Visions Of Paradise

Work and Life

2010-02-05T09:14:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-07T11:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2009-10-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T11:38:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-12-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-07-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-07-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

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 ;-)

2007-05-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

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

My adventures with the Sensex

2007-05-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

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!!

2007-05-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-11-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

“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!

2006-10-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

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!!

2006-10-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

"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

2006-08-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-08-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-08-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

(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...

2006-07-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-07-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

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

Bidding adieu to college life...

2006-05-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

With posts on "my wonderful college life" doing rounds on blogger and hours of chats on how and why we will miss our these 'Oh so wonderful days' how could we miss out on Orkut ;-) well well a hint of these poignant or moreso ambivalent feelings can also be got here, have a look....

Read this post 10 times....

2006-05-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

Read this post ten times, else something bad will happen to...please don’t ignore, it’s serious!!! If you ignore something really bad will happen not only to you but you will never find the love of your life!!!

No I haven’t gone insane it’s just that today something happened which just pushed the limit of one kind of insanity higher.
Almost everyone who is a proud owner of an email account (ok! now its so common that it is no more a novelty, back from those shell account days) would have at some point of time or the other received a stupid forwarded mail which would have ended the way my post started (it would have said forward instead of read ;-) ). And the funnier part was to see that more than 20-30 people had already forwarded the mail to some 500-1000 people, so these would have forwarded to some thousands of others and those to some millions! My god what a waste of precious bandwidth (this comes to my mind coz I am currently studying for my Networking exam:-D).

Fun apart, but it is a serious issue...yes about the limit of insanity...today I received a message on Mothers day( what the hell another marketing gimmick, everyday is mothers day, of course from card sales to now sms revenue ;-) ) Instead of sending their Mom’s this message I get a message saying that “ur mother is the best for u n blah blah.... and now forward this message to 10 other people except for the sender, for long age of ur mother, I couldn’t afford to take risk with this one, so I am forwarding, sorry” Not that forwarding is a problem, I could forward a joke (that’s better), but its about the mental degradation of the youth of toady!

In this age I believe that we should be progressive with our thought process, but just the reverse is happening. The people who are getting the best of education from the best of institutions are becoming slaves of superstitions and backward ideas which should have been abandoned long ago. There is wild craze for “janampatri” and “jyotish” today, when it is all so obvious that only men have invented all these ways to loot people! If there ever was a way to predict future no politician would die in accidents. I see some of my friends stop when they see a black cat crossing their way! OOHH What mentally backward people. But this is the world we live in renaissance is long lost, Vivekananda is long forgotten, maybe we need another movement of awakening maybe just each of us need to wake up and that will be enough!!

Bye the way if you read it ten times please leave a comment telling me you did so :-D , in any case dont ignore the first line of the post ...hahaha ;-)

Patience and Tolerance

2006-05-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

“Man tries to blow up everyone at a wedding function using himself as a bomb because girl is not willing to marry him”

“Girl immolates herself because the guy she has known for 18 years is not willing to marry him”

“Medical students are beaten up by police while they are on a peaceful protest against reservations”

“Two neighbors fight over a minor issue, one is killed”

“Two people fight over who should enter his car first through the colony gate, one of them shoots other”

Indian society is fast changing, not only westernizing but changing the very core of whatever Indian culture and mindset was based on; and hence the conflict and this hidden anger. Whenever we find ourselves in midst of a confusion of conflicting values we are left in this aggravating situation. The first casualties are patience and tolerance which are prime to the process of pragmatic thinking and a life of contentment. Everybody wants everything at any cost with no consideration of what is happening around himself. This intolerance can only lead to violence. This impatience can only lead to bloodshed!!

If u don’t believe me just turn on any NEWS channel and watch it for two days and see how fast you grow sick of whatever is happening these days.

By the way an article which echos similar thoughts can be found on Shishir’s blog.

What Temperment are you?

2006-05-10T01:22:00.000-07:00

This thing gave a pretty accurate picture of me....

You Have a Choleric Temperament

You are a person of great enthusiasm - easily excited by many things.
Unsatisfied by the ordinary, you are reaching for an epic, extraordinary life.
You want the best. The best life. The best love. The best reputation.

You posses a sharp and keen intellect. Your mind is your primary weapon.
Strong willed, nothing can keep you down. Your energy can break down any wall.
You're an instantly passionate person - and this passion gives you an intoxicating power over others.

At your worst, you are a narcissist. Full of yourself and even proud of your faults.
Stubborn and opinionated, you know what you think is right. End of discussion.
A bit of a misanthrope, you often see others as weak, ignorant, and inferior.

What Temperment Are You?

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

2006-05-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

A wonderful post on "Why did the chicken cross the road?" can be found on ankur sir's blog....a must read!!!

Sidhuisms

2006-05-06T03:25:00.000-07:00

The consistency with which he keeps coming up with these never ceases to amaze me and all the more tickle me!!!
More than what he said I liked the way he said it and the precise timing of sidhuisms was a thing to look out for, sad he is not there these days for commentating through India matches. A lot of people find him irritating, I find him witty in his own way and most of all interesting!!!

Here are some of the good ones (what the heck... all sidhuisms are good...at least interesting :-D )...

"He is as confused as a baby in a topless bar!"

If ifs n buts were pots n pans there would have been no tinkers!!

U can't catch mice with non-stick gloves!!

Told about Geoffrey Boycott: If he were put in a bucket full of nipples he would come out sucking his own thumb.

"Andey aur Vaadey to todne ke liye hee hotein hain"

"he is like a one legged man in a bum kicking competition"

if my aunty was a man he would have been my uncle

u r always remembered for hitting the target...not aiming the target

" statistics are like mini skirts, they hide more than what they reveal"

"Indian batting is like a cycle stand, one falls and the others follow"

"The ball went so high up in the air that I thought it would bring an air hostess with it"

"when you are walking with grown up dogs you shouldn’t pee like a puppy"

A hair on the head is worth two in the comb!!!

Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald....

" Statistics is like a Bikini it reveals almost every thing but hide the most important part"

as uncomfortable as a bum on a porcupine

Indian team without sachin is like giving a kiss without a squeeze

You got to choose between tightening your belt or losing your pants.

A GIRL BORN BEAUTIFUL IS HALF MARRIED!!

while commentating he was irritated by the -ve body language the Indians were displaying on the field and says they lack the Australian aggressive instinct.... it was in this context he said
" A bread without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze "
Guess what Harsha Bhogle said immediately......"squeeze what ? "And they were all chuckling ...

"You can take a lion out of Punjab, but u cannot take Punjab out of a lion"

Geoffrey u r old. The last time you celebrated your birthday, the candles cost more than the cake.

This quote was made after Ganguly called Dravid for a run and midway sent him back and Dravid was run out in the third test against the West Indies at Barbados."Ganguly has thrown a drowning man both ends of the rope."

This quote was made after Eddie Nichols, the third umpire; ruled Shivnarine Chanderpaul 'NOT OUT' in the second test at Port of Spain T&T "Eddie Nichols is a man who cannot find his own buttocks with his two hands."

The world is all about mind and matter, I don't mind and u don't matter...

It is better to Prevent and Prepare than Repent and Repair!

Sincerity

2006-05-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

sincerity [-'ser-&-tE] n 1: an earnest and sincere feeling 2: the quality of being open and truthful; not deceitful or hypocritical 3: a quality of naturalness and simplicity 4: The quality or condition of being sincere; genuineness, honesty, and freedom from duplicity.

