The Fountainhead

Some books are ageless. They deal with subjects and ideas that cut across physical and temporal limits and leave behind a profound influence on their readers. The Fountainhead is one such book. It took me 25 days to complete reading it (since i generally used to find time only on weekends) but it has completely transformed my thought process.

I had heard a lot of praise about the book from some of my friends and in spite of the contents appearing quite rebellious to me, I knew that I had to read it. I had also read a lot of negative comments about the book on a few orkut groups and this had only raised my curiosity. I was wondering what my opinion about the book would be and I was willing to understand the philosophy of Objectivism with an open mind.

And now, I think that it is one of the most spectacular literary work that I have read. The central characters that Ayn Rand has created and their interaction with each other has enabled me to address a lot of concerns about my own values and principles as well as the ideas of others around me. And I simply loved the philosophical ponderings in solitude after reading the book!

I will try to organize my thoughts by mulling over the main characters in the book:
(Note: The book is set in the 1920-30s and deals with people in the architectural discipline)
1. Peter Keating: A very successful student at school and college, who comes from a mediocre family, and feeling a sense of personal pride at what he has achieved in spite of his modest beginnings. He is offered a job at a leading architectural firm (Francon & Heyer). Although he seems to be enjoying all the limelight and attention that he is getting, somewhere deep down, he feels that he left his passion for painting and substituted it with architecture which was more lucrative. He tries to believe that he must be happy because everyone around him thinks that he is a good architect and there is seemingly nothing that he can complain about in how his career is taking shape. He is en route to become one of the most famous architects in New York. But his outer confidence and success are totally dependent on others and their approval. He is nothing himself but merely a reflection of the Peter Keating that exists in the eyes of others. Although he takes advice from his friend Howard Roark on various architectural assignments, he likes to believe that they are his own and does not want to accept that Roark is a better architect than he is. Roark's total indifference towards others' opinions and having an opinion about others confuses Peter and and the latter always finds himself uneasy thinking about Roark.
2. Catherine Halsey: She is Peter's girlfriend, and loves Peter without accepting anything in return. She is frail and lacks self-confidence and finds it easier to surrender herself completely to Peter. Even if Peter does not call her or meet her for months together, she does not refer to it the next time they meet and is always accepting whatever Peter has to say. Peter loves her very much but is afraid that his mother would not approve of their marriage since she is neither rich nor has the quality to be the wife of a famous architect (according to Peter's mother). Catherine does not even complain when Peter marries another woman after promising to marry her just the previous day. She gives herself to serving the poor and physically challenged people in some orphanage. She believes that she is living a very noble life by serving the poor and accepts that living for others is the only appropriate way of living. She fails to understand that the real reason why she loves to be in the company of the less privileged is because it gives her own self a sense of being better off than others and that she has the ability to confer good upon others with an air of superiority. She is a person who sincerely believes in the principle of selflessness and spending a lifetime for the cause of others.
3. Guy Francon: The owner of the reputed architectural firm Francon & Heyer; Guy has been a very successful architect (at least in the public domain). He spots Peter as a budding architect and offers him a job at his firm. In spite of the huge reputation he has built in his career, Guy still wants Peter to testify that his life has been successful and thus he too depends on external recognition for his satisfaction.
4. Ellsworth Toohey: Ellsworth is the antagonist in the novel (of course; as portrayed by Rand). He is more of an architectural commentator who wants to establish an intellectual superiority over the world. Since school, he believes in the power of the brain over muscles and uses his superior mental capacity to deal with his physically stronger opponents. He believes that the Napoleons of the world; who wanted to establish military supremacy over the world were fools and true sustainable control over the world can only be achieved by ruling the minds of the people. He is always in the news as a benign person who has true understanding of art and architecture. He uses this position of strength to bring forth mediocre talent in the world and suppress any genius in the field (prominently Howard Roark). He promotes the philosophy of collectivism as opposed to individualism. He is a person who enjoys killing of talent and establishing the supremacy of mediocrity over ingenuity. Ellsworth is uncle to Catherine and promotes Peter's architecture over Howard's (will be discussed later) and in a later dialogue with Peter expresses his shocking philosophy and how he wants to put an end to any emerging talent in any field of art or literature.
5. Steven Mallory: Steven was a talented young sculptor but someone who did not have the mental strength to stand the world which preferred to praise mediocrity over his talent. He tried once to kill Ellsworth. He believed Ellsworth to be the symbol of this monster within humans that found it more comfortable to uphold the average over the extra-ordinary. He designed Dominique's statue in the Temple of Human Spirit and was a friend to Howard and Dominique. He was a symbol of talent that was somehow unable to protect itself against the mediocrity-blinded common people.
6. Dominique Francon: She is the daughter of Guy Francon and the female protagonist in the novel. She is aware about the falsehood of the social life that her father lives in and positively hates to be a part of it. She is very uncomfortable with the double standards that people display in social circles. Dominique meets Howard Roark at a granite quarry and falls in love with him. She loves his sense of self and the sheer lack of love or hatred in his actions. She surrenders herself to Roark who treats her neither with love nor with humiliation. Dominique becomes fond of Roark's architectures and how his buildings stand on their own and not as borrowed patchworks from earlier eras. Dominique is the naked statue that is kept in the Temple of Human Spirit (built by Roark) and this temple is nothing but a ploy by Ellsworth to leave Howard defeated in a legal battle. Dominique marries Peter out of her love for Howard and to show that she is suffering along with him in her own way. Dominique is one of the few people who approve of Howard's adherence to his ideals and disregard of what others think about him.
7. Gail Wynand: Gail is the owner of the popular newsgroup known as "the Banner". He is a person who has risen from the slums to become a very prominent figure in New York. Although he is capable of appreciating talent and does not have ulterior motives unlike Toohey; he wants to destroy any evidence of talent by bringing it to his submission. He feels that the life he is living is worthless and thinks quite often of committing suicide. He finds the statue of Dominique (through Ellsworth) and later meets her and wants to marry her. He trades a very crucial contract with Peter at the cost of Dominique. Later he meets Roark as the architect of the Temple of Human Spirit and tries hard to break him. The three (Dominique, Gail and Howard) spend a lot of time together with Howard and Dominique both maintaining silence about their earlier lives. Gail likes Roark a lot and spends a lot of time trying to understand himself better. Later, when Roark is accused in a case where he has blown up a public housing construction, Gail uses all his failing social clout to try and defend Roark against the public opinion (controlled by Toohey) and finds that something which he considered his strength was no more than an illusion.
8. Howard Roark: The undisputed protagonist of the novel. The proponent of the concept of objectivism and individualism. He is a genius architect who was expelled from school because he refused to follow any existing ways of architecture. After being expelled, he had a rough career and worked only for clients who were willing to allow him to work as he wanted to. He never designed buildings just for the sake of others and generally refused to work if his clients suggested any changes in his designs. This severely restricted the number of contracts that he could get but in spite of the financial hardships that he faced, Roark never let go his principles. He frequently helped Keating with designs but never expected to get the public praise out of them. He believed that each building that he designed must have a specific purpose and must exist an one entity rather than a patchwork of architectural styles from various eras. He was against the idea of reaching a compromise by discussion in a group and refused to work in a team with other architects. Roark was an atheist and built the temple of Human Spirit to enshrine the supreme power of the human mind. He had designed a public housing system for Keating (who had approached him for help in a desperate situation) with the condition that Keating must ensure that the building was designed exactly as per the design by Howard. However, because of external pressure, Keating was not able to live up to his promise and significant alterations in Howard's design were introduced. Consequently, with the help of Dominique, Howard blew off the half-complete structure being erected and allowed himself to be identified. His speech in the court while defending himself essentially summarizes the philosophy of Objectivism.

