Work and Life

What is the deeper meaning of living?

Why was I ever born and giving this being?

At some point of time I forgot what are the tings that matter

After all there is a race of the rats and all that chatter

I ran long and hard through days with conviction and will

For a moment I paused and looked down and realized I was on a tread-mill

I was given a life and that I always have work to God I pray

But I was first given a life, that point should never go astray

Work will come and work will go, never mind if of one you let go

But the moments and emotions once missed, will never ever show

I was given a life and a being for something, of which work is really just a part

I have lived just one way for over two decades, but its never too late to start

Spanish Odyssey

The trip to Spain was one of the most adventurous and definitely the most tiring and back breaking one. It all started on Saturday morning with the downhill trek through the woods towards the station. Sadly we forgot that the gates of one the exits through the woods is locked on weekends. Then we climbed back half way and went to the other exit that needs a student ID card to be swiped to open the door. Well we don’t have the card and tried using the restaurant card, which obviously didn’t work. So there were two options, either trek back up, go through the main gate and take 3-4 kilometer walk down the road or try to climb the wall and jump across. With a train to catch we chose option two. It was quite an experience climbing a 8 feet high stone wall. What I had never expected was what the jump would feel like. My knees, ankle, calf muscles and thighs all vibrated like they have never done. The shock from the jump was enormous to say the least; by the grace of god none of us got injured.

Barcelona

It was then a long long journey to Barcelona. We boarded Talgo, a Spanish train that surely reminded us of the good old Indian trains, especially with their toilets. The views from Cerbre, a town in southern part of France, near the border were very beautiful, cliffs, mountain slopes, houses on them and blue sea, all of them together; quite a treat for the eyes. Again Barcelona was a treat, a city very different from whatever places we have been till now. Laid back, partying, chilled out and friendly. Roamed on the streets of some time, went to La Rambla and experienced the Spanish metro. It was a relief to travel in a train with humans speaking like humans. The French and the Germans somehow just murmur or whisper when they have to speak, the metros and subways are so so dead. Really felt alive to see people talking across seats, shouting if need be and being carefree.

Now it was around 9.30 at night and we started our journey towards our youth hostel. Well with three maps in out hand and not much help available we asked a lady which would be the nearest station to the street we were looking for and reached that station. Here we met a very sweet old couple who almost adopted us like their children, which wasn’t so good for us as we will see now. So uncle saw the building number we wanted to go to and the road and said “far far away” and said we should take a bus. Then they escorted us to a bus stop. We prayed that a bus should not show up till they are there because we did not want to spend on bus and just walk. But as Murphy’s law would have it a bus appeared and they clapped and asked us to get in, we had to sadly say that we will get on the next one. Kind of felt bad, they had done so much to help us, might have been rude of us not to do what they had put so much fight for. Anyways we understood the directions on the map and in 15 minutes reached the street. But surprise surprise, the buildings started at 1, and we had to reach 251. Having 12-15 Kgs on our backs we walked for over an hour and finally reached the hostel. Very merrily the lady there informed us of a station just 2 mins away from the hostel, our luck! The great jump and then the great walk were the two highlights of the day .

The next day the first thing was the visit to the legendary Sagrada Familia, one of the most magnificent and imposing structures I have seen till date. Extremely different from any other cathedral I have seen till now and amazing architecture. If someone is in Barcelona for even 2 hours this is the place to visit. Then it was to the Barcelonta beach. Wow, sun and beach, what a contrast to the cold winds of Copenhagen and chilling nights at Paris. Had some good fun there lying under the sun. It wasn’t a nude beach but there were some twenty percent women topless. I had a good realization there. Anything that becomes commoditized and is available freely, loses its charm and value. Well, same applies to nudity. From there we went to the Pablo Picasso museum. Of course, I couldn’t appreciate anything, as I understood nothing. All of them looked same. The conclusion I and Mayank came to was that a painting that resembles an out of focus picture makes up for a great piece of art :P But it wasn’t so sad all the way, Picassos interpretation of Las Meninas and his work in the modern art were something interesting and we could apply some random semantics to them. Funny part was that as I and Mayank applied our random theories while pointing at the paintings, some of the people around us came to believe that we understood them and were some connoisseurs of art :P

Madrid

These were the main highlights of Barcelona and then it was to Madrid. Well Madrid doesn’t have a lot to offer other than 3 famous museums, which were all closed the day we were there and then there is Bull Fighting. We roamed through the streets of Madrid, saw a few monuments, the palace and reached the Bull Fighting arena. It is surely an experience you should have if you are there. Not that it is some spectacular sport. In fact it is kind of sadist and I found it pretty pointless. Yet, its once in a lifetime experience to see what this whole matador and bull fighting thing is all about. But yeah, it means a great deal to Spanish people and should have seen the crowd and the size of arena, crazy.

On the whole this was a great trip yet again. Saw a completely different culture. Lot of things similar to India. Loud people, crowded streets, houses cramped together in narrow streets and food that has some spice :)

Here is the picture of the wall we had to jump across...

A trip to the top of Eiffel Tower

Well at the start Eiffel tower was a complete disappointment and on the first look looked like a building under construction. But once past the initial disappointment, the trip to the top of Eiffel tower was a truly amazing experience. We began with a climb up the stairs to the second floor of the Eiffel. Two floors of Eiffel were effectively 43 floors of a normal building. Well there is an elevator to take you there too, but when the motto is ‘Europe on a shoestring’ well you have to walk a little (it is averaging about 5-7 Kilometers a day as of now). The view of the city is brilliant from both the floors. Paris looks like a planned city and you can see the old and the new parts with distinct architecture, feel and skyline. On the top it was like being in the midst of clouds, complete feel of a hill station. Enjoyed the winds and the clouds for some time and then it was back to the bottom. On the way down when we reached second floor it was 8pm and the Eiffel did the hourly shimmer and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen when visiting a monument. Eiffel looks much prettier when seen at night with lights on. An amazing sight and once in a lifetime experience :)

Euro Diaries: Denmark and Stuttgart

So the Denmark journey began with 22 hour journey towards Copenhagen. Had a crazy travel schedule with 4 change overs, which were 5 trains from Paris to Copenhagen. The longest one was from Paris to Hannover, an overnight journey that I had to manage on a reclining seat, which reclined by a mighty one inch :D One of the high points of the journey was when the train crossed over the sea on a 8 kilometer long bridge and then went under the sea for almost the same length. The end of the journey was rewarding with Mayank having arranged for stay at one of his friends flat and I am sure that would be the best accommodation that we will get on the whole of Euro trip. It was a cozy and comfortable flat. The streets of Copenhagen had a different story to tell. It was cold and extremely windy and the winds were like spears and took the life out of us :)

The city was beautiful, again, and it was fun to see the architecture. The look and behavior of people was also very different from whatever I had seen till now, so even that was a refreshing change. The best part for me was the boat ride round the city. The views and the cold air on the face were awesome. The boat going under bridges, and you having to duck every now and then to avoid getting hit on head was cool. And I had a Falafal for the first time in my life and must say I really liked it. Again was a good break from the good old faithful Veggie Patty Sub, which has become my staple now.