Sincerity is not only a condition or a feeling but it is something even higher it is I believe a virtue. A virtue that is fast fading away in this world of today where whatever one does is an antagonism to what another wants. The small creed of people who still live by this virtue are being beaten in every way by the ones who almost deride it, the former have to be content with a peace of mind that they were right. Everyday I see sincere people being cheated, being used, being fooled not because they are dumb because they are committed not only to themselves but to the cause, whatever it may be and for whomsoever it may be. I don’t know why but everyday this world makes me realize that the more I leave this sincerity, the more I sacrifice it the more contentment I have, not a sadist pleasure, but a contentment of not being cheated and of being able to save my butt. I think if anyone looks back at the times when he was sincere towards anyone else or any cause involving anyone else, most of the times he would have regretted; not regretting being sincere but the consequences thereof (this includes all the insincere ones too, funny it seems but even they regret those few instances of sincerity). I may seem extremely skeptical and the human voice of yours will be saying “come-on sincerity is good” by now (yes the insincere ones too will be saying this ;-) ) but the fact remains that in today’s world sincerity is not a virtue but a liability which will only give you sadness and pain. Not that I have been cheated by someone badly but a lot many small instances till now have taught me that the sooner I become less sincere to sincerity the better it will be and will definitely help me avert the impending sadness or pained feelings. I am also not saying that we should all become deceitful and cruel beings who care for nothing and no one, what I am saying is that we should adopt a middle path so that we are not cursing our conscience and also we are not getting cheated. All in all the verdict that I have reached by now is that the only one you should be sincere towards is yourself and your own work (maybe even your parents and loved ones but not beyond that). Be sincere whenever you can; yes be sincere towards others too....BUT NEVER NEVER AT YOUR OWN COST!!

The Apple Story :-D

2006-04-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

A for apple.
B for bada apple.
C for chhota apple.
D for dusra apple.
E for ek aur apple.
F for fokat ka apple.
G for gol apple.
H for hazar apple
I for itney saarey apple?
J for jaao nahi khaana hai apple
K for kaise nahi khaayengey apple
L for lena padhega tumko apple
M for mujhe nahi chahiye itne apple
N for naa nahi kehtey kyunkey yeh hai apple
O for Oh to tumne khaa daale yeh saare apple
P for peth bhar Ke khaao apple
Q for qismat mein nahi hoti hai sabke, yeh apple
R for roz agar khaao tum apple
S for sehetmand rahoge khaaogey agar tum apple
T for tumko nahi milengey itney achey apple
U for udhaar kii nahi hai yeh apple
V for very tasty hai yeh apple
W for waste na karo time aur khaalo jaldi se apple
X for X'mas mei bhii khane padenge apple
Y for youn na chehra phero dekhkey apple
Z for zaroor dil bhar gaya hoga khake itne saare apple

Thanx to PD for this :-D

My mood right now...

2006-04-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Hoshwaaloon ko khabar kya bekhudii kya chiiz hai
ishq kiiji'e phir samjhi'e zindagii kya chiiz hai
unse nazarein kya milii roshan fizaaein ho gayi
aaj jaana pyaar kii jaaduugarii kya chiiz hai
khultii zulfon ne sikhaa'ii mausamon ko shaayarii
jhuktii aankhon ne bataaya maikashii kya chiiz hai
ham labon se kah na paa'e unse haal-e-dil kabhii
aur voh samjhe nahiin yeh khaamoshii kya chiiz hai
hoshwaaloon ko khabar kya bekhudii kya chiiz hai

By the way this is also a dedication to two of my very good friends!!

First Times...

2006-04-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

This past week was a really fun filled one to say the least; it had its share of firsts too! I gave an official ppt in college, ppt in a sarkaari college, seems like a little joke to me, n hey it was also, but this was a boring first, had to put it coz I am going in chronological order ;-) !!
Then came the interesting part... I had the first DP of my life, not that I had not tasted alcohol before but it was taken with coke in something like 1:100 ratio :-D So I had a good time drinking with my friends, it felt kind of good but I really didn’t feel that high or lightness that people talk about, maybe it just got me a little bit, for the high u may have to go full out ;-)
Then came the farewell and the night out. Farewell as you can imagine was the first one and I am not excited by the idea of a second one from DCE ;-) Had a great time...danced from start to end, with my limited skills of course ;-)
It was really a shame that I was getting out of an engineering college without a complete night out. We had some Vineet sir and Shishir putting up in hostel after farewell so we had a mast wali GC till dawn and yes there were quite some interesting things that all of us spilled out from our hearts in that sleepy mode ;-) Well the consequences of the night out and all the drowsiness I went thru next two days is a different story, but was well worth it!

Mysterious

2006-04-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

As Pramod Mahajan battles it out for his life a thought comes into my mind... does our country have a bad omen on it, a handful of future leaders are all we have, and they are dying in surprising or better still mysterious circumstances, first Madhavrao Scindia and Rajesh Pilot and now it seems as if it will be Pramod Mahajan as well. I believe all these were strong candidates to be even Prime Ministers of India in the future. God knows what is happening, but I reckon it’s not good!!

These moments...will be with me forever!!

2006-04-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

OH! These moments... this ultra cool phase of my life will soon end, only GOD knows how much i will these moments!! This fun of today will be nostalgia of tomorrow, as Sid says all captured in 32 bit colours!!

Double Standards

2006-04-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

These double standards...most of the Indians are plagued with this. No matter how up the ladder they may climb, how effluent they may become or for that matter how open minded society they start living in after moving abroad. The narrow mindedness takes its toll. Today’s Indian is confused, he wants to be called modern, but will only go to the extent of changing clothes to modern (or actually western) ones. I think modern ness is not on the outside, it is on the inside! I have seen a lot many so called modern families act more backward than any village folk. People just fail to come outside their cocoons, are they afraid to shed this baggage of backwardness or maybe we feel cozy with it.

Here is a typical example that can be seen ever Sunday in matrimonial advertisements “wanted a smart good looking professional homely girl"

Read it as: "wanted a good looking girl, fair and sexy figure of course; she should be working and should bring good money home. Good looks are essential as the boy should feel good when he takes her to parties or introduces her to his friends n colleagues. Now the homely part....well all that earning money n looking sexy is ok but important part is that she should know how to cook delicious food, yeah yeah i know she can afford to keep a cook with all the money she earns but then the saasu maa wants her to cook food for her son. And of course being on the beck n call of her in laws is just another side of it"

Such an innocent line means so much, the saddest part of it all is that in the same family when it comes to their daughter all this becomes so bad n backward and sort of exploitation of their daughters, but when it comes to their sons all this is so very normal after all a normal daughter in law is supposed to do all this.

This hypocrisy is not limited to this marriage thing, it can be seen in every walk of life. We all tend to have different rules for ourselves and different for others. It is no doubt embedded in human mind, but all I feel is that we Indians have it more

WEDDING INVITATION

2006-04-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

You are electronicallly invited on the marraige ocassion of Mr.TRANSISTOR BC107, (working as amplifier in "CE" configuration) With Miss.DIODE 2N2222, (working as a rectifier in Electronic Circuits) The only Daughter of Mr&Mrs.Aluminium and Phosphorous MUHURTAM March 30, 2K6 @ 10-45 Amplitude Modulation VENUE At Peizo Electric Palace,Near Wein Bridge, Nyquist criterion Road-2, Electricity -508085. Yours inductively Mr&Mrs. EDC PDC , Near P-N Junction,IC Road, Zener breakdown. With BEST COMPLIMENTS FROM, Inductor,Resistor,Capacitor,Transformer Near & Dear Note: Musical NIght By Motors and Generators

My publicity mail

2006-04-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well almost all the people i know would have got my publicity mail, sid went nuts over it, and even i think its quite funny...

"hey check out the now updated blog, there maybe a post for u as well"

sid said " cheap publicity.....i like it" :-D

even i like it...i'll continue with it :-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D

Mandal ghost strikes again!