Now that I have given a brief description of the principal characters, I will move ahead to the philosophical aspects of the novel. Firstly , I find Fountainhead as a very sincere novel which tries to explain the fallacies of the rising force of Socialism and Communism during its time. How often has one heard the words "Man is a social animal" which try to emphasize the importance of society in human life and remind you that you owe a responsibility of returning the favors bestowed by the society. Since childhood, what we are taught is that greed is bad and one must always put the benefit of others over that of the self. But now that seems like a big conspiracy wherein the individuality of the self is being suppressed under the collective will. Till now, like many others, I used to believe that the failure of Communism lay in its mode of implementation and not in its ideology. But now, I realize that some concepts of communism destroy the very motivation for innovation and that is to see one's ideas take place (which is a very selfish feeling). [Though most of the communist nations have collapsed indicating possibly that capitalism is more appropriate as compared to communism; prominent countries that continue to excel with communism are China and Cuba (but an analysis of these is beyond the scope of the blog at least at the moment!)]

To quote Roark from the final speech.. "The unsubmissive and first human stands at the opening of chapter of every legend that mankind has recorded about its beginning. Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive. The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their power - that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated and self-generated. The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective mind or a collective thought. We can divide a meal among many men but we cannot digest it in a collective stomach. The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men." Some of these thoughts are best represented as they have been in the book and so the direct quotation. To think about it, the concept of equality has been mis-interpreted over the ages. Instead of being the equality of opportunities it has been interpreted as the equality of the final outcomes. If two people get the same outcome irrespective of their individual efforts, it means nothing but that efforts do not affect outcome. This is where most communist nations failed that they tried to equalize what each person got instead of providing them with equal opportunities. So it is very essential that talent be given its own space to flourish and should not be fettered by the requirement to adhere to common will. In this regard, I feel that democracy is far from the best form of governance because it operates on the concept of majority but then this would demand a separate post to deal with it.

But one thing that I don't find appropriate is that Roark says that it is alright to inherit the products of the ideas (like wheel, fire, etc) from earlier generations to build on them but is against the sharing of ideas in a group amongst contemporaries. As pointed out in one of the comments, the end product of a thought can be an idea (in the sense that it is not a physical object; examples could be the theories that have been developed in different sciences) and hence can be inherited. But at the same time the sharing of ideas among contemporaries is considered to be a dilution of the original idea. But is it really necessary that the original idea be the the most perfect? Why do you have to believe that any suggestion made by another human being living in our age must be detrimental to the idea? That is nothing but arrogance and this is one of the principal reasons why the word "ego" has a bad connotation today. I think the sharing of ideas among men is extremely important for humanity to move ahead. A discussion helps very much to enhance and improve upon an idea (just see how the comment has improved this blog) but only the urge to try and reach a consensus should be done away with.. And the main reason for this is that we attach a feeling of belongingness to an idea. So this part of the ego is something which is a hindrance to progress. People try to defend their idea and attack the idea of another in a discussion. This is where the need for a consensus to resolve the issue sets in. I think an idea in a discussion must be only seen as the object of study and interest for all rather than associating it with its source. But inherently a thought is put forward beginning with "I think" (a ready example being the previous sentence) and so it gets difficult to dis-associate the originator from the idea. However, if this dis-association is consciously followed it will help us evaluate the idea better and probably refine it as well. Perhaps the concept of parallel thinking rather than argumentative thinking would help.

Another positive thing from Fountainhead is that it attacks the concept of charity and pity. And rightly so. The concept of charity itself requires someone to be an object of that charity (which is quite ironic). This so-called virtue fails to exist in the absence of such an object (or person). As Howard Roark reflects "There must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling (of pity) is called a virtue." Pity not only destroys the self-respect of an individual but also makes the person submissive to fate. The person decides that it is more comfortable to keep begging rather than to earn a living through self-effort. [Some people claim that begging itself is an art and it involves effort to convince the giver to shell out money but I believe there would be no givers if they knew that it was a voluntary activity and in that case it would be impossible for these beggars to exist.] Showing pity destroys the human mind and people show pity for what? Because they feel guilty that they have accumulated more wealth than fellow humans? If that wealth is acquired through effort and by just means there is no need to feel guilty about it.

Moreover, the different personality that people want to portray in public as opposed to what they really are is something very much unnecessary because at every point of making a choice we would add the unnecessary dimension of how that decision would affect our portrayal in the eyes of others. The best and most natural thing to do in public is BE YOURSELF. But in this respect, I believe there are some who go to the extent of portraying in public that they are themselves. (what an irony!)

Also, at some point in the book, Dominique says that the concept of immortality can be thought of only in the case of Roark because he is like a monolith and unchanging. People usually change so often that they die every moment. So the concept of immortality can never exist in the case of such people. So does Rand believe that changing is a vice? I don't agree. Because changing and learning is an essential part of human existence. If there were no motivation to improve the way we were and to learn from experiences what worth would life be? And unless you have an open mind it would be like staying in a closed room for all your life devoid of the refreshing air outside. In this case, I believe that we need to move from the concept of rock logic to water logic. That is, our logic must not be rigid like a rock but capable of adapting to different situations like water. And it is this water that can cut its path through the rigid mountains to achieve its goal of reaching the sea.

I believe it has been a very very long post and I myself am tired of writing more. There may be many more cases and instances from the book that may need discussion but I believe it is best to stop here. So right or wrong, whether you accept Rand's ideas or reject them, you definitely cannot afford to ignore them! I hope I have given you enough food for thought and in case you have still not read The Fountainhead; what are you waiting for???

One year ago....

It was one year ago, on the 20th of November 2005, that I had written my first blog... and the feeling was great! Just after writing the CAT and having the feeling that I would just about miss getting calls (the feeling turned into reality!) ... And now, yesterday was my second attempt at the CAT... Much more prepared and confident this time... and as expected, the CAT did throw some unexpected surprises.. Not much enthu to delve into them at this time..

The journey from last year on the blogosphere was very entertaining and exciting.. accompanied by loads of new experiences.. Putting down your feelings and experiences always gives shape to all those amorphous thoughts and turbulence in my mind and brain... and it feels that i am sharing a part of me with myself (or the chance reader who happens to read my blog) .. helps a great deal in getting over solitude and releasing any pent up discontent and frustration or even any sort of euphoria and keeping the mind light and free..

So, the past year for me has been rich with experiences and things have changed a lot. And the blogspot has always been like a place to take rest and contemplate on the events around me... Will look forward to blogging more often since the last few days have kept me busy and even I am completing this post way after 20th of November... My brain says "storage capacity reached".. so i will have to purge some of my thoughts...

The Great Indian Pie

The first of November is a good day to be in Bangalore... Its the Karnataka Rajyostav Diwas... 5o years ago, the Kannada speaking territories were united into the Mysore state (later renamed as Karnataka)... this marks a special occasion for all the people out here and it was amply evident from the yellow and red stripes of the Karnataka flag, proudly displayed on most auto-rikshaws and in shops... It was wonderful to watch the upbeat mood on the roads and to add to it, we had a holiday today!! God, how great it feels to have a holiday on wednesday!

