Lo and Behold!!???

CAT gyaan, finally !

2010-04-30T01:38:00.001+05:30

Now that my interviews are over, and the results are trickling in, a self serving gyaan-distributing know-it-all post is in the offing, Here goes.

First - the basic facts :

I am a final year student without any work experience. I gave the CAT and scored a percentile of 99.94. Additionally, I also had good marks (95+ in 10th, 90+ in 12th, 75% in graduation). I got calls from 5 IIMs - A,B,C,L and K.

I have converted my IIM Ahmedabad , IIM Calcutta - PGDCM and IIM Lucknow calls as of now. I have also made it to IIFT, MDI and FMS ( nearly there at WL 4 ).

I didnt take any classroom coaching for CAT. Sometime in December 2008, I gave a mock CAT or two at home, saw that I was scoring around 98 percentile ( as per institute estimates online ) and decided that coaching wasnt really worth the sweat, pain and travel. So I bought Testfunda's CD preparatory material [ They were offering me a 95% discount on the basis of a mock ] and started studying on my own. Testfunda's material is pretty good in that it covers all aspects and has a very good format for presentation. Highly recommended.

I joined TIME's AIMCATs in June and on repeated good performances was offered a chance to join TIME's Bright Batch. Since the deal was good, and my parents wanted me to join - I did, though in retrospect, it hardly helped.

The AIMCATs and their analyses, though, did prove to be very useful. I can say with confidence that any improvement I made was solely due to the AIMCATs and their analyses.

I did take TIMEs Group Discussion/ Personal Interview related Course starting January. This was quite helpful, since it brought me up to date on general knowledge related affairs , gave me much confidence to speak during Group Discussions , and to some extent , did give me an idea on the extremes to which an interview could go [ :) ]. TIME's mentoring program was helpful too in ironing out HR questions like Why MBA, Where do you see yourself 5 years in the future etc. etc.

My Views on Coaching

My opinion is that before blindly jumping onto the coaching bandwagon, analyse where you stand. If you are doing well, you dont really need coaching. Coaching costs a lot - in time as well as money, and smart people should always look for options that will get them results with the least time and monetary expense.

Even if you do take coaching, self analysis is the key to success. Walking in and out of coaching classes will not help by themselves. Identify your weak areas and improve upon them consistently, irrespective of coaching or not.

Also, do not take what coaching institutes tell you to be the gospel truth. It is true that they are more experienced , but you know what is best for you. Take all coaching advice with a pinch of salt.

Why you should, or shouldn't do an MBA

If you are in your first or second year of graduation , I would advise that you take your graduation courses seriously. Good marks are an obvious advantage when it comes to MBA interviews/selections, but even beyond that, I feel people should explore various streams before coming to the decision of taking an MBA. So do some research work, some spare projects, read up extra beyond your syllabus, take part in extra curricular activities and have fun in college. 6-8 months preparation is more than enough to get through any MBA entrance.

That said, there are a few things you should be looking to improve upon even if you arent doing an MBA. Good speaking skills, writing skills, logical thinking skills , presentation skills will help you throughout your life. Keep working to improve them anyway.

Doing an MBA for a fat salary

Agreed we all want comforts in life, but life isn't just about money, or power. Experience and Self-actualization (or its pursuit) , by themselves give such satisfaction that no placement or MBA admission can come close. Learn to do different things, and enjoy experiences. Why do I say this with such conviction ?

A week before my IIM Ahmedabad interview, I was invited by Rishabh Kaul [ a friend and fellow quizzer at BITS Pilani ] to come to BITS for the OHT Quiz at their tech fest Apogee. I have been a diehard quizzer throughout my college days, and had wanted to visit BITS at least once . It was a tricky decision, and knowing my parents wouldnt allow if I told them, I sneaked off on my own, telling them I was staying at the hostel for BTech Project work.

We didnt win, but its an experience that I will keep throughout my life. I had no regrets if I didnt clear the IIMA interview , but I knew I would have regretted not going had I not gone. Who knows whether it is that conviction that came out later during my IIMA interview ?

To sum up, if you wish to clear CAT and land up at a so-called dream B-School , study well, irrespective of coaching. Keep a clear head, and at the end of it all, realize that it is only a small part of your life. The least this approach will do is keep you calm and cool.

PS : Also realize that the institute matters only to an extent. What you do once you reach there matters far far more.

Questions are welcome.

Edit : I have converted IIM Kozhikode, and FMS too.

Why I love the Hamsadhwani Raaga

2010-04-11T13:06:00.003+05:30

I have rarely talked about my musical interests or pursuits. They haven't been particularly worth talking about , in terms of achievements or performances, or for that matter , training or expertise. I can claim to have studied Carnatic music for 5 long years , but no part of those 5 years were epiphanous. I sang in a matter-of-fact manner, and when my voice started cracking due to adolescence, I meekly gave up.

It is only after I left the formal training in music, that I started developing a love for it. It was gradual, but soon I found that I was devoting much of my spare time to music, in fact, much more than what I used to when I was undergoing formal training. Even today, I know very limited songs, and I am not much of a singer, but every time I sing, the personal experience is elevating, almost to another realm.

Coming to the topic. Hamsadhwani is one of the ragas that I studied during my musical stint. Unlike the standard sapta-swara, Hamsadhwani consists only of 5 swaras - Sa , Ri, Ga , Pa and Ni, all of them flat. Each swara has something to add to the music in general, and sharp notes generally add a melancholic feel to the music. The swaras Ma and Dha , also have a gloomy uncertainty to them. That makes Hamsadhwani a filtered,only-happy-tones raga. Singing, or listening to Hamsadhwani is hence, by personal experience, equivalent to a shot of ecstasy into the bloodstream.

Whenever I am depressed or in a bad mood, I sing the Hamsadhwani varna ( Jalajaaksha ... ) or the epic Vatapi Ganapathim. It definitely has a therapeutic effect.

A random post on a random night

2010-01-13T00:34:00.005+05:30

As I sit here, I feel a sudden urge to give up the things I love and start writing like mad.

None of this is supposed to make sense, but a gnawing fear at the bottom of my heart makes me suspect that all of this is all too true, and that there is no escape from this sepulchral existence.

People do not care about one another any more. When I see people, including myself in the mirror, in their eyes, I see a strange sort of anxiety that is bred only by unfulfilled wants arising out of naked greed. Some of the less complex personalities cannot mask their feelings and bring it out in every action of theirs. The more complex ones hide it, but exact a revenge for this load on their conscience by making the object of their greed that much bigger. And in a world where open expressions of avarice are considered politically incorrect and frowned upon in society, I fear that we are breeding monstrous greed beneath our visages.

Success, the smallest of it is enough to further fire this lust for more. Failure, on the other hand, acts like a piece of stone smashing through glass, cracking the perfect lattices that have been enforced by a confluence of man's greed and ambition. When a man fails, he is jostled out of his dreaming state of pursuits and he is forced to reconsider the mannerisms which broke the glass for him. However, he proceeds to discard the broken shards and adopts a new glass frame - a new goal for his greed. The realization that the glass is just not meant to be never strikes him.

And thus, each one of us keeps holding up pieces of glass, some breaking, some forming alliances, until we find ourselves in one big glasshouse. And , then it all comes crashing down on us.

Clink, Clink, Clinkity Clinkity Clink.

And in that sorry state of our ruptured egos, we can only comprehend the massive failure that mankind has made of itself.

But I can already hear the glass pieces rebuilding again, ready to form and break and pierce our delicate skins and make us ooze blood till we find salvation.

New Year Ramblings

2010-01-01T11:33:00.004+05:30

Khada Himaalay bataa raha hai,
daro na aandhi paani main,
khade raho tum avichal hokar,
sab sankat toofani main.

Dige raho tum apne prann par,
sab kuch paa sakte pyaare,
tum bhi oonche uth sakte ho,
choo sakte nabh ke taare.

Achal raha jo apne path par,
laakh museebat aane pe,
mili safalta jag main usko,
jeene main, mar jaane main.

I had studied this poem when I was in Class 4th. As the memories of childhood keep getting mistier, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I have had a crystal clear recollection of this poem throughout. Its a wonder how some things remain etched out in memory for no apparent reason. The Poem is fairly run-of-the-mill, and I dont remember having been overtly motivated or inspired by it at any point of time in my life. Yet, like a stubborn bit of dirt, it has remained in mind for all these years. I cant understand why. I am sure all of you have some such memory and probably a plausible explanation.

Anyways, the poem reminded me once again of how time has passed away swiftly. I've had a good life , relatively trouble-free; and that is probably why time feels like having passed away swiftly. For this New Year and decade, may time pass speedily for all of you, and may you love the whooshing sound it makes. :)

Happy New Year.

PS : Apologies, Douglas Adams.

A Short Story

2009-12-15T00:59:00.002+05:30

While Sifting through my old e-mails, I chanced upon this story I had written when in 1st year of college. It was for the Hindustan Times 'I Love Delhi' competition. Am Posting it here.

I Love Delhi

The morning was cold windy and unhospitable. Standing by the bus stop, I could feel the cold breeze whisk away the least amount of heat my body tried to conceal. My ears had gone numb and my nose felt like an iceberg jutting out of my face.Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two girls giggling and looking towards me. This most certainly meant that my cap, my monkey cap rather, would stay in my bag since the last thing I would do in front of two
girls is wear a monkey cap.

The bus came. A burly jat peeked out of the window, his head covered in a trademark shawl and shouted "Airportpaalamdwarkanajafgarhke" and I climbed on, quite unhappy to leave the warm kingdom of my quilt in the morning and currently, the company of the giggling girls in order to pursue the noble cause of education.

The bus rumbled slowly and after nearly one hour of shoving and pushing and jostling in the bus, I got down in front of the college gate, quite unwilling to face the great new challenges that the day would throw up.

As it turned out, the teachers for the first four classes were absent and the last two periods had already been earmarked for the daily chore called bunking. Hence I decided to go to CP along with my friends.

We reached CP (or Rajiv Chowk , though I have great affinity for the name connaught place) in an hour and spent some time wandering about watching the tall buildings, the beautifully renovated Central Park, the throng of beggars near the Hanuman Mandir and of course the underground market of Palika Bhawan, the second home for many a teenager who comes searching for pirated CDs. Finally, we decided to go and catch a movie at the plaza.

It wasn't a bad movie. However it seemed to lose its way in the middle, enough for me to shift into a state of semi-consciousness. I woke up in between when I heard shouts of various people and found that everyone was running toward the exit in great panic. Behind me, I could see nearly half of the hall, being ruthlessly ravaged by a fire. Soon enough I was part of the commotion and stampede. Somehow managing to wiggle out of the hall, I found much to my dismay that none of my friends was anywhere in sight. When I checked the back-pocket of my pant and found the familiar hump of my wallet missing, I was nearly devastated. I had managed to lose 500 rupees in cash, my identity cards and other important paper bits. Adding to the
agony was the fact that my spectacles had fallen prey to the stampede and all I had currently was a piece of the broken lens and half a frame.