2006-04-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

Somehow the events in India assure me every now and then that this country is run by, with and for votes, votes and only votes, and they reassure me that the vicious circle that it is trapped in now will only suck it more down into the drains of poverty and ignorance. I really can’t see any logical reason why the Mandal commission recommendations had to be pulled out of the dust bags, betterment of the country in any case would be I am sure the last of the reasons. I am not at all angry; the country will in any case be eaten by this politics, things like this will only act as catalysts. What is an average Indian with a brilliant mind supposed to do? Should he fight it out for these measly seats in these institutes of repute and then somehow fight for a job and live a life of mediocrity? Or should he better go out looking for greener pastures and have a life where he is respected for his talent? No wonder the problem of brain drain will only keep increasing! In any case if it were for upliftment of these people then I would have been game for it but then rather its degradation of these people rather than their upliftment. What are we doing? In the name of world class education we attract these people to these institutes and end up making fun of them by hitting at the very core of their self esteem because they are unable to come up to the high standards set by these institutes, nor are they able to compete with the general category people of these institutes! This can be seen any day at these institutes on a placement day! Wake up to the reality, a person can only be as good as himself and can only stretch a little by little; there are no giant leaps in life! A person has to be respected for what he is and can be his best when he is in an environment which demands according to his abilities, now we will be making successful men and women, who will be able to march forward with confidence, making India a valiant and truly shining country! Not denying that these people need a helping hand, go ahead help them, but help those who need help, identify them properly! Give only the amount of help that is needed not so much that someone becomes a dependent parasite! Make everyone capable to earn and learn foe himself not capable of earning and learning on someone else’s stake! I truly believe that all that can be done should be done to help these people come up to the higher secondary level, and them leave them unto themselves, maybe a little grace percentage or relaxation should be given but then there has to be a minimum threshold to get into some place which is demanding of excellent standards! Let every man be what he really is and respect him for that, let him grow himself out of his misery, give a helping hand but do not make him so handicapped that he then need crutches all his life!

On the other plane I really don’t think there will be any agitations of the kind witnessed in 1991. The political landscape has undergone a major transformation and there is no opposition party as of now who has the motives or the mettle to get that kind of protests executed! In any case even if they go ahead they will hit a major portion of their vote banks. But politics is a funny game, anything can happen, lets see if the recommendations finally go through or not! I hope not; but my gut feel says that they will!

On the lighter side soon the general category people will be minority. :-D

Note: This post has been written with no malice towards anyone, a good number of my friends are from category. But then all category people themselves need to realize that all this is not really their development (unless they get a govt job to settle with)

Everywhere in the above post He should be treated as He/She and himself as himself/herself!

My heart sings out to you...

2006-04-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

In the course of my life till now, there have been loads of people whom I have met, liked some, towards some I was neutral, and towards some however much I tried feelings of resentment didn’t lie down! Pretty clichéd I suppose but then this is how it is. Here is a song that I would really like to sing out to a lot many people in almost all the three categories for different reasons with different feelings and with different meanings and interpretations to it, if you think this is for you in some way then it surely is for you...

And I'd give up forever to touch you

Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SONG

Paathshala fir lagi...

2006-04-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

Click on the collage to magnify it and get a good view of...
"masti of lifetime"

AAAAAND... a decision is taken

2006-04-04T22:07:00.000-07:00

After two mind numbing weeks and two sleepless nights I have finally come out of my dilemma and taken a decision to go ahead and join C-DOT and give those elusive IIMs another shot. Well who says one can’t learn from mistakes ;-) all this i believe has left me stronger and with that extra power of decision making. God! I feel so good to finally have taken what seems to be the right decision. But hold... the decision was not wholly and solely taken by me i would like to thank all the people who helped me on the way, first and foremost are Mom, Dad, Ankur Sir and Ulhas Sir, their probing questions were the guiding paths on which i could travel and think and finally reach my decision. Not to forget all my friends who also were a great help...Sumit, Neha, Sid, Shishir and Sourabh; and all those dear ones whom i troubled at any time as per my convenience :-D Ankur Sir u come in this one too :-) Well Thank you all and in the end the most exhilarating feeling is...A DECISION WELL TAKEN!!!

The time of my life...

2006-04-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Masti ki paathshala...

2006-04-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tough Times

2006-03-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

Ok so life has hit a rough patch lately, a tough decision has to be made by me! I couldnt get through XL and got through DMS IITD, now i have one of the two to select....either take up the job with CDOT or go to IITD for a MBA and get over with it! hmmm...only i really know how tough this decision is! DAMN...these close options, guess these wont leave me even after CAT and i believe right from the moment you sit for CAT and do a MBA and then become a manager life is about tough choices! Lets see what i decide to do! In the mean time this has some positives too attached to it! My dear friend Siddharth finally wrote a testimonial for me on Orkut (i knew he would be the first one in any case :-) ) and yes he sent me a beautiful poem which id like to quote here (hey! thanx sid)...

And If I Did Not Make Mistakes
Katie Paton...a Scottish Poet

And if I did not make mistakes
And give too brief a thought to heavy questions
And too much time to little matter;
Or if I always knew which road to travel
Where every step would lead me into daylight
And if each face that turned to watch me pass
Was broken by a smile;
Or if whenever I should choose to lay my heart
Bare upon the sun-warmed grass,
It always was returned with tender touches
And carried by a song;
And if my heaviest burden were only to be
A breeze upon my back, and blossom in my hair,
And my brow was never crossed with lines of pain;
If all this endless summer were my lot
And winter's fury never beat me back,
Then I never would have seen the stormy nights
Through which I've struggled, fought and won;
I never would have known the joy of needed comfort given,
Or the essence of a FRIEND!!!!!!!!!

True Love

2006-03-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

So evasive yet so mesmeric, i too have been in search of it for long now and have only four people on my list as of now, my mom, dad, sister and nani! well en route this voyage i have been trying to discover what true love actually is, i have a fair idea by now, but find it hard to express it in words, i saw these three quotes in the sacred space of TOI and they really do say all that i can ever think and feel about true love.
By the way whenever i think about true love Bono's voice starts ringing in my head "I still havent found what i am looking for"

"What kind of love is this that to another can shift? Says Nanak, true lovers are those who are forever absorbed in the Beloved.Whoever discriminated between the treatment held good or bad, is not a true lover- he is rather caught in calculations"
Adi Granth, Asa ki Var p474

"Of those who love, do not ask what life is theirs, what longing, what yearning; For they are leaves dead and dry consumed by a fire that is their own"
Mirza Ghalib

"Let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of heaven dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each others cup but drink not frm one cup... let each one of you be alone. Even as the strings of lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music... And stand together, but yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shade.
Khalil Gibran

2006-03-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

After a long break i am back to one of my favorites...BLOGGING. Had my mid semesters going on, they are now over and over for good, my last ones actually, was really hard studing for them, just dont feel like doing anything at college, want to get over with this engineering now :-D

Sycophancy

2006-03-11T02:29:00.000-08:00

Are Indians programmed inherently to be slaves? Is that their comfort zone? Even if they rise against it, will they eventually end up becoming someone’s slaves? Well i will never know, i wasn’t born in the age when we were barbarically ruled over by innumerable invaders but yes i was born in an age where sycophancy rules the roost. After 30 years of Nehru-Gandhi rule in 1978 there was finally one very futile very flaccid attempt to break free (mind you this chance was given by the self destructive emergency imposed bi Indira Gandhi) But what happened? OH! This servile Indian nature, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh couldn’t handle so much of power. Can’t really blame them, after all the psyche that has grown over you from ages doesn't go out in few days no matter how many your ambitions. Sadly for the first and the last time they were given power but they couldn’t do much with it. Both wanted all of it and perished due to infighting. Indira Gandhi who was consigned to the dustbin of history rose like a phoenix. Come the assassination of Indira Gandhi and sycophancy was unleashed...YES we now had Rajiv Gandhi to worship! AH our savior! But that is an era gone by. After NDA came to power i thought that finally finally after 50 years democracy has really visited India and now would stay. Alas! it was too much to ask for. I couldn’t really believe my eyes and ears as i saw those desperate cries when Sonia Gandhi refused to be PM. OH MY GOD! In this nation of over one billion citizens with hundreds of congress veterans who have given their lives to congress and have risen through the ranks, we lack one leader. Sorry as it may seem but this sums it all “In an army of dwarfs every leader becomes a giant”

Well i wasn’t a freedom fighter who is exasperated to see this state of our country but still if anyone sits back and reminisces on what all our country has gone through he would realize that had we had stronger leaders India would have been a more prosperous nation. This sycophancy has enfeebled the country’s leadership. The Nehru Gandhi dynasty never realized that it takes a great leader to develop another and you need to hand over the baton to an abler person rather than just your blood. This sycophancy has drained down even to this age and has taken many a leaders away with it; latest casualty being Mani Shankar Aiyar! A young under prepared and inexperienced Rajiv Gandhi was thrown into politics and today we have same talks about Rahul Gandhi. God knows what beckons the country!!

