In the name of god

When I reached my office last monday, I found my teammate's desk empty. I messaged him that instant 'Hey, bunk kyun mara aaj?' No reply. I messaged him again but never got a reply. He is not the sorts who wouldnt reply to an sms. Worried, I asked my TL if she knew anything. It was only then that I came to know of his cousin who had passed away in the recent delhi blasts. I was appalled to the core. These blasts had been just "breaking news" to me. '24 feared dead in blasts' . A little bit of discussion with my family about how no place is safe to live in these days, some repeated telecasts of the post-blast scenes on the news channels and a few articles on the newspaper on how the police, the intelligence and ATS in India are still not efficient enough to "tackle" terrorism and I would be done with it. But now when I see the look on the face of my teammate who has lost a loved one, I cant help but think how low (for lack of a 'worse' word) can the religious fundamentalists be that they can commit such a hideous act in the name of something which doesnt even exist (If god really exists, why is he/she/it not doing anything to put a stop to all this?).

"We, the INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN, ask Allah, the Almighty to accept from us these 9 explosions, which were planned to be executed in the holy month of Ramadan" was written in the email sent by them just few minutes before the bombs went off. Really?? Are they really serious or is it some kinda joke?? Those terrorists are not tribals but well-educated people. So even educated people these days believe that waging a holy war and killing innocent people is their moral obligation towards their religion. What happened to all those "Education brings awareness" kinda quotes?? I know its a banal question but the fact that people can turn into beasts over some mythological stories just escapes me. They have always shown god as compassionate and just but have also changed the 'rules and regulations' according to their comfort. A little bit of research tells me "Collective punishment and indiscriminate war were commanded or approved , especially in cases of idolatry in the Hebrew Bible which is considered sacred by all three traditions.... In spite of the Quranic statement against forcing religion on others, Muslim leaders have sometimes threatened to kill unbelievers if they did not accept Islam..... Around the ninth century, an important evolution of Christian thinking occurred, killing unbelievers was actually declared by popes Leo IV and John VIII to be spiritually beneficial for Christian soldiers."

They call themselves religious but they are nothing but full of shit. This is more than enough to prove it. "Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, claimed the mouse is "one of Satan's soldiers" and makes everything it touches impure. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases." Where exactly are we going wrong? What is that one supernatural thing that needs to be done to put some brains into not only these Islamic fundamentalists but even into our own BJP, RSS and VHP enthusiasts? which I think is the only way to tackle terrorism. No amount of Police or Intelligence is going to help. Ah well! I guess this is where "god" will finally have to step in.

Philosophical crap

"...If all is in truth Sachchidananda, death, suffering, evil, limitation can only be the creations, positive in practical effect, negative in essence, of a distorting consciousness which has fallen from the total and unifying knowledge of itself into some error of division and partial experience... ...The Life Divine justifies how the discordant elements can be reconciled into the image of the divine Unity. Actually what happens is something more than mere reconciliation, for the discordant elements are transfigured into higher terms through a process of transcendence, prior to reconciliation.... ...Transcendence transfigures; it does not reconcile, but rather transmutes opposites into something surpassing them that effaces their oppositions.... "

"...If one distills the essence of all established approaches to realization, then this is all they boil down to. Anything else that I attempt to do would be a movement within consciousness and as long as my center is exclusively within consciousness- i.e within a subject object relationship -I remain vulnerable to sufferring. Doing this sadhana amounts to the wiping away of all frames of reference, which is my only salvation, for every frame of reference, however elevated or exalted, brings about dualism..."

"....The essence of Modernism lies, as I see it, in the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence. Kant used logic to establish the limits of logic, and while he withdrew much from its old jurisdiction, logic was left all the more secure in what there remained to it..."

These are excerpts from just few of the passages which come for Reading comprehension in the verbal section. Trust me, everytime I read any article like the ones given above, I feel like strangling myself to make the pain that starts erupting in my pea-sized brain feel less life-threatening. I dont understand why people try to complicate the already complicated thing called life and to make it worse use really tough words which probably come in these books before they come in the oxford dictionary. Instead of mulling over topics like life and art, I think the authors of these kinda books should just sit at home, drink chilled beer and watch Steven Spielberg movies. That way their brains will be busy trying to make some sense out of the movie. And if they really want to flaunt their vocabulary skills, they can always participate in the International 'scrabble' or 'crossword' tournament. There are people who claim that books like 'The alchemist' (which is one of the two philosophical books I've read and I am grateful to god I am still alive to tell the tale) and 'The secret' have changed their lives. I just fail to understand how a shitty story where the "soul of the caravan speaks to the soul of the desert" can change someone's life. I tried reading "One" by Richard bach but stopped at the 30th page or something just when my brain was about to explode. I could finish "Johnathan livingston seagull" because it was not even 20 pages long, so the threshold was never reached. When I say I finished, I mean I read every word of it, without being able to comprehend even a single sentence. And this is exactly how I solve RCs in the verbal section and unsurprisingly all of them go wrong. Maybe I should wear a blindfold and mark the answers. The chances of getting a right answer would probably be much higher.

