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Showing posts from 2004

Saathi Mere !!

Jab kautoohal ki nidra me, is jag ke swarnim swapan paash, bandhan me mujhko baandh, kisi anjaan desh le jaayenge. saathi mere tab kya mujhko tum vapas lene aaoge? swapno ki urwar bhoomi chhod, jab main yatharth ke banjar se, aalingan tera tod kisi, girte ko uthaane jaoonga. saathi mere tab kya mera tum haath bataane aaoge? sheetal bayaar jab sawan ki, tan man me aag lagaayegi, dhaani choonar ko od dhara jab, geet milan ke gaayegi. saathi mere tab kya mujhko ker yaad vihval ho jaaoge? Fir tod sabhi naate rishte aur chod sabhi sangi saathi, ek din jag ko taj ker main sukh ki chir nidra so jaoonga. saathi mere tab kya mujhko tum dekh nahi muskaoge?

PVNR: In a new light

The heros are of two types. Some of them are born blessed while others are just pushed to the limit. It is hard to decide which side of the line did P V Narsimha Rao stand on and the generations to come can hardly care less. For them, he will be the architect of the era of economic reforms, the person largely responsible for the huge difference between my own 80's childhood and 90's adolescence when suddenly the waiting queue for telephones got shorter by years. PVNR was the first prime minister whose times I remember in some detail. In fact, now that I look back, I realize that it was in 1991 only, shortly after the death of Rajiv Gandhi that I moved to Lucknow from a small place called Sardhana in west UP. Probably the huge difference in the 80's and 90's that I felt was largely due to this shift and not due to the economic reforms of PVNR but I clearly remember mugging up his full name to show off in front of others. I also remember that he was known to be a very lea

Sakhi

sakhi mori piya ke rang rangi ! aankhon me piya ke swapan bhare, adhron per kampan mukhar dhare, ranjit kapol hue lajja se, jihva pe piya ka naam fire. dhalka jaaye aanchal jheena, shudh budh khoyee, sukh chain chhina, na bhaye use bacpan ki sakhi, bin piya lage ab jag soona. Sakhi mori piya ke rang rangi ! kuch vesh kaho? kabhi mili nahi ! mridubhaashi hain? swar sune nahi ! na des pata, jaane na gali, chad kaandhe chaar kahaar chali. Bin sakhi mujhe kuch na bhaaye, jhoole ke bina saawan jaaye, sochoon to yahi ka jatan karoon, mo pe bhi piya ka rang chaaye. sakhi mori piya ke rang rangi ! [ Those who know better, would probably notice that a long standing promise has been fulfilled today although it has not come out as I would have liked it to but if that could be controlled, world would have been a pretty banal place. ] [ Incidently, there is something in the above poem that is quite indicative of the times it has been written in. Can u notice it? I also noticed it only after finishi

Life at 23 !!

They say if you are not an idealist at 20, u have no heart and if you are still an idealist at 30, you have no head !! Now that leaves two possibilities for 25. Either you can be completely confused between being a idealist and a practical person or you might be well balanced with both the things in perfect balance. Now if you apply the same logic to 23 (considering 20 and 25), you will know where I lie :). I am in between getting confused and being balanced which, I have no doubt, is an extremely confusing state of affairs to be in. A state of confusion about if you are in a state of confusion !! Anyway, enough of confusion. The news is that tomorrow at 15:15, I will complete 22 years of walking on this earth (for the first year, I was not walking) and considering the kind of people that are inhibiting the earth along with me, I consider this to be an achievement :P. okay sorry !! I shouldn't be this mean :). In fact it is the people living with me who have made this life worth li

Ek se bhale do? II

Last week I was reading the women special edition of Outlook. One of the articles in that discussed the radical social choices that women are making today. So there are ladies asking their parents to stay with them even after marriage, choosing to live separately for the sake of job, living alone even though their parents are in the same city and many more. There is no doubt that each of these decisions takes a lot of courage on part of a woman but what is alarming is that most of them relate to one common theme namely breaking down of the old concept of family. Some of the feminists argue and rightfully so that family has been the biggest source of oppression for Indian women and so it is natural that in the new age, the old concept of family breaks down. The question is however how does it affect our society? One particular example is of single mothers. All over India, there is an increasing trend of single mothers and the reasons are various. The one that stands out is that it is se

Ek se bhale do !!

Vardan Mathur posted this beautiful piece about adopting a child today. This is something that has been on my mind recently. In fact there are two issues and I'll talk about both of them. First issue is the same as discussed in the talk also. On my way to office, I daily pass a crossing where 2 small kids, barely 4-5 years old, brother and sister, perform some gymnastics and then ask for money from the people who have stopped there. Now as a matter of principle, I never give them any money because I believe that first, giving them money will only encourage this thing and the person behind the game will push even more children into begging (most of the times, there is some adult person involved) and second that giving money is the least and as I said above, may be the worst kind of help that u can provide. It provides you with a false sense of having done something without actually doing anything. So untill I do anything worthwhile, I donot want to live under the false pretence of

When words fail !!