From Copenhagen it was off to Stuttgart. Thankfully we had reservations for sleeping berths on the train and I had a pretty sound sleep. In the morning it was on to the top of the Mercedes tower and the view of the city was quite good but not breathtaking :) Then on it was towards the Mercedes Benz museum. That part of the city was almost adopted by Mercedes with Mercedes arena, Mercedes this and Mercedes that. The museum was brilliant. The brilliant part was that it not only took you through the history of Mercedes but the history, culture and major events of Europe. The overall experience and transition through times as you walk sequentially through the floors is brilliant. Also it was a much needed change from the overdose of architecture and views of the cities we had been taking over the past trips. The trips to and fro from Stuttgart had truly amazing views. It lies in the black forest region and it is surely very very beautiful.

As usual it ws a fight against time from Paris Est to Paris Montparnasse. This time we had to run quite a bit as the TGV was late by 10 minutes. But we did manage to catch all the trains well in time :)

Another brilliant trip, a good look at one of the Scandinavian countries, feel of another culture, visit to a great museum… I am loving it :)

Euro Diaries: Germany

The German trip was much better planned than the Bruselles one and apart from a few changes in between and a few minor mess ups the trip was as planned and we covered the three things we really wanted to.

Munich and Oktoberfest

It started with a night journey on Saturday towards Munich on a night train with sleeper births. Must say the train we got was not better, in fact worse than our Indian Railways 3^rd AC. We had three Americans in our cabin, pretty friendly, chatted with them for some time and then slept off. After reaching Munich we started a walk towards probably the one of its kind beer fest in the world. It was awesome, huge well built, beautiful tents/dorms were there with rows and rows of tables. If u do want one the queuing starts at about 8 itself and tents open at 9. You take a table and order your beer. The beers are served in cool 1 liter mugs and I think it was the best beer I have ever tasted (I don’t drink beer, just taste whenever I happen to meet a different one, and surely this one was the one that had least of the bad bitter beer taste, so that makes it the best beer I have ever tasted) So people get drunk and start partying with a band playing live. We left the beer tent by 1 in afternoon and started exploring the streets of Munich, walked to the Munich Residence, was massive and impressive, then went to English gardens, which surely was one of the most beautiful gardens I have seen and what was even better was the residential area we walked through. It was so quiet, peaceful and beautiful. Then we walked back to the station and also had one more look at the Oktoberfest, it had gotten really good at night with all the partying and I think if we did not have a train to catch, it would have been really enjoyable to spend a couple of hours there at night :)

To Berlin

So from Munich another night train, the high speed ICE was taken towards Berlin and must say this train was impressive. The Germans live up to their reputation for engineering and certainly their local as well as national trains are much better than the French ones. Berlin is a small city and probably can see all the places there are in 5 hour walk through the city. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, it is the only remaining gate of a series through which one formerly entered Berlin . Then it was the Bundestag, the German Parliament. On top of the parliament there is a huge glass dome that gives a beautiful view of the city and as you go up and down through the spiral ramp along the glass dome. Also saw the Berlin wall. Again it was a beautiful city and we realized that Germs are much more friendly and helpful than the French people. They are much more easy going and relaxed in the way they conduct themselves.

The Rhine Cruise

What awaited us was another series of adventures in trains. So we took a train from Berlin to Dusseldorf Hbf. Hbf is hauptbahnhof, basically signifies the main station of the city, but we got off at the airport station and thought we were totally screwed as it was 1.30 at night. Thankfully we were in Germany and not France. Germans have lot of trains at night and we were able to reach Koblenz from where we intended to take the boat ride. Slept for an hour sitting on the station and then looking at the stop wise schedule of the cruise we realized that we wont be able to make it to Mannhiem on time. So we took a train to a small town called Boppard. Again beautiful, rich, retired people town. From Boppard we started the Rhine river valley cruise. It was on a big ship, the biggest I have ever been on, and it was quite luxurious too :) The castles on the hills along the valley were very beautiful. Then there were small towns, beautiful and cute homes, and occasional trains passing by, all made up for a breathtaking view. It was a three hour cruise and we got off at Bingen, this was a small village, wanted to but couldn’t spend time there. Had to catch a train to Mains, from there to Mannhiem and from there to Paris.

Another successful trip, travelled like real travelers do, hopped infinite trains, saw infinite breathtaking views, had loads and loads of fun and laughter throughout the trip, on situations, one lines all of us keep shooting and on what people around us did :)

Euro Diaries: Belgium

Well the Belgium trip started with intentions to go to the Frankfurt Auto Show. So it started at the Jouy En Josas station (rhymes with Joy in Dosa), which is 15 minutes downhill from HEC campus and that sadly means that it is uphill at the end of a tiring trip with at least 6-7 Kgs of backpack. By the way French pronunciation of HEC is “Haash Aise” tweak it a little and it is Hashish! Anyways, from Joy ka Dosa we travel to a station called Versailles and from there to Paris garde la East, which is one of the main stations of Paris. Now on to the booking counter there is no seat available on train to Frankfurt. So we decide it will be Luxemburg and no tickets again. Then we say Brussels and then she says that it is there but reservation charge over our 50 thousand EU Rail passes is 26 euros. So we try and ask her whether it is the same all the time, and she thinks we being Indians are asking whether it is for there of us and then very condescendingly she points finger one at a time at each of us and in perfect synchronization with fingers says “twenty six- twenty six – twenty six”. Man we laugh to death recalling that scene. Anyways we then came out and I started looking at what all trains we could catch in next one hour from the station. And Lille it was. We booked for Lille, which is north of France and pretty close to Belgium. We decided we will reach there and see what we can do, stay in Lille, go to Belgium/Brussels, stay there, come back, whatever :)

Reaching Lille we saw that we could take a train to a small town on French border, Tournai and from there reach Brussels. So we hopped and finally reached Brussels. From there we took a train to Grand Place and reached the center of Belgium. And goodness was it all worth it, cobble stone streets, typical European architecture, and breathtaking feel and aura to the whole place. Spent beautiful 1.5 hours there and then started return journey. We reached Versailles pretty much as per the plan but because we missed a few trains after reaching Paris and had to wait for next ones the last train to Joy ka Dosa (now the nickname given by us to our Jouy En Josas station). So here we were stranded and found a Russian and a Brazilian who were also going to HEC and we decided to take a taxi. So we went out of the station and saw a taxi and the guy refused to take 5 of us together and then we started to ask the night bus drivers whether any of their buses took us to HEC and there were none. In the meantime the taxi guy also left :). So we were really stranded and it was a 8-10 Km walk awaiting us at 11 at night. And then the Brazilian guy said that he would try and call the Spanish friend he was visiting. In the mean time we were joined by two more students who had to go to HEC. Now this guy arrives in a small hatchback, somewhat like Santro and 5 guys squeeze in on the back seat and I settle in the trunk of the car :D Finally we do reach HEC safely.

