need a this new airport etc etc.

Obviously I was dreading traveling to this airport. On Friday my flight to Delhi was at 5pm, since it takes an eternity to reach the airport I started at 2:15 pm. The travel options include taking a taxi/auto directly to the airport, or using the Airport bus service. Taxi costs something like 600 bucks so I decided to take a bus. But the bus frequency near my house was 1 hr so I took an auto and reached Hebbal in 15 min, the point where all bus routes converge. I got a bus in a couple of minutes. I have to say the bus was really nice, it was a Volvo AC bus, it had enough space to keep passenger luggage, and the ride was really comfortable. Hebbal is considered city outskirts, there was not much traffic from Hebbal to the airport and I reached the airport by 3:05. Not bad at all!

The airport is a collection of buildings in the middle of nowhere, vast tracts of land surround it. I went in the departure terminal, it is a huge hall with checkin counters of all the airlines present neatly in one line at the back of the hall. Indigo airlines is in one corner, with 4-5 counters available there were hardly any people waiting in queue. So it took me just a couple of minutes to check in. After checking in I was directed to the 1st level, yes 1st level!, for security check. I was really dreading this part, because at the old airport it used to take an eternity for security check to complete. Here I was through in a couple of minutes!. I checked the time, it was 3:15! I had left home just an hour earlier. This was impossible with the old airport.

My flight was at 5 pm, I had quite a bit of waiting to do. I entered the airport lounge with this thought, and to my complete surprise it was practically another shopping mall (obviously with ridiculously high prices :) and minus the couples). I had read that there was free wireless internet for the passengers, so I took out my laptop and tried to connect. I got a webpage asking me to enter a passoword, which I can obtain by SMSing to 56677. I tried SMSing a few times, but all I got was 'Service is currently unavailable'. I switched off the lappy and got on the phone. Called a friend, made a call to home as well. Then loitered around for a bit. Somehow the clock ticked 4:30, and finally I heard the boarding announcement. Flight on time!! A near impossibility on friday with the old airport! The flight was boring as usual, it landed Delhi around 7:45. Entering the Delhi airport I realized that Bangalore is finally better than Delhi in something :).

Citius, Altius, Fortius

2008-07-06T23:38:00.005+05:30

My first encounter with these 3 words was in class 10 or so, which is quite unbefitting even for an amateur quizzer. For almost all the guys in my school-friend circle, the trio was associated with the olympics, but for me, it will always be the ESPN school quiz hosted by Harsha Bhogale. If you don't know what I am talking about, look here & here.

Though I never managed to end up in the quiz, in any capacity, be it participant or the audience , and certainly not as the quiz master (heck, I didn't even try...), the quiz still held some charm upon me. Throughout my middle & high school days I was in what I have been told as the 'elite set', the group of nerds who did well (academically) at school, who were expected to crack the JEEs and the PMTs, the guys who would win all the quizzes and prizes to boot, the ones who would land up a majority of the coveted school appointments and the jerks who would never be looked at by girls even for the first time. But I was always among the lesser known among the set, not with the teachers, but definitely with the fairer sex. I was an amateur quizzer at best, never applied for any school appointment (that I was made one is a completely different story), did not manage to crack the JEE (ho.. hum..), but was completely at peace to be in this group. And most importantly, that is what my parents desired. Damn, I am on JEE & parents again.. digression.. digression..

Yes, I was just trying to from this picture in your mind, of the kind of guy I was in school, and the kind of people I used to roam around with. And quizzing was a big part of all our lives. For Bong, Shape & Sen it meant infinite legalized bunks, innumerable prizes and an equal number of looks of envy from the likes of me. Whereas for me (& others I can't name for the fear of incurring their wrath) it meant just taking part in such quizzes (to make up the numbers, it seemed), watching the big guys invariably walk off with the glorious prizes (irrespective of what they got, it did seem glorious in all that colorful cellophane). So I just used to relive my quizzing fantasies watching show upon show of the ESPN quiz.

Yesterday, I was suddenly reminded of this long-forgotten phase of my life, when I came upon a mail that wordlessly reflected my opinions on the Beijing Olympics. It is not an opinion about the Olympics in particular, instead it sums up my attitude towards the Chinese way of getting things done, the Chinese political scenario, the complete lack of democracy & freedom that we in India take for granted. (Oh, how I miss those heated discussions we used to have in college, & of course aboard the 764 guys... !!) How I got to rambling on upon my school days from that mail was through the subject of the mail & that of my post : Citius, Altius, Fortius.

PS : Did anyone manage to catch the olympic torch relay in person... ?

Too much free time on my hands

2008-07-06T23:26:00.007+05:30

In yet another attempt to make my weekends meaningful, I found myself on a page full of personality tests (Don't even ask me how I landed up there, that is something that I could probably write an entire post upon). From the very serious to the pure pranks, from the most insipid to the most cranky, these tests do have a lot of variety, which is something that Ekta Kapoor could learn. What devilish serials her factory churns out. But, again, that is fodder for some other debate. But, yeah, in the end these "persoanlity" tests did give me a few laughs (with the inevitable self-introspection phases thrown in their midst). I suggest you to try out some of these. They were fun...

Which File Extension are You?

Career Inventory Test Results

Extroversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	53%
Emotional Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	40%
Altruism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	73%
Inquisitiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%

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I seriously have too much free time on my hands. I should do something meaningful for a change. History walk anyone??

Wordle

2008-06-30T23:51:00.004+05:30

Here is the wordle for the blog till now. Thanks Akash for the link...!

Imaginative Poetry

2008-06-29T23:33:00.003+05:30

Today I am posting verbatim a page I had come across recently. I found it to be quite beautiful & pretty clear and accurate on the analysis part. Plus, I really loved the song; heard it after a long long time...!

At times I tend to have moods where I just keep admiring and appreciating things for hours and hours...like this song today I heard it sometime in the afternoon...being played in the neighbour’s otherwise irritating radio. Really beautiful song one with those melodious overtones...Also, though very difficult to sing perfectly but thankfully easy to sing decently well so that you don’t have to worry about molesting the song when u want to sing it aloud…The song goes like this

is mod se jaate hai, kuchh sust kadam raste
kuchh tej kadam raahe
patthar kee hawelee ko, sheeshe ke gharondo mein
tinako ke nasheman tak
is mod se jaate hai...

aandhee kee tarah udakar, ek raah gujaratee hai
sharamaatee huyee koee, kadamon se utaratee hai
in reshamee raahon me, ek raah to wo hogee
tum tak jo pahuchatee hai
is mod se jaate hai..

ek door se aatee hai,paas aake palatatee hai
ek raah akelee see, rukatee hain naa chalatee hai
ye soch ke baithhee hoo, yek raah to wo hogee
tum tak jo pahuchatee hai
is mod se jaate hai..

This song is from the movie Aandhi(remember Sanjiv kumar and some Sen)...the movies also has other nice numbers like "tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa" and “Tum aagaye ho noor aagaya hai...The music is amazing all right but what caught my appreciation today is the lyrics aspect...Beautiful lyrics by Gulzar...what makes me admire his lyrics in particular is his imagination...to me it seems like after he thinks of a particular scenario he imagines and imagines many analogies...once an analogy fits the next thing to do would be to fit other aspects of the scenario in the analogy and vice versa what i would call giving sub-analogies...like in this case the scenario "a just committed(or just married) couple wondering abut the future and expressing love and apprehension by thinking of the number of ways their relationship could go...and the analogy is 2 musafirs in journey who meet at a point and wondering abut the number routes one could take at that point....the analogy of raahein and raaste is a quite often used one in the industry but what stands out here is the way he proceeded fitting the analogy much better by giving sub-analogies

The first 3 lines lata(mangeshkar) says by taking whatever different routes until now hum is mod pe pahunche hain aur ek saath khade han..ab is mod se kuch raste aise jate hain jahan log tez chalte hain(people leading life mechanically and life goes past you) aur kuch aise raah hain jahan sust chalte hain(haste khelte going slow enjoying life with partner to the fullest)...then kishore(kumar) adds that some routes go to patthar ki haweli(signifies a strong relationship)...sheeshe ki gharondon mein(a decently strong relationship but could break by a slight turbulence)...tinkon ki nasheman tak(nasheman is basically sort of a nest tinkon ka ghosla is supposed to be very weak...so signifies a weak relationship)....and then they talk about more routes

in reshamee raahon me, ek raah to wo hogee
tum tak jo pahuchatee hai

Towards the end lata says I am in search of that path which will lead me to you ..To which kishore says

ek door se aatee hai,paas aake palatatee hai
ek raah akelee see, rukatee hain naa chalatee hai

there r routes which from far look like they r approaching me but as soon as u get closer they turn away making it impossible for u to reach me...n there is a route...where our relationship is just stagnated

PS: I just felt like sharing the meaning of this song for the underprivileged ones if ever one comes across this he could appreciate it....and not to show "studdaps"

PPS: This is my interpretation with some help from some sites and some dictionaries...so if some1 begs to differ or finds any faults anywhere please feel free to comment!

That’s all folks (with the Looney tunes muzik in the background)...will come back when something excites me again...till then adios! J

And here is the video too...

Team outing

2008-06-28T09:40:00.007+05:30

hey guys... posting after a long time, I think everyone has forgotten about this blog except AG :).

Last week my team at IBM went to Manchinbele Lake near Savandurga hill for a day of adventure sports. We were around 40 people, and divided into 4 groups. My group started with Paintball fighting. This was a game for really fit people. The face masks alone made breathing a tough task, add to it some really rocky terrain, hot sun, running and hiding for what seemed like an eternity I was huffing and puffing by the end of it. But the game was fun, we were dressed up like commandos in a hollywood movie, carrying real looking guns (with paint balls instead of bullets) and trying to get the opponent. I shot a couple of guys before I ran out of paintballs and was shot myself.

While paintball was tough, after the next activity my legs were shaking. I had done Rappling earlier, but you guys know my fear of heights. While climbing down my legs were shaking so much that I was thinking that all my pics would be blurred:). And my good friend Ashok, who had earlier come down practically dancing and waving like crazy, was not helping by shouting for me to let go of the rope and wave.

Post lunch we went into the lake! Initially I was planning to do just rafting and not go in water. But plans are well just plans, after doing some rafting and seeing pretty much everyone go in water, I too jumped in. After splashing around and just drifting with the very slow current for quite a while I had almost given up on the idea swimming even with help of a life jacket. But then people in one of the rafts in the middle of the lake started flipping the raft, diving into the water etc, and all sorts of fun things. Obviously I wanted to join the fun as well, but there was no way of reaching that raft other than swimming to it. Me and another guy devised our own swimming stroke, which was essentially lie on our backs and take our arms towards our head and bring them towards our legs in a semi circular motion, moving them just below the surface of water. This way we swam to the raft, some 500 meters away, and we did it in pretty good time! Then we did some raft flips!! Boy this was fun, and a little scary at first! Essentially everyone would sit/stand on one edge of the raft and then jump backwards, the raft would invert and everyone would go under water. A couple of hours ago I was so sure that I am not going in water that I didn't even change into shorts, but well... :)

(Me on the raft just before doing some raft flips. Guy in front of me is my team lead Karthi, and the girl whose face is partially hidden behind my hand in my teammate Priyanka.)

The Vizag trip

2008-06-08T23:50:00.013+05:30

This is coming after almost a year, but was browsing through some pics right now and remembered that I hadn't really shared the vizag trip with many people. Hence, this post.

Now that I come to think of it, it is funny that each one of us has worked on some NLP technique or the other. It started off with John & Maddy doing their stint under Neelu. Then gauri, danny, Himanshu & I also followed them into this and our BTP came out of our work with Neeladri. And then Deepak and gauri also made something ( a synonymn finder...??) using LSA and all... Anyways, that is a huge digression.