Nearly an hour passed and my friends seemed to have disappeared. The stampede had caused minor injuries to people, including myself. There were no serious casualties apart from my mood.

As I sat on a bench, pondering what to do now, a girl nearly my age came and sat next to me on the bench and asked me "Excuse me, is this your purse?". I looked up and was overjoyed to see my dear wallet. "Thank you very much, words cannot express my gratitude. Is there any favour that I can do for you in return?", I said very honestly. She laughed a clear ringing laughter, something that completely filled my mind."Well I am new to Delhi, could you tell me something about the places here and show me around?". I was distinctly puzzled. Women in Delhi were generally cold, unfriendly, thought of men as rapists and carried about pepper sprays. Hence the warmth in this girl's voice left me somewhat wary. However I had nothing much to do the whole day and if the girl's intentions were bad, why would she return my wallet ? Hence I put aside my doubts and decided to take her around.

Her name was Swarna. She was studying economics at Delhi University and had supposedly come to Delhi recently. She was of medium height and her face had good features. She had no inhibitions in talking freely with a stranger like me and I must say that if it was not the warmth in her voice towards which I felt a strange attraction, I would have never ventured out with her.

We visited the nearby places namely, India Gate, Red Fort and Chandni Chowk. All along I explained to her how Delhi had served as a city during nine different historical periods,about how the various kingdoms had contributed towards the Delhi as we see it today. I also tried explaining the histories of the places we visited to the extent that I knew about them. The talk
seemed to revive strange feelings inside me. I felt guilty that I had managed to ignore the beauties of the city in the fast paced rush of a life I was used to. Hence this chance meeting seemed to revive in me a feeling of having regained something ,something greatly valuable.

Finally, as evening started to set in, we went off to Akshardham temple. She was amazed to see the temple."It almost looked like we had arrived in a different realm. We watched the musical fountain show that had the fountain dancing to the vibrant music . After the show was over, we walked toward the auto stand. The ferociously cold wind howled in my face, leaving me cold.
Swarna put on a cap and said to me " I believe you should put on a cap too". Rather sheepishly, I put on my monkey cap. She seemed delighted. I gave a smile that showed my happiness of being in her company. She gave me a peck on my cheek. I quietly stood there, blushing.I felt a searing,
unmistakeable emotion rising up in my heart. She said "Well you have certainly done more than a favour for your wallet" and started moving away. I wanted to tell her to stop but before I could say anything she vanished into thin air.

And then I realised, perhaps I had just met the spirit of the city, personified. In that instant, visions of this city flashed in front of my eyes, the tall rising Qutub Minar, the elegantly shaped Lotus Temple, the serene expanses of green in the Lodhi Garden,The mammoth sized palace of
grandeur the Rashtrapati Bhavan, The dingy alleys of Chandni chowk with its crowdful of people, the face of Delhi's history the Red Fort, the abode of the faithful The Jama Masjid, the Ghats- homages to the leaders of the Nation and above all the hustling, bustling city that had crept into
everyone's heart.

And then I cried out in joyful wonder "I LOVE DELHI"!

Bakchodi Shuru

2009-12-07T03:54:00.006+05:30

Exams-over 2 days back. CAT exam over today. Shaadis and receptions attended.

At 4 in the morning, I am in a mood that can only be termed as surrealist - a light headed feeling borne not out of any stimulants, but by the actualities dominating this life instance of mine.

2 months of peace to look forward to. And possibly the only topic that I can talk of on this dormant blog of mine at this juncture is of the past semester.

It has been an excellent time. And possibly one, in the manner of my earlier semesters, one of increasing experiences - delightful and exciting. The odd semester supposedly vanishes in the blink of an eye. Not so this time round.

August dragged on slowly with the placement season. Each rejection somehow seems to elongate one's notion of time. I remember my time in August, when my parents were out of station, and sitting in the hostel, I would be contemplating how to crack the next job on offer, handling the butterflies on my own. For a day scholar and quasi-hosteller like me, who has had emotional support his whole life, it was a new experience, and quite an enriching one at that.Thankfully, I got a job with Deloitte at the very start of September.

My second experience was surviving the whole sem without buying or issuing the textbooks of any of the course. My recourse was finding slides and lectures of the relevant course material on the net. It was fun, for it gave me a much more natural interest in all the subjects of the sem as well as much of extra domain knowledge. Sadly, it doesnt really cater much to exam specific study , which is why I see no reason why my results might improve.

My Third Experience was of finally trying alcohol as well as cigarettes. I cant claim I enjoyed either. My body seemed impervious to alcohol and I found cigarettes really irritating, literally. I dont see any reason to continue either of them. But I find that personal experience is liberating, to the extent that you do the right things because you have gained an understanding on why they are right, as opposed to having had a theoretical knowledge of why it is right.

In between these were many smatterings of wisdom and experience that hostel life continually teaches you. I'll sign off with one extremely profound one -

When you enter a no-footwear-common room filled with 100 odd hostellers to watch Sachin Tendulkar play one of the greatest knocks of his career, be sure to remove your slippers in a uniquely identifiable position.

Bakchodi Samaapt.

Ragging Aaj Kal

2009-08-07T23:32:00.003+05:30

circa 2006

Senior : Hostel chal, tujhe abhi bataata hoon.

Junior : umm, s..or-ry sir.....

The Junior is very afraid.

circa 2009

Junior : Why dont we go to your hostel room?

Senior : Umm, I am not sure, there are guards....

The Senior is very afraid.

Why Mediocrity is not such a bad thing after all

2009-07-09T20:37:00.004+05:30

Aha, another blog post !

Yes, indeed. One day I will check this link and find that blogger has removed it for lack of any recent posts. But it doesnt mean I have stopped writing. I write offline mostly these days, and this blog post is just one of the little articles I came up with on paper.

All over the world, people want to be richer, happier and of course 'more intelligent'. This post has its origins in 2 things : one - This post by Seth Godin and secondly, an online chat with a friend.

In the Indian context, this is especially true, where intelligence is exalted and young children are encouraged to become "Einstein's" ( though that is exposed to be a totally hypocritical point of view as one grows up. )It is not unnatural to see stripling kids poring over voluminous books from a very young age. Also case in point is the no. of young quizzers, loaded with fantastic knowledge cropping up today. The Indian society's collective love for intelligence and knowledge is exemplified by the craze to get through IITs, IIMs ( or on a humbler level, coaching centres like Vidyamandir in Delhi ). This craze is probably not because of any genuine love for the subjects of engineering or management, but probably because " Only the best go there ".

So why would someone born and brought up in this tradition prefer to advocate mediocrity?For one, mediocrity is the great leveller. However much we revel in intelligence, the inescapable fact remains that the majority of any society shall always be mediocre. Intelligent people have a variety of problems to contend with that mediocre people are unaffected by. For one, intelligent people bear the burden of expectation in society, especially young intelligent people. Parents often push children excessively towards scholastic learning if they see a small spark in their kids. It oftens becomes their undoing. In the case of lack of proper emotional stability, intelligent people when met with failure, turn depressed.

Secondly, intelligent people have a penchant to do unconventional and out of the box things. Many a times, they seek to make a career out of these. However, many a times they end up burning their hands. This is because for any career or profession to succeed , it must gain acceptance by the majority, who are by nature, mediocre, and unable to grasp the exciting ideas that the intelligent mind has. One only needs to see the fate of intelligent people who have failed in life : one is likely to see characteristics like failed marriages, suicide attempts, bouts of alcoholism or recourses to drugs.

By contrast, the mediocre are a much more contented lot. The run-of-the-mill paths of their lives may be boring , but they have an inherently low risk associated with them. Mediocres have the huge advantage of being shielded from the dangers of being excessively critical , but at the same time are good enough to seek a living and prosper in a society of mediocres. Mediocres will confirm with this group, whereas the intelligent will fight for an individual identity.

From a business point of view, as Godin points out, mediocrity is great. It encompasses the largest market and all marketing and advertising is directed to capture its imagination. And knowing the tastes of the masses is essential, just to be 'in sync'. The group has a strong peer influence and consumer decisions arent always based on rationality.

Another advantage of mediocrity is that it gives one a lot of focus in life. If you concentrate on achieving something, you can build up a zeal and work hard towards it. The intelligent man is beset by the problem of 'overthinking the problem' and at times, excessive criticality of the method used ends up foiling his quests. And then, there are many jobs in our lives that are mundane but have their own importance. An intelligent man is likely to become discontented doing these whereas the mediocre but methodical man will have a contented time and ensure that his day-to-day activities do not suffer.

So, is there any point in being intelligent? :) . Yes. Intelligent people are capable of understanding the importance of the mediocre and often can employ schemes to exploit them to their own advantage - e.g. politicians, lawyers, business leaders etc. Apart from this, intelligent people can understand the beauty of the creation around us and be a part of the society that continuously takes us forward on the path of development. There is its own specific joy in that. e.g. scientists, engineers,doctors,philosophers, or writers. But Intelligent people would do well to take credence of the importance of the mediocre, else they are likely to face much greater discontentments in life.

This post is half in jest. Do not draw serious conclusions from it . :)

EDIT : Just 2 days have passed and I receive news that I have cleared Mensa's test. Ironical, eh ?

Faith and Scepticism

2009-04-09T01:24:00.002+05:30

I have generally taken a strong pro-religious, pro-spiritual stand in earlier posts. But, reading Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' has modified my views. I will avoid a direct confrontation between religion and science , however unavoidable it may be.

Let's start of with what we mean by the terms . Faith means utmost, unquestionable belief in any ideology or concept. Remember, faith asks of you not to question or reason. Deep rooted faith comes instinctively or through a process of repetitive exposure to those ideas [ I'll abstain from using the blunt term brainwashing, since I believe it is not a correct term to use]. Faith is particularly useful to the common man, since it helps him give a stop-gap theory for what happens around him. It enforces a kind of boundary on his brain, preventing it from thinking outside that boundary and allowing him to concentrate on his day to day affairs. e.g. A village community believes that the rains happen due to a rain god. This conveniently allows them to skip the pertinent question " What causes rain ? " , something they will struggle to find an answer to, without education, scientific evaluation or inquiry. Similarly, for all of us, faith helps in giving a stop-gap theory to the things beyond our control or beyond our comprehension; whether that theory be right or wrong is a different matter altogether.