This was one of the most amazing trips I have ever had. It was spontaneous, adventurous and very exciting. Got to see the Belgian meadows, eat Belgian chocolates, see two beautiful small French towns, had a look at ancient European architecture and country side as well. Quite some experiences, adventures and fun in 18 hours I must say :)

Also the best part was that I have been a guy who plans everything to the last possible detail and have never ever gone on a trip without knowing where, when, how and why I will be wherever I will be, I loved the randomness of this trip. Maybe I am experiencing the joy of being a traveler :)

BTW the pics will be uploaded on Orkut as well as Facebook :)

So what is Europe like? And more importantly what are Europeans like :)

Well Europe is... Beautiful, Scenic and all the synonyms. I have loved all the places I have been to till now.

Europeans... Well to my mind it depends on what place you are at and the nationality of the European. In the big cities generally I did not feel so much of racism but I guess there is. On the second night in Paris we entered at this Cafe and the waiter told us that noting was available to eat as cooks were winding up, we could just take drinks. And five minutes later these two French girls come and sit on table next to us and he asks them if they would want a sandwich :O ... Well could be that he slipped on seeing girls or it was pure racism.

In the countryside three things can happen:

1. They will be very nice, polite, gentle and helpful when they will see you.

2. They will have xenophobia and will be scared of you.

3. They have never seen a species like you, so you will attract attention and curious looks. We got off at this small town in Germany, Boppard for Rhine boat ride and as we got out of the station there were some 20 people there and we were surely objects of attraction for all of them :)

In general the East Europeans are quite friendly and easy to talk to. Spaniards, Turks, Estonians, Slovakians have been the most friendly people I have met till now.

In general French are snooty and quite a few of them are conceited. A lot of them would be rude if you start of in English without the pleasantries and then "Vous parle Anglais?", which means do you speak English? I have heard that many of them refuse to speak in English even if they know it, if you start in English. But yes, we have of course met many helpful, kind and generous souls. I am sure there are more of the kind souls and less of the conceited ones.

Germans are much more friendly, they are more easy going and much more helpful. You can see this in the way they dress, act, walk and conduct themselves. I liked them better :)

French Girls: Well this species needs a special mention. God has been terribly partial to them. Goodness! Almost all of them are extremely beautiful and have extremely pleasant facial features. In fact I got so sick of all this beauty that I felt I was in normal world when I was in Germany. German girls are also quite beautiful, but then there is a mix of normal faces too. And they wear simple T shirts, jeans and sneakers. Paris is very very fashion conscious on the whole :)

Indians: Well well well. We retain our stronghold for being money conscious (euphemism for chindigiri) But well the terrible exchange rate we have and the high prices these guys have don't leave many options for us :)

Revival of Blog and European Diaries

So I am free from the drudgery of IIMB for next 70 odd days, what better time to revive the blog :)

So here takes off Visions of Paradise (yeah maybe a complete brand overhaul is in place, but probably revival and overhaul at the same time are not within my capabilities :D)

The posts that will follow will mostly be accounts of my trips across Europe and my feeling and opinions on whatever I observe :)

Revival of a Dead Blog

एक ब्लॉग का revival करना बहुत ही कठिन कार्य है। यह मुझे पिछली दौ असफलताओं के बाद पता चल चुका है। पर आज एक फ्रेशेर का ब्लॉग देख कर फिरसे दिल में एक उमंग आई है। तो क्यों ना एक उमंग पे कविता को फिरसे पढ़ा जाए और प्रेरणा के लिए पिछले कुछ अच्छे कार्यों पर नज़र डाली जाए। आशा है यह प्रयास सफल रहेगा

समाचार समाप्त

दिल में एक उमंग है

The "relatively" best of me

The group that was

हालत बहुत टाईट है

सिर दर्द से बुरा हाल है
दिल का भी कुछ ऐसे बेहाल है

टाइम की बहुत जादा कमी है
आंखो में मेरी बहुत नमी है

ऍप्लिकेशन का काम है बहुत ज़्यादा
पर नींद बहुत आने का है पूरा वादा

ज़िंदगी में बहुत फाइट है
हालत बहुत टाईट है

एक दिन में चार एप्प्लिकाशनो का भार कौन उठेगा
एक छोटी सी जान कितना काम संभाल पायेगा

चलो कोई नहीं
भविष्य तौ मेरा इन एनी केस ब्राईट है
पर अभी ज़िंदगी में बहुत फाइट है
हालत बहुत टाईट है

Himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti

Don't know who wrote this, heard one para of this poem on some reality show, when Anupam Kher was motivating a participant who had been voted out. Really inspirational...

lehron se dar kar nauka paar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

nanhi chinti jab dana lekar chalti hai
chadti deewaron par sau baar fisalti hai
mann ka vishwas ragon mein sahas banta hai
chad kar girna, gir kar chadna na akharta hai
akhir uski mehnat bekar nahi hoti
koshish karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti....

dubkiyan sindu mein gota khor lagata hai
ja ja kar khali haath laut aata hai
milte na sehej hi moti pani mein
behta duna utsah issi heiraani mein
mutthi uski khali har baar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

asaflta ek chunati hai sweekar karo
kya kami reh gayi dekho aur sudhaar karo
jab tak na safal ho neend chain ki tyago tum
sangharshon ka maidaan chhod mat bhago tum
kuch kiye bina hi jai jai kaar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

दिल कि ये बातें...

दूरियों और नज़दीकियों के लंबे सफ़र में दिल से लिखी गयी एक रचना ...

दिल कि ये बातें
कोई किसी को समझाए कैसे ।

वो अनकही अनसुनी
यादों में कहीं गुमी गुमी।
हाँ वो आँहें अनचुई
कोई किसी को सुनाए कैसे।

दिल कि ये बातें
कोई किसी को समझाए कैसे ।

वो सपनो की आहट
जो सिर्फ महसूस होती है।
देख कर नज़रों को राहत
जो सिर्फ महसूस होती है।
ये नाज़ुक आर्ज़ुएं
कोई किसी को बताये कैसे।

दिल कि ये बातें
कोई किसी को समझाए कैसे।

वो दिल का भरना
पक्षियों सी उड़ान।
राहें तक तक कर भी
नज़रों में ना आना थकान।
बिना किसी शको सवाल
खो देना अपनी पहचान।

दिल कि ये बातें
कोई किसी को समझाए कैसे।

सब हार कर भी
सब जीत जाना।
सब लुटा कर भी
सब पा जाना।
होश खो कर भी
अभिज्ञ हो जाना।

चाहतों के उस मकाम तक
कोई किसी को ले जाये कैसे।
दिल कि ये आँहें
कोई किसी को सुनाये कैसे।
मदहोशी कि ये बातें
कोई किसी को समझाए कैसे॥

- श्रेष्ठ शर्मा

The Ex-factor ;-)