So, Shampa sent our BTP as an entry to the ISTE National Convention of 2007 which was to be held in Rajam, some 200 kms off Vishakhapatnam. As it turned out our project did get nominated for the (pls don't laugh) Kerala Government National Award for the Best Engineering Design. We guys were definitely thrilled. After all, we had put in quite a lot of (genuine) effort into this project, but, much more importantly, we had thought of writing atleast one paper out of this project, but us being us, we never managed to do that. But here, something good was happening of its own accord, and all we had to do was to give it a little nudge. And then the words 'National' & 'Best Engineering Design' did send us in a state of frenzied excitement. So, we started our preparations. We were supposed to deliver a presentation & (possibly)a demo at the national convention that was being held at the GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam, which, as I said is a rather bucolic though very beautiful place a few hours away from Vishakhapatnam. Himanshu was unable to come for the event and unfortunately Danish caught chicken pox at the very last moment (on his birthday too..!!)

So, there we were, Gaurav and I. We boarded our flight ( a very antique looking Alliance Air behemoth ) to Vishakhapatnam, which is the nearest airport to Rajam. Non-airworthy it had looked from outside, but once we were inside our primary problem was the leg room...! It was ouch..! Cramped seats, pathetic service by the air hostesses, and useless food. But the view obviously compensated for everything..! By the time we landed at Vizag we had forgotten all about the seats and were ready to take on Vizag, explore it a bit and then head off to Rajam. Especially since Gaurav had spent much of his childhood here. But, lo & behold, what greeted us there was incessant rainfall. It was the starting of October and south India was caught amidst some really foul weather. But, insistent on enjoying our time, we tarried on nevertheless. We booked a taxi, had food and even managed to dash off (in a really torrential downpour) to a submarine that had been converted to a museum. Standing inside the submarine with the rain pounding us from all sides was really an experience that I wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry... :-) Thanx Gaurav for that one..! Well, after that we just went off to Rajam, it took us about 4 hours and that night we just went up to the rooms allocated to us, had food, made ourselves comfortable and slept.

(Fast-forwarding the boring part... ;-) ) The next morning we went for our registeration, rehearsed our presentation, and gave it to a panel of 3 jurists in the evening. By the time everything was over, we were exhausted. Then we just roamed about the beautiful campus and marveled at everything that was so peculiarly south Indian. The trees, the food, the way everybody seemed to practically live off sambar-chawal or dahi-chawal and ate it the way I always prefer too, with their bare hands... Yummy..!! But the most astonishing thing we came across at that college was the immense amount of control that was exercised over the college students. These poor guys still have to wear uniforms..!! Their shoes were checked every morning and the defaulters were punished. This is college for God's sake...! I am no supporter of school uniforms and seeing this state of affairs in a college was really disheartening. All over the country, the girls hostels are usually locked up after around 9 at night. And well that is reasonable considering the kind of society we live in. But, here even the boys hostel was locked down after 8:30...! Strange.. very very strange..! Despite all this, our hosts did really make a big effort to make us feel comfortable. And I don't know why, but I got the feeling that they were somewhat intimidated by the fact that we had come all the way from Delhi and that too, by air..!

Nevertheless, rested and nourished and with the presentation done and over with, we had only two things on our mind. Firstly & obviously, whether we would get the first prize (which we did, eventually....! :-) ). And secondly, we had come to hear about the really bad weather at Vishakhapatnam, due to which all the flights to & from there were being canceled. And we had a flight to catch from Vishakhapatnam bound for Hyderabad, from where we were to catch our flight back to Delhi. And if the flights from Vizag were being canceled then we were almost certain to miss our second flight from Hyderabad. And seeing that the ISTE biggies (who had come from Delhi) were worried about the exact same thing, we decided to take a bus to Hyderabad at the earliest and catch our flight from there.

So that is what we did. We went from Rajam to Vizag by bus, and along the way witnessed some astonishing natural beauty, the likes of which I have rarely ever seen in my life...! What a pity that my camera (actually a friend's cam) was deep inside my bag, which I couldn't possibly unpack there. Well, then from Vizag, we took a bus to Hyderabad. On reaching Hyderabad, we went over to Gaurav's masi's place. They had a pair of immensely loveable Chihuahuas. After fooling with them to our heart;s content, we moved on to a whirlwind tour of Hyderabad ( we had only two hours before we had to rush off to catch our flight to Delhi). So we saw the Hussain Sagar lake, the Salar Jung Museum (regrettably, we couldn't find the Nizam's jewels. Would have loved to catch a glimpse of those...!!), and managed to catch a glance of the Char Minar from a little distance too... We could have gotten closer but we were caught in a traffic jam in what the cab driver explained to us to be the Chandni Chowk of Hyderabad. Disappointed, we gave up and turned back to the airport but not before we got some famous Hyderabad Biryani packed for us for the flight back home. Once on the flight, there really wasn't much to be done. We had some biryani, talked a bit, and fell asleep, and before we knew it, we were back home...!

It was a very interesting trip indeed, the most planned one I had ever gone on for sure, and as it turned out, was the most haphazard one indeed. And yeah, we later came to know that the flight from Vizag to Hyderabad, which we had thought would be cancelled, was the only flight that had taken off..!! So much for all our planning...!!

Kal Ho Na Ho..

2008-06-02T01:05:00.004+05:30

Har Ghadi Badal Raha Hai Roop Zindagi
Chaav Hai Kahhi Hai Dhoop Zidnagi
Har Pal Yahan
Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama
Kal Ho Na Ho
Har Ghadi Badal Raha Hai Roop Zindagi
Chaav Hai Kahhi Hai Dhoop Zidnagi
Har Pal Yahan
Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama
Kal Ho Na Ho

Chaahe Jo Tumhe Poore Dil Se
Milta Hai Woh Mushkil Se
Aisa Jo Koi Kahin Hai
Bas Vahi Sabse Hasin Hai
Us Haath Ko Tum Thaam Lo
Woh Meherbaan Kal Ho Na Ho
Har Pal Yahan
Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama
Kal Ho Na Ho

Palko Ke Leke Saaye
Paas Koi Jo Aaye
Lakh Sambhalo Paagal Dil Ko
Dil Dhadke Hi Jaaye
Par Sochlo Is Pal Hai Jo
Woh Dastan Kal Ho Na Ho
Har Pal Yahan
Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama
Kal Ho Na Ho
Har Pal Yahan
Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama
Kal Ho Na Ho

Just felt like putting up the lyrics of this song, for no apparent reason. Kind of fits my mood right now (again for no apparent reason) :)

Catch ya later..!!

One year after college.. taking stock of my life

2008-05-25T17:25:00.007+05:30

Has it really been one year ? It sure doesn't feel like it. Seems like just yesterday, when we had bid our 'final' adieus to each other at good ol' CP. Hugging each other, solemn faced, and with heavy hearts. Wondering if we would ever find friends like these again (at least I was...). But somewhere deep inside, there was a hope for a bright future, a hope for friends who would be just like the ones that I was saying my au revoirs to, a hope for a life as content and satisfaction-filled as I lived thus far.

And it was with that hope, that I joined Adobe. Hoping to meet great minds and even greater people. For the first 4-5 months I even managed to live the kind of life I was hoping for. Cool work, recognition at the work place, making a couple of amazing friends in my team, and a wonderful environment, I thought that I had it all. Going to office really early in the morning to chat with others, partying at least once every week, passing time with like-minded people, and leaving late after having played a game of tennis. I loved it.

What I did not realize was the cost at which all this was coming. I failed to fathom the simple fact that the more the time I spent with these friends, the lesser the time I had to share with my family. Leaving early and coming late became a source of irritation for my parents. And rebellious that our generation is, I felt victimized at being told how to lead my life. I was 'working' now, after all. And financially independent. Never for a moment did I sit back to realize the effect that the harsh words I spoke at home were having on my relationship with my family.

Not only this, the plans that I had made for my future were suffering too. Content with my state of work and very very satisfied indeed to be taken under the aegis of a couple of very sharp fellows at work, I started thinking about changing my plans. And then there was her. Coming into my life like a fresh breeze and literally taking my breath away. With her in my mind, all my well laid out plans were bunked.

And the third mistake in my life (couldn't resist it, accusations of plagiarism be damned...) was taking my old friends for granted. Just like I had neglected my family, I had foolishly lost touch with my friends, who just a few months ago had been part of my every day life.

And now with the exceedingly strained conditions and frayed nerves at home, with my career plans having gone for a spin & the mentors having deserted me just when I needed them the most, with my relationship with her at the nadir of all nadirs (and with me to blame almost completely for it), and having forsaken my old pals, I can only sit back, pause for a moment and realize that nothing worse could possibly happen to me right now, and that anything that happens now is gonna be for the better only.

This one year has passed really quickly, did I say? Maybe not. So much has happened in this one year. I have experienced emotions I used to scoff other people for having. I have been both marveled & shocked at my parents', my friends' and my attitude and reactions to various things. It certainly doesn't seem possible to fit it all in one year. And yet it has been just that much time since we all left for distant shores (and for not so distant ones too) to pursue our dreams & aspirations. It has been just that much time since we decided that we would keep in touch and some of us have failed to do so (u listening madda...??? ... er, reading... )

Please let's get back together some time really soon guys. All of us. It has been so long since I have genuinely had fun...

The man who went to NY....

2007-09-10T00:52:00.000+05:30

What can I say about this city.... it's just as happening at 4.00 a.m. as it is at 4.00 p.m. The clubs are always full of beautiful people, people are sitting at roadside cafes sipping coffee, the pizza places are chock-a-block full, cabbies are busy, there is always something to do here. Everything can be done here. This is The City, it's The Capital, it's the heart of the Capitalist World, materialism and hedonism epitomised. The belly of the beast. It's mind-boggling!

Living here does make me introspect a lot more though, however contradictory that may sound. Life in India is so different - it's a spiritual experience. Here, it's all about the outer-world, "maya"... it's so easy to fall victim to it. In NYC, it's all about money, honey! If you have the green, you can get jobs, friends and you can probably even buy love. Everything is for sale. You earn only to spend here. You cannot save, even if you want to.

On the college front, things are great! I am getting a partial RA this semester - $1500 a month's stipend. No tuition waiver this sem though. The department/project with/on which I will be working does not have enough funds to cover that expense. But I've been promised a full RA next semester onwards. Classes are hard but they teach only the state-of-the-art.

I'm living at a place called the International House (http://www.ihouse-nyc.org/). It's just an amazing community. Seven hundred residents from more than 100 countries. I meet someone from a different country everyday. They have ballroom dancing, salsa, ramba... parties at the in-house pub/lounge. It's great fun!

I hope to be able to survive the NYC experience while maintaining a certain balance in my life. A balance between living in the self and living outside.

bachao senti-man se!

2007-07-04T23:29:00.000+05:30

Hmm.... Abhinav in his senti-man mode again! I need to be saved from this super-hero! :P

Anyway, what is this book about? I didn't quite like the sermonisitc (if there is such a word), pessimistic, overall darkish tone of the excerpts that you've posted. Not presenting a very positive view on life... perceptions of an overly pragmatic person (atheist as well). That said, the text is written quite well and is thought provoking. More on that later.

On a different note... well of course.. there is no place like home and none in the world like family. But of course, it is natural for one to take them for granted. Do you guys remember Gandhiji's talisman? It is not really connected with the thread of discussion, but I, as a personal pratice, do apply a variation of it whenever I feel disappointed or seem to take things for granted. Here is the original:

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

I imagine the face of the poorest person that I've seen, but yet, with a smile on his/her face; I've seen many such people. And then I cannot help but feel a deep sense of heartfelt gratitude towards God for blessing me with all that I have.... friends, family, health and wealth.

On a completely different, leg-pulling note, here's another quote directed towards you-know-who:
"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave"
- Gandhiji

Carpe Diem! Let it out! :P

And then some....

2007-07-02T00:45:00.000+05:30

More stuff from Shantaram...

"The facts of life are very simple. In the beginning we feared everything - animals, the weather, the trees, the night sky - everything except each other. Now we fear each other and almost nothing else. No one knows why anyone does anything. No one tells the truth. No one is happy. No one is safe. In the face of all that is so wrong with the world, the very worst thing you can do is survive. And yet, survive you must. It is this dilemma that makes us believe and cling to the lie that we have a soul, and that there is a God who cares about its fate. And now you have it."

"She kissed my cheek, and turned away. I couldn't obey the impulse to hold her in my arms and kiss her lips. I watched her walk, her dark silhouette a part of night itself. Then she moved into the warm, yellow light near the door of her apartment, and it was as if my watching eyes had made her shadow come to life, as if my heart alone had painted her from darkness with the light and colors of her love. She turned once to see that I was watching her, before she softly closed and locked the door."

