Resurrection

Independence Day

2011-08-18T19:29:00.003+05:30

This 65th Independence day was spent on an ONGC rig trying to gather samples. The next day was followed by another job on another rig, but I managed to make it back early, thanks to a poor cementing job. Anyway, I wanted to find out how the Lokpal people were faring, and so I went straight to India's most trustworthy and investigative journalism website - thetimesofindia.com . What I read was extremely disturbing.
I do not agree with Mr. Hazare on a lot of things. Like banning meat and alcohol in his village for example(I harbour an intense dislike towards prohibitionary rules). The congress government too, I gather, disagrees with Mr. Hazare on a lot of issues. However, arresting the old man, putting him in Tihar along with kalmadi and raja (ironically, Kiran Bedi too was sent to Tihar), and apparently giving a free hand to its spokespersons to make weird insinuations against him was probably not a very well thought-out decision unless of course, its some grand plan to somehow drag rahul gandhi into the picture and make him look a hero - which is something they will probably attempt in the near future in any case.
On a list of all the ideals people dreamt of on 15th August, 65 years ago, the right to carry out a peaceful protest was one that would have been very very high on that list. Over the years, successive Indian governments have thought a lot before they kicked it in the face, notable exceptions being the emergency and Irom Sharmila's case(probably her being in the north-east makes it easier for the government to get away with its abuse of authority). As a result, one could generally go to Delhi, make a point, and maybe end up getting heard. Mr. Hazare was trying to do something similar, and his point struck a chord with a lot of people. Cynical as I am, its difficult to get convinced that our leaders will allow an all-powerful watchdog to guard over their own actions, but the hope generated by Hazare's actions is something the like of which I haven't seen in my life.
By arresting Hazare in the first place(its a moot point that they have released him now and allowed him to fast), the government has shown exactly how much it cares for the sentiments and aspirations of the people who have taken their time off to take part in Anna's movement. They will not pass the legislation as Anna wants it in any case. They were never going to do it. But, the least they could have done was to allow him to carry out his fast. His arrest was an attack on the cornerstone of what the dream of an independent India was based on. Our country has a lot of problems, but we always try to gain solace from the fact that there is atleast the semblance of democracy in most parts of the country and a man can, if he feels like it, register his disagreement with the way things are.
Democracy is one of the few beautiful things left in this country. Very few things match up to the idea that a man can lead his own life, unfettered by boundaries and achieve all he can within his abilities and even try to exceed them.
A dark day for my country.

In between rigs

2011-05-14T01:39:00.003+05:30

Have to write something tonight. It's been quite a day.

Trinamool kicks cpm ass. They should paint the writer's building green. Just to rub it in. Not that i think the tmc's going to be any bit better, but they will be a change anyway. And it will be nice to see karat's reaction to this.

"....I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since then......". Ah, if all they showed in hollywood were to come true.

Finally managed to copy my collection of Joan Baez onto my hard disk. Every time I hear her singing Dylan's songs, its an ethereal experience.

News of your boss taking the day off are always greatly exaggerated. Conversations as to why its 10:30 and you still aren't at the office aren't very enjoyable.

Wine. Be careful. It can be deceptive.

Things which are not meant to be, do not be. There's no use fretting over them.

Someday, may be. Somewhere else. Someone else. Some other time.

2011-02-18T19:19:00.002+05:30

Every once in a while, I get the urge to follow traffic rules, and be an ideal citizen. It makes me feel I contribute more to the nation than just taxes, carbon-dioxide, and organic waste. Then incidents like this happen.

P.S: Forgive the poor schematics - art was never one of my strengths.

Of the times we lived in

2010-10-30T19:27:00.003+05:30

Of late I find myself reminiscing a lot about my campus days. It started with a trip to digboi. The car stereo started playing Atif, and I slipped into a reverie - an incoherent series of pictures flashed by - encapsulating my entire antaragni experience in a matter of seconds. My habitual despondency thrives on such situations. To add to it, I watched "Dabangg" a couple of days later. The movie did uplift my spirits, but it also provoked me to think of how it would have been like to have seen that movie at Rave3 with my wing. To the best of my knowledge, Antaragni'10 was held last week. The fat bloke and the tall one managed to attend it. The fat one also managed to successfully remind everyone else that he was there while nobody else was.

Back when I was a starry-eyed first year, I remember eagerly anticipating Antaragni as an experience which would be like no other up until that point in my life. True to my expectations, Antaragni did not disappoint. In my days, the most coveted post for any first yearite was that of a Hospitality volunteer. One had to give an interview to get selected for the post, and like all the interviews for any Antaragni post since time immemorial, what mattered was whether you knew people who mattered, and whether they knew you. Things started changing from my third year, as the coordinators did their level best to select the dumbest bunch of first yearites as hospy volleys. Hospy never recovered since.

Those were the days when Antaragni used to be a Hall 2 festival. That was also the time when Hall 2-ites knew that they should make a pilgrimage to howrah bridge atleast once in their lifetime. These days, Amsterdam would probably be the only place where hall 2-ites would want to be. The hostel has turned into a den of drug dealers, and while I am not someone who should be preaching stuff, it does come as a shock when you hear that hall 2 is ranked below hall 9 in galaxy standings.

Antaragni was much more than a cultural festival for us. One would put everything at stake for it. Strategies were made in cold blood, battles were fought over it, friendships were forged, and lifelong enmities made. There could be a very valid argument made in favour of the pointlessness of it all, but then again, often the rush of life comes from actions without much significance.

In our time, we had GBMs in hall 2 quad. There was a time when those meetings seemed like scenes straight out of Dabangg. Unfortunately, even these meetings had lost their flavour by the time i graduated. I still remember the most epic gbm I have ever been a part of - in my first year. It all started with a guy chasing a dog, and I swear I have never seen anything more hilarious in hall 2.

Every now and then, somebody puts up a picture of our days on facebook. It only serves to heighten the blues.

These days its very difficult to get a first-yearite to talk to you. Apparently they dish out the visiting card of the dean the moment one calls them. I just spent one night in hall 1 before fresher's night, and it still remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

We did live in interesting times.

P.S: The Beatles deserve to immortalized just for coming up with "Back in The USSR"

Sushi and Ilish

2010-04-20T23:29:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: For people with a sensitive palate and who know what ilish tastes like. If you don’t like what you read, I apologize for hurting your sentiments, and you can probably get lost.

Had sushi this weekend. I love the word sushi. In one word, it sums up exactly what I mean when I say “chaler dhipir modhye kacha maach”. Have to give it to the Japanese for brevity. I accept that I haven’t tried sushi in japan, and I shouldn’t be so quick to pass judgement on it, but I do not think that raw fish in rice balls is going to taste any better if one eats it in japan. And you have to eat it with those chop sticks. I do not get foreigners at all. They keep on figuring out ways to make life harder.
The Russians have a thing for raw fish too. They don’t have the rice balls though. Thankfully. Which brings me to the thought – what did ancient man do after he discovered fire by accident? He started to cook his food – something that has been an integral part of human culinary arts for the last quite a few years now, or so I used to think. As I have now found out, to quite a considerable cost, if I may add, cooking the fish does not feature high on the priority list in many countries. A somewhat disconcerting fact considering the numerous dishes of fish back home, all of which are incidentally, cooked.
The first time I ever felt sick after having fish was after I had sushi. The thought of being shot at by the taxi-driver wasn’t so appealing though, and I managed to make it through without vomiting.
Coming to another slightly related topic – steaks. From what I make of it, steaks are generally huge slabs of meat which you chew on with a bottle of beer in your hand. I had expected something similar to a kebab - the key-word in the previous phrase being “had”. Truth to tell, it made me cry. A kebab, especially in the cities of the nawabs, represents one of the finest achievements of the human race. A steak(or atleast a lamb steak) on the other hand, does not serve that purpose. Though I guess one could argue that the beer makes up for most of its deficiencies.
In June, its going to be the monsoons in India. Its only that thought which keeps me going now. Heaven is when you have Ilish on a rainy day.

2010-03-27T18:54:00.001+05:30

Me:"People don't get shot at this place right?"

Vlad: "What?"

Me: “people don’t take out guns and start shooting right?”

Vlad: “oh no, no guns man. Guns are prohibited. Maximum they might just take out a knife.”

Nazira

2010-03-02T00:20:00.000+05:30

Nazira is the place to be. Just the other day outside a pharmacy I found a signboard which read “All kinds of Human and Veterinary medicine sold here.” One would be hard pressed to find another such sign anywhere in the country. You get to cure the dog, and its owner at the same time. It also possesses a unique traffic control system wherein the traffic lights and the traffic police point in different directions. Major fast food chains keep fighting among themselves to get space to open their outlets. Last I heard, the fight was not yet resolved, and the space remains vacant.
A lesser known fact is that this was the first place the Tatas chose to establish their nano manufacturing plant, but they changed their mind when they realized that people in Nazira don’t buy cars lesser than 100’ in length. Due to the slightly unreasonable nature of their preferences, the local people have been left out in the cold, with most car manufacturers in the world failing to provide a car which could satisfy their stringent requirements. In the face of this failure, people just decided to chuck cars and buy ships instead. Nazira has the highest density of yachts on-land in the world.
It would have also been among the most popular destinations for bollywood film-makers today had it not been for the fact that making quaint period films does not feature high on the priority list these days. For quite some time now, Switzerland has been planning an advertising campaign based around the tag-line “The Nazira of Europe”. During the recession, land prices in Nazira quadrupled. KRK sold his palace in Dubai to buy a 2-bhk apartment in Nazira.
Don’t waste any more time, and quickly book tickets for the 7-day-6nights Nazira tour organized by Thomas&Cook. If you book now, you will probably manage seats on the tour in 2020.

Ordinary...

2010-03-01T18:57:00.000+05:30

"Ordinary, the kind of dangerous beautiful ordinary that you just can’t leave alone....."

"Its all a dream. Yeah, just a dream. "

The greatest show ever aired. Period.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

2009-12-05T14:09:00.004+05:30

Due to circumstances slightly beyond my control, my economic condition hasn’t been very robust of late. The need to hence part with some of my treasured belongings has pressed itself upon me. Something similar to what the westerners call a “garage sale”, the difference being in this case that I do not own a garage.

Before I describe the valuables up for sale, I would like to remind the reader that these are priceless items, and their value is something intrinsic, and can hardly be judged by current market prices. One has to consider the entire range of experiences associated with each of these items. Also, no bargaining or exchange offers are permitted. Take it, or leave it.

ITEM 1: A white Ipod Nano. Memory capacity: 1GB.

This Ipod has seen it all over the last 4 years. Its been all over India – from Kolkata to Jaipur, and from Delhi to Bangalore. According to certain legends, it is supposed to have a discerning music taste of its own, and try as one might, one cannot play shitty music on it.

A vintage model, it spearheaded the fight against pretenders like the Microsoft Zune, which was endorsed by a fat blob. A word to the wise though – this Ipod is a known chick-magnet, and the owner might incur the envy of lesser mortals who do not own it, or own paper-weights like the Zune.

While it is very difficult to put a label on this, I guess a sum of Rs. 50,000, while hardly being suitable compensation, would be a sizable fraction of its actual worth. I would also like to mention that a connecting cable and earphones come free with this Ipod.

ITEM 2: A Seiko Automatic 21 jewels wrist-watch.

There are wrist-watches, and then there is the Seiko Automatic 21 jewels. Or rather the Seiko Automatic 21 jewels. As the name suggests, this chronometer is automatic i.e. it does not use a battery, and is hence completely environment-friendly. In fact, its so amazing, that is always running ahead of time (from a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 45 minutes), thus ensuring that its owner is never late, and also increasing his efficiency. It is verily the apogee of clock-making genius.

After reading this, one is naturally prompted to ask – “what then, pray you, is this engineering marvel worth?” Well, the good news is that I am not looking to make a profit, and am ready to accept Rs 59,999.99 for it.

ITEM 3: A Pair of Shoes, size 9.

Yes, I am talking about those shoes. The ones which graced the posterior of Mr. Chirag Mittal, ex-convener of the students senate, at the last ever Hall 1 Hall-day. The ones which resulted in the famous discourse on “battameeji”. They also happen to be among the few pieces of footwear to have been used by Mr. Armish Sonkar, which have not been thrown at somebody. As a bonus with these shoes, I am throwing in my brown wallet, as I find lesser and lesser use for it day by day. I believe it’s really cheap just for Rs. 15499.99.