Mumbai and Musings - Part2

2006-03-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

While in Mumbai there were some interesting observations that i made...

1) Peculiar names of the places, two of my favorites - MULUND, DAHISAR :-)

2) I had heard about double decker buses but i was really confused when i saw a train with windows on two levels, i must admit it took me at least 5 minutes and a lot of concentration to realize that it was what i thought it to be...A DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN!!

3) Both people and buildings are leaner there! Couldn’t really spot even a single overweight person, and yes the buildings they are almost like sticks, so damn slim and so tall!

4) One thing about Mumbai girls (hmm now its getting interesting), its just an observation... even the most stunning and beautiful girl had some modesty about her actions, the way they walked and talked was really down to earth and really humble, unlike Delhi where even the worst of the girls will dress up like they are out on a catwalk and behave as if she could really give Ash a run for her money!

5) Its a breeze to travel using autos and taxis, its almost shocking...THEY DONT WANNA LOOT U!! Just get in the taxi tell the destination and pay by the meter which by the way aren’t fast :-)

6) People are really to the point they just don’t blabber out like most of us in Delhi. But yes it can become a little bit difficult to adjust to it, one night me n Suchit went to an incampus dhaba and inquired about dinner, almost had to probe like a CBI officer here is the conversation..
Us- bhaiyya kuch khaane ko hai?
He- Dinner milega
(silence for 5 secs...we were waiting 4 him to go ahead n tell us what all we can get)
Us- Achcha dinner mein kya hai?
He- Subzi
Us- (after silence of 2-3 secs) Kaunsi?
He- (tilting the container and showing us the subzi)Sookha bhindi
Us- (by now we have realized that we have to ask everything) Aur kuch nai hoga?
He- Hoga..(taking out the contents of other container with serving spoon)ye daal hai
(again silence)
Us- Roti kaunsi hogi?
He- (opening the casrole n showing us) Ye paratha hoga

Oh my god, so much of hardwork to just know a fixed menu :-D

Really TO THE POINT people no crap at all!!

7) Growing up in Delhi you get used to free left turns in Delhi, but out here they have peculiar red lights everywhere that are both sided L's and no left turn is free!

8) This is the most interesting one...After coming back from Juhu beach i happened to get off at Andheri to take a taxi. I decided to see the Andheri market ... while roaming around i noticed three very big lines of people, at least 60-80 in each line, i was really intrigued as to what they are standing for like that and then a ubiquitous BEST bus comes and the start getting in a civilized fashion and anyone new automatically went to the end of the line and no one used the front door! REALLY AMAZING!

Bodhitree

2006-03-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

While preparing for XL I put in a lot of effort to thoroughly research the institute n guess all doesn’t go without a wonderful result. I happened to find out about this XL rock band Bodhitree. ULTIMATE songs they have written, capturing every drop of college and hostel life. Here is how the band was formed...

"BodhiTree was formed on the second day on campus, Jun 12 2004. [time was quite short, compared to most trees that are born by the painfully long process of grafting, transplantation and/ or plain pollination, yada yada, you know the drill.] We just sort of gravitated towards each other, spending value-added nights jamming into the wee hours of the morning. We had a one piece each of bassist, guitarist and vocalist, but the only one who showed up when we called for drummers was this petite girl with plaits called Poornima. She'd never played rock live before, but she had the rhythm in her blood. And that was it.. before we knew it, we were taking to the stage as a band."

Here are the links of the songs in the order that I like them with my fav at the top...

Sabka Katega ... of togetherness, and separation, with a twist of the unkind cut, low on profanity, high on poignance... Pretty much what i believe about life...in the end...Sabka katega :-D

GMD ... Well kaal se pehle wahi tha aur kaal ke baad bhi...its the ever living truth!!

XL ki kudiyan ... Kudiyan chahe XL ki ya DCE ki...almost the same, except the good parts!!

Too Many Potatoes ... How can i ever forget Morris ke aaloo, n how Sudama told me that they put aaloo in every possible vegetable to make it tasty :-D

The Ladder Theory

2006-03-04T03:21:00.000-08:00

For all the facade we may put on of being civilized we remain what we are...ANIMALS, n yes the basic instincts are what really govern us especially when it comes to relationships (that too with opposite sex :-D). Now here is the ladder theory which actually explains as to what goes thru minds of men n women when they see each other. Many may find it gross but c'mon guys n gals this is what we are n we more or less think this way, n if u dont then i can surely say that u dont know yourself! If u really accept what you are you will find that this theory applies to you some way or the other, maybe a toned down version of this ;-)
One word for the girls of today who think that they are (at least say so) 21st century sati saavitari modern girl (pun intended), please at least dont fool yourself... SEX is OK (at least talking about it is :-D) n its high time we all get comfortable with our sexuality!!!!

Here is the introduction of the ladder theory....

The ladder theory is a funny, scientific explanation of how men and women are attracted to each other. It also covers such topics as why women sometimes just want to be friends but men always want sex. It is based upon many years of sociological field testing, and was first conceptualized in 1994 in Exeter, CA by Dallas Lynn with acknowledgements to Jared Whitson for his role in formalizing the theory.

CLICK HERE to read the whole theory!

Says it all...

2006-03-02T01:54:00.000-08:00

Mumbai and Musings

2006-03-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i returned to Delhi after a three day trip of Mumbai! All in all a good trip with great learning experiences ... some good some not so good and some were of adventurous kind. The trip started with a series of coincidences, waiting for the train at platform i happened to meet one of my college mates and he too was going to Mumbai for IITB interview, then as i found out we were in the same coach and later after entering the coach we found that we were in the same cabin so the journey was fun, we went all the way talking n sorta having fun! In our cabin there was a 98 year old man and he insisted that he will take the upper birth, obviously we all were skeptical but man was he fit...he climbed up and down at least 5-6 times during the journey!! Talk about fitness (actually i was ashamed of mine :-D was thinking how will i ever even move at 98...will i live till that age..i hope not...something like 70 80 is OK for me)!! But yes the journey turned awful after 10pm, i was at the middle birth and an old aunty was sleeping on the adjacent middle birth and an uncle on lower one, they both snored all night and i couldnt sleep :-( We met a helpful guy in train and after getting off at Mumbai Central he took us till Andheri in a local train n there on we hired an auto to IITB. Landing up at the SJMSOM lobby we registered ourselves, they entered our names in a swank laptop and asked us to shell out 100 bucks per day for some room called C11, then they made us sit in an auto and asked the auto wallah to take us to C11. Boy were we happy, at least i was expecting a bright n cool guest room kind of thing in C11 but to our dismay it turned out to b an abandoned staff flat!! I can bet it was inhabited for at least 20-25 years..literally a bhoot bangla!! We entered and found a room with filthy beddings and ultra filthy pillows, sad for us coz we weren’t carrying bed sheets! Looked around the other rooms..well they were worse, checked out first n second floor, they were full. So we decided to make one kilometer trip on foot n ask the seniors for alternate arrangement! Oh my god! Those people really had airs about them, so much attitude, so arrogant, made me feel like slapping the guy! Even a third grade dharamshala is better than this! Well we were told that nothing could be done, they obliged us by providing bed sheets which were no better than the beddings! In the meantime we got a news from people upstairs that a snake was found in C11 flat yesterday, on calling the seniors we were told that they had driven it out n in any case snakes here were not poisonous :-O What the hell... do the come certified :-?