And now the eerie one... "One of the reasons why we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you." ... true?? I don't really know. Moving..? Oh hell yeah..!!

A few good ones...

2007-07-01T11:52:00.000+05:30

Was just reading this book aajkal.. And came across some pretty neat lines in it. just wanted to share them with you guys..

It starts off like this...

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choices you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life."

... Now I remember hearing something to that effect in The Shawshank Redemption.. I think it goes like this. "Hope. Now that's one thing they can never take away from us, one place they can never reach, one thought they can never kill." Liked it then, like this now.. :)

"The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business" -- hmm..

"A man has to draw the line somewhere. Civilization, after all is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit."

"There's a truth that's deeper than experience. It's beyond what we see, or even what we feel. It's an order of truth that separates the profound from the merely clever, and the reality from the perception. We're helpless, usually, in the face of it; and the cost of knowing it, like the cost of knowing love, is sometimes greater than any heart would willingly pay. It doesn't always help us to love the world, but it does prevent us from hating it. And the only way to know that truth is by sharing it, heart to heart, just as Prabaker told it to me, just as I'm telling it to you now." - - nice, eh???

The book is Shantaram, by the way, the bestseller by Gregory David Roberts. Will put up more stuff as and when I come across it.

Device uses waves to “print” on water surface

2007-06-16T20:16:00.000+05:30

Now, I just stumbled upon this some time back. Very interesting to say the least..

Researchers at Akishima Laboratories (Mitsui Zosen), working in conjunction with professor Shigeru Naito of Osaka University, have developed a device that uses waves to draw text and pictures on the surface of water.

The device, called AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin), consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool). The wave generators move up and down in controlled motions to simultaneously produce a number of cylindrical waves that act as pixels. The pixels, which measure 10 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height, are combined to form lines and shapes. AMOEBA is capable of spelling out the entire roman alphabet, as well as some simple kanji characters. Each letter or picture remains on the water surface only for a moment, but they can be produced in succession on the surface every 3 seconds.

Researchers at Akishima Laboratories have developed similar devices in the past that used waves to draw pictures on the surface of water, but those devices had trouble producing letters with straight lines (such as the letter K). Additionally, it took the previous devices up to 15 minutes of data input time to produce each letter.

The newly developed technology uses improved calculation methods for controlling the wave generators, relying on formulas known as Bessel functions. In addition to being able to draw letters consisting of straight lines, the input time has been drastically reduced to between 15 and 30 seconds for each letter.

Akishima Laboratories expects the technology to be incorporated into amusement devices that combine acoustics, lighting and fountain technology, which they hope to see installed at theme parks and hotels.

Now, hvnt we studied Bessel functions sometimetime in coll?? Under Jhakkas(JKS) maybe :D ??

A place called home...

2007-06-10T10:51:00.001+05:30

Driving back from college some days ago, lost amidst the songs playing on the stereo, a sudden sight arrested my attention. I have no idea why it did, I guess it wouldn't have on any other day.

A small house, with a light on in one of the rooms. A woman standing in the balcony chatting with (I guess) a neighbor, and two kids playing in the small park right underneath. I suppose it just reminded me of my childhood, of maybe about 10-12 years ago. We also used to live in a small(er) apartment near JLN stadium. Lots of friends (read children of the same age group), and a couple of rather special ones as well. I still remember the way we kids used to rush off to the stadium grounds every evening in the summer months, buy our customary lick-lolly from our old ice-cream waale uncle. Then rush off into the fields and just roll down the slopes, play hide-and-seek, chain-chain and u know, basically have the time of our lives. Our mothers standing in the balcony just like that woman, chatting with the friendly neighbors talking about all and sundry. Dad coming home in the evening in the rain, with my sis worried ki the car would get wet (she was arnd 3-4 and sooooooooo cute..!!).

Ohhh, how i wish those days would return. Those uncomplicated days. No mad rush, with the life so peaceful. And john, irrespective of whatever u might think, i really do wish that we were born some 50 years ago or so... Just think of it. In the hills of Darjeeling, romancing with the love of ur life, meeting in the evenings in the cloud-covered dales. Peace all around, no tension of getting home early to be able to mail back some stuff to ur boss/colleague/professor. Just being able to spend some real quality time with the people u like.

I digress. So as I was saying, this sight really did move me. I was forced to pull over and stop. Another thing that shook me was how a small piece of land could so easily turn into such a special place. A place called home. Do you also get the amazing satisfaction/enigmatic feeling , when u return home after a trip, even if you had been out with your entire family..?? Is this home-sickness as well?? Or house-sickness?? I don't know.

But, such things do put everything else in perspective. That night, at danny's place, when we were all talking about our regrets/satisfying moments/learnings from our 4 years of college, I did mention something about not taking the ones close to you for granted, especially your family. I don't know as to how many of you actually paid attention to what I said. But I say it again yaar. There's nothing like home, nothing like family. I guess nothing, and nobody in this whole wide world is worth neglecting your family for. Not even the special 'one'. But obviously that is not to say that you forget your friends, which brings me to my last point.

We all are going our own diff ways now. John and maddy off to meet uncle sam. Danny would most probably do so too in a couple of years. Deepak off to bangalore, (i guess for quite a long time..). So just Gauri and me here.. We will all be making new friends. But please please let's not forget each other as well. I have the ugly tendency to indulge a bit to much in/with anything new that I get/find. But not this time, not with friends. So, milate rehana yaar. Please. I am extremely lucky to have so many great friends at one go. Now I don't want to lose all of them at one go as well.

So, here's to us, the geeky gang..!!! :D

Goodbye

2007-06-07T00:17:00.001+05:30

Goodbye

by Rosebud

Well maybe now I should just say goodbye
You used to be my friend
But I never felt I really was yours
So maybe this is the end.
I'm different from you, all of you
Each other we've never understood
I hope that if I do tell you goodbye
That it won't be for good.
Whenever I'm mad it hurts me so bad
And you don't even care
I don't know why, I just want to cry
And someday I won't be there.
The streaks on my arm they've done me no harm
They're only made of pen
But once they are blood that turns brown like mud
They'll be there again and again.
If I'm mad at you I'll hurt myself too
But that doesn't really matter
Although when I hurt I feel like dirt
And my spirit's bruised and battered.
I do not know why it has to be so
I really wish it did not
But the way this has been going
it is basically shot.
You don't need me and we don't need we
And that's how I think I know why
These words are the ones I have to speak-
I love you, but goodbye.

Here are some really nice poems i came across...

2007-06-07T00:16:00.000+05:30

Am I Alone?
by Megan Hance
I get a funny feeling,
it comes from deep inside.
I get all mad and angry,
wanting to go and hide.

My doctor calls it depression,
my dad says it's just me.
But the thoughts and feelings,
no one will ever be able to see.

Some say I'm psycho,
some say I'm just weird.
It's like I'm a different person,
and the old me just disappeared.

I get really edgy,
I want to commit suicide real bad.
Then I get a headache,
followed by feeling sad.

I wish I could get help,
I wish it would go away.
Maybe if I keep praying real hard,
it will some day.

thass..

2007-03-04T22:10:00.000+05:30

THE World Cup is back, and this time its going to be really fun (if you forget that the 1st round is part of the whole thing :P ). Round of 8 would be interesting, 24 matches among the top 8 teams! Though these top 8 teams are very closely matched, Aus SA and Ind should go through to the semis comfortably, i am sure gaurav would disagree with me :P . But fight for the fourth place would be exciting, still the more likely scenario would be NZ or SL going through, i mean Pak has lost its bowlers to dope; Eng plays with only 2 batsmen, collingwood can be called that after embarrassing the aussies, and flintoff; WI though have the home advantage, dont have enough match winners, and their bowling is a bit suspect. But you never know, kuch bhi ho sakta hai....

now to the interesting ques, who should/will be in the finals.... Aus has won too much recently, they got to loose sometime and they will probably in the semis itself, it helps that many key players are injured :P . But if they find a few more Husseys.... it might be a third straight wc win.
South Africa should reach the finals this time, ab to bahut ho chuka.... they are the now the No 1 team officially, that should boost their confidence and motivation levels and prevent them from doing silly things they are famous for... :D . The second finalist should be India, their batting is good, pace attack is solid, experience of 03 would help but more importantly it could be the last wc for sachin and sourav, they would want to win it.
In the finals whoever bats first will win, unless they get out for a really really low score, because neither team is capable of chasing a decent total in the finals.

Now the sad part, saare matches raat ko aayenge aur subah khatam honge... boohoohoo..

I have one question : why do people hide their identity on the net? i mean you hide behind a pseudonym if your intentions are wrong, you want to avoid publicity (some authors do this).... is there any other reason, am i missing something? even you guys have fancy usernames...why?
(i agree even i tried them, probably because everyone used them, ab main to gadha hoon, per tum log...).
in real world our identity is constantly verifierd, we have all sorts of id cards for this purpose, so why not in the virtual world?

one good news, my btp has finally seen some progress, finally got a paper to implement thanks to STC and ashish, hurray!

Very interesting...

2007-03-02T23:25:00.000+05:30

This is the product of a research undertaken to study the baisc human usage over the net. The image is a 24-hour clock showing what people look for at different times of the day. The font size is proportional to the no. of times the term appears in an hour.. This data was collated from over 1997-2000 with the innermost ring representing 1997.

Some very interesting observations can be made:

Overall

* There appears to be a dramatic shift away from chat and towards information retrieval between 1997 and 2000.
* People are diurnal - search activity dies down at night and picks up again as people get up for work.

1997

* It is clear that chat is most prevalent when people are home (evening). You can see chat frequency starting to grow around 11am, dominating by 5pm, and tapering off around 1am. It is supplanted by sex around 5am.
* It seems people are curious about adult topics throughout the day. You can see sex jump in frequency around 11pm, reaching a climax around 2am (no pun intended) and dying down to nominal levels by 5am. However, since everyone is in bed, it clings to the top spot until pictures jumps to life, snatching the top spot as people roll out of bed.
* Secondary terms are interesting as well. Entertainment oriented terms are popular in the afternoon and evening. University and software make their main appearance during the work day (8am-5pm). Warez makes it into the top five from 5am-7am thanks to late-night pirates and people who can’t get to sleep.

1998

* Chat and pictures vie for the top spot starting around 5pm, continuing until 2am. However, mp3s (and download) make a strong appearance, especially at night.

1999 & 2000

* These two years are similar, and so I've grouped them for brevity. The data shows chat, mp3s and porn begin to lose out to information, which dominates around the clock. MP3 remain popular in 1999. By 2000, e-commerce has matured; people are increasingly searching for things to buy.

For more info, visit http://charrison.net/projects/searchclock/index.html

back on d blog n 4m jaipur!!

2007-02-18T10:12:00.000+05:30

hey folks me back! [:D]......n choki dhani is as good as ppl say it its!!!![:D]!!!!!!!!

Really really bored....

2007-02-15T23:53:00.000+05:30

This has been long overdue.... here goes nothing.

So my trip to Hong Kong was boringly uneventful. Went alone, attended the conference alone, did some touristy things alone and came back alone. The highlight of my trip was my visit to Asia's largest musical instrument store which happens to be located there. So I spent half a day there, playing some of the most expensive guitars in the world and acting like a serious customer. But I had a blast there!

HK is a group of 4 islands (or is it 5). I was living on Kowloon island and my conference center was located on the main HK island. I used the HK Metro (goes under-water!) to commute to and fro. I had bought what they call an 'Octopus' card - all public transport - buses, metro, ferry, trams, even tourist spots accept this "smart card" from which the amount spent is deducted automatically. But what struck me about the city the most was that it is extremely pedestrian friendly - broad sidewalks and very good pedestrian subways/bridges everywhere. It is possible to go from anywhere to anywhere on foot there.... without feeling the weather, traffic or the pollution too much. Also, nobody speaks English... and some Chinese people (old ones esp.) were quite uninterested in even trying to communicate. Others were quite friendly... practised my sign language there :P

And the food... ugh.... well, as people say, Indian Chinese food is a cuisine in itself. Authentic Chinese food is nothing like what the masalad version that we get here. It was quite horrible, let me add. Most Chinese restaurants house aquariums from which one can choose one's food.... as fresh as it gets, 'eh? So, I survived on the BigMac and Fries combo from McDonalds - there are more than 200 McDonalds outlets in Hong Kong. There is one at every block. And all tourists eat there. I was amazed how well the food quality and flavour is standardised at McD's. The fries, burgers and shakes taste exactly the same as they do here!