Anyone interested in any of the items on sale are requested to contact me urgently – I cannot guarantee how long these items will be available. Visa and Master Cards will be accepted.

Ads yet again.

2009-12-01T08:02:00.003+05:30

So there's this Reid&Taylor advertisement that's been around for sometime now. And I have grown sick of it. Because its stupid.
Consider the lyrics/dialogue/horse faeces that Big B dishes out:

"Somewhere between a busy airport and a busy schedule,
Is a moment when you realise
A book is really a machine for time travel
Love can be a feeling shared by strangers
A film set is not about work or the movies

And somehwere between work and work and more work,
Is a childhood, that's not just for children.
And there is a road that's not about destination,
Miles or minutes,
Somewhere you know, there are just 86400 moments to a day.

Dress code - Reid and Taylor"

The first time you watch this ad, you begin liking it somewhat - you feel its poetic etc, but then all of a sudden, just when you begin thinking maybe now Big B is going to tell us the truth of life or impart some great piece of wisdom, or tell us how many microseconds there are in a day - he comes up with something like "Dress Code - Reid And Taylor", and all you can react is "WTF?" You are surprised, and shocked. The second time, as the ad begins, you dismiss your initial reaction as a freak occurrence, and tell yourself that something like that couldn't have happened, and maybe watching too much television impairs one's intellect. Yet again you get hypnotised by the baritone, and then BANG! "Dress Code Reid And Taylor". By this time, you have almost decided never to buy a reid and taylor outfit ever. And slowly, with more exposure to it, you slowly become numb to its effects. Your brain automatically deactivates when you see it.

The closest this I found to this ad was this haiku I read sometime back on uncyclopedia:

The surf on the rocks,

Gentle rain falls on cedars,

I will fuck you raw.

We never did leave Hall 1

2009-10-31T07:56:00.002+05:30

2009-10-20T22:58:00.003+05:30

We need a pogrom against naxalites and their sympathisers in this country. "Ideological cleansing" would probably describe the idea better. Communism is a pernicious ideal, and should be rooted out. Covert operations should be initiated to target and eliminate the ones running the naxal movement, and their financiers.Similar to this. And the government needs to bring development to the naxal-infested areas. Without that, it will not be possible to get rid of these pests permanently.

2009-10-06T09:18:00.001+05:30

Princely Employment Opportunities.

2009-09-05T14:33:00.005+05:30

Read this article about how the ex-crown prince of Nepal, Prince Paras is alleged to have links with dawood ibrahim's fake currency racket. Things like this make you think. What must he have been thinking? What could explain his actions? Was he looking for a job, now that the monarchy had been abolished? Was the recession also affecting the blue-bloods? Very curious about this case, I went about scouting, and guess what I found in the “Royal Employment Weekly”:

Your Latest High

2009-09-01T09:05:00.002+05:30

There’s a new hallucinogen in the market. Its extremely potent, and its just a few steps away at your nearest paan-ki-dukaan. It goes under the name of Halls Metho Lyptus. One would be naïve in thinking that is was just a new menthol product to hit the markets. Once you have watched the advertisement, you can be cleared of all such misconceptions. Picture this:

You are in an over-crowded Indian station, waiting for your train, which, true to Indian Railways Standard, is running late. Its hot, and suffocating. What do you need at such a juncture? Why Halls Mentho lyptus ofcourse. The protagonist, very conveniently happened to be in possession of one of these. He pops it into his mouth, and voila – the effect is instantaneous. Out of nowhere, right in the middle of the platform, the poor guy gets hit by a snowball. He looks around to search for the culprit, and guess what – he finds an arctic polar bear throwing another one of the missiles at him. In the meantime, some Uchiha has started singing “Sharingaaaaaaaa” followed by the sounds of someone shivering in the intense arctic cold. Normally, when faced with a polar bear, people turn on their backs and run, only to be chased by the bear, and then meet a gruesome death. However, this bear turns out to be very pally(I am not sure, but quite possibly, the bear had one of the halls lozenges too), and the two of them then start performing a duet which might very well have appeared in the next Govinda-starrer. Unfortunately however, the effect is not very long-lasting, and all of a sudden, the poor guy realizes that he’s been performing the ballet with thin air. A group of old ladies who were sitting some distance away happened to be the only souls in the platform who noticed his virtuoso performance. They look at him, and then start smiling knowingly. Whether it was because they knew the effects of Halls Mentho Lyptus, or whether they just enjoyed watching a guy make a complete ass out of himself in the middle of a railway platform, is something only they can tell. What you realize however, after watching the commercial, is that a high is just a Halls Mentho Lyptus away. And that polar bears are good shots.

Chained

2009-08-24T08:17:00.006+05:30

Many moons ago, I was there
In the land of the eternal moon.
Life was free, without a care
It all seemed to end so soon.

Now, under the Sun, with humans around,
Hiding my self, I spend my days.
Once a month, when the moon is round
Alone, I awaken to my true ways.

Mundane humanity stifles me
Their ways I am a stranger to,
Free from these shackles I yearn to be,
Searching the skies is all I do.

Different I am from them,
A prisoner, far away from his kind
Whose brief freedom is the only gem
That in his exile he could find.

Unable to return, is hope all wrong?
To hunt again every night,
To join the pack, wild and strong.
To let my dreams take endless flight?

To be trapped like this for ever more
Is the fate I am resigned to,
But never forget shall I, those days of yore,
Losing the moon is all I rue.

Disclaimer

2009-08-15T13:50:00.003+05:30

This post is, as the title so aptly suggests, a disclaimer. A disclaimer to the effect that members of the lounge, namely Messrs D.Plastic, L.Skywalker, J.Tent, H.Roshan and all others who were part of the esteemed circle, have NOT lent their highly valued services to anything which might even vaguely resemble a publication. Their only collective effort since 31st May, 2009 has been limited to a certain blog, which is primarily aimed at studying the effects of illustrations on the average blog-reader. Individually too, none of them has been involved in any side project which could be classified as what is commonly referred to as a magazine. A need for this disclaimer was felt after recent attempts by certain individuals to malign their legacy. Needless to say, these recent events have caused the lounge members a lot of distress, and on account of being one of the few people who are privy to their thoughts, I felt obliged to put up this disclaimer on my blog.
One might go on to say that a very strong argument could be made in favour of the view that the lounge members are simply over-reacting and attaching too much importance to themselves, and are actually a bunch of no good fat-heads, but a very strong contrary argument can also be made that the lounge members are actually the most awesome people ever born, and they have the right to do whatsoever they please, and if one has a problem with that, then one would be well advised to undergo painful physical exertions. It is my individual opinion that the latter argument makes more sense.
Another disclaimer: The views expressed in the above disclaimer are those of the members of the lounge. I have merely allowed my blog to be an outlet for some of those views. The more radical opinions which some of the lounge members had regarding a certain publication have been kept out of this disclaimer in the interests of propriety, and the fact that I did not want to get personally involved in any argument. All those who have issues with what the lounge members feel are requested to discuss it over with Mr. Plastic. I believe he can be contacted at durableplastic@gmail.com. Thank you. And a Happy Independence Day to all of you.

Of times when we were young

2009-06-13T14:29:00.000+05:30

IITK first year pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bmid.iitk/FirstYearKeKuchhTasweerein#

DPSRKP pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/palarambarujje/DPSDays#

A Long Time Ago,In A Galaxy Far Away.....

2009-05-14T22:55:00.002+05:30

This is dedicated to all those who have ever dreamt of fighting the bad guys with a light sabre.There are movies, and there is Star Wars. It never ceases to amaze and fascinate me. Saw my first star wars movie way back in childhood, and got hooked ever since. The jedi knights, the sith, the empire, and the rebels. The most amazing set of characters - Yoda, Obi Wan-Kenobi, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and most of all Anakin Skywalker. Will always remain indebted to George Lucas for coming up with the idea of Star Wars. Everything, from the way each movie starts, to the novel ideas of the series, and the soundtrack, its all simply superb. Am going to watch all 6 at one go one of these days.

To all the fans out there,

May the force be with you.

Lucknow, The Nawab, and The Kabab

2009-05-10T10:12:00.000+05:30

Lucknow is an awesome city. Its probably the only place in U.P which can for a second make somebody think he is outside U.P. He will be jolted back to reality by the giant statues of behenji all over the place. I haven’t been able to go on a proper tour of the city, but the little that I have seen of it has been pretty impressive. It boasts of a nawabi heritage, and that is primarily responsible for increasing its appeal.

Everybody in Lucknow tends to think of himself/herself as a descendant of some relative of the famed nawabs. And they hence behave appropriately. It is something very interesting to observe. While going to give our CAT exam, we had stopped at a sweet shop for breakfast. Even the waiter was addressing us as if we were the nawab and his cronies, and he was the royal waiter. It did a lot for our self confidence. In fact, I believe it gave us so much of a boost that all of us began to think that Nawabs did not sweat over petty exams like the CAT, and screwed up.

Tales of the lucknawi nawabs are very famous. This one was told to me by a cabbie once. Apparently, when the britishers had attacked lucknow(disrespectful baniyas I tell you – attacking the nawab’s city), the great nawab had been unable to escape the city. This was because all the servants had run away prior to the attack, and there was nobody left to help the nawab wear his shoes. And you don’t expect the nawab to run barefoot, do you? Another version of the same tale gives the reason for being caught as the nawab and his pal going “pehele aap” to each other until the brits caught up. This tale has given rise to a number of similar nawab jokes, but most of them are of a disparaging nature, and hence I shall not mention them.

Another tale I once heard was of how even on moonlit nights, the nawab would go out under an umbrella so as not to tan his skin. One would be hard pressed to find a word in the English dictionary which can capture the entire essence of the word “nawabi”. That spirit is still alive and kicking in the city. Why, the last time we were there, all of us had ended up feeling all nawabi. People were responding to simple queries with “pehele aap”.

Whenever somebody’s feeling down, I recommend a visit to Lucknow. One is bound to return feeling like the king of the world. The king of his room at the very least.

Another reason for going to Lucknow is the famed Galawati Kabab. Words fail me as I try to describe its amazing taste. The kabab just melts in your mouth, faster than butter. And you are left with a heavenly feeling. You have to eat it once in your life time. There are some people, like the chull man, who will not like it, but then you do have to realize that there is a reason behind him being named the chull man. Be it the Nawab, or the Kabab, you just have to visit Lucknow atleast once.

Words of Advice

2009-05-06T14:20:00.001+05:30

Memorable quotes by some seniors:
1. "eh #@$%^#@$% yaha pe interest dekh kar kabhi course mat lena. maine liya tha - fukka khaa gaya."
2. "Agle sem ke liye course select karte time junta hamesha aukaat ke bahaar ho jaati hain - sab sochte hain ki dassa maarenge agle sem mein. soch samajh kar cool courses lena bas. "
In short, one should never choose courses which seem interesting as electives. The results might not be very endearing. Would like to relate some experiences which I have had in this regard.

Course 1:
Finite Element Method. ME 623
Instructor: Prof. N.N.Kishore
Was isntrumental in getting all the mechies in my wing to register for the course. What followed was a semester of sorrow. NNK did his best to ensure that nobody got anything of what he was teaching. Mid semester averages were around 10/30 while B.Tech junta would be getting in the range [0,5). Add matlab assignments, and one ANSYS based one. By the time the course got over, all of us were viewing objects in bits and pieces.
Lesson to be learnt: Anything with the words Finite and Element should be avoided like the bubonic plague or Prof. J Ramkumar.

Course 2:
Natural Language Semantics. ENG 443
Instructor: Prof. Achla M Raina
As if once wasn't good enough, I had to go and do it once again. Once in my second year, I had registered for an introductory course in linguistics. Had scored an A. And had developed interest in linguistics. Hence, when I saw that "natural Language Semantics" was being offered in my 8th semester, I immediately registered for the course. As things tragically turned out, only 8 people had registered for that course, out of which 3 of the y5 junta were ten pointers, including our very own ikka. Still having full confidence in my abilities, I did not drop the course, and continued. The first mid semester went well as it was based a lot upon the earlier course. Just managed to scrape through the second mid sem. The end semester examination was a three hour exercise in copying words and terms which I did not understand from my notes to the answer sheet(it was an open book exam). Terms like Lexical Ontology or Generative Lexicons or Transformational Generative Grammars. That was when I decided never to take a course in linguistics ever again in my life. Pity the realization dawned a bit late.
Lesson to be learnt: Interest should be the last factor in deciding which course to select.