Caught this in today's edition of Bangalore Times: when desires have no descriptions, longings possess no definations, expectations refuse fulfillment, questions seek no answers, wounds cease to give pain, path decides to go nowhere, what consolation can the words offer? -- Milind Nayak

RelationShips: How to build one that won't sink ! - I

Relationships are really confusing things as any high school student studying Set Theroy will testify. However if he would have even the faintest idea as to what lies ahead, he might have other ideas. Relationships are strange entities. They attract us and they scare us. They bind us and then free us in most wonderful ways. They can make our life worth living but they can also make it a living hell. And no matter, how much we may try, it is difficult to write down a formula for a perfect one. But since we can't just slip through life without worrying about them, it is worthwhile to think about what makes them tick. To be more precise, let's talk about men-women relationships (My apologies for the inherent bias but I don't think alternate sexualities contribute much to my readership). Most of the people have this notion of a perfect partner, a prince who will swap her off her feet or the sweet lady who will just take away all his pain with just a touch. We search for the per

Naach: The Choreography of Life

Its been over a month since I have written anything here. There are reasons for that but generally they are so silly that they are not worth your consideration, dear reader. And now after a month, I feel a little ashamed in putting up yet another placeholder post, just listing out what all tid bits have been happening in my life. It would hardly be worth your time. So I won't do that. No updates on my life in this post but only a little info which I think is very important. I have started taking Dr. Batra's treatment for hair loss !! Yes , ladies and gentlemen, me have finally fallen prey to the monster. Anyway if you remember, long time ago but not in very distant past, I promised to write something called "The Bangalore Chronicles" that was supposed to be.. well, something interesting. And if you could see my life from where I am seeing it, you would have agreed whole heartedly to the date when the first chapter should end and the second begin. I am not so sure abou

Adhikaar

adhikaar mera tum per na priye !! unmukt pawan si ithlaati, balkhaati chalti aati ho, kuch jaani si, kuch anjaani, khushbooen anekon laati ho. chapper mera hai ud jata, ghar uthal puthal ho jata hai, ek mast hawa ke jhonke si, tum pal me gum ho jaati ho. adhikaar mera tum per na priye !! jeewan ki kaali raaton me chanchal chapla drut daamini si, manas per chaati ho mere, sab aalokit ker jaati ho. tan dagdh hua jata mera, man bhi swaha ho jata hai, tum jyon agni ki lapak ek, choone ko gagan ud jaati ho. adhikaar mera tum per na priye !! jo abhi dikha na hai poora, voh swapan ho mere nayanon ka, jisme main rang bhara karta, ho chitra adhoora jeewan ka. yoon raaten vyarth kiya karta, main sapne bunta rahta hoon, tum mujhe akela chod, som ke sang ast ho jaati ho. adhikaar mera tum per na priye !! man me hai mere aakulta, ki pranay nivedan karoon kabhi, baahon me tumko baandh, adhron per rakh doon apne adhar sakhi. Man taane baane bunta hai, kaise mutthi me ret bharoon, banki

The Brain and the Brawn

Recently there has been a lot of commotion and ugly situations at my alma-mater which is actually nothing new considering the last 3 years. However the ever increasing stupidity of the situation is definitely remarkable. As expected, the incident has been evoking a lot of reaction in the alumni too. A lot has been said and it is interesting to see the sharp contrast that is evident in the standpoints of alumni and current junta. For a background on the incident, you can refer to: Life is beautiful Here is my take on the issue. There are two powers at the disposal of the man that he uses for foraying through this world, namely brain and brawn and although the human history is a live example of superiority of the first one, both have their own use at times. The recent fiasco can be attributed to the extremely bad judgement on part of IIT junta about when to use what. The incident started when some PEC guys, showing the utter lack of most uncommon sense, resorted to hockey sticks for try

Some hairy issues

I wrote this yesterday, I posted this yesterday, I lost it yesterday. But love's labour is never lost and so as the battle lines are redrawn every morning, here's to those who fell and here's to those who stand. --------------------------------------------------------------------- A bad hair day is a bad day that starts with hair problems. Since now a days most of my days start with hair problems, it was only a matter of time that one of them qualified as a bad hair day. But on account of the good food that I had today and the good news that I received today, I guess I would settle for a "Not so good hair day". Having been on the wrong side of the line in case of hair lose for a long time now, I had almost forgotten the taste of panic and anxiety that sets in when you first see that white streak or when the trips to head for a flip to hairs starts returning a handful. It is something with which you learn to live just like the rate of inflation. However, recently,

Some Updates

Currently working on: Handwriting Technologies Currently Reading: Mahadevi Verma "Path Ke Saathi" Currently Listening to: Abida Parveen "Amir Khusro" Currently watching (TV): Kasuati Jindagi Ki, Sanjivani, Kahaani Ghar Ghar ki, Des me nikala hoga chand, CNBC The Challenge, Ripley's Believe it or not, The History Channel Recently Watched (for the first time): The Wedding Planner, Samay, Dhoom, Terminal, Phir Milenge and one half each of Erin Brockowich(first half) and Training Day (second half) Recently been to: Bangalore Book Festival Recently eat for the first time: Chetinadu Dishes, Baser Beli Bath (Suggestion for other Southern delicacies welcome) Blogs I manage to go through: Jaya, Handa, Alpha, Diwaker, PSD, Manish and Gosling Websites I still manage to frequent: /. Jobs wish list: Google, RJ on Radio City More personal kind of updates are available on personal request ;)