6 MORE things I wanna do before I die...

These are No. 11 to 16 in my list of "things to do before I die" . To see my first ten, go here... The first one as usual involves a car :)...

11. Drive the Bugatti Veyron Car atleast once in my lifetime. For those who dont know the Bugatti here are the details: Produced by Volkswagen, second fastest production car in the world (the first one being SSC Ultimate Aero TT with 256 mph), W16 engine, 1001 hp, 253 mph(406 km/h). Oh man!! anything for that speed.

12. Learn to play atleast one musical instrument. I have made it my mission to play Hotel Carlifornia and I am putting it in this list because trust me playing an instrument is not as simple as it may seem. I've been trying to play "Nothing else matters" on my guitar for so long and all I can play right now is Twinkle Twinkle and Godfather theme song (which is very simple btw). Trust me, it takes a lot more Patience and hardwork than you would think.

13. Fire a sniper rifle. I have a played a couple of shooting computer games like Counter-strike and I cannot explain the pleasure I derive out of shooting an enemy with a sniper rifle. If thats how it is in PC, just imagine how it would be in real life. Not that I want to kill anyone in real life. Well... not yet, but you never know ;) .

14. Skydive atleast once in my life. If Skydiving is only for professionals or something then atleast experience the largest bungee jump in the world. Basically I want to experience the feeling of flying in the first case and the feeling of free falling at g=9.8m/s2 in the second case.

15. Hack. This is same as the 8th point in my previous list but just more specific. Of all the illegal stuff I wanna do, hacking tops the list. I dont think I need to explain the feeling you get when you get access to something which is highly confidential, illegally. Not that I am a hardcore techie or anything. I cannot even format the text in MS word the way I want, let alone "hacking". But the feeling of getting unauthorized access to confidential data, even if accidently, is just too good.

16. Live the life of a farm girl in some far-off grassland for a month or so. I want to take a break from the traffic noise, pollution, tall congested buildings, my professional life and experience pure nature. I want to wake up in the morning with the sound of birds chirping, take a nap in the afternoon under the shade of a tree and lie flat on the ground and admire the beauty of stars in the sky.

"Its time we started looking..."

"Its time we started looking..." I heard my Mom say as we(me, mom and dad) were sitting in the drawing room doing our daily morning ritual of reading newspapers. I looked up from my paper and waited for her to finish her sentence. Its time we started looking for what? a new place to live in? a new flat? a good car? What??
"You know its not so easy to find one". I thought she was reffering to some job she expected me to find so that I can get out of Pune. Considering that I am pretty dumb to get a job off-campus, the "not so easy to find one" phrase seemed quite plausible.
"and finding a vegetarian one is going to be tougher". There you go again. These parents and their love for beating around the bush I tell ya. Now only after her 3rd hint did I realize what they wanted to look for. For a minute I tried to make sure that I wasnt dreaming and when I was sure I wasnt, I thought of suing my parents for child marriage.

"You are kidding.. you do know I am 22 right??" I tried to fight.
"No one is going to get you married off at this age. You dont realize how tough it is find a perfect match. Plus I want a vegetarian guy from our caste. I am telling you, a vegetarian in our caste is very rare. I bet it will take more than 3-4 years to find one" She tried to fight back.
"I dont care if I find one in 3 years or 30 years.. I hate to shop for my own clothes...how did you even get the idea that I would be ok with shopping for guys" Well.. the whole concept of arranged marriage is very similar to shopping, isnt it! similar?.. I should have said exactly the same..
"Okay... then tell me if you like somebody already?" she shocked me with that question. Wow I couldnt believe my mom, who for the past 22 years had been in the we-hate-love-marriages league, said this. I even thought she secretly joined the sainiks in vandalizing the greeting cards shops on Valentine's day. May be she was ready with a gun or something so that she could shoot me at the slightest sound of 'yes'. I took this chance to portray myself as the "good-homely-girl" and said "How did you even think that I could be roaming out with a so-called boyfriend behind your backs"
I decided to end the topic then and there and said firmly "I dont want anyone taking this topic out from now on. One more word and I am never coming back to this house" I am very good at throwing such dialogues dramatically I tell ya.

Man!! It is as if just yesterday I said to myself "Thank god I still have many years left before I can get married" and even before I know it I am already in my "marriagable age" as people call it. Just the thought of forcibly staying with some stranger and compromising half the things in your life and cooking and taking care of the house is so scary. I dont understand why people get married to strangers and to make it worse spend all their life's savings on it too. I can rather buy two Honda city ZXs with that money and save myself all that trouble at the same time. I dont fear staying single for the rest of my life coz somehow I am pretty sure that the 'love bug' will never bite me. If you want "Companionship" just get a dog and if you want a kid you can always adopt one. Keeping a dog is 100 times better than keeping a husband. I dont think I need to explain why. I will live my life my way and not go with the flow where people get married just bcoz they think they have to within that age. I will continue saying "I still have many years left before I get married".