The conference... boring boring boring. Apart from maybe 1 or 2 talks/papers out of the 800+ papers being presented there. I got a strong feeling that most people attend such conferences for networking, socialising or as an excuse for holidaying; they are sponsored by their respective institutes/employers. I can proudly say though, that I was the youngest presenter and attendee there :) I met a couple of Indians - one from IIIT Hyderabad, one guy from a Biotech place in Singapore... met some profs. from the UK, one woman from the NSF (USA). All of them were 40+ years old. Boring boring boring!

Went to a place called "The Peak" from where one can see the whole of Hong Kong... concrete jungle... juxtaposed islands and ocean; quite a sight really.

A good experience overall.

So John, what are we doing about ICCTA and about the BTP? I have just resumed reading papers on language modelling. Do you want to go to Kolkata by air or by train?

Some observations

2007-02-15T21:23:00.000+05:30

so the blog is finally up again! and the issue of DSP/VLSI was finally resolved! (unless expert systems messes it up again).

Recently i was watching a movie about aliens, The faculty, why i watched it... i don't know, it was pretty boring.... anyways while watching it a thought struck me that in Hollywood movies aliens are always enemies, they never coming in peace. the only 2 exceptions i could think of were 'Contact' and 'ET', but even here except for the main guys everyone else thinks of the aliens as enemies. then i thought of all those teen movies i watch when i have nothing to do :D, almost in everyone of them there is a group of 'cool' people who hate/abuse/mistreat the guys who are different( the studious types) and the 'cool' guys don't really know these guys. and as you know art imitates life, you can pretty easily conclude that Americans fear/dislike/abuse people who are different/alien to them. maybe you can generalize this for the whole mankind... i don't know. but it certainly seems true of Americans. So can you really blame the Iraq war on the bush administration? i don't think so.... they couldn't really help it, i mean from their point of view Iraq is a desert, Iraqis don't speak English but a strange language, they dress funny, they don't follow Christianity, they don't play baseball and football etc etc.... so they most probably must be enemies, and certainly not friends so no point in feeling guilty about killing them for oil.

While reading Johnny's post this again came to my mind: Sachin, the guy often called as god by almost everyone till the early years of this decade; the guy who was the only reason ,for almost all Indians, to watch cricket; the guy on whose arrival to the batting crease stadiums filled up and on whose dismissal stadiums emptied, the guy every kid wanted to be.... i can go on forever, is suddenly the guy who is often called as the devil standing in the path of youngsters(who by the way rarely do anything of note); the guy who's booed in wankhade stadium (i still cant believe this); the guy to whom everyone gives advice on how to bat( this is unbelievable, this guy has scored more international runs than anyone else, and its my guess he knows a thing or two about batting).
Conclusion public memory is even more volatile than RAM! And we Indians don't respect our heroes, probably this can also be generalized to all mankind, but i will stop short of that.

With reservations for backward classes in India and affirmative action for blacks/coloured people/backward classes around the world, I used to think someone from the upper caste/a white might someday say that he/she is being discriminated against. But i didn't think it would come this early and from Darrel Hair and on such a issue, where there was no scope of discrimination against anyone.

in 4 months time we'll be working, college would be over and with that life as we know it would be over as well, this is pretty hard to digest. and as Danny pointed out a few days back, in 9 yrs we'll be 30,i don't know about you guys, but i am old :(

Random thoughts...

2007-02-11T16:28:00.001+05:30

Getting bored.. so sat down to write...

Lots of interesting stuff happening rt now.. England on the verge of defeating Austraila in the second final in the Commonwealth Bank series..(YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!), Ganguly scoring another well-made half-century (echo previous sentiments..), non-stop rain in delhi for 2 days now (awesome weather yaar!!), neelu agreeing to see us, some people from techtribe coming to college to give a talk on entrepeneurship, danish attending william darlymple's talk (huh...???), I got my offer letter from atrenta, the moksha quiz also coimg up, plus two projects to finish and last but not the least, me finally taking part in a topcoder match and sucking big time...(atlst thts not a surprise..)!!

So, as u see, am pretty occupied with all this. In between there is a little bit(okay, more than a little) of book-reading, movie-watching, music-listening, sketching, coding, making web pages, orkutting and blogging :D

Coming back to the weather, man.. really awesome weather.. Does grow on you, though it grew too much on danish. That man went for a 250 km long drive coz he liked the weather!! Wish I cud be as reckless as he (is)... But, seriously, weather's nice. It had me making plans for movie marathons, till I realised that watching movies all day doesn't give you much of a chance to enjoy the weather.. hehe.. So, junked the plan (or pseudo-plan, whatever..) and am going for a drive myself. Though not far, just to the neighbourhood market, to buy some books.. (divide danny's trip's distance by 50 and you get the idea..)

Apart from that, all is hunky dory. Well, almost all. Just that teh stupid Adobe ppl aren't calling me for a written exam or interview.. phew.. been waiting for so long now..(sigh!!) Hmm, what else.. Yeah, have been reading Bhagwad Gita of late.. nice funde there.. A pretty logical outlook towards life, wish I had the determination to follow the principles laid out there.. But, fat chance! So, u guys are stuck with me. for the time being.

And yeah, going to HPCA tomorrow.. It's some school for handicapped kids, let's see if we could do something meaningful for those unfortunate kids. They really are in a pitiful state yaar.. I don't men the kids at HPCA. I haven't even met them. Rather, generally. Those kids suffer so much. So much discrimination, and no real help from most of us. I remember the countless times I have seen some guy in our college, who goes around in a wheelchair, being carried up (or down)the staircases, especially the one leading to the canteen.. Heart-wrenching scene that. I really wish we could do something for them..

So, on this cheerful note, would say tata, and as john said/requested/threatened, WRITE!!!

La vita italiana...

2007-02-03T19:58:00.000+05:30

Sorry to keep you hanging so long for the episode of my novella :) So, let me see, where did I stop last time…well, quite a few things have happened since Christmas and New Years, so I’ll just stick to some interesting incidents. So, classes at Politecnico began on the 8^th of January, which is when I finally broke my routine of getting up really late and sitting all day in the Computer room at Torrescalla. Not that much changed – I shifted base to Professor Gini’s office and downloaded music all day instead. That continued for most of January; while I kept reading papers and thinking of project ideas, there was not much actual progress, since the robots themselves were missing. And the project itself depends a lot on the capabilities of the robots etc. Anyway, now finally the robot which I would be working on has been identified – it is a Sony AIBO(the robot dog you saw a picture of in my album), which actually belongs to the brother of a student here, Paulo Belluco. He is also working under Prof. Gini, and she convinced him to let me work with it, under his supervision. From now on, until the end of my stay, I would be working at the AI&R lab with the AIBO, where he also generally works all day on his thesis. He is a nice guy, and I usually have lunch(a pizza slice, a sandwich etc) with him – in fact, he is supplying more material for my project than the Politecnico(he also got his WiFi access point for me to use with the AIBO). However, inspite of all this help, I doubt that I’ll be able to complete anything substantial before I have to leave…now that I have begun looking at the nitty-gritties of it, I realise that it is actually quite complicated(WLAN configuration, Cygwin environments, scripting languages, event-driven programming…how the hell am I supposed to figure out all these things in 4 weeks?!)

What else… the people here have a strange academic schedule – they have exams in February and March, with the holidays in December and January soot of like an extended study break. For me, that basically means that everybody I know is too busy to spend much time with me, like going for tours and the like. So, now I have decided to go visiting Italy (at least the places close to Milan) by myself. Last Sunday, I went to Verona – the city where the Shakespearean play “Romeo and Juliet” is set. It was quite a nice place, with the old city small enough for me to explore walking all day. Apart from the inevitable medieval-time churches(and attached collections of frescoes and murals), I also visited ‘Casa di Giulietta’, the House of Juliet, which supposedly was the Capulet(Juliet’s family) residence, Castelvecchio, the old castle with a very well-maintained gallery.This Sunday I plan to go to Mantua, another city close to Milan which apparently has lots of interesting churches and the like(like every place of any note in Italy:).

Ok, now I recall that I haven’t told you much about the place where I am staying. Torrescalla is a student residence, with around 55 residents this year. While most of these live in rooms at the main centre – which you saw photographs of – some of them(like me) live in flats nearby. But all are provided the same facilities: computer and study rooms, breakfast and dinner at the centre, lunch as well on weekends. From time to time, special activities are organised for the students, such as talks by professionals, and trips to nearby places(like the one to Piani dei Resinelli that I posted photographs of). Since Milan has several prominent universities, students from all over Italy come to Milan for studies, and many live in student residences like this. Giovanni also stays here(which is how I landed my place here)- though he is no longer a student, and works in Turin, a city 2-3 hours away from Milan during the week.

There hasn’t been much activity regarding the MS applications I submitted. I had received a call from a professor at the University of Toronto, a member of the Admissions Committee. where he went through my application for an MSc in CS there – ‘So ‘Johnson’ is your middle name?….Do you have anything to say about the 53 in Electromagnetics and 57 in Electronics 1?’ and so on. I think it went quite well overall, since he ended up describing Toronto as a great alternative to the other places that I told him I had applied to.

Hmmmmm, I can’t think of other things to talk about Milan. Of news from India, I have been kept somewhat up-to-date about Danish, Madhav and Abhinav. What is everyone else up to? Why isn’t anyone posting blogs about their adventures in Delhi, even if they just be about the BTP/weather/Aricent training/mindless-gaping-at-the-PC?

By the way, since I am one of the editors of the college magazine (iNSITe) this year, I would like to request some articles from you guys. I have looked through the stuff that we have already and most of it is unusable (to put it nicely:) So, please feel free…er...obliged to write down your thoughts about Class-based reservation, the Re-Interpretation of Dreams, Sachin Tendulkar – time to put him in the Hall of Fame?(and out of the Indian Cricket team?), Inventions you would like to see made, Explanations for India’s obsession with Super-Power-dom, Comments on latest technology gadgets like the Jerry Han multi-touch screen(have you seen the video yet?), Arguments against/(for) copyright protection….and whatever else grabs your fancy. Please guys, I know you have things to say – how about helping me (and the average NSITian reader) out by noting down your ideas? Plus, I promise Swiss chocolates for all contributors :D

Anyway, I have to go now…remember: WRITE!

Oye maddy???

2007-01-06T23:15:00.000+05:30

Mr. Mad Hatter.. Dnt wann share anything about your lil trip to hong kong with us?? How was it?? The questions? The answers ? (I am sure u fumbled a lot.. ;-) ).. And what abt Hong Kong also??? Kuch ghooma shooma?? And college paying you or not??

Just one more thing..

2007-01-06T23:12:00.000+05:30

Guys, please notice the comments also. The reply to a post need not be another post only.. Comments are better for discussions on the specific post. Let the main page be just for the main topics we are discussing. That's what I think. The rest is upto you...

Arre!!!!

2007-01-06T22:54:00.000+05:30

Koi to batao ki should i switch to the new blogger version or not?? had hai.. koi reply hi nahi kar raha!!! bata bhi do bhai log...

Yo! the emperor is here

2006-12-30T21:03:00.000+05:30

never to late eh?...hehe! finally got an invitation to the bloody blog!!...thanks john!!!i joined in 2006! yipeee!...cya around folks!

Chrstmas tidings..