Course 3:
Fracture And Fatigue. ME 728
Instructor: Prof. Sumit Basu
This was a case of sheer negligence on my part. People who had done ME 623(yeah that's right - FEM) under Prof Basu were yelling themselves hoarse about how cool an instructor he was, and how he would teach absolutely nothing in the entire semester. I needed to choose a DE, and without any further research, I chose Me 728. What I later learnt was that Prof. Basu, while being an excellent prof, wasn't exactly interested in FEM. On the other hand, fracture and fatigue happened to be his pet subject. As a result, the syllabus increased pretty exponentially, and as we soon found out, it wasn't without reason that the course was a level 7 course. Thankfully, the course distribution placed 40% weightage on quizzes, and hence passing was not a problem. Only those who are unnaturally interested in solid mechanics should try for this course.
Lesson to be learnt: Carefully research the instructor's background before couse selection.

Thankfully, I have never had to pay for my mistakes, but things might very well have turned out differently. So be extra careful while selecting courses.

2009-05-01T12:39:00.000+05:30

Oscars and filmfares

2009-03-09T20:03:00.004+05:30

"Oscar" has become India's top word nowadays. All thanks to Slumdog Millionare. While I am happy that Rahman got the award, what followed simply takes the cake, icing, cherry, knife and even the birthday boy in terms of political tom-foolery. The congress party buys up rights to "Jai ho" saying that it reflects aspirations of the average Indian. Modi countered pointing out that the many years of congress rule made slums prevalent, and hence such a movie was possible. Not to be left behind, Nitish Kumar ensured that a picture of him going to watch Slumdog Millionare on a rickshaw made it to the newspapers. I don't know about much else, but one would surmise that other politicians wouldn't have missed out on the chance to jump onto the bandwagon.
Yesterday, I got to see the "54th Filmfare Awards". Was hoping there would be some action akin to last year, which i had missed out on. Unfortunately, it was not so. Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan played the hosts, and spent most of the time engaged in activities that would have made chimps feel ashamed. Ranbir Kapoor, try as he might, will never be able to stop giving off fruity vibes. From Sawariya, to Bachna ae Haseeno, to hosting the filmfares, one continuously feels that he is slightly off the beaten track. Anyway, the Slumdog children got felicitated at the filmfares too. They seemed to be overawed by the presence of bollywood bigwigs, and one owuld hope that our "Stars" learn something from them.
The stark difference in class between hollywood and bollywood never becomes more apparent than when one compares the Oscars to any awards function of Bollywood. Their stars always maintain their dignity, while out here, we have the biggest celebrities prancing around on stage, and in general trying to outdo each other in "Who can be the bigger dumb-ass?" Was reading a report in the newspapers in which Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had filed a law-suit against the distributors and one of the sponsors of their movie "Righteous Kill" because footage from the movie had been used to advertise a product, without informing them. Al pacino in his entire career, has never promoted any brand, and De Niro has only done it under "very compelling circumstances" (to quote from the law-suit). One would be very hard pressed to find any such example in bollywood.
The part I liked the best about filmfares was "mumbai meri jaan" getting the "critics award". The director came up and said "Thank you Filmfare, for this nice gesture........wasn't a commercial film, but we knew this film had to be made." When will the Indian film fraternity start appreciating quality movies, instead of those endorsed by big names?

Only a few more nails left.

2009-01-30T20:11:00.005+05:30

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are purely mine. Most of the stuff put in quotes is basically my interpretation of what the speaker had to say. If you have problems with that, why don't you go the dadagiri way?

Recently, we have seen the rise of the moral police all over the country. Women are being pushed out of pubs. Couples hanging out together on St. Valentine's Day are being forced to tie the knot, or the rakhi. The Bajrang Dal is having a whale of a time. Political leaders like Ashok Gehlot, B.S.Yeddyurappa( The B.S part was pretty aptly named - his parents must have had the wisdom of foresight) and Anbumani Ramadoss have been competing with each other in issuing retarded statements - stuff like "pub-culture is ruining the state", "youngsters holding hands in malls is wrong, because I wasn't allowed to do it", "I just need publicity and conservative votebanks and have this irresistible itch to mimic a baboon." On the other hand, we have protectors of Indian culture, like Mr. Pramod Muthalik from the Sri Ram Sene on the loose. One wonders at how long it will be before these groups mutate into extremist terrorist organisations. Secularism is dying a slow death in our country. This holds both ways. Came across this link. The article in question is this one. No action will be taken against the protesters who blockaded the offices of the newspaper. That would be because no one would want to hurt their minority vote bank. We have the Shiv Sena people on one side, and the Antulays and Amar Singhs on the other.
When do we get people with real backbone to run this country? Rather, when do we get humans to run this country? We have had too many apes running the show for a long time now.

2009-01-28T22:48:00.001+05:30

Rajini

2008-12-29T09:12:00.001+05:30

Ghajini should have been named Rajini. Why, you ask? Well, that’s because had Aamir been wearing a mask throughout the movie, one would have very easily mistaken him for God Rajnikanth himself. I went to watch the movie with a lot of trepidation. The trailors had confirmed that the movie was indeed the remake of a tamil movie which had been plagiarized off Nolan’s “Memento”. I generally make it a point not to watch plagiarized movies( that doesn’t leave me with a lot of choice in bollywood these days), but due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up paying 80 bucks for a rear stall ticket, that was actually worth 25 bucks. And yes, the theatre, which had the caption “air-conditioned” emblazoned proudly under its name, was actually not air-conditioned. In fact, it was stifling inside.

The movie has a lot of mindless violence. The initial trailors had tried to depict that the movie would be just another love flick, with a topless Aamir displaying his “abs” ala sharukh and salman. But trust me, the movie has a fair quotient of blood and gore, with the lead actor, lead actress, and the villain being dealt violent blows to the head with large blunt objects. The villain’s assistants were however not accorded that privileged status. Aamir’s hands were enough for them. Of course, it’s not another Kill Bill, but has Aamir wiping out an entire gang of hoodlums in fifteen minutes before he loses his memory for the umpteenth time.

Fans of Memento might not like this movie. The movie is in a typical flashback sequence, with none of Memento’s characteristic non-linear sequencing. Also, the plot is way simpler, and is mostly a cock and bull story. But then, when “rab ne bana di jodi” could have a theme based on a wife not being able to recognize her husband after he has had a shave, I guess plot feasibility is not something which runs high on the priority list of Bollywood film-makers these days. However, one thing I really loved about the movie was the performance by fresh bollywood entrant Asin (apparently, she’s already a very big star down south. This year’s seen quite a few southern actresses rock bollywood).

The funniest part of the movie was when a police inspector meets his end by colliding with a truck. The sequence was as follows: Aamir has already thrashed this guy, and has kept him tied up in his house. All of a sudden, do-gooding Jiah Khan turns up, and sets the guy free. Just then, Aamir shows up. The inspector takes a look at Aamir, and dashes out. Aamir chases him across the street. Then, the inspector runs into a truck, and dies. Now, the point to be noted is that the inspector runs into the truck. It was not him crossing the road and getting hit by a truck, but a head-on collision instead. I believe the director told him to imagine the truck was not there, and keep on running.

The movie is definitely worth a watch, though I would suggest not going to a theatre or multiplex. Aamir has done Rajni baba proud.

2008-12-28T09:48:00.004+05:30

My reply to Rahul Verma's(aka Chachhan) recent mail to the student community with the subject: "Condition of Students in our Liberal IIT K"

I couldn't care less if bikes were allowed or not. I find
your logic to be highly flawed and irrational. I would
recommend an introductory course in logic - PHI 143
(it maybe PHI 141, please check). kindly stop sending such
mails in the future.

regards,
Soham

His reply:

Dear Soham;
          Thanks a lot for your decent email. I really
appreciate that you, after having misunderstanding,
wrote in a manner which is not derogatory, anyways I
have received two emails in which the writer poured all
venom he stored. I hardly expected a kind mail from a
fourth year student like you. Anyways I request you to
just take some time to read the first email to DOSA.pdf
as it was logical, rest emials were follow ups.
All The best for your Placements.

Wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.

Thanks a lot






Rahul Verma

Now, I am scared.

Save Me

2008-12-27T09:33:00.000+05:30

Was watching Indian Idol the other day. Five minutes into the show my hands were itching to find a gun so that I could put myself out of my misery. Thankfully mum changed the channel. Some of the common rumours doing the rounds these days hold that the Indian army has started exposing captured terrorists to continuous footage of that show to make them start singing, albeit in a slightly different sense. Normally, one would expect it to be a music show with competitors coming and singing their songs, and the judges grading them on that basis. Instead, we have two guys clowning around, trying to be “cool” hosts. Competitors, instead of being allowed to concentrate on their singing, are made to indulge in gaucherie which will supposedly boost trps. And the judges. Why somebody would choose Anu Malik to judge a singing competition is something I have always failed to understand. I doubt he has ever composed an original piece of music. Sonali Bendre, again is a choice that I cannot quite comprehend. While being a judge at this show might help rejuvenate her acting career, I do not quite understand how her presence is beneficial to the show. Maybe it’s a favour the Zee people are doing to her. If the panel selection was not bizarre enough(leaving aside Javed Akhtar, of course), we have all the jury members vying with each other in making the most expert critique of the participant’s performance. Of course, Anu Malik beats everybody hands down in this regard. I don’t even care if what he has to say might actually be valid or not. His pearls of wisdom would be a lot more appreciated if he didn’t have to act an ass the majority of the time. Entertainment is becoming more and more farcical these days. Its become very difficult to catch decent shows on television.

2008-12-19T22:59:00.000+05:30

It was the same old dream. The open apartment door. The surge of panic. The empty drawing room. Pieces of broken china lying on the floor. Her limp body lying on the bed. The weird dark patches on her white dress, slowly spreading to engulf the remaining whiteness. The sad look in her eyes. Her clutching his hands. The last gentle press he would ever feel. Her hand slipping away and falling to the side. The numbness descending down upon him like the fog in the mountains.

He woke up sweating. He was unable to forgive himself for not being present and preventing it. It was 4 a.m. He lay down, and pulled the covers over his head. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he tried all the same. There would be a lot of work in the morning.

He woke up again at 6a.m. and this time he got out of bed. He made himself a cup of coffee. He had a few more hours till the trial to get his work done. The police had managed to apprehend the burglars within a week. They had broken down during interrogation, and had confessed. The verdict would be passed that morning. Both would be getting life sentences, the police commissioner had assured him. Very strangely, that had not proved to be reassuring. The dreams were still continuing.

The trial took place as scheduled. The judge passed the expected verdict. Both of them got fifteen years each. He watched them as they were led away by the police constables towards the police van. One of the criminals looked at him, and smiled. He smiled back and walked the other way.

He woke up the next morning after a refreshing ten hour sleep. He hadn’t slept like that in a long time. The newspaper had already arrived. As his eyes passed over the headline, he couldn’t help but break into a slight smile. “Police Van carrying convicts blows up.” Col. A. Mahesh rolled over and went back to sleep.

Duality

2008-12-15T15:40:00.001+05:30

I recently had a debate with one of my friends over his choice of music. He was listening to some Punjabi rap song, and I was trying to convince him that his taste in music was crass. Sometime later I realized that the kind of music I would have suggested was outdated ie it was no longer the dominant genre as it had been in its heydays. That got me thinking. Why wasn’t it still the most popular genre? The answer which popped to my mind was that society had changed, and correspondingly people’s tastes in music had changed. Of course there were exceptions to my theory too. Classical music is something which has existed for ages, and will continue to do so, even after current musical genres become outdated. Possibly that is why it is termed classical music. It might not have retained the dominant position, but it has certainly a large following. It has the quality of Permanence, amidst all the change in life.