Faith exists because it is inherently part of the evolutionary process. Most animals live their lives on the basis of instinct . Instinct is the best form of faith which comes from within oneself. Other forms of faith, like faith on the deeds or actions of another person stems from an instinctive faith in the person .

Scepticism involves questioning each and every aspect of a theory and verifying its truthfulness before accepting it as correct. Scepticism is the foundation for scientific enquiry, and is the prime reason behind the development of modern civilization. Sceptical thought cannot be undertaken instinctively , rather, it is achieved only by prolonged analysis and scrutiny of the concept. This of course, rules out the use of scepticism in many common-place scenarios. Let us say it is a day before the final exam and you haven't studied much. You cannot learn anything unless you have faith in the content of your textbooks and copies.[ Many a times, this faith is betrayed too, especially with copies :) ] However Scepticism and the spirit of enquiry is the reason for the development of the human race.

Scepticism exists because the human brain is complex enough to understand many of the things happening around us. True scepticism is still not common. Even for most of us, who supposedly study, science or engineering or rational thought, we accept most of the concepts without questioning, thus making us students of faith only.

Daily life is a mix of faith and scepticism. Too much faith makes us prone to exploitation by other people who may have malafide intentions. This is one of the biggest drawbacks we see in religion, which bases itself on faith. Too much scepticism , and life becomes really hard to live, and drives one to the edge of sanity. [ The example that comes to my mind is Phaedrus, from Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance , who loses his mental balance after philosophically pursuing the effasive thing called quality ]. A right balance is required. The day we can solve all problems of the world, faith shall not be needed, but I have a feeling that will never happen.

The Blueline Orchestra

2009-02-28T22:45:00.007+05:30

Place : Crowded Blueline bus going to Noida

Time : 8.30 pm (roughly )

Narrator is standing, leaning onto a huge pile of god-knows-what commonly seen in bluelines. With no music to listen to, and the atmosphere being somewhat hostile to reading, he proceeds to pay attention to the Blueline orchestra, the great show one sees in Blueline all too often. Main Performers for tonight are :

Person 1 : In blue, fitting blazer and tie, seems like an executive, doesnt seem to gel well with the surroundings, but we'll come to that later.

Person 2 : Formal dress, tense brows, large handkerchief that keeps wiping the sweat off; indicative of a person in middle-to-lower management of some organisation.

Person 3: Drunken stupor, dress inconsequential, seems to be in need of a place to sleep.

Person 4 : The glorious conductor of this 355 Blueline orchestra.

Person 1 (P1) 's phone rings to the tune of an old melancholic 70's Hindi song , thus starting off tonight's concert,. He lets it play, so that everyone around can appreciate his taste. Finally, he picks the phone up; and the image of the suave executive comes crashing down.

P1: [in unmistakeable Bihari pidgin English ] Hello Rahul.... haww arr you ? .....Avrything fine ? .... haww many deals did you make today?..... oh, kungratz.... you must give party now, hun..... I will ta-ak latter ok ?.... bye.

P3 has started an argument with P4, the conductor. inducing the element of drama to the performance.

P3 : Haath kaise lagaaya bhosdi ke ? [ How dare you touch me, %^&$$ &*%]

P4 : agge kyun nahi hota ? [ why dont you move ahead ? ]

P3 : sulaayega tu mujhe agge le jaake ? badi jagah khaali padi hai agge tere liye to. [ you'll get me to sleep up front, is it. the whole bus seems empty to you, no ? ]

P4 , starts shoving and muttering in an incomprehensible rustic dialect.

The action is interrupted by the loud ringing of P2's phone , set to the tune of 'Dil to Pagal Hai '. Along with the drunken ramblings of P3, and the offensive gestures of P4, it makes for a nice twist in the musical piece.

P2 : Hello, Sir ?, Helloooo..... Hellooooooooo.............Hullo-o-o, Helllloooo.........

Frustrated, P2 switches on his mobile's speakerphone to introduce his boss (presumably) into this act as Person 5 (P5).

P5 : ( in gruff demeaning voice ) : Hello, Hello.

P2 : Haan Sir, boliye.

P5 : order bhijwa diye ?

P2 : Haan sir, bhijwa diye.

P5 : Kyaa ?

P2 : BHIJWA DIYE. ( P1 stares at P2 at this point )

P5 : Deliver karne ka address kya diye ?

P2 : Woh to sir, unhi ka office address diya hai.

P5 : Achcha ? office address hi de diya 500 card collect karne ka ? Doosra waala address de de.

P2 : Theek hai sir, kar doonga. [ Wipes his forehead simultaneously, possibly involuntarily ]

P4 comes looking for anyone who hasnt taken a ticket for the concert going on.

P4 : Haan bhai, koi hai ?

2-3 young lads sheepishly fish out some change and get tickets, along with some solid glares from P4.

P1 is feeling hot, and removes his coat and fans himself like he is stuck in some hell. His phone rings again, and this time his conversation is somewhat more discreet.

P1 : Haan..... theek hai.... ee sab to chalta hai bijness main...... kai baar compromise karna padta hai.... (almost whispering now) ...... kal hi office main aisa hungama hua tha..... tu dar mat, main hoon.......(mumbling on, he ends the call )

The atmosphere is only getting grim and dark when suddenly someone introduces the element of frivolity by playing music from the movie 'No Entry' .

P2's phone chimes to Dil to Pagal Hai again. This time, no speakerphone.

P2 : Hello... wo order address badalna tha.....(wipes his forehead )..... haan.... office bhijwaana hai...(wipes his whole face)..... kar dena, please, ok?.. Bye.

The narrator's stop is nearly here, and having had full value for his money, shoves 4-5 audience around him to make it to the exit gate.

P4 keeps pestering more people for money, and brings a graceful end to the concert.

And everyone applauds , in their minds of course.

The Republic Day Parade

2009-01-26T14:27:00.002+05:30

In all these past years, Republic Day used to be a day when you woke up, switched on the TV and watched those big, ugly tanks move past on a long stretch of road followed by men marching perfectly like androids. These would be followed by state tableaux capturing some essence of the state's cultural or environmental diversity. The show would end with fighter planes doing somersaults in air and saffron, white and green colored balloons being released all around.

With time, Republic Day became a passive affair. People started questioning the need for a show that brought with it days of heavy security, road blocks and other inconveniences to city dwellers.

I got a chance to watch the Republic Day Parade from Rajpath this year. I must say it shattered quite a few wrong notions I had about the whole event.

1) Firstly - People DO care for Republic Day. This was quite plain to see from the fact that thousands of people had turned up for the event- most of them walking a distance of 5-6 km from the venue.[ If you were a common man, that is the closest your vehicle was allowed to come. ] One could see the excitement quite plainly on many faces. A huge number of people turned up with small children, who found the grandiose display to be the most awing.

2) The police knows how to secure an area if it really wants - Barricades were all over town, and the policemen were at their snarling best. The slightest suspicion, and they would open the car boot and check your identities. It was pretty clear that if you had any mischief up your sleeve, you would be better off keeping it to yourself, lest you wanted to face the brunt of some hot-headed policeman.

3) If the government has the will to organize an event , it can do it pretty easily. Security was flawless. Car parking and crowd management was systematic and ensured that there was no blockage anywhere near the event.

4) Finally , and most importantly - nothing beats watching the parade up close. The very same tanks that look ugly on TV pose a commanding presence when seen in real life. The Marching of men is as accurate as seen on TV, and one is left wondering how they manage to do it with such perfection. The state tableaux, the dancing children and the stunt-motorcyclists all infuse a level of awe that is never matched when seen on TV. So too with the helicopters and the fighter planes that zoom past you.

The festivities over, the people started off back to their homes. Some of them had come from other states- to see their children, husbands and wives be part of the parade. One could see the satisfaction on their faces. One could also see quite plainly that events like these helped build up unity across the nation by bringing together people from all parts of the country. Perhaps the Republic Day Parade is not a waste of public money after all.

So, once every few years, do try visiting the Republic Day Parade. I assure you, it will be an extraordinary, hard-to-forget experience.

Back After a Hiatus

2009-01-23T22:01:00.003+05:30

When the cause vanishes, the effect can't remain for too long. So too, once the interest is gone, blogging doesn't last too long. Which probably explains the lack of posts on my blog. Active blogging is difficult to maintain once viewer feedbacks taper away. A post then, just for old times' sake.

The theme of the post is based on the recent news in my college and a chat with a friend of mine.

Lately, my college life has been showcasing teachers with myriad characters and behaviours. Their eccentricities have already been discussed here and here. I'll add to these the relentless torment that my adjacent class-mates are being subjected to. They have had the great fortune of getting a bad teacher-turned-worse. Here is the premise - The teacher forms groups of 3 within the class and asks each group to work on a project under her and to publish a research paper by the end of the semester, failing which she will not pass them. Ridiculous though it may seem, most of the class students are in a state of despair and agony, and have finally decided to complain against the said teacher.

One of the links speaks about the teacher with a disgusting attitude, to say the least. She refuses attendance to some students on the pretext that they were laughing and talking whereas she has no problems when other students she "likes" do likewise. She confiscates mobiles and throws them from one end of the classroom to the other in jest. Why ? - because the guy's phone rang in between. So what if her phone rang in between as well ?

Yet Another teacher - also the Hostel Warden - does not bother to come to class ever, or to the hostel for that matter.

The three above examples are good indicators to why we lag behind in Technical Education and Research and Development. Beyond the much-hyped world of IITs, teachers have little accountability and flaunt it. Likewise, students are all too willing to play ball and waste away their time. What is sad is that despite knowing the rot in the system, some of the teachers like to maintain a holier-than-thou attitude. Sample one teacher who, despite knowing that there are no trained faculty to guide students in the lab, expects every student to have original files, know all topics in depth and show practical competence in the lab- and when the performance of the students falls below standards, he gives everyone poor marks.

The stance that most of the faculty take to the falling apart of the system is akin to the stance parents take about sex education in India - remain hush-hush and expect the child to learn everything on his own.

Any redressal mechanism is rather convoluted and requires superior will, not just individual but collective will, to improve the state of affairs.

All hope is not lost though. There are some genuine gems of teachers who inspire students and show them the right way. When, the students are discussing a question in class, one such teacher says -

" The government pays me well to teach you and clear your doubts completely. When that is the case, it is only fair that you give the teacher at least one chance to solve your doubts. "

May his tribe increase !

IIT Kanpur Sojourns

2008-10-30T22:28:00.002+05:30

Having spent 2 years of college life closeted inside NSIT ( and Delhi ), I decided that it was time to get some experience of going outstation. So , when Manan ( close friend and former NSIT-ian ) invited me to come to Antaragni - IIT Kanpur's fest and take part in the quizzes, I decided to go.

