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Great Words...

"It doesn't matter what we do until we accept ourselves. Once we accept ourselves, it doesn't matter what we do." - Charly Heavenrich

Unreliable Reliance

I stay in the financial capital of India. I am a subscriber of Reliance India Mobile. I need it because it offers me a highly favorable tariff plan. I am a victim too. Of their poor network. Poor network everywhere in a city like Mumbai. Unthinkable but true. Yes true.

Now that was a new style of writing I was trying out. Really short sentences. Real short. Well, without dwelling onto the same style of writing again, I will resume the topic. Reliance has proved to be a necessary evil as far as my cellphone is concerned. Think of the following scenarios. I will call myself 'me' and the other party i9.

Scenario 1
Embarrassment Level - High
Frustration Level - High
me: Hello
i9: Hello
me: Your voice is breaking!
i9: Well this is what you say all the time. Change your damn connection!
me: :( :(


Scenario 2
Embarrassment Level - High
Frustration Level - Very High
me: Hello
i9: Hello
...
...
(There is something really important going on)
...
...
me: blah blah blah
i9:
me: Are you there?
i9:
me: I cannot hear anything.
i9:
I hang up. I call again. But in vain. Raat baaki, baat baaki, hona hai jo, ho jaane do.
I keep grunting and keep trying.


Scenario 3
Embarrassment Level - High
Frustration Level - Very Very High
me: Hello
i9: Hello
...
...
(There is something really important going on)
...
...
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I get this stupid damn message on my screen "CALL DROPPED" !!
(These stupid call droppings was exactly what lead me to change my cellphone from LG to Nokia. I was happy to have a Nokia but even that did not help. )
Anyways, so after seeing a CALL DROPPED, I hang up. I call again. I get to hear the stupid engage tone.
I call again. This time, the number is not damn reachable!!
Losing my patience and frustrated with Reliance, I try again. This time, the cellphone things call has gone through, but the response is blank !


Scenario 4
Embarrassment Level - Very High
Frustration Level - Very Very High
There is a plan called "Night Talk", in which, for a monthly payment of 875 bucks, you get Reliance to Reliance calls all over India free from 11PM to 6AM. Thats the best part of the deal. But only in writing. When you get to use it, you discover that the call gets cut every 15 minutes. So that amounts to 28 calls of 15 mins each, and that too when every call gets connected in the first attempt, which, sadly, is never the case.

Nevertheless, I must mention, what I love about Reliance is the variety of ways in which your call gets lost. Keeps me guessing :)

In the end, I am the sad sufferer who has more reasons to keep this connection than to dispose it off.

Sadly, the grievances are not limited to this one side. There are problems even when I am on the receiving side. More often than not, a caller gets a "switched off" message when actually the phone is on with decent number of network bars. I doubt if Mr Anil Ambani uses a Reliance connection!!

One of the best works by Abbas Tyrewala

Sapna Toota Hai, To Dil Kabhi Jalta Hai
Haan Thoda Dard Hua, Par Chalta Hai...

I just love these 2 lines from the song (Apun Jaise Tapori). Full lyrics here

Time Never Stops. Period.

यूं ही चला चल रही यूं ही चला चल राही
जीवन गाड़ी है समय पहिया


Beautiful thoughts !

A conversation I had with my friend..

He : I really like the mails u send
Me : I really send the mails I like
He : I really like the ans to my comment
Me : I really like the comment to my answer
He : Ha ha ha Good One!!
Me: :) Can we go forever
He: Would have wanted to

:)

O! Dispenser of India's destiny....

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Punjab-Sindhu-Gujarata-Maratha
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, the Maratha country,
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
in the Dravida country, Utkala (Orissa) and Bengal;
Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
Uchchala-Jaladhi-taranga
it mingles in the rhapsodies of the pure waters of Jamuna and the Ganges.
Tava shubha name jage
They chant only thy name.
Tava shubha ashish maange
They seek only thy auspicious blessings.
Gaye tava jaya-gatha
They sing only the glory of thy victory.
Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he
The salvation of all people waits in thy hands,
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he
Victory to thee, Victory to thee,
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!
Victory, Victory, Victory, Victory to thee!

I read this English translation of our national anthem for the first time today! Great!

Three runs...

A snippet from cricinfo.com commentary of the last day of 4th test match between India and Australia:

54.1 Lee to Laxman, 3 runs, banged in short outside off stump, Laxman gets on top of the bounce and plays the ball down between second slip and gully, Hussey sprints after it superbly and pulls the ball in just inside the boundary

Rare moment. Laxman does not run 3 runs very often does he?

When double clicks start bugging....

When I read a web page, I have to have the mouse in my hand, just like when I read a book, I have to have a pencil in my hand !

Though I have almost grown past my latter habit, it is almost impossible to leave the former one. When I am reading a web page, I have this habit of selecting words as I read. Since a double-click also selects a word, I double click a lot - on crucial words, or otherwise - but a lot.