Permanence and Change. Two opposite concepts. Yet in such a symbiotic relationship. Life, by its nature, is change. Yet, what we humans appreciate the most is the quality of permanence. Caesar said of himself “I am constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix’d and resting quality, there is no fellow in the firmament.” One appreciates that which one is unable to see in himself. Permanence hence, becomes a virtue. But there is more to this. Life has changed over the years. Yet, there are things which have remained constant. The world has seen civilizations come and civilizations go. All followed the same unchanging pattern. The rise, the saturation, and then the decay. In Sandman, a man who has been granted immortality remarks on how the times might change, but human kind makes the same mistakes.

Today we live in the most technologically advanced society in history. Everyday life is being changed by some technical innovation or the other. It would be hard for me to predict how advanced the world would be a year from now, given the novelty of the advancements. Even socially, age-old customs are being discarded in favour of newer ones. It is not up to me to comment on the nature of these changes, but the fact remains that changes are occurring. The basic essence of life however, still remains the same. Survival is still the primal instinct. Today is the age of America. Pundits say its going to be the age of Asia next. Whichever age it is next, the fact will remain that man will still need his daily bread. We will need water to drink. The Sun will rise in the east.

As one becomes more observant of one’s surroundings, one will be able to notice and understand that life consists of both permanence and change existing in harmony. That is, there is a duality involved. A duality which enshrines each and every aspect of life. Good and bad. Ying and yang. Life and Death. Creation and Destruction. Light and Darkness. And so on. It is this symmetry which is amazing and bewildering at the same time.

Oh Kolkata!!

2008-12-14T11:54:00.003+05:30

I have always had a weakness for kolkata. For a variety of reasons. Its the only city in West Bengal. You get awesome fish there. My granpa's house in located there. And some other reasons. In that respect, this trip to kolkata, to attend kheti's sister's marriage was a very bad experience. Not the marriage I mean. That went perfectly fine. Very awesome food and all. Kheti even put us up in a very nice guest-house.
What I am talking about is the general state of the city. Very simply put, Delhi is atleast 50 years ahead of Kolkata in terms of being one of the major cities of the country. Small, congested roads. Zero sense of traffic rules and regulations. I used to think that kanpur had the worst traffic in the country. But Kolkata wipes the floor with kanpur. In term of traffic rules violations that is. The endless traffic jams are something one has to get accustomed to if one is new to kolkata. And there seemed to be a general lack of infra-structure development in the city. I am sure I saw the same buses plying the roads which I had seen in my childhood. Was impossible to find a bus without a single dent or a scratch. Hawkers all over the place. And not to forget, red flags everywhere too.
Commies have ruined the state of west bengal. And it is the most apparent when one visits kolkata. All one sees are relics of the past, desperately trying to cling onto their former glory. All my trips before this, I did not have to spend much time on the roads, hence several ground realities escaped my sight. This trip was an eye-opener in that regard. I guess this is all commies are capable of. Put up red flags here and there. Try to stop productive work at as many places as possible. Reduce the city which was once the capital of India to a fossil.
Damn all commies and their supporters.

2008-11-29T03:54:00.001+05:30

Probably one of the most awesome pictures which have been clicked by my camera so far. Sam chaapoed big time.

2008-11-24T23:56:00.001+05:30

Was supposed to wake up at 4. Woke up at 7. in between there was an awesome dream involving nicole kidman and an elephant. sadly can't remember the rest of it.

Tribute to the Fat man.

2008-11-14T00:44:00.003+05:30

The Fat Man in the title is very obviously not Jim Morrison. It refers to the fat guy using the alias John. I have never done this before - write testimonials for people on my blog. But I will have to make an exception in this case. Fat man is very chaapu.The picture one sees was drawn over the last three days using only pencil. What the picture has failed to capture is the effect produced when one views the sketch at night with all the lights switched off. To put it very simply, very few things have left me awestruck during my stay here. This sketch is one of them.
Looking at the fat guy, one would not be able to judge that he is among the most chaapu junta of y5. Some would say he is the chaapuest guy in y5. Immensely talented. In a lot of things. And, a very nice guy.

My respects fat man.

2008-11-11T21:30:00.003+05:30

Over the exceedingly boring and frustrating last week, the only good things which happened were:
1. Jefferson Airplane: Very very awesome band. Infact, even more awesome than that.
2. Grateful Dead: Another very very awesome band.
3. John joining the club, and 3 continuous nights. Yeah, that sounds like something, but its not that.
4. Kenichi being very cool.
5. Velvet Underground does not need my endorsement I guess.
6. Dada playing nice innings in last test. Australians biting dirt.

The worst thing to have happened last week would undoubtedly be my BTP presentation. Funnily enough, after having been on time for all prior meetings and presentations, we were around 10 minutes late for the final evaluation. The first question the head of the PEC(Project Evaluation Committee) asks us: "Why are you guys late? Kal raat ko drawings bana rahe the kya?" My guide, being the nice helpful chap that he is, answers before me: "Nahi, aaj subah bana rahe the." Since then, the meeting went really downhill. As it was, both me and sunny were badly out of breath, for having run straight from hall1 to the 3rd floor conference room in the faculty building. (Had we walked, we would have been 15 minutes late, instead of 7 minutes). Sunny was asked to explain our assembly drawing to the rest of the profs on the panel.

Luckily for us, one of them was already dozing off. The guy is a young new prof straight out of Cornell, and has a reputation of asking really wierd, unexpected, and in all probability, unrelated questions. He is also known to have failed 10 people out of a strength of 15 in a course he took last semester. Anyway, while making the drawings, both sunny and me knew that there was no one in the mechanical engineering department who would be able to comprehend our assembly view. So we were pretty cool about it, thinking that there wouldn't be any uncomfortable questions. We weren't disappointed. The profs did not get the drawing even after staring at it for quite some time. That did not deter them however. Sunny had to deal with a flurry of questions regarding industrial standards for brakes (our project was on brakes) - stuff about which sunny had no clue.

In the meanwhile, the head of the PEC had reserved me for his special attention. One after the other he went through the part drawings I had made with such care, and instead of the praise I had been expecting, I was told that all of them resembled something which they should not have resembled. The best part of it was when he asked me how we were going to fabricate a slotted disc. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows that a millling machine is used. Even I knew that. But maybe it was all that running, but the word "lathe" escaped my mouth. He looked at me disparagingly, and then with a demeaning nod of his head, he passed on the drawings to the other profs. It was as if he wanted to say "this is what IIT Kanpur has come to." I made a mental note to start jogging once again, so that such future incidents could be prevented.

The meeting lasted for about 15 minutes. When it was over, we were told to redo some fo the drawings. The head of the PEC also made a comment on how design softwares are not really up to the mark, and how hand-drawing was still the best. We agreed with his statements, and assured them that all the changes would be made. Then we left the conference room.

2008-11-04T23:22:00.002+05:30

Have often discussed the question "Where would you go to, if you had a time machine?" A lot of answers crop up. There was a time when i would liked to have gone back to the age of the aryans. But for quite some time now, my answer has been the same - the sixties. The age of rock and roll.
Have been listening to San Francisco(be sure to wear some flowers in your hair) all day. So wish I had been present there during the sixties. San francisco, May, 1967. Our age is one of hypocrisy and selfishness. damn. somebody please invent a time machine.

Fat guy is a fag.

2008-10-19T13:27:00.002+05:30

Johhny Tent is Mr. Fattu. He is fat, and is Fattu. Its all very easy to go on and on about being the Marad, but being one is completely different. It would be all right if you just accept the truth now.

2008-10-10T18:43:00.002+05:30

What is the single most interesting thing that happened to you today?

Returning tomorrow. Hope the train is on time this time. Back to making lab reports.

Don't mess around with the club guys

2008-10-08T19:03:00.002+05:30

Sixteen guys. eight bikes. two in the night. We are just about to leave one of the pandals, when this guy - lets call him Mr. Wiseguy, gets this awesomely brilliant idea. He goes to the guy with the mike, and makes the following announcement - "Mr. XYZ, please come to the information center - your wife Mrs XYZ is looking for you." Mr XYZ, thinking that because he is not yet married, the announcement must be for another Mr XYZ. In the meantime, two others - lets call them Chulli1 and Chulli2 go to the information center and tell Mr Wiseguy - "Why did you have to make the announcement for? Nice one - ha ha ha." The old guy at the information center is drunk, and does not like being made a fool by a bloke old enough to be his son. Old guy says "You(to Mr Wiseguy) - you stay here until Mr XYZ turns up." Everyone else in the gorup is slightly surprised at the turn of things. All of a sudden Mr XYZ turns up and says "What the heck were you guys making the announcement for?" "Hey maan - go get Mr Wiseguy - the old man has kept him hostage. You are the ransom." say the rest. Mr XYZ reaches the information center to find the old guy slapping Mr Wiseguy. There is some commotion, and then Mr XYZ gets Mr Wiseguy out. Drags him out actually. Seeing the other junta - Mr Wiseguy had gained some lost courage. Meanwhile - in the minds of the rest of the junta the following calculations are going on:
" People I know here: ZERO
People of this locality out here right now : 30+
People on our side: 16
No of Drunk Junta: 15-20
Chances of us getting thrashed and skinned alive: 99.94%
Course of Action: Honourable escape/dishonourable escape - but escape for sure"
Some junta shout some stuff. rest mount their bikes and start off.
Later on in the night the others look around to see if Mr Wiseguy is around, and when they are sure he isn't, everybody goes - "I don't know about you maan - but I sure as hell enjoyed every f*****g bit of it."
Pujas are so much fun.

Embarassment

2008-10-08T18:31:00.002+05:30

There are times one feels proud to be an iit-ian. Like the time during my internship when I rewired the cable connection to the puny television in my room so as to get a clearer signal, using only a nail-cutter.
Then there are those times when one feels he should hide the fact that he is from an iit. Like in cases where one has just committed an act of unforgivable stupidity. Plastic is an insulator. Uniross provides a plastic slip between the batteries and the charger, for some reason. The idea behind it is that one removes the plastic slip before putting the batteries to charge(hence completing the circuit). Testing the charger on all the sockets in the house, and trying various orientations of the charger for a momentary flicker of the red light was probably not what they had in mind. And all it took for enlightenment to dawn was a guy-next-door pulling out one of the batteries so that the slip flies out in front of your eyes, and then you realise what an ass you have been. Then you thank god for two reasons :
1. The guy doesn't know you are from IIT
2. You didn't explain what the problem was in the first place.

I smell BLOOD

2008-10-07T15:44:00.003+05:30

The puja season constitutes a very important part of a bengali's calendar. Of the 5 days of worship, the 3rd day - MahaAshtami, is extremely important. That day, all bengalis have to stay hungry and go to the temple, or their neighbourhood pandal, and offer "anjali". Bascially - everybody stands with some flowers in their hands, and a priest goes on with some sanskrit slokas, which hardly a few understand, and then people throw the flowers at the fooot of the Durga idol. That is how things would seem like to a passive external observer.
I have my own reasons for looking up to MahaAshtami. Thing is - that day, everybody turns up at the temples or pandals. And everybody is in a hurry. Which basically implies that there is a huge crowd, and one has to plow one's way through the entire crowd to get to the front, where one has a good view of the "pratima". Now there are many ways to accomplish this objective. I shall now proceed to describe a method which I have found particularly useful.
First, stand at the back of the crowd and attempt to find "The path of least resistance" - basically - find a path where there will be people of lesser height and width than you. Then, utter anyone of the following battle chants::
1. I smell blood
2. Raw is War
3. Death to one and all.
Alternate versions like "There will be blood" have also been known to work.
Anyway, once you have done all this, the tough part begins. You have to rush in, and shove others around until you reach the perfect spot. Acceptable techniques to attain this end include elbowing, stepping on another's toes, punching others if you are shorter in height, and the age-old multi-purpose shoulder barge. If you are taller than average - make full use of it. If you are shorter than average - just burrow forward. Remember very well not to show any mercy, for you won't be shown any. Do not let considerations like "old-age" or "just a child" fog your thinking. People will just be waiting to take advantage of you.
Once you have found the perfect spot, you have a new problem - how do you keep it? Your position will only be safe while the priest is chanting his hymns. The moment he stops the rush starts again. And as they say "Its tougher to stay at the top than reach it." There will be others like you who will be in search of the perfect spot. The best method in such a case is to assume a Herculean pose - standing straight with your arms folded across your chest. Essentially what you end up doing is occupy the space which would be enough for two people. Hence, when the pushing gets too much for you to handle, you can always give up one place to another deserving individual.

