Transition

Ok folks, I have started experimenting with Wordpress now. The transition, if at all is gonna happen, will take some time. I wish to make it a smooth one and slowly migrate over.

Here's the link to my latest post http://rand0mwalkoflife.wordpress.com/ (Note the '0' in rand0m)

Cya there, but keep watching this space for more.

Thanks and Regards
Randomwalker.

Maya

Opening Mood: Merry Christmas :)
Opening Song: She will be loved - Maroon 5

Santoor! What an instrument. Listen to it and you begin to imagine the ripples in the clear pond. Slowly growing in size but at the same time, fading away. Slowly. Steadily. Wonderful Experience.

I first heard this wonderful instrument when Pt. Shivkumar Sharma came over to NITK in my second year of Engineering to perform for Viraasat. I loved that performance. So many strings vibrating in tandem, but vibrating in perfect harmony.

Earlier this week, I went beserk shopping some instrumental music. Bought off Desert Rain by Indian Ocean (truely earthy music), Krishna by Pravin Godkhindi and Maya by Rahul Sharma.

Maya is extremely soothing. It's a compilation of ten tracks, based on the theme of Maya, the godess of illusion in the Indian Mythology. The title track features Sunidhi Chauhan her volcals suitably complementing the santoor. Each track is a fusion of Santoor and some techno beats. All the tracks are good. My personal favorite is the one titled "Permeability". It sounds happy and light as compared to others which are sound slightly more complicated.

Wonder how would it be to play the tabla for these compositions. Should try it out sometime.

Closing Song: Kandisa - Indian Ocean.
Closing Mood: Extremely hungry imagining all the christmas cookies and brownies.

Participation

Opening Mood: Relaxed
Opening Song: Soona man ka aangan - Parineetha ( What a song! )

A week back, I went on a trip to Nagarhole with my colleagues. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at JungleInn resorts which is very close to the Nagarhole forests.

That night, the resort folks had organized a tribal dance around the bonfire. A bunch of people from the Kuruba tribe sang tribal songs and danced around the fire. They used wooden sticks as props for their dance which was a tribal variation of the popular dandiya.

However, we didn't quite enjoy it. Standing there like fools and watching the tribals sing and dance was definitely not our idea of fun.At least not mine. So we started clapping and shouting, in order to have our share of fun ( It's only been a while since I've been out of college, so it wasn't unusual for me :) ). On seeing us behave like one of them, the tribals invited us to join them. Bharata and myself, we joined the tribals for the dance, and boy! I must tell you, we enjoyed it a lot. It wasn't very difficult or very artistic or something. Just a simple rhythm and simple steps to go with that rhythm.

This must have been the favorite pass-time of these tribal folks since ages. After a hard day's work, just get together and have fun singing and dancing. Their idea of socialization. What's important here is that, you won't really have a lot of fun unless you participate. Just sitting on a chair, sipping beer and trying to *find* beauty in the song/dance might not yield as much fun as participating in that dance might.

That's exactly the case with culture too. Unless you participate, it is very difficult to understand a particular culture, let alone appreciate it. True, these things are not invented by any one particular person. It has contributions from almost everyone. But what makes it work is the fact that no one bothers "who" contributed "what". The bigger picture is what matters. And this is the bigger picture which prompts people to take part and contribute.

So what about the ego?! Well, I guess it gets dissolved in the social spirit of participation. After all, ego is of any use only when left alone. It's utterly useless and predominantly pathetic in a social gathering :)

Closing Song: Lakshya - Title track.
Closing Mood: Hmmm.. Vacation. Smells sweet despite the bad cold.

Change!!!

Opening Mood: It's a new day of a new week :-)
Opening Song: Standing in Motion - Yanni

Change is inevitable.
The Proactive bring about it;
The Reactive adapt to it and further stabilize it;
And the Inactive try to resist, only in vain.

The inactive idiots sleep soundly, wrapped in their quilts of security and stability when the first winds of change start blowing over their heads. But they are so engrossed in the lazy music their own snores that they hardly catch these first winds. With time, these light winds grow stronger metamorphizing into a storm. The inactive idiots wake up in the middle of this storm and think that they are in the middle of a "Revolution".

Remember, o fame seeker, it's these idiots who stay back to write the history books!

Closing Song: Santorini - Yanni.
Closing Mood: Munir Lands the Plane - Yanni.

Love!!!

Opening Mood: Just returned back from home.
Opening Song: None.

There are thousands and thousands of quotations on love. There are millions of songs and Zillions of stories and Gazzillions of movies on love.

And I am not sure which one of them to believe, because of so many reasons, one of them being the lack of experience. So I better keep my mouth shut about this kind of slippery stuff, but I feel like barking today. For no particular reason [probably theg's post has triggered something, which I am not able to concretely identify] I want to talk of one quote on Love.

Ages ago, I read this very powerful book "The Fountainhead" which had a great line about love -

"To say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I'."

When I first read it, I was like "Wowie! What a statement" without even half realizing how might it feel to be in love. I don't think I understand that now either!

I have been wondering, I have been thinking. I don't have an answer, but, you bet, I do have a question.

All's fine if you treat Rand's statement like a photograph. Look at it, appreciate it, turn the page and look at the next photograph in the album. But when you start thinking of Dynamic quality, you start wondering, is this statement always true?! I mean, will this statement hold good once both "I" and "You" have acknowledged the "I Love You"? Will knowing to say the "I" help, once "I" and "You" have combined to become a "We"? Shouldn't "Love" be the guiding light for "I" and "You" then onwards?

Arrrgh @$#!@#!! What am I even thinking?! Something about which I know absolutely nothing.
Where is the Mop, where is the Broom???
Let me shove this thought outta my Room...

Whoooosh!! Mop Mop Mop!!!

There - Swept away. Back to a clean state of mind again :-)

Closing Song: None.
Closing Mood: In a hurry. Another trek. Charmadi Ghats this time!

Imagine

Opening Mood: Weekend blues again...
Opening Song : None...

Fixed a stupid bug which had been creating a lotta noise recently. The fix was accepted in the -mm tree!!

Anyway, I was listening to John Lennon's "Imagine" the other day. Imagine (not the song, but the verb)
how Lennon would have written the song if he lived in the present day. He probably would have written an anthem for open source.

Something like,

Imagine a world so open,
Without any gates or windows
Where people love to share and care
Where knowledge freely flows.

Imagine all the people,
Living with the source.

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one..
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

One more of my stoopid imaginations!!!

Closing Song: None.
Closing Mood: Running home for the weekend!

Weekend Mujik (Continued ...)

Opening Mood: New version is out... Gotta start porting everything soon.
Opening Song: Piano Man - Billy Joel.