2006-12-30T15:10:00.000+05:30

Sorry for not keeping you guys posted...here's some news on my Italian Christmas: I had been invited over by a third-year Mathematical Engineering (even he is not sure what that is:) student at Politecnico, to his home for Christmas Eve dinner and then the Vigil mass at a nearby church. Davide's family was very happy to have me over, and there was lots of familiar bantering and leg-pulling (his grandparents and cousins' family were there as well). One of his cousins(Gabriele) had spent 6 months in Australia, and so naturally we ended up discussing the worth of the latest Bollywood potboilers and British sitcoms. I was surprised to find a very well-stocked library - Asimov, Clarke, Clancy, Ludlum..all the latest fiction/fantasy bestsellers..and all in Italian! In fact, I have been generally surprised to see the kind of preference Italians (and all Europeans, I think) have for their mother tongue. Understand, of course, that I come from a second-generation Malayali family settled in Delhi - and hence butcher both Malayalam and Hindi when I try speaking them(ok, Hindi not so much). But, in general, it is rather interesting to contrast an Italian 's thinking vis-a-vis English to the Indian's - it's almost as though we have no national pride! But, as I explain to others (and console myself) here as regards the general Indian facility for English - we do have good historical reasons for the choice of English. But, still, it would be nice to see young people in India love and use Hindi (or their respective mother tongues) as the Italians do their italiano.
Anyway, enough language politics. And what should I say about the food - lots of courses(all kinds of meats I don't recall now), and the Italians do seem to love their desserts more than Bengalis. Apart from the Pannetone(a typical Milanese Christmas cake), we had candied chestnuts, tarts, and what-not-else.
After the dinner, we went for midnight mass at a nearby church(apparently, no matter where you live in Milan, there would be a church within 5 minutes walking distance). Even though I could follow little of the Italian Mass, it was quite the only link I could find with an Indian Christmas; do you know I have yet to sing a single
carol!
On Christmas day itself, another friend, Luca Bergamaschi(3rd year student of Medicine) picked me up from the flat for lunch at his place. Here also, the family was quite happy to have me over. In general, people here have very little idea about India. They know it's huge, and has lots of (poor) people, but little else.
So I got questions like - Why do you speak English? Do they speak Hindi all over India? Why are Indians so good at IT?I hope I gave all of these nice people a good first impression of India (Summarised answer to all: We Indians are all trilingual, adept in English and abstract thinking:)

And on the 26th night, Marcello and Stefano(vice-directors of the residence) returned to Torrescalla(the name of the place where I am staying). So, now I am back in main residence - till they officially reopen the student residence in Jan, when I'll have to move back to the flat for lack of room here. Other students are coming back as well these days- right now, we have Arcen(Cote D'Ivorean), Marco(Peruvian) and Roberto(Italian studying in Paris) here. Nowadays, I just spend all day in front of my comp, following up on my Masters' applications.

We have all meals together - who had known one could tire of meat everyday! - where Snappo (= Stefano Neopolitano!) tries to force English down everyone's throats(while my Italian remains pathetic, I am quite sure everyone here would have near-perfect command of English idioms by the end of Feb:) So, generally, I am having a nice lazy
vacation - at least till Univ reopens...and what are you guys up to?

batao..

2006-12-17T18:28:00.000+05:30

Blogger's notice: " Your new version of Blogger is ready!

The new version of Blogger now has all the original features you're used to, plus new post labels, drag-and-drop template editing, and privacy controls. And, it's a lot more reliable.

After you switch you'll need to sign in with your Google Account, but your blogs will stay the same. Their content and layout will not change. "

Should i do it???

Gandhi, Ahinsa, and Britishers

2006-12-15T19:59:00.000+05:30

The other day, I was watching the movie 'Gandhi' yet again, and it got me thinking (kabhi kabhi yeh kaam bhi karna chaheye) and confused (yet again).

The confusion part:
I find the British policies/behavior in their colonies very confusing. On one hand they were colonizing nations; enslaving generations; killing, imprisoning people as they wished; basically doing whatever they wanted. On the other hand they followed the prevailing law; wouldn't arrest/kill Gandhi even when its obvious that he is a danger to the British rule; have trials whose outcome everyone knows, like the Bhagat Singh case, when they could have simply shot the 3 'terrorists'.
Now what do you call this type of behavior: hypocrisy, sanctimoniousness, self-righteousness, or outright foolishness?

The thinking part:
Well, I cant express this till the above confusion is cleared, as I am not too clear on what I am thinking.

keep posting guys.

Discrimination

2006-12-11T00:54:00.000+05:30

Some interesting arguments made.. I'll give a different take - take the fundamental biological and anthropological view - discrimination is reqd. for the success and well being of the human species and for that matter animals as well. Females discriminate between different males on the basis of some parameters which she wants her offspring to inherit and vice versa for males as well. Deep down inside is that primal instinct to discriminate.

Where discrimination goes wrong is when a group of people decide that their offspring will inherit their rights and property - this breeds incompetence and laziness which slows human progress ( caste system did this in india). We can probably learn frm animals here - there is no sense of inheritance in any animal species. The parents raise their young and then they r on their own. Whether they succeed or not depends on their hard work and genes and not dad's old bank balance. One view is that we some of us humans are guilty of doin more than our fair share in life - building huge empires and concentrating resources and money in few hands - this breeds inheritance and thus discrimiantion on the basis of inheritance.

I believe where discrimination creates the prb is wen the basis for it is applied in situations where they r not applicable - in todays globalized and free society everyone is capable of everything. The tech. and science revolution of the past 500 years has nt led to any evolution of the brains of any particular sub-species of humans. An African is no less a student than a European. Even differences like atheletic ability are been re-dressed. Chinese and Japanese have showed Asians can win Athletic events like sprint races and swimming competitions.

The point is that with globalized lifestyles the discrimination is lessening. because of similarities in cultures lifestyles and up-bringing etc. humans every where have the same platform to launch from in life and they demand to be treated equally. We thus use merit to discriminate these people then.

Benvenuto a Milano!

2006-12-09T19:33:00.000+05:30

Rats Galore

(I hope that was correct!)

I reached Milan safe and (mostly:) sound today. The flight was fairly comfortable(though the food was crappy) I had to reach the student residence where I am staying myself from the airport, but it wasn't much of a problem. The place is great - I get a single room, and net access and everything. ANd I will be going to the university on Monday, and meet my guide etc. Until then, I am free to do what I will! So today, in the evening for example, I am going to see a bit more of Milan, than what I managed on the train from the airport and then the Metro. More about these later..gotta go now!

discrimination, dosent have to be negative always

2006-12-06T21:58:00.000+05:30

the majority of people are always wrong, and (ironically) the majority of people also believe so.
I guess, everyone has different views so for a particular person the majority is always wrong.

Anyways, according to Webster's dictionary discrimination means the ability to percieve distinctions. So why is discrimination always taken in a negative sense? If a person from 'upper' caste dosent like people from 'lower' caste, its fine, everyone is not supposed to like everyone. But if a person from 'upper' caste dosent like people from 'lower' caste and causes harm to them, its not accecptable.

Besides all this, I just cant understand why would there be no discrimination, I mean there are over 6 billion human beings, each one different from the other; men are different from women, a Hindu is different from a Muslim, an Indian is different from a European... there are so many differences. Intelligence is one of them.AG, what you did was perfectly reasonable, its your time and energy that you would have put in and you didnt want to spend it with someone whom you thought was not up to the mark. If you call this discrimination then the whole education system is discriminating.

The problem is that there are differences but people want to think there are none. Women want to be equal to men, but the fact is both are different, neither is superior or inferior to other, just different. You call a black person a blacki or something, he will be offended, but why should he, a white dosent feel bad when referred to as a whitie. Thats the color of their skin, the truth. It should be a problem when these differences make people harm one another, but here the problem is not the differences but people themselves. Differences should be cherished, not despised. Diversity is what nature intended and without it the world would be pretty boring.

Socialism is based on the premise that everyone is equal, and hence socialism failed, something based on an invalid premise can't possibly succeed!!

capital punishment

2006-12-06T21:09:00.000+05:30

I dont know if we, human beings, have a right to send another human being to the gallows. But what I know is that we should do something only if its useful. So the question arises what purpose does capital punishment serve? Is it there only for retribution or is it a sufficient deterrence for future criminals?

Capital punishment just for retribution... I dont know.
And is it a sufficient deterrence... I dont think so. One can say that there are two kinds of criminals who get or ought to get capital punishment. Firstly, there are terrorists, gangsters, professional killers, drug lords etc, i.e. their lives are at risk anyway. Secondly, there are rapists, killers, communalists, politicians like Saddam etc, i.e. the risk to their lives is not so much.

For the first category, if losing one's life was a deterrence, one would change professions.
For the second category, the question arises whether a 30-40 yr prison term or say a life term is a bigger deterrence than capital punishment or not? Now this is debatable, as Gaurav would say a prison term gives one a chance to live, but on the otherhand a 30-40 yr prison term destroys one's life.... again I dont know.

Looking from a different perspective, if people who actually perform the executions feel no guilt, there should be no problems with concept of capital punishment. However, if they have feelings of guilt, then capital punishment must be abolished. I mean what's the harm in doing something if no one feels bad, and what's the point in doing something if one feels guilty about it.

2006-12-03T16:27:00.001+05:30

What is right and what is wrong? Who decides? In an ideal world, an individual should be able to dictate his/her own choice of morals. But of course, we don't live in an ideal world.

So is discrimination wrong? Society says so. Then again, what degree and what basis of discrimination are we talking about here? Discrimination on the basis of superficial and general identities that humans have created for themseleves such as caste, colour, race, religion etc. is certainly wrong in this world. But what do you really think? Do you think that it is wrong to treat somebody unfavourably just because he/she is seemingly less intelligent that you are?

Discrimination - a sin??

2006-12-02T18:35:00.001+05:30

Continuing with what I had been talking about with Madhav and Gauri... Is being discriminative always bad?? I routinely find myself feeling a bit superior to other (less-advantaged) ppl. Is it a bad thing to have this feeling?? Irrespective of the reason??

For instance, take the time when some guy had asked me to work on a project with him. (for the record, u guys don't know him..). I plainly refused. Why?? Just because I thought ki that guy just wasn't good enough to work with. Now, I didn't think about it at the moment. But now, in retrospect, it seems as if that was just the kind of discrimination champu was talking about.. "Meritocracy".. I looked up the word at wiki and found quite a lot. Among the things I discovered was the fact that Singapore is a self-confessed meritocratic state. If anybody is unfamiliar with this word, let me help you. Meritocracy is a system(usually of a government) that is based on demonstration of merit and talent and not the power that one yields. Such a system proposes to be free of all kinds of cronyism, and lackeys pestering the ones with the power. That should sufficently help us get along for the moment. Otherwise, well, wiki is not going anywher anytime soon... ;)

So, as I was saying, I was left wondering whether that refusal along with the countless other similar things I must have done sometime or the other, make me a bad person! Or, perhaps, a person unft for this society. Because as aptly mentioned by mad and gauri (again), the reference point to judge you standpoint is always the society you live in. Either you try and fit in with the views of the society, you try to compromise, or you rebel and are termed an outcast. Or as I said earlier, a varying degree of a psycopath. But, what if the society is wrong all together. What if some people do realise that everything is going all wrong, and who would be the one to judge that these "rebels" are indeed correct??

Take my eariler example. Meritocracy. Aren't we essentially discriminating against people who are less apt in using their brains than we are? What parameters do we use for such a judgement? Because, throughout my life, there is atleast one thing that I have learnt. That the majority of people are always wrong, and (ironically) the majority of people also believe so. I'll leave it to you to figure out what I mean. Take this Manu Sharma incident. The one where Ram Jethmalani stepped in to save this kin of some powerful stalwart or smthng. (It's the Jessica Lal case, ain't it??) We, (and by we, I mean the media) have already tried Mr. Manu Sharma and convicted him finding him guilty on all counts. But wait, did we know any any, and i mean ANY, of the intricacies of the case?? Or the Mohammed Afzal case?? Or take the biggest fish of the pond, Mr. Dawood I(E??)brahim himself. For years, we have heard that he is the biggest don. He's the one responsibel for a thousand crimes. Maybe, he is. In fact yeah, I think he is. But the point is simply this, who decides it?? Certainly not the court. If my memory serves me well, I'd say that it was us, the ppl of India who convicted him first.

But why?? Maybe because he killed a hundred people?? Or ordered them killed?? Or extorted a gazillion ultra-rich film stars?? or kidnapped their kids?? Yeah, I thnk he did all this?? Yeah, and I think that that is very wrong. But wait.. Pause.. Even Halt.. Why this sudden jump from stating that he kidnapped ppl(or whatever...) to calling him a criminal??