The trip certainly was a great learning experience. Firstly, IIT Kanpur is a nice place to be in, with wide roads, a large ,fairly green campus and good hostels. The Rest of Kanpur however (at least the part I saw), seemed to be a study in contrast. It was dusty, had bumpy,narrow roads, small,rickety shops, black-chimneyed polluting factories in the horizon- It bore every notion of the small town. Thankfully, our stay was pretty much confined to the former other than the trip to and from the railway station.

The quizzes were good. We won the Bollywood quiz ( hosted by Anusree Mazumdar ), came 2nd in the General Quiz(hosted by Joy Bhattacharya ) and 3rd in the Sports Quiz ( hosted by Gautam Bhimani ) and finished 4th and 5th in the Diva and MELA quizzes. Decent Enough. Enough to ensure that people at IIT Kanpur would remember NSIT for some time.

Some of the memorable moments included quizzing from midnight to the wee hours of the morning ( incidentally this was the Bollywood quiz, which we won in the end ) , losing your bag and spending anxious moments only to realise that another guy from your college has taken it along with him, sleeping in a dormitory with unknown people and loads of insects ( Now Diwali is over, you dont see them anymore ) , watching 'The Motorcycle Diaries' till 2 at night and walking through a kilometre of desolateness to get to the hostel room afterwards all alone.

Antaragni as a personal experience was great. As a fest, it had shortcomings and could have been better. Accomodations could have been a tad better. The guys in charge of Security were downright rude many a times. And if Manan hadnt been there with us, I would have certainly felt at sea.

Thanks to -

1. The guys at the hospitality desk. Decent job done.
2. The guys coordinating the quizzes. It is good enough that you managed to bring the best quizmasters to Kanpur.
3. The people who run the mess at the halls. I have never had more value-for-money food in my life !

Sadly I didnt have a camera. So couldnt click any photos. Will put some photos up if I get a few.

The happenings all this while

2008-10-20T00:26:00.002+05:30

With due apologies to all those who visited my blog in anticipation of some peaceful silence and tranquility, far from the busy lanes of other blogs, where new posts come dashing down the street day in and day out. My post will finally break the long silence I have been keeping.

Coming to the point of why I am not blogging. I was at the hostel where i had no access to the net, at home I was too busy doing other things and there was absolutely no time for the blog.

In one word - Lethargy.

Anyways, moving ahead - All this while I have been trying to do interesting things. Hostel Life continues to grow more vivid with Counter Strike, Table Tennis and Sleep all vying for my attention. I hope I have kept all of them happy.

Innovision 08, my college's Technical fest came and went. I went back to organising Enigmata. It attracted 1.5 lakh page hits and 1072 registrations within 10 days and so was a big success. I also organised a quiz which saw good participation ( 90 teams - of 3 members each registered)

This time round, Innovision was well organised and had a host of great innovations - a Defence Exhibition , with Bofors Guns, tanks, jeeps, earth movers, floating bridge carriers and state-of-the-art radars and conferencing systems- the Exhibition was a huge success and AFAIK, the first one of its kind in a college fest. The fest also saw Parasailing, Paintball Wars and other Adventure Sports.

I'll be making a trip to IIT Kanpur for Antaragni. This is my first out-station trip for quizzing; and understandably I am pretty excited about it. Hopefully the experience will be a good one.

Not much more happening. Classes have sunk into oblivion. Practicals are non-existent. End sems loom like dark clouds, and as Kevin Spacey says in 'American Beauty' " I am feeling great. "

Books - Read John Banville's 'The Sea', Salman Rushdie's "The Enchantress of Florence" and currently reading Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". The Sea was a decent novel, with good , almost lyrical imagery. Salman Rushdie, for a change, was a bit light on the vocabulary, choosing to give the really heavy words a skip to tell a fairly engaging story. The Book turns out to be mediocre, no flashes of genius, but nothing too bad.

Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance promises to be a great read. Expect a post on it soon.

Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart Now?

2008-09-12T23:42:00.002+05:30

Trust the guys at Google to maintain a sense of humour, even if they dont meet the same quality standards in their new softwares.

The Hostel Life

2008-09-05T20:42:00.002+05:30

The blog lies wasted and neglected. So I take the initiative to add the least bit of life to this.

I recently shifted to the college hostel. This had a number of ramifications; that now I would be spending my weeks in the hostel, eating the mess food, washing my own clothes and managing everything on my own and the way I wanted to manage things. However, the single biggest change that shifting to the hostel brought about was that finally I was not wasting 2.5 hours of my time on daily to-and-fro travel. I found myself much more fresh and energetic.

And now the downside: The energy gained by not travelling all the way across Delhi was conveniently wasted away in uninterrupted table tennis sessions and in mindless gossip.

Hostel life is fun. Main experiences had in my first 2 weeks.

1) Power Outages are not cool. Literally. Midnight and Early morning power outages coupled with mosquitos that disrupt one's sleep are not cool at all.

2) Water shortage is not cool. Literally, again. Of course, you may opt to move to the other hostel for a bath, or get a bucket of water from an MCD tanker when it comes , or even go to the terrace of the hostel and scoop out your pound of flesh, err, water and do the stuff in the open without a care in the world. But there is nothing like going to a bathroom , turning the tap and listening to the sweet sound of the gushing water. It may not be adventurous, but it is definitely cool.

3) People who drink and then create a commotion are not cool at all. They are generally hot and raging enough to cause some damage. Though they do cause maximum damage to themselves. Whatever happened to taking a drink in the evening and then dozing off into pleasant dreams?

4) A Hostel without Internet connection or LAN is like a bird without wings. O Lord, save us from this calamitous fate !

Thats about it till now. More will come as it comes.

The Books I Read

2008-07-18T00:41:00.007+05:30

The vacations have slowly but surely, inched closer to the finish point. All I have done, rather guiltily do I admit, is, to have a good time. After the nice 3 weeks in Kerala, a kind of stupor has set in. It is expected, since I am sitting all day at home, doing nothing. The only thing worth mentioning is the books I am reading.

I started off with Ian McEwan's Atonement. I hadn't read any of McEwan's earlier works. Atonement begins off slowly, and takes a lot of time to build up the characters and the setting, perhaps a tad too long for someone with my patience level. Also, the ramifications of small events that are described during that fateful day at the Tallis household are brought to the understanding much much later in the story. So, the first 100 or so pages trudge on, with small events taking on detailed accounts. However, the story gains speed once the effects of the little events start to emerge. And it is only then that the story becomes enjoyable. By the end of the book, I found it a good read, and I found McEwan's style of writing: of etching out strong characters, and focussing on the little things that set the mood of the story quite interesting and admirable.

And then I read Amsterdam.

McEwan does a far better job in Amsterdam, which also won him the Booker Prize. Here the characters are equally well developed and the small instances equally important; but the story doesn't languish as it does in Atonement. It moves with good pace, making it a thoroughly enjoyable book.

I also went through old classic Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. This was another book I relished, not due to any great literary flavor I found in it, but for the dilemmas it forces upon the reader. Throughout, the book, it seems that Huxley is asking the reader's the question of what they want their future to be- A place where there is no imbalance arising from the free will of human beings or one which champions the independence of the human mind. And he doesn't leave any definite answer. And neither could I come up with one.

Then, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Another great book, this is one is. After Atonement, the non-stop pace of One Hundred Years... is almost like Shankar Mahadevan's Breathless compared to some slow, melodious ghazal. The literary style was again, catchy- what with a third person narrative and rather frank assessment of the rather colorful members of the Buendia family, which was at times, irresistibly humorous. The story is amazing, though sometimes I got weary of the pace with the novel moved.[I almost wished I could get to spend more time, or pages, with the patriarch Jose Arcadio Buendia, and so too with the ever mysterious Melquiades, or for that matter, any of the other characters]. But still, the novel remains a unique feat, and Marquez, an amazing storyteller.

And last, but not the least, came Anurag Mathur's The Inscrutable Americans. A good book, the main humor comes from Gopal's letters back home, where he explains to them the America he comprehends. Apart from that, the story does get a bit serious in between, and the humor isn't as well panned out as in One Hundred Years... , but nevertheless a very good read.

I am now starting off with John Banville's The Sea. Let's see what that has to offer.

The Journey...and Back

2008-07-12T01:40:00.003+05:30

There are 2 things that I have noticed whenever I am in Kerala which happen without fail:

1) My digestive system becomes superhuman and I can eat huge amount of food (all showered with kindness by my dear relatives) without the risk of an overnight stay in the loo.

2) Delhi becomes a far off place and the people and activities associated with Delhi become specks in my mind. I am unable to bring up any coherent thoughts with anything related to Delhi or any of the day-to-day activities I engaged in/will engage in for the rest of the 50 weeks of the year.

That said here is what I liked and disliked about Kerala:

I liked the comparativitely neater railway stations.[ Hazrat Nizamuddin is positively ugh...]

I disliked the rather high porter/taxi/auto charges.

I liked the fact that a mall has come to Kozhikode, finally.

I disliked the fact that half of the roads in the city have been dug up for a Drinking Water Project.

I liked the serene atmosphere near my ancestral house.

I disliked the hard, sharp pebbles that prick your feet when you walk in the soil barefoot. Ouch!

I liked the temple pond, full of water and no algae this time round.

I disliked a bunch of coconuts for falling off a jutting tree, missing my head by a few seconds while I swam.

I liked the trip to Sabarimala. It ws a spiritually eventful and mentally invigorating experience.

I disliked Pamba, near the foothills of Sabarimala, for the general lack of civic sense among humans there.

I liked some of the Malayalam movies I saw.

I disliked Mohanlal for acting in movies giving attention to quantity rather than quality.

I liked the temples I visited in Kerala.

I disliked the sad fact that a large section of Hindus in Kerala prefer to be atheists and Communists and refuse to see the beauty of their heritage.

I liked travelling from Kozhikode to Sabarimala to Kozhikode-again to Malappuram to Kozhikode-again to Thrissur to Guruvayur to Thrissur-again to Ponnani to Kozhikode-again and finally to Kochi.

I disliked the fact that some of the times the travelling was quite hectic.

I liked the Barber who could hold his own on doctoral topics such as the intricacies of language and why people are unable to grasp languages other than a lingua-franca

I disliked the Labour Unions that barbers, and all other labourers have here, for they are instrumental in bringing the state to a standstill.

I liked not being online.[The nearest cyber cafe was 5 km away and I am a lazy guy]

I disliked not being online.

I liked the clean and neat airport at Kochi, so unlike IGI.

I disliked nothing about the airport.