This being a special day for us (and the rest of Karnataka); we got the idea of making it truly memorable... and memorable it was!!

For the first time after coming to bangalore, we took to the kitchen and decided that it was time that we had some home-made food... :P

So began the enthusiasm to make rotis at home (fostered by ravi having a roti-maker with him)... We started off with gathering the necessary apparatus and ingredients for our experiment with Dasu acting as the Head Chef... He was the only one amongst us four (the other two being Nagota and Ravi) who had prior experience cooking rotis... So after a brief interview he was recruited as Head Chef by the rest of us....:D

Thus began this adventurous experiment; as Dasu started preparing the dough (and having a tough time getting the right proportion of dough and water :P) and I placed the first roti to be made in the roti-maker. We were expecting the top plate of the roti maker to rise on its own when the roti was cooked but that was not to be.. After some more speculation we thought about finding out for ourselves what had happened to our first roti.. and that was when we realized that it had changed color to dark brown and was as hard as wood.. but nevertheless, we made an effort to taste it and also found that it was delicious! We concluded that we had made a food product never before envisioned by humanity and proudly named it as the Great Indian Pie.

We were so thrilled by our invention that we took a video of the same and also made plans for having a startup in this area. But first, we will have to go ahead and patent this product so that no others can steal our innovation. After trying a couple of more times to make the more conventional roti, we concluded that there was something wrong with the roti maker and we would rather use the cooking gas to make our tandoori rotis. And we succeeded at that! Within an hour, we had made 16 world class tandoori rotis which could easily replace the ones served in most of the restaurants in Bangalore. Though we had a tough time maintaining the circular geometry of the roti, we thought that not making it circular was another innovation and we could actually make irregularly shaped rotis and popularize it as a fashion (the customers in the restuarants would find it thrilling to guess how the roti that they would be served would look like!!)

So, after one hour of dedicated effort and after making rajma and dal fry, we were ready to have our first home-made dinner in Bangalore. We also had some sweets to celebrate our triumph. And of course, it was one of the most filling and satiating dinner we ever had! Soon, our food chain would take over every corner of every city and town in India and that is when our talent would truly achieve the recognition it deserves...

The video of our achievement could be viewed on google video (I cannot post the link here since I am writing this from office and I am unable to open any email from here..) by searching for The Great Indian Pie in the genre Art and Entertainment.

Cast: Sabby (that's me), Dasu.
Special Fx: Nagota.
Behind the lens: Ravi.

So sit back and enjoy!

Chennai or Chain-nahi??

After being for two months in Bangalore, me and my friends had decided that it was time that we used the weekends in a more fruitful way.. by exploring South India.. All of us had the first opportunity to do so... So at dinner on Thursday night, I proposed that we go to Chennai for the weekend, one of the vertices of the Great Quadrilateral!

Even an hour before actually leaving Bangalore, we were unsure about what mode of transport we will be using. And this type of impromptu decision-making associated with traveling makes it so much exciting. When one sits down and plans for a trip, there is a certain expectation-level associated with the trip and we need to live up to that expectation. But for back-packers, any experience actually increases the value of the trip over the expected value (which is essentially zero).

So, we left home to go the Majestic Bus Stand in Bangalore at around 10pm on friday. After reaching the bus stand, we were totally dumb-founded. Not knowing the local language and finding that all boards on the buses were in Dravidian script left us moving around in circles when we were directed (or mis-directed) by a series of people. Finally we were able to locate the section where buses left for Chennai. But bad luck! There were no seats available and the private buses were charging too much... So we decided to use the Indian Railways for our journey.. And without a second thought, we got the tickets for the general compartment on the Guwahati Express which was scheduled just 15 min later. After desperate running around we did find the general compartment but it turned out to be occupied by military personnel! It was actually a blessing in disguise since they allowed us to enter and then closed the gates so that we were the only ones sitting at the door in the general compartment...

After some sleepless hours and attempts to pass time by playing cards, we finally reached Chennai Central! Since we surprisingly reached half an hour in advance (has the management of Indian Railways changed?) We decided to celebrate our arrival in Chennai with tea in a "High Class" hotel... but found that it was devoid of sugar. Thinking that this was the type of tea that people out there drank, we drank it all only to find sugar left at the bottom of the cup! (Atleast they should provide spoons if they find it too much to stir the tea!)

Notorious as the Chennai auto-wallahs are for charging exorbitant rates, we played it safe and got a prepaid auto to IIT main gate! We looked at awe as we passed the beautiful Mariana beach and were simply awestruck by its length! It seemed to be go on forever! We thought that we as we had reached IIT at 7am and my friend would most probably be asleep at that time, we could as well walk from the main gate to his hostel (saraswati or saras for short), a decision that we repented later as we had to walk a whole 4km after having a sleepless night in the train. We were very excited when we first saw the deer in IITM and took many pictures only to later realise that they were as abundant as the cattle back home in IITB!

Next after shocking shyam, who was in deep slumber and could not believe that we had actually come to chennai (he had thought that i was just making unrealistic plans), we went to Tiffany's (which is a fav hangout for iit junta since its located inside the girls hostel Shravati :D) and had a very delicious masala dosa.. After moving around for some time, we came back to shyam's room and dozed off!!

Later in the afternoon, we thought of moving out from iit but the sweltering heat was a bit too much... after having some biryani at a decent place, we set out on the baked streets of Chennai.. all the time we were looking for points which would help brand chennai a metro or a non-metro..
I met my sister and her friend (whose name i could not gather :D) and we explored some of the jungles of the iit campus... these were places which even shyam had not explored in his three years of stay at the campus... In the evening we went to the Besantnagar beach (which according to my sister was a good beach but then it didnt look like.. with all the litter and being crowded in the evening it was a kind of letdown.. ) it was also my first experience to travel in a south indian local bus (i hadnt done so even in bangalore) and well the less said the better about it... since we were just standing at the door and had to alight at every stop to let people get in and out..

there was not much to do in the evening and we spent some time in a ccd and ate some pizza before coming back to iit... on the way we just thought about getting into Dollars and Pounds (a clothes shop).. it was worth mentioning since it was one of the few cool places (literally i mean) in chennai... then we finally made our way back to Saras and found ourselves really drained out from our day out in Chennai...

The next day, we had two main targets to achieve, one the Birla Planetarium and two, the Mariana beach.. (actually there is not much to move about in Chennai and i realised why people were shocked when i told them that i was planning to go to chennai for sight-seeing).. But as always, the weather was hostile to travelling and we were soon finding us dehydrated.. We spent some time in the Birla Planetarium and the science gallery adjacent to it (which was quite average and not as great as the Vishweshvaraya Museum back in Bangalore)... actually at many points in the trip we implicitly made comparisons with Bangalore and found that we were quite lucky to stay in Bangalore rather than in Chennai! The four of us had a good time in the science gallery and clicked some pics with machines which seemed to come from a different era.. but it was an hour well spent and more importantly protected from the scorching sun!! Later we watched the planetarium show which was supposedly designed for standard V kids but once again it was a relief to enjoy the cool AC inside the auditorium.