Have you noticed that when you want something *very* badly, it's always out of stock.

Like yesterday, I went to Planet M, hoping to buy Switch by INXS. Searched the whole shop and finally found INXS. But no Switch. There was every other album of their's except Switch. Now my usual response is to walk out of the shop with a dejected face. But not this time!

Right next to INXS was James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam". Something that I had not planned on buying. But I wanted it the moment I saw it. For the past two days, the song "You're Beautiful" has stuck like some worm in my head. I simply cannot seem to get rid of it.

And then after a bit of browsing I also found "Piano Man - The best of Billy Joel". If you like Billy Joel, you gotta have this one. This has all my favourite songs including - "She's always a woman", "Piano Man", "We didn't start the fire", "River of Dreams" and many more.

Shakira! I don't know what's there in her music except the fact that it make me go "oo-la-la" everytime I listen to it. Bought off "Hips Don't Lie". Trust me, they don't!!

But the top buy of the evening was "Let's folk again" - A planet M Exclusive. It has some of the best folk songs by stalwarts like Dylan, Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Chris De Burgh and others. It's a two CD Album and also comes with the lyrics book. Nice package.

Also bought off "Anand" DVD. I've been wanting to *own* this one for quite sometime now. It's one of my all time favorites.

I know I've spent a fortune on all these. But the knowledge that the music you are listening to is one hundred percent legal, is simply priceless!!

Closing Song: Kya mujhe pyaar hai - Woh Lamhe.
Closing Mood: Fresh!

Weekend Mujik

Opening Mood: Weekend Blues!
Opening Song: Piano Man - Billy Joel.

I walked to office today. It was pretty early in the morning and there wasn't much of traffic. And had Radio Indigo to keep me company. The usual soundtracks played on the airwaves. One of them stood apart.So much that I made a conscious attempt to remember the refrains inorder to google it and find out more about that song.

It turns out to be this awesome song called "Afterglow" by the aussie band INXS ( Pronounced In Excess).

When I first heard this song, I thought it was some remix version of Bryan Adams' "Here I am". But it wasn't. It was something much more special. The percussion in the background reminds you of bollywood. But boy, the lyrics ... They are simply too good...

"Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way, I will sacrifice
Now I’m living in your afterglow

Bathed in blue, the walls of my memory divide the thorns from the roses
It’s you who is closest "

Buy of the week is their album - The Switch.

Closing Song: Speed of Sound - Coldplay.
Closing Mood: Running home.. Weekend's here!!

Undecided yet

Opening Mood: Accomplished - Patches posted.
Opening Song: Lucy in the Sky - The Beatles.

Ok, I am not quite sure what to write about. Haven't thought of anything. But I *know*, I will write something and in a matter of minutes the amount of junk here is going to increase exponentially.

Yup, found my topic. Or rather topics. Bangalore night life, Diwali celebrations, and Bridge on troubled waters. Dunno which one to expand on. I feel like a third grader who has been given a set of topics to write a full page essay on, but has no clue how to begin or end. Just a few bones here and there but the full skeleton is not yet known. Archealogy. Yeah, that's what those idiots probably do. Dig out a bunch of bones and try to fit them together and give it some weird name like pithecanthropus, whatever that means.

See! I have already filled up more than ten lines without actually writing about anything concrete. It aint all that difficult to fill pages.

Ok, Bangalore night life it is....

Just a few months back, one of my collegues got mugged when she was going back home from work.The time was somewhere around 10pm at night. Which makes me ask the obvious question, what was the Bangalore Night Patrol ( I think they call it Hoysala) doing?!

Now I know. They were all on MG road and Brigade road, waiting outside the pubs to ensure that there were no "drunken brawls" or "drunken drivers" on the road.

Hmmm, that's a nice way of showing your authority. Just catch hold of some damn guy and test his breath. The probability that he will test positive for alcohol would be extremely high. Fine him a coupla thousand bucks and thy job's done!! Thou hast done thy duty. And how!

If you are thinking that I am going to talk about Mr.Adam Biddappa's innocence, stop right there.

On then contrary, I feel today's kids are given too much freedom including the freedom to shy away from the responsibility that comes along with it. Don't you think that the reason why the police does night patrolling near the pubs might be because of the past experiences of "irresponsible" behaviour by these children of freedom??

I come from a society where one is expected to "earn" freedom by proving that you are capable of handling responsibilities. But I don't like this model. Because freedom is a fundamental right, and the "guardians" of freedom can always end up being the guards thereby screwing your happiness. That's definitely not the way to go.

But that doesn't mean that we start assuming freedom comes for free either.

Yeah, I know, I know. You are thinking, WTF is this guy talking about? Neither this nor that, can't he just stick to any one thing ?

My answer would be - NO. I cannot. Because I believe that life is all about striking the right balance between conflicting goals.

So now you would wanna ask, Ok Mr.Smarty Pants, how am I supposed to strike the right balance? Hmmm, you know what, if I knew the answer to that question, I would have just coded the whole thing up, compiled it, executed it and rested in peace. I mean WHAT is the point of living if you knew the answer to that? It would be like playing Age of Empires with god mode on. What's the fun? Satisfying your stooopid ego probably!

Yeah, so my take on night life at bangalore - It won't improve unless we are ready to behave as responsible citizens.

And having said that it would be of great help if we could have more policemen patrolling on ring road. I wouldn't want to get mugged like my collegue!

PS: Its so much fun to dump your mind's snapshot :D

Closing Song: Free as a Bird - The Beatles.
Closing Mood: I am hungry. It's dinner time!

Evolution Vs Revolution

Opening Mood : Attentive.. Running stress tests :)
Opening Song : None.

This is what the Benevolent Dictator for Life ( read Linus Torvalds ) had to say about Evolution vs Revolution.

"Only stupid people think they should throw away old proven concepts. What happens quite often in academia in particular is that you find a problem you want to fix, and you re-design the whole system around your fix. This is how we get crap like microkernels. They have 'an agenda', and that's the _worst_ thing you can have when designing software. You fixate on some perceived problem, and the end result is that yes, maybe you fixed _that_ problem, but in the meantime you also generated a whole new of issues - usually things that were solved by the original approach. The UNIX/Linux approach is a very pragmatic thing - leave the things that work well alone. There's no point in re-inventing the whole system just because of some small perceived flaws... And many things _can_ be done without throwing out old designs. Implementation improvements are quite possible without trying to make something totally new to the outside. That's how things like the dcache come about, for example - keeping the standard old boring UNIX filesystem approach, while internally caching it in new ways, improving performance tremendously. Not throwing out the baby with the bath-water doesn't mean that you cannot improve the system. I'm only arguing against stupid people who think they need a revolution to improve - most real improvements are evolutionary."