The Long Trip Home

2008-10-06T05:57:00.003+05:30

Word of Advice to all who intend to travel from Kanpur to Siliguri sometime in their life: Do NOT, and I mean Do NOT, under any circumstances book a ticket on 4084 Mahananda Express. Same would go for the 4083 Mahananda Express. I have specified the train number for your benefit. Please take heed of my words, or you shall suffer agonizing delays.
My train was scheduled at 3 pm on Saturday. I reach the station with around 15 minutes to spare(I hate waiting for trains, hence I hate arriving early). Surprise, surprise. The electronic display opposite the enquiry center shows : "4084 Mahananda Express 22:30 22:40 LT". For a second there I think I have horribly messed things up and have missed the train, but then enlightenment strikes me. The train is merely 7 and a half hours late. I decide to wait at the station, but after an hour my patience runs out, and I catch an auto back to campus.
On reaching campus, my slightly startled wing mates inform me that one can check their train timings on the internet, and that I was an ass for not having done so earlier. Chastised, I check the status on the internet, and find that the train was now scheduled to arrive at 00:05 hours. Armish had a train to catch at midnight, so we decide to leave together. By the time we depart, the arrival time had slowly reached 1:30 a.m
Armish's train departed at 00:30a.m. 1:30a.m came and went by, yet my train showed not the slightest signs of appearing. Then the announcements started. Each announcement was separated from the previous one by around 30 mins. And the point of each one was that the train had been delayed by a further 30 mins. Finally, at around 3:15 a.m, Mahananda express slowly drew in to platform number 5. My seat was in a very strange bogey. Half of it was AC 3 tier, and the other half was AC 2 tier. I entered from the 2 tier end, and for a second there, my spirits were up because I felt that maybe my ticket had been upgraded to ease my suffering. Unfortunately, dreams were squashed by a sleeping passenger, who wakes up and points out that the 3 tier part of the bogey was on the other side.
I finally reach my proper seat, only to find that somebody was already sleeping on it. It was one of those pesky kids I hate. However, the kid was sleeping, and was looking kinda cute, so I wake up its dad, and occupy one of the seats which have been left empty. And I promptly go off to sleep. Now, the thing about pesky kids, is that they are cute ONLY when they are sleeping. The moment that thing woke up next morning, it starts bawling. In civilized society, such an act would have caused that thing to be shot, but unfortunately enough, we still do not reside in such a society. One would think, that after having waited for a stupid train for over 6 hours, one would be entitled to one's sleep, but no - there had to be the pesky kid. I entertain thoughts of telling its parents to shut it up, or i would throw it off the train, but then decide against it, as I feel it would be rude, and it is not civilized to be rude.
I sleep throughout the day, deciding against having food for some reason. All through the day, the kid keeps at work with its lungs, but somehow I manage not to wake up before the evening. The question of how to spend the rest of the journey beings to gnaw at one corner of my mind. Then that I remember that I had brought my ipod with me. For all you Microsoft/Sony Lobbyists - there are 2 very simple reasons why the ipod is better than anything you have to offer:
1. The Ipod WORKS. Now isn't that surprising?
2. Nothing can match the sound quality of an ipod. Except another ipod.

I was expecting to reach siliguri by 2 a.m. But then, I had not taken into consideration the various allowances one has to make while traveling on the Mahananda express. The allowances are something similar to the following:

1. Idiocy Allowance - Make adjustments to account for the stupidity of the driver and railway staff in general - 1 hour
2. Mahananda Allowance - Adjustments for the train being the Mahananda express - 5 hours.
3. Unforeseen Circumstances Allowance - adjustment for unforeseen circumstances - 3 hours.
4. Indian railways allowance - adjustment for traveling through the Indian Railways - 2 hours.
5. Murphy's Allowance for late trains - Once a train is late, it can only get even more late. - 2 hours.

The values for the various allowances are only based on empirical evidence, and may vary from case to case, but they do help in painting an approximate picture of what to expect when traveling on the Mahananda express.

At 4 a.m in the morning, I set foot at NJP. I rush to buy two packets of biscuits, and take a rikshaw home. The journey from NJP back home was very idyllic. I munch away at the biscuits I had bought. And swing to the music. And it is 4 a.m in the night, so there isn't a single soul on the streets - except a stray dog or two. As we travel through the empty streets at night, I feel all emotional and nostalgic. Just then, I see a wall with red paint on it, and a commie slogan. SUCI, DYFI and CITU all around. Welcome to West f*****g commie Bengal. Reach home after about 30 mins.

Mom is slightly shocked by my hairstyle - "poor you - now its pujas, so you can't even cut your hair". I go "I don't want to cut my hair. Why would I want to cut my hair?" "So you are going to go out like this?" . I do not reply. Then, I go off to sleep.Back home at last.

2008-09-29T20:38:00.001+05:30

Me: "you are not just a big fat panda, you are the big fat panda."
Babz: "Then I will be a sad panda"

The Ministry of Common Sense

2008-09-15T11:24:00.004+05:30

For a long time now I have felt that what India really needs is a Ministry of Common Sense. Honestly. We need it more than the nuclear deal with the americans. Just look around you. All you will find are people indulging in activities which reflect a slight deficit in common sense. Or people indulging in activities the sole purpose of which is to intellectually disadvantage the population. take for example the recent media hype generated over the Large Hadron Collider. Channels like Aaj tak were going on and on about the end of the world. The video on the LHC was interspliced with scenes of tsunamis, earthquakes and what not.After watching stuf like that, some poor girl committed suicide. I am all for free speech, and freedom of expression on democracy, but stuff like this should be clamped down upon. And the people who should be responsible for ensuring this will constitute the Ministry of Common Sense.
Ever tried watching Channel V or MTV?? Experiments have proved that continuous exposure to these channels (notably shows like Get Gorgeous and Roadies and Splitsvilla) results in a significant lowering of the IQ of a person. Basically - these channels cause premature senility. But wait, there's more to come. The show that really takes the cake is "Dadagiri" on Bindaas. In case you are lucky enough not to have seen it, just go this link. What is television coming to? And i haven't even started on shows like Big Brother. Who is to ensure that these shows get off air as quickly as possible? The Ministry of Common Sense.
Look at Bollywood today. Fine - we have had a string of nice movies lately - rock on, a wednesday, mumbai meri jaan etc. But we have also had films like "Singh is Kinng." Conspiracy theorists argue that this movie was sponsored by the chinese government to cause an epidemic of stupidity in the country. Take "Race" for example. By the time one figures out the story completely, one's BQ(Blockhead Quotient) has already increased by 10. Watch it twice or thrice, and hey presto - you have reversed evolution. Even hollywood isn't free of this. We have movies like "Wanted" with bullets swerving acrosss obstacles, and snipers located a million miles away. Is there any solution to this? Any answer? The ministry of Common Sense.
The sphere of influence of the Ministry should extend to all spheres of life - not just the entertainment industry. Political leaders like Mamata Banerjee should be arrested for direct violation of laws passed by the Ministry of Common Sense, and then should be put away in some remote prison for the rest of their lives.
Closer home, look at the student's senate. Attending 2 meetings is enough to intellectually scar you for life. Urban legends exist that one cannot converse with the convener of the students senate for more than a stretch of 5 minutes without his brain flowing out his ears. Terrifying tales of trauma concerning the senate have been related by scores of gymkhana executives. I am sure all this could be put to a stop by the ministry of Common Sense.
People of India - lets unite for this cause. It is the need of the day.

Be careful what you ask for

2008-09-12T17:59:00.002+05:30

A question I often end up asking myself is about how much I have learnt over the past 3 years at this institute. The answer has never been encouraging. So there I was, at the beginning of this semester reconciling myself to the fact that I would be getting a degree without knowing much about mechanical engineering in general, and feeling sorry for myself. Just then, it seemed to me that God had finally answered my prayers. To complete our degree, we need to make a B.Tech Project. And doing that invovles the knowledge you have gained over the last 3 years. I told myself - this is where you make amends for having whiled away 3 years. Now get down to some serious business, and apply the engineering principles that have been taught to you.In fact, truth be told, I was the most enthusiastic member of my BTP group.

Harsh Reality always comes gold plated. Once the layer rubs off, it dawns on you. Creating an actual working model of a machine is not everybody's cup of tea. Especially not mine. Yet it could not dampen my enthusiasm. So what if it might be hard. I could do it. Things seemed slightly simpler at first. Everything seems simple at first. Our guide gave us some 4-5 ideas for the BTP, out of which, in a very typical style, I ensured that we chose the most difficult one. Well, the work would be cool.

Then the mails from the Project Evaluation Committee - basically a panel of professors whose only job is to ensure that apart from your BTP you are not involved in much else. Then those darned drawings which have been plaguing me since my first year. And then the design. The sem isn't over yet, and half the status messages of mech junta reads "BTP ne danda kar diya"(not exactly this, but something or the other to this effect). Some people even had the bright idea of shifting to a M.Tech dual program just to escape the BTP, but their high-flying plans were shot down when the SUGC informed them that even if they shifted to a dual program - they would still have to make a BTP for this semester.

Lets hope things turn out good.

2008-09-10T13:10:00.002+05:30

Just in case the Large Hard-On Collider oops, I mean the Large hadron Collider produces black holes which will eat up the earth from inside, and we all die, I would like to say "Run for your lives. This planet's going down."

2008-09-10T03:40:00.001+05:30

Get a DSLR, and this is what you get.

2008-09-09T08:58:00.001+05:30

Danny Archer has run away with his tail between his legs.

2008-09-02T22:26:00.001+05:30

Danny Archer is back. And like always, he ain't gonna miss.

Rock On

2008-09-01T09:27:00.004+05:30

Well, I had been wanting to see Rock On for a long time now. And it was worth waiting for. For all those who enjoy rock music, Rock On will be a treat. Farhan Akhtar gives an awesome performance. So do the others. A simple story, but marvelously executed, with a very nice eye to detail. The beauty of the story lies in the simplicity. And, in the awesome music. During the concert scenes you are left wishing you were there in the movie attending the concerts. The adaptation of Wish you were here was awesome. A nice story, decent acting, pretty girls all around, and brilliant music. What more do you need from a bollywood flick?

Kung Fu Panda

2008-08-29T21:39:00.002+05:30

Every now and then, you come across a movie you like a lot, even though it might not be in a list of the greatest movies ever made. I started liking Kung Fu Panda from the beginning, the moment i heard the dialogue "It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness! " The entire movie is full of dialogues like this- making it one very enjoyable watch. Could relate very well to the situation Po was in initially. Especially the part about him dreaming in the beginning. Towards the end, we have another awesome line "I am not just a big fat panda - I am the big fat panda." A nice movie. Oh yeah, there's a turtle in it too making deep, insightful zen statements. Do watch it.

Of singur and the Nano project.

2008-08-28T21:55:00.003+05:30

Singur seems to be in the news a lot these days. I was under the impression that the Singur issue had been solved, but I guess I am not too well-informed these days. Anyway, I would really appreciate it if Tata Motors decided that enough was enough and backed out of Singur. I really would. Bengalis are accustomed to being poor and lazy. And to raising slogans for revolutions. Infact, I believe that most of the junta protesting right now would be highly pleased if the Nano project went off to some other state. They don't need the money - they just need the intellectual satisfaction of having stood up for the "right" cause. And having stood up for the "poor farmer." Industrialization helps in overall development. I guess something so obvious is very difficult to understand for the supporters of the TMC and all those other Andolans and Samitis which seem to have sprung up over the last two years.As of today - these people have blocked NH2( a road which I have some very fond memories of - but that's another story), causing troubles not just for Tata motors, but also for HM and trucks which have got caught in the mess.(These are the ones i know of -there may be more).
The Tatas should have seen something like this a long time back. I mean - they were coming to Bengal for God's sake. The commie bastion. Even if they were invited by the commies themselves, they should have expected commie ideals to have percolated through to every strata of society over the last 30 odd years. There had to be a backlash against a perfectly sensible idea such as industrialization. That's what commies do actually - they search for sensible ideas, and the moment they find one, they go" We oppose this."
Anyway, lets not go into commie-bashing; it would take a long long article. Coming back, the current bengali mindset has become one of "We shall remain poor and underdeveloped. we want to see every other state in India cross us by. We will fight for the rights of the poor illiterate farmer, and prevent these multi-nationals from stealing from them." Yeah. Right. Like Tata has nowhere else to go. This is what is wrong with Bengal right now. Instead of viewing the Nano project for what it is, basically an offer of revival for the state's economy, people start viewing it as some conspiracy of capitalist bastards.
A lot of other states have already started wooing Tata Motors for the Nano project. Maybe their land is not so "fertile". I just have one question for all these protesters. Where has agriculture got bengal over the last 50 years? Where does bengal rank right now among a list of the most developed states of India? their answer probably would be another question - "in which other state of India do you get a day off every week because of some bandh or strike? We are a bunch of lazy bums, and we will not let Tata or any other MNC steal that right from us. And we shall carry on this fight for the farmers."