Things they do,

but I missed out on. It is not everyday that bright sunlight starts ur day in Banglore and nothing better to lighten up the mood on a Sunday morning than the mild sun rays falling on ur face :) (I am sure many won't agree but every one to his own). Now mornings, a bright new day, lovely weather all indicate a new start but strangely enough it can also bring back old memories just as clearly. And so I thought may be I should make use of this day to write one last post about IIT before I start with "The Bangalore Chronicles". Yes ! that is what I am going to call my series of posts about life and everything in Bangalore. (Now don't frown at me. I am just trying to follow in the foot steps of J K Rowling :P) Through the 4 years of life at IIT, I did a lot of things, many of which I never imagined I would do but as they say that there is no end to the human greed, I craved for more. Some of these were not under my control. At some of these I failed and for some, I never s

I moved !!

Musafir ke raste badalte rahe, kismat me chalna tha chalte rahe. -- Bashir Badr New place, new ways, new ppl, old faces New paths, unknown destination, New building on old bases. -- me This is abhaga from City of Gardens. I am loving it !!

Kautilya ne kaha tha

Long have I bored u guys with tales of some distant Galaxies. Its time now to move closer to home and closer to reality :). Today is our Independence Day and just like every year, its an occasion to feel proud of our country, its achievements and most of all its character. Although I strongly believe that we can surely do with being more aggressive and firm when it comes to international matters, it is not something I would be really proud of. It is more like a necessary evil which cannot be avoided in today's scenario. This reminds me of someting from the famous Chanakya alias Kautilya. When questioned by one of his childhood friends about the rather ruteless image he had acquired, he said, " Under sab shubha hai, shuchi hai per uski raksha ke liye upper se kathorta ka aavaran od liya hai ". A very simple and innocent looking statement but carries the essence of keeping right balance in life. The world always tries to destroy the goodness within us, it makes us look l

Results are in

Both DS and PB ended up at a difference of .2%. So both the teams were decleared joint winners. GH took the second place.

Galaxy Remains !

What is better than watching a Galaxy? Of course being part of it :) but before I tell u more about it, here are the remaining editions of GT: GH I DS II PB II GH II Apart from regular things like street plays, road paintings, the publicity events were a Parade and a Bhajan Singing march in which the aim was to collect as much money as u can by singing bhajans. These guys had the audacity of actually going to Dean's house and ask him for some money. I heard he bequeathed in the order of Rs. 6 to Rs 10 :), don't know who won in the end though. Lit events saw their usual crowd coming together although the events were much more experimental in nature. I unfortunately missed the GH cul show but other two cul shows were quite impressive. There is however one observation which I cannot avoid making though I am not sure what to conclude from it. In our times, Hall 2 used to always get screwed in musicals which was the forte of Hall 3. In the play the situation was just the

GT - IInd Edition

is available here . This one is by the team "प्राणस्य भावः" (pranasya bhavah). It turns out that out of the 7 teams proposed, only 3 are actually participating. I have mentioned about two of them already and fortunately or unfortunately, one of them comprises of Hall 2 guys and another, of Hall 3. But can anybody guess which is the 3rd team? With Hall 1 choosing to remain out of the picture for the most part, it is our very own GH that has a team in the running and as far as I have heard, they are working pretty hard. In the golden olden times :), GH used to be one of the rotating teams. They used to be paired up with hall 1, hall2 and hall 3 in a cyclic order. Other rotating teams were the two PG hostels. Now although, I would not go on to say that GH used to be passive but Galaxy never seemed to arouse the same kind of passion there as was seen in Hall 2 and Hall 3. One reason is obvious. When u are being forced to change ur loyalties every year, it becomes kinda toug

News ! News !

Can't say that this makes me happy but it surely moves my heart. Galaxy is back !! Its very low scale, even if u are on campus, u can easily miss it all together, I haven't seen any of the events to comment on the quality but it is happening ! I have no doubt that the organizers are insane but galaxy can do that to u. I would try to do an online coverage of whatever happens and whatever I am able to catch but here are some tid-bits to start with: Galaxy 2004 : Announcement Page Galaxy Times : 1st Edition (Dhande Shining Team) psd, I hope u remember the Galaxy Times :)

The Original !!

As pointed out by anonymous in the comments to last post, those lines are actually the English translation of a part of the following. It has been penned by noted Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz who is credited with introducing political awareness in Urdu language for the first time. सुबह-ए-आज़ादी ये दाग़ दाग़ उजाला, ये शब गज़ीदा सहर वो इन्तज़ार था जिसका, ये वो सहर तो नहीं ये वो सहर तो नहीं जिस की आरज़ू लेकर चले थे यार कि मिल जायेगी कहीं न कहीं फ़लक के दश्त में तारों की आख़िरी मंज़िल कहीं तो होगा शब-ए-सुस्त मौज का साहिल कहीं तो जा के रुकेगा सफ़ीना-ए-ग़म-ए-दिल जवाँ लहू की पुर-असरार शाहराहों से चले जो यार तो दामन पे कितने हाथ पडे दयार-ए-हुस्न की बे-सब्र ख़्वाब-गाहों से पुकारती रहीं बाहें बदन बुलाते रहे बहुत अज़ीज़ थी लेकिन रुख़-ए-सहर की लगन बहुत क़रीं था हसीनान-ए-नूर का दामन सुबक सुबक थी तमन्ना, दबी दबी थी थकन सुना है हो भी चुका है फ़िराक़-ए-ज़ुल्मत-ए-नूर सुना है हो भी चुका है विसाल-ए-मंज़िल-ओ-गाम बदल चुका है बहुत अहल्-ए-दर्द का दस्तूर निशात-ए-वस्ल हलाल-ओ-अज़ाब्-ए-हिज्र-ए-हराम ज

On a bright Monday Morning after Friendship Day !