Ok “marta kya na karta” we made up our mind to adapt to the conditions, i went on to meet my brother and returned in the evening, while i was resting my roomy cell rang n he went out to talk. All was fine and suddenly..... SANNATAA... what happened :-? i could now see my roomy calling me, he was ultra super duper hyper scared n all he was saying was “jaldi aa saamp jaldi aa saamp” i went out n saw a good 1-1.5 meter snake, my good it was horrible to see it going across the lobby. I now realize seeing them on TV is different, these creatures are really slimy and can give u Goosebumps!! Anyway it went into the bathroom (i was there just 2 mins ago :-D ). Well scared as we were we took our belongings and rushed to the second floor (we knew that 5 of them were to leave by evening) The room was a lot better but no bulb :-( we had to enter the saamp wala ghar to get the bulb, it was mounted so high that we couldn’t get it off the holder so we had to bring in a cycle that was locked n kept outside, took it inside the flat and climbed in it to get the bulb!! Boy were we there for and interview or for a survival reality show:-D. Finally we settled into the flat on second floor, surprises weren’t over yet, the commode in the flat was at least 8-10 inches below the ground level and the commode itself was quite deep one (it was indian style, but a real deep one) so it made for a total depth of more than 1.5 feet, my roomy remarked “kal pehli baar khabar chapegi...IITB ke commode mein doob kar interview dene aaye bachchon ki maut” :-D I had a feeling of being in some African refugee/relief camp! But i had some questions also going through my mind... Is it really a b school (they say that they are amongst the top 10 in India, and they couldn’t manage stay of some 10 people per day)... Do the people in b schools get arrogant (at least 70% of seniors there were)...If this is the scene here what will it be like in IIMA...I don’t know the guys at DMS IITD were really modest and sweet, maybe being at top makes you arrogant! In any case the first day was really adventurous and i must admit a tad depressing too!! But there were something to cheer about as well! The campus is beautiful and i spent around 2 hours sitting with my bro in front of Powai Lake, it was great....

Bird Flu

2006-02-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

So bird flu is everywhere and lakhs of fowls will be killed and many times over will actually now die of old age ;-) the reason... there are no taker for chicken! A few weeks ago a small chicken shop opened in the newly constructed shopping mall in front of my house (it used to be a garden :-( ) won’t really call it a shop but a khomcha. He called it Lucky Chicken Corrner, within a week he got a steel structure erected on his 6 by 5 feet space, soon there was competition...there was one more chicken wala at the adjacent khomcha. Have to say that he was rather poor one, could only manage an old wooden table and tandoor, compared to him Luckys' steel structure which is tiled inside n having exhaust n all is almost a five star joint. It became a daily pastime for me and mom to hang out in balcony in the evening for 10-15 mins and do a comprehensive competitive analysis of how they were faring and how our poor guy was giving a tough competition to lucky (probably he makes better chickens... I won’t know.. I am a vegetarian). It was fun counting there chickens when they were setting up their shops n then take a stock of their sales at night! Well so as per my routine I set out towards balcony yesterday evening for my daily avocation n to my dismay Lucky hadn’t opened the shop, the poor one (Ok i don’t know is name coz he hasn’t painted it) was more gusty and was there but with half than the usual stock! Till night not one piece was sold! Poor guy I thought, he had just started his business a week ago, on a measly 5X6 open air shop (actually just floor space) that would have cost him whooping 3 lac bucks, and here comes the fury of nature... I think he will be out of business for couple of weeks at least and given the situation and the death scare that this flu has even a month or two wont be surprising...Life can really be tough at times!!!

How To Tell If You Are Management Material

2006-02-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Clues That You Are Management Material

10. You like not doing anything
9. You have no trouble telling others what to do
8. Work fascinates you - you can sit and watch it for hours
7. You like 'sweating the small stuff'
6. You have always been something of a loner
5. You don't think 'plan' is a four-letter word
4. Your favorite cocktail is milk of magnesia
3. On Halloween you dress up as Alex P.
2. Your favorite horror writer is Tom Peters

And the number one clue you are management material -

You enjoy having people despise you just for doing your job.

Now i know why engineering + MBA is such an electrifying combination ;-)

All time favorite

2006-02-18T01:04:00.000-08:00

Zindagi Ke Safar Mein Guzar Jaate Hain Jo Makaam
Vo Phir Nahin Aate, Vo Phir Nahin Aate

Phool Khilte Hain, Log Milte Hain
Phool Khilte Hain, Log Milte Hain Magar
Patjhad Mein Jo Phool Murjha Jaate Hain
Vo Baharon Ke Aane Se Khilte Nahin
Kuchh Log Ik Roz Jo Bichhad Jaate Hain
Vo Hazaron Ke Aane Se Milte Nahin
Umra Bhar Chahe Koi Pukaara Kare Unka Naam
Vo Phir Nahin Aate, Vo Phir Nahin Aate
Zindagi Ke Safar Mein...

Aankh Dhokha Hai, Kya Bharosa Hai
Aankh Dhokha Hai, Kya Bharosa Hai Suno
Doston Shaq Dosti Ka Dushman Hai
Apne Dil Mein Ise Ghar Banane Na Do
Kal Tadapna Pade Yaad Mein Jinki
Rok Lo Rooth Kar Unko Jaane Na Do
Baad Mein Pyaar Ke Chahe Bhejo Hazaron Salaam
Vo Phir Nahin Aate, Vo Phir Nahin Aate
Zindagi Ke Safar Mein...

Subah Aati Hai, Shaam Jaati Hai
Subah Aati Hai, Shaam Jaati Hai Yunhi
Vaqt Chalta Hi Rehta Hai Rukta Nahin
Ek Pal Mein Ye Aage Nikal Jaata Hai
Aadmi Theek Se Dekh Paata Nahin
Aur Pardey Pe Manzar Badal Jaata Hai
Ek Baar Chale Jaate Hain Jo Din-Raat Subah-O-Shaam

Vo Phir Nahin Aate, Vo Phir Nahin Aate
Zindagi Ke Safar Mein..

What made my engineering possible

2006-02-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i was forced to stay in an empty hostel by the circumstances (ok not that bad, i had to go to DRDO so it saved a lot of travelling). Sitting alone with nothing to do (actually not wanting to ;-) ) i was reflecting on the last four years of my engineering life... nostalgic moments, after all, all these days of fun will finally come to an end. And suddenly a question popped into my mind ... " What is that one thing without which my engineering would have been virtually impossible to complete?"...What was the most essential tool that i ever used (or for that matter any Indian Engineer of my generation)... I can assure you that it was not tough to come up with the answer... well certainly definitely absolutely assuredly surely unquestionably and without fail the answer was GOOGLE!!! THE REASON??? well reach out to any engineer you know...put up the question n also state the answer n just watch the expressions on his face...they will tell you the whole story!!!

The Art of Failure

2006-02-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

A great article on the working of human mind, one topic which never ceases to amaze me. The article is filled with examples which once again strengthen what i have believed all along...pressure does strange things to you. Have a look...

http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_08_21_a_choking.htm

Note: A long article, but worth a read!

Engineering summed up for you...

2006-02-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

1. Some Basic definitions..

Engineering College : Place where you're punished for getting good HSC marks.

Babe : After two years in Engineering, anything remotely female
qualifies for that title...

Senior : Guy who got ragged as junior and wanna get some payback...

Fresher : Guy who has to ask where the canteen is...

Really Dumb Fresher : Guy who asks a senior where the canteen is.

Really Really Dumb fresher : Guy who follows the senior to the canteen.

Ragging : The unfortunate fate of the previous idiot.

Evasive action : Watch the juniors when any seniors come nearby. (No one
runs faster than a fresher. NO ONE.)

Lectures : Waste of time..physical presence is a must...only meant for
sleeping, completing assignemtns & genral TP

Tutions : What you take when you don't waste enough time....

Professor : Person paid to put students to sleep.

Vernac Prof : Unusual variant of previous individual who comes packaged with
his own brand of English ("Now you check me our journal." "You Out get from class." "Are you Understand, Beta?" )

Practicals : 60 to 90 minutes in which you watch the girls do your
experiment, and usually destroy a considerable array of lab equipment.

Hopeless Practical : The practical in which there are no girls in your group
simply look blankly at each other, fiddle with the equipment, and finally
copy the readings. from the girls of course...).

2. The Truth about exams....
Timing...when ur non enginering GF/BF is free to enjoy while u slog with
submisisons & exams

Irony : The guy who copied your entire paper passes and you flunk.

Critical Calculation : Summing up the marks you attempted worth in the exam...

Year Drop : Makes dad homicidal.

Reverification : A cruel joke. (results of which come after you give the supplee exam).