2008-08-28T00:30:00.002+05:30

Maria Solheim has an ethereal touch to her voice. You could get lost listening to her.

2008-08-26T20:42:00.002+05:30

When do you see the Dark Side of the Moon?

Man, were those guys brilliant.

bruised knuckles.

2008-08-20T23:08:00.002+05:30

Aggression. That's what it takes. We got a punching bag for the wing. And two pairs of boxing gloves. The inauguration match was held yesterday, between me and armish. We managed to hang the bag today. Filled it with sand and wood pulp. Tried practising on it sometime ago. Aggression. That's what it develops. It feels awesome. Sunny and banga feel all this is going to last for 15 days only. I think they might be wrong this time :P .

A few days later

2008-08-08T18:17:00.003+05:30

A reply.

J and B meet a few days later:

B: Yo dude - so you must have all the chicks in a tizzy by now eh?

J: (with watery eyes) No.(sniff) No. (starts wailing).

B: Hey man what's wrong? Why you in tears? Did something go wrong? Why don't you answer me?

J: There's a problem. It does not work.(bawls at the top of his voice).

B:(feigning surprise) That thing in your pants? That doesn't work? OMG!!! But why?(a slight smile breaking across his features)

J: I don't know. I have searched on the net, but nowhere did i find anyone who has my problem. I even tried on the ng. Now the girls won't come to me.( tears rolling down freely).

B: (looking smug) Poor you. But then i guess the chicks will have to come to me.

J: Atleast your thing works man. (puffy-eyed) Why me God? Why me ?

B: Shit happens dude. You just have to face it. Life doesn't end for you now man. Yeah, you don't get the girls, but you could try moving on.

J: You don't get it - I told everyone about the thing in my pants. Now everyone is waiting to have a laugh. I can't go anywhere without people smirking at me.

B:(feeling pity) Oh c'mon. Don't let that get you down. Wait - I will do you a favour. I will let you use my Ipod once in a while. When I am not using it. When I am not strutting around with it and looking beyond cool. When there will be too many chicks around for me to handle.

J: I hate Zune. I hate microsoft. And I hate you. (Wobbles off on his fat legs).

B gazes after J. After a while he smiles, plugs in the earphones and struts off.

2008-08-04T23:42:00.004+05:30

Bus Ticket to Lucknow : Rs 50
Reaching at 1:30p.m to find that the show was from 1:15p.m when the website said 1:55p.m - Feel like an ass.
Lunch at Mcdees: expensive and not filling.
Watching Kimat Konnection to kill time : The worst decision we ever took that day
Dinner : Rs 50
Watching the late night show of The Dark Knight: Priceless.

There are somethings which are just worth all the effort you put in.

Leaving on a jetplane

2008-07-31T09:16:00.002+05:30

I leave today at 12 from rajahmundry. Reach hyd sometime. Flight from hyd to del at 4. reach del at 6. Train from del to kanpur at 11:40. Reach kanpur tomorrow morning sometime. Meeting up with some people in delhi.

Luck favour me now. Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just had to do this

2008-07-27T15:01:00.003+05:30

http://angstromsunited.blogspot.com/ . The next best feeling. Oh yeah.

Well site 2 :prologue

2008-07-27T14:52:00.003+05:30

"Wake up Soham, and get ready for rig-up." I wake up, and say, "okay". Its one f%&@*^# a.m in the night, and its pouring outside. I have been trying to sleep for the last 3 hours on a mat on the floor of the OSLC unit. ( Thats basically a very hig profile truck with an AC cabin where the engineer sits to operate the tools.) I search for my glasses, find them, open the door of the cabin, and then step out into the rain. Damn it was exciting.

Found this on bash.org

2008-07-19T11:56:00.001+05:30

DragonflyBlade21: A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.

2008-07-19T11:07:00.003+05:30

I have a new friend. Ol' Johnnie. Johnnie's good. And he's not like the other Johnny I know. I guess I am beginning to climb the social ladder :P

har har har.

2008-07-18T15:40:00.002+05:30

You feel really really stupid when you realise you have been longing for gold, when all the time you were sitting on a treasure chest. I wasted 3 whole weeks. Damn. But yeah, it was so fine, it really felt regal. Better late than never i guess.

Long wait almost over

2008-07-16T20:36:00.002+05:30

From the darkness he cometh.....into the darkness he goeth

The Dark Knight comes.

Wish I could see it on big screen.

Oil Wells

2008-07-14T18:22:00.001+05:30

Oil wells are scary places. They are certainly not meant for people who are scared of heights, or are afraid to look down when they reach the top of the stairs. Plus ONGC quarters are located in areas full of frogs the size of a football. More on my first well site experience later.........

Ascension

2008-07-13T16:52:00.000+05:30

And Naruto shall ascend. Kick ass he shall. So be it.

A Solution perhaps....

2008-06-01T21:14:00.004+05:30

Have been thinking over this for a long time now. Can we stop suicides from occurring? Is there anything we, as members of the student body can do to prevent somebody from deciding to end their life? Have realized one thing - we can no longer depend on the institute authorities or the counseling service to do anything constructive. They might very well be trying for all i know, but the results are there for all to see. In the next few paragraphs, I shall try to outline my take on the issue, and i welcome all readers to leave their opinions as suggestions.

First - identifying the reasons. The following is the best i could come up with - if i have missed something, please do comment.
A person commits suicide because he/she sees no reason to continue living any longer, or is unable to bear the current situation in their lives. We can all go on about we should face up to life etc, but the truth remains, that many are unable to do so, and it is upto the rest of us that someone never reaches such a situation. So why does somebody feel as such ?
1. Parental Pressure - This is one very important aspect. Our parents sacrifice a lot in order to ensure that we get the best education and make it to IIT. En route, they start expecting that we shall always perform wherever we go, and always be the best.
2. Self-inflicted Pressure - Many of us have been the toppers of our respective schools, coaching classes etc. Thus, a poor or even average academic performance for many of us might be a cause of great concern. How can somebody who has always been No. 1 not even be among the top ten/twenty students of the batch/department ?
3. Academic Pressure - Life at IITK is not easy. You have to go through the grind before you get your degree. For some, that becomes too much to bear.
4. Career Expectations - Most of us entered IIT because it would give us a shot at extraordinary careers - the brand value of the IIT tag. I know, the reason is very shitty - but then thats the truth. I don't see majority of the junta going for higher studies, so I think that my point is validated. Thus, there is a deep-seated fear in most people's minds of getting their degree-extended or having a poor cpi.
5. Attitude of the Authorities/Professors - Some of the best teachers i have ever had have been at IITK. However, some of the worst have also been from IITK. And I am not talking about teaching skills, its more to do with their attitude. I believe that a very sizable section of the student body has had forgettable experiences with some professor or the other.
6. Attitude of junta - Some of us, after arriving at IITK feel that they are unable to connect with the junta around them. Some may be inherently shy, and are unable to make friends with their wing-mates etc. They might find the junta to be too self-absorbed/selfish. Thus they might succumb to a feeling of loneliness.

A slight elaboration on the causes outlined earlier:
1. Iitian parents are very proud of their children. For some of use, they have been the driving factor behind our hard work to get here. However, sometimes they forget that their child is no longer in school - but is now among the brightest minds in the campus, and while being a good student, he might not be the best of the best. Thus a modest cpi might cause a lot of raised eyebrows back home.
2. This is also very similar to the earlier reason. Some may not be able to get that they are competing with equals/betters now.
3. No need to explain anything about this - it is universally accepted that IITK academics cause a whole lot of stress.
4. Given a chance, I guess most of us would have opted for CSE/EE. But the truth is, most of us end up in departments in which we had no interest in the first place.After we resign ourselves to the departments we get, there is the stigma attached with getting one's degree extended. Even i fear getting my degree extended. After that, we have the problem of poor cpi. If you have a not-so-good cpi, you become unable to sit for decent jobs.
5. Much of the student body accuse professors of being egoistic or sadistic people. After a very frank chat with a professor, this is the feedback i received about their point of view. Students at IITK do not attend classes. They copy assignments. They have no interest in their courses. They just come to IIT for the tag. There are much better and serious students elsewhere, who do not get the same opportunities as us. We slog to get into IIT and then do nothing after that. All we are interested in is a job, and how much money it offers us. Why should a professor prepare notes and teach well when there is very little attendance? On top of that, students misuse institute facilities like the LAN for watching movies.
6. Because of the academic pressure and our obsession with our careers, many of us become self-centered, and are unable to spare time for others. Thus introverts might find their neighbours to be unapproachable.

So what can we do?
What I suggest below will require participation from the 4th and 3rd yearite junta, because they are the most mature and sensible of the UG populace.
Firstly, it is up to each of us to convince our parents that we might not be able to be the best student out here, while giving the assurance that we shall give our best shot at things.
Secondly, some of us should also convince ourselves that we have not become dumb after entering the institute, its only the competition that has become tougher. Also, each and everybody who we are competing with has also cleared the toughest engineering entrance examination in the world.
Thirdly, stress will always remain an integral part of life at IITK. We will just have to learn to deal with it. Will expound more on this a little later.
Fourthly, the sooner we accept that each an every department is interesting if we bother to take an interest in it, the better. Of course, if somebody is into computers deeply, then the only thing to do i would say would be to somehow manage to pass out, and then follow up on his interest, or if possible work hard for a branch change.
Fifthly, it would be my request to give the profs a chance - try attending classes. It will put you in the profs good-books and has the added benefit of improving your academic performance.
Now, coming to the attitude of the junta - this is where we need to work on the most. Most people at IITK now no longer care that another student has passed away. Can't some of us, who want to make a difference reach out to their neighbours and find out people who are having problems dealing with their problems, and try to help them out the best they can. The junta( at least from what i have seen) does not have much faith in the CS. In times of trouble, they would rather go to some senior. As 4th yr or 3rd yr students, i believe we can make a difference if we reach out to our batch mates and juniors and help them out. Yes, it will be difficult at first. The main question will be one of winning trust. How do you expect someone to trust somebody whom he never knew in the first place? But i believe that we can bring relief to our friends and juniors by spending some time with them when they are stressed out. WE are the people who have experienced IITK the longest, and we will generally know what to do in problematic situations. Also, if somebody is very depressed, if he has somebody who whole-heartedly wants to help him out, i believe it can make a difference. Also, we need to be able to convince them that we are here for them because we care about them, and not because we need something on our resume that shows that we are humane.
What i want to propose is an informal association of like-minded volunteers, comprising people who want to help, or are people who inspire trust in others and are very approachable. The association will try its best to find out who is going through troubled times, and try its best to make life peaceful for him. The assoc. will try to use its collective experience to find a solution to the guy's problems. It could range from calling up the student's parents, to having a discussion with the professor of a subject in which the guy is not doing too well, or in general boosting the confidence levels of the person, and making him realise that whatever he might think, there are people who care for him and would want him to remain in their midsts. I think the onus lies upon ourselves to do something, because we have been waiting for the authorities to do something fro a long long time, and i think the wait will continue. We will need atleast 20 people for this, so that we are able to cover all the hostels properly. Of course, all who want to sincerely help will be a part of it, but a bare minimum of 20 people should be there. That way, we will also get people who have had varied experiences at the institute, and will have an idea of the problems most people face. These guys will find out about people in their respective hostel, who are having trouble adjusting to IITK or having troubles with their acads or any other kind of trouble.