Now I know why I love this field so much. Just love the idea - to evolve, to grow, to change, to adapt. Dynamic, eh? You bet it is :)

Who made the statement "Have your head in the clouds and your feet firmly rooted to the earth" ? I can't remember.
But, if you can't imagine how to do that, think of climbing a mountain, and you'll know how. :)

Closing Song: None
Closing Mood: My tests need me. Something not going according to the plan. Need some Change!

My World View - Postmodernistic

Opening Mood: Normal da.
Opening Song: Some peppy thing on Radio Indigo

What is your world view ? Are you a Postmodernist, an Idealist, a Romantic, a Fundamentalist??
Find out at http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320

Looks like I am a Postmodernist! This is what the site said:

You scored as Postmodernist.
Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.
Postmodernist 94% Idealist 88% Existentialist 88% Cultural Creative 69% Materialist 56% Romanticist 44% Modernist 31% Fundamentalist 19%

Well, from the looks of it, I am more of a materialist as compared to a Romantic! Well, I always thought it was the other way around!!

I don't know, and I don't care!

Closing Song: Belly Dancer by Akon
Closing Mood: Didn't you read properly?! I don't know and I don't Care.

Mes chansons préférées de l'amour

Opening Mood: Nice :) The patch has come out good.
Opening Song: El Condor Pasa by Simon and Garfunkel.

It's been a long time since I blogged. That doesn't mean nothing happened.
Infact lot has happened since I last posted. My first patch got published,
It fetched some good reviews, and some *not* so good ones.

I also went for my first trek. It was fun, the trek. We walked
from M.M Hills to Nagamale, and from there to Palar. 24 kilometers
altogether. Details can be found here.

Other than that, I also visited my hometown twice more.
And did the obvious - Sleep!

Sponsered Advertisement!
The Shastra contest is back with Priya's entry going great
guns. The key words this time are

-ThamesPortal    : Thamie anything to do with you??!
                                 Or is it Ma Sport Lathe?
-Zalecenia            : Hmm.. How about Alice Zane?!
-Autophytes        : Looks like I've seen this one. Biology??!
                                 Wait, Hot USA Type?
-Invernesshire    : Seen Irish nerv???! Awww, a missing 'e'!

Boy!  I still have a thing for Anagrams!

Ok, back to the post, this one is about mushy songs. Doesn't
quite fit in this blog, now does it?! I know, I know, but I seem to have
kinda developed a liking for some of these songs lately.

For four years in college, I've just been collecting
a lot of music, but listening mostly to the instrumental genre.
Even at work, I love my Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mae, Yanni. Probably
the lyrics distract me from coding ;). However, I wanted a change and for
the past two weeks I've been listening to songs with lyrics.
And guess what?! The mush songs seem to be the most relaxing ones!
With them, you just drift away, where the singer wants you to.
Like taking you back in time. Mmmm, nostalgia, smells sweet!

Here's the list of my favorites. In no particular order that is.

I want to spend my lifetime - Mask of Zorro Soundtrack.
I guess this one was sung by Mark Anthony. Vipin recommended it way
back in 2nd year Engg. But I was busy listening to Hindi Music back then.

Lady in Red - Woman in Red Soundtrack.
Don't know who the singer is. But it's damn good. One of the
first english songs I ever listened to.

I'm leaving on a jet plane - John Denver.
I had heard the Aerosmith's version of song back in college. Probably
it was the soundtrack of some movie. I remember Steve Tyler screaming
his lungs out towards the end of the song.

Love will keep us alive - Eagles Original.
A nice song from the Hotel California gang. The vocals are girlish.
I had the video of this song from their 'Hell freezes Over' concert.

That thing you do - The Wonders soundtrack.
Would have deleted this song, if Thamie had not made such a fuss outta it.
Thanks maccha, it's a nice song.  Also saw the movie "The Wonders".
They were truely  The 'One'ders.

Iris - City of Angels Soundtrack.
This has been my long time favorite. Though didn't quite know
who was the singer or the name of the song. It was played on
Radio Indigo today morning. Seems that original was by Goo Goo Dolls.
The one I have is Ronan Keating's version.

Sealed with a kiss - Bryan Hyland, The Wonder Years Soundtrack.
Got this one from the songs I flicked from our seniors. It's the mushiest
of them all. But boy, does it have that retro feeling! Awesome!!

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone - Notting Hill Soundtrack.
Bill Wither's version, this is one those songs which can put you
in a light-blue mood!

When you say nothing at all - Notting Hill Sountrack
Silence is Golden! Reminds me of the night-walk-in-the-park scene
from Notting Hill.

Love is All around - Four Weddings and a Funeral Sountrack.
I haven't seen this movie, but another *mushy* movie which has
this same song is Love Actually. Liam Neeson's story in that movie
was a nice one.

Bridge over troubled waters - Simon and Garfunkel.
What a song this one. It's certainly one of my all time
favorite. Abhinav Chaturvedi recommended it while we were
interning at Pune. Thanks dude, else I would not have listened
to this awesome duo.

El-Condor Pasa - Simon and Garfunkel.
Another one of their beauties. I am not sure which is the string
instument they use to create the opening tune of this song. Sounds
simillar to santoor. The song has a Mexican feeling, evident from it's
title.

Good Riddance - Green Day.
Reminds me of Lenon strumming on his guitar while we were sipping
hot tea. This one is considered to be a famous breakup song.
Suitably named :D!

She's always a Woman to me - Billy Joel
I had this song since ages. Listened to it only last week. The lyrics are
really good. One of those narrative songs with very little background music.

I just called to say I love you - Stevie Wonder.
Those who've seen Omkara, this is the *same* song which
Viveik Oberoi teaches Kareena Kapoor.
Only that the original version sounds *much much* better :)

Something Stupid -Robbie Williams version feat Nicole Kidman.
The original version of this song was sung by Nancy Sinatra. Another
of my latest discoveries. They played this song on Radio Indigo
this morning.

By the way, Bangalore has a new international radio station -
Radio Indigo 91.9 FM. Finally some good music in the airwaves.
A big relief for anyone bored with nasal "over"tones!!!

DISCLAIMER: The paragraph above is not a sponsered Ad
for Radio Indigo. It's just a token of gratitude for playing
great music. Keep up the good work guys! :D

Closing Song: It's Probably Me, Lethal Weapon Soundtrack.
Closing Mood: Good. Brilliant  infact, to get started with the locks!

Quality

Opening Song: Pulp fiction Title track.
Opening Mood: Cool. Infact hangover from ZATAOMM.

The past few days of my life have revolved around only two things.
Locks ( all sorts of them ) and ZATAOMM. I wanted latter to be more of a way to relax so that I wouldn't dream of the kernel-code.