Something I made...

I made this last weekend when I was forced to stay back in pune for some stupid work. I took the picture from this month's DNA magazine's cover page. I somehow just loved the snap and couldnt resist making a sketch of it.

I am not sure if I can call it a sketch. I mean I have used color pencils and not just a single pencil. It cannot be a painting as I did not really paint (or did I?). Does coloring using pencils come under painting?? I have no clue, havent been to any art class and I dont really care. It just helps me take my mind off other mundane things.

My so-called independent life

I had opened my blogger dashboard to update my other blog when my eyes fell on:

CONFESSIONS OF A NOT-SO-DANGERO... MIND

43 Posts, last published on Jul 4, 2007
I guess its high time I updated this blog. Exactly 10 days from July 4th I had left Mumbai for Pune to join the software company i got recruited into during my college placements. First time away from home, I was kinda apprehensive but at the same time very excited to live the "independent life". Let me tell you how my life has changed since then.

1. First of all I am earning, not high enough to buy myself a car but high enough to survive on my own, buy stuff using the debt card, buy expensive gifts and treat friends in classy restaurants. well...you can never flaunt your parent's money the way you can flaunt your own "hard-earned" cash.
2. I get to reach office 1 hour late and still not worry about the defaulter's list.
3. I get to sit for meetings in swanky meeting rooms and act as if I am trying to "make this world a better place to live in".
4. I am calling people 20-30 years elder to me by their first names. This is not that big a problem but calling a 50 year old guy- 'Gajanan' (thats my senior project manager) tends to get a bit awkward.
5. I eat bread for breakfast, cow-dung for lunch in office, and dal (read water) with chapati and rice for dinner. Maggi has become my survival kit and tastes better than anything else here.
6. I stay up till 2 in the night to wash my clothes. During day time I rejoice when my program runs successfully and at night I rejoice when I manage to remove the stains off my clothes.
7. Life without TV suddenly doesnt seem impossible.
8. I can now differentiate between a good branded cigarrette and a local one just by the smell. No please, I dont smoke. Its just that 8 out of 10 people in pune smoke . I get into the lift after lunch and I have no choice but to bear the stench of smoke till it reaches the 7th floor. I didnt know so many people in this world wanted to kill themselves.
9. I get to come home smelling like beer. Oh no again, I dont drink. Once in our office party some drunk idiots ended up spraying beer all over the dance floor. May be next time my company should think twice before giving out beer bottles for free on parties.
10. I have not seen a single crow in pune. A place in India without crows!! Not that it has anything to do with my life but still....weird I tell you.

Well... If you dont have a boyfriend, dont drink or smoke, dont take drugs, hate shopping, hate partying till late night, then this so-called Independent life isnt gonna be any different than the normal one.

Oh... did I mention 'reading novels'..

I have never been as jobless and topicless as I am this instant, thanks to the one month vacation and intense heat in chennai which made me change my decision and stay at home. Being at home 24-7 is not that bad after all. I mean when and where else can you keep yourself busy trying to keep yourself busy. Nothing can be more heavenly than waking up without letting the alarm ringtone kill your blissful dream, spending more than an hour taking bath without worrying about getting late to college, reading novels, having breakfast in the morning time and not during the lunchtime, reading novels, watching a relaxing movie on the TV, reading novels, playing solitaire on a high speed PC, oh... did I mention reading novels? Undoubtedly 'reading novels' tops any person's "Things to do this vacation" list. Well it did top my "Things to do during my last sem of college" list. Some of the ones I managed to read last sem were...

1. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts- The much hyped very greatly written 933-page novel. An amazing start, engrossing storyline, in-depth description, thought-provoking philosophical one liners but sadly a very hindi-movie-ish, cliched and over-stretched ending.
2. The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur- This book is anything but inscrutable. Trackless, cliched, unrealistic and filled with PJs.
3. Uncle Fred in the springtime by PGWodehouse- Partly amusing but couldnt make me laugh out loud. You can easily visualize it as a classic comedy. Not really my kinda comedy though.
4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho- Plain Philosophical crap. I dont care if the "soul of the caravan can speak to the soul of the desert" or if "the horse knows the language of life".
5. To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee- A simple story of a simple family which describes the complicated nature of human behaviour. It teaches the important lessons of life in a very beautiful way. Indeed a masterpiece of American literature.
6. One night at the call center by Chetan Bhaghat- Blech!! Warning:Donot read this book if you donot want to puke. They should put a "For children under 5 years of age" tag on the book.
7. The Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini- An epic of fathers and sons, of friendship and brotherhood, of faith and betrayal, of sins and atonement. One of the best books I've read. Unputdownable and undoubtedly a must read.
8. Acts of faith by Erich segal- Another favourite of mine. This book is about religion, hope and faith and how they can greatly influence one's life. A must read for today's stereotyped youth.
9. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller- Amazing 'Laugh out loud' PJs but sadly no storyline.