Believe it or not, even while watching a movie (using VLC usually), I keep fiddling with my mouse. If you know me, you must be aware that it is really hard for me to sit alone and finish a 2 hour movie in 2 hours. I get bored easily and start surfing the net. At other times, I am busy with my mouse doing all sorts of things - including double clicking which toggles the full screen mode.

I have not had any problems with my habit, but of late new generation websites have emerged which consider themselves to be "over-smart", to a level to make the user insane. I am talking about these double-click pop-ups of all kinds which come up when you double click anywhere on the site.

So, while reading, I keep getting unwanted dictionary definitions of the words I happen to double-click inadvertently. Now this is really annoying. The good part is, it will make me get rid of my "mouse fiddling" habit one day. :)

(I hope by the time you are reading this, blogger does not come up with this strategy!!)

You can see one such web page here.

By the way, have you visited this? (Click at your own risk, do not curse me later :D)

Just love these words ...

अकेला नही मैं .. खुली आंखों से नींद में चलता ..
गिरता ज्यादा, कम संभलता ..

अकेला नही मैं, खुली आंखों से नींद में चलता ..
गिरता ज्यादा, कम संभलता ..

फिर भी न कोई .. शक न सुभा ..
निकलेगा फिर से .. सूरज जो डूबा ..

हैरत हो सबको ऐसा अजूबा ..
है मेरा जहाँ ...

I have been a great admirer of Prasoon Joshi ever since he started writing songs. His songs are full of insight, and the words he uses are just the best. I write poems too, but not as great as him. I would love to be like him one day. (By the way, we share initials!)

Added to the great words, Adnan Sami renders the score beautifully to create a number I will remember forever.

Read the full lyrics of the song here.

Must read !

Just go through this

"We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of The Astrological Magazine will cease with the December 2007 issue."

Can you appreciate what I am trying to show here?

Poor Rediff !

Need I say more? :)

Just crossed my mind...

"Who wants a cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?"
- Oscar Wilde (quoted by Aamir Khan in Taare Zameen Par)

Well, I feel bad that I have acted like this cynic at times in life. But as other sayings go -

"Life is the short name for constant endeavor of self improvement"
"You will most probably undervalue something you have got just like that, but you can never undervalue something you have earned"
- Pawan Jain :)

Inspiration and motivation is the sole driving force of my life. I want to deserve, and then earn whatever I want. Thats my motto...


... And ... I feel better !

So, what about the Nano?

So, as the curtains unveil the smallest car in India, and the most economical car in the world, everyone wants to have one. This is the first time this has happened in the car industry - where a large set of Indians can actually think of owning it. The obvious and the most interesting reason - the price tag. Where in the world will you find a car priced at $2500 ?

Beyond all the apprehensions of the "People's car" being unable to run, being unreliable, being made of plastic, ..., there was an unswerving faith that resided in the heart of each and every Indian - the faith in one man - one shy man who has proven himself time and again and won accolades for his ideas and his execution of strategies. When Ratan Tata came up with Tata Indica, it was his sole belief and dream of having a car which is 100% Made in India. While all his board of directors were doubtful, he did it, and today Indica has carved out a niche for itself with a decent market share.

And before anyone could imagine - here he is - with his latest - the Rs. 1 Lakh car ! Although he had declared his plan more than four years back, it was seen with as many doubtful eyes as one can imagine. Personally, I was hopeful, but I never expected it to arrive this soon!



All this hullabaloo about it notwithstanding, I am not going to buy this car, neither for myself nor for any family member of mine. The looks are decent, but I have serious doubts about comfort. Remember Tata's words - the motivation behind the car was providing "safe" transport to a 4-member family. From that perspective, and looking at the nominal price, anything with a decent seating and back support is high on comfort.

My parents already possess a M800, which I am sure is much more comfortable than the Nano which does not even have reclining seats. So they obviously deserve much better. And for me, exterior looks are okay, but I am not impressed with the interiors - it is essentially basic minimum, sans any funky stuff (Anyways, that would be asking too much for Rs. 1 Lakh!). So here's wishing Mr. Tata all the best for his latest endeavor. Hope it becomes the "People's car".

Well.. not always the case !!

This weekend when I went home, I went by Chandigarh Jan Shatabdi (JS). In case that needs an introduction, its a Northern Railways train run between New Delhi and Chandigarh. Since my childhood I have this admiration for trains, that whenever I get a chance to travel by a train, I never miss it. I just love travelling by trains. So when I had decided that I'll leave sometime in the afternoon, JS was an obvious choice.

I got the tickets booked to avoid the hassle at the station. There have actually been instances when I have reached the station 40-50 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train, only to find formidably long queues of passengers at the ticket window. And, thanks to the great maintenance of Booking Counters by Indian Railways, none of the digital display boards seem to be interested in updating themselves after every transaction. They just lie there blissfully in a sweet slumber. Moreover, there being no separate counter for Jan Shatabdi, you never know how many of the queued people are actually for your particular train. All this leads to one conclusion - you can never be sure if you will get the ticket after half an hour of a sweaty wait. So ultimately I end up at ISBT(Inter State Bus Terminus), regretting my not booking the train tickets in advance. Soon I reassure myself by realizing that my decision to go home was too spontaneous to get that done.