And so with a weary stomach and a wearier heart, I am back in Delhi. And the trip to Kerala becomes what the 'Daffodils' were to William Wordsworth.

The songs I like

2008-06-11T14:49:00.002+05:30

Before I came to College, I wasnt a very music-friendly person. Sure I could hum the bollywood numbers and had studied the rudiments of Carnatic music. But then with all the pressure of studies and entrances, I guess these things took a backseat.

In College, as it would inevitably have to be, I was introduced to the world of Western music. Today, having listened to a fair bit of songs and having done that, I am at least in a position to say which songs I like and which I dont. Most English songs, rock or otherwise, seem to hinge on to a specific tune or guitar riff to catch on to the audience. In this way, I still consider Indian classical music to be superior, since the variety one gets to listen to , even in the midst of a single song is amazing.

Here are some of my fav songs:

1) The Eagles- Hotel California : Its the song that got me hooked on to any form of western music. The opening tune and the long guitar solo are both peak performances in their own right. Even the somewhat small storyline lyrics have a bit of intrigue set in them, something that keeps the curiosity of the listener alive throughout the song. Perhaps it will remain my favorite song.

2) Metallica's Master of Puppets : Metallica has done a lot of good songs and many of their songs do feature the heavy metal interspersed with soothing classical tones. It is perhaps best seen in Master of Puppets, where apart from the signature catchy riffs, there is a good classical solo in between. The smooth transition from classical back to heavy metal is quite good too. And the interest level is maintained throughout the 8 and a half minute song, a great feat.

3) Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven : The song was, to begin with, dreadfully slow for my liking and twice or thrice I gave up on it. But when I finally did listen to the whole piece, I found the song to be very very good. Though the song does get monotonous in the first 2-3 minutes, it picks up in the middle and goes a long way till the end. Some very good guitar work from Jimmy Page. Though Robert Plant's vocals, I found average.

4) Nirvana's The Man Who Sold the World : The song is originally by David Bowie, but I found Kurt Cobain's unhinged voice much better in the Nirvana version. The sad, melancholic tone throughout has made me a fan.

5) Iron Maiden's Hallowed be thy Name : Amazing song. I became a fan of Iron Maiden after listening to this song. Unfortunately, I found most of the other maiden songs to be average.

Some may say- What? No Pink Floyd? No Beatles? Well, as they say, to each one his own. And perhaps the list will be modified if i listen to more songs.

The End of Days

2008-06-02T17:20:00.003+05:30

The Exams are over and now, we have the calm after the storm. Agreed there remains a Winter training report submission left but that can hardly come in between some good fun that can be had.

Mahaquizzer '08 results came out. I have come 84th. Here is the link.

That makes me one among the Top 100 quizzers in the country. Or does it? Well, the Kutub Quizzers session yesterday destroyed all such illusions. Had a dismal day as usual.

I have quite a few books on my reading list and quite a few movies on the watching list. Quizzing will require time too. And wasnt there an open-source project I was working on? Nearly forgot that. Plus, my programming and data structures need some special care considering their bad shape.

I suppose there is no 'free time' left.

Till then, I'll give away links to some of the 'great' songs we get to hear on the 764 route every day morning

Hat ja Tau - Naya Lifaafa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nROWGPz9S-s

Achcha sila diya tune mere pyar ka - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DXFlo8Uo7k

Dil ka Aalam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCoOnI3Niy4

Paani waali- just give me water :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0j-GEfqNcY

Happy Holidays to all those who have holidays.

An Introspective post

2008-04-24T21:13:00.001+05:30

Today was a special day. It was farewell for the 4th years in college. I had a private 'farewell' in a different sense. I have been reading the Shrimad Bhaagavatam over the past year, one chapter a day. Today was the last chapter. It was on the benefits of the Shrimad Bhaagavatam to the listeners and the readers. It said that the readers of the text would be blessed with whatever they wanted- be it wealth, prosperity, fame, women, success, or any other joys. I thought that this statement was quite wrong; since no one should be reading the texts for small pleasures. However to test the words; I closed my eyes and decided to think about what I wanted.

For half a minute I remained silent, with eyes closed in introspection. and then for a moment I realised- that I wanted nothing, but god's good grace. I opened my eyes and found them slightly moist- something that really unsettled me. I bowed in front of the book- for is not a book that teaches people to place god ahead of everything else truly a great book? For a few moments, I felt really good- as if I could do anything in the world and no force could ever stop me. And that I could never be capable of doing anything bad.

Of course, after some time- I came back somewhat to my normal self- smaller, less confident of my abilities and not so sure of the world as I was during those magic moments. But I definitely felt wiser, which is why I decided to write this down.

April Fool

2008-04-01T20:42:00.003+05:30

Today is the day of fooling around. Though I could barely find anyone to be fooled, two entities made proper fools of me today.

They go by the names Delhi Transport Corporation(DTC) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited.(MTNL)

About the first. I had geared up for another day of college and was walking to the bus stop when much to my surprise, I noticed the distinctive long,square jawed DTC bus land up at the stop with the board '764-Najafgarh'. Now a DTC doesnt normally come at 8.30 am-the precise time i boarded the bus, so I thanked my lucky stars and sat down.
Perhaps I had been a bit too early in thinking of my good luck, since, barely 3-4 stops later, the DTC started slowing down. It chugged on like a feeble mouse for another kilometre or so and then it came to a halt- smack in the middle of nowhere- no bus stop in site for at least a kilometre in either direction. I fumed and got down from the bus and went to the conductor and vented my frustrations on him. Here is a transcript:

Me: Aap ki bus to kharab ho gayi hai. Mere paise waapis do.(Your bus is busted. Return me my money)

Conductor(with a smirk): Tu dilli main naya naya aaya hain kya?(Are you new to this place?)

Me (really frustrated): Nahi. Ticket vaapis hoti hai gaadi kharab hone par.(No, Tickets are returned if the bus breaks down.)

Conductor: Bhai, mujhe to nahi pata. Apne jeb se naa doonga. Chahiye to agli DTC main tujhe bitha deta hoon.(Brother, I dunno. I wont pay you from my pocket. Can get you a hitch on the next DTC.)

Me (cynically): Agli DTC jaise yahaan rukegi hamaare liye? (And you expect another DTC to stop here in the wilderness?)

Conductor: (at his carefree best) Tanne fikar naa kar. Hum rukwaayenge tere liye gaadi. [Dont get tense. I'll stop a bus for you]

And so I watched around for 20 minutes- the time already 9:10 by now. And then came another DTC, which, thankfully stopped and allowed me to board. I managed to reach the class in the nick of time, however, not before DTC had made a fool out of me.

With MTNL, the case is different. It has been making a fool out of me and all its other customers for a very long time. It offers an excuse of a network under the name of Dolphin and Trump. However , its broadband connection, which seemed fairly good enough, gave way today to a spasmodic now-connected now-not network which wasted nearly an hour of my time to merely send an attachment. April Fools again.

Many of the Public Sector organisations are making fools of us round the clock, throughout the year with their inept and inefficient operation. It is time that we stopped behaving like fools. For starts, whenever you have a genuine complaint against an organisation, write a strongly worded letter addressed to the Head of the Organisation. You'll be surprised to see the difference it makes.

Bura na mano, holi hai.

2008-03-23T01:03:00.002+05:30

The Moksha 08 debacle

2008-02-25T21:45:00.002+05:30

It has been a torrid time for me, this past week.

First let me tell you what has happened. I was the quiz coordinator at our college fest Moksha and the members of the quiz club, including me, were doing the quizzes.

We had no sponsorship at first, so we had been pushing the moksha team for decent prize money for the quizzes(around 15k). At repeated requests, we were told to go and find our own sponsorship.

We found Idea to be interested in being the exclusive quizzing sponsor for the quizzes at moksha. The Moksha team gave us a letter that had the list of deliverables. We gave it to Idea, who seemed positive.

It was only later that I realised that the Moksha team had inadvertently given us the deliverables for mega event sponsors. I negotiated with Idea and told them that all the deliverables were not possible. They managed to agree.

Idea was to give us 25k for the 4 quizzes. Now, initially, Moksha Team never had a problem with us giving away 20k as prizes. But as the fest drew closer and the team found itself facing financial constraints, it pressurized us to reduce the prizes to 15k, and later 12k. We did not relent, and made it clear that we will not reduce the prize amount.

It is rather unfortunate that the decision that we wont be doing the quizzes was made clear to the Moksha team only one day before Moksha. This angered the Moksha Team and some of them decided that these "arrogant quizzers" need to be taught a lesson.

So, in between Moksha, on the second day, 3 of the quiz club members were intimidated and roughed up by 2-3 members of the Moksha team. Later those responsible did apologise.

On the fourth day, I was cornered by 4 members of the Moksha team and threatened that our actions would pay dearly. I listened to all that they had to say, but kept quiet.

As of now, despite good intentions of holding quality quizzes at moksha, we are left with very badly conducted quizzes( by people who filled in as replacements.) and the blame being put on the NSIT Quiz Club.

I would like to make some things very clear:

1) I understand that all members of the Moksha Team have been working very hard and have put a lot of effort to make the fest a success. That does not give them any rights to threaten or beat up others.

2) Different people in the team kept promising different amounts. How could we trust the team with giving us any prizes at all when their seemed to be no mutual consensus between themselves?

3) All organisers had worked very hard on making the quizzes, and on top,making an effort to bring sponsorship. However, we would not allow our integrity to be tarnished because the festival is not recieving enough funds. Hence, we took the extremely painful decision of not going forward with the quizzes.

To the common reader, my suggestions:

1) If you are organising any events in your life, be clear and upfront about money issues and do not relent on the stance you have taken initially

2) Never leave issues related to sponsorships and money towards the end. try to solve these as early as possible.

3) If you have people like those from the Moksha team trying to armtwist you with the money, you have two options:
- relent and allow your image to take a beating.
-refuse to do the event as we did. You may have to face the consequences but you need to be strong enough to do so.

I apologise sincerely if any member of the Moksha Team worked hard to make the quizzes happen and was extremely disappointed with them happening as very low-key.

Ubuntu 7.04- Feisty Fawn

2008-01-09T00:09:00.000+05:30

After much trials and tribulations, I finally managed to load Ubuntu 7.04 on my pc without botching up anything. This post is also being made using Ubuntu as an operating system.

And yes, Ubuntu 7.04 does run on 256 mb ram, albeit a little slower than windows xp.

Thanks to howtoforge.com for providing detailed tutorials of the installation with screenshots which ensured that even a noobie like me installed the OS without too many hassles.

Here is a screenshot of Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop:

Shaving woes

2007-12-02T17:27:00.000+05:30

When I woke up today morning and looked at myself in the mirror, I realised that I had postponed the act of shaving for too long. The exams had been a good excuse to avoid shaving, and now that they were over, I had no excuse left to keep the "Mohammad Yousuf look."