Visitors to this blog, please suggest some good books. You must have guessed that I usually like no-nonsense book with a deep thought-provoking story. Philoshopical books are a sure no. I have never read a romance novel but would like to read one. Meanwhile Ill continue playing solitaire to pass my time :-) .

"You've been tagged"

I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go on line, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: "You've been tagged."...lol just kidding... was watching the movie "You've got mail". What a lovely movie. Anyway I dont wait impatiently to hear that I've been tagged. Actually this is the first time.

I've been tagged by humbl devil

Honestly speaking I had no idea about this tagging business. The phrase "You've been tagged" sounded something like "You've been caught red-handed". A Ctrl+Alt+W for 'Tagged' gave me nothing new "Adj : Bearing or marked with a label or tag". Didnt really help me. A google search on "You've been tagged" took me to many odd blogs with such tagging posts. After a lot of research I finally found out the meaning to this phrase. Here I go now.

One of your scars, how did you get it??? On my left eyebrow, fell down the stairs... no matter what my eyebrows never match...
What do you want more than anything right now??? An SUV
What is your favorite smell??? smell of nature
Do you get scared in the dark??? never... I love wandering off in dark
Coffee or energy drinks??? energy drinks.. coffee sucks big time.. and even it fails to keep me awake.
If you could eat anything right now, what would it be??? a large cake (provided my mom makes it and provided I dont gain even an ounce of weight)
Who is the last person who made you mad??? Mr. Ogden Nash (name changed to avoid another violence)
What is the best way to tell someone how much they mean to you??? hugging
What is the one number you call often??? I am too stingy to call someone and too lazy to give missed calls
What do get complimented about the most??? Lemme see.... well ironically I get complimented for all the bad habits I have
Where were you born??? Inside a hospital...
What do you want for your birthday??? Please refer question no. 2
What would you do if alcohol became illegal??? would drink it even if I were a non-drinker.. feels just so good to break the law...
Which is your favourite finger??? Ring finger... I love wearing rings...
Do you like your handwriting??? No... but surprisingly others do...
What is your favorite lunch meal??? dal-rice and Thayeer sadam( curd rice)... Indian food rocks
If you were another person, would you be friends with you??? no..:-)
Where is your second home??? there can be only one home
Do you trust others easily??? I dont even go anywhere close to trust
What was your favorite toy as a child??? my green teddy
Do you un-tie your shoes when you take them off??? yes.. how will they come off then?
Thing you ate??? food :-)
Are you too shy to ask someone out??? no... I just say "please go out"

Saying "I dont know" helps

My vivas got over today, it was the last viva of my engineering career. Man, what a joke it is. Its the same thing every year. The college gets over a few days before the vivas. Students buy books, get mass-xeroxs on the last day of college and start studying one day before the viva. They flood the corridor outisde the viva lab and wait for the first batch of students to come out after their viva and ask for reviews. The reviews range from "Arey external sahi cool banda hai" to "Abbe sala kholke maar raha hai".

Over the past four years Ive learnt that there are three kinds of people. Firstly there are people who are god-sent techies, true engineers. Second come those who are not techies but somehow manage to read 5 reference books inside out and say things like "Arey that answer is in the 3rd para of page 384 of that ref book". Thirdly we have people who dont study a thing and dont give a damn too. The external can also be of two types: one who asks direct questions from the book and second who asks random "general" questions which you will never find in the books you read. These 5 types of students and profs can make some interesting combinations. If the prof is asking direct questions, the first and the second kinds get away while the third gets screwed. If the prof asks "general questions" only the first kind (sometimes even the third) survives.

I certainly dont come under the first category. I am partly second(say 40%) partly third(60%). If the prof asks very direct basic questions i am saved but if high funda techinal ones are asked I am screwed. One bad thing about me, I never say "I dont know". Ill put in my maximum creativity and come up with my own invented answer. This can be good or bad depending on the prof. Some profs appreciate your creativity but some "jealous ones" dont.

Recently I tried creating my own solution for a link breakage problem in a ring topology network in an IEEE 802.5 LAN and the external says with a smirk on her face "you are just throwing things, its a technical subject, dont guess". I felt like throwing things at her..literally. Why dont they encourage creativity? So what if the answer is absurd. Every scientist's first try was absurd. This way I end up getting less than my partner who never opens his mouth. I guess someone has truly said: "Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish". From now on ill try my best to say "I dont know" rather than babbling some stuff and save my creativity for other things like painting or this blog. Now I ask myself the question "Will I stop babbling crap?" I would say "I dont know":) (I do learn but dont change so easily)

P.S
May 17th, 1310 hours;

I just finished studying that chapter of LANs from two different reference books and I found out that my "creative" answer to that linkage problem is very much possible (acc to the book Leon Garcia). And all I get for this creativity is some stupid criticism.. #$%£$*

Just another furore

This is probably the 4th or the 5th time I am writing a post criticising India for raising public furore for silly matters. Burning effigies and shouting slogans have become everyday news here in India. The furore over India losing the world cup has not yet got over that poeple are out with a new one. Sometimes I wonder if there are people employed just for such protests. I think there are. Dont people have better things to do? dont they have a job? Dont they have other things to worry about?