So I was really elated after I had the ticket in my hands. But alas! did I ask for the window seat? No! And there was no way I was going to go back to the counter and get my seat changed. I did not even know the procedure of that. Also, I was unaware of the numbering system used in the coaches of JS. So I just prayed that I get a window seat. I am crazy about window seats - be it bus, train, or an airplane.

I reached the station well in time. The train was to depart at 1550, and I was at the station at 1500 hrs. Within 5 minutes, the train arrived(from Chandigarh). I entered the train, wishing that seat number 48 is a window seat. And to my surprise, it was actually a window seat! I was overwhelmed at my great luck. It is always my dream journey - travelling in a train sitting in the window seat.

There is one thing I hate about JS. It is fast allright, which is clear by the fact that it covers a distance of around 200 km (New Delhi to Ambala) in just 3 hours (thereby reaching at around 1850). A normal roadways bus would be able to manage it in not less than around 4 hours. But thats where the problem starts. The momentum just gets destroyed as soon as the train leaves Ambala. The journey is never the same. Chandigarh is only 45 km from Ambala, a kind of distance that JS should be able to manage in 30-35 mins. But the train takes a whopping 90 minutes to reach Chandigarh, reaching there not before 2020. This is just not done.


I agree this is all traffic and signal stuff, but I just wonder why the priority of the train is this low on this route. It has to stop for each and every damn train that needs a signal. Come on people, why so? Why would you not like passengers do travel the whole journey by your train? Why do you want to force them to take a bus after reaching Ambala station? I am afraid I have never done that, but if the scenario continues I will start doing that. Anyways I have only a month of stay left in New Delhi after which I will head to Mumbai. So doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Nevertheless, the train does save time if you compare it with a whole journey by roadways bus. Charging just 75% of the roadways fare, and offering too many additional facilities (to name a few are the all-time availability of snacks, tea etc. ; more comfortable seating; and last but surely not the least - restrooms), the train will always be an automatic choice of any passenger, provided the time suits him/her. Clearly there has to be a tradeoff somewhere. You cannot have the best of everything for less price in one firm with the other firm still making profilts. Roadways buses between New Delhi and Chandigarh are available so frequently that you just need to stand at the gate of ISBT for a maximum of 5 minutes. It seldom happens that no bus to Chandigarh crosses you in those 5 minutes. Thats where roadways win. But, if the departure time of JS suits you, there is nothing better (of course there is the Shatabdi Express, which charges a whopping 430 - personally I find it totally useless - no value for money).

Comparing with the famous fable, the roadways may well be called - "The slow and steady", and JS the other character who sleeps in the middle. But the moral doesn't hold here. "You thought slow and steady wins the race? Well, not always the case !"

Shilpa all the way...

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/33024/tony-blair-was-sweet-to-me-shilpa.html



Hmm.. so now our very own Shilpa is a truly global personality with lots of job offers and ad contracts from the House of Britishers. But ya, unlike in the past I really hope people start looking forward to her Bollywood movies. As she proclaims in the video, "I am who I am.. and no one can take that away from me". I'm happy for you Miss Shilpa, this is a turning point in your career, and I won't be surprised if I see you tomorrow shooting for a Hollywood movie.

Before I forget this.......

Finally Finally Finally...
After a host of trials and incomplete posts, I am back on my blog..

Well a lot, believe me, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote here. The two most important of those happenings have been me getting placed in Lehman Brothers Mumbai, and my elder sister getting married.

The former happened on 8th Dec 06, and the latter on 23rd Jan 07.

Another catch - One more nineteen : 08/12/2006 : The digits add up to 19 :) In case you are wondering what I am referring to, read this.

The following pictures have me, my sister, and my brother in law.




By the way, I am watching Mahabharat these days :) More on this in the next post..

Just cant hold myself from writing something now..

So here it is.. the new blogger!
I discovered it accidentally.. I always wondered how come Blogger has not been integrated with Google Accounts. So finally it is, and that too in style.

It was getting really difficult to catch up with blogging, and I had almost decided to change the blog into a personal store, keeping it for my own purposes, nothing worth sharing etc. I came accross a good site that listed airline logos, and I wanted to save it somewhere, and write something about it. I decided to write a blog about it, so that I have the url stored for future references, and also a nice description of it in my blog.

But as soon as I open blogger.com, (it had vanished from my firefox history as well!, showing how looooong its been since I last wrote something), and aHa! what a pleasant surprise! Now I can edit my blog much easily, no need to get into the dirty template html code, and figure out what stands for what, and where exactly to put in my meebo me widget, google ads code etc. Now Google has a whole new nice interface to it, drag and drop things that I have never seen before on a blog! This rocks, and now there is a newfound motivation to blog for me.. I wanted to write about a whole lot of stuff during this time lag - about the day I bought 6 sarees in Bangalore, about my Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Pondicherry trip, about my Hyderabad trip, about how I selected my B.Tech Project etc. A very special person had asked me to share these things on my blog, but I just did not get into the mood. I am glad I am back on my blog!