This is one of my favorite pieces of poetry. Haven't been able to determine the original source but I picked it up from the .plan file of a senior. A pretty odd place to look for good poetry but pays off at times :) To all my friends, Life isn't fun anymore. This isn't that long-looked for break of day, That those comrades in arms set out in search of, Hoping that in heaven's wide void, Somewhere must be the star's last halting place, Somewhere the verge of night's slow washing tide, Somewhere an anchorage for the ship of heart ache.

One year, 21 days

Yesterday was the Friendship Day. I spent the last 21 Friendship Days without even knowing that they were passing by. But yesterday I came to know and there couldn't have been a better time. Friendship is something that we all cherish but few of us understand. We all want friends but we seldom know what we want in a friend. We all call somebody our best friend and we hardly ever stop to think what does that mean. And then there is love. How do u differentiate between love and friendship? Where does one stop and the other start? Unfortunately, a Friendship Day doesn't help us in resolving any of these issues. But what it does is that it gives us a chance to stop and think about them. It gives us a day to celebrate one of the most wonderful relationships in the world. I think that the best way to celebrate it is to spend a day alone, away from all the friends. Now this may seem like a odd way to celebrate a Friendship Day but the thing to realize is that the beauty is not alwa

A death that only counts !

The daily evening trains running on the meter gaze along the GT Road are a sight to see. I have often seen ppl traveling sitting on the roof of the trains but the guys going on these trains never cease to astonish me with their dare-devils. So what do u have to say about a group of ppl playing cards on the roof and around 5-6 ppl actually watching them, standing in a circle around them !! Having read "Train to Pakistan" just days back, I was reminded of that fateful train when I saw a similarly crowded one today. And that set me thinking about death. In our society, under normal circumstances, there is a kind of respect attached with death. U may die of old age, health reasons, may get killed by somebody but a dead person invariably attracts sympathy, praise, sadness and some amount of respect if I may put it that way. In short, a death is acknowledged. But all this is when our society functions normally. Consider the times of turbulence like riots or may be partition time.

The rising dalit chetna

Looking at how we treat our great men, I sometimes wonder if we even deserve them? The self proclaimed dalit netas of today are specially very reckless in this regard. It seems like the only way to empower dalits is to throw insults and object to everything where they can find mention of anything caste related. Now its the turn of great writer मुन्शी प्रेमचन्द who still remains the most read author in the Hindi belt of India. And nobody would deny that all his life, he wrote stories and novels that portrayed the plight of lowest sections of society, sections that were poorly represented in main stream literature before him. Now some dalit writers and netas are objecting to his novel "Rang Bhumi" and demanding that it should be removed from course since it uses words that are derogatory to dalits. Dalit heat on Premchand And today I read in the paper that certain "Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Academy" has decided to burn copies of said novel at Jantar-Mantar on t

Update !!

Owing to the increased activity levels in other parts of life, looks like the next few days just like the last few days are going to be rather blog-free for me. But I can atleast give a quick update on some of the interesting things that I have been upto. It is my firm believe that the only activity worth pursuing ona rainy day is to sit in a chair with lots of food and nice books and just look at the rain as it falls. And since it has been raining for first 3 days of the week here, u can guess what I have been upto. Sadly, there is no arrangement of food in my little blackhole, hence I am forced to move my lazy butt after a while. Still I have managed to achieve the following: Books: Finished "जिन्दगी मुस्करायी" and "Train to Pakistan". First one is a collection of essays by कन्हैयालाल मिश्र 'प्रभाकार'. It is not what I would like to call popular reading but I found it quite interesting. Abut the second one, I started it long ago and got kinda bored a

Famous Words !!

Some old and new speechs . Most of them are real recordings. They are mostly political, fictional from movies and misc others.

Case of misaligned priorities !

This is what Israel does: Israel Takes Vengeance for Severed Head And this is what we do: India accuses Bangladesh of war crimes when this happened: 16 Indian soldiers killed and mutilated And what did we do when this happened? Captain Saurabh Kalia, Indian Army Ramdhaari Singh Dinkar once said: तलवार गला तकली सॅत जहॉ गढते हैॅ शोणित के बदले अश्रु जहॉ बहते हैॅ वो देश कभी स्वतॅत्र नही रहता है। We really need to ask ourselves today: where did we go wrong?