India seemed to have made just another public national enemy. An Indian court has issued arrest warrants for Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty after he kissed her on the cheek at a public event to promote Aids awareness. This incident has now been termed as “highly sexually erotic” and “transgressed all limits of vulgarity”. If people here care so much about our Indian culture why do we celebrate Valentines day when it has nothing to do with our tradition. If this incident can be termed as vulgar you should probably take a stroll around Marine drive and Band stand in Mumbai. You should also see all those stupid lip-munching scenes in our hindi movies. You can get a better meaning for the word vulgar.

Richard Gere is now condemned to death. So much for getting involved with charities which look after HIV-infected people and orphans as well as other AIDS prevention groups in the country. According to me the actor certainly shouldnt have done any of that 'kissing' but creating such protests over that seem very silly speacially after he apologised. Our Indian lady didnt seem to have any problem with that too. And the media too should concentrate more on the actual news rather than spreading grapevines (My god I dont know what the news channels turned into during the abhi-ash wedding).

college in one post

Out of heaven a.k.a colony .....travelling .......'399'.....Bhakti bhavan......."Wheres the entrance to the college?"...... no more uniforms..........trying to look my best the first day.......just to find boys shake hands with babes wearing low-waist jeans:)........fifth floor.......... lift not
allowed for students.........Chalega, excercise ho jayega (thinking-What the "$#£).........lectures (read sleeptime).......... aiming the 8:20 bus........... catching the 8:55 bus instead.........reaching just in time for the second lecture (sometimes the third)..........defaulter .........assignments..........'chapofying' some random text written in timbuktu...........practicals ............ bathroo
m sized labs ..........losing new pens............stealing other's new pens .........term tests......."What!!we have a test today??" .......friends.........timepass .........PJs (poor jokes)........10:30 break....... tiffin boxes........ hundreds of 'em......... ambrosia .........canteen .......endless laughter ......birthdays .......... contri gifts .......treat ..........travelling 3 hours for a 1 hour treat..........realizing how much I hated
travelling ........ 26th july........5 hours walk in rain through floods.........trekking..........yogi hills........ matheran ........overnight stay....... night outs .........mobile phones...... sms forwards ..........non-veg(not food) ........finding that one special friend finallly........talking for hours on the phone .......on topics ranging from Iraq war to alien invasion........ online chatting........
birthday again......in search of a perfect gift ........calls at 3am on the day of exam........really great time....... some stupid misunderstandings....... crap.........killing the friendship in the process.........'moving on'.........orkut........ vivas........"I am not very sure sir" ........ still getting 20 out of 25....... final
exams........classes notes mass xerox ....... phekhna..........rumours of exams results already out.........fests........CAT........ flash cards.........only 5 boxes ........presentations ...........on the spot preparation .........impromtu speech....... project ........project group's day out.......... a great team ........ some ups.......lots downs .......lots more lessons learnt ........vodka......late night parties........ cocaine...... :)jus kidding

WHERE ELSE BUT COLLEGE... Do I have to say I am gonna miss it...

(the last three... Even I AM not into those things:) )

Fans or Fanatics???

I am not much into cricket but I am certainly aware of the drama that plays around it. SriLanka thrashed India down by 69 runs and knocked it out of the World cup tournament in the first stage itself. Our dependence on Bermuda for getting a back door entry to the second stage just tells us how hopeless our team's performance has become. This has turned the lives of our players upside down. Earlier, they were the super heros; now they are looked upon as criminals. Earlier, they were busy going around endorsing all types of products; now they dread to step into their own country. Earlier, policemen were deployed outside the homes of players to keep the adoring fans out; now, the policemen are there to protect the players from violent attacks by those same fans.

When a small kid can underperform in his final exams because of the pressure put on him by his parents, how can you expect our players to perform well in the matches with the whole of nation continously looking over them with highly expectant eyes. I dont understand why we Indians view the cricket matches as a battle between nations and not as just a sport. Why are we worried more about the world cup than the innumerable other problems we are facing as a nation?

Is it becuase we all are hopeless optimists who are just ready to mistake dreams for reality? Or may be we all are just gullible; gullible and naive enough to become prey to marketers and advertisers. You certainly know about many of Pepsi's very famous campaigns like 'The Blue Billion', 'Oooh Aaah India, Aaah Yaa India' and 'Men In Blue'. This hopeless optimism is nothing but the creation of advertisers who well took advantage of our gullibility to promote their products even those as small as biscuits and hairoils. I totally fail to understand why someone would buy a certain hairoil just because shewag endorsed it even with almost no hair in his head. And whats with this whole "Buy this shampoo and go on a date with John abraham" thingy? Why would I want to have a dinner with a total stranger?