But, it proved to be much more than that. It was as if you are groping for something in the dark and you find something, which you just keep for the sake that you have found it. But later when you shed light on that find of yours, you realize what wonderful a thing you've found.

ZATAOMM is *the* Elixer which has to be sipped slowly inorder to savour it. Gulping it down in one shot might leave you with a dizzy feeling.

Anyway, this post is about Quality. The subject that we've been discussing all through our seventh and eight semesters through Software Engineering and Software Quality Assurance. I wish I had read this book back then.

The excerpt below echoes most of my ideas, only that it presents these ideas in a manner that's way more enjoyable.
So without much ado, I present before thee Phaedrus and his discovery of the qualities of Quality.

The world now, according to Phædrus, was composed of three things: mind, matter, and Quality. The fact that he had established no relationship between them didn't bother him at first. If the relationship between mind and matter had been fought over for centuries and wasn't yet resolved, why should he, in a matter of a few weeks, come up with something conclusive about Quality? So he let it go. He put it up on a kind of mental shelf where he put all kinds of questions he had no immediate answers for. He knew the metaphysical trinity of subject, object and Quality would sooner or later have to be interrelated but he was in no hurry about it. It was just so satisfying to be beyond the danger of those horns that he relaxed and enjoyed it as long as he could.

Eventually, however, he examined it more closely. Although there's no logical objection to a metaphysical trinity, a three-headed reality, such trinities are not common or popular. The metaphysician normally seeks either a monism, such as God, which explains the nature of the world as a manifestation of one single thing, or he seeks a dualism, such as mind-matter, which explains it as two things, or he leaves it as a pluralism, which explains it as a manifestation of an indefinite number of things. But three is an awkward number. Right away you want to know, Why three? What's the relationship among them? And as the need for relaxation diminished Phædrus became curious about this relationship too.

He noted that although normally you associate Quality with objects, feelings of Quality sometimes occur without any object at all. This is what led him at first to think that maybe Quality is all subjective. But subjective pleasure wasn't what he meant by Quality either. Quality decreases subjectivity. Quality takes you out of yourself, makes you aware of the world around you. Quality is opposed to subjectivity.

I don't know how much thought passed before he arrived at this, but eventually he saw that Quality couldn't be independently related with either the subject or the object but could be found only in the relationship of the two with each other. It is the point at which subject and object meet.

That sounded warm.

Quality is not a thing. It is an event.

Warmer.

It is the event at which the subject becomes aware of the object.

And because without objects there can be no subject...because the objects create the subject's awareness of himself...Quality is the event at which awareness of both subjects and objects is made possible.

Hot.

Now he knew it was coming.

This means Quality is not just the result of a collision between subject and object. The very existence of subject and object themselves is deduced from the Quality event. The Quality event is the cause of the subjects and objects, which are then mistakenly presumed to be the cause of the Quality!

Now he had that whole damned evil dilemma by the throat. The dilemma all the time had this unseen vile presumption in it, for which there was no logical justification. that Quality was the effect of subjects and objects. It was not! He brought out his knife.

Those of you who are interested to read more, there's an online version of the book which can be found here.

I am only half way through the book by the way!

Closing Mood: Calm.
Closing Song: IRIS ( Movie OST of City Of Angels).

Google Topper.

Shastra , the techfest of IITM has a smart new competetion this time. It's basically asking you to create a webpage such that google returns the webpage as the top-search result for a certain search string.

Here's Nitk-Numbskull's effort for the competition. coecelanth zeppelin shaastra durbatuluk equivocate.

Random Walker wishes them all the best!

My One Week Vacation

Vacation! What an interesting concept... or rather, should I say, an
alien concept!

It's been like four years now that I have taken a proper vacation.
Ever since joining engineering, I have spent my holidays either learning
a new language, or doing some project here or there.
Not even once in the past four years did I get time to wake up at like say ten
in the morning, order mom to serve breakfast, then ponder over the day's
newspaper and laze on my bed reading a novel or day-dreaming.
Instead, I chose to spend time in some obscure lab, either deciphering
protocols or designing them, or creating weird image editors and what
not!

However, this time, I got myself like a full week off from work, thanks
to a few people in the office. And I kind of needed it badly too. Recently
I had been seeing kernels compile and systems crash even in my dreams!!!

So I decided, I am going to relax like never before.
I took home with me my Thinkpad,and 2 novels - "Eragon" , and
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence" (ZATAOMM henceforth).
These were supposed to occupy all my attention for the next eight days.

Eragon was my first prey.Or rather, I fell prey to it!
It was Kripal who one day asked me - "Do you like fantasy?".
The exposure I've had to fantasy is like very limited.Other than grandma's
tales from Indian mythology and the three LOTR movies, I was a complete
fantasylliterate (to be pronounced as Fantasy-illiterate).
"I'd like to try",I blabbered.
"Then here's just the thing for you.",he said and handed over the copy of
Eragon.
"The author,Christoper Paolini is hardly twenty", he added.

I finished Eragon, and this is what I thought about it.

I got ZATAOMM as a gift a year ago. I've been trying to read the book for a
year now, but didn't quite succeed.
Even in these eight days, I managed to just get past the first 150 pages.
Not that it is verbose, but the material presented demands apt attention
and needs to be understood carefully if it is to be enjoyed.
However, I feel, this is the perfect time to read it.

Other than reading novels, I also visited my alma-mater , met the professors
there, got some offical work done, conducted a workshop on Introduction
to Linux Kernel Programming. Basically, had a lot of fun at the college.

I also got a chance to meet all my relatives. Had a party at my maternal
grandma's place. Grandma's prawn curry preparation was awesome.
I hogged till I was satisfied.
My appetite, has to be lauded though! I managed to hog so
much after a wonderful afternoon lunch. Diseal and Cherry's rock!
Anyway,we played cards that night, pulled each others legs and chatted till
wee hours.

Now that vacations are done, and I'm back, lemme get back to work!
I am missing it already!

PS: Next time, you see a guy carrying a Giordno Backpack,
and sporting a haircut akin to that of a ISKCON monk,
walking somewhere in the streets of Bangalore, shout (one of )my
(many) name(s) aloud!
I shall respond :)

Offer valid until the hair grows back ;)

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Eragon,the first book of the "Inheritance Trilogy" tells the story of a
young farm boy named Eragon and how his world changes since the day he finds a
bright blue stone. How gets to become the "chosen" one to be first among
the next generation of Dragon Riders,a race considered extinct.
Helping him in his pursuit are Brom,the story teller,
Murtagh a trustworthy friend with a doomed legacy,Varden the rebels,
Arya the elf and of course his dragon Saphira (pronounced as Saf-ea-raa).

