Another Day

another jobless post(all pun intended). will be interviewing with Inductis this evening.

My friend's got a girlfriend
and he hates that bitch
He tells me every day
He says "man I really gotta lose my chic
In the worst kind of way"

She sits on her as
He works his hands to the bone
To give her money every payday
But she wants more dinero just to stay at home
Well my friend
You gotta say:

I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job

I guess all his money, well it isn't enough
To keep her bill collectors at bay
I guess all his money, well it isn't enough
Cause that girl's got expensive taste

I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job

Well I guess it isn't easy doing nothing at all oh yeah
But hey man free rides just don't come along
every day

Let me tell you about my other friend now

My friend's got a boyfriend man she hates that dick
She tells me every day
He wants more dinero just to stay at home
Well my friend
You gotta say:

I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a job
oh yeah
I won't give ya no money
I allways pay
now now Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way ya, no way
now now Why don't you get a
job!

-Offspring.

The end!

Well, it is with a heavy heart that I write this blog. After a long break, which included my last but one-th sem here in IIT and the inter-IIT sports meet. And it was at the end of what will be my last participation in the inter-IIT sports meet that I realized that this was it!!! From today, we embark upon a new journey - a hunt for a job or a scholarship and what not and thus begins a new phase of our lives. Cant seem to see myself in a definite place anywhere in the near future so here's hoping for the best and living life to the fullest-
" To life which is a reason unto itself" - "Ayn Rand" - in "We the Living"

The Doors

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land ?

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest
The blue bus is callin' us
The blue bus is callin' us
Driver, where you taken' us ?

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
"Father ?", "yes son", "I want to kill you"
"Mother...I want to...fuck you"

C'mon baby, take a chance with us X3
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin' a blue rock, On a blue bus
Doin' a blue rock, C'mon, yeah
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end, Beautiful friend
This is the end, My only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end

What do you do?

When bored to death and cannot sleep(because you are just coming off a long weekend hibernation)? As for me, I decided that blogging was the next best thing to do.

Looking around at whats new, seems like nikhil's had a close encounter there of a different kind. Sonia writes once again a brilliant piece that tugs at your heartstrings no matter how cynical you might have become. This is fifth in the series of the portraits she has done of how the ban has affected the bar-girls. More here, here, here and here

Diwali hols are coming up in a week. I have not been home for diwali(which incidentally used to be my fav festival) in three years, and unless something drastic happens, I might miss it this year too. The last time I did make it was in my first year when I managed to get into an overcrowded(understated ) general compartment in konark express, managed to sit through 16 hrs journey without anything other than Freddie Trueman's autobiography, one bottle of water, one discman, 1 mp3 disc, and 50 rupees.(oh not to forget my satchel). Next two years I was here practicing for the inter-IIT cricket team and it seems a similar thing is going to happen this year also. As I had written earlier, festivals seem to have lost meaning to us here in a campus insulated from the outside world, But I get a feeling that I should be home this time around for diwali.

I hear the wind call your name
It calls me back home again
It sparks up the fire - a flame that still burns
Oh it's to you I'll always return
I still feel your breath on my skin
I hear your voice deep within
The sound of my lover - a feeling so strong
It's to you - I'll always belong

Now I know it's true
My every road leads to you
And in the hour of darkness darlin'
Your light gets me through

Wanna swim in your river - be warmed by your sun
Bathe in your waters - cos you are the one
I can't stand the distance - I can't dream alone
I can't wait to see you - Ya I'm on my way home

Oh I hear the wind call your name
The sound that leads me home again
It sparks up the fire - a flame that still burns
Oh, it's to you - I will always return

- I will always return ( bryan adams)

A matter of honour

The war seems to be taking on a whole new dimension. I was hoping to have a good night's sleep, but when the warcry has been sounded, the warchief(thats my nick when I play lan games) shall rise.

I had written about the hilarious legal notice sent to gaurav sabnis in my previous post, but it didnt end there. IIPM with its huge clout as a consumer of IBM(where gaurav works) has tried to pull its weight, and he has decided to quit his job at IBM to stand by his principles. Apparently JAM office has been stormed by useless lackeys and a notice been served to rashmi and JAM demanding the withdrawal of the articles and a public apology. The worst things these IIPM lackeys could do was expose themselves as uncouth frauds while posing as IIPM students/grads and trying to slander rashmi (read through the comments in the previous link).