Now shaving is one of those things that I am pretty bad at. Each session leaves behind memories of ghastly wounds, itches and of course, residual unshaven hair. I somehow made up my mind that today, I would make shaving a pleasurable activity. This obviously meant that I would have to be very careful and avoid shaving in a manner similar to CPM cadres 'reclaiming' Nandigram.

I started off by taking a more than generous amount of Gillette's shaving foam and applying it leisurely all over my beard and neck. As the shaving brush worked up a nice lather all around, I started feeling that this was indeed going to be a very nice shaving session after all.

Good things seldom last, and as soon as I picked up the razor, the story started running in deja vu mode once more. I was trying my best to keep my strokes elegant and smooth like VVS Laxman's( in a totally different game). However, one of the pimples on my face chose to spoil the fun. Within seconds, there was a deep gash and blood started oozing. I panicked a bit, then told myself not to worry, and went on. Until a second pimple came. And a third. And a fourth. In sheer desperation, my strokework became more like Sehwag's- lashing around at anything and everything that resembled hair. The blade expertly avoided all the hair and chose to cut into the skin at every conceivable occasion.

The ordeal wasn't over yet. There was a new bottle of Gillette's Arctic Ice After Shave Splash that needed to be tried out. One of the biggest frauds that shaving ads have pulled off is the way the guy splashes the aftershave all over the face and walks off beaming with an equally beaming woman. Naive that I am, I tried to follow suit with disastrous consequences. The splash was followed by an extremely audible "Ow, Ow, Oww" on my part. Apparently that thing is an antiseptic as well and is not meant only to impress the girls. And with all the cuts I had on my face, the splash had effectively caused a burn unequaled in Sharat's Shaving history.

So, finally, an hour of torture came to an end. As I came out of the bathroom, still feeling the alcoholic fumes of the aftershave burn my nostrils, my mom came along and remarked "Finally you are looking civilized. You should shave every 2 or 3 days."

I gave a loud scream and ran away.

Great Song

2007-11-30T22:58:00.000+05:30

There are some songs that make you realise that you will need to be born again to sing like that. This is one of those songs. I think its quality will be appreciated even though it is a Malayalam song( from the famous Malayalam movie His Highness Abdullah) and Non-Malayalis will most certainly not understand the lyrics.

A Good Poem

2007-11-17T19:31:00.000+05:30

Here is a good poem from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book:

Shiv and the Grasshopper

(The song that Toomai's mother sang to the baby)

Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow,
Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago,
Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate,
From the King upon the guddee to the Beggar at the gate.

   All things made he--Shiva the Preserver.
   Mahadeo!  Mahadeo!  He made all,--
   Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,
   And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!

Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor,
Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door;
Battle to the tiger, carrion to the kite,
And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night.
Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low--
Parbati beside him watched them come and go;
Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest--
Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast.

   So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver.
   Mahadeo!  Mahadeo!  Turn and see.
   Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine,
   But this was Least of Little Things, O little son of mine!

When the dole was ended, laughingly she said,
Master, of a million mouths, is not one unfed?"
Laughing, Shiv made answer, "All have had their part,
Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart."
From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief,
Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf!
Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv,
Who hath surely given meat to all that live.

   All things made he--Shiva the Preserver.
   Mahadeo!  Mahadeo!  He made all,--
   Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,
   And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!

Random rantings

2007-11-08T00:32:00.000+05:30

Exams are at one's doorsteps again. Hence begins the time to start introspecting at how all that time of one whole semester vanished away so quickly. Perhaps it has something to do with relativity( that was supposed to dilate time, no?). 3rd sem has been quite interesting. It has posed the greatest workload in terms of academics in college life till now. It has also been the most stressing semester so far. It is also the Semester that has made me a net addict.

This semester, I believe, is also the one that has brought the greatest change to my personality. If you are one of the people who sees me every now and then and now ask "What Change?", do not be surprised. In a world where most people have changed drastically, I have more or less remained a constant. I still hop around in my room with an imaginary sword in hand enacting Tipu Sultan fighting the British as I used to nearly 12-13 years ago when the program on the same used to be aired on Doordarshan and had had a profound influence on me. I still sing songs at the top of my voice when I am alone, still prefer a math exercise to some physical exercise, still remain deeply spiritual as well as deeply religious, still ponder about the fact that I have not grown taller by even an inch since class 11.

So how have I changed? One of the biggest changes has been my sleep timings becoming erratic(Thanks to Enigmata). I used to be one of the guys who wouldnt mind waking up at 3:30 but couldnt bear to lay awake past 11:30 or so. Nowadays, I have grown used to remaining awake till an average of 1:00 am, doing absolutely nothing worthwhile, mind you.

I have become more pessimistic and cowardly. My stoic silences in the past have been replaced by unnecessary rantings and ramblings(if you havent noticed till now, this post in itself is one big rant). I fear that I have lost the great amount of self-control that I seemed to be blessed with.

I am waiting to regain my composure and peace.
I'll make a start by not opening the net for the next 2-3 weeks. Ok, perhaps only to talk to my brother.
Till then, adieu.
If you have exams, best of luck.

PS: Will come up with saner posts after the exams.

The Importance of Nonsense

2007-10-07T15:35:00.000+05:30

Life is generally straight moving, predictable and boring. I have not been part of anything remotely exciting, (which can explain my rather long abstinence from my blog). But now, Innovision 07 has come and gone theres much to write about.

Firstly and foremostly, Enigmata-M2L2, the event I organised has become a hit event. Google analytics show that http://enigmata.innovision07.com has had 100,000 page views in the past month since the site was created. 953 people registered for the game and even by conservative estimates, at least 250 people were playing it seriously. Many of the levels got good ratings. ( Some of them got brick bats as well for the serious amount of frustration they got!!).

For all those who wish to know what M2L2 means, please visit
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=m2l2

Secondly, Innovision 07 turned out to be a really enriching experience. Had a lot of fun participating in many events. The quizzes were of fairly good standard and events in which I participated like Ultimate Empressario and AI Challenge were good fun. The experience of spending the night sleepless for Overnight programming was quite great as well(The last time I spent a night sleepless was when I was climbing the mountains from Katra to Vaishno Devi)

now coming to the title. It was something I understood during this hectic period of activities. During a period of hectic activities, I generally are very serious and hence, whenever nothing comes out of the hard work I do, I become crestfallen. Nonsense helps me rewind and ironically, regain my sanity. which is why H2G2 still is one of my favourite books.
My top nonsense moment is this one which happened in class:

Class of measurements going on. Most of the guys arent paying any attention to whats going on in the lecture. Those who are, are on the verge of sleeping or have already done so. All of a sudden a mobile starts blaring out "Aashiq Banaaya Aapne". The teacher is distressed and comes up the student who has caused the mischief. She sees that hes unable to stop his mobile from singing out its heart. She grabs it and tries pressing some buttons. All she manages to do is change the song to "Kaho Na Kaho". The whole class has erupted with laughter.

I wish all of you have something of this kind to lighten up your lives.

Enigmata: Innovision 07

2007-08-27T23:52:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone who chances on my not-so-oft read blog.

Enigmata M2L2 is starting off on 1st September. It is a devious online puzzle that will require you to pitch in your best efforts in order to be anywhere close to winning. I have devised some pretty tricky levels. May you never cross them!

Please do participate. For more info, visit the given site:

http://enigmata.innovision07.com/

Registration begins 1st September.

To one and all,
M2L2!!!

and...
Happy Onam

The Anti-Rag Poem

2007-08-05T22:37:00.000+05:30

Ragging lost much of its sheen due to 5 of my friends getting caught on the very first day, that also doing nothing much in particular. However, it provided content for this poem, which is partly true-partly fictional in nature.

The Anti-Rag Poem

The first day in college,
Students in a rage,
Walked into the buildings maroon;

To give juniors a fright,
To prove their might,
To start ragging all too soon.

A prince walked in,
Along with the victor,
The friend, the sun and the moon;

They clapped their hands,
When they saw kids dance,
And they saw ragging as a boon.

The juniors panicked,
When they saw seniors manic,
Like dismayed cartoons;

And they did their bidding,
Without “No Kidding!”,
Till it was afternoon.

No part had the seniors,
In the things that came,
Came-perhaps a bit too soon;

As the teachers stared,
And the professors glared,
And the warden acted like a loon.

A dressing down they got,
And their ashamed lot,
Stood like clumsy buffoons;

Someone cried,
And someone swayed,
And another fell in a swoon.

And then they declared,
With faces so straight,
Never to act like goons;

And they stood tall,
And they never did fall,
Into such dangerous cocoons.

That’s how 5 friends,
Changed their trends,
And rose up like balloons;

In stature and grace,
And respect and face,
Till they ate with silver spoons.

Alas, my mates!
Not similar fates,
Are shared by lousy goons;

Who rag and trouble,
Making kids bend double,
Till they fall off in a swoon.

So stop this evil,
Don’t befriend the devil,
Or he’ll eat your soul very soon;

And you’ll stutter and stumble,
And totter and tumble,
Into the pits of your doom.

My Keralian Sojourns

2007-07-04T22:16:00.001+05:30

At the end of my 3 weeks stay, I found myself rather unwilling to leave Kerala, such was the time I spent there. There is something about Kerala that makes it truly God's own country, atleast for the tourist(why not for the native- that I will tell you in another post).

Some of the top memories I have of my vacation:

My first ever flight- an experience that is hard to forget.(And yes, my ears hurt, inspite of the doll-like airhostesses of Indigo vociferously stating that it is purely psychological.)

Getting used to my phone's consistent response of "No Network Coverage".

Swimming in the temple pond everyday. Though it is infested with algae, small fishes and even some snakes, I must say I had lots of fun and was eager to wake up early in the morning and dash off to the pond.

Having to walk(and wade, at certain places) as much as 4 kilometres to get to the nearest cybercafe.

Walking 5 kilometres uphill and through a forest on my pilgrimage to Sabarimala and subsequently doing shayana-pradakshina (rolling circumambulation) in the temple premises.

Visiting umpteen temples, apart from Sabarimala including Kottiyoor, Guruvayur, Chhottanikkara, Thrikkavu, Thripunithra, Vadakkunathan, Tali, Malliyoor and many local temples around the homes of my various relatives. Kerala has a an amazingly diverse temple heritage. If your Kerala tour is restricted to Munnar, Periyar and Kovalam, think again, you might be missing quie a lot.

Enjoying some great quality Keralian food. I am not a big fan of South Indian food but somehow the food seemed absolutely delicious and I seemed to be quite ravenously hungry most of the time.