I guess our players deserve this humiliation for trying to earn some quick bucks by endorsing so many products and appearing in so many ads promising the dream of world cup even after knowing that they are just average players. Sadly Consumers are stupid enough to buy products endorsed by sportstars and filmstars. Our Indian cricket team may have failed the worldcup but we Indians failed as a nation by being so naive ,petty minded and childish.

no point doing...

Things I see no point doing and wonder why the others do it...

1. Travelling all the way from one country to another just to get baked under the sun in a cricket stadium from where the players dont look any better than a bunch of ants, when you can sit in your house coolly and watch the match with your friends and family on a big flat screen TV getting to see the slow-motions from all possible angles.

2. Driving all the way to and from your gym when jogging that same way to and from your gym might help you burn more calories than you would inside the gym.

3. Working out (jogging or walking) on a treadmill for 1 hour when you can always jog or walk around your neighbourhood for free for any amount of time. I've always wondered...Why do people make use of electricity to rotate the belt in the treadmill for burning calories when they can instead burn those same calories to rotate the belt and generate electricity?

4. Travelling from your place to a big temple in another state and standing in an endless queue just to get a glimpse of the god's idol when god is everywhere (even inside you) and all you need is some peace of mind and a pure heart with strong conviction to pray.

5. Going to a music concert and standing 4 km away from the stage not even getting enough area of ground to stand on and enough volume of air to breathe when you can rather throw a party with loudspeakers blaring those same songs on your backyard and dance your heart out.

6. Buying a music cd of 10 songs costing more than 300 bucks when you can download those same 10 songs from the internet and burn it into a cd and print out the front and back covers and add it to your music collection.

7. Buying a 200-page book for 500 bucks from crossword when you can get the same book from the streets of VT for less than 70 bucks. (Who gives a damn about piracy..)

8. Going to Essel world and sitting on the most chilling roller coaster ride when you can sit on the back-seat of a rickety public transportation bus and ride through the roads of Mumbai.

The Painting...

Finally a painting after such a long time. This vacation while I was rummaging through my study table, I found my water-color cakes I won as a prize when I was 8 years old. I couldnt resist giving my painting skills a try. I was painting again after 6 years. Well... The painting of the boy isnt entirely mine. I took the picture from one of my childhood's short-stories book. The rest is photoshop. The poem on the right is the one I wrote a long time back called "Is there a way out?" and the pictures on the left were taken from the net.

I would like to thank my neighbour aunty for lending me her painitng brush (she let me keep it too). I would also like to thank a very good friend of mine Mayuresh for scanning the picture for me. :)
(Click on the pic to enlarge it)

The Racism Within

Celebrity Big Brother moved from being a just another TV entertainment to an international race debate. Indian actress Shilpa Shetty won the British reality TV show after enduring alleged racial bullying that sparked off a nation-wide furore. Ever since that she has been branded as an international anti-rascism icon. Apparently this is not something new. You probably know about the recent Arcelor-Mittal merger, where the very idea of racism aroused a strong feeling of hatred and anger towards the West. Undoubtedly we Indians are the biggest targets of racism in the world. For a country that lived through more than a 100 years under the "White's rule", we have always considered ourselves as victims. However, when it comes to racial discrimination, knowingly or unknowingly we Indians are big hypocrites.

Our idea of racism is a well defined color code. White is superior and beautiful while Black is inferior and not even close to beautiful hence undesirable. Just look at our fairness creams ads and matrimonial ads in our newspaper and youll know just how obssessed we are with the skin color. Dont stay black or else youll remain unmarried and jobless, instead use our whitening cream, turn fair in a week and boys and jobs both will come begging to you, so claims our fairness products' ads. Try spotting one famous black model or actress in India and see how terribly you fail. Recent reports that immigrants from Africa were being denied housing clearly shows our attitude towards color.

Color apart, racism in India can also be discussed in the context of caste discrimination. Caste discrimination is very much alive even so many years after its abolition. The many recent horrifying stories on the injustices done to the dalits across the country by the so-called upper class people justifies the point. Not to forget the religion and language barrier. The Madrasis dont get along with the Punjabis and a hindu getting into a mosque or a church is considered as a blasphemy. Its even more shocking to see young people, the so-called future generation of India practice racism and castism. Its really disheartening to see some of my own friends join online communities like the brahmin community or the mullus or gujjus community.

Why dare to stand up as one nation when we cant see our own compatriots with equal eyes? Why is it that we are developing on all grounds but yet refusing to grow out of underlying social malpractices? Are we really developing without morality?