Our entire lives we have been conditioned to think this way. Links are what are sub-consciously formed in our minds between these things.
Steal -> Bad
Kidnap-> Bad
Beg -> Bad
Cheat -> Bad
Threaten -> Bad
Kill -> BAD

and just one more...

question the dogmas of the society.. -> BBBAAADDD!!!!

WHY?? We believe Mr. Dawood killed. Yeah, agreed. But whom did he kill?? Innocent people not in any way connected to him or whatever his cause might be. Yeah..

But is that really wrong?? Did we ever stop to question his reason for doing so?? Don't think that I am trying to condone this guy's actions. I am not. But, what was hi reason. We've all heard of Robin Hood. And how, he was, is and would probably always be treated as a hero. What differentiates him form Dawood?? Or for the killings, why is that any different from the Holy wars, where so many ppl were killed for so mindless a thing a stressing on the superiority of one religion over another (though indirectly, but still..). Did we ever, EVER try to find out?? I sure didn't. Can't say about u guys specifically. But ,I can assure you that if you did, you would be among the miniscule 0.001% of the population..

My point being, that we decide what is good and what is bad. It's like Black or white.. No other combination's possible.. But come on man.. U can't ever judge a perosn's absolute skill depending on just a few discrete factors. There are just too many things to look at.. Heck it all, even GOD doesn't ever discriminate amongst us. We all die, don't we? We all return to dust, don't we?? Then why all this discrimination. which brings me back to the moot point- Does my being discriminative - irrespective of the reason, as i mentioned before - make me a bad person??

The basis for discrimination could be anything -colour, looks, money, sex, something as mundane as marks, or something as (seemingly) equally profound as "intelligence". What is it?? How do we judge people?? From the level of happiness they spread or their efficiency at work. The proponents of ree market would have us believe that it is the latter that is more important than anything else. In fact, they would say that the two are nmutually exclusive. But, then these people would have us believe a lot of other useless crap too. What do you think?? Am I being too damn harsh on myself?? Or am I just plain stupid to even raise the question and this entire post serves no purpose whatsoever?? Whatever you might think, I would surely like to know...

What do you think??

2006-10-12T22:16:00.000+05:30

I guess the both the point of views are important. One the one hand the company has to make profits and don't all companies desire a monopoly over the market?? I personally don't see anything wrong in MS's intentions but maybe the execution of the intent was all wrong.. But, somehow I can't see such a case coming up in INDIA, ever!!Even if it was admitted into court I am sure that the petitioner would have lost it quickly..

But yeah, on the other hand, the customer also needs to be protected. This debate somehow remonds me of that research-should-not-be-commercialised thing, you know.. The same arguements apply here as well...

Anyways, waise Deepak, I did ask you to write about something, but, not this yaar.. :-) Kuch aur.. I really can't comment much about such stuff.. So here's something else. I guess that this is gonna suit Mr. Krishna and Johnny-who's-won-another-quiz-but-still-no-sign-of-treat as well..

Hmm.., so what do you guys think about capital punishment?? Do you think that we, human beings, have a right to send another human being to the gallows?? Or do you, like Gandalf, believe that it's not a matter for mortals to decide, coz after all, even the very wise can not see all ends.. think about it...

what all (is/should be) in a os?

2006-10-10T18:49:00.001+05:30

Ag has cajoled me into this.. (is this the correct usage)

i just finished a book about us govt's antitrust lawsuit (antitrust: deals with monolopies) against microsoft.
some background about the case:
1995: netscape is formed and launches its web browser, its an instant success
1995-96: ms is worried about netscape, as the browser gives an alternative environment to developers, ie instead of using api's of windows developers can use api's of the browser. this was a threat to ms as this lowered 'applications barrier to entry' in the os market. ('applications barrier to entry': developers write applications for the more popular os, and more the applications more popular the os)
1997-98: ms bundles IE with windows 98, saying its an integral part of the os. (with win 95 IE was an application, not a part of the os). but its competitors and the govt thought otherwise, and the lawsuit followed. ms also prevented computer manufacturers like compaq, dell to remove IE from windows. (later ms also bundles media player with the os.) this pretty much kills of netscape.

now all this got me thinking, what all is part of the os? (speaking both technically and from the user's point of view) .
technically speaking, all things needed to 'operate the hardware' would be part of the os. this would mean that os is bascially a set of device drivers, along with memory management program, schedulers. hence 'applications' like IE, media player, even notepad should not be part of an os.
from a user's point of view, an os should include all software to do some basic operations with aid of a computer. now according to this viewpoint, an os includes applications like IE, media player, notepad, even word and excel. because when you buys a computer, you expect it come with most of the software you need. now these software could be part of os or could be installed by the computer manufacturer.
now software industry is a fairly fragmented one, besides ms there is hardly any software company which is a market leader in a number of products. this means there would be integration issues. i mean, how often windows crashes and how often its due to some application not written by ms.

ok, now this is a long post for me..

Hmm..

2006-10-04T00:01:00.000+05:30

That is a pretty nice point that you have raised, deepak. The fact that there are questions that can not be answered, and the fact that we can do nothing about them should imply that we don't worry about them. But, isn't that the irony of life?? That, this is exactly what we refuse to do? If only, I could be as non-chalant as some people are, life would be so much easier for me(and for you guys as well..hehe ;-) )

And maddy, yeah, i agree with you when you say that we should be content with what we have right now and not worry about the future, living without the "evil" feelings of pain, jealousy etc.. I agree. But, isn't it also true that a person only appreciates love, joy, satisfaction et al only when he has been deprived of the same for some time. Isn't that the cycle of life? Pain has to follow happiness and vice versa..

By the way, this is not what i was referring to when talking about "living for the moment". I was actually talking about how some people claim to not be thinking about the future at all. After all, even you are talking about planning. And that is all that I was trying to say, plan for road ahead. Maybe I should have added what you just said. Plan, but don't fret.. Hamaare vichaar kitne milte julte hai.. hehe..

So, nice discussions we seem to be having here. But we just missed something. John won a quiz again. And still the treat is nowhere in sight!! Come on john!!!!

Life is complicated, so enjoy it...

2006-10-03T16:38:00.000+05:30

I am really sorry about Raj.
Some time back, when my mausaji passed away I had similar thoughts as Anish. Life is so fickle, one never knows what will happen the next moment. A very small incident can , in just a moment, completely change the lives of many people. A person drives a bit too fast, and many lives change. A doctor makes a very small error in diagnosis and it has an enormous effect on lives of some people. But one cannot control these things. (This is when I think wouldn't it be great if had the option of undoing things, a second chance, as we have in computers)

Then there is this question, why are we here? Is there any special purpose for our existence as preached by many religions, or we are just a result of chemical and biological processes.
Then there is one more question, what happens,if something happens, after death? Do we have a soul, and that goes to some place, or the cells in our bodies just stop functioning.

These questions plagued me for quite some time. I don't know the answers, and probably no one does and probably no one ever will. Then I thought what's the point of these questions, since we will never know the answers. I have come to accept that there are certain things which I just cant control, so why bother about them. If I cannot do anything, then what's the point in worrying. On the other hand, if I can do something, then again there is no point in worrying. So I just try to enjoy life. Its anyway very complicated and tough, why make it more complicated and tougher by fretting on things beyond control.

PS: you read in the paper 100 died in bomb blast, its just another news. Prince is trapped and may die, the whole nation is worried. Why??

Do your duty, the fruits will come

2006-10-03T09:45:00.000+05:30

Raj Kiran..... RIP

I want to talk about faith.... not the religious kind. I'm referring to that sort of faith that drives us, that gives us hope that tomorrow will be a better day, that actually makes it possible for us to go about our lives without thoughts of the morbid and of death. Faith keeps us grounded, faith keeps us sane, faith is the basis of human life - it's a belief in the aphorism "I will overcome", that the world shall live in peace one day.

Yet, faith, does not include ignorance; admittedly, one must ACCEPT reality; I highlight the word "accept" here because I feel that it has a very strong connotation - to be able to examine a given situation, let it sink-in/understand it's bearings (correct usage?), possbily learn from it, but not be overwhelmed by it in any way. So when there is a death in the family, or of someone who is close to you, what gives you the courage to carry on? Faith. Life goes on. Instead of turning into a fatalist, you must accept such situations, take control of your life and start "living in the moment". Abhinav may call the latter bullshitting, but it is true, and possible as well. For me, "living in the moment" means many things actually - it entails being without any worry of the future, being happy at the current moment in time, being without the emotions of jealousy, hatred, anger etc. (these, I feel, are emotions that make one undermine the value of life), being thankful for what you have and being ready to ACCEPT what may lie in the future. So, you may plan out the future, but if it doesn't work out in that fashion, do not waste time on self-pity or melancholy, learn from the mishap, accept it and plan ahead.

I really feel that this is the key:

"karmany evâdhikâras te
mâ phalesu kadâcanamâ
karma-phala-hetur bhûr
mâ te sango 'stv akarmani"

"No matter what conditions you encounter in life, your right is only to the works--not to the fruits thereof. You should not be impelled to act for selfish reasons, nor should you be attached to inaction."
-Bhagavad Gita 2.47

Anish, thank you for sharing this experience.... it has driven me to think on various levels... some of which I've tried to share here.

The point is...

2006-10-02T15:03:00.000+05:30

Firstly, really sorry about Raj, anish. When I told my mom about this and told her that he was a friend of yours, she actually got depressed. She started telling me all the things that you are talking about.
And I agree with most of those things, if not all. It's definitely sad to lose someone you know. Even I have, though we were not much more than classmates back at skl. It sure does hurt and does put everything in perspective.. All your plans, your desires and especially all the places where you think that you were unlucky or were short-changed, now that you still remain even though the other is not. Of course, everybody feels that all the bad things just can't happen to them. "Somebody died in that bomb blast. A kid was orphaned!! Man, I feel bad." And that's it. Full stop. Nothing more. I feel the same. Maybe I would get bleary-eyed for a few seconds, but half an hour later you just might catch me watching the episodes of seinfeld or reading LOTR for the 100th time and laughing at kramer's or at sam's histrionics. Because, life goes on. You put it really well anish, when u said that the universe doesn't revolve around us (or should i say, me??)

As you said, we should stop putting off things for later. We should realise the value of time in our lives, coz we aren't here forever. Agreed.

But anish, having said that, it doesn't mean that we stop planning. That we stop thinking about the future. I have heard, so many times, of people who say that they take life as it comes. I say, that's all bull shit. You have to plan, john. Life can't simply be one knee-jerk reaction after another without following any specific plans. There has to be a reason, a method, an underlying framework to structure our lives.

You say, that whatever we do for ourselves doesn't matter. Of course it does..
Maybe I am digressing here, but the point is that no matter how you perceive your life to be, irrespective of whether you think of yourself as the world's biggest recluse or maybe an anchorite, the truth is that there is someone or something whose life you always have an effect upon. There is always someone who depends on you, who derives emotions of either connotation from you. Be it happiness, or displeasure. Be it elation or disappointment. Be it love or hatred. Somebody, somewhere is more dependant on you than you can ever be aware of. And that is why you have to plan. You have to lead your life in a certain fashion which would help your "someone" also lead a happy and successful life. Of course, you shouldn't lead a selfish life, nor do you have to behave like an altruist all the time, but as long as you take care of the ones you love, and the ones who love you, who is to complain?? All we need to do is care. And people won't remember us after 2-3 years?? The ones whose life you affected would. always. As long as I am able to make even one perosn genuinely happy in my life, as long as I can educate even one person, as long as I can bring into the life of an unprivileged person, lasting moments of unbridled joy and leave even a small impression on his heart, I will be satisfied. And I've done that. Atleast some of it. And that's why the fire burns inside me to do something more for humanity. For nature.

Yes, you will marry, have kids, and a job. And he won't. Yes, you might live up to ripe old age and he won't. But does that really matter. Maybe he had achieved all that he wanted from his life. Maybe what would have remained ahead of him was nothing but hardship and struggle and nothing else. In fact, how do you know that you aren't in for all that?? Not for nothing has this earth been called Mrityulok in Hindu mythology. And agnostic though I am, I am sure of at least this much. That, everybody is here for a reason. And you live only so long as to fulfill that reason. Nothing more, nothing less. He was here for a reason, and he went away when the reaosn ceased to exist. So will you, and so will I. But as you said, we aren't the centre of the universe.