Kind of true...kind of wry...but anyways it's funny :D

My adventures with the Sensex

Well it could have been stock market, but I like calling it adventures with Sensex! I have somehow developed a liking for Sensex and all my dealings till now have been at BSE. As such i think NSE is a better exchange but Sensex sounds sexier than Nifty :D

I opened a trading account with Religare about a month ago, that was after thoroughly researching online brokers for over a month. I would have preferred Motilal Oswal if they had the provision for after market orders. But overall after them I found Religare to be the best, and till now i have had no regrets about my decision :)

Investing in stock market...that too all by yourself :O it raised some eyebrows and there were discouraging responses from most people. People narrated to me tales of how they had lost money, but then i said, what the hell you cant learn without getting into it, and if it costs some 5-10k to learn things (read losing this amount in stock market) so be it. After all I had spent some 3 lakh rupees on my engineering to learn how to manipulate things :)

So i entered the market, proudly ;)!! First few days were spent researching stocks. My focus was only on blue chip companies, I have sworn that I wouldn’t deal in mid caps and small caps, so what if some 1 in 100 company will give a mammoth 1000% return in six months, but i know how my luck is and i will just end up picking one of those 99 companies which will leave me in a decently heavy -200% return! My starting point is mainly reports from different brokerage houses. But i don’t blindly follow them; i see the evaluation, P/E, 52 week high lows, the general atmosphere around the company, and yes not to ignore the health of the sector it is operating in!! This had made things work for me till now!! The second stock i had selected on these criteria was TATA Tea, it rose some 90 bucks in 6 days, the sad part is that i had only one share :D All my dealings till now have been in 1-5 shares, this is primarily coz i don’t want to expose myself too much in this early stage of my... trading career ;) Plus market at this point of time is going up and down faster than a roller coaster and it is impossible, yes for anyone it is impossible to predict the movement for a short period. But in any case it is really volatile right now and debt instruments are much better for some 6-12 months right now. But some blue chips, historical out performers wouldn’t do any harm either. I believe the performance of a stock in the market is becoming very company specific unlike last 2-3 years when regardless of the company fundamentals and performance the company the stock shot up riding on the overall optimism about the sector! At 14000 levels and with over valued stocks it will now be difficult to make 50% return killings, but good stocks might get 15-20% returns, at least that is what I am hoping for :D!!

A lot more has been happening, but about that in another post, all I would say at this point of time is that 20 days down the line I am still in green!!!

We are all bees!!

Ever seen a bee struggling to get past a window?? Yes I bet you have!! You might have also seen an ant struggling to find its way and wondered how can they miss such a simple thing, why cant the bee go towards the door and set itself free and why cant the ant take just one right turn and reach its destination! I am pretty sure that if there is god sitting up there he must be amused to hilt seeing some billion humans, who think they are ever so intelligent and great, they are all struggling to get past the glass and are not taking the door and all the time they are thinking that they Mr/Ms Smarty Pants and know what they are doing. Not that we should give up fighting for things but then a lot of times you have to start thinking of other ways and trust that power, which you might call god!!

The times...

There are these times, you always look back and wonder why you couldn't just freeze them there. Though time moves on memories linger, they stay with you, reminding you ever so often of those beautiful times, those moments that will stay with you forever. The last two years at DCE will always be with me, the wonderful people i met there, some of them friends for life, people i don't think u meet very often, people who without effort make it to that special corrner of your heart, people who will always in some special way be a part of you.

This video made by Rashmi is a collection of all the wonderful memories of that time, captured ever so beautifully...oh! do i miss those days...

Emperors of love

I just happened to see 'March of the Penguins' today. Call it natural way of living, surviving, breeding or whatever, I will call it love. It is amazing what all torturous and dangerous conditions these penguins go through and fight against all odds to bring a new, ever so beautiful life on this planet. The movie is worth a look even if you just want to see the arduous cycle these birds go through in extreme conditions. In my view a must see movie, by the way this reminds me of 'Happy Feet' another movie on Emperor Penguins, with a different theme though, a must see again!!

Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Penguin to know more about them!!

A few beautiful pics...

Blank...

Well... its quite a task to revive a blog, finally i gathered courage to start out with it. Seems like my blog has died or maybe it was hibernating (its been six loooong months). In these six months i didn't care to visit my beloved blog even once, cant expect anyone else would have. Thinking about what to write i went BLANK, i think its gonna take some time to shake up things n get going, in the mean time a good point to take off would be some things that i think I'll do to get started with my blogging...better still the plan of action ;)

1. Get the creative and writing department of my mind started...seems this part of mind has rusted quite a bit.
2. Start observing things around myself, thats where i got most of my blogging ideas.
3. Start paying attention to random thoughts crossing my mind, again a source of blogging ideas.
4. Maybe start putting the interesting things i come across on net, things that reflect me, this will be new coz till now i usually put only self written stuff.
5. Maybe shoot of some cheap publicity mails ;)

Hoping that next post will come soon...love u (whoever cared to visit this long dead blog:-) )

Rumsfeld Reloaded

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do no know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know”

“From where you sit, the White House may look as untidy as the inside of a stomach. As is said of the legislative process, sausage-making and policy-making shouldn't be seen close-up. Don't let that panic you. Things may be going better than they look from the inside.”

"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

"We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." –on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." –on looting in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, adding "stuff happens"

"As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

"I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work." -asked to estimate the number of Iraqi insurgents while testifying before Congress

"I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and, well, I assume it's what I said."

"Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said."


"If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."

"There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist." -on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction

"It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." -in Feb. 2003

"Well, um, you know, something's neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so, I suppose, as Shakespeare said."

"Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning."

"Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often."

"I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know."

"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty."

"I don't do quagmires."

"I don't do diplomacy."

"I don't do foreign policy."

"I don't do predictions."

"I don't do numbers."

"I don't do book reviews."

"Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."

"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly."

“Keep your sense of humor. As General Joe Stillwell said, "The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind."

Don't say "the White House wants." Buildings can't want.

Don't begin to think you're the President. You're not. The Constitution provides for only one.

If a prospective Presidential approach can't be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn't been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won't "sail" anyway. Send it back for further thought.

Mera blog kidhar jaa raha hai!

Mera blog kidhar jaa raha hai???
A comment by sid on "Dil mein ek umang hai" post gives the answer to the above question...

"Dil mein naye umang hai
Cdot se halat tang hai
kaam bahut hai...
aur blogger se kati patang hai..."