One thing that is likely to have me in splits everytime I think of it is this gentlemen talking about his alu muter and him being proud of it.

I try to put in my penny by circulating this amongst my friends here in IITB and outside of it.
Here's an update and some more comic relief.

I have thus completed the tag and whoever has read this, consider themselves tagged.

(at 4:36 in the middle of the night or early morning, just the way you look at it..)
shrek

Hi-fi institutes

Talk about going hi-fi, this is superb!

This was something I never expected, but well both parties are having fun, so who's to stop them? The blog that lead to this lawsuit and the article.

Good journalism from an unexpected source(I thought JAM was more of a college tabloid, seeing as how a couple of my friends write in it :P).

Pics from another world

We started at around 6 from the campus. Me having not slept for the past three nights, ( two days - four exams phew!!) decided to forgo sleep for another night, if I were to make it on this trek and it was worth every bit of the sleep that I missed.
But the result of sleepless nights is we tend to compensate whenever we can- for instance in this local train.( sleepy, unshaven for two weeks and not having had a hair cut for 6 months, its me on the left in the photo)


Bhimashankar, this is what we presume was the nag-phani point, our destination on this trek, I donot remember the height of the peak and all that, but it was one heck of a trek coming as it did right after our mid-semester examinations.

We reached the railway station at kanjurmarg by 6:45 and took a train to karjat. It was a group of six of us-
From left adnan, kris, kp, me and bhavish. Sangy the sixth member of the group thought that his cam was dearer to him and thats why appears in none of the photos here.( :P). We walked along this path to reach the base from where we would embark upon one of the best treks to date. There we found this cute little calf (which incidentally kept nuzzling kris)



This is me posing for this firm below while on the way.



Had an amazing time needless to say. The best part was when we took a wrong way and climbed almost vertically up along the rocks until there was no way we could further go up that path without equipment. Its at times like these that one wonders if living our virtual lives in closed cocoons is the worst thing that has happened to us.(more on this later)

We met this guy along the way who had been trekking for the past 25 years and had been to this place 433 times before this. It transates to an amazing "once every fortnight". Phew!!

We reached the peak at around 3:30 fully drenched in the rain and the streams that ran down the peak amidst fog( or rather clouds) so thick that we could hardly see a couple of feet ahead of us. Left for mancher at 5 (on the advise of some wise guy who told us we'd get a bus back to mumbai from there). By the time we reached mancher it was 7:30 and we were told that pune was closer and the next bus to mumbai was scheduled at 10. Since kris had planned on another trek the next day, we took a cab who charged us around 150/head to get us back to our campus. By the time we reached powai it was 00:30.

A few more shots taken along the way. Simply no words to describe them-










Here's a pic of sangy at last- See what we had to do to make him part from his camera?

happy bday to me!!!

yay!!! finally out of teens!! am I supposed to rejoice?

" Here's to life which is a reason unto itself " - Kira petrovna in "We the Living"

Half-blood? Prince?

Having got the book on 16th night itself, and finished it by the next afternoon, I was left to wonder for some time if I had not by mistake read one of those fanfiction stories and not the Rowling stuff, and only yesterday did I find out that it was infact the book.

Well, I can say that I am glad not to have bought the book for a whopping 700 bucks. I guess, one could say that the book as a stand alone is pretty bad, but may be it was necessary to maintain the continuity.

Coming of age of the characters and the change in guard is a bit too abrupt. Only last year harry and the others were just children hardly able to comprehend the subtleties of the war and at the end of this year we have harry trying to take on the lead role in the resistance( that too with not much increase in his skills- atleast not overt). Hermione's character was bit too subdued in this book, and Malfoy suddenly shows streaks of brilliance that one wouldnt have thought possible of him,(especially with getting better of harry and dumbledore)

One thing though, it has me convinced that snape despite being a slytherin to the core will actually help Harry in his endeavours. Sonia falerio 's reaction reinforced my belief that maybe the book was rushed a bit. Here's < /a> an interesting prediction on the seventh book.