Later we made our way through the crowded streets of T.Nagar and also went shopping. Later after having pav bhaji and ajmer halwa for lunch, we made our way through the vegetable market to Shyam's house. After spending some time there, we set out to achieve our last target in Chennai (which was the Marina beach) and again used the local bus for transport. But this time, Shyam had left back for iit and so we were all on our own with no Tamil-speaking person to guide us! Fortunately, we found a Hindi speaking fellow on the bus who helped us get down at the right bus stop and then we were enjoying the evening at one of the longest beaches in the world!

The Mariana beach would have been the most beautiful beach in the world, if only the government would have taken the effort to put in some dust-bins and the people would have cared to keep it litter free.. Nevertheless, its grandness was a wonderful sight and we enjoyed the couple of hours that we spent there... And now, it was time for us to go back to Bangalore (Oh! what a relief!) Aware about our weakness of not being able to speak in Tamil, we decided to play it safe and hire an auto from the Chennai Central station (which on the map seemed to be quite close by but turned out to be atleast a half an hour walk from the beach) .. But we could get an auto to the bus stand which was diametrically opposite the railway station and soon were at our destination. But we found that the auto driver who was supposed to charge us Rs. 75 returned back only 10 Rs in exchange for 100.. this resulted in a verbal duel between the three of us and the auto driver but we knew that it was a useless effort...

Finally after cursing Chennai some more, we got a seat in the driver's cabin of a bus for 300 bucks each... (actually speaking that was the best bet for us since we would anyway have had to take the ticket because of the cash crunch and no signs of a Citibank ATM..) After waiting for about an hour and feeding on biscuits in the meantime, we finally boarded the bus and were on our way back to bangalore... How nice it felt!! And what more? there were three other people giving us company in that small cabin in addition to the driver! But on the positive side, the driver played some hindi songs and it felt so soothing to hear them after a hectic day in the metro (so-called) Chennai...

At 6 am the next day we were back in Bangalore and it felt like paradise.. We soon made our way back home and crashed off...

Dnyanam Paramam Dhyeyam

I had awaited the last weekend since the time I had joined my job in bangalore... Though I have stayed away from Mumbai for longer periods of time, I had never felt as homesick; probably because I had known exactly how much time there was to return back to Mumbai... But after joining the job, parting with Mumbai for an uncertain period of time had made me instantly homesick and I was awaiting the convocation on 11th August, an excuse to catch up with Mumbai for a few days....

And flying back from Bangalore, I had an upbeat feeling... Meeting my family and friends and coming back to Mumbai with my first salary... Though the waiting time was extended by delayed Air Deccan flight (they seem to say we are sorry for the delay and inconvenience as a matter of habit), it was wonderful to land in Mumbai at 2am in the morning and go straight to IIT, the place where I had spent and enjoyed the last four years of my life and made some wonderful friends for life...

Meeting with old friends and spending the night chitchatting about life and new events made us forget time until we realised it was 6am in the morning and we ought to sleep so that we can remain awake during the convocation ceremony.. :D

The convocation ceremony went about quite well and I have lost count of the number of hugs I had during the time... receiving the degree on stage was a special feeling and a moment to cherish... The pledge that followed later was something special to me and I sincerely hope that every IITian is able to live up to it... Singing the national anthem in the convocation hall made me aware of my responsibility to our society and I hope I can give something back to India through my life and career...

The evening was spent with my special friends and wingmates and we had a memorable time loitering around in our convocation dress in Galleria, HN and then going to CCD in Huma...

We returned and spent a couple of hours close to nature at the Boathouse near Powai Lake and it was a night well-spent... I felt that I should have visited the place more often during my stay at the insti... But then, it is the absence of something that makes us realize its value...

The convocation time is really the last time that we had to meet with our college friends and many will soon be flying to the US of A for further studies... Still others like me will get back to the job they have joined and will be back in their quest to build a successful career.. One line that comes to mind at this stage is the definition of success (which varies from person to person certainly) as seen on a tantra tshirt... "Success is not having to wear a suit all your life!"

Well, whatever the definition of success be for each one of us, I hope that we don't forget the line that describes our alma mater, that is, Dnyanam paramam dhyeyam (knowlegde is the ultimate goal!)

Returning to Mumbai!

Yes! finally its time to go back to Mumbai! The city of dreams! My homeplace since I was born... Just 40 days away from Mumbai and I have felt homesick like never before... And now, within the next 24 hours I will be back to Mumbai... I am very much looking forward to meeting my family and friends out there...

It is my convocation time... The four years at IIT flew like moments and I still vividly remember many of the JEE times and the zeal to stick out even till day-break to crack some problem... The joy of cracking one of the toughest exams for undergraduate admission, the counselling time, the first day at insti.. I had got sick the first week in campus and still am unaware of the exact cause for that.. :P (even the doctors at hospi could not figure that out, but then many ppl from IIT would not be surprised at that)

All the time spent at the insti doing (and not doing) a lot of things was the most memorable part of my life... The friends that I made at campus are like jewels to cherish for life.. I desperately miss their company now; while I am at my job in Bangalore... The next few days will allow me to relive those wonderful moments spent at campus, and soon, I will be a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay (Chemical Engineering, also deserves a mention here.. :P though my job is no way related to it, but the dept has given me some very good friends)...

I don't know when again I will be able to spend time with these friends... Life is already getting monotonous and boring with the office environment (though I also have some good friends here) and I will certainly miss the insti and hostel life...

But at the moment, my thoughts are set towards the next five days that I will be spending in the City of Dreams... Aamchi Mumbai!

26/7

This was the day when Mumbai was subjected to the wrath of the rain-gods... 944mm of rain in just a day's time... and it was also the day when i returned to India from my PT... i marginally missed being stranded amongst the crowd who was unable to make their way home, be it by road, rail or air... today the incident has completed 1 year... but we people hardly care.. the so-called resilience of Mumbai in time of adversity is nothing but disguised indifference... but then does anyone care??

The mystery of destiny...

How often do things happen in our lives which are not according to what we expect them to be? and then someone consoles us by saying that "This was bound to happen. It was predestined." From my discussions on this issue with my friends, I have seen that some people are strongly opposed to the conecpt of destiny. And this is because it sort of takes away the power of choice from the person. But what I would say is that they were predestined to oppose the concept of destiny... :D

One major point of clarification in this concept of destiny, which is usually held by critics against this concept, is that if everything is predestined, then we are not required to do anything and just wait for everything to happen as it is destined to be. However, this is not what the concept of destiny says. It does not tell u to stop performing ur daily tasks and wait for things to happen. Instead, what it says is that although it appears to us that we have a choice to make from different possible options, the one choice that we will choose is predestined and the universe is set to move according to that choice. Thus, what appears to us as possible options are just that.. possibilities! So, in order to follow the path of destiny, we must do what we are required to do and not bother about results that do not go our expected way...

Well, I would have loved to delve deep into the outcomes of my discussion, specially with Mohit, but since Mohit is planning to come up with a book on our conclusions, he is of the opinion that uncovering the mystery in this blog would affect the sale of his book, which is bound to be a bestseller whenever it hits the racks...

So, for the time being, you will have to wait for us to find the time to write down our thoughts in the form of a book to actually understand this mystery. :P

Kaun kehta hai ladke bida nahi hote?

NOTE: This msg was to be completed long ago but then somehow it just was left incomplete... so now i am getting the time to complete it.. and that was because there were some wonderful remarks on my blog which have inspired me to write more.. and as the saying goes... better late than never...