Yet Another First Day - The Proud Parents

The orientation day and the convocation day are the only two days when IIT Kanpur officially welcomes the parents on campus (as correctly pointed out by Jaya) and what a sight these two days present ! I always find it very fulfilling/amusing depending on whether or not my parents are among them :). Incidently, my parents decided to skip the first one which is kinda cool since I can now forever brag about being self dependent and confident and blah blah.. Now, it is very entertaining to interact with these parents. The are usually more excited than their ward, more worried, more eager to interact with others around them and very nice to talk to. Sample these: 1. These hostel rooms do not have ACs? (Excuse me !!) 2. Ye bagal wala room mere bachche ke room se bada kyon hai? (I swear the difference could not have been more than few inches if it was at all there. Sharp eyes !!) 3. Rooms me attached bathroom nahi hai? (common dude, we are talking about ready to plug in internet

Yet Another First Day - The Broken Old Record !

Today is the day that I looked forward to in all 4 years of my college life. Tomorrow, the orientation for the batch of 2004 starts and the fresh blood has been arriving in the campus all day long. Proud parents, excited siblings, not very happy mothers and the wonder struck kids. Add to that the counseling service, looking-their-best SGs, fresh-from-internships-across-the-world 4th yearites, the wretched Kanpur heat and the absent academic load. No better time to be on the campus. And then think about me. Somebody who enjoyed it all so much, today forced to walk around ignoring everything maintaining the expression of I'm-not-concerned on my face !! I wish I could tell u how much effort it takes on my part to restrain myself from jumping right ahead and immercing myself in the proceedings. But I know better than that now. I know that if u try to live ur old days again and again, u start sounding like a broken old record. So I have decided to stay indoors as much as possible for

Royally Pissed

I have recently come across this phrase. mostly used by Pune/Banglore junta I guess. I liked the word the moment I first heard it and wondered what it would be like to get "Royally Pissed". I didn't know that opportunity would present itself so soon. I am happy to announce that I am royally pissed at the telecom dept of the country today. For 3 days now, I am trying to call home without any success and I am totally frust at the moment. Such a lame post ! doesn't even whine gracefully, forget royally. But I never wanted to write that masterpiece of mine today anyway.

The Extradition Game !

Recently the name Maninder Pal Singh Kohli has been in headlines for the heinous crime of murdering a British girl. PSD, however takes a look at a more political side of the case and I cannot agree more with him. In a related news, Abu Salem may finally end up in India .

Golden Words

CNR Rao was the chief guest in our convocation last year. He is quite an entertaining speaker and draws nicely upon his rich experiences. He was one of the earliest professors at IITK (chem dept) and played a major role in development of curriculum and lab facilities (although it is said that when he left for IISC later, he took away everything with him except curriculum :)). He made the following remark during his speech, a nugget which I have kept as a graduation advice :). The words are mine, the wisdom is, of course, his. "People come and say to me that it is so frustrating to stay in India. There are no facilities and there is so much bureaucracy, so much redtape. I tell them that it is not really difficult to stay in India but you need a little sense of humor. Otherwise it is also very easy to get frustrated here." Something to gnaw on !!

Feeling Down? Think BlackHoles !

So my obsession with BlackHoles continues ! It is not only because I am currently living in one (it was raining again today) but also because something cool related to them is going to happen next week. The whole physics community is buzzing with excitement and the source of the excitement is a one line note. Yes ! The great Stephen Hawking has done it yet again. Next week in a conference in Ireland, he is going to present a possible solution to a paradox that his work created some 40 years ago. I am in awe of Stephen Hawking and it is not due to the book that he has written or due to the work that he has been doing all these years. It has to do with the indomitable show of human will and spirit that he has put up for the last 40 years. He cannot do anything himself, he cannot eat, he cannot speak, he can hardly move any parts of his body and to top it all he even suffered physical abuse at the hands of his wife. The only part in his body that works is his brain (of course if we e

Get up, get going !!

All around me are familiar faces Worn out places, worn out faces Bright and early for their daily races Going nowhere, going nowhere Their tears are filling up their glasses No expression, no expression Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow No tomorrow, no tomorrow And I find it kinda funny I find it kinda sad The dreams in which I'm dying Are the best I've ever had I find it hard to tell you I find it hard to take When people run in circles It's a very, very mad world mad world Children waiting for the day they feel good Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday Made to feel the way that every child should Sit and listen, sit and listen Went to school and I was very nervous No one knew me, no one knew me Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson Look right through me, look right through me And I find it kinda funny I find it kinda sad The dreams in which I'm dying Are the best I've ever had I find it hard to

Counting to 511 inside a BlackHole

My room now a days is almost like a blackhole. "Blackhole" because time has stopped inside my room, just like inside a blackhole. "Almost" because I can still move in and out of it without any deformation in shape and size. It all happened 3 days ago when my roommate, the owner of the only table clock in the room, left for his home along with his belongings. Seems like my wrist watch and that table clock had something going on. So even my wrist watch has refused to buzz from that moment onwards thus freezing that precious moment in time almost literally. And as a result, currently inside my room, time doesn't move. I enter it at 9:00 AM in the morning and it stays 9:00 AM till I leave it. To make it even more dramatic, since 2-3 days it is cloudy here in Kanpur (It was raining today) and so u cannot even look out and try to guess what time is it. (To clarify the picture, here are some details. I live in a 2 room set and the occupants of the apartments aroun

Clock Ticks Life Away !!