Kisi kisi time mujhe aisa ehsaas hua jaise mera blog ek dheemi maut mar raha hai ;-) aisa nahi hai hi ki ye haal sirf mere blog ka hai, mere saath ke do "at-one-time-avid-bloggers" ke blogs ka bhi ye hi haal hai! Jaise jaise posts ki sankhya ghati waise waise hits bhi marr gaye. Blog pe post likhne walo ki bhi haalat patlee hai, aur commet likhne walo ki bhi! And there has been no publicity mail for long time now from anyone, kuch posts daalo bhi to lagta hai ki post doesnt merit any publicity mail! Ab is post ko hi dekh lo, aise phatele haal hai is post ke, na sir na pair, kahi hindi kahi english, kahi ye kahi wo! I think it some way reflects the changes we are trying to make to adapt to new lifestyles of ours! And another matter of fact is that due to multiple commitments it really is becoming difficult to squeeze time out for blogging, kabhi time hota hai to saamne comp nahi, jab comp hota hai to aur kaam hote hai!! Such is life....par aaj maine soch liya apne blog ko ek glucose ki botal laga hi du ek do post daal ke, chahe kaisi bhi daalu :) and so results this ultra boring and torturous post!! Padhne wala ab tak to baal kheech raha hoga, aur likhne wala abhi likhte hue apne upar hass raha hai ki wo kya like jaa raha hai, ye bahut hi veli post poat hai!!
Haan yaad aaya..hum shuru hue the ki ye blog kaha jaa raha hai, answer hai ki ye kahi nahi jaa raha hai...yahi http://shreshth.blogspot.com pe milega :D. Hudd ho gai kitni velli line thi ye. Nahi Nahi, seriously soch raha hu ab se jab time mile post likhne ka us samay mind mein jo ho wo likh daalunga, is tarha ye "musings blog" ban jayega. Fir ek din jab mai famous ho jaunga, tab in faaltu posts ko padh ke log funde chodenge "isne aisa socha waisa socha, tabhi aaj wahan hai"! By god! likhna band karta hu, haalat bad se badttar hoti jaa rahi hai, aur likha to jo kuch log mujhe paagal nahi samajhte wo bhi samajhne lagenge :p!!!

Radio Ga Ga

Born in the age of TV and living my last 9 years through the age of Internet has undeniably robbed me of some of those wonderful experiences which the people of my parents generation were able to enjoy. Radio is one such thing i suppose. And i always get this feeling whenever i hear Radio Ga Ga by Queens or Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles! Getting all your entertainment through radio, that feeling of "yes" when you would have tuned into that channel of yours perfectly and that tuning into BBC or Voice of America to get latest international news would have surely been great. Not that i cant do the above now but i don't think it will ever give me that feeling which it gave to people in those days! Radio has certainly doesn't have that charm for my generation, at most FM is the last option you turn to for entertainment!!!I would have surely loved to live through that age of radio!!


Radio Ga Ga

Radio - radio
I'd sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
And everything I had to know
I heard it on my radio

You gave them all those old time stars
Through wars of worlds - invaded by Mars
You made 'em laugh - you made 'em cry
You made us feel like we could fly
Radio

So don't become some background noise
A backdrop for the girls and boys
Who just don't know or just don't care
And just complain when you're not there
You had your time, you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio - radio

All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio blah blah
Radio what's new ?
Radio, someone still loves you

We watch the shows - we watch the stars
On videos for hours and hours
We hardly need to use our ears
How music changes through the years

Let's hope you never leave old friend
Like all good things on you we depend
So stick around 'cos we might miss you
When we grow tired of all this visual
You had your time - you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio - radio

All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio blah blah
Radio what's new ?
Someone still loves you

Radio ga ga (ga ga)
Radio ga ga (ga ga)
Radio ga ga (ga ga)

You had your time - you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio - radio


Video killed the radio star

I heard you on the wireless back in Fifty Two
Lying awake intent at tuning in on you.
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through.

Oh-a oh

They took the credit for your second symphony.
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now I understand the problems you can see.

Oh-a oh

I met your children
Oh-a oh

What did you tell them?
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.

Pictures came and broke your heart.
Oh-a-a-a oh

And now we meet in an abandoned studio.
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
And you remember the jingles used to go.

Oh-a oh

You were the first one.
Oh-a oh

You were the last one.

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far
Oh-a-aho oh,
Oh-a-aho oh

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.

In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far.
Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR.

You are a radio star.
You are a radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.

Video killed the radio star. (You are a radio star.)

And i will never stop dreaming!!

"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living."

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."

"Nothing happens unless first we dream."

"No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

“To those who can dream there is no such place as faraway."

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."

Life has been one big learning journey past few months, seems like I have learnt more life in past few days than I did in years that had gone by. One striking thing that I happened to notice was how with time people loose their passion, their aspirations and their dreams. The argument goes that with age, responsibilities and circumstances you sacrifice your dreams and adjust with situations, all in all different ways of saying that you are helpless; though you want to do things but then somehow you are unable to do so. I haven’t been down that long road but I find it hard to imagine what I would do if I didn’t have dreams, if I didn’t have passion enough to pursue them, if my aspirations weren’t sky high, if what I was trying to achieve wasn’t that tad bit higher than my present capability. Every time this thought comes to my mind I promise my self that what may happen I will try to reach that higher ground, and yes I will never stop dreaming. I can’t claim that I won’t be pushed into a ditch by the hard ways of this life but still I say with conviction that I will give more than I have to climb out of it and continue on my journey to stars. Dream; dream on, this is all we have in the hope of avoiding a mediocre life. More often than not I have been very sad for abandoning that unachievable, that stupid dream, and today I sit and wonder what if I had pursued it?? Today I respect my dreams ever so much, they are my motivators, they are the cradle of my aspirations, they are all I am….and I will never stop dreaming!!

Dil mein ek umang hai

I have drawn a lot of flak from my friends for being a useless son of someone who has authored more than 100 Hindi books. I myself also accept the fact that I am not very good at Hindi but then I believe genes do give you some inherent skills, in my case creativity! This is my first creation in Hindi, and I thought it deserved to be typed in devnagari. Here I would like to thank 'my life' mom for helping me type it and correct some grammatical mistakes :)

I have never said this, but since this creation of mine is very close to my heart...do leave a comment if you like it :)

(Please click on the poem to enlarge it)

Man... 'The heroic being'

This is a collection of my favorite quotes from The Fountainhead and as is obvious they essentially are crux of the philosophy of objectivism. Tooheys philosophy of conquering the human mind by catching it confused it between being moralistic and hedonistic which is successfully practiced by so many politicians and religious leaders; the casual firmness of Roark who epitomizes a true human being and Dominique who with her insurmountable strengths is so weak in front of Roark, shows with utter grace what intense passionate love is like...these are some quotes that I have kept with myself for over three years now, I relate with them ever so much and the more I look at them the more I love being a human being....'The heroic being' :)

"Reasons can be fought with reasons. How are you going to fight the unreasonable? trouble with most people is that they don’t have sufficient respect for senseless. You have no chance if it is your enemy."