It was the 20th of June.. two of my best friends were embarking on a new life... Mohit had his first day at Ugam Solutions and Shastry was all set to scale new heights with the Indian Airlines flight to Abu Dhabi... so me and mohit had planned to say farewell to Shastry at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport... Mohit had a long and rough journey back to iit from his office in mahalaxmi and to add to it, it was also raining that evening... so we thought that the best way to reach the airport was to take an auto... we discussed Mohit's first day at office in the auto and both of us were realizing that things are going to change pretty soon... Within a few days I was to leave for bangalore (which was about six months back, my last back up :P) and mohit was desperately in search of a place to stay near office so that he could do away with travelling daily... Anyways we hardly realized as the auto made its way through the evening traffic and we were soon at the airport waiting for Shastry to arrive...

But Shastry was caught up in the traffic and we didn't have much to do in the meantime, so our discussion took a philosophical drift (as usual) and we began to discuss the relation between choice and destiny... Regarding these discussions we have had since our second year, had we documented them, we would have had a manuscript for a bestseller ready by now... :D But the details of the discussion definitely deserve a separate article...

Finally after some running around to locate the exact terminal from where Shastry was departing we finally reached there and met his parents and some fellow friends from TeamSwades (Sachin and Akshat)... and after a few moments of waiting, we found him! There he was; our dear friend, about to take a big leap in life... such moments are the ones that stay with you for a long time... Shastry was as usual in a lot of nbd regarding how he should describe his trip, since he didn't have an employment visa... but as the moments passed by, we knew that we would not be seeing each other for atleast the next two months (hoping that he would come back for the convo)..

And then the ultimate moment arrived, when Shastry said good-bye to each one of us individually (or so we thought until that moment repeated itself all over again twice).. Knowing him for the last six years atleast, it was no surprise that Shastry's feet were rooted to the ground and he was finding it difficult to grasp the enormity of the situation, leaving his family, his friends, his country for the first time to go to a foreign land.. and though he didnt actually cry, we knew that his heart was crying at this critical juncture in his life... he was very much moved by the gift given to him by Sachin and Akshat, which carried the photo of his icon, the great MK Gandhi... and that was when Mohit remarked.. "Kaun kehta hai ladke bida nahi hote?".. and I knew that it was so very true...
Soon, Shastry looked at us one last time and was soon gone to build his career... which undoubtedly would be an illustrious one... I wish him all the very best in his career... and I am sure he would come back to India to live the dream of TeamSwades...

Living in the past..

The last few days have been somewhat like living the older days once again.. And that has been because I have been meeting so many of my older friends. I had finally packed off from IIT and was enjoying my stay back home. And with that, I also got to be in the company of some of my best buddies from school and college.

I now feel that I am really indebted to Orkut because it finally got me back in touch with one of my best friends from school.. Aseem. I had never known his whereabouts since the past five years and was wondering how life would have turned out for him. But then a couple of weeks back, he added me on orkut and we could get to meet each other! What a great time it was... I went over to his place and we spent an evening together reliving the memories from the good old school days. The various experiences from college that we shared also brought back genuine smiles to our faces.

Then next was meeting up with my Standard X class teacher (Mrs. Nathan).. someone who had taught me since standard VIII and has played a pivotal role in shaping the way I think and feel... I was always impressed by the balance of kindness and agression in her teaching and few teachers have been able to strike that balance... She was a master when it came to teaching English Grammar... and having her as a class teacher in Std X also allowed her to leave a permanent mark on my moral values... When I and Arvind met her, she was still the same self that she was six years ago and we had a very memorable discussion on various social and moral issues...

This meeting was soon followed up by the Sathaye College Reunion... something that I was really skeptical about... since I hardly had many fond memories of Sathaye (we hardly used to attend college and most of the time during junior college was spent in coaching classes)... But Prajakta had called me up and her enthusiasm for the Reunion could not have met with a negative answer from my side.. Though she was confident that atleast 15 ppl would turn up, we finally ended up with only 9 ppl... just having a dinner at RK (Ramakrishna Restaurant, the fav hangout place for Sathaye ppl) and discussed many experiences from college... Though I was atleast saved from the embarassment of not recognizing any one, I had difficulty recalling a few names.. after all we had hardly interacted during college.... but it soon turned out to be a very good experience as we got to know each other and shared experiences from undergrad life.... We ended up by having softy at the SoftyBar (another fav place for Sathaye gang) and thanks to Arvind, we had some snaps as a memory of this most unlikely reunion for me (i was rather expecting a school reunion and not a college reunion, but the former seems uncertain as of now)...

Through all these times, I have also been enjoying the FIFA World Cup and have now have some basic literacy in football to indulge in the normal discussions among friends... also I have gained some amount of interest in F1 and am looking forward to the Canada Grand Prix... :-)

These few days spent in reliving the past have spurred up nostalgic feelings and I am now feeling more and more sad about leaving these wonderful carefree days behind and entering the new phase of life that beckons me just round the corner... the employed life!

Finally I am done...

Finally on the 10th of June 2006, I moved out from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay... :( I had finally come to the end of the road... The wonderful four year journey, that began on the 18th of July 2002 with the insti orientation programme, is now over... with a few letters added against my name... and loads of memories to carry away with me....

At this point, thinking back about the time when I first came to IITB, I find that life didnt exactly turn out as I had thought it would... sometimes for the good, sometimes for the worse... But it has been an enriching journey indeed... I now realise that the four years of undergraduate life are the most valuable years, where u come across so many diverse acquaintances and gather so many experiences... I just can't imagine the enormity of the impact that IIT life has had on me... from the transformation into a nocturnal creature to the changed attitude towards life, it has been a total metamorphosis for me... and apart from that, I have been lucky enough to gain the company of so many friends that this has alone made my life worthwhile... We always meet new acquaintances and make new friends at every walk of life but IIT has gifted me with such gems that make me feel deeply indebted to it...

And never before has this occured to me.. I have rediscovered myself here... And it pains my heart to leave all this behind now... The time spend in the company of these friends, the pointless night-outs, the studying on the night before the exams, the arguments, the debates over various issues of life, and the dabbling with many new activities; all of these would be mere memories now...

But that is how life is... I am done here and have to move ahead... After gaining all these experiences, I look forward to making my mark in the real world... where and how life would take a turn, I cannot tell... But being at IIT has helped me develop a positive attitude towards life... and so I am optimistic about the future turn of events... Though it would surely take some time to emerge from this hangover of nostalgia... At last, it is reality... I am an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay!

The elusive kiss of victory..

It was the end of the second day of the first test between India and the West Indies at Antigua, the ground that had seen Lara score the highest individual score in Test cricket (400* vs England).. India was in deep trouble with a dismal first inning performance and already under a 70-odd run lead... That was the time when I made a seemingly unreasonable prediction, that India will win this test... naturally evoking a strong reaction from my pragmatic peers... Anuj had even gone to the extreme of labeling my prediction as the height of optimism... But i think optimism is taller than most ppl think... :-)

though finally it was the determination of edwards and collymore along with dave mohammed to keep the indians just an inch away from victory... i think it was a wonderful performance from India and it is this sort of games that make cricket so much interesting... no matter what happens ahead in the remaining matches, India has come back strongly after the defeat in the ODIs and i am waiting to see what happens next...