That's Ooty

Ooty was our destination the last weekend. It is an overnight drive from Bangalore. We started at 11:30 at night, and reached there at about 9 next morning. I slept for hardly 40-50 minutes in the whole journey, rest was all fun filled singing with other nocturnals. The journey was great.


We stayed at Hotel Maruthi. Apparently the Tamilians dont have 't' in their dictionary(the hindi 't'). I wonder if they speak Tamil or THamil.

Ooty is a very dirty place. Atleast I found it so. Even though main Ooty is a flat place, there is no traffic management, no footpaths to walk on etc. The restaurants are equally pathetic. We somehow managed brunch and left for Ooty Lake. The lake is beautiful, and ideal for boating.



Now we wanted some daring stuff. I never imagined I would ever visit the highest point in Tamil Nadu. It was all ad-hoc planning. We heard of the "suicide-point" and headed for there. The bus was giving troubles on the steep slopes, and somehow managed to climbed to the top. And Ah! What scenic beauty!!! I cant remember if I had seen a more beautiful site before. An aeroplane flies a bit too high, so this cant even be enjoyed from inside an airplane. So this was really special.


All in all a fun-filled trip!

Wonderful Wonder La

This weekend we visited the Wonder La.. a wonderful amusement park in the outskirts of Bangalore.

The best part for me was the water park. You really cant return before enjoying all the water rides. Thankfully there are no silly rides in the water section which tend to do crazy things with you.

We also had a pleasant rain in the evening, just after we had returned from the water rides. I couldn't stop myself from taking a photograph of the rainbow that emerged after that. Its a collectable by all means



All in all, Wonder La is a omplete one day package for someone who really wants to enjoy his day out!!! More information at http://www.wonderla.com

I have shared all our ful filled photographs here

From The Moviegoer's Diary...

Starting with Gangster, I had planned to write about writing about each and every movie I watch.. But it just doesnt work out!

I have seen three movies after Gangster : Poseidon, Munich and The Da Vinci Code

And I have to admit this.. I just CANT write a single line about Munich(other than the one which I just did). I did not understand the movie beyond the message the director wanted to convey. That could have been done in less than half an hour, instead of this long three hours!!

Da Vinci Code was more of a revision of the book rather than a movie. I had forgotten many parts of the book in an year.

Poseidon was a good movie.

Anyways, I'll discontinue, since this is getting to be a boring post.

My encounters with 19

This is real interesting.. when you keep encountering a number again and again in life, you tend to associate yourself with it. That number becomes "your" "lucky number".

My case is a no different.. but interesting. The number 19 has a good association with me. Well its not that often that i encounter this number, but it occurs more often than any other number.. Many times I have found myself pondering over exactly how many times and where all I encountered 19. So I jsut felt like writing out somewhere, and what can be better than writing as well as sharing at the same time : blogging :)

So lets start.. first encounter.. the most amazing one.. I was born on 19th August :) So 19 will be eternally associated with me in this way..

And now I start with the time when I actually started noticing it in the present. DOB can be noticed at any point in time so its not that special..

Everyone has this day in his/her life : The day when one makes his/her first email id. And while some are really lucky to get the id matching their name, some are not. My name isnt that unique, and I was in no way one of the first ones to make an email id, so I fall into the latter category. I tried some arbitrary number(dont remember now) with my name when I was asked for another email id(say pawanjainXX). That was sify(was very popular those days, around 1998). I press enter, and then it says that pawanjainXX is not available, and then gives some options which include pawanjain19.
And Aha! I chose pawanjain19 in no time and thats how my net presence became pawanjain19!

Hmmm.. there are more worth mentioning.

My roll number in IIT Delhi. Well everyone gets a roll number in a college. Mine is 2003CS10177. Nothing great. But we get a login id for our network accounts too. Thats cs1030177. I dint notice(probably you have already). But a very good friend of mine, after listening to my "19 story" (not many of my frnds know this story, which is one of the motives of writing this blog), that the numbers in my login id sum up to 19. Now that was interesting to me, because this triggered me into believing that, maybe I might be having 19 in many more things that go unnoticed to me. After this I try to find 19 in almost everything that happens with me.

And I do succeed many times :)


In my second year, on my 19th birthday(19th August), I gave a treat to 19 friends. Seriously. And I dont think it can get 19ier than this :). This was real amazing

My sister got engaged on 19th of March this year

I am sure I am forgetting some more worth mentioning.. Real hard to keep all in mind at the same time
Shall do so as and when I collect/recollect :)

From The Moviegoer's Diary : Gangster

I went to see Gangster yesterday.. and tried out Google Page Creater too!

Here's the result : http://pawanjain19.googlepages.com/moviegoer'sdiary

Back after exams!!!