3. An engineer's 10 engg commandments of Life

1. Thou shalt study only during the preparatory leave.
2. Thou shalt never write thy assignments thyself.
3. Thou shalt begin writing thy journals only on the morning of submission.
4. Thou shalt treat all marks above 40 as bonus.
5. Thou shalt have at least 70 per cent attendance in the canteen.
6. Thou shalt pass GRACEfully.
7. Thou shalt always be an OUTstanding student.
8. Thou shalt give thy attendance without being present...PROXY is a MUST
9. If thou can't convince them , confuse them.
10. Thou shalt start every sentence with a four lettered word.

4. The Years of Engineering

F.E. Fond of Engineering
S.E. Sick Of Engineering
T.E. Tired of Engineering
B.E. Balls to Engineering

is it worth it???

Engineers Anthem:

Hum Honge All Clear,Honge All Clear, Honge All
Clear Ek Din,
OH-HO, Mann me hai vishwas, pura hai vishwas,
hum hoge all clear ek din

Top two Engineering Rumours:

'Did you hear the results are being put up today at 5:30pm'
'Did you hear the exams are postponed by two weeks, its been put'

The most important criteria while selecting an engineering college:
Girl to Boy ratio ( if more than 0.025% then that college is engineers dream
come true)

Engineers at work:
Assignments solved by one and then carrying out mass transfer operations
throughout the class

The most important machine for Engineers :
Xerox Machine ( Without which assignment completion wouldn't be possible)

The most important table in an Engineer's House:
The glass table ( to carry out GT operations, during Night Duty.)

The only queue an Engineer is familiar with:
Submission Queue

An Engineer's favourite watch:
Bird Watch !

Common Engineering Dialogues

After a paper :
'What is this yaar, more than 70% of the paper was out of the syllabus'
'This was the worst paper set in the entire engineering history'
'I am failing....I got screwed royally'

On being Late
"I thought it is a monday" (lab starts at 10:45 on monday)
"I was searching for the Classroom"
(classic) " Train was late"

During Lecture

"Sushil ka assignment 2 tere paas hai??"
(classic)"Heads, we go home, Tails, we go home now!!!"
(classic2)"Journal sheet hai??"

Lab
"Expt. 2 likha??"
"Attendance ho gaya??"
(classic)"Karna kya hai??"

Unit Test
"Oh F***!!! Itna syllabus cover ho gaya ?"
(classic)"Aaj kounsa test hai?"

For attendance
(less attendance isliye attendance badane ke liye bahane)

"I was late , so watchman dint let me in"
"I forgot the I-card , so watchman dint let me in"
(classic)"Utsav (college festival) marketing"

Late submission of assignments
"Maine X ko bola thaa ki copy karke mera assgnment bhi saath mein submit kar dena"
"Electronix ka last date extend hua thaa"
(classic)"I dint know the last date"

Late submission of Journal (for printouts)
"Format pataa nahi thaa"
"Printer is not working today"
(classic) "Friday ko light nahi thee"

VIVA (b4 exam)
"submission ab tak hua nahi hai , VIVA kya ghanta doonga"
"Dekh Boss !! external bhi aadmi hai. Usko pata hai students ka ab tak preparation nahi hua hai......

VIVA (general)
"Dekh , tu jo bhi padhega , woh (external) tereko woh nahi poochhnewaala , then watz the point"
"Roll no. 1 aur 2 ko wapas bulaaya hai"
"External is asking Bermuda Triangle ka Magnetic force kitna hai"
"Ye kounse subject mein aata hai"
(Classic) "Aaj kounsa Viva hai?"

Submission

" Ye bhi chhapna hai kya??"

"Iska bhi print-out lena hai kya?"

(classic)"Tujhe Harale ka sign aata hai kya?"

(classic conversation)

A: Ye tune kya likha hai / teri handwriting aisi kyun hai?

B: 1.Jo word samajh mein aa raha hai woh likh , jo nahi samajh mein aa raha hai uska drawing nikal

2. maine C se likha hai, mera assignment check ho gaya , tu bhi wohi kar.

3.Jo word samajh mein aa raha hai woh likh , jo nahi samajh mein aa raha hai woh chhod de.

EXAM

"Jo (mujhe)aata hai , woh (paper mein)aata nahi hai; jo nahi aata hai woh aata hai"
"ye question 2 saal se nahi poochha hai"
"ye last time hi poochha thaa"

"tere paas Jejurkar ke notes hai??"
" woh chapter....... mark weightage 6 marks..... (facial expressions speaks the story)"
" nahi samjha to rat le (RBR) "

(classic..... when someone is intensively doing his last revision) "Yeh nahi aayega !!!"

Feeling after Completing Engineering:

Survived Engineering !!!!!!!!!!!

2006-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

" Nothing is fool-proof for a sufficiently talanted fool"

i wish god had made me even more talanted in this department...afterall these moments of insanity are all we have for relaxation in this 21st century life!!!

PS: No comments saying i am already talented to the hilt ;-)

kya aapke papa service tax bharte hain??

2006-01-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

It's irritating and too kiddish! I can’t come to believe that how can excise department think that such a bootless ad campaign will have an effect. The children shown in the ad are of the age at which they don’t even know what tax is? Certainly, a very poor attempt at increasing compliance. In the mean time I have a few of questions for the Central board of excise and customs...

1) Jo service tax bharte hai, aap unko kitna pareshaan karte hai?

2) Ye jo saara fayda humein hi to hai, ye hai kahan? hazaar rupay mein 10 paise ki sahuliyat?

3)Kya aapke daftar ke babuon ke bachche unse poochte hai ki wo kitni rishwat lete hai?

hmmm...can u pass ? ;-)

2006-01-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Bachpan ki baat

2006-01-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

A few days back I was archiving all the stuff that I had on my comp and suddenly from some buried folder I happened to find some mp3s which made me remember the band which introduced me to angrezi songs…good ol days when I used to like boy bands and they were the ones who introduced us to the world of western music…from those days my tastes have matured for better but still here’s to the band which made it all possible…THE BACKSTREET BOYS…

My beloved Dictionary

2006-01-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

It was some six to seven months back when I set out to buy a new dictionary, the one I had was grossly insufficient for CAT preparation. And my dear mentor Ankur suggested this New OXFORD dictionary of English so vehemently that I decided to go for this one! When it finally arrived at home it was no less than a wonder to me...Oh my god ...it was so huge I hadn’t seen any dictionary so large (of course except the unabridged Webster’s). But as I went through the introduction of the dictionary, the way it had been organized with all the sub senses in order of occurrence in general usage and not according to the classical English, moreover it has etymology of every word giving even the stories behind the origin of some words. It is really a masterpiece, some might think that how can someone fall in love with a dictionary...but its true, as there is no reason for falling in love with some person, similarly u have to see this dictionary to fall in love with it! Some people who have been around me in hostel would know how possessive and protecting I can get towards it, sometimes even to the extent of being amusing....love can do strange things to you!!!

AAAAAGH!!

2006-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

I just have to scream n I am red with anger...this stupid blogger asked me to republish the blog to see changes, and I even more innocently clicked it and then all disappears!! no blog to b seen, and what I find out is that whole of the template code is gone and all my changes of google search bar and other links including my sweet counter have been lost :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( but then this is life Ii can always correct things a get them back to shape :-) :-) :-) :-) . So let’s get on with the work n make things alright once again!!!

Couldnt resist the temptation...

2006-01-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hmmm.... just when i thought i'll write stuff myself guess what happens...i get some great stuff on some blog n i too want to post it...well here is a Hutch Ad for Engineers... took it from Varuns' Blog

"Semester ke shuru main hum log kaise sher ho jate hain
classes bunk kar rahe hai
movies dekh rahe hain
aur har weekend par ghar ja rahe hain
ja rahe hain
ja rahe hain
dekhte hi dekhte aa gayi 23 NOV
end sem sar pe
dimag khali
halat patli
kya karein?
main batata hoon kya karna hai
chup kar ke kisi topper ke class notes
photo stat karva lo
achaa practical bhi to hai uska kya?
ab kisi ki practical file bhi photo copy karva lo
thode dino ki hi baat hai
thoda adjust kar lo
thoda padh lo
fir aa raha hai naya sem
fir ho jayenge sher"

Long Time...