I do not know how feasible the above solution is, but i believe that if we get the requisite numbers, we will be able to make a difference. I apologise if i have unknowingly hurt any body's feelings, or have rambled on here and there. Please please do comment on what you feel about this, and the feasibility of the association.

2008-05-31T11:16:00.007+05:30

Received a mail from the DOSA today morning. It had been sent on the all list. It was another of those mails which has been coming to my mailbox since i first entered the institute. It was regarding the latest suicide. The victim was Toya Chatterjee.

To most of the junta from IITK, she was the brilliant girl who cleared IIM A, B and C this year. To the institute authorities, she's just another roll number they will have to remove from the records. To me, she was this quiet senior I had met on a train journey two years back, when i was returning from Kolkata to Kanpur. Both of us were in the side berths, and I remember how it was one of the few train journeys in which i have had some kind of intelligent conversation with my co-passengers. She was a very nice person, was a very well-read person, and will remain one of the most intelligent people I have met. She was also a very strong person. She had a lot of health problems, yet she battled them throughout her 4 years stay at IITK, and did not let her acads suffer because of that. Yesterday night, when i signed into gtalk, the first thing that caught my attention was the status message of one of my juniors :"One More Suicide in IITK , and this one's the baap of them all !!!" I was shocked. There had already been a suicide a few days back, just before the start of the end semester exams, and now here was another one. I asked one of my friends and found out that it was her. At first I was too stunned to speak. It took a lot of time for it to sink in.

Why do such things happen at IITK? And why do people not care anymore? 6 suicides in the duration of my 6 semester stay at IITK. The campus community lost a very admirable person last night. But no one is going to do anything about it. A fact-finding committee will be constituted, just like in the last 5 cases, and they will come up with something after a year or so. By that time, most will have forgotten her name. Guess thats the way things will remain at this place.

We never had a conversation again, but i would see her sometimes, walking to class.

RIP Toya.

2008-05-30T00:09:00.005+05:30

Have never felt happier. This is bliss. Guess being a hopeless starry eyed romantic helps the cause. Right now, I feel like I love everybody in the whole wide world. Never ever thought such a thing could happen to me. I love the state I am in right now. Love ye everybody.

2008-05-24T22:59:00.002+05:30

Am experiencing Writer's Block right now. Started three stories after coming home. All are currently incomplete. Had to delete one because i had added a really psyched ending. Wish i could gather my thoughts together. Or rather, think about something else. Listening to "Love is all around" by The Troggs, and "The great Gig in the Sky" by ze Gods. It will remain one of my biggest regrets that I did not "discover" Floyd until Sam reminded me that i was an utter fool not to do so last sem. I mean, I have heard Floyd since my first year, but, it was only last sem that i felt their music. It just taught me that there are still miles left to go in my quest, but I do know its going to be an enjoyable one.

Naruto

2008-04-30T12:10:00.002+05:30

Was watching Naruto Shippuden :The Movie the other day. Typically naruto-esque situation. Damsel in distress. He guards her. 15 mins from the end - Naruto kage bunshins an entire army of ghosts to hell. On the other side, the pretty damsel gets ready to destroy the demon from hell. In fact- she was all set to do it. But doing so would have broken naruto's promise to protect her because killing the demon would have involved her own death. 10 mins were left. I don;t know why but suddenly this thought occurred to me. If the girl gets the dragon - then what does naruto get to do. And hey presto - just when its all over for the girl, naruto enters the screen. Gets the girl. Creates one huge RASENGAN and shoves it up the demon's throat. In short - naruto rasenganizes everything, and kage bunshins the rest.

How long will this continue. Naruto has been using kage bunshin since the first episode, and the rasengan for quite some time now. Kishimoto kindly give him some new stuff to add to his armour. Look at the other characters - everyone has a signature move - yes, but they also have a host of other abilities. PG keeps on ranting that naruto is this ordinary guy who can do extra-ordinary stuff - but that a bit too lame an argument. Naruto is not an ordinary guy. He's the son of the 4th - so he ought to have special abilities. Sasuke could wipe the floor with him right now. Its always the same. As titum says " Naruto senti maar maar ke opponent ko pel deta hain". Please kishimoto - give naruto something more. We have had enough of those damned uchihas. We need to see naruto kicking ass royally.

Paradise

2008-04-26T10:35:00.003+05:30

My idea of Paradise :

Picture yourself on a beach somewhere in the Mediterranean. The Sun is setting. You are strumming some tune on an old spanish guitar. And there is this beauty who is dancing to your tune. Black hair. Black eyes. She looks at you and smiles. You are spurred on to exceed yourself at the guitar. This goes on all through the evening until the Sun sets. Then you light a fire. And then continue on your instrument. She continues dancing.

The simple things in life are the most beautiful. You don't need to be the richest guy in town to be happy. Feel life. Experience life. That is the thing which will make you the happiest. Travel. Absorb different cultures. And yes - finally end up on a beach in the Mediterranean with some beautiful damsel.

Ms Smart

2008-04-21T22:15:00.003+05:30

Some times i end up doing things that are so clever that nobody else gets them. I end up feeling like a fool. The question is - who is the fool? Me or the others? Or am i too intelligent for my own good? Or am I just one of those guys who consider themselves to be smart while they are not truly so? Anyway - here are one of those incidents - you can judge whether i was being smart in doing whatever i did or whether i was thinking laterally?

Incident:
This was the third night of Antaragni'07 - me and the other ShowM guys had gone to the SAC to see if we could convince the finance coordinator to dole some cash to feed us poor workers. We had our fill, and then found a large group of Y4ites sitting together. Having nothing better to do - we joined them. As is usual with IITK seniors, the Y4 guys had managed to find a 1st yearite from somewhere. They had then proceeded to send him to all the couples sitting there in the SAC with a love letter written in hindi(mind you- this fact is important, as you shall see later), ad he was to read the letter aloud whle looking at the girl. If the guy had problems, he was to be told to keep quiet while our 1st yearite could read out the letter. Things were going on fine, when people got bored and decided to shift to the food court. Once we got there, we found a group of 4 people with 3 girls in it. One of the girls was pretty good-looking, so gupank decided to repeat the same trick and sent the first yearite to her. Now, this girl was from Presidency, Kolkata or some other college from Kolkata - i don't remember too well. When this guy starts reading out - she tells him in bengali that she did not understand what he was saying. That did it. Everyone pointed me out and told me to go there and explain the letter to her. I was pretty reluctant to go initially, but then when you have 20 seniors telling you to do something - it gets a bit difficult to say no - even if you are in the 3rd year.
Well, I went upto her and told her in bengali -" e ja porche sheta aami banglai anubaad kore tomai bolchi" ( I am going to translate whatever this guy says and explain it to you). I had barely started when she starts speaking in french or some other european language. That was really mean of her. Knowing full well that you dont expect to find multi-lingual students by the bunch in technical institutes, she was beginning to show off. What was more embarrassing was that no one else in the group realised that she was speaking in some european language - they thought it was bengali. I am a stubborn chap - and i hate being outwitted by anyone - least of all girls.(yeah, i know that sounds sexist, but then i have always been biased against feminists). I promptly started replying in gibberish. From the look on her face, i knew that Ms. Smart had no clue as to what was going on. She started speaking in some other language - but then I simply changed my brand of gibberish. I kept on blabbering. Infact, i was surprised that nobody got what i was doing. The junta still felt that i was speaking in my mother tongue. I was expecting applause, but all i got was "what were you telling her?" from everybody. Our mutual exchange lasted about 10 sentences each. I had to give up before she realised what i was doing.
The incident made feel very foolish later on. No one present there realised what i was doing. My entire effort had been in vain. What followed later is immaterial - as certain seniors were involved, and i doubt they would like their exploits to be made public. Needless to say, everyone ended up making an ass out of themselves(including me).
Next time such a thing occurs, i am going to start preaching about how a hydrodynamic bearing works on the principle of poiseullie flow, or how the bending moment of a beam varies with the shear force nd how the mass moment of inertia is very differnet from the polar moment of inertia or the second moment of area.

Of Schlumberger, DPSRKP, Friendship and other things

2008-04-13T09:09:00.004+05:30

Yesterday i was in delhi for a medical check up. For Schlumberger. These guys are awesome. Schlumberger is one company which takes real good care of its employees. I do not care if my internship does not work out the way i would like it to - but there's no denying that Schlum is one awesome company. The entire medical checkup was for around 8.5k. Spending so much on an intern is something i had never expected. Schlum rocketh. End of.

I met up with pyush after the test. He told me to meet him at CP. And we had an awesome time together. Memories of my time at DPSRKP boy hostel were revived. I am grateful that fate sent me there. It is the place to be to complete your schooling. Its only a few who get that chance, and i am lucky that i got it. I had just given Pyush a single day's notice - "mate i am coming over tomorrow - lets meet up". He didn't have any second thoughts and came straight away. This after 3 years of no contact save 2-3 phone calls, and a gtalk chat or two. Sometimes, distance reduces the intensity of bonds between friends. But it was not so in this case. I am grateful that of the 6 room-mates i have had, 5 of them have been great friends of mine. Life has always been good to me in this regard. The friends i have made are those who will stick with me through thick and thin, with no questions asked. When i met him, it was like those days back when i was in class 12. I haven't changed much - and neither has he. I had gone there expecting to not be able to recognise him - but he was still the same old pyush. With 'wish you were here' as his ringtone. To know such awesome people, is a blessing.

DPSRKP does that to you. For two years, around 100 guys in each batch end up in the boys hostel. Most of them stay friends for life. Its a different kind of a relationship. People accept you for who you are without being judgemental. The moment you start judging your friends- your relationship has started going haywire. Pyush was not exactly the most popular guy around in the hotel. His tales make for folklore at the hostel. I had been apprehensive initially when tushar wanted him as the fourth guy in the room, along with me and raaghav. But then- it was raaghav's persuasion that convinced me. And i have never had to regret that decision ever since. DPS was an experience that changed a lot of me. It still owns a large part of my life. DPS and IITK will always remain the two places where i had the best times of my life. The entire journey back to kanpur was spent on reminiscing about how things have changed in the three years since i left the hostel. The return to delhi, even though for one day, was the first time in three years that i have been able to get back to my real roots in delhi. I have been to delhi quite a few times in these three years, but it was always for some work or the other, so i never got the time to meet up with old pals. This trip thus will always hold a special place in my heart. I was not expecting pyush to turn up. But then - when you have lived together in the same room for one whole year - that too a year which was probably the most important one in your life - you form connections so deep - that time can't affect it.

It was the entire DPS effect. That was where i heard Stairway to Heaven for the first time. That was where bhangi introduced me to Nevember Rain. That was the place where i met with bhanu, sahu, bhangi and jaggu. Ankit has broken up with all of us since then for some reason, and trust me - it has hurt a lot. The times i spent in the company of sidd, raaghav and mahajan - the FLA - those are some of the most treasured memories i have. As they say in the MasterCard advertisement - for everything else in life - you have mastercard, but somethings are truly priceless.

Life has been very good to me. And i am thankful for it. The five years since i have left home - these five years - these have changed me in a fundamental way. You realise that there are things which are more important than your career, than your academics, than anything else. And those are the bonds you form with the people who enter your life. Those are the guys who will always be there for you. Who will accept you for who you are, as you are, and never ever hurt you. Your friends.

Thank you all of you for being the people you guys are.

Of Ego and Your Inferiority

2008-04-09T01:58:00.000+05:30

Ego. That is very important. For three years I worked my ass off for anything and everything - never giving a moment's thought to anything else. Today, after three years of worshipping Antaragni, i rejected himanshu singh's offer to join him on the Antaragni'08 core team. Felt very strange. Felt really good after a long time. Finally realized what the difference between guys like us and pieces of crap like saxena was. Thank God for PG. Call him whatever - he is one of the most intelligent people i have met out here. There was a moment for which i was tempted by the offer - after all,what better way to get back ? But then i knew what the answer should be. Could have very well used the offer to get even with certain people. But then - what difference would have remained between us and them ?