Now that my exams are over.. I tried out this new thing from Google. Man they are getting busier and more and more innovative day by day in trying to organise world's information.

http://pages.google.com

Ya, try it out to explore it.

Exam Time

When my blogging frequency falls below once a week
When lots of things to blog and things to mug up cause memory to leak
When the Zephyr's blog has to see a decline in its charms
Thats what happens when he has to study for his end sem exams...

Ya.. as another semester draws to a close
And I do not want my nice verse to become a prose
Its my books which I get to seek
And say good bye till next week

My latest possession : The Small Wonder

If you happened to click on the title of this post, you must have come to know what I am going to talk about. Now you are going to click on it right?

It was all Sony in the mind before I came across this cute little thing. Now I feel it could never have been a Sony. According to me the Canon PowerShot A530 is the cutest thing in the world of cameras. This might sound like a biased review, stepping into the shoes of a consumer type who would not like to conclude at the end of the day that his decision was wrong.

Unfortunately I did not get enough time at home to explore the little master, but after reading many unbiased reviews of experts around the world, I can feel satisfied that my decision echoes with people who know. I can't wait to paste a huge photograph of the smart photographer in my post. So here comes the small wonder..



Possesses all the features that matter, added to it the sleek and attractive look and feel. Just a handful in size. What more can I say.. I feel like putting my hand into the screen and hold it in my hands.

Meanwhile I plan read more about the camera and get inspired, and dedicate next few posts on my blog on the small wonder.

How's that!!

Impressive isn't it? Well as my partner puts it in his own words.. "This is the beauty of Ray Tracing". What you see in the image is the scene you will get when you have two white light sources(one placed near top left and one placed near bottom right), and the objects as shown in the picture, which comprise of a simple non-reflective yellow bench, three walls, a roof and a floor, and a beautiful picture of a parrot on a wall. The floor is carpeted, and one of the three walls is completely covered with a painting. The roof has a largely reflective paint which gives a cool look to the overall picture.

Technically, all the cosmetics are texture maps of images. Otherwise it is a simple collection of polygons. Ray tracing adds all that is required to bring the collection of polygons and images to life.

Have a look at the bare collections of the polygons:

Is Being Cyrus this good?

‘Another good Saif movie..’ the phrase sounds familiar. Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste have really got Saif on the right track. He is improving and nearing perfection with every movie. I liked his work in both. I guess the turning point of Saif's career was Ek Haseena Thi. He was simply brilliant in the movie.

Being Cyrus seems to be a completely different type of cinema. I haven’t seen any trailer of the movie. I came to know about the movie from an article in Delhi Times (Boman's interview). And next Friday it was 'Being Cyrus' all around.

Starting Mr. Hirani (Munna Bhai MBBS), most of the debutant directors have been breaking grounds. The success can be attributed to parameters like freshness, the 'out-of-the-blue' approach etc.

Clearly in a market when demand changes supply has to change. This is what we see in today’s successful movies. The Saas Bahu age is over. Now it takes a bold bunch of people who are willing to risk entering an arena so far unexplored. And when so much is at risk, seldom is there a scope for a mistake. Everything is taken care of in such a nice way that the final product is bound to be good.

For instance: Kalyug, Black, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer etc stepped into a different world altogether (so far as Bollywood is concerned.) and came out winners all the way. This does not require big budgets and fancy sets etc. All it takes is creativity and boldness.

Kudos to the crew of Being Cyrus. Cant wait to see the movie!

Ray Tracing Rocks!!

You just had a look at my first ray traced image. This is what I am doing in my present assignment in my course in Computer Graphics. You can see 2 spheres, well, one of them appears as an ellipse because of perspective view from eye, which does not affect the shape of the first sphere because the line joining the eye and its centre is perpendicular to the plane of projection. Enough of technical stuff right? Ok so lets talk in layman terms. Simply put, the above scene is what you will get if you had a blue sphere and an orangish sphere suspended in mid air in a room with light purple background, and have a decently good ambient lighting in the room.

Also there is a point light source(say a torch, approximately). The surface of the blue sphere is near plastic so that a point light source spreads on it more. Had it been metallic, the spot of light would have been more concentrated. Well this is only a part of my HUGE assignment, but I am overwhelmed with the results. This is damn enjoyable!

More on the assignment later.. when I have something more amazing to show :)

Compu Corridor Cricket...

Sleepless again. But this time a weekend.. So banta hai yaar!!


Wing cricket has long been a tradition of Jwala since many years. It feels great to live it when we play wing cricket at 1 am with this cool breeze blowing and touching us as it crosses the wing from one balcony to other.

Rules of this cricket are amazing... We came up with a 'Body' rule.. It was really getting annoying when the batsman is not willing to get his bat in place and always gets his chest, or back, or legs in the line of the ball just to pass time given the fact that number of overs are unlimited. The rule says that you cannot touch a ball with your body 3 times in a row. That clearly increases the probability that the ball will meet the bat and makes the game somewhat more interesting.