The story is set in Alagaesia - the kingdom of a evil king named Galbatorix,
a former Dragon rider himself who had usurped the throne by betraying
his felow riders. There's a faction who call themselves Varden (The Warders)
who had challenged against Galbotorix's despotism.
So it's basically set amidst a raging war for supremacy.

The story consists of all the elements of fantasy.
There is magic, there are Urgals ( akin to the Orcs of LOTR)
the Kull ( eq. to Uruk-hai's of LOTR ), there are soccerrers and Witches,
there are Dragons, Werecats, Dwarfs and Elfs. There's also the ancient
language, the dwarven language to add more flavor to fantasy.Very similar
to LOTR (which I haven't yet read) probably.

Coming to the characters,

Eragon's a young farm boy who accidentaly discovers something which makes
him the next Dragon rider. Hardly fifteen, he is confused about his destiny.
His transformation from an adoloscent to a brave and manly dragon
rider is very well portrayed.

What's more endearing is the relationship between the Rider and his dragon.
You never feel that Saphira is a dragon.Paolini has made her very human.
She can relate to Eragon like no one else,counsel him wisely and also
display emotions when there is a need.In the other folklore, Dragons have
always been objects of fear, but in this one novel, through Saphira
you'll find them very much lovable.

The other character that stands out is that of Brom. Old, he
is but also wise and strong. A perfect teacher for someone who is destined
to be a Dragon Rider. He has many secrets, most of which are revealed
in the novel. A strong character and a well etched one.

Murtagh appears a worthy ally. He is a bit older than Eragon, but
is supremely skilled in the art of weilding the blade. He has his priorities
right and is wise. The only thing that goes against him is his flawed past.

Bad guys : We encounter in this novel the
Urgals - a monstrous species which are neither humans nor animals. Call them
brutes if you will. The Kull which are the elite among the Urgals are like
some eight feet tall and more powerful. Then we have the Shade, the main
bad guy in the book - a powerful man who has traded his soul with the evil
for power. He is very cunning and extremely competent with the blade.

There are others who manage to make an impact in their brief appearence
- Jeod (pronounced Jode) Brom's friend, Arya the egg carrier elf,
Orik the dwarf, Ajihad - the wise leader of Varden, Angela the witch,
Solembaum the werecat to name a few.

Out and out it is a very vell written book. Something which I would strongly
recommend to anyone who loves fantasy. You won't be dissappointed. I just
can't wait to lay my hands on the second book of the trilogy entitled "Eldest".

Dreams and Reality

Opening Song:Beethoven - Pastoral Symophony
Opening Mood: Reflective

Dreams and reality, Romantics and the Realists,Foolish and the Practical - Such has been the distinction made between men since ages. Take any field you want - Art, music, science,sports ; There have been people who have followed the norms and there have been people who have broken them to create new ones... Did you ever wonder why? Why is such a distinction required at all?

I've been thinking about this since quite sometime now... I've been wanting to voice out my opinion since a long time now... I guess, I found my voice in "October Sky".. However this post is not about the movie, its about the distinction that our "society" chooses to make.

The world is subjective, lets face it. There is no point in trying to beat around the bush , trying to find out a perfect equation that will model the whole thing and tell you "objectively" whats right and wrong, good and bad. Judgement,prerequires you to possess some standard by which you can judge. Do we have any objective standards?? I guess philosophers and scientists have been trying to figure out an answer to this riddle since quite sometime now. Only difference being that, philosophers were sitting on their armchairs and playing around with words, and Scientists sitting in their laboratories playing around with their equations.. Good and Bad, are nothing but "subjective" interpretations of the underlying reality.. So should anyone tell us what is good for us and bad for us?

Take an example of your own life... Think about those instances, where you get a great idea, a brilliant one, and want to try it out, but you don't... Why? You are afraid of being termed as a fool by the society. You are afraid of being judged. You are more worried about how you'll live in people's minds rather than your actual living.. You could have tried and tested the validity of that thing yourself. But fear of failure stopped you. Fear, that if it fails, you won't have the courage to think "new" again.

Look around you,and you'll find people looking for security in life. Parents want their kids to go to the best schools, score high grades, get a good job which offers a fat paycheck, get a good life partner, and "settle down". Settle down, into a loop - a secure loop,which will guarentee you a secure life. But ask yourself, what would that secure life consist of? What about your dreams, your thoughts , your ideas? What about these intimate things which were yours and only yours, which define you, the reason for why you are the way you are? Let go of them? Let go,to live a life?

Whose life are you living? Your own or the one society has chalked out for you? When the society is talking about high grades, does it say anything about understanding the subject and loving it?

When it talks of a great job with a fat check , does it mention anything about job satisfaction?
When it talks about getting a life partner, does it consider something called "love"? Na.. Why should it? Or rather, how should it? You see, understanding, satisfaction, love cannot be quantified? They are subjective terminologies which can be understood by each person independently. On things like these, you cannot impose standards, can you?

The great things that exist in the world today, which inspire millions to live, were not created within the security loop. They were created due to man's passion for his work. Due to his patience to test nature, and the patience to endure. Due to his ability to enjoy and appreciate the beauty in all things.

You see, a good design has to be creative. And creativity cannot be instilled through injections, or formulae. It is inherent, inborn. Comes out of careful observation and passion. Implementation on the other hand, can be considered a science. After all, all science is nothing but the documentation of things that have successfully worked till now ( and also of those which haven't).

There are people in this world, who just live a life in the secure loop. They treat it as a punishment, some sort of a unwanted mundane routine they have to go through, inorder to remain alive.. Then there are others, who are so impressed with their thought process, that they keep on thinking without bothering to check their thoughts with reality. Mankind needs a combination of both. If you try and look back in your own lives, you'll probably find that some of the happiest moments came when you lived your thoughts.. When you realized them.

Thinking is one thing, and taking appropriate action is completely another. Do both, and you'll see life the way it was never before.. Stick to only one of them, and you'll miss out on the other..
To be happy, you need both O Brother...

Closing Mood:Reflective
Closing Song: Nocturne for Piano no 9 - Chopin.

Hack and Hack until it Yields!

Opening Mood: Chirpy...
Opening Song: Chandu ke Chacha ne - Aasma ( on 91FM)

Hi.. Back after a long long time.. I was casually going thru my own blog yesterday, and I observed my own categorization of the blogs I read.. There's the Regulars consisting of Theg, N, Kripal, Barki, Numbskulls, wattever and many more.. Then there's the Not-So-Regulars club, who write very seldom or used to write some time back.. I saw the date of my last blog.. June-20th.. The day when bangalore traffic was the worst( Atleast for me!). And it's gonna be a month soon.. I was wondering if I had to put my own blog in the not-so-regular category... Naa, a post in time saves all that trouble...