2006-01-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

I just happened to notice that recently there have been only a few posts that i have actualy written myself..what can i do but go on and blame inherent human nature of indolence, but nevertheless i cant help but sit back and pat myself on keeping this blog alive. I have seen many a blog die a sudden death or some may linger and die after a few weeks, i dont want any of these to happen to this beatified place of mine ;-) Also to my credit i have 400+ hits on my blog now, ok ok i do admit a lot of them are mine but still....
But the fact remains that there is still a lot to be done, it would certainly be better if i put in some of my own stuff on this blog, so here i go... trying to revive my blog so that it comes out more absorbing and hope riveting too!!!!!

Learn to google efficiently

2006-01-15T05:40:00.000-08:00

AH!!!!!........ we all thought we knew all that there was to googling ..... wait.....there are some things called operators which can make locating exact thing we are searching for a breeze , say u want to search only the university sites (which generaly are .edu) for pdfs on mobile technology all u need to do is type.....

site:edu filetype:pdf mobile technology ....... BINGO!!!

The following table lists features available on the Advanced Search page that are accessible via search operators.

Advanced Search
Features Search
Operators

File Format filetype:

Occurrences
in the title of the page
in the text of the page
in the URL of the page
in the links to the page

allintitle:
allintext:
allinurl:
allinanchor:

Domain site:

Similar related:

Links link:

Safesearch safesearch:

The following table lists the search operators that work with each Google search service. Click on an operator to jump to its description

Search Service Search Operators

Web Search allinanchor:, allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, bphonebook:, cache:, define:, filetype:, id:, inanchor:, info:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, inlink:, phonebook:, related:, rphonebook:, safesearch:, site:, stocks:,

Image Search allintitle:, allinurl:, filetype:, inurl:, intitle:, site:

Groups allintext:, allintitle:, author:, group:, insubject:, intext:, intitle:, msgid:

Directory allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, ext:, filetype:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:

News allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, location:, source:

Froogle allintext:, allintitle:, store

We Didnt Start The Fire

2006-01-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

Never seen such an ingenious way to pack so much of politics, tragedy and history in such a cool way………this song by Billy Joel never ceases to amaze me …

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King and I and The Catcher in the Rye

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, trouble in the Suez

CHORUS

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

CHORUS

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

CHORUS

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodsto, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

Try out these.......

2006-01-14T02:36:00.000-08:00

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

A quick witted cricket critic.

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop.
Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.

IF IF = THEN THEN THEN = ELSE ELSE ELSE = IF;

How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

Send toast to ten tense stout saints' ten tall tents.

Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.

I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you wish to wish.

A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose!

Pete's pa pete poked to the pea patch to pick a peck of peas for the poor pink pig in the pine hole pig-pen

When I was in Arkansas I saw a saw that could outsaw any other saw I ever saw, saw. If you've got a saw that can outsaw the saw I saw saw then I'd like to see your saw saw.

All pervasive love is an utopian concept...

2006-01-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Here comes another one.........

All pervasive love would mean love filled in the
hearts of all human beings and no ill feeling in the
mind of anyone. Removing all enmity, all power
struggles, jealousy and all such feelings from the
minds of people is certainly not a practical task to
achieve. The primary reason is that all these things
are so much a part of human psyche, only varying in
degree. At the turn of millennium 9/11 only showed to
which side this degree is varying. Every human being
wants to be one up on everyone in his field, every
country wants to be a superpower, and all the
proponents of radical ideologies want theirs to be the
all pervasive one. As Ellsworth Toohey put it in Ayn
Rands' 'The Fountainhead', "Human mind is blessed to
believe, not to understand", it remains to the more
charismatic people or our leaders to lead from the
front and if not make it all pervasive, at least make
love a phenomenon larger than hate. But still all
pervasive love will by and large remain a utopian
concept. All we can do is try and do our best to fill
everything every mind around us with love making it
widespread if not pervasive.

There is no right way to do a wrong thing!!!!

2006-01-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

wrote this one as a practice essay for XLRI..........

The first thing that comes to the mind when thinking
about right and wrong is the very basic question as to
how we decide what is right and what is wrong?
Generally the answer is got from the societal laws or
the prevalent practices or thought process. Even if
the issue is resolved the fact remains that to do a
wrong thing the ways and means that have to be adopted
invariably start falling into the category of what we
will call wrong from the societal framework. But still
if we do decide that the end result that we willingly
want is wrong there can be a systematic way of getting
it executed and hence now we have a right way in which
we finally did a wrong thing! So, in the end the
question rounds up to what is right and what is wrong?
If the means that we used to do a wrong thing are
right to our mind then we very well have a right way
to do a wrong thing.

George Bush in a school

2005-12-26T23:39:00.000-08:00

George Bush goes to a primary school to give a speech.After his talk
he offers question time.One little boy puts up his hand and George
asks him what his name is.
"Bob".
"And what is your question, Bob?"
"I have 3 questions.
First, Why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN?
Second, Why are you President when Kerry got more
votes?
And third, What happened to Osama Bin Laden?
Just then the bell rings for recess. George Bush informs the kiddies
that they will continue after recess.When they resume George
says, "OK, where were we?
Oh that's right --- question time. Who has a question?"
A different little boy puts up his hand . George points him
out and asks him
what his name is. "Steve"
"And what is your question, Steve?"
"I have 5 questions.
First, Why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the
UN?
Second, Why are you President when Kerry got more votes?
Third, What happened to Osama Bin Laden?
Fourth, Why did the recess bell go 20 minutes early?!
And fifth, Where is "Bob"? !!

Murphys' law and the likes

2005-12-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

*"If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way."

*"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
* A slice of buttered bread will, when dropped, always land butter-side down
* Buses take ages to arrive, but when they do they always arrive in sets of three
* When graphing, the graph paper is always one square too small for the perfect scale
* When caught in a traffic jam, the lane that you are in will always be the slowest to move
* Nothing is as easy as it looks.
* Everything takes longer than you think. Or, everything takes twice as long as it should; excepting that which appears easy, taking three times as long.
* Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
* If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
* If something simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
* If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
* Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
* If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
* Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
* It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
* Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
* Every solution breeds new problems.
* Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
* A Smith and Wesson beats four aces.
* Junk will grow to fill the available closet space.
* All small objects of value will disappear when set down.

Caller Tunes!

2005-12-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

These cell phone companies do know how to make money... ring tones, wall papers, games, contests....blah blah... all these things were fine ..ok the guy could at least hear his phone singing the latest song but the latest salvo fired by the companies is really a great one...CALLER TONES .. u gotta shell out son 30-40 bucks a month so that the person calling you can hear a song and doesn’t get bored while to try to find your phone and pick it!!! GREAT !! What’s greater is that almost everyone i seem to call has this facility for me!!!!!!!!!! So much for thinking about others may i say ;-) In all this all i can see is that a lot of people have almost forgotten what this mobile phone was meant for...talking! The only good thing that I could see in whole of this caller tone thing was that IDEA add where a funny voice says that he doesn’t want any loans and all, ya that was one entertaining add. But still it never ceases to amaze me what interesting and weird ways companies find to make people spend their money... and well eh...people spend it !!!!!!!!

Winters...

2005-12-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

Winter is here! Its that time of the year that I love so much. I believe it brings a lot more good time with it than the difficulties, but yes I do regret some things.... one why it is such a short part of the year? I guess one more thing u have to go with for being born in India!!!!!!! Second where are the winters that I had when I was a kid, mankind has done all sorts of things with earth and the climatic cycle is having a hard time keeping up. Anyway, how do I just love these 2-3 months we have... as a kid (even now ;-) ) I enjoy blowing out air from mouth and watch it go up and pretend as if i was smoking(this was the kid part ;-) )Even now there are loads of things i love like u can do loads of work without feeling the heat, u can enjoy hot piping food, tea and coffee taste doubly tasty :-) ice cream has a new flavor to it and everyone is wearing so much stuff that every second person on the road seems to be a cuddly teddy-bear!! Well hugs are warmer and how can I forget the feeling of getting into a razai and then never wanting to get out! All and all winters are fun and by far the most enjoyable time of the year!

good read

2005-12-17T04:34:00.000-08:00

"The things that people see as failures are often the steps to success. I got my fame and power from the failure of the Bricklin. What did I get for the biggest failure of my life? I got a stamp and a $20 coin in Canada with my car's likeness on them."