Race against time

Clockstoppers, Back to the future, Star trek, Kate and Leopold, Minority Report, The Terminator. The idea of travelling forward into the future or back into the past has always fascinated science fiction writers. It certainly had fascinated me when I read the novel "The Time machine" a very long time back. Who wouldnt get fascinated? Wouldnt it be cool to be able to go back to the past and prevent some terrible mistake from happenning and also be able to travel to the future and see whether you really succeed in winning the person you had a crush on (Instead of depending on crystal balls or tarot cards)? Time travelling is still an unsolved problem in physics. But amazingly, some weirdness of the quantum world now suggest that time travel is possible - at least in theory.

People have been suggesting ideas for time travel since centuries, but it was Albert Einsten who laid the foundation for the theoretical possibility of time travel with his theory of Special relativity. But first lets define "Time". There is no particular defination for time (you'll probably just look at your watch when someone says 'time') but Time has been designated as the fourth dimension of our universe, the first three being length, breadth and height (space that is). According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, time slows as an object approaches the speed of light. This has been observed in real life too. A high precision watch was sent on a space shuttle and when it came back it was back by fraction of a second. if one were to move away from the Earth at really very high velocities and return, more time would have passed on Earth than for the traveler. In this sense it is accepted that relativity allows "travel into the future". But the problem lies here. It is almost impossible to travel at a speed anywhere even close to the speed of light.

Lets consider you are in a race. During the race you discover a hidden shortcut. You take the shortcut without anyone noticing it. so you reach the finish line earlier than the others but because the others dont know about it, you win. Similarly there has to be a way to fool the universe, some kind of a shortcut to make you look as if you are travelling really fast. Physicist Kip Thorne believes that there could be some type of tunnel-like structure existing in the universe that could be used as a time travel portal. This tunnel-like structure is called a wormhole.
You know what a Black-hole is. Black holes have a huge gravitational pull that nothing can escape from them, not even light. The centre of a black hole is an infinitely dense point, called a singularity, where the laws of Physics no longer apply. Einstein's equations prove that such a singularity doesn't just end in a single point, but creates a tunnel that goes right through and opens out on the other side. Now this other side is somewhere else in spacetime, either in the future or in the past. Such a tunnel is called a wormhole. Unfortunately these things are still a hypothesis and there is absolutely no evidence. But you never know.

No matter what, problems will continue to exist like the very famous 'grandfather paradox'. What if you went back in time and prevented your grandfather from meeting your grandmother so that your mother was never born? Then you would never have been born... and so on. And also the 'Parallel universe' paradox. How can see yourself in the future or past when you are travelling? How can you split yourself? You cannot travel and not travel at the same time. But like I said you never know. Man has been able to invent things which once could be seen only on Dexter's Labroratory. Man has been able to prove my most favourite law of Physics - "Matter can neither be created nor destroyed" wrong (You probably know about Anti-matter). Anyway, Ladies and Gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, I bet we are not far from days where we would enter into a Time-machine or a Teleportation-machine (Desperately waiting for this one. Eh! how much I hate travelling).

The Ultimate justice

The year 2006 ended with a rather gruesome spectacle of Saddam's execution shown in the news almost 24-7. Saddam may have lost his life now. But he died the day he was caught (Dec 13'03) by the US forces, hiding in a small hole, dirt smeared face, umkempt hair, vulnerable like a beleaguered cat. Was this the same man who waged a decade-long war against Iran? Was this the same man who killed over 5000 Kurds using chemical weapons? Invaded Kuwait? Killed 148 Shias? Was this the same brutal dictator who once ruled the Middle east?

It all ended the day he was brought to US as a trophy of an overhasty, catastrophic and mindless war. Why the need of such a ruinous war against Iraq in the first place? According to the US it was because Saddam was an evil dictator who violated the human rights, violated UN resolutions, had weapons of mass destruction and had ties with Al Queda. True but not all. Yeah he indeed was an evil dictator, violated human rights, caused a genocide. He deserves this punishment. But If Saddam had been evil since the beginning why did the US continue supporting him, giving him intelligence information and military equipment after he used poison gas against Iraqis collaborating with Iran and hailed him as a great leader until 1990? On Nov 2002, Saddam allowed UN weapon experts back into Iraq. If Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, why hasnt the US found them yet? If he indeed had weapons why didnt he use them when he was attacked by the US? Leaving all this apart , does it make any sense to sacrifice over 3000 US soldiers and over 30000 Iraqis just to catch a single person? You dont need to be a humanitarian to say no. I now see no difference between what Saddam did and what US is doing now. Anyway, a beast is a beast and it should be brutally killed for all the brutal killings it did.

Surprisingly India condemned Saddam's execution calling it unfortunate. Unfortunate? A brutal tyrant was killed for all the atrocities he committed. I see nothing "Unfortunate" in that. But they say that it will just sharpen the already worse Shia-Sunni divide in Iraq. Theres a point. But wasnt Saddam the one who killed Shias and deepened the civil conflict between the Shias and Sunnis. Avenging him for that is kindof justified.The Vatican denounced the execution as "tragic," Kuwaitis and Iranians celebrated the death of the dictator who led wars against each of them. Reactions to Saddam's death were varied. While some strongly supported the execution, others condemned it. Some, however wished to see him brought to trial for his other actions alleged to have resulted in a much greater number of deaths than those he was convicted for. Isnt " The Ultimate justice" supposed to be "Unanimous"?