Blame the corporate world for me not being so regular..

Yeah, the *big bad* corporate world, which makes it's employees slog to death untill the last ounce of energy is squeezed out... This pathetic monster , gives so much work that employees have no time to go back home and enjoy even the teeny-tiny joys of life, like going thru the newspaper, or watching pogo... And the attire.. *yuck yuck* Decked in formals, top to bottom.. With polished shoes on the feet and a smile( a fake one) on their faces. And speaking in polished lingo all the time..

My impression before joining the corporate world, was exactly the same.. However, in these six weeks, the corporate world has proved me wrong..

I work in an organization, that is nothing like what I described above.

There's flexi-timings - meaning you come and go as and when u want. As long as you get the work done, no body has any problems what-so-ever.. I haven't seen most of my fellows in the office for a whole week, but they were working... Working from home!

And the attire, I must admit, I was completely wrong in thinking about all those formals.. The first day, I entered the office *all decked up* and I see my mates in t-shirts,jeans and casual shoes... I was like, have I even entered the right place! To make it worse, my mentor comes to me eyes my formals and says , "We don't dress like this in here... :D" .

The work's even better.. My company pays me for doing what I love the most... Hacking an operating system, trying out all the stunts I want to and writing papers on the results I get!!! (Not to forget filing patents, if the *hack* is really innovative). The entire day, I spend looking at the code openly available, and trying to improve it - adding new features, helping my fellow hackers if they are stuck somewhere, and of-course , reading the LKML the place where you get to know what's everybody else working on... It's like absolute freedom... you get to choose what you work on.. Though, you also gotta take the responsibilty for what you code... But then,responsiblity is always the price you pay for the freedom and I have no hassles with it... And the best part is that your team members are distributed all over the world... Most of them even have other day jobs, and kernel hacking is just a hobby.. Most of them don't even have the computer science background.. But boy, can they code! One of the most-respected persons in the kernel scheduler domain is a doctor by profession!

When you like what you do, work ends up being nothing but play! As a result, I've had no time to post and crib about anything for the past four weeks... But I have no regrets...

Let's hope this honeymoon with kernel hacking continues forever!! Hack and Hack until it yields...

Closing Song: Gapuchi Gapuchi Gam Gam (what does that mean?? ) - Trishul
Closing Mood: Gotta go to work!!

Beam me up Scotty

Opening Song: None
Opening Mood: Sullen

Its a beautiful Tuesday morning... I wake up at 6 AM.. The song "Here I am" rings in my ears, filling me with hope and joy. I'm ready another great day of my life, I tell myself.

I get into my track suit and go outside..

Kela #1: It rained yesterday. The ground's wet and slippery. Can't jog.

Chill out, I tell myself, there are better things to do... Like what? Hmmm, let me iron my clothes.
I look at the heap of my washed clothes, carry them to the ironing board and begin the job of an Iron-Man!!

Kela #2: The power's playing hide and seek. When it finally comes back, the voltage is not sufficient and starts tripping everytime I switch on the ironbox.

Ditch maga, you've already ironed a pair of trousers and a nice cotton shirt for today.. Find something else to do...
Aha.. my shoes. Lemme polish them... There, they look dark and shiny... I love formals!!

Kela #3: Just, wait can't you?!

8:45 AM ,I am waiting to catch a bus at the banshankari bus stand. Rohit and Vasanti are blabbering something on the Radio City, the music of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna(KANK) is being premiered on Mirchi and on AIR Rainbow *Yaaaawn*, nothing worthwhile.

Kela #4: 201J forgets to stop,somehow. 201G looks as if the people were always hanging from it. Cha, missed two busses.

201M arrives.. It's full, but what the hell, I've gotta get to work, I tell myself and struggle my way in..

It's full of people, who wanna get down at the next stop, but all of whom are buried somewhere in the back-end of the bus. They shove their way out pushing and cursing... I try to shove myself into the interiors. Radio City is doing their 9:10 routine.. Somehow, I manage to get enough space for myself... *Sigh of relief*..

I don't understand one thing. Why do you find so much free space at the back end of the bus, while it's always crowded near the doorway. Why can't people be cooperative.. May be we should start giving commuting classes, like we have those classes where they say -"Fork in the left hand, Knife in the right".

Kela #5: No sooner I start wondering about the commuting classes, than it hits me. All my ironing has gone waste :( My shirt's soiled; My trousers are muddied; My shining shoes, aren't shining anymore.. Kela #3 is finally realized!!

The bus moves at snail's pace... I begin wondering whether motion is what occurs between stops or is it the other way around... The flow of thoughts is interrupted by a certain high pitched nasal voice on the radio ( I don't remember whether it's 91 or 93.3 FM).

Kela #6: I switch channels. The remix version of the same song( high pitched nasal one) is being played here. So I switch to Rainbow(101.3, if you want to...) The RJ's delivering more of "Umm"'s and "aaa" than the dialogues.. Give me a break lady, Either start liking what you do or start doing what you like... Don't torture us and yourself by RJ'ing in such a pathetic manner.

The Bus finally reaches Silk Board, and I begin experiencing pain in my shoulders. It's 9:45... 1 hour for 7Km.. Ridiculous.

Stuck in the traffic,I manage to catch the sight of a plane flying in the sky... Lucky bastards, must be probably getting instructions on what to do when any mishap occurs -Wear the jacket, put on the mask, pull the string and jump outside....

I begin to see the practical demonstration of queueing networks...

To pass time, I start thinking of what can be done to alleviate this problem.

• Start coming in early to the office.. Real early, I mean at 6 'o clock.

• Or better, follow the US timing.. i.e. 9 P.M to 7 A.M

• Buy a dozen of wrinkle free shirt with my first salary.

• Somehow convince BMTC to put up 10 decker buses.

• Work from home.. Small Office Home Office..
  

• But this was the killer idea finally managed to hit me.. Start a new fund for research in teleportation quantum physics so that we could realize the idea of "Beam me up Scotty".. What say??
  

PS: I am sorry for writing such a sorry blog. I suck at cribbing.. Priya, Elixer, Barki - Guys, I badly need lessons here... But I am disgusted and extremely pissed off.. I managed to reach my office.. Yeah, thanks to god's grace I finally did; But at 10:45 AM...
Can someone please explain me why do you need 2 hours to cover 15 Km???? Or why should the radio channels keep playing songs of the jacket wearing-beard sporting-nasal singer-cum-music composer every ten minutes?? Sigh, Some questions have no answers...