"It’s good to suffer. Don’t complain. Bear bow accept- and be grateful god made u suffer. For this makes you better than people who are happy and laughing"

"Everything bad comes from the mind, because mind asks too many questions.... It’s blessed to believe not to understand"

"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal"

"It’s so graceless being a martyr. It’s honoring your adversaries too much"

"If you make people perform a noble duty, it bores them. If you make them indulge themselves, it shames them. But combine the two- and you've got them"

"It is said the worst thing that can be done to a man is to kill his self respect. But that’s not true. Self respect is something that can’t be killed. The worst thing is to kill a mans pretense at it"

"A quest for self respect is proof of its lack"

"The mature control of a man so certain of his capacity for control that it could seem casual, and a childlike simplicity of accepting events as if they were subject to no possible change"

"Love is exception making. If you were in love you'd want to be broken, trampled, ordered, dominated, because that’s the impossible, the inconceivable for you in your relations with people. That would be one gift, the great exception you'd want to offer the man you loved"

"If one doesn’t respect oneself, one can have neither love nor respect for others"

"A self sufficient ego. Nothing else matters"

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

The soaring spirit

There was a time some 4-5 years ago when on Independence Day there were hardly any kites to be seen in the sky, and I thought that people have forgotten what this day should mean to us. As a generation born in free India we will never be able to truly value this freedom because we haven’t lived through the oppression and the misery of dependence! Today we live in a country where we are granted so much of liberty that is hard to find in other countries!
But today some of my reservations were eased, people painted the sky with colorful kites and I could see the enthusiasm of people perched on roof tops flying kites despite the sun and sultry weather! As the evening descended people began fireworks, this was the first time I saw soaring rockets and bursting crackers to celebrate Independence Day! Then I just happened to notice there were some dancing stars in the sky and after some thought I figured out that they must have been 'light wali patang'...ingenious :) Well the enthusiasm of the youth was also to be seen on orkut with loads of people changing their profile pics to 'tiranga' Its all good that the spirits are soaring, I just hope the youth doesn’t just limit it to one day and believe in themselves and not just go on and abuse the country every now and then in the name of flawed system and all without realizing that they also have some contribution to that flawed system...JAI HIND!!!

The more I contrast...

(This was written in my office cab en route to office: D)

I have seen this through my life, more often than not when I contrast the situations of my life with other ones; I find some kind of solace. There are ways to deal with life, for the larger part I feel absolute is the better one but sometimes contrasting makes you feel better!

Here I am sitting in my office cab. Every morning when I open the back door of this qualis and sit on those uncomfortable bench seats which sorely lack windows by their side i swear to myself that i need to move on fast. Forget the windows as people start flowing in we have four people in some 1/4th of the cabs volume with our legs cramped up and sweating bodies rubbing against each other! Makes me wonder why for some extra 50p per kilometer the company doesn’t get us an AC cab. But so is life.

Moving on, near Moolchand construction of an underpass is underway, and as we near it i have the chance of seeing what type of company transport people are managing with. There is this truck with some 60-70 people standing on its loading area; the scene almost reminds me of the African slave ships of the seventeenth century. They are the workers at the construction site. For a few moments i contrast their situation and mine and find solace, still sitting in that uncomfortable cab of mine.
But then god endowed me with better opportunities and resources, in material as well as mental terms. So i think again i will have to leave the contrasting route and choose the absolute one and continue to hate my cab and try to move on....

Beyond six figures...

I have been thinking...thinking deeply! I realise that till now my life was governed by six figures and as far as i can see it will be governed by them...but i want to break free, yes i want to break the shackles of these six figures and move beyond, move to doing something that is not motivated by these six figures move to a place where there is contentment of a job well done, contentment of doing something that i love doing, the joy of doing something that really means and goes way beyond a six figure salary!

What i want to say is embodied perfectly in this song...

kuchh kar guzarne ko khoon chala khoon chala
aankhon ke sheeshe mein utarne ko khoon chala
badan se tapak kar, zameen se lipatkar
galiyon se raston se ubharkar, umadkar
naye rang bhar ne ko khoon chala khoon chala

khuli-si chhot lekar, bari-si tees lekar ahista ahista
sawaalon ki ungli, jawaabon ki mutthi
sang lekar Khoon chala
kuchh kar guzarne ko khoon chala khoon chala

kuchh kar guzarne ko khoon chala khoon chala
aankhon ke sheeshe mein utarne ko khoon chala
badan se tapak kar, zameen se lipatkar
galiyon se raston se ubharkar, umadkar
naye rang bhar ne ko khoon chala khoon chala

LOVE

This is not a post as such but comments that I wrote on ‘LOVE’ posts written by two of my friends!!
Here are the links to the posts:

Sid on Love
Shishir on Love

There are phases in love, or so called love, or maybe infatuation, can be anything but it has phases. Infatuation dies in a short span of time so I think maybe the phases argument applies more on love, maybe :-D

There is this phase of colorful flowers and flying butterflies when you feel everything is beautiful and any argument against love fails to even touch you forget about moldings your opinions on love, it is on this phase and the naivety of this phase that I wrote this comment...

“well what I will say now is something that I cant substantiate with examples and this is something that I don’t even expect you to understand as of now, but here are my two cents on love...love as u understand it today is not love, its the love of a poet love of an artist which will be confined to pen and brush!! Believe me on this and trust me, when u say "It is just a passing phase" it is really not it will stay, the things u would want to go away will stay and the ones u would want to stay will go away, slowly and slowly the mist will clear and u will realize that there is love and there is world...that there is love and then there is something called bigger love, this world of love my dear friend is not as lovely, it has a dark side ...yes a dark side, the sms'es and the thoughts and the smiles are not as good as they seem, they have a dark side, it will take u some time to relate to all that I have said maybe a few years but relate u will and at that time when u read this comment u will say to yourself "why the hell was I so naive that I didn’t understand this" and always remember what I said..."there is love and there is world and then there is a bigger love" what the world and bigger love are for you, you will come to know in due course of time...and its a guarantee the world and bigger love will win :D!!”

Then there is this second kind of opinion on love, where some people are almost averse to it, this line expresses it perfectly...
"You know to fall in love you have to let yourself be vulnerable and willing to get hurt ,but you have built this wall around you which just no one can penetrate . You seem as if you are with everyone and the truth is you are with no one"

And here is what I feel on this...

“You form that specimen of human species who "have built this wall around themselves" and then there comes a day, a time, a person and a situation and the wall crumbles...then u may come out strong from your shell, or maybe u are shivering like a new born in rain, I don’t know.... but yes the wall will crumble one day and if it doesn’t one day u will so desperately want to bring it down and when u are able to do that u will find nothing but vacuum!!!

By The Way my take on TRUE LOVE can be found here!

My lab group

My lab group...this post has waited quite a while to get published, conceived around three months ago and bullet points jotted down two weeks ago, I now let go of my laziness and begin blogging again :D

Thinking of how to start the post gave me an idea that I should begin from the very beginning, the first time that I met these people, and more importantly what were the first impressions I had about these people. They say you should never judge a book by its cover, I never did, but then the cover was all I could have seen the first day or maybe even a first few weeks. Some of the things that I will tell, things that I felt about these people, are not even known by them, some I will reveal today some I will guard unto death ;-)

It was a warm day (at least the first half) and as far as I can remember it was 29th or 30th of July 2002, the first or the second day after orientation. We had our chemistry lab, the first lab of my college life, I was hardly enthused by it, add to it the harrowing time some seniors had given me, but that’s a different story, we entered the lab and a stocky bald guy handed us some twenty years old experiment write ups and asked us to copy them, and here began the saga of a lab group which in its own ways I believe was the most entertaining group that could be.