Out of time and out of space, acting it out on the life's stage. Don't know the story, do I even know the cast? Out of time and out of space, searching for a familiar face. Not a drop to drink in the ocean, vast! Out of time and out of space, blinded by a maddening rage. The paths unknown and I am running fast. Out of time and out of space, trying to win the endless race, of making future, past. Out of Time and out of space, fate staring me hard in the face. The pace of life has outdone me, at last!

Would u like a to have a Blog?

Evan Williams, popularly known as eV in blogging circles (he started blogger which was later bought by google) has dug up the google usenet archives to find that the earliest usage of Blog refer to a kind of Finnish cocktail deviced by a SF fan . Cheers !!

The Hundredth Monkey

Few days back, the issue of the farmers' suicides that have been reported from various parts of the country and mainly from Andhra Pradesh came up over the dinner table. Both me and Arun were of the opinion that the trend, although alarming, has little to do with government failure. Rather than economic, it is a psychological issue and should be treated as one. Some kind of "mass psychology" (for want of a better word) seems to be at work here which is pushing one farmer after another over the edge. In this context, Arun told me about an interesting experiment done with monkeys on a northern Japanese island. The most popular version of the story on the internet is available as The hundredth Monkey . The above piece is an extract from a book written by Ken Keyes, jr. and is written more like a inspirational story rather than a scientific article. The story amazed me to no end. Such kind of ideas have been around for quite sometime in SF. One very famous example is the G

The Problem of Other Minds - II

U may have wondered why did I call my last post "The Problem of Other Minds - I". Since u are already reading "The Problems of Other Minds - II", I think the number mystery is solved. The text of the title comes from a well known philosophical problem called The Problem of Other Minds . It is a very interesting problem, one that questions our very basic assumptions and requires very elaborate arguements to actually defend them. The central question is how do "I" (I of Rene Descartes fame) know about the existence of any other minds in this world apart from my own? Since we have access to only our own experiences and thoughts and ideas, something called "privileged access", is there anyway to establish beyond doubt that other minds are also out there? A negative stand on this issue provides the logical basis for Solipsism . To quote, The solipsist can attach no meaning to the supposition that there could be thoughts, experiences, and emotio

The Problem of Other Minds - I

The most basic understanding in a civilized society is that the members are supposed to cooperate in order to achieve the common good even if it means compromising a little on personal freedom. Now the human society has grown pretty complex over the centuries and it is easy to produce counter examples to the above by showing how there exist biases in the society and how the rich, mighty and privileged ones tend to get the lion's share of the common good. However the things that have prompted me to write this post are some common day today things which show the increasing apathy in the masses towards each other. We are acting more and more as if no one else exists around us. I don't know if this is selfishness or the increased sense of self-preservation in the highly insecure city environments but the fact remains that it is no good for anybody. Consider the following two examples: 1. Notice the headlights of vehicles driving in the city during nights. Everyone from the big

Procrastination ...

... is the art of keeping up with tommorow. -- Don Marquis The arch nemesis of most of the students and working ppl is procrastination . The problem is more prominent if u are somebody like me whose major interaction with the world happens through a PC. The web is an infinite source of distractions and some of them are infact very rewarding also in some sense. But still the problem remains and so remains that guilty feeling of having wasted yet another day on things we were not supposed to do. Well here is a site that deals with the problems in detail, let's u calculate some numbers indicating the level of problem and even suggests some remedies to keep it in check (nothing very novel there). So next time u want to kill some time, kill it in finding out how not to kill it :D. I love ironies :) And here is my favourite quote from the ever wise Douglas Adams : "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Food Flames

My apartmentmate is leaving for a PhD in IISC Banglore. So today we went to this place called Flames in Swaroop Nagar for a sort of farewell treat. The place was good, both in ambiance and in food. They have chosen this orange color for the interior decoration which might sound a bit strange but the decorator has done his job well. Lighting is low along with candles on tables which I think is a nice idea since it also saves on some electricity :). I had a wonderful time with some really nice food and a lively company. Especially recommended are the continental dishes. I had baked macaroni with white sauce and after a long time found some place in Kanpur where baked things taste like they should. I am going to eat there at least once more before I leave Kanpur. Recommended for close circle treats and outings since it is a bit on the expensive side. Bon appetite !!

The IITK top 5 series: activities

spent part of the day reading "Five Point Someone" and as a result have been feeling rather nostalgic. Moreover I have been having this itch to write something about IIT life since sometime which has intensified manifolds now. Since I cannot write a novel on my 4 years just yet, here is some pastime :). I hope this will also evoke some responses from the small readership that my blog enjoys. So following is the list of top 5 activities that I enjoyed during IIT and which I will always miss (an important criteria is that it is not possible to indulge in these activities after IIT due to one reason or another): 5. Hindi Extempore : In fact this will include most of the HLS events. They were an absolute bliss to both participate and organize. The excellent guys with whom I got to do all those fun things made it really enjoyable. Shloke, pali, ambar, nitya, golu, bihari, vv, khare, anuj, pksb, jaya, duggi, sushobhan, pushpi, saurabh, tiwari, pathak, biyani,aashu and so many