But today's game was abandoned halfway. Guess why??

Yes.. HOLI!!

This hostel holi is real disgusting. I hate it. They make a mess of a good colorful festival by running after each other with a bucket of water just to make the person wet. I do not get the point. Whats the fun involved. Moreover in this cold weather you might catch fever.

Anyways.. the cricket is great fun!

The iPod dilemma

Isn’t it amazing when someone for the first time in life gets to feel: This is my hard earned money, and I'll use it as I feel like.. No obligations

To do or not to do? To buy it or not to buy? Is it worth the investment? Is it value for money? Should I wait for something better?

These are only a few of the questions my mind is busy asking itself these days. Since mind speaks on a blog, mine too got quite verbose while writing the questions above till I stopped myself and gave a line break :). So... now that the skills I have acquired in life are actually going to get me money, I cannot stop pondering about spending it to fulfill the weirdest "fancies" and "luxuries" that I ever had and wanted and did not want my parents to invest in it, simply because I did not consider them worthy enough. Now that since most my friends are getting 15K from their internships, my 20K makes me think that I actually have 5K extra for my "luxuries"!!!

So while all these things are running in the mind, it starts to ponder over the question: "Why should I go for an iPod and why shouldn't I?" The following answers come instantly.

Why should I: Whenever I am traveling alone, I feel extremely bored in mid-journey time. In such a situation I so wish I had an iPod! Another reason is the cool gadget it is. So much in so small a thing! Amazing!

Why shouldn't I: Maybe there are more things that I need to have before I have an iPod. Take for example a digicam. I would consider it more useful than an iPod which can do nothing more than playing music videos. Absolutely no creativity involved. The real bad thing is that it is so limited is its functionality. One can get real creative with a digicam.

Tough decision this!

Sleepless after long...

This used to be a usual state I would find myself in after midnight upto last semester. But it has happened for the first time in this semester. And I am liking it! Its always fun to explore the night and feel it, how long it is, feeling that you actually have 24 hours in a day, feeling that you havent been more creative and productive throughout the day....

But all this comes at a cost. The next day becomes quite a challenge. Given that its a normal weekday, I need to be in the same state of mind tomorrow(I should say today as its already past midnight) as I am on other weekdays. This did not matter till the last semester, but this semester I have explored another joy - the joy of being normal. Being normal feels good.. real good. By being normal I mean having around 6-7 hours of sleep like 'normal' human beings do.

So its essentially a trade-off.. Either explore the night or feel good the next day. Choosing the first one is a preferred option on weekends.

The normal state of affairs with me is : Being nocturnal feels great at night but next day you curse yourself for spoiling the day. Lets hope for the best and a good day tomorrow(today)

And by the way, I am reminded.. Today is my mom's birthday..
Happy Birthday Mom!

Does it converge anywhere?

This post addresses an issue I had in mind since quite a few days now. Recently my sis forwarded me a mail containing zodiac based personality descriptions having around 300 words devoted to each zodiac sign. I was perplexed by the accuracy of the descriptions! I found myself matching to around 80-85% of the stuff written under my zodiac.

Few days back, a friend of mine told me about a person nearby who boasts of making quite accurate predictions by observing just the thumbprint of a person, and he is quite famous in his area to make quite accurate predictions. Now that was unbelievable. This made me to ponder over the deepness of astrology.

I have very less idea of astrology but whatever it is, I feel that future cannot be this deterministic. If this were so, I do not see much purpose in human life. One cannot (and should not!) be able to know his/her future to this certainty. In fact, the idea is much more involved. Imagine that you are being told your future by someone who claims to be very very accurate. Will not that effect your decisions and what you planned to do the next day or in that week? It sure would.. Wont it?

So the very thought that knowing about your future can change your present(which was future a few minutes back) makes one doubt whether predictions can be "accurate" to this level. So what we notice is that astrology gives a very blurred idea of what your future looks like, and intuitively that is the only thing it should be able to do. It doesn’t and cant tell anything accurately.

Another point of view goes like - These days it costs to know how your future looks like, unless you are an astrologer yourself. Since we look for "value for money" everywhere, this department is no exception. We are not satisfied unless we feel our money has fetched us enough knowledge about our future. What we need to understand is that these are just generalizations and there is a limit to the level up to which they can be accurate.

Some people believe in astrology to the length that they won’t start their day without looking into the "Daily Horoscope" column in their favorite newspaper and wont do anything before they wear their "Lucky Color" of the day.

Some are of the opinion that "I am not crazy about it, but just out of curiosity I may have a look at it if possible". Being well aware that this cannot be accurate, they just try to take precautions. For instance, if the horoscope says you may have a quarrel with someone today, they will try to be calm and cheerful the whole day. This is a precaution and it may work, just because horoscope can’t be accurate. So you did not have a quarrel not because you were cautious, but because the horoscope was wrong.

Some think it is shit and do not believe in astrology.

I come under the second category.