And the week ahead is a treat for all sports-loving people... the Football world Cup is kicking off... the French Open will see some great action in tennis... we have the British Grand Prix lined up... and of course, the second test between India and WI... dont think will get too much time to blog all this while... :D

Encounter with the devil

Today was the dreadful devil day... when the date was going to form the devil number 666 (6 june 06)... and many bad things had been slated to happen on this day..... and it was the special time at 06:06:06 (that is six seconds after 6:06 am) when everything from year to second would read six... interesting, isn't it? well, i was awake to witness that rare occasion.. i was determined to stay up whole night for that... :D

And here is the proof, a screenshot of the local India time shown by Google, the quality of the image may not be too good... so in case u want to see a conclusive proof, u can get the large size image from me.. >:)

After enjoying the moment with pandey (the wing sbc.. lolzz), i buzzed manjan and one of the rare occasions when some one offered me to come to main gate for a cup of tea.. :D and i was more than willing to oblige... so we had an early morning bike ride and mast garam garam chai..

I finally got to sleep at 8:30am and then was up again at 10:00.. finally i met my guide and really, u cannot be luckier than me... mere guide jitna peace aadmi dekha hi nahi hai! had a very informal chat and I was back happy and waiting to pass more time... we went to upahar at Y-Point gate and then to our favorite ganesh juice centre...

The evening was quite blurred with sleep tending to overpower and then I slumped for sometime on anuj's bed (gosh! dunno exactly what bit me but I was rudely woken up by the bugs in his bed!) i still wonder how he sleeps there everyday... as he says, the bugs in his bed bite only people who should not be sleeping there.. (or maybe, they cant tolerate getting close to anuj.. lolzz) The India WI match was slated for an exciting finish and that was going to take up most of the night...

finally, the day of the devil was coming to an end with thankfully not much damage done and the world was saved from the grasp of the beast... :-)

The Reunion.. and the breaking away

Any transition in life is always associated with making new companions and parting with old ones.. And we naturally feel sad about leaving our old friends along with the fear that we may be as lucky again to get such friends in the future... But that is the bitter reality of life.. The purpose of meeting people is to one day break away from them... because each one of us follow a different path to their destiny...

Time is here again when we are at another junction in life. And this seems the most critical of them all. We are now graduates and now first get to taste the real world outside, a world which might turn out to be both cruel as well as rewarding.. And of course, it will be accompanied by making lots of new acquaintances....

But this Saturday, we old buddies from school and junior college time did get a chance to catch up with each other before we step into the world ahead... We met at the Borivali station at around 5pm.... it was really wonderful to be together with old friends again... reliving those wonderful memories and enjoying each other's company. After a long debate (as always) about what to do next, we finally decided to go to National Park for a stroll.... With Arvind leading the pro-National Park opinion and Aditya garnering support against it, it was reminiscent of the heated arguments that we used to have during those golden days at junior college and JEE classes.... spending time discussing just about anything, be it silly or important, nothing used to matter more than proving your point and getting people to support you... The main argument from Aditya was that National Park would close at 6pm and so it would be useless to go there; which was quashed outright by the omniscient Bhagyesh, thus tilting the balance conclusively in Arvind's favor... Finally, we were at the park and overlooking the lake where we had a few snaps taken as memories of this reunion... We also had a good time in the children's amusement area in the park, where we just shedded a few years and enjoyed some carefree moments... Bhagyesh also had a merry time in the swing (strictly made for children and which shuddered under his weight :P) until he realised that he was very much vulnerable to mud-slinging and let go the swing (which seemed to heave a sigh of relief)...
Later we went to Siddesh's place and had some pet-puja and discussions on reservations, cricket and football.. We were basically whiling away time until our friend Mujju arrived from Mulund... Then, we planned to have a dinner at Urban Tadka but had to wait for as long as 45 min before we could gain entry.. So, we spent our time in the futile attempt to convince Arvind for a treat, which we all so much deserved.. But Arvind, as always, did not budge and we ended up having a contri treat... but that did make it any less enjoyable (except towards the end, when we had to shell out some money)..... The travel back to home in bus was the perfect end to a very memorable evening...

After graduation, some of us will be taking a job right away while others will be pursuing higher studies... our paths and our destinies seem to diverge from here on.. Our destinies may sure interwine somewhere in the future but we will definitely get to see each other less and less and the fun that we had together will only continue to exist in our memories... Such friendship will sure be very hard to find in the life ahead... At this moment, I just remember the old hindi song:

Lag jaa gale, ke fir se yeh haseen raat ho na ho......
Shayad fir se iss janam mein, mulaqaat ho na ho..... >:D<

And I would also like to say the following lines for each one of my wonderful friends...

A bond of love…
A medal of trust…
A shoulder in sadness..
A hand in darkness…
A special relation to hold…
An ear where secrets can be told..
An appreicater for encouragement…
Something that doesn’t cost…
A Jewel never to be lost…
No matter where in life either of us will end..
You reside in my heart, my dear FRIEND…

X Men

Mutation is the process through which evolution has progressed on this planet from the single-celled organisms to the present day humankind.. It is a continuous and slow process that is always creating new species on earth... but every few thousand years, evolution takes a leap; a leap into the future...

The X Men series is another masterpiece of human imagination which brings the power of mutation into the hands of humans... as expected with some disastrous consequences...

Every mutant has different special powers which he/she is free to use in whatever way desirable.. first, wolverine (Logan) whose bones have been coated with some indestructible metal... Logan can conjure claws out of his knuckles and can heal his wounds faster than anyone else... then, there is Cyclops who can produce a high power laser from his eyes that can burn anything in its way... there is Jeanne Gray who can control gravity through her mind (oh! what a brilliant idea!)... Firearm, who can manipulate fire but unfortunately cannot create it and so has to keep a lighter with him always.. the girl (don't know her name) who can walk through walls... Mystique who can take the form of anyone and also imitate his/her voice... and finally Magneto who can control any metal object through the use of his magnetic powers...

Such works of fiction tend to impress me a lot.. I seem to spend a lot of time imagining what I could have done with these special powers... How nice it would be to have chilled beer by just dropping in a couple of ice cubes out of nothing... Or how I could sneak into the classroom through the wall so that the prof would never come to know about it... :D Or how I could summon anything sitting from one place... yeah sure, that would make me fat and lazy beyond limits.. Or turn into anyone and do whatever u desire to get done... the possibilities seem endless.... If only we could actually speed up evolution and achieve something of this sort... But yes, as spiderman had said, "With great power comes great responsibility!" So would it be with such mutant powers...

Another thing that the X Men movies touched upon was how the human society as a whole is not accepting to anything that seems to deviate from the general accepted notion of normality.. And how we all have to constantly keep changing ourselves to fit into this social system... Any abberation is dealt with severity and isolation from society... This is something which significantly contributes to breeding criminals and anti-social elements... Something that the society as a whole does little to rectify...

Anyways, I am dying to watch the third movie in the series which has released in theatres just a couple of weeks ago... Hope I get to watch it soon... :-)

Why people blog?

Why do so many ppl in the world spend so much of their time blogging?? What is it that they seek from writing blogs?

Well, to begin with, I am totally against making any sort of generalizations and acknowledge that the motives of each person blogging may be different... and i would try not to make any inferences about the person from his/her motives... because I believe in the statement that "No person is right or wrong... just every one is different". Every person is right in his/her logic bubble... which is made up of his values and experiences...

One of the primary reasons for blogging which I can think of is to vent one's feelings... in this hectic world, there is very little time for ppl to share all their feelings with others and blogging provides a convenient way to pour them out... It helps the mind feel more relaxed...