The ending matters

The three movies which I happened to watch during my little trip home were Bhoot, Sansar and Joggers' Park. It is the endings of Sansar and Joggers' Park that have caught my attention. Sansar was an old, I guess 80's, movie staring Raj Babber, Rekha and Anupam Kher. A simple story about a family, the internal strife, a father who has given his everything in bringing up his children, an ungrateful son, an exemplary bahu/bhabhi/bibi and the resulting bantwara in the family. Lots of drama, high flying dialogues and nothing out of ordinary till the last scene. In the last scene, as expected, Raj Babber was feeling the pangs of guilt for his deeds and Anupam Kher was feeling the pangs of love for his grand child and the family was ready for a reunion. But this time there was a twist in the tail. When everything was going fine, Rekha objects to the reunion and takes the stand that what has happened can't be undone and it is better for the family that they live separately

A gem

lagi jahan bhi chahakne bulbul, hua vahin per jamaal paida. kami nahi hai kadardaanon ki, kare to koi kamaal paida. -- Akbar (Syyid Akbar Husain Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921))

Winners and losers

Watching Sharapova win was a personal delight. Infact to word it differently, watching Serena lose was a personal delight. But all the credit to Sharapova. She really held her nerve and didn't make mistakes (well if u can excuse that serve :P). Winning against much more experienced and imposing looking Serena must have been like a dream for her but she didn't let that overwhelm her although the tension was obvious on the face right from the beginning and till the last point. This sure smells like teen spirit :)

kyonki..

Well, I was away and I was home cause since last 5 years, home is away. And while I was home, I watched, rather tried to watch some TV, something I don't get time to do normally while I am on campus. Watched no serials. Why? Kyonki bardaasht ki bhi koi had hoti hai. Could not have watched any music channel. Why? Kyonki sharam naam ki bhee koi cheez hoti hai. Watched 3 movies. Kyonki akal naam ki cheez bhi kabhi kabhi ghaas charne jaati hai. Watched News. Kyonki aadat se sabhi mazboor hote hain. Watched some sports. Kyonki supporter naam ki bhi kuch cheez hoti hai. And I thought hard why I used to like TV so much and how I ever managed to watch so many movies on TV and even managed to like some of them. I must say that a movie that one likes on "budhoo baksa" got to be very good. It is absolutely pathetic experience, good only for the movies where it is actually recommended that u take a break after every 5-10 minutes to actually keep ur mind in sane state. For the rest

The truth behind abhaga

A Appealing B Brainy H Helpful A Amazing G Glamorous A Ambivalent Name / Username: he he, well now I have something to live upto actually :P

Click it with Songs

I often wonder how strange our brain is and the strangest part seems to be our memory. In technical terms, our memory is what we computer scientists call "Content Addressable Memory". So we do not actually need to know where exactly in our brain, something is stored. We just think of some related thing or about some part of the thing and the whole thing comes rushing forth. Now sometimes these associations are very obvious and at other times, quite bewildering. They also tend to differ from person to person. I listen to music a lot and I have found that I can infact draw up a very nostalgic map of my life in terms of songs. Everytime I listen to some of the songs, they bring back memories of gone times and at times they are so vivid that I can hardly contain my emotions. I feel happy or sad or peaceful just like I am living that moment again. It is a wonderful feeling to say the least. Some of the prominent ones are (though I doubt they will make any sense to anybody apar

Trainspotting, Green Day and Satyendra Dubey

Getting busy as July is coming up. So no time to write critical reviews of everything if I want to do as many things as I used to. Well I am being a little selfish here but can't help it. So in the meanwhile only small lists will be coming up here: Books: finished "Daddy long legs" by Jean Webster. A quick and easy read but 1) is meant for children and 2) is quite outdated (was published in 1915). Reading "The best of Satyajeet Ray". Most of the stories are for children but some are rather mature in tone. Movies: I can't believe I forgot to write an entry for "The Whale Rider". Take my word and watch it today. One of the few movies which brought me to tears. Also saw "Trainspotting" and I was not disappointed inspite of the fact that I was waiting to see it since quite sometime now. Music: Right now its GreenDay and GreenDay with some Hootie and the Blowfish in between. GreenDay is just awesome especially their first album Dookie