They became my friends for life, they made me learn some of the most valuable lessons of life; and it is so very obvious about groups but something makes me believe that this group taught more than that nuance about life!!

The idiot who is right most in the picture was the first one I talked to, or so I think, the way he talked and acted made me feel that he was quite a nice chap, fairly gentleman types ;-) and it is for this very reason that they say “NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER” as much as I would have wanted it this guy turned out to be a complete idiot (in all the good senses though) but an idiot nevertheless. Also he became the greatest source of my entertainment during my college life, and of course sometimes he was also on the receiving side of my ire. I could afford to do this because I knew that those words of mine wouldn’t spiral into a fight or anything sour, this stemmed from the fact that we had scant respect for each others bad words ;-) He was also one third of what he calls “the world beaters mirage team” I could go on talking about him and my experiments with him but then there are a lot of things still to write. I just met him yesterday and this got me all pumped up for an extended session of “Shishir bashing” but I will save it for a special why-i-like-shishir-bashing post!!!!

Coming on to the second person (we are moving roll number wise you see) the experiences started a day before the lab, it was the first day and I volunteered to help our chemistry teacher with attendance, and what a mistake it was, for such a small thing I had done he went on to give me flying kisses for more then ten minutes!! Here I was getting attendance sheet signed by these new classmates of mine, then came D-15 and I proceeded to point out that she shared her name with my sister and MY GOD! I got a half look and a facial reaction which I thought reflected conceited disdain for what I had so innocently said! So much for striking a conversation with someone who happened to be my next roll number! Moving on to the lab as we proceeded to copy that experiment write up, I was copying the damn thing at a leisurely pace of mine (after all we had more than a hour to copy those two three pages) but to my surprise as I had just finished the last line of Para one, which I suppose was 1/5th of the page, I got a query from her “can I turn the page” and here were I and the idiot giving each other a glance of disbelief and almost shock :D the only thing that came to my mind then was a mixture of nerd+wierd, I proceeded to copy with my neighboring group who were copying at my leisurely pace!! By the way the incident of the first day didn’t particularly help with my opinion of her :) But the striking feature of the group was still to come, what followed was something that was to become the benchmark for the rest of our lab life! It was when I and shishir were doing a titration, yes that experiment where you drop an acid/base into a beaker having base/acid with indicator and the color change helps u determine the quantities of acid/base used and hence the unknown concentration, so we were again leisurely doing the experiment all our concentration on the drops of the solution of the titration tube and then came a sudden push and a pull and a blow of wind all rolled in to one and both of us were thrown off balance and away from the priced equipment!! As we gained back our balance we could see a small figure concentrating on the drops, was this the thing that caused what had happened :-O Well at least I was unaware of girly passion for lab work because all my school life I had a girl for my lab partner and both of us showed little inclination for work and two of us were always begging other people to lend their files and readings before the lab! But here the benchmark was set, it was that day and the last lab experiment and there was little that I or him or later on Sid ever did with the equipment, Oh! yes I remember the CRO was still in my domain and I never let anyone enter my domain :D all the efficiency that our group had can be attributed to this young lady and I Sid or shishir have the least contribution to it! And I think it is supposed to be so in an engineering college :) In any case I think we both enjoyed the role of experiment assistants, it was just so easy, all that we had to do was copy the file!!

Coming to my third lab partner, Sid, for the first two semesters it was just me sishir n shruti for lab group, and in some labs just me n shruti! So it was in the third semester that we became lab partners! The first incident associated with Sid that I can recall happens to be that of second semester! It so happened that I had been to my then-girlfriend’s college to meet her, and next day here was Sid with more than 10-15 boys around us asking me with his ‘shaitaani bhari’ smile about my visit yesterday! I should mention that I really don’t talk about my personal life to anyone, it is a closely guarded area of my life and I tolerate no attempt of even slightest intrusion! And here I had a guy with whom I had not conversed properly even once and he was right away walking over my personal life that too in front of so many people, I somehow controlled my anger and gave a passing look/reply to him! I don’t think we conversed much after that until we became roomies in the third semester, by that time I had given that encounter of ours a “no event” status! And wading through those flooded muddy grounds and those miles long walks for getting hostel room changed was a great binding force! This guy has probably known my habits and reactions better than anyone else in college!! From my skills at composition of weird lyrics to my desperation to sleep on time, he has seen it all! The thing that I will never forget is his playing with 3315 and that clicking sound of its keys when I was trying to sleep after an exam!! He is no doubt one of the sweetest guys that I have met ( I am not saying this coz we have slept in same room for one year ;) ), I mean it!

So these were some of the first impressions and the after thoughts on them, we have had some good times as a group! One high point I remember was during the MP viva, we had a common enemy (yes that guy who was taking the viva) and then there was this inherent pledge of solidarity, so as happens usually the guy asked a weird question and as usual the answer was not known, shruti proceeded to make some long almost funny story as an answer, well surprisingly enough I happened to know the weird answer to the weird question but then I had to stand with my group and I proceeded to state the same funny story with all seriousness, the next two guys followed the suit. I hope we gave that guy some doubts about his fundas :D! Then there were funny incidents like the floating voltmeter and the 220V DC inductor :D:D:D All in all we were a very well knit group with all the professional and emotional respect for each other!
Shishir is one great guy with all the attributes of a team player and a guy with so much of care and respect for each and every feeling of the other person, sensitivity towards social aspects of life yet having loads of insouciance around himself, certainly a hard combination to find!! He is one guy you would like to have around you all the time not just because of the ‘entertainment value of his’ but his ‘complete man’ kind of aura which can be attributed to the reasons mentioned above!
Shruti, hmmm, haven’t known her much personally, but she is one of those products from the gods factory who are not built on the assembly line but custom fitted with the better parts, sometimes looking at her I think if I were a seconds product from gods factory :D Wont like to say much on her as a person, have known a bit about her from certain incidents n talks but then they are not enough to help me form some picture of her in my mind, but yes she is dedicated and serious about everything she does, you can count on her if u are stuck in a mess!!
Sid, I have been with this guy most in terms of time spent, yet I know him the least! Least not because I know little about him but because this guy is such a big mystery and is so deep that more you know him more you realize that you don’t know him! He is rock solid yet silky smooth like knife in butter, practical as practical can be yet a passionate dreamer, mature like a seasoned guy yet naive like a cocooned child! My god he is really a mystery :D Yet he with shishir and sumit takes away the crown of the best people I have ever met! Gem of a guy with heart as clear as pristine water of Alps!

This was the longest post I have ever written, small thing considering how these three oh-so-specials affected my life, my opinions of world, my directions and views of life! I am not going overboard, whenever I sit back I realize whatever I learned in college more often than not one of these three or our group was a part of it!!!