War of the worlds

A movie adapted from a science fiction novel by H.G.Wells(one of the first sci-fi writers I believe). I would have done well to read the book first and then watch the movie, but it happens that though the movie is well made and might do justice to the book, it was a little weak in the plot one feels. Most of the time is spent in showing the catastrophe and how it affects people. I guess the plot in itself was a bit too weak to spin off a movie, but one worth watching for those who like special effects that look real.

And though it held the grip on the audience for the human drama involved for better part of the movie, the end was a bit too bollywood type with a happy-happy ending.(Perhaps I am a bit too cynical in my outlook, but with the reconciliation of the family in the once again neat house in a clean street made me wonder for a moment if they had all died and this was a meeting in heaven.)

--
shrek

An year before I was born

1984- a book written in 1949 by George Orwell is a sad-almost nightmarish commentary on what the world would be if socialism prevailed.

The animal farm and 1984 both in essence talk about the communism and the impracticability of it, or rather the horrors that it engenders. Former is a book of how the pigs once having taken over the farm alter anything and everything including the tenets on which they rebelled to suit their needs, finally become the same as the humans who once owned the farm. The latter though, is a dark commentary with only the rarest hints of humour on a world where humans arent human anymore, being human is lunacy, and as he puts it -" one who controls the present controls the past","Freedom is slavery", "Ignorance is strength" and " War is peace".

A story of how these seemingly paradoxical principles come to be accepted by all, including a maverick who recognises things for what they are, of how he is broken down in the end, and how "The Party" makes the people believe in all the lies that they manufacture.
One of the most introspective and deeply philosophical parts of the book though is the part when the protagonist reads the book "Oligarchical Collectivism" that talks about the power balance and class struggle.

Acclaimed as the master piece by George Orwell, this is a book one should definitely read.

If this book was a foreboding book about totalitarianism and the menace it can be, "A brave new world" by "Aldous huxley" set in a similar vein commenting about loosing the human identity in a mechanical yet hierarchial world is also a great read.

--
shrek

The hardest Part.....

is waiting :-SS

--shrek

And the hardest part
Was letting go, not taking part
was the hardest part
And the strangest thing
was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start

I could feel it go down
Bittersweet I could taste in my mouth
Silver line in the cloud
Oh and I wish that I could work it out

And the hardest part
was letting go, not taking part
You really broke my heart, oh
And I tried to sing
But I couldn't think of anything
And that was the hardest part of all

I could feel it go down
You left the sweetest taste in my mouth
The silver line in the cloud
Oh and I, oh and I, I wonder what it's all about
I wonder what it's all about

Everything I know is wrong
Everything I do, it just comes undone
And everything is torn apart
And thats the hardest part, that's the hardest part
Yeah that's the hardest part, that's the hardest part

-ColdPlay

Life in the fast lane

Things to do in case all else fails:
1) Start a career in the movies.
2) Start a pop band
3) Start an anger management class
4) Join politics
5) Grow a beard, go for spoken -hindi/(regional language) classes and start sermonizing

-shrek

Of what was to be and is..

This was supposed to be a frustrated rant but heck!, why waste the first chance I got in the week to write a blog on just a rant.
Events that I missed writing about and would have loved to- French Grand Prix, Wimbledon Finals, Olympic bid, and at the top spot on the list would be shared by live 8 concert on the weekend and the ODI between Australia and England with the new rules in place.
Had a nice relaxing weekend at my uncle's place when I just whiled away the time in front of the idiot box and probably made up for all the TV that I hadn't watched in my last three years. (only computer in the hostel- no TV) .
Come monday and I get a scare that the results of my work for the past two months aren't what they are supposed to be and that I may have to stay for a little longer. So, I slog from 9 to 9 three days straight, trying to see if there's a bug in my code, and finally go to my guide yesterday with validation of the results that I got, he oh so casually remarks- "My Bad! the results you were getting were correct for this implementation, and the instability observed was for a different implementation."
Hence, I write a script, run it and leave the office at 9:30 last night, to come back and find that it still hasn't finished. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it will turn out alright, (note to self- need to finish the report of the work, otherwise will have to stay back over the weekend *sigh*)

Idle mind ...

You are Form 9, Vampire: The Undying.

"And The Vampire was all that remained on
the blood drowned creation. She attempted to
regrow life from the dead. But as she was
about to give the breath of life, she was
consumed in the flame of The Phoenix and the
cycle began again."