Hum met Tum

Hum-Tum is cute and funny. Nice for some light hearted entertainment. Both Rani and Saif has become seasoned actors and are a treat to watch :). One disheartening factor was that ultimately this movie also turned out to be a copy of "Harry met Sally" which I have not seen yet and so I enjoyed Hum-Tum. However it is sad that even all the good Hindi Movies turn out to be inspired from some foreign movie. For the record: (Not personally verified since I have not seen the English ones) Ghulam: On the Water Front Munna Bhai MBBS: Patch Adams Hum Tum: Harry Met Sally Mohabbaten: Dead Poet's Society (my loathing for Mohabbatein increased quite a lot after watching the original English one) even paap, the debut movie of Pooja Bhatt the director draws inspiration from many movies including "the witness" among others.
I have been promising myself that I'll post something here, whole last week. There are a couple of issues I have been thinking about but as usual, I have been breaking these promises with almost marvelous consistency :( The reading dept is going weak now a days. Have only read 1-2 short stories by Satya Jeet Ray in all of last week and these stories are surprisingly modern. I mean very much different from the impression I had but this will be the issue of another post when I am done reading the collection. In the meantime I watched HP3 and hated it. The book was way too better. I am quite at a loss at understanding the applauds it seems to be getting by the critics and viewers. They have left out almost everything from the story. Considering the size of HP4 and HP5, I doubt what is going to be their fate :(. The lead actors overact most of the time save for Ms. Granger. She is beginning to look nice and is okey in the acting dept also. Hope to see more of her outside the HP s
Finished "Interpreter of Maladies" today. Considering the fact that it has only 9 stories, it should have been a one day affair but I never managed to take out that one day. Instead I read it 1-2 stories a day after every 3-4 days. Now that I finally finished it with a marathon of 4 stories today, I think I enjoyed it much more by reading in parts, taking time to reflect on the stories as I read them. So the next obvious thing: the best story on the collection. Well I'll rather not chose one best but I liked "Temporary Measure", "Interpreter of Maladies", "Sexy" and "Third and the Last Continent". A very striking feature of the stories is that they are very rich in details. Unlike Arundhati Roy, whose plush language is a treat to read, or just behold for that matter, Jhumpa is all about details. Specially the details about food !! I could almost taste it in my mouth. And think about my plight when I had to go and eat mess foo
The hostel messes in IITK are lately being refurnished and they have got this new self service system in place now. Also the old row based sitting system is gone and there are many smaller tables. So u are free to sit wherever u want and with ur friends. I find it a welcome change from the regular sit-in-the-order-eat-in-quantums style. During summers, students from other hostels (Hall 5) are also eating in hall 2 mess. Now there is a strange thing I have seen. Some of them just leave their plates on the tables after eating and since I have heard this myself, it is not that they forget to do it. For some of them, it is an unacceptable idea that they are supposed to pick up their plates and put them to sink/trolly. I am quite amazed since I have always felt that the old practice of leaving ur plates on the tables in the mess was actually pretty bad. Since my childhood I have learned to go and put my plate in the sink. In fact letting somebody else pick up my plate (read my mom or my sis
ha, before I forget, I'll put it down this time. I listened to this song from "Akele hum,akele tum" and was thinking from where it is inspired. Finally today, the puzzle was solved. The song "Aisa zakhm diya hai" is inspired from "Child in Time" by Deep Purple :). And for that matter "Mera dil tere liye, dhadakta hai" from Ashiqui is inspired form John Farnham's "You're the Voice" which incidently is quite a nice song, one which u should listen to !! Watched "Whale Rider" and "Kill Bill 2". Will write about them sometime later. Also made my first mix tape :). I'll have to think if I should make it public :P

Yet Another Personality Test

My Bloginality is ENFP !!! "As an ENFP, you are Extraverted, iNtuative, Feeling , Perceiving. This makes your primary focus on Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Feeling. This is defined as a NF personality, which is part of Carl Jung's Idealist (Identity Seeking) type, and more specifically the Champions or Inspirer. As a weblogger, you may not be consistant in posts. Although, if you find a specific focus on their journal or a very flexible manner of writing, it may be more fufilling. Because you are warm and see so many posibilities in life, you may inspire others to follow in your footsteps with a journal." -copied with due respect and reference from here Though I think it to be a bit of a fraud in the sense that the questions in the test are too direct and in a sense provide everything that they later tell me. But what the heck, they are fun :) and anyway I would like everybody to read what they have to say about me :P. So go ahead click that link !!
Seems like this is a love-hate day. Listened to tatu just now for the first time. Everything, the music, the vocals is pretty ordinary. Still, I don't know why but it stirs my heart. Watched the video "All the things she said" and they feel just so right together. I am amazed that I am even writing this but the chemistry between the girls looks awesome. May be I need to take chm101 again :( Song of the Moment: Liquid by "Jars of Clay". One of those songs which just get on ur tongue and mind and won't go. So *singable* if there is any such word :).
Though I hate chain mails and this thing happens to be a slight variation of the same, I'll do it anyway. The job is to: 1. Grab the nearest book 2. Open the book to page 23 3. Find the fifth sentence 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions and what I found nearest to me was "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri and the sentence 5 on page 23 says: "In March, Dacca had been invaded,torched and shelled by the Pakistani army." Not very interesting, is it? What a pity that such a boring sentence would come up from such a lovely book but such is life :)
Last 15 days have been extra ordinary. Unfortunately, all I can do to give u an idea is show u following lyrics: Everytime that I look in the mirror All these lines on my face gettin’ clearer The past is gone It went by like dust to dawn Isn’t that the way Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay I know what nobody knows Where it comes and where it goes I know it’s everybody’s sin You got to lose to know how to win Half my life is in books’ written pages Live and learn from fools and from sages You know it’s true All the things come back to you Sing with me, sing for the years Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears Sing with me, if it’s just for today Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away (x2) Dream on, dream on Dream yourself a dream come true Dream on, dream on Dream until your dream come true Dream on, dream on, dream on... Sing with me, sing for the years Sing for the laughter and sing for the tears Sing with me, if it’s just for