Getting to see the Kochi Hill Palace which showcases some fine antiques inside and finer natural sceneries outside.

Managing to read 2 very good books in between, 'The Dilbert Principle' by Scott Adams and 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman. I suggest everyone to read these books whenever you get a chance.

Enjoying the bus rides- buses in Kerala are amazingly fast and even more amazingly reckless. Being a pedestrian is nearly an adventure sport-I was nearly run over countless times

Watching the rain pour 24X7. Getting drenched many-a-times but being lucky enough to evade a fever.

Watching some good quality Malayalam movies.

Ah... it will take some time to adjust to Delhi.

Chicken Soup for the College Soul

2007-06-07T22:01:00.000+05:30

As I issued this book, Akash remarked"This book is meant to bring out your feminine side. No don't hold yourself back.""Infact", he added, rather snidely,"Don't hold herself back." So I issued the book with a slightly bemused, slightly wary feeling.

I had issued the book just because I had never read any book of the series and wanted to know what made the series so popular. However the full purport of Akash's words hit me as soon as I started reading. Barely had I read a few pages, and I was already feeling like Ardhanaarishvara. The book seemed to have been authored by females, females with male pseudonyms and males who seemed to have spent all their previous lives as women and had, by some freak accident got an XY instead of an XX.

The book has little to offer on college life as such. Instead the college is just a setting for the authors to vent their emotions and sentiments, the intensities of which would put even Amla Thukral Ma'am(peace be upon her) to shame.

The stories are annoyingly short , more like anecdotes and the whole book seems like a compilation of "All in a Day's Work" and "Life's Like that" from Reader's Digest, or for that matter, a compilation of all those messages that you get ending with "Send this to 15 more people...".There is no mention of interesting topics like class bunkings, fests etc. and issues such as relationships , which had the potential to make good fun have been dealt from an extremely girly point of view, so that you would end up crying when the story finishes. There is an overemphasis on familial bonds, and emotions to an extent that after the first few stories, you already know where each tale is heading by the time you have read the first line.

However the book provides a good insight into the conservative American psychi, that till 2 decades ago, would have lived and died by Jesus, which has now been replaced by a softer form of so called self-help/inspirational philosophy that 'Chicken Soup' embodies.. The protagonists in most stories come from middle or lower-middle class families, their parents have not had college education, they have part-time jobs to pay college fees, have 2,3,4,5, or even 6 siblings. The book does draw a parallel with its TV 'counterpart' The Oprah Winfrey Show, which uses similar tactics of emotional outbursts to become widely popular. Chicken Soup and other similar 'self-help' books would all find their places on the New York Times Bestsellers list, but at the cost of a huge volume of tears, the tears of its readers. It is not surprising that most of the authors and contributors have their own organisations specifically for dealing with such self-help/inspirational ideology.

All this still falls in the acceptable regions of tolerance, but what I take serious objection to is the fact that the authors use death to elicit emotions from the reader. Many stories have the common theme: Protagonist meets person who seems strange/stays out of the crowd,-protagonist tries to help with kind words-the two become friends-the other guy contracts AIDS/ gets caught in an accident/ gets cancer etc.- other person dies- protagonist tries wiping away tears and moving on. I am firmly against this style of "shock-therapy" writing that is intentionally added just to increase book sales and at the same time, discreetly impress the beliefs of the authors on the reader's mind which is much more impressionable under the influence of emotion. I have always had a dispassionate view of death, something you must accept neither with much shock nor with careless diffidence. Hence I found this style of writing in 'Chicken Soup', quite prominent in many chapters, as something difficult to attest to.

The humor is too less and too far spread out for a book that claims to be a collection of humorous stories.

The bottom line: If you prefer your sobs, then go for 'Chicken Soup' rightaway.(STATUTORY WARNING: Keep at least 2-3 hankies beside).

However if you offer me some "Chicken Soup", then I would say "Thanks , but I would prefer something vegetarian."

Holidays are here again

2007-06-03T16:45:00.000+05:30

After the end sem exams choked and throttled you for nearly a month, a month that seemed to stretch on endlessly and throughout which you had a feeling that you were fighting a losing battle against the 2nd semester subjects, the holidays have finally arrived.

And How! The very first day, the results of ancient 1st sem are announced. And they are not very pretty. Atleast not relatively pretty. My parents went 'humph' and I was left with no alibis for my performance. Koi baat nahin, these things will sort themselves out, the optimist in me said. 2nd sem is over, let's aim at topping in 3rd sem.

The vacations have a strange diluting effect on you. The next day I was back to lazing on the couch, watching 'Telephone Exchange mein Bhoot' and 'Bhakt, Bhajan aur Thumke' on India TV and Star Nyooj(may their tribe decrease!please!!!). That is the sad fate of all those who did not take up CAS.

Since I am in a cribbing mood, I will write something about this 'great' Malayalam film that I saw today with a title that can be roughly translated as "The Father of the Twins". Malayalam films are generally quite intense and emotional in nature, so it is quite comic to watch a film that tries to earnestly show emotions when there is absolutely no need for any.

The story: Jayaram is blessed with the birth of twins. His boss(Murali) is a very unhappy man as his wife can't deliver. So, he goes about giving subtle hints to Jayaram to give him one of his twins in return for favours. Jayaram gets a scooter and willingly gives away one of the children.

However when his wife learns of this, she walks out on him with the other child. Now Jayaram is alone and goes back to Murali to reclaim his child. He is mercilessly beaten by Murali's guards who refuse to even allow himto enter. Jayaram becomes a drunkard and in a brief moment of madness, enters Murali's house by stealth and kidnaps his own child. After running all over the town with the kid in hand, he manages to find his wife , but before he can hand hand over the kid to her, police come , beat him up , and take both him and the boy away. Murali doesn't press charges and Jayaram is released.

Murali, further repents and returns the child to Jayaram.But now, Jayaram's wife(Manju Varrier) refuses to take back the child and hence the story ends, everyone happy and content(especially the hand-over child, who is seen giggling gleefully in Murali's hands in the parting shot ).

To say the least, such a bizarre turn of events leave you rather in a very light mood in what is supposedly portrayed as very serious cinema. What the director wishes to say with the wild goose chase and much ado about nothing is totally above me.

Happy vacations to all.(ok, to all those who have vacations.)

Jugaad

2007-05-24T14:56:00.000+05:30

When storms of life comes through and through,

and drench you in troubles old and new,

that's when you pray to God so hard,

and help comes in the form of...jugaad.

Ah, where would we be without it, that saviour of mankind, that which provides hope in times of despair, that which pushes you on even when you might have given up. Where would we be without that knight in shining armour who comes across as the brainwave in the oppressed times. Yes, man would be just another animal, a sophisticated animal if it wouldn't have been for the J element in his life. Yes, this post of mine is a salute to that ingeniuty of the human mind known in common parlance as Jugaad.

We believe that the world runs on a well defined system. It's true that that men have since long dreamed and worked hard to build a smooth cog for mankind. But every now and then, unforeseen to man, come up problems that are so baffling that at times, one is forced to give up.

Which is why when you find that the derivations you practiced time and again have vanished from your memory in between the exam, much like Karna's loss of memory of his teachings in the battlefield due to Parashurama's curse, you resort to a peek into your friendly neighbour's paper. It is also why, when you are hopelessly stuck with a cruel shear legs apparatus that gives readings contrary to the laws of mechanics, you frame delightfully fabricated readings that match with those in your practical files. And what to say of Practical files themselves!One of the existential mysteries of the universe is how no one writes practical files and yet everyone manages to copy from someone else. (*OP Thakur-"Saari college ka bandgap 0.649 eV kaise aata hai humko samajh mein nahin aata").

Thus in 4 years of engineering (I am not saying that students from other streams don't resort to jugaad, but just quoting my own example), one perfects the art. The degree is awarded in Bachelor of Engineering, when it should have been more suitably awarded as Bachelor of Jugaad. And then these very skills are applied till the very last breath of our lives.

The photo was taken during the launch of the first Indian rocket at Thumba. It shows the nozzle of the rocket being carried on a bicycle. The photograph shows the contrast of how India was trying to find a foothold in space technology merely 20 years as a free nation. It also proves my saying"When nothing works, Jugaad works."

Am I a Ghissu?

2007-04-27T20:49:00.000+05:30

I must admit that it takes a decent amount of courage to write a post like this. No one worth his salt would be willing to be labelled with the G-word. However, people do not think twice while using the word for others..."Woh to paidaishi ghissu hai"(He is a born nerd(Nerd is not the correct English word but I leave it there due to my weak vocabulary)).

I am sure everyone agrees that many of our college-mates are g!#$%^& but hate to admit themselves to be one. Think about it...no one, NO ONE gets into any Engineering College without a fair bit of ghissu-ness/ghissuance/ghissivity(??). It is also a fact that most of us have to indulge in some amount of slogging, at least during the few days before the exams, the exceptions being a few enlightened souls who also end up with marks that look much more agreeable in the 'Rank' column of a WWE Superstar Trump Card.

Then why is it that there is so much of stigma associated with being known as a ghissu? Perhaps it is due to the fact that all of us would prefer to be James Bond-like characters- smart, suave, intelligent and most importantly, one who completes a mission(i.e gets ultra high marks) and at the same time makes out with the Bond Girl(do we really need parentheses here?). Unfortunately, being ultra cool does not always help on the marks front, so we are back to our path of ghisna-peetna, and at the same time, the state of Ghissuophobia .

So am I a Ghissu? I think about the question for a second, then realise that I am wasting my time and return joyfully to the Multiple Integration sum I was solving.

Nehru Place

2007-04-18T20:56:00.000+05:30

I can't claim to know much about Nehru Place since I have visited the place only twice. However the place infuses in you a sense of wonderment that one can't help but write a few lines. And then my blog has been rather inactive of late, so here goes...

Far, Far in the southern part of the great city called New Delhi lies a place called Nehru Place. Whether Nehru had anything to do with the place or whether it's name is another cheap trick pulled off by the government on the same lines as Rajiv Chowk, Priyadarshini Setu, Sanjay Gandhi Parks and yours truly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology is something that I don't quite know. However we will leave that bit there.

It was one fine day in College when all of us friends decided to hop on to our mighty ship from Najafgarh (for the uninitiated route no. 764) and visit the other end of the ship's terminal, far, far away from the Jaatland that we are in. Of course, shopping was on our minds. Nehru Place is Asia's largest computer peripherals market. You would find everything from the dot sized memory cards to the humungous PC's kept one on top of the other as newspapers at a kabaadiwaalas. And the prices are of course, pretty reasonable, considering the fact that you would get much of the stuff with a bill and a guarantee.