The first type of blogs may be the broadcasting type... they could be used to reach out to more and more people across the globe.. for example, gathering popular support on a large scale... this is very much evident from the way blogs have been used in the current anti-reservation protests.

Another type could be the journalism oriented; wherein we may express views on anything from sports to movies to music and anything else... I realise that many of my own blogs fall in this category... some ppl think that these blogs are repetitve but I think that the personal experiences and opinions that they contain make them unique...

Finally, ppl may just blog about their daily lives and write in detail about how they spent their day and what experiences they had... these blogs may not address any specific issue but still have the utility that they keep friends and acquaintances updated about their lives and make a good light reading... And they can definitely end up being a lot more creative...

No matter what the reasons or the motives, blogging can be a very good experience. They give direction to the many thoughts that cross our minds daily and give shape to our opinions.

So, instead of pondering over the intellectual worth of your blogs and the utlitiy to the reader and the comments that may come ur way, keep blogging... karma karte raho; phal ki chinta mat karo... yehi geeta ka saar hai.. :-)

The first rains....

After a late night searching for blog names for anuj, i knew it will be difficult to keep my schedule of running every morning... there was only a bleak chance that after sleeping at 4am, i would be able to wake up at 6:30.. but i was delayed by only 45 min and there was still hope of running today... until the rain gods doused all enthusiasm.. its amazing when you are seeing the sun at one moment and then just a couple of minutes later, the skies have started pouring down... It was the perfect dampener for all enthusiasm to run...

and there i was... awake but got nothing to do... in such a scenario, what comes first to anyone's mind? The answer obviously varies from person to person... The first thing in my mind was why the hell did i sleep so late? and the answer popped out right away... its the blogger that is to blame!

so now i am, blogging my time away... the first rains have been shortlived and the sun has come out through the clouds.. so am contemplating whether there is still time to go running...

Blogger Reloaded...

It has been a long break away from blogging... some how that intensity to blog had been lost and most of it was driven by the absence of fellow bloggers....

But now its time to rekindle that fire, to give vent to whatever comes to my mind.. and the reason behind this is my wingie (wing-mate for non-IITians) Anuj Gupta (fondly known as bhola or BMW) who has taken up to blogging and is now on of the newest members of the blogosphere.. He spent as many as two hours yesterday on my comp and that too in the night from 1:45 to 3:45 am! But it was a very interesting time when we began searching for as many oxymorons as possible just to name his new blog! Finally he settled for Lameskill as the oxymoron he was looking for.. lets see how much of this lame skill he shows in the coming days..

Wankhede...

The match between India and England was evenly poised at the end of the fourth day.. with India batting at 18/1 and needing 313 to win, I would have said there was a fair chance to get that...
And moreover, the match being in Mumbai, it was all the more reason to feel excited!

We all saw it as the final opportunity to watch a cricket match from such close quarters with friends in the near future... so, on Tuesday night, we were all excited and ready to rock the Wankhede.. so many ppl were willing to come that we felt it would be a wonderful outing, one of those precious days that will be forever engraved in memory.. we were all imagining India pulling off a stunning victory...

It was decided to leave early in the day since we also had to buy tickets.. but not even half of the ppl who had shown the willingness to come the previous night were enthu abt giving up their sleep and coming to watch the match.. not true cricket fans i thought!

finally me, patkar and modi were the only three who were awake and wanting to go.. so we left insti at around 6:30am and made our way down south to Wankhede.. the huge queue outside the ticket counter so early in the morning for a test match on a weekday was really amazing... it is beyond doubt that cricket is the one force that pulls the vast majority of the Indian populace.

It was a long wait in the queue for us followed by growing unrest among the waiting crowd as the match drew closer and the queue was moving at snail's pace... finally there was a huge commotion and we were pushed out of the queue as the security started lathi-charge on the waiting crowd.. i was pissed off with such poor arragements and think the MCA should make sincere efforts to improve this situation because I am just wondering what the situation would be like for an ODI at Wankhede... It would make sense to bring in the e-seva system for ticket distribution, which is currently practiced in hyderabad..

Thankfully, there was a separate line for ladies at the stadium and we were able to convince a couple of girls to get us tickets but that was not before I suffered a blow from the lathi on my knee.. though it was mild, it still pained...

finally when we got the chance to get into the stadium at 11am, the score read 46/3 and the best two batsmen of the Indian team, Dravid and Sachin were out there in the middle.. inspite of the early losses, the crowd was very optimistic of the home team making a comeback.. it was my first experience to watch a cricket match in the stadium and it was fantastic.. the chorus of SAACHINN..SAACHINN.. in the crowd was simply enthralling.... some sections of the crowd were hurling abuses at the English cricketers and it should be really intimidating to the players...

the session till lunch was very entertaining and Rahul and Sachin stayed on to take India to 75/3.. the hopes of the crowd to witness an exciting finish were soaring... but post-lunch began the downslide.. rahul departed in the first over after lunch and sachin in the very next.. it was stunning.. suddenly all hopes came shattering down in a heap....

and that was not the end of the downfall.. sehwag and dhoni also had a very brief presence and the Indian team was looking down the barrel much too early than most of us had expected... soon the match was all over and India had collapsed to 100 all out and lost miserably in the very first match that I watched at the Wankhede....

it was really disappointing and frustrating since we stood in the queue longer than we were in the stadium... the crowd was calling out "Hamara paisa wapas do!" and "We want Dada!" which made me realise the volatility of the crowd sentiment in India.. but then, being among the one who had fought so hard to get that coveted place in the North Stand, I did share their feelings to some extent... one bad match and all the good work in the last few months is washed clean from memory...

after the match, i think that the Indian team needs to sit back and analyse the shortcoming and come back hard at the Englishmen in the ODIs. Although India lost the match, going to the Wankhede was not a total waste because I could see some of my favorite players from close quarters and watching the boundaries from the willows of sachin and yuvraj were some consolation for my money and time...

Life after a break...

it had been a long time since i had blogged.. but that was because my comp was in coma.. kuch display hi nahi karta tha.. give-up maar diya tha maine.. ki yeh ab fir kuch na kar paayega life mein..

but today has been a special day.. i have been able to make my comp work once again.. it has risen from the ashes like a phoenix... and how did i go about the task? just by putting my RAM in a different socket! this goes to show that complex problems often have simple and straight-forward solutions!

i am feeling a lot more lukkha again.. after the last two weeks which were very taxing preparing for the ChEA Symposium... had a lot of expectations.. but the crowd turnout was poor..:(

it felt a little disappointing, but then who said that all efforts need be rewarded in the way u expect them to be? it had been a wonderful experience organizing the event and i have learnt loads of lessons in the process.. it was a commendable effort, considering that our team comprised only a handful of people...

now that it is all over, i am back into lukkha mode.. though i still have loads to do in my BTP, i will still find some time to spend out here....

The horrors of a midsem....