So back to the issue, I wanted to give a thought to where exactly is your future hidden? In the position of planets, in your thumb impression, in your palm, in tarots, or in the card that a parrot picks up for you? Or somewhere else?

Does it converge anywhere?

Blog Templates My Foot!

To hell with blog templates!!! Wasted two hours on the crap thing.

Well to be more precise, I was stuck to my computer screen since the last 100 minutes or so, trying to change the template of my blog to something that does not exist in blogger. Tried damn lot of things, but alas! crazy sailor back home at last.

Finally got back to blogspot! There was this white elegant template which always used to pull my attention, but I was out searching for something better, which as it appears does not exist! Now I know why blogspot has so few number of templates. Seems they have selected the sober ones from a loooong list. Salaam Blogger!

Its not a single thing thats wrong with templates created for blogspot outside blogspot. Some of them cant respect the links I had given in the title of some posts, some cant just seem to be able to get the alignment right. Some are repulsive to the first blink of the eye. No one matched what I wanted. And the day I get such a template, I would sure want to use it right away.

I would surely love a template which is neat and has headings in some cool handwritten fonts(I love them) or a template which is based on my favourite toons Tom and Jerry and Popeye(but should not look overly childie). Also I wanted a counter on my page to keep track of how often is my blog visited. That is not supported in any template but wasnt a problem since so many free website counter services exist.

(Huh... Finally succeeded in writing about something other than Google(well, not really uh..) :) )

G for GOOGLE!!!

Well well well.. Cant really say whats it. But the more I read and know about Google, the more I end up admiring and adoring it. The looks, the simplicity, the elegance of all Google portals have the ability to win any heart on the first experience.

But I would like to add here that the latest Google services like blogspot, and orkut(recently taken over by google) are not that impressive. The interface of blogspot is not at par with other Google services, and orkut has a silly bug which annoys you big time. If you are a regular orkutter, you must be familiar with the line : "Bad Server, No donut for you". Once in a while is ok, but this thing has started appearing too often that it has started bugging me off.

I was just going through some technical info about Google on their site(Now that I got to intern in google, its good if I am familiar with these things ;) )..

And without doubt, in my opinion, anyone who is learning internet starts its lesson not with A, but with G..

"G for GOOGLE" :)

And the day I made it to Google(Intern)...

Getting through an interview is special.. at least to me, who hasnt experienced success in an interview before. And when its Google, the significance is manifold. I got the great news from a very good friend of mine and could not believe it at the first instant. And did not till I confirmed myself.

Its a feeling hard to explain.. and harder to write! The day before the interview I was browsing Google's site for the intern projects. And going through past internees' experiences and their projects, and visualising myself there!
The feeling that I am one of them now, is just great.

Lets see if its Bangalore or Hyderabad..

Google Dot Com

Google is... different and interesting!

Everywhere you will find stuff like.. "Google spends most of its time in hiring". Thats actually true. A company of this caliber wont and shouldnt compromise at all.. be it interns, be it jobs.. anything.

I have had 75 minutes of telephonic interviewing with Google in 2 days. And if I had to describe Google in one word, I would say "interesting". Though I have little experience interacting with other companies but Google has something different. Thats what I felt.

The first interview, started with the discussion of some project work, and then there came a really really unexpected and interesting question. That was about Google News.

The question : How will you choose the two stories to be displayed on Google News homepage?

The second and more interesting question : After you decide the stories to be displayed, what about its title? A news item has got to have a title No? That was even more interesting to answer. The guy seemed impressed.

That essentially was in all the first interview. The second one started on a similar note. Though the interviewer (this time a Ma'am) seemed more interested in my projects. She chose some projects that appealed to her and asked me to explain in detail about the projects and my contribution in them.

Then came some algorithm questions.

1) How will you implement a C++ STL Vector in C?
2) Given a text file, containing a URL in each line, you have to find out the top 1000 domain names which have the maximum URLs under them.

Interesting questions.. arent they? Well your opinion may differ but it was real nice talking to Googlers..

When and where did the chicken cross the road??

It is absolutely unbelievable that you havent heard the question "Why did the chicken cross the road?" atleast once in your life. My question is why should one care? And where did this question actually originate? Wikipedia says its a joke, some sites say its a philosophical question.. (I am naive in philisophy so cant say anything). This question features under "Animal jokes" at many places. I wonder if animals also make such jokes on humans.. "Why did the human cross the road?".

Now that the question is there, there isnt much point pondering over its origin when the answer seems too elusive. Instead I should try to ask myself the question "Why did the chicken cross the road?" . Well well well... This question has no single answer and hence the answer depends on the mood the person going to answer is..

Whenever I try to figure that out and create a scene of a chicken crossing a road in my mind, the first thing that comes to my mind is that :
When and where did the chicken cross the road? And anyway, he crossed the road because he wanted to! Nothing so unusual about that. Why do we care?