The subway guy

He sits in the busiest subway in town
His fingers move incessantly over the
musical holes of his precious flute
as if they have a life of their own

I notice he is wearing a vintage coat
May be to look his most presentable
May be to protect himself from the cold breeze
He seems lost in his own world of music

The flute succumbs to his touch
The magic unfurls as the music flows
caressing and comforting our lonely hearts
opening our eyes to the love still alive

Someone drops a token of appreciation
He never asks for it though
It tries to break the musical rhythm
But yet he goes on without a falter

He acknowledges our applause
with silent words that get lost in the crowd
I walk away humming the melody played
in this orchestra by the subway guy.

bell the kitten instead

Those who gave CAT this year might have understood why I used KITTEN in place of CAT. I've always had a profound respect towards the IIT and IIM entrance tests. They are among the very few exams in this world which are "tough" and which can really "filter" out the best-top-geniuses from other ordinary people. CAT is supposed to be known for its very tough Quantitative and Data Interpretation sections but this year's Quant and Reasoning were shockingly simple. Any person who has a decent IQ (and is not stupid enough to assume that CAT papers are always error-free and doesnt end up wasting time on a question with wrong options) could have cleared the cut-off. The verbal section was hard.. weird rather. Heres a question from the verbal section. We were supposed to select the most appropriate concluding sentence:

In the evolving world order, the comparative advantage of the United states lies in its military force. Diplomacy and international law have always been regarded as annoying encumbrances, unless they can be used to advantage against an enemy. Every active player in world affairs profess to seek only peace and to prefer negotiation to voilence and coercion. However,

(1)diplomacy has often been used as a mask by nations which intended to use force.
(2)when the veil is lifted, we commonly see that diplomacy is used as a disguise for the rule of force.
(3)history has shown that many of these nations do not practice what they profess.
(4)history tells us that peace is professed by those who intend to use voilence.
(5)when unmasked such nations reveal a penchant for the rule of force.

Lets analyze the options seperately. In the 2nd option its said that diplomacy is often used as a mask by nations which mean to use force. Wait a second, but isnt that the 1st option and the 5th option as well. Lets see what the top coaching classes have got to say on this. According to IMS and TIME the answer is 2. According to Career laucher its 1 and according to Career forum its 3. Only god knows what the actual answers is (and the IIM paper setters too). This time CAT is not going to select the best ones but only the good ones who also got lucky. In all it was a total disappointment.

Analyzing dreams

"Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes...
Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind."

-John Dryden

Enter the mystifying but yet fascinating world of dreams where the rules of reality do not apply. Some say dreams are just wishes our heart makes while some say dreams are postcards from our subconscious, inner self to outer self. According to Sigmund Freud dreams are an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious where the unconscious is the dominant force.

I've been a sound sleeper since my childhood and am still one. Nothing in this world can or rather has been able to (till now) affect my everyday sleep. So does that mean I am a "sound dreamer" too?. I dont know. One of the earliest memories of my dreams I have is of being chased by tigers and sharks. They werent exactly scary but trust me, you dont wanna know about it. Dreams I see now-a-days are more... say.. sensible, unrealistic yet sensible (atleast I no longer fight with sharks).

Sometimes I jump out of a tall building and start flying, gliding rather. Sometimes I fall onto the ground and actually feel the impact too. I once dreamt of myself sleeping and having a dream (weird!!).And once I was IN the game counter-strike (Ah! that was cool). 80% of the nights I dont dream at all. Actually 80% of the mornings I dont recall the dream I had the previous night. Its good in a way. Its good to wake up with a blank mind considering that you are going to spend the next 15 hours with some or the other thing invading your mind. But Sigmund Freud says otherwise. According to him dreams shouldnt be ignored, rejected or even suppressed but should be "accepted in its own right - not broken down and analysed out of existence".

Just a few weeks back I had this dream in which I was drowning. It was dark and cold. The freezing water kept pulling me inside. I was trying hard to fight against the stormy waves. I remember someone giving me a hand and pulling me out of the water. According to a dream interpreter drowning signifies being overwhelmed by emotions or repressed issues that is coming back to haunt you. ok..ya I do have issues. Small, normal, everyday issues, but they dont exactly "haunt" me. Yet this whole dream interpreting thing is worth a shot. But the more you brood over it the more complicated and philosophical it gets. I am happy with just the thrill of it (the dreams I mean). Its not everyday that you get to wake up with a chill going down your spine.

Heres a piece of information that might come helpful. According to a certain Dream Interpreter If you dream of eating frogs then you will find very little to gain in current relationships and associated love affairs. Whereever did he get the idea from??