Closing Song: None...
Closing Mood: Still sullen :(

On Demand Ad World

Opening song: Saagar jaise aankho waali - Saagar
Opening mood: Calm and composed.

The company which I've joined earlier this month, is quite popular for it's TV ad's, which are not understood by the general public. But, I just love these ads, since most of them are funny in a weird way.

During the induction program, I got to chance to see a few of the ads that weren't on air in India.

One of them goes something like this.

/* Scene: A room, somberly lit. We see on screen two people. One on the couch, looking tense and wiping his forehead (tense guy). The other one seated on a comfortable chair behind a desk (the shrink). */

Tense Guy: I get weird dreams.

Shrink: What kind of dreams?

Tense Guy: Nightmares. I am being chased.

/* Scene cut: A group of men dressed in black cloaks are chasing the tense guy, who's running and gasping for breath. */

(Cut back)

Shrink: Who's chasing you?

Tense Guy: The customers, the distributors,.. Basically everyone.

Shrink: What do they want?

Tense Guy (looking very tense): Everything; Efficiently; Immediately...

Shrink: Hmmm... I see the problem. You are slow, outdated, unable to keep up and in constant denial.

Tense Guy: No - I am not...

Shrink (smiles, without missing the beat): See you are!

/* Scene fade to black. */

The letters "It's an On Demand World" appears.

It's a short ad of about 20 seconds, but it does leave a mark on the minds of the viewers...
Of course, you need to have an active mind for the mark to be inflicted, or you might just miss it!

Closing mood: Feeling sleepy.
Closing song: Jaanu meri jaan.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Opening Song: Subhaan Allah - Fanaa
Opening Mood: Recovering from a tiring Bus Journey...


Long back I had heard this quote by this bloke named Mark Twain who said, Truth is stranger than fiction. I laughed at it the first time I heard it!

Today, I present before you an interesting set of coincidences about this guy called Manu N.

Disclaimer: What is listed below is a set of true and verifiable facts.. It has nothing to do with the imagination of anyone ( Especially not the Random Walker). Some of them however may be attributed to the conscious choices made by Manu,the guy himself.

• Fact #1: Manu N was my classmate in the Comp. Engg class of 2006 .

• Fact#2: Manu N, is a die hard fan of the football club Manchester United, better known as MAN-U.
  

Now, as we all know, the "coat-of-arms" of this club features a Red-Devil... For the benifit of those who haven't observed it, I've included the logo at the top left corner of this post.

• Fact #3:During the last one year while we were residing in EBGF, Manu had christened his Computer as "Red Devil" on the lan.

The connection was obvious!!! And FYI, it was probably the second most accessed comp on the lan after Vyasa's "Whacko", since it contained all the episodes of the popular sitcoms.

• Fact #4:Cut back to the present day. Today is 6th June 2006. The day when the remake of the famous old movie The Omen will be released around the globe.

The movie is about this child who has amazing evil powers.
Kindly pay attention to the date. 6th june 2006 - that would be 06/06/06 or 6-6-6... The number of the Devil!!!

• Fact #5:And now I present before you, the last fact and probably the most interesting one.Today is Manu N's Birthday! Yes dear friends, our Red-Devil will be growing older by an year this day !!!
  

Now you know, that Twain wasn't mincing words when he made that statement...

While, I allow all you conspiracy theorists to let your imaginations fly wild, let me take a moment to wish Manu A very Happy Birthday..

Closing Mood: Recovered!! Closing Song: Bindu re Bindu - Kunal Gaanjawaala.

Bye Bye NITK...

Opening song: I'm leaving on the jet plane - John Denver
Opening mood: Nostalgic.

I was about 10 years old. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon. We were coming back from Mangalore from my cousin's wedding. Usually we take the route via moodubidre, but that eventful afternoon, we went via Mulky. That’s the first time I ever saw this college.. It was called Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC) back then. I told my mom, I wanted to study here when I grew up.. She smiled sarcastically.

Seven years later, I entered this institute as a student of computer engineering... Now, four years later, I’m leaving it...

Many of my batch mates became very sentimental while bidding adieu to the place where we saw ourselves transforming from idealistic teenagers to realistic adults.

How do I feel about it, after these four years???

I've enjoyed my every moment in this place... It was a mini city with a confluence of people from all walks of life. These four years, I have accumulated a lot of memories... I don't want to show any sort of disrespect to any of them by shedding a tear. But, deep inside, I do realize that I'm going to miss a lot of things.. Especially the wonderful set of peers, the surroundings, the beach....

These four years, wouldn't have been so much fun, if it weren't for a few people..

Thamie, Deepak or Dark Huge Ape - My accomplice for these four years... Thanks dude, for all those fundae you shared during all the boring classes... You revived my interest in Lit… I had almost forgotten amidst the preparation for JEE , CET and all that..

Shuaib and Vaiju, my exam buddies.... We studied less and kutched more... Exams were probably the only social get together we had.... Else, we would be enjoying ourselves in our islands of isolation...

My roommates, Karthik, Shivdeep, Pradeep thanks for bearing me for one whole year... I know it was difficult, with all my eccentricities, but you guys did a really great job!!!

Loco-Dons - Chakra,Adarsh, Prasanna, Shuaib, Madhu, Pammi, Sudheer... I never thought I would be a part of this fraternity... But I never said that destiny always agreed with me... It's definitely an honor to be a part of this fraternity..

Katti, Vishwa, Manu, Bhatta, Achar, Nisarg,Sathya, the rock stars of comps class... Great kutchers to have around.... The group discussions wouldn't have been so much fun, if not for you people...

Kavya, Nishka, PK, Archana - Thanks for killing that misogynist in me! I enjoyed every bit of my association with you people!

Madhu, Chetan , Sequiera, Kripal, Chetan Kulki,Balu, Reuben... I enjoyed flying in your elite company...

Seniors of mine, who ragged me, who inspired me, who advised me- Sandeep Yadav, Ananth, Harisha, Abhiman Chatra, Praveena, Pai, Vivin, Roshan, Bhupi, Lyn... Its a great pleasure to pass on the legacy which we inherited from you guys...

And my juniors... Wonderful people to have around - Dhaval, Akshaya, Mads, Kalra, saurabh jain, Swathi, Parkal, Prasad,Arjun,Subbu,Karuna, Priya... You guys rock... Just remember that the college won't work any wonders for you.. You guys are the magicians... Just wave that magic wand of yours and see great things happening...

Four years have gone by like a flash... The feeling is bitter sweet.. This one is to all those guys who helped in making it so special. Thank you.

I know there will be days, when I'll be all alone in my home/room/cabin or wherever, when there will be no power, when it'll be raining cats and dogs outside..... These memories will resurface then... I'll savor them... I'll savor them like a connoisseur....