So, we remould our lives and continue. Why feel guilty for that?? Why feel guilty for the fact that you can enjoy many things that (supposedly) he can't now. Who knows, maybe he is the one who is now in the best position among us all, having finally unravelled the mystery of death and residing with the almighty one?? Being as close to him as is possible and free of all burdens. Ain't that something to cherish, even desire? Ultimately, why should we fear death?? Because we would leave all the worldly attractions?? All the things that tempt us, force us to commit sins?? It is the ultimate irony of life that we humans cherish most what is the most harmful to us. Money and power.. Imagine a life (yes a life, because that is what it is..) free from all cares and worries, where you could rejoice being close, at last, with him. Imagine being in that state and gettin all the wisdom form him. And imagine that you have to work hard before you could reach him and be worthy of his attention and love. So, don't treat your life ahead as a sinned gift. Take it as an opportunity to wash away your own sins and redeem your self. And to do that, don't just live for the moment, at the moment. Plan. Think. Accomplish. That is what I believe. And that is what the point is..

what's the point?

2006-10-01T20:11:00.000+05:30

Ummm. This is something personal - a bit 'too' personal for some people? I knew Raj Kiran, the AIIMS student who died yesterday due to complications from Dengue fever.

I had known him for around 2 years; first met him at Kamet. Kinda like a friend one might have had at VMC or Fiitjee - not particularly close, but I ran into him quite a few times. Have played badminton with him sometimes, have been to his hostel room, have talked about stuff in general on the bus... It is not clear what I feel worse about - that I will never see or hear from him again, or that I don't feel enough.

It never really hits you, the inherent unfairness of life, unless things like this happen to someone you know. And I can't help thinking about it - how his parents and close friends must feel, all his potential and dreams gone up in smoke. The really tough part is knowing that I'll live after he's gone, that I would go on to have a job, kids, whatever, and he'll not - it will be lucky if I even remember him, what he looks like. That is, of course, if a car doesn't slam into me at an intersection one these days...the first thing I thought when I heard he's in a coma is 'It's not about me.' I interpret that now as meaning it could happen to anyone, including me. The world doesn't revolve around me, life would go on as before for most people around me. I could cease to be and I would cease to matter.

I mean, it never really occurs to me generally, that there can be life-changing(life-ending?) events waiting for me just around the corner, things that I would never have planned for. I might plan to apply for an MS, join a CS program at USC, then work in some Silicon Valley startup, and so on...and then something like this could happen to me. You could go out with barely a whimper, and there'd be little memory of you in 2-3 years. Or there might be, for entirely other reasons - like in the case of Raj, who died the ironical death of a doctor falling to a treatable disease, discovered too late. What about Raj the sportsman(he was on the AIIMS volleyball and football team), Raj the musician(he played the guitar and piano quite well) and Raj the student leader(He was elected general secretary of the AIIMS student body, and was busy helping organize the AIIMS fest PULSE a few days back)? I am happy I have those memories of him as well.

I think that young as we are, we simply don't think about this aspect of life - that it has to end sometime, and that that can happen at any time. And I think one needs to be prepared for this possibility - though how one does that is beyond me. Knowing that one can not be absolutely sure of living beyond the current moment of time is important. It helps shape your attitude towards life, towards others. The following are some really relevant lessons, at least for me:
I should stop putting off things for later; once I complete my exams; for after my BE; once I am 25; once I make enough to retire rich.
It's not about me - it doesn't matter in what I do, as long as I do it only for myself, it simply is of no consequence in the long run. What can I do for others? How can others benefit from what I have/can do? I don't mean philanthropy, setting up trusts etc - do I help at least my friends with what little I can offer? Can I help my parents out sometimes without complaining? Can I stop complaining about stuff, about people, when I know I am not helping?

I don't mean to lecture, I just think it might be a useful way of looking at things. Someone I know, from my generation has died. Should not that affect me?
Among more positive things I have thought of - I am beginning to think I might learn to understand things I thought weird earlier. Poems...lovesongs...art..romance...emotions... I can begin to relate to things like "It's better to have loved and lost, than not loved at all" I can kind of understand why introspection is important, not just to clarify one's thoughts on something, but also to know oneself better.

I don't know what you guys think of all this. Like I said, may be it's something I should really keep to myself. I just think it's useful to think of deeper things sometimes. You can brush it all off as sentimental sermonizing. (I think you guys expect that from Johnny:) Or you could think about it and write in what you think about it.

2006-10-01T04:28:00.000+05:30

Separation of India's military and civilian nuclear programmes:
This is not only India's perogative but India is the only authority on it. US can only wish that all civilian facilities are placed under safeguards, it cannot make that happen. Recently it was in the papers that the Fast breeder reactor progamme (has not been/will not be) placed under safeguards and hence will not recieve technological inputs from other nations.

The fact that in India nuclear research has never been classified as civilian research or military research is a problem. Segregation of facilities will definately prove to be expensive (moneywise), as India won't be able to use spent fuel or byproducts of civilian programme in the strategic programme.

India must always be wary of US for the simple reason that US is not a peaceful nation; Americans just love wars. For the last 100 years it has always been at war. There hasnt been a 20 yr period of peace for the US armed forces. Its also interesting to note that Israel, created by Americans; Pakistan, supported by Americans; Taliban, nurtured by Americans;(there must be a few more) have also been a source of conflicts.

My thoughts about the nuclear deal

2006-09-28T23:04:00.000+05:30

Let me start from the very starting and explain why I think, what I do think.

This Indo-US deal basically states that the US of A will make some ammendments in its own Nuclear control and export laws specifically for India, lifting curbs on export on nuclear fuel and ~technology that had been imposed way back in the late 70's (don't know the exact year..) India, which has shown an impressive record of non-violation of any international laws pertaining to nuclear armament save a couple of nuclear testings, and which has shown to the world that it is indeed a responsible nuclear nation, will according to the treaty be bestowed all the privileges of a globally accepted nuclear nation and that too without signing the NPT. All that India has to do in return is to agree to be placed under the same scanner as the other nuclear nations. This includes, among other things, a complete separation of India's military and civilian nuclear programmes and henceforth, placing the civilian facilities under the IAEA safeguards.

Now this is where the problem arises. The bone of contention is this separation of the civilian and military facilities. The problem is two-fold.

One, who decides as to what's civil and what's military? India (rightly) thinks that it is their prerogative. The US think otherwise. According to them the civilain list must include all facuilities including experimental & research installations, which are not directly related to nuclear weapons. This choice has to be made carefully, keeping in mind the strategic importance of India's military nuclear programme and the fact that in India , both civilian and military programmes are, well, quite entangled, which takes us to the second problem.

In India, never has nuclear research been classified into civilian research or military research. Our scientists don't exactly work full-time on either. Our nuclear programme is one monolithic mass encompassing all aspects of nuclear science that are currently of any significance to the country. Scientists, presently, work on their own research projects and whatever reults are thrown up are incorporated into the approppriate technology/field, be it for civilian purposes or for military ones. This is not to say that there is no larger plan being followed, it's just that we don't have any clearly demarcated civilian or weapon related installations or programmes. All of our military programmes are but individual resarches that have been carried out by certain teams within the larger framework of academic and civilan research.

Now, do you see the problem?? If US has its say, it will put all of our nuclear establishments into the civilian category. And what would that do?? Place all our establishments under the purview of the IAEA, which is what no country can ever accept!!

Indeed, some version of this has long been US' aim and its only now that they have got around to try and fulfill it. And coupled with this is the fact that they badly need a prospective superpower in South Asia to counter their biggest emerging threat, CHINA. It is an open secret that the US, in the longer run, sees India as nothing but a strategic partner to counter the effect of China. And the irony of the situation is the fact that the Indian think-tank is well aware of it, but can't do a thing, as at this moment India badly needs US support to further its nuclear programme whihc is on the verge of an untimely death due to lack of enriched fuel.

Indeed, even if we had been in Manmohan Singh's place, we would have been as hard pressed as he is to find any alternative for a way out of the current scenario. Reject the help offered by US, and ,well, I don't need to say what the consequences might be. Accept it and, well, we might get around to seeing that soon, won't we??

What's gonna happen next in this wierd scenario?? Wait and watch !!

What perspective?

2006-09-28T22:27:00.000+05:30

I was under the impression that this blog was created for all of us to get to know EACHOTHER better, on a deeper, more personal level...
As far as my previous post goes, it was written in a jocular vein and I hope nobody took it too seriously.
I for one am an apolitical person and therefore, totally detest discussing things such as the Indo-Pak issue and their ilk. I would, however, like to discuss more meaningful issues that concern humanity in general... religion, spirituality etc..... let's see if we can turn the discussion towards such issues. I am aware of the fact though, that Gaurav and Danish - two of the most vociferous debaters on political issues whom I am aware of - are a part of this blog, but I still think that you people still have time to reform! ;)

nuclear deal

2006-09-28T19:14:00.000+05:30

quote
"From what little I have been able to gather from the various tit-bits that keep making guest appearances in the newspapers, the agreement does not really give India many opportunities to develop its indigenous nuclear-enabled power generation and associated (or otherwise) research??"
unquote

From what I understood, the agreement says that nuclear facilities which recieve fuel and/or technology from other countries have to be placed under international safeguards. The rest can continue as India pleases, also new plants can be established and if these do not recieve any inputs (in terms of fuel or technology) from other countries, any kind of work/research can be done in these facilities. In the facilities under international safeguards we should be able to do some research( I am not very sure if the agreement prohibits this or not).

But whatever the case may be, the fact is power infrastructure in the country is in a very bad shape. When the capital itself reels under frequent power cuts, one can only imagine the situation in the rural areas. This deal enables India to obtain necessary fuel and vital technological inputs from abroad. Hence all in all I consider there are more positives for us than negatives, if any.

Lets have some perspective Guys!!

2006-09-28T00:55:00.000+05:30

First of all, what's ROFL?? And second of all, let's just close this discussion about my cribbing completely. We could go on for ages, and besides this is not what I had in mind, while agreeing to anish about the blog.. We have ample time in college to talk about this seeing that we haven't been attending any classes even if we are at college.. So, let's take the discussion there instead.

Waise, was talking to Danny abouyt it some time back. Am I alone in thinking that the US is actually taking India for a ride in this nuclear-deal?? I mean, yeah, the foreign ofiice, the PM et al have brains, but aren't we losing perspective?? From what little I have been able to gather from the various tit-bits that keep making guest appearances in the newspapers, the agreement does not really give India many opportunities to develop its indigenous nuclear-enabled power generation and associated (or otherwise) research??

Your views guys...

P.S. : Maddy, if you really want a laugh, I'll get you some more of Mithun's movies. They would definitely be more amusing than my posts. Plus, I'll throw in Himanshu's PC too. So u could really have a laugh while crashing it...!!!

ROFL!

2006-09-28T00:26:00.000+05:30

Obivan's last post just has me in splits! And by the way, Obi ol' boy, that post of yours just weakened your position by many notches.
Okay, you're called a cribber by everyone but that doesn't mean that you go on explaining why you shouldn't be called so... you almost have an essay there! And use all the euphemisms that you may ("I don't crib, I complain"), the bottomline is, you do crib. The post before the previous one is proof of that...
The problem with you is that you take everything too seriously... okay, you didn't do well on a mock test, big deal! You didn't get a job in company X, get over it! You have every right to be disappointed, by don't go harping on about these things... and most of all, don't go on berating yourself... that is the worst thing to do. The faster you ACCEPT the obstacles that come in your way, the faster you can find a way AROUND them. And please, do something about our sensitivity to failure.

ag and john at it again

2006-09-26T13:31:00.000+05:30

hmm... you two never stop!

abhinav you do crib a lot, more than most people, but its not such a bad thing. i think your cribbing makes you work harder and hence be successful. and as you said, you are also quite modest for a capable person like yourself. so keep cribbing.
so i suggest that instead of calling him a cribber, lets stick to 'clc' and his being g**!

waise today mush's book is coming out, and with it many new contoversies, many of them just amazing.