See what makes this group special is shown by the fact that...no one took lab group pic before we did, no one wrote a post on “my lab group”, no one would miss those wonderful times more than we would (or so I hope :-D )

The best of me...well...

It has been a really long time, almost a month since I posted something and I am really not getting the blogger kind of feel right now, so I think il take a break and get on to reviving the blog some time later. As of now here is a compilation of some of my previous posts...Well not really the best of me (the best is yet to come :-D) but still the better ones :-)

My reflections....

Sycophancy
Mandal ghost strikes again
Sincerity
1984
Double Standards
Bird Flu

Experiences of life...

You do make mistakes
These turning Points
First times

The essays...

All pervasive love is utopian concept
There is no right way to do wrong

Light hearted ones...

Murphy’s Law and the likes
Engineering summed up for you
Says it all
Calvin and Hobbes
Sidhuisms

My sarcastic post...

Read this post 10 times

1984

No this post is not about George Orwell’s masterpiece, what makes me write is a community on orkut called 1984; the description goes something like this...
“This Community is for all people who r born in the greatest year of human history --- "1984" Be proud that u were born in this year”

As an Indian, personaly I believe that 1984 was one of the most tragic years of Indian history. The reasons are not hard to come by. The year could not have been more traumatic. Terrorists took Punjab in their grip, Operation Bluestar cost nearly 1500 lives, and then followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, few weeks ago she had said in an interview “I have lived full life. What does it matter if I die lying down or standing up?” Yet it left Indians shell shocked with a kind of numbness that only accentuated the disbelief of what had happened. This was followed by anti-sikh riots leading to a massacre of innocent people of a religion. Loads of them were forced to leave their beliefs and religious emotions, sacrifice their turbans, still many perished. As if all this was not enough 1984 gave Bhopal gas tragedy as a goodbye gift. Bhopal can never forget December 2, a Monday of deaths, a killer cloud of gas that silently engulfed the unsuspecting city and converted a regular night into a nightmare of misery and panic giving more than 2500 people a slow and painful death.

The horror of the Operation Bluestar is captured in these lines by Shekhar Gupta “I saw a truck in Kotwali police station. Half dried streams of blood streaked down its sides and back, much like vomit from an old roadways bus. A sub-inspector, tears in his eyes, asked me to look inside. There were bodies, at least 100, all Sikhs, killed in past few hours in Golden Temple. Less than 500 yards away laid the body of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale on slabs of ice. His last stand had cost nearly 1500 lives.”
“The second nightmare is an army truck. It muscled its way through an old street near Golden Temple. It was a makeshift ambulance, rather mortuary, stacked with bodies of army men. A jawan, probably of Garhwal regiment, his face still glistening with fresh beads of perspiration. It was the face of a mere boy, 19 or 20. So peaceful and serene. No sign of pain. And so still. Dead. Eyes still open. More than 20 years later, the nightmare still visits me.”

On Indira Gandhi...
“The memories are still sharp and cruel. A shattering hailstorm of bullets. Betrayal in the backyard. A crumpled, bird-like figure on hospital stretcher cloaked in a bloody sheet. Rows and rows of wooden faced friends, family members and admirers unable to accept the tragic consequences of the moment”

I was born in 1984, and yes I am also entitled to think of it as a great year but there is nothing much of consequence or of gaiety that I can think of to make it the greatest of all years in the history of mankind.

Just a small picture of the tragedy...

CALVIN and HOBBES

I have to say that this is my all time favorite cartoon strip. The very reason for this still remains a mystery to me. I think that this is not just some comic strip with a few characters and some jokes thrown in, its a piece of art, the war Calvin is shown, his antics and the precise timing if his dialogues, this is not just another cartoon strip. He is so cute and adorable (though having a kid like him will be a bit of a prob ;-) ). Yes! I do see some part of me in him and being a guy with weird, scary and utterly nonsense dreams and day dreams I just have to love Calvin!!! I found this comment on the strip and I totally agree with it...

“I always identified with Calvin as a child (I suppose you could say I still do), and this strip pretty much sums up what being a kid like Calvin is like. Constantly feeling out of sync with the rest of the world, and thus retreating to the world you create for yourself in your mind. If you think about it, Calvin was really quite an anomaly in popular entertainment -- not just in comics, but in anything, be it movies, TV, etc. He has no friends, and no extracurricular activities; the only people he ever sees are his parents, who he has a strained relationship with, and Moe, Susie, Rosalyn, and Miss Wormwood, all of whom he detests and all of whom detest him. The only person he ever has any real interaction with exists only in his head. He is, for all intents and purposes, completely alone. And he's fine with that. The kind of kid most people would entirely ignore all through school is not generally the kind you make the star of your show, and yet the strip became hugely successful. I know that people of all ages enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, but I have to think that it meant even more to those of us who grew up with him. Going to school every day and seeing all the ways we didn't fit in, it was nice to see someone like us, who was intelligent and independent, and didn't need to be a smile-plastered Musketeer to enjoy life. Though numerous motivational posters and guidance counselors and after-school specials had said it again and again, it was Calvin who managed to truly express the idea -- without being preachy, without being sappy, perhaps even without trying -- that it was okay to be different.”

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD MY COLLECTION OF C&H HERE

And here are some of the great Calvin quotes...

I like maxims that don't encourage behavior modification.

Reality continues to ruin my life.

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.

A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.

I understand my tests are popular reading in the teachers' lounge.

Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.
Where do we keep all our chainsaws, Mom?

That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.

You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help.

It’s no use! Everybody gets good enemies except me.

What's the point of wearing your favorite rocketship underpants if nobody ever asks to see 'em?

As a math atheist, I should be excused from this.

This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen ...

I'm learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life ... Procrastinating and rationalizing.

I have a hammer! I can put things together! I can knock things apart! I can alter my environment at will and make an incredible din all the while! Ah, it's great to be male!

I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information

Calvin: I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius.
Hobbes: What's misunderstood about you?
Calvin: Nobody thinks I'm a genius.

Calvin : You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes : What mood is that?
Calvin : Last-minute panic.

"I'm a simple man, Hobbes."
"You?? Yesterday you wanted a nuclear powered car that could turn into a jet with laser-guided heat-seeking missiles!"
"I'm a simple man with complex tastes."

Susie: You'd get a good grade without doing any work.
Calvin: So?
Susie: It's wrong to get rewards you haven't earned.
Calvin: I've never heard of anyone who couldn't live with that.

I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know.

Hobbes : "Do you think there's a God?
Calvin : "Well somebody's out to get me!"

Hobbes : "It says here that by the age of 6, most children have seen a million murders on television."
Calvin : "I find that very disturbing...it means I've been watching all the wrong channels."

To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible.

So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?

It's only work if somebody makes you do it

I'm looking for something that can deliver a 50-pound payload of snow on a small feminine target. Can you suggest something? Hello...?

Girls are like slugs - they probably serve some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD MY COLLECTION OF C&H HERE