The two day break in the midsems was very eventful for me since i spent the whole of tuesday at pune with jhatu, dosi and bajju.. and most of wednesday, i was busy sleeping and dreaming.. in the evening i came to terms with the grave situation at hand.. there were two midsems today and i had no clue of either subject..

the most instinctive reaction in such a scenario is to seek help from the best student in class... daga in this case.. so i went to him in the evening and lo.. he cleared all fundaes within an hour and a half... and i was all elated that i understand advanced process synthesis very well... i came back to hostel and spent time lukkhaing around.. i also tried my hand at problems and found them routine stuff.. but it was not to be...

and when i realised that, i was in the examination hall in the morning.. finding myself clueless on each and every question in the paper.. but then, there i was struggling to get some clue and i was unable to remember even the basic steps.. i finally ended up expecting a pure zero on hundred and was all depressed... it was one of the totally hopeless days of my life and certainly the most forgettable one.. unless there is some miracle in the remaining 10 hours..:-)

well, the bit of advice that i would like to give here is that if u take an elective out of the so-called interest, then do study it well.. else u will end up screwing it like i did today..

A day's life at Pune!

There is a two day break in the midsems... so what do we do? well, we packed up and left for pune!
Now what is one doing going to Pune in the midst of the midsems? even pune junta dont do that.. but then, we had a reason.. ChEA Symposium Publicity!!!

well, for those ignorant souls, we have the ChEA Symposium at IIT Bombay on 11th march 2006.. here is the link for u.. http://www.che.iitb.ac.in/chea/symposium2k6 do have a look..

it doesn't help when u discover that u are almost an hour late in getting up and mayank is standing at the door breathing fire at u... but that was how the day began...

the day was very eventful and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.. we could achieve almost everything we had planned to... but it was dosi and bajju who made the day for us.. without them, we could not have possibly got so much work done and enjoyed so much...

we not only went to our sponsors Praj industries but also set foot on the MIT of India! yes, the Maharashtra Institute of Technology in Pune.. its a nice place and as far as IIT standards are concerned, MIT has a much better and more diverse crowd.........

we also went to NCL.. jhalak dikhalaaaaaaaa ja, ek baar aja aja aja aja aaaaaja! (more details from dosi).

finally on the way back, on bajju's demand we got down at vashi and went to BTC (Bhagat Tara Chand) for a very filling dinner.. BTC mein dinner karne ke baad to waise hi neend aane lagti hai... but look how resilient i am! i kept sleep away for more than 4 hrs!

but now its getting too late and i am feeling damn sleepy.. so good night!

MSD power...

The final match at Karachi sealed the fate of the Paki team at the Hutch Cup... the Indian team has become the most ferocious chasers.. it has been proven beyond doubt that the Indian team is far far better than Pakistan...

how come this sudden change in India? is it the change in leadership or is it the coaching of Greg Chappell?? what is it that has made the single most significant difference in the Indian side today and the one about 6 months back?

The answer would be MSD! It is the MSD phenomenon that has changed the fortunes of the team.. I had always felt that Austrailia's greatest strength was Gilchrist who was much more than a wicket keeper to them.. In india, it was a traditional belief that it is not necessary for the wicket keeper to be a good batsman... but MSD has changed it all now... he is more of an asset than a liability in the batting department... the manner in which MSD bludgeoned the Pakis at Karachi was simply outstanding... it was one of the best finishes by India in all times.. now even a score of close to 300 seems reachable thanks to the power of Yuvi and MSD... and when there is Pathan in as well, it makes the side even more formidable.. never before has the Indian side looked so much promising.. never before have we chased down 280 with 3 overs to spare without Sehwag, Sachin and Saurav... never before has the Indian side done so well in batting, bowling and fielding consistently...

With the MSD power on our side, I now feel.. "Bring on the Aussies, it time to decide the new world champions!"

Random variates

Nostalgia rules all around.. the last midsems of my stay at iit.. well, i have always loved the week of exams at iit.. there are many reasons for that..
1. there are no moronic classes to attend
2. there is night tea available in the mess
3. there is an air of liveliness and hours can be spent at the canteen place
4. and finally, its the only time that i am involved in acads...

today was the first paper of the lot.. stochastic processes.. a course taken out of enthu.. well thats what it was supposed to be.. fight maarke yeh course float karwaya gaya tha and so it was natural for our instructor (jhumpa adhikari) to expect some sort of enthu from the 9 ppl who took the course... but then, she was grossly disappointed. she had to see our blank faces for most of the time (the remaining time we never made it to the lecture..) she had to finally give her notes to us to prevent all the ppl from ending up with zeroes..

s0 now comes the day of the exam.. rishi and shastry in immense nbd.. and me as usual trying to chill them out... kisi tarah thoda bahut course chamka liya.. bahut hi random course tha.. apne naam pe khara utara..

but then the midsem was not that difficult, what with most of the questions being replicated from the lone assignment that we had got... aaj ehsaas hua ki do ghante midsem mein baithna kitna fight hai last sem mein.. waise hi aadhe ghante mein pakk gaya aur neend aa rahi thi.. thodi der ke liye to rest bhi kar liya, when i thought jhumpa was getting the feeling i was trying to copy from shastry...:D

so now that one midsem has gone by, there are three more to come my way.. but none for the next two days.. there seems lots of commotion outside.. time for wing cricket!

A victory to remember....

I was very disappointed after India lost the Karachi test even with Pathan taking a hat-trick in the first over of the game... suddenly the strong Indian team looked feeble.. people started calling the Indian attack toothless (when in the same test, we had Pakistan at 39/6) and declared that the Indian batsmen were strong only on paper... well, thats the way things go as far as cricket is concerned in India.. one defeat and the entire team gets criticized like hell...

But this Indian team has the mettle to bear it all and come out strong... even after losing the ODI at Peshawar, the team bounced back to win the Hutch Cup in three straight encounters at Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan.. the Indian team has shredded its chase-fear and now has become one of the most successful chasers of recent times..

the young heroes Raina and RP Singh have performed very well and deserve a round of applause.. but the one youngster who has also given a splendid performance is Sreesanth (though he has not many wickets to show on paper, he is a wonderful talent to be nurtured)

As Dravid said after the match, India has raised its level of performance in all departments and has emerged successful through a truly team effort...

Hope India continues the good work into the final ODI at Karachi...

Hat-trick!

Its one of the most beautiful ways to start a day.. get up on a lazy sunday morning at 10:30 and put on the TV to find the score card reading pak 4/3 !! u inevitably keep rubbing ur eyes and then go to cricinfo to make sure that its true!

pathan takes a hat-trick!! awesome start to the test match! and whoever says that pathan is not bowling well these days and concentrating too much on batting, take this!

and the paki woes were not over yet.. they further slid to 39/6... the groundsmen on the other side of the border probably dont believe in making moderate pitches...:D

Rang De Basanti...

it had been as many as 50 days since writing the last blog... had totally forgotten that i used to blog as well... until I got a msg from bhagyesh, about he starting to blog!

so there have been a lot of critical events in my life since my last blog.. i am an employed person now..:D and have finally got over with the apping pain.. its been a new world after 16th Jan.. the day when suddenly I discovered that I was employed..!

Coming to today, I saw the much-awaited movie rang de basanti today.. that too in shreyas in the stall.. seemed a good change from the multiplex culture back to the older version of the theater.. people hooting, whistling and even dancing to the rang de basanti tune.. mazaa aa gaya!

aamir khan is unmatchable in bollywood.. his witty remarks add a lot of spice to any role he plays.. and he is one actor who can bring the dialogues alive...

i would not like to play spoiler by elaborating on the story here (in case u havent seen the movie yet, what are u waiting for??).. but yaar, end mein sab mar jaate hai!

the songs in the movie are awesome.. apni to paathshala, masti ki paathshala!

lose control!

start blogging..:P

will be much more regular in blogging this time round...