Malcolm Bricklin, CEO of Visionary Vehicles and automotive revolutionary

"If you don't have much going wrong with your life, then you don't have much going on in your life."

Larry Winget

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure."

William Saroyan

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."

Chinese proverb

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."

Charles Dickens

"In despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is very acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position."

FyodorDostoyevsky

"The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper."

Aristotle

'I truly believe we don't experience anything without some reason or other. There's something in this somewhere.' "I just think it's a wonderful world and there's some plan somewhere and if you're open, it's there."

Canadian Shirley Macklin shortly after being released from an eight day hijacking nightmare aboard i

Tweaks for Mozilla/Firefox

2005-12-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit
return. Scroll down and look for the following
entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web
page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will
make several at once, which really speeds up page
loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some
number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at
once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select
New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay"
and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of
time the browser waits before it acts on information
it receives.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load
pages MUCH faster now!

how things can change

2005-12-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

i was sitting here in front of this box and was bored to death...had nothing to do and even the internet couldnt help me...but guess what happened i saw this one on ankur sirs' blog and then...see for urself

TOP GUN theme

2005-12-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

there is something about this TOP GUN theme instrumental which always gives me a high! it has some raw powerful feel ......MAVERICK what else can i say..........

holiday season

2005-12-03T05:32:00.000-08:00

so its vacation time again...and we have a longer one this time about 2 months and to top it all we have to do a fraudy training!!!!!!not that i dont like to have breaks but then it becomes too long and boring the only saving race this time is that i'll be having some work to do on my final year project, lets hope it doesnt go down the lane of becoming fraudy...afterall all the things at DCE end up being fraudy...some times i am left wondering if our jobs are for real ;-) (but then thats the beauty of this college ..in the end all the things end up being so fantastic n real that u are left wondering how u could end up making it so good) anyways lets see how these holz go this time round hoping for some interesting things to come up to keep me busy.........

CAT n all that is left behind

2005-12-02T03:16:00.000-08:00

so CAT is over n has left behind a lot of memories with everyone..i think mine r the most amusing..all i can think of is that as to why i made the lamp shine n not splutter and why was that stupid if terse and not witty!! well reasons could be many but after CAT my belief has only strengthned.... CAT is so much about luck as about anything...lot of profesionals and teachers and most of all ppl in IIMs will differ on this but believe that tad bit of difference between the 1200 people who will make it and other 5000 equaly capable ppl who wont make it is luck n nothing else!!! things can alwz be said they had great capacity to handle pressure and they had an open mind and the utilized their two hours very well but all this coulkd have turned on its head and everthing could have been disastrous ... my take is still..."try ur best but all depends on ur state of mind at that time fortune can turn around in any direction ..u need mind but loads of luck"

great quotations

2005-12-01T22:37:00.000-08:00

" Never put anyone out of your heart... "
~Neem Karoli Baba

People will do anything, no matter how absurd,
in order to avoid facing their own soul.
~Carl Gustav Jung

Acquire the courage to believe in yourself. Many of the things
that you have been taught were at one time the radical ideas
of individuals who had the courage to believe what their own
hearts and minds told them was true, rather than accept the
common beliefs of their day.
~ Ching Ning Chu

My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards
the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their
own image to be servants of their human interests.
~George Santayana

People are where they are because that's exactly where
they really want to be...whether they'll admit that or not.
~Earl Nightingale

There will come a time when you believe everything is
finished. That will be the beginning.
~Louis L'Amour

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
~Chinese Proverb

The same stream of life that runs through the world
runs through my veins night and day in rhythmic measure.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust
of the earth into numberless waves of flowers."
~Rabindranath Tagore

Learn your lessons quickly and move on.
~Eileen Caddy

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second,
by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience,which is the bitterest.
~Confucius

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
~Albert Einstein

We have made ourselves so weak; we have made ourselves
so low. We may make great claims, but naturally we
want to lean on somebody else. We are like little,
weak plants, always wanting a support. How many times
I have been asked for a "comfortable religion!" Very
few men ask for the truth, fewer still dare to learn
the truth, and fewest of all dare to follow it in all
its practical bearings.

~ Swami Vivekananda

meditation

2005-12-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness
or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without
thinking, merging finitude in infinity. ~Sivananda

Meditation is from moment to moment. The eyes see, the ears hear.
The organs function. There is no interiorisation, no concentration,
no introversion, no withdrawing of the sense. Don't go into the old
habits of withdrawal. Go in the directionless expansion, the
spaceless space.
~Jean Klein

"When we raise ourselves through meditation to
what unites us with the spirit, we quicken
something within us that is eternal and
unlimited by birth and death. Once we have
experienced this eternal part in us, we can no
longer doubt its existence. Meditation is thus
the way to knowing and beholding the eternal,
indestructible, essential center of our being."
~Rudolf Steiner

Meditation is the tongue of the soul and
the language of our spirit.
~Jeremy Taylor

Meditation is not for him who eats too much,
nor for him who eats not at all; not for him
who is overmuch addicted to sleep, nor for
him who is always awake.
~Bhagavad Gita

Meditation is in truth higher than thought. The earth seems to rest in
silent meditation; and the waters and the mountains and the sky and
the heavens seem all to be in meditation. Whenever a man attains
greatness on this earth he has his reward according to his meditation.
~Upanishads

these turning points

2005-12-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

things have really charged up...these are the days of transition...most of us got into engineering without knowing y we want to do what what we want to do!oh my god!now there is some ray of hope, with more than four years of practicaly doing nothing everybody wants to move on to things they believe (at least for now) are really of their interests. some want to just join their jobs coz they have got their dream companies, but yeah most of us want to become managers eh ;-) CAT is over for most of the people (including me ha ha) but just remember the days before the end sems and sparks were flying everywhere! the most interesting specimens were the people applying to US universities, results were not out and they had to send their applications, oh my god u could really see tension on their faces, it meant so much for them that sometimes their wierd reactions to even normal things became amusing!in the times of pressure mind understands little logic, isnt it!yesterday happend to talk to this girl who is really senti abt US thing and she was thriled to just have her applications delivered to universities!such is the state of mind of most of us not knowing where our lives are headed..these crossroads..these are the testing times..hope all of us land up at the places that are just right for us!!!

affirmation

2005-12-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

the vision thing

2005-12-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

If there is paradise anywhere its right here in our minds! There is nothing new in this concept, all this has been said in various ways by hundreds of sages, thinkers etc etc right through the ages. But it seems that we all just dont seem to understand this...it's all in the mind...for if there is any paradise anywhere it's here, a satisfied happy mind is all there is to paradise! I believe we all unintentionally are trying to get to what i call this state of paradise ..the ways differ, for some it means material effluence for some its spiritual, mine is something in between!Only a few lucky ones are actualy able to reach this state of mind.Why? i dont know, but i guess the answer lies in the exploration of our real life motives and what we are currently doing!its very dufficult to get out of the web of todays hectic life but if we try...we can if not reach it get a tad bit closer to this vision..ah! what a feeling it would be!

ah! another blog

2005-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

well well...another blog ! actualy i quite hated this very idea of a blog....what a stupid way to waste time, there r n number of other stupider ways to do the same...never liked this lousy idea of a blog...but then what happened??? i happened to visit some interesting blogs and they made me change my opinions about blogs... actualy now i believe these are really a good place for expression of self or whatever u like it to be, afterall its ur blog!!!!

ok dont read what follows, added it for A D S E N S E .....

car loans, mobile phones, mba coaching, discounts, book stores, amazon, ebay, sale, home, home loans, car rent, computer, laptop, mp3, usb drive, jwellery....

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