More answers to the stupid question at http://philosophy.eserver.org/chicken.txt

Khalbali in true sense of the word

Now thats what I call a movie!!! I can go on and on and on praising the movie right from the bottom of my heart. Patriotism the way today's world wants it, history depicted the way we would want to see it. One would really like to compare it with Dil Chahta Hai. Both revolve aroung a good friendship, and has a main storyline that the director has managed to tell very well.

Not many movies we see have been made this way. The director is very very clear in what he wants to say, and does succeed in narrating the story very well, backed by some brilliant performances by all the actors in the movie. Its a youth flick with a message. Amidst all the youth masti, it makes you think, and that too not over a stupid fictional love story, but about a real national issue.

Aamir Khan , British actress Alice Patten , Madhavan , Soha Ali Khan , Kunal Kapoor , Siddharth , Sharman Joshi , Atul Kulkarni and Kiron Kher - all have performed brilliantly.

Soha Ali Khan has really impressed. She has talent. I did not know that this is not her first movie(others are forgettable though). But this is an award winning performance by a newcomer. Full marks to her for taking full advantage of the role and good dialogues(again from Prasoon Joshi :)).

A R Rehman's music, as always, is just too good. Lukka Chuppi is my best(An unforgettable combination of Guitar, Lata Ji' s voice, Rehman's voice and music, and Prasoon's lyrics). Rehman's songs have the ability to "build upon you", as they say. Every song from him sounds ordinary the first time. And then as you listen to it more than once, you come to know the genius of Rehman.

Hats Off to the crew of the film!

A Newfound Admiration!

"Thanda matlab Coca Cola!"

This was among some very different ad slogans I observed (and actually liked). I have always been a great fan of Coca Cola and have preffered Coke brands over all other cold beverages. So it was not something that shifted me from another drink to coke. But the slogan did sound different! And I thought who would have thought of this?

As a matter of fact, that was the time I started watching TV ads more to appreciate the creativity of the ad makers and less to appreciate the product being advertised. This change in my attitude will be attributed to this "ad guru" of India. You must have come to know by now who I am talking about. Needless to mention, none other than Prasoon Joshi.

And incidentally, this man shares my initials! :).

And then came Hum Tum.

I was really really impressed by "Ladki Kyon...", but never really tried to find out the lyricist's name. Now that Rang De Basanti has come up so well, and far beyond expectations(both the movie and the songs), I could not help observing the lyricist's name. And guess what? PJ Again!


This person has impressed! Seems he can create a slogan out of anything. I was researching more about him. This is what I found:

http://www.uttaranchal.org.uk/prasoon.html

A poem I wrote last year on Tsunami

Something somewhere was awfully wrong...

Neither sweet, nor sour

It was bitter all the more.

More than a devil's curse,

Oh God! could it have been worse?

The previous day was a different one,

No other Christmas was so much fun.

Nothing, nowhere seemed to be wrong,

Celebrations all day long.

Fun and frolic everywhere,

With the city up in top gear.

Churches were the place to be,

Nothing was more charming to see.

It was beyond the midnight beep,

That the city happily went to sleep.

Could it have been anyone's foresight?

That he'd not see the morning light!

Suddenly and shockingly, the horrendous waves

Appeared from the calm, turning cozy beds into graves.

The early rising fishermen, however, were on the shores,

To be driven away, out of their life's doors.

For several minutes, the waves did last,

And left a few live faces, aghast.

Debris, corpses everywhere,

Humans turned into earthenware.

Debris, corpses everywhere,

Mother Nature! Is this the way you care?

Is that how you sing the Christmas Carol,

Firing silent bullets through an invisible barrel?

Life has come to a standstill,

Mother Nature, satisfied? Or still someone left to kill?

You danced to your tune before it was long,

Yes! something somewhere was awfully wrong.

A great damage, a huge loss,

Everything did break, except the Jesus cross.

A question comes to my mind, I'm keen

Was it something Scrooge's third ghost could have foreseen?

I am back!

Ok.. so its been around three months since my last post on the page. I have been quite busy these days first with my semester going on, then my holidays(which were busier.. believe me :) ).

Hmm.. as another year draws to a close, I see very less changes in the world around me. Nearly everything is same..

Everything is as always very fine with Delhi.. just that some 3-4 blasts occurred this year, which resulted in great destruction and panic.. and the number of rape cases in the city went beyond imaginations, and some sting operations got some ministers restigated.. otherwise in my view Delhi is much the same(read BAAKI SB THEEK HAI)

In a broader view, a mild earthquake in J & K in October, a gangrape in a Western Railway train, a brutal murder of a girl in Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai nearly flooded by rains, nearly humdred deaths owing to the extreme cold conditions.. BAAKI SAB THEEK HAI

The living legend Mr. Amitabh Bachchan spent 19 days in hospital which had the whole country praying for him.. Uh.. Why am I sounding like a year-end issue of a news magazine!

Sorry! May be because I am new to blogging..

Next post : About the Ganguly issue.. I have a lot to say on that

My first post!

Well not much to say rite now.. Shall hopefully have a lot in future