Ego. I return to it once again. The root of all problems is the ego. But then - it is also the source of all greatness. Ego is the answer to all. They had problems with me because of my "bakaiti". How little they know. How futile their attempts to needle me seem. You have the balls, then come up face to face - and we can see who is the better man. That however is not an option in this place so full of jerks. I am lucky to be where i am. Lucky to know the people i know. Lucky to know the people in the batch who are a cut above the rest. Not just one cut - way too many cuts would be more appropriate. When we do something - we do it for ourselves. We do everyone else a favour by doing things. Accept it if you can - or if your puny self has problems with it then just bugger off.

Johnny calls it the height of "bakaiti". I call it ego. We live in an egocentric world. All or nothing. We are the be-all and the end-all. People think they got us by surprise. Sorry folks - but we were too smart for you. We would not have done so much last year otherwise. And if we really cared about what you thought - we wouldn't have been who we are today. You will always know at the bottom of your tiny heart that we are so beyond you. We are all you lesser mortals aspire to be, but can never attain.

So many pathetic fools all around. The only purpose for their existence is to satisfy our ego. I am grateful for these lower forms of life. It feels good to look at them and laugh.

As i mentioned before - its all in the ego. You guys can't do anything about that - so why don't all of you just disappear, and thereby stop polluting the air we breathe ?

April 6, 2008

2008-04-06T22:05:00.000+05:30

Net output of the festival amendment proposal - Me abusing saxena in hall 2 quad before getting dragged away. Guess the proposal was worth it then... :P

Dissapointed

2008-03-31T00:46:00.000+05:30

First, kindly go through this - it was posted on iitk.fun recently( only the joke part - though i feel that posting the entire article would have been better).

I had developed a certain amount of respect for Shashi Tharoor as a columnist, but the above article has changed my perception by a lot.

To quote : "But consider the evidence: Osama bin Laden was a student of engineering. So were the star 9/11 kamikaze pilot Mohammed Atta, the alleged mastermind of that plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and their all-but-forgotten predecessor, the chief plotter of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef."
Yes, they might very well have been engineers, but then doesn't drawing such a conclusion point towards a complete lack of analytical faculty which so common of humanities students ? One of the guys involved in th london bombings was a doctor - so maybe we can say(going by Mr. Tharoor's logic) that perhaps when one has had enough of studying about saving lives, he decides that a very smiple way of reducing the healthcare problems would be blowing people up so that there are lesser people who could have health problems in the future ? And, haven't the leaders of the naxal revolution in India been humanities students ? Maybe the names mentioned above come to light because they are the few engineers who have decided to become terrorists ?

Once again, quoting from another part of that article : "the reason there are so many terrorist engineers is that the subject helps produce a mindset that makes one prone to radicalisation.

Engineers consider themselves problem solvers, and when the world seems to present a problem, they look to engineering-type solutions to solve it. Engineering, Gambetta and Hertog suggest, predisposes its votaries to absolute and non-negotiable principles, and therefore to fundamentalism; it is a short step from appreciating the predictable laws of engineering to following an ideology or a creed that is infused with its own immutable laws. It is easy for engineers to become radicalised, the researchers argue, because they are attracted by the "intellectually clean, unambiguous, and all-encompassing" solutions that both the laws of engineering and radical Islam provide."

Wow. Does Mr. Tharoor have any experience of what engineering entails ? Engineering makes one become rigid and closed to other options ? Immutable laws ? All-encompassing solutions ? I begin to pity the level of intellect of Mr. Tharoor and those poor researchers at Oxford university. And on top of that,the author has the audacity to suggest that such a stupid survey should raise concerns at places like IIT. Like people have nothing better to do out here than spend time over discussing studies conducted by nitwits and propagated by bigger nitwits. More amazing is the parallel drawn between "the laws of engineering" and "radical islam" . What are the laws of engineering? Compromises. Adjusting to different situations. Different solutions for different problems. Different solutions to the same problem. I can manufacture a pen using ten different methods if i want to. And equating scientific laws with those of religion ? One is based on cold logic, while the other can only appeal to one's heart. I would think that humanities students would be more prone to thinking with their hearts, while engineers, because of their logical natures would give more weightage to reason rather than something which God has imparted to some prophet.

"I know a few engineers who wouldn't harm a fly, so i'd be wary of making any sweeping generalisations about an entire profession." So, staying in the IAS and the UN does help to give one a way with words. Or was it his humanitarian education ? A few engineers who wouldn't hurt a fly ? And the others go around slitting people's throats or blowing themselves up in free time eh ? Why does he even have to write such stupid stuff ?

" If terrorism is to be tackled and ended, we will have to deal with fear, rage and incomprehension that animates it. We will have to know each other better, learn to see ourselves as others see us, learn to recognise hatred and deal with its causes, learn to dispel fear, and above all just learn about each other. It is not the engineering mindset that facilitates such learning, but the vision of the humanities student. The mind is like a parachute — it functions best when it is open. It takes reading and learning about other peoples and cultures to open (and broaden) minds. "
Yeah right - engineering does not teach you to be open minded. A profession which is based on approximating results cannot accept different situations. Engineering closes ones mind?? My guess is that Mr. Tharoor could not become an engineer because he himself had a closed mind.

" Ignorance and lack of imagination remain the handmaidens of violence. Without extending our imagination, we cannot understand how peoples of other races, religions or languages share the same dreams, the same hopes. Without reading widely and broadening our minds, we cannot understand the myriad manifestations of the human condition, nor fully appreciate the universality of human aims and aspirations. Without the humanities, we cannot recognise that there is more than one side to a story, and more than one answer to a question. " Engineers cannot be imaginative . Thats why a humanities guy is required to design an Ipod.

" That, of course, is never true in engineering. Perhaps the solution lies in making it compulsory for every engineering student to take at least 20% of his courses in the humanities. Maybe then he might even kiss the frog" . Of course, how could it be true in engineering ? Though i admit, there is merit in his argument of making 20% of all courses humanities ones - some of us might get to improve our grades, and the semester might become less hectic. And as regards the frog - one of the answers posted on the ng was about - "What if the damn frog was lying ?" I can bet Mr. Tharoor never thought of that - even with his all encompassing education.

Engineers solve problems. The laws of Engineering are the laws of Science - that of physics, chemistry and mathematics. However, there is a very big difference between engineers and scientists, and that is something which Mr. Tharoor with his broadened intellect fails to comprehend. It is the very practical nature of dealing with problems that makes engineers different from scientists ( I am not trying to say that scientists are terrorists in the making :P) . Engineering requires creativity of a very high order. Maybe the article was written in sheer desperation at belonging to an intellectually inferior bunch. Engineering takes the best out of science and gives you solutions which are made for the practical world. Blowing oneself up, or killing hundreds of innocent people is not something a rational man would do. Rather than making stupid surveys, I would request Oxford researchers to something more worthwhile for the common populace. Engineering has succeeded in improving human society from time immemorial - from the day the wheel was invented. Society has progressed because of engineers throughout the ages. We are the torchbearers of the march of civilisation.

The entire article reflects a very myopic view - Tharoor has based his entire article on the very image of engineers he has mentioned at the start of the article. Has he even cared to really know engineers - but then the only ones he knows have some mysterious affinity towards flies, so i guess he couldn't help writing that stupid article. Maybe an engineering education would help him broaden his outlook on life.

and BTW - what if the frog was lying ? Tharoor remains conident that the humanities student would have kissed the frog. IITians, or rather engineers in general, on the other hand - might not get fooled that easily.

Why ?

2008-01-19T03:02:00.000+05:30

Somebody please tell me. Why ? What ? What is the meaning of our existence ? Why should we exist at all ? Why should we live at all ? What is the point of anything at all ? Why should we be who we are at all ? Why should anything have any relevance ? Do i have so huge an ego that i want to seek a meaning behind everything ? Why should there be any meaning behind anything? Why am i driven ? What difference would it make if i existed or not ? Why do i cling on to life ? Why life at all ? Why ? Why am i writing this now ? What can be the justification for anything ? Can anything justify anything at all ? I am confused. Why should anything be the way it is ? Why should the sun rise in the east ? Why are we the only species of life ? Why isn't there some nitrogen based life form ? Why is everything so bloody confusing ? Why ? Why does Enya have such a beautiful voice ? Hell, everything is irrelevant. We are all playthings of the gods. They are immortal, so they play around with us because they are jealous of our mortality. Our mortality makes us feel that our actions have some significance. In fact, nothing has any significance on the cosmic scale. Yet we carry on. realising only too late, that we are but puppets. Its all a gmae where we are the pieces, and our actions have only the significance mere pieces have. All that we think we have accomplished is irrelevant in the greater course of things. The sooner we accept this the better.

Weird

2008-01-17T22:49:00.001+05:30

Everybody seems so freaking happy. Kheti's writing poems. I had to restrict the viewers to my previous blog because of a really wierd post. Status messages of people have become really scary. People have started listening to strange stuff. John and Sam are playing frisbee. PG is wishing everybody were dead. The VOX team are forcing everybody to use the toggle+delete function more than usual. Umang is only showing movies which everybody has seen at least twice. Tuttu is hanging-out and sharing pizzas with @#$%^$#%%. Bhal seems to be sick half the time. 4th years are moving around trying to convince us to join the SPO - " Antaragni choro - yeh sab usse upar hain." Surya enters the mech lab in a haze. Sai is at his best.385 hasn't come out yet. Eshan is laughing all the time - so are a lot of other folks actually :). AKA has managed to demonstrate why he is just a matka from IITD. NNK has broken any image he had built up of being a competent prof. Dassu has a new testimonial from some girl - something which has apparently given anubhai a lot of food for thought. Chandi desperately wants to have a DPC for his department though he is in a five year programme. A lot of people have been showing concern for me lately :). I also happen to have been voted the most-hated-personality of IITK by my wingies. I have to learn MATLAB pretty soon. Damn, everything is so bloody gay.

Oh BTW , hitesh bhai has been dethroned from his long held position of reigning wing CS champ.

Jokes

2008-01-16T22:20:00.001+05:30

Found this on the net :

If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the famous erudite scientist who once said:

"I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates."

His mind sees things differently than most of us do, to our amazement, and amusement.

Here are some of his gems:

1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.

3 - Half the people you know are below average.

4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

8 - If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.

9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend,...but she left me before we met.

12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark?

13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

18 - Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

19 - I intend to live forever.....so far, so good.

20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

33 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film.

34 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?

F-mid

2008-01-15T23:45:00.001+05:30

F-mid will always remain the closest to my heart. Even more than B-mid. Most probabaly because that was where we started shaping our destiny. F-mid was a phenomenon. It did not have an identity. We gave it one, as it gave us ours. The corridor from from the f-block to the mess will always be my favourite in hall 2. We get a different feeling once we set our foot there. Its like we own that place, and that place owns us. Ten years down the line, if there was a wing we had to identify with, it would undoubtedly be F-mid. F-mid was the genesis of all our dreams. Nothing can match F-mid. F-mid till the end. To the wing that made us what we are.

Resurrection

2008-01-15T17:03:00.000+05:30

The phoenix will rise again.

The phoenix was flying high in the sky. High, high up. So high, all the crows got jealous. So they waited for an opportunity. A chance to teach the phoenix a lesson. So, they all got together and planned to bring the phoenix down. The phoenix in the meantime was blissfully unaware - enjoying its own glory( after all, you do tend to have a super-bloated ego if you are a phoenix). It so transpired that the crows did get their chance, and they made full use of it. They got a hunter to shoot the phoenix right through the heart. Poor phoenix. Fell straight to the ground. From high, high up. And then it bust into flames. Out of the flames emerged a tiny, featherless small chick. The crows started to congratulate each other, thinking that they had finally got even. Little did they know, in their ignorance, that the phoenix was immortal.
Very soon that little chick will grow feathers. Again it will soar. This time higher than ever before. Th chick laughs his head off at the smirking crows. It will get even when the time comes. Till then it is content to grow back its feathers. Laugh while you can crows - the phoenix thinks. The time when the phoenix attains its destiny approaches. Crows be warned - you shall regret deeply. But then again, the phoenix does not have time to bother with the likes of you. THhere are much greater goals ahead.