Some examples of the Vampire Form are Hades (Greek)
and Isis (Egyptian).
The Vampire is associated with the concept of
death, the number 9, and the element of fire.
Her sign is the eclipsed moon.


As a member of Form 9, you are a very realistic
individual. You may be a little idealistic,
but you are very grounded and down to earth.
You realize that not everything lasts, but you
savor every minute of the good times. While
you may sometimes find yourself lonely, you
have strong ties with people that will never be
broken. Vampires are the best friends to have
because they are sensible.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla




Nice test this, found on dreams and donuts, usually am not much into quizzes, but somehow liked this. Especially, since it was quite similar to how I see myself as.

Green carpet

Wimbledon, considered the most prestigious of the four grand slams has always been a spectacle to watch. The rallies here might be over quickly (Unlike in Roland Garros) but they still have the charm that draws you back to it wherever you might be.

This year too, it has produced some great matches. On a Saturday, when Alonso in a renault once again qualified the fastest, and Schumacher the fourth quickest, and England came back from a lose-all situationat 33-5 (chasing 198) to tie the match and share the Natwest Trophy with the Australians, Wimbledon threw up the longest singles' duel in women's championship in the open era. Lindsay Davenport was always in the front and Venus had to keep clawing back at her lead. Finally though Venus just nosed ahead to win 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 9-7, in a thrilling encounter that lasted over 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Roddick dispatched off Thomas Johannson to set up a clash against Roger Federer.
Dazzling performance by the qualifiers' pair of Wesley Moodie and Stephen Huss saw them beat the first seeds in the semi-finals and the second seeded pair of Bryans in the final to clinch the title.

All this aside, during the telecast we caught Jimmy connors on air for some time. This legend who with 110 titles holds the record for most singles titles, expressed something which might have been nagging at the back of the tennis followers all over the world. Earlier, there was variety, there was a different style of play trademark of every player, but now it seems as if most of the players are alike in many respects. This( he cited) is what perhaps makes Federer the king as he can mix up the game much better than any other- also the reason why though his record with Hewitt stands at 9-8 in 17 meets, Hewitt hasnt managed to defeat Federer in their last seven meetings.

shrek

Time ..so fleeting

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear,too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice,but for those who love time is eternity.
- Henry Van Dyke

Wanted to write the travellogue of our trip to coorg. A very enjoyable trip nevertheless, but I am falling short on time. Moreover, I thought it would make more sense to supplement it with the photos of the trip. So, putting it off till then(possibly will do it by tonight).

till then...

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
"Time"
-Pink Floyd

The secret to Rock stars claim to fame -in a lighter vein

Had a great weekend and top it off with a birthday get together on monday and you cannot ask for more. Well, with us playing rock and watching videos, a comment from the elder generation was always on the cards. What I didnt expect though was the extraordinary tale told by my aunt, which I shall narrate below. Those with the knowledge of the epic Ramayana may go ahead and skip to the next para. Like in all religions, the Hindu religion has an epic story of the fight between the evil and the good. According to the mythology there are four ages and Ramayana took part in the second of these ages, where as we live in the last of these ages in which man has gone furthest along the path of sin and has lost all wisdom. Lord Rama was the epitome of goodness in the second age and he slayed Ravana, the representative of evil in the second age.( of course aided by lackeys those were the devils- typically portrayed as long haired, bulky, messy with lots of body paints)

The Hindu philosophy talks of karma/fate and how one has to fulfill it. Hence in my aunts words, "Once Ravana was killed, all his lackeys asked Rama for forgiveness and cribbed that though they were just fulfilling their karma by supporting Ravana, they shall forever be loathed.
Rama then gave a boon to them that during the fourth age when people lack wisdom, they shall recieve all the adorations that they have longed for. Hence", she finished," all you youngsters swear by these devils".

The beginnning

Inspired by the blog 'infested' created by my good ol'friend
http://irrays.blogspot.com/2005/
'Twas a chance that I even found out what he was upto through orkut, but looking at his blog inspired me to sit through a day's work and read all that he's posted leaving aside the work to be done.

Earlier, I had a passion to write, but somewhere down the line, it fizzled out like a lot of other things. Hoping that this will rekindle the enthusiasm.

shrek