So we set off for our adventure. Our Eager anticipation was somewhat dulled by the fact that the 764 chugs along for nearly an hour and a half before it reaches Nehru Place. By now, the fervent Delhi heat had sapped us of much of our energy and zeal. So we went about our business and went to a shop asking for pen drives. The lady at the counter promptly told the prices. We tried some bargaining but it didn't seem to work much. So we relented. I stood in front of the store manager and said"Bhaiyya, 2 pen drives de dena." My request seem to fall on deaf ears. I waited patiently and repeated the request. However there was still no response. When this happened the third time, the manager looked up and retorted"Beta, pehle paise dikhao. Paise ki sugandh lagte hi tumhara pen drive aa jayega." So I sheepishly pulled out the cash and then the transaction carried on. An hour of more shopping culminated with blank CDs and a memory card being bought.

What struck me about the place was how the shop keepers and helping hands had become adept at handling a myriad collection of hardwares as well as softwares. These men might not have a degree in computer sciences but they knew all about the motherboards and the memory chips, the caches and the cabinets, the drives and the drivers, the MATLABs and the Mathematicas. What makes Nehru Place a place to visit is not only the great bargain you make or the great many options you get to choose from, but the sight of thousands of people scrambling about, all in the pursuit to eke out a living, so what if they have to share the space with a few machines?

And of course, the great adventure came to an end with a glass of lassi and banta(not sure whether that makes for a good combination but then our thirst had made us lose our senses).

Kishan told me that there was a streetside bookseller who happened to read all his books. I was denied darshan of this person as he had mysteriously gone missing for 2 days, so say other sellers. When he returns, I might have a lot more to write about...

Jamaican police woes

2007-04-07T17:35:00.000+05:30

One fine morning I woke up and switched on the TV and learnt in "Big, Breaking News" font that Pakistan had been beaten by Ireland and that Bob Woolmer was dead. Ever since, there have been numerous theories concerning his death.

-- He died of a Heart attack
-- He died of Sugar imbalance
-- He drank too much.
-- He was administered poison.
-- He was drugged to death.
-- He was strangulated.
-- He got a karate chop on his neck.
-- He committed suicide out of guilt and depression.
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
It's an alien conspiracy!(?)

By now Jamaican police can esily publish a book that will definitely be a bestseller: '101 (or 1001) ways to kill Bob Woolmer'.

and the suspects?
-A member of the pakistani Team
- PCB official
-angry fan
-bookie
-hired goonda
-Brian Lara(?)

Adding you and me to the list wouldn't make much of a difference.(Who knows what you do in your spare time?)

My hunch that the Jamaican Police works pretty much like Delhi Police seems to be correct. The Delhi Police does have a knack of atleast producing an accused("Bol toone khoon kiya"). What is surprising is how the Jamaican Police has transferred its inneficiency to the Scotland Yard, which has been called in as well. Most of the correct clues have come anonymously. All Jamaican Police can do is keep its showman, the talented 6'7"Mr. Mark Shields in front of the press and show what an eligible man he is.

The story has lost its zing partly due to the elaborate and possibly , equally murky demise of Indian Cricket. The suspects are busy playing dodgeball. In between we have one of the 'seniors' crying when he got hit pretty badly by the gregorious(not quite gregarious). It all culminated in an elaborate kiss-and-make-up exercise yesterday.

In between there was an entity who was watching all this without realising that all this was being done to make an April Fool of him. That happens to be the Indian spectator. Can't agree more with Sankaracharya when he says " Brahma Satyam, Jagat mithya."

Alas the World Cup

2007-03-24T12:20:00.000+05:30

Can't help writing about it. India's performance has caused left me in heartbreak.
Before India's matches:
Mind and Body, Heart and Soul
Mind and Body, Heart and Soul
I've got the power, I am on a roll.

Ummeed ki dastak, Aarmaan Ki lehrein ,
Chehere pe Chamak, Vishwaas ki Damak,
Meri Life mein nayi nayi taal,

Mind and body heart and soul
Mujme shakti hai anmol.
Mind and body heart and soul ,
I’ve got the power, I’m on a roll
Zindabad Ki dil mera dhadke
Zindabad Ki Shola jo Bhadke
Zindabad Humse hain badke
Zindabad Come on go get it

Jagi hai himmat
khari hai mehenat
Poori hai lagan,Ab hoke magan
Dil mein baje khushiyo ke dhol
Mind and body heart and soul
Mujme shakti hai anmol
Mind and body heart and soul
I’ve got the power, I’m on a roll

Zindabad hum kabhi na jhukenge
Zindabad Hum kabhi na rukenge
Zindabad Hum jeet ke rehenge

and now...my version.
GRIME ON BODY,HEART AND SOUL
Grime on body, heart and soul.
Mujhme shakti thi anmol?

Ummed ki dastak, Armaan ki lehrein,
na chehre ki chamak, na vishvaas ki damak,
hua hai ab bada bura haal.
Grime on body, heart and soul.
Mujhme shakti thi anmol?
Grime on body, heart and soul.
I am powerless and heads gonna roll!

Murdabad,
ki tham sa gaya hai,
Murdabad,
ki gham se gaya hai,
Murdabad,
ki (70) Run se gaya hai,
Come on come back!

So gayi hai himmat,
mehnet paani hai,
adhoori lagan, na the hum magan,
bas bajte the ads aur paise ke dhol

Grime on body, heart and soul.
Murdabad, hum jhuk se gaye hain,
Murdabad, hum ruk se gaye hain,
Murdabad, haar ke hain reh gaye..............
Grime on body, heart and soul.

Cool shloka

2007-03-04T15:45:00.000+05:30

My post is based on the incident that has happened to a dear friend of mine.

My dear friend is a hale and hearty lad of good physical appearance and strength. He did not have any history of any disease. 2-3 weeks ago, he started complaining of joint pains and started vomiting and caught a fever. His parents went to the hospital and got a full body test and realised a horrible truth : My friends kidneys had shrunk and 90% of both kidneys had been rendered useless. He is currently undergoing dialysis weekly and there is a slim chance that his kidneys will recover without a transplant. I hope that he recovers soon enough, though it is certain that he will require consistent medication and checkups throughout his life.

There are zillions of ways in which Nature can finish us off. All it requires is the malfunction of a small organ. Yet we live our lives as if we are the masters of our destinies. In this context, comes this shloka, once again from "Bhaja Govindam" by Sankaracharya. The far sightedness of Sankaracharya in describing the maladies of the world truly stun you.

"Nalini dalagata jalamati taralam tadvad jeevitam atishaya chapalam
Viddi Vyadhyabhimana grastam lokam shokahatam cha samastam "

Like the water droplet on a lotus leaf that is so unstable, this life itself is very much unstable due to desires. Please understand that all the people in the world are caught up in either disease or ego and will succumb to sadness (failure to cure or to fulfill desires).

Cool shlokas

2007-02-03T21:03:00.000+05:30

Today's shloka is especially relevant after we failed to qualify for the ims quiz finals. We tried hard and got about 10 right but it wasn't good enough to qualify. So I pacify myself with a bit of philosophy.
"Karmanyevaadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana,
ma karma phala heturbhurma te sangostavakarmani"

You have a right only on your actions, not on the results borne out of these actions. So do not do work for the sake of the fruit of your work, and neither should you take inaction as a path.

There is a definite reason why this shloka is hailed as one of the best from the bhagavat gita. It is valid for all of us and sets the right tone:work but do not be disappointed if the outcome is not favourable. neither should a unfavourable result force you into inaction.

Linux Asia 2007

2007-01-31T16:36:00.000+05:30

Visited Linux Asia 2007 conference at India Habitat Centre. couldn't bear to stay for more than a half a day. It was a singularly dreary affair, with speakers coming and babbling something incomprehensible. The first two sessions were worth listening, with Klaus Knopper, founder of Knoppix predicting the destruction of mankind if it did not choose open source softwares and continued with proprietory softwares like windows. It sounded a bit far-fetched though, as he mentioned that users of computers are becoming more and more ignorant of the functioning of the computers whereas the programs themselves are becoming more complex. He envisages the cartoon like situation where the computer will get ready to destroy the earth and the controller would not know which button to press to stall the process.

Much of what Knopper said was fanciful and it is definitely not possible for things to go the way he thinks, but his viewpoints were certainly thought-provoking and did convey the need for the computer users to match the increasing complexity of the programs and OS's.

The other lecture on how to increase the internet coverage in India by a guy from Google India was a bit long, though it was very to-the-point. This may sound contradictory but somehow one didn't feel like listening to it at all, there was no connect with the audience, at least the upper stalls where we were seated. But if you tried hard to listen, you would find that the guy was talking perfect sense.

The other two lectures were so incomprehensible that I still don't know what they were about.

Cool shlokas

2007-01-21T00:32:00.000+05:30

Here is a list of cool shlokas that I recall:

1) Bhaja govindam Bhaja govindam govindam bhaja moodhamate,
Sampraapte sannihite kaale nahi nahi rakshati dukrin karane.

" Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, o deluded fool, because when you are lying on your deathbed, the grammar you learnt is not going to be of much use."

2) This is pretty controversial and may draw flak but it is another masterpiece from Shankaracharya:

"Naari stanabhara naabhi desham, drishtva maa ga mohaavesham,
Etan maans-vasaadhi vikaaram manasi vichintaya vaaram vaaram."

"Having seen the fullsome breasts and navel region of a women, do not fall prey to desire. This is only a manifestation of flesh and fat, keep this in your mind constantly."

I'll come up with more classics.

Aha..Phlosophy

2007-01-21T00:04:00.000+05:30

Much time has been wasted in this universe by commenting and philosophizing. Nothing concrete has been gained as well. My atempt at wasting my time shouldn't deter you from wasting yours by reading.
Firstly, for all the atheists and agnostics in the world. There is a God.
Why?
Can you explain why a person is born perfectly healthy while another is born with a disability?
Can you explain how the laws of nature have come into existence, like the laws of gravity, equations of motion etc. ?
Finally the most clinching argument in favour of a god : Does a state of highly ordered civilization come up from a sttate of randomness?
I will allow people to think on this topic for some time including myself.

Intro

2007-01-13T17:55:00.000+05:30

I had to muster a lot of courage to start writing a blog. I had stayed off because of the many unintentional fears that stalked me about blogging, mainly:
1) People might accidently read my articles.
2) People might not read my articles at all.
3) I might not be able to post anything of interest regularly.
4) It will eat up all my time, since I spend a lot of time tinking before i write anything.

So, when I finally thought that that I had a skin thick enough to ignore all the above problems I decided to begin my blog. If my articles are bland and tasteless(as they would probably be), please forgive.