Fine, fine

2006-09-26T09:07:00.000+05:30

make the blog whatever you will...but there should be no need to constantly justify its use. A person can have any number of reasons for maintaining a blog - why keep arguing whether the prime reason is correct or not? What is 'correct' here anyway?
Think of it the other way - perhaps, someone would actually like to hear from you. Maybe, what you really want to say is also useful for other people. Or, ermmm...it helps you discharge your tension in a people friendly manner. All I am saying is, there is no reason to hold back just because you think youll be perceived so-and-so, and therefore when you do write, preempt the possible attack by justifying oneself, or deflect attention through sarcasm etc(I know, I know!) - this is not a real-time strategy game!
And of course, totally agree with Abhinav on the innermost private thoughts vs public domain conflict - one must exercise self-censure, "Do unto others what I'd have them do unto me", modesty, or what-have-you.
@Obivan: You didn't spare any oppurtunity for launching "...attacks on me..." either, did you:)

And also the time to...

2006-09-25T22:54:00.000+05:30

... clear up some misconceptions. First of all about the paradoxical-finger-pointing thingy. I agree that at times one feels the need to discharge any pent-up anger or anxiety, or a phaadu new idea or even some gossiping. After all, my last post is nothing but a superb example of the stated fact. But, I also do vehemently believe that a better place to do so, as danny also agrees, is in one's own private diary, and not, as I've said before, in the public domain. And that is not (just) because people like me, might believe, or at least be tempted to believe that the piece of literary brilliance u've just churned out is just an audacious attempt (mark my use of words john.. trying not to be too judgemental) to get the 15 minutes of cyber-fame. Instead, it is to prevent anybody from prying into my personal life which i would rather like to keep personal, thank you very much. And sometimes you can do a lot of harm by a seemingly innocuous but impulsive piece you write and publish on the net, which would have been perfectly harmless had it been confined to your mind or ur little diary (or maybe the pensieve, if only it was actually thr... (sigh)!!)

Sometimes it is much better to keep your thoughts private and even if you do feel the need to discuss, then better later than now. In fact, as the age-old adage goes, "Future generations would one day regret the use of live media. They would be saying to many things quickly that would be akin to putting their exceptionally large feet into their even larger mouth".. or something in that vein..

Well, this is what i think, or at least thought till some time back. I haven't given up this line of thinking, but if you re-read my first post, u'll see what I've written at many places. Words like "..I used to think.." and "..lately, I've been having doubts.." I hope that this does convey to you the turmoil in my brain regarding to what I believe about blogs and their need, especially as far as my need is concerned. And what I realised was this, I guess I should have mentioned it earlier only, that for quite a lot of people, a blog is definitely all that I have ever thought it to be. But, there are many many others for whom blogging is serious business, as u have mentioned in your post john. I agree with that now. To an extent, at least. And that is the reason why I actually did create this blog in the first place. Because I realised that your intentions, at least, were correct. Hope this clears everything up.

Now a second thing, which I feel the need to straighten up. And that is this reputation I seem to have acquired for cribbing non-stop. Now give me a break here guys (as this is for everybody, seeing that almost everybody who's decently close to me, reckons me to be some version or the other of the king of cribber world or something..). Let's clear this mess up. First, the simple and obvious fact. I do not crib. I complain. Verbally. Why do I do that? Why can't I keep the complaining to myself? Because that is how I discharge my tension, my anxiety (and not by blogging..). This is the only way I know to make my heart lighter because I need to hear other people's reactions and gather their advises to find out where I stand, to see whether what I feel is correct or not. I am used to thinking aloud in such situations and depending on the person whom I am talking to, I have to decide what to say:

a) If it's someone whom I am pretty close to, like our gang, then I simply tell the truth, whatever I feel. And what I feel is disappointment. So I let it out. And please don't even bother to tell me that you have never felt disappointment. You might be adept at concealing it, but i am not, and labelling me a cribber because of that.. nahhh, i don't think that's too fair, is it??

b) If it's anybody else, I try to be modest. And the only way I know to behave modestly is by appreciating the other guys and make them seem to be better than me on any day, at any given time. But sadly, here too, I am mistaken to be a cribber, a thoroughly dis-satisfied person who can't ever be content with what he has got. And hence, the nickname again.

Now, tell me. Is it really fair to call me what you do call me. OK, sometimes it gets excessive, but that's rare. I regard myself to be pretty OK in that respect, and I believe that I still do possess enough mental faculties to be able to decide the appropriate time to stop any such (cribbing) activity.. As I said earlier, Give me a break guys!! It's past the joking or teasing stage now. Its getting too much..
And yeah, u'll see my hidden talent, whatever it might be that you are searching for, once you stop cribbing about calling me a cribber.. ;-)

Waise, it did take me about 2-3 minutes to figure out that it was you john, with your new profile name and all. Pehle I was quite confused ki yeh kaun aa gaya aur aise jaanlewa shabd kaun use kar raha hai while at the same time attacking me. But the sarcasm at a few points showed me the way nevertheless..

Time to.....

2006-09-25T22:03:00.000+05:30

...provoke some more people into responding via blog(understand the mazaak now, Deepak;)
Hmm...now, what had I thought of saying. Yes, all that about the self-obsessed, attention-seeking profile of a blogger, which everyone seems to believe in(and yet, doesn't count oneself guilty while pointing fingers at the other). I protest.
I don't think it's inherently misguided to attempt to bare one's thoughts on an online medium, accessible to all who care enough to click. I know, it's really easy to be misinterpret, to take offence at something written when half-asleep or really-mad, but sometimes, having something to express your views at is really cathartic (Abhinav take note - it means 'Emotionally purging' here, otherwise can also imply a 'strong laxative':)
I don't now about you, but there are lots of times when I really feel riled up about something or am very upbeat due to some other thing...but can find no one free to hear me out. Or when you feel really strongly about something, and wish you could do something about it - but don't know how justified your take on the subject is. Or you might have gotten some insight into something you feel might be useful for others. for Or you just got to know some juicy piece of er...news, and really have to share with someone. Or countless other little things that pop into your head at odd hours(in the AI class, in the shower, some crazy day-dream-sequence you had on the bus...) but can find noone else to share it with at the time(ok, that last might seem a bit self-obsessive...but I think I just defined most 'thass' there:) As long as no-one takes himself or what's written here very seriously, I think a blog can be a useful post-it board, where we float ideas not for someone else's approval but for their perusal - "that's what I feel, what do you think about it"....if nothing else, at least an interesting social experiment...
And Abhinav, I am still waiting to see your hidden talent(besides the not-so-well-hidden cribbing of course:)

Horrible horrible horrible day!!!

2006-09-25T11:34:00.000+05:30

Whata perfectly horrible day!! Abe mera english me kuch karao!! scoring 14.5 in a test where everybody else is scoring atleast 25 with ease is a huge shock!! Mera kuach karao bhai log... :( :(

so johnny has finally succeded

2006-09-25T09:32:00.000+05:30

Good work Johnny.

Though I detest typing and I agree with Ag and Maddie on blogs, still a community blog seems a nice idea, at least worth a try.

And before anything else, "glaring down donkeys" - Yeh kya Mazaak hai.

Hmmm.... I dunno actually

2006-09-24T23:13:00.000+05:30

Now you've done it! Finally! After all that raving about creating a team blog, however useless I may find it, you have finally gone and done it! As Obivan says, quite correctly, that blogs are for people who are emotionally needy. I say, ((attention hungry)AND(net addict)OR(drowned in self pity) = blogger); it's not even a derivable law, it's a bloody axiom. I mean, who in his/her right mind would spend even five minutes a day on the internet, creating a so called "log" of sorts of their general rantings? For empathy you say, wrong! For attention. In fact, worse are the people who go on reading the blogs of random people, I mean, get out of the virtual world and get a REAL life for God's sake!
All said and done, if we really are to keep in touch, I doubt how far this blog idea will go, though it's worth a try. I mean, if Danish is coding the latest app, Deepak is looking at asses (don't mind the pun Pinky - I just reiterated what Johnny said), Gaurav's taking over STM, Obivan is cribbing his way to the Chairmanship of some company and I'm designing a Machine Translation System for all possible language pairs of the world (along with Johnny, at the same university; considering how things are going), who is going to have the time to post here?
Enough blogging about blogging... I've just wasted 10 whole minutes of my precious time on this God forsaken activity. But, you can count on me doing so in the future as well ;)

well begun is half done....

2006-09-23T23:38:00.001+05:30

yes Obivan, definitely more interesting than the usual drivel you crank out:) And I do agree with most of what you said - in fact, I think I must have thought up some of the arguments myself, trying to convince you guys of the idea some time ago(when all everyone could say was, hmm...interesting, let's see how long Johnny keeps this up if I ignore the suggestion altogether;)

I especially agree with the thing about sticking together, no matter where we be at the moment - so though Danish may be coding the next hot-mobile app in Gurgaon, Deepak be glaring down some donkeys in his cubicle next-door, and Gaurav be teaching the STM log the Six-Sigma way, it'll be great if we can still keep in touch on a regular basis. And this way, Madhav can even give e-classes on how to keep negative emotions at bay to all of us, all the way from Stanford or someplace(what say, Maddy?;)

I believe it's really worthwhile to invest some effort and time to get used to writing for a blog(rather than dispensing our ideas and thoughts to the winds, at the back of the bus, for all co-passengers to frown at, eh Gaurav?) and I think this is a great start - anything that gets Abhinav to think positively about something is great, right? So, I hope to see more of our people using this medium in the future to express, vent and thrust their views etc - at least we have a written record of who said what?!

Now what??

2006-09-23T13:05:00.003+05:30

Well, here it is. At long last. After so many ppl berating me for being against this whole blog phenomenon, I have decided to relent. But only so....

For long I have been one of those who believd that blogging was for the attention-seeking, or for the emotionally-deprived ones who seek to find solace on the net, while unabashedly assuming that I wasn't either. To be frank, I still do believe that I definitely not among the first kind. But of late, I have been having doubts.. Anyways, I digress.. So, I was saying that I definitely did not perceive myself to be an individual who would like to drown himself in a chullu bhar of sorrow (atleast publicly) or gloat in his own acheievements. Nor am I a sort of person who would like to disclose his life to anybody and everybody. What then is the purpose of this blog??

Well, that was the question holding me back, until the grt UC of UC, his majesty, his royal righness, the great purveyor of all deeds done and undone, suggested a nice idea. Hey, what abt a team blog?? Me, the blog-ignorant, self-confessed Tolkein loyalist and pseudo-religious fool (as some ppl describe me, not least ze divine master), was utterly bemused..

"A team blog??!! What good would that do?? Don't we all meet everyday and chat and chat abt everything under the sun (well, atleast the sun that shines over our college, so we ultimately talk abt books, cricket, rant about the exams, and some arbit discussions on israel, and the indian army) ?? Why do we need to create another apothecary of our uncherished dreams and desires? What could we possibly talk about?? Or would you like to make some apocalyptic disclosures and expect the other to do the same?? nd last but definitely not the least my dear, why do you want to subjugate the innocent reader who might stray accross our page to unending sarcasm and scathing and delirious remarks and rebukes??"

Of course I never got down to putting these thoughts down, until now. All that I managed to say then was a measly "are you crazy?? Let's study for the placements.." But since then, I have had time to think, seeing that that's all I have been doing of late. We rarely do talk about the stuff talking about, do we?? Once in a blue moon, when we both happen to be going back together (seeing that u have been getting lifts from everybody nowadays), we might talk about some new book, or something equally mundane. But nothing much constructive. Not just that, we hardly know much about each other except what we might have done in the last 4-5 years of our lives..
And before long both you and mads would have left cahsing your dreams abroad and then maybe orkut would be grossly inadequate.. ;)

So yeah, I thought it would be nice to keep a blog which we can all access, and talk about stuff.. We can all properly communicate, which we haven't really until now. And maybe the army nd navy dudes can start discussing anythng they want about the armed forces without us getting vehemently bored and feeling either suicidal or tempted by murderous thoughts.

So, as I said, here goes. And enfin I finish what I had to say. And dedicate this blog to us all. What we choose to do with this is in our own hands. But what it will ultimately become, I have not the answer.. There, sounding larger than life again, so I'll simply say ki chalo, atleast we have started, and at the risk of sounding incredibly cliched "aage aage dekhte hai hota hai kya!!"

CHEERIO!!

AB