Closing Mood: Still Nostalgic
Closing Song: On the Road again - Forrest Gump Suite.

You can't take this seat... It's Reserved..

The game has been played for centuries now… Time has changed, players have changed, and even the rules have changed. However the objective of the game still remains the same.The name of the game, is – “The Power Game”.

It was the kings in the medieval periods, the Cardinals in the dark ages and the Colonizers in the Industrial era. The common denominator was, they were all hungry for power. The modern variant of this power hungry species is the nation’s politician. And it’s latest trick to remain in power – “Reservations in higher educations”, an effective implementations of the age old “Divide and conquer” strategy.

The very phrase “Reservations in higher education” creates in my mind the image of thousands of meritorious students across the country, treading laboriously along the path of knowledge to reach the Temple of Higher education. And when they reach there what do they find? Our politicians guarding the gates and asking them to show their caste certificates... Is this justified??
While these people are walking the hard walk, you see some people being pushed in push carts all the way from the beginning to the gates of the temple and let inside; just because of they have a caste certificate saying they were born in a backward caste. Is this justified??

I have nothing against any category or caste. In fact I choose to ignore the very concept of castes and categories as it is redundant in the globalized world where we are heading. My angst is against the policy and not on the people.

Let us examine the rationale behind the Reservations.

Proponents say, “Equality of opportunity” is one. Doesn’t it mean equality of opportunity to walk the path? Isn’t it already there? Who has stopped anyone in this country from trying to achieve what they want to achieve? Has our society in the past 50 odd years imposed any sort of condition that people from certain caste and category have no right to study certain disciplines? No.

The next reason they say, “Certain castes have been oppressed for centuries”. Right, ok. So let’s solve the problem by trying to eliminate the cause for oppression. What is the cause? It’s not that difficult to answer. The cause has been the act of categorizations and alienation of certain group of people based on their castes. So by imposing reservations, where are we solving the problem? We are in fact implementing the same policy, only the beneficiaries would have changed. In a few years, you may find these other castes claiming that they’ve been oppressed. It’s a vicious cycle.

One more reason given is “Majority our country is made up of people from backward castes.” So you want more reservation because of that?? Isn’t it a shameful admission that for the past 50 odd years, you’ve been asking the “minority” for support in order to uplift the “majority” and yet haven’t been able to make much improvement? And now, you are asking for more. Why? Does any of this make sense? The policy makers are already indebted to the people who despite getting no help from anyone, manage to make their ends meet by sheer hard work. Why do you want to snatch away the reward that’s deserved by this section of the society, and give it to someone else just because he was born in a particular caste?

The policy makers have presented a solution where in the number of seats will be increased so that the general merit students won’t be affected. But more seats means better infrastructure. Who’s going to bear the burden of that??

The most efficient solution, as suggested by many rational citizens over the past few days, would be to invest in primary and secondary education and improve the quality in this sector. Thus, make it possible for everyone to get affordable quality education. But our politicians are not interested in this. Because it’s a hard process and will take a long time. They have to show their progress report every 5 years, and if they go for this kind of a policy, their progress card would have an ‘F’ on it. So instead, they resort to short-cut methods to provide a lift service to the backward classes, instead of enabling them to climb the ladder of progress. However they forget that, once you provide a lift service, you always got to be there to ensure these people manage to keep pace with the others. Once their tenure is done, who is going to take care of that?

Friends, our lethargic attitude towards politics and policy makers is long overdue. Our job doesn’t end once we elect the representatives. We have to ensure that they “represent” what we stand for. Today it is the reservations in the higher education they are trying to impose; tomorrow it might be reservations in the private job sector. And the list will go on.

Hats off to the Medical students of the country for standing up against such an irrational policy. But we have to remember that they are not the only ones who are being affected. We all are and will be, one way or the other, because the quality is going to suffer.

Democracy might be a self correcting system, but it’ll take its own sweet time. No one knows how much that time would be. Hence the important question would be, are you willing to sacrifice that much time of your life because of such irrational policies? Think about it. It’s time to take a stand . It's time to act. Before it’s too late.

In democracy, all fools are equal.
Some are more equal than the others.
It’s because of such a more equal fool,
That a power hungry politician rule…

Say NO to any form of reservation.

Lost and Found

Opening song: California Dreamin' - The Mamas The Papas
Opening mood: Positive

We take most things for granted, don't we? Only,once we lose something, which we took for granted, we begin to realize the value of it... Sometimes, it's a bit too late...

It was the tuesday night of 16th May. Having finished the Operations Research paper ( 2 bitches down!! ) we celebrated by watching Gangster. It was a ok movie, but this post is not about the movie..

The movie ended at 10. I had to get some notes from Chakra's place, so went with him, asking the rest of the guys ( Katti, achar, shuaib,satya and vaij ) to wait for me at the Saibeen bus stand. Chakra, unfortunately took a wrong turn which caused considerable amount of delay. I reached back to the bus stand, only at 10:20, and it was deserted. My pals waited , waited before taking off on the last bus available...

Now, the week had not been particularly great.. Many people do know, it was a week of kelas and bamboos for me!! So, here I was all alone at the saibeen bus-stand, at 10:30, with no busses, waiting to hitchhike a ride back to the college.

Luckily ( yeah, luck did smile once in a while), there was a press van which offered me a ride back to the college.

I reach the college, at around 11, pay the driver and walk towards the gate.. I could sense something was wrong. I felt my pockets and boy, did it send shivers down my spine... My cell phone wasn't with me!!! I ran after the press van, but it was too late...

One more kela, I told myself and walked back to the hostel... Dejected...

Now, the phone was not mine. I borrowed my roomie's spare set, since mine was conked. When, I told him that I had lost my phone, he was, surprisingly,very cool about it!! I called up Chakra and told him to check out at the saibeen bus stand , but no luck..

I called my cell-phone, and it was ringing.. I just hoped someone would pick it up, but no... To add to my miseries, it was on silent mode.. Nobody could even hear it ring...
I had to put it on silent in the movie theater and forgot to turn it back to normal :(

Wednesday morning, I go to the police station to lodge a complaint, and he asks for the Hostel Warden's recommendation. As my luck would have it, when I come back , the hostel warden wasn't there! I inform my parents and they too were very cool about it, despite the fact that I was negligent - something, which they usually don't excuse. Instead they tell me to concentrate on my exams... Yeah, I had Software Engineering on Thursday.

Everyone I met, expressed his condolences and stated that the probability of getting it back was very less, so I better forget about it... Thanks for those encouraging words.. I know you were only being realistic.

I cursed myself for taking things so lightly.. I mean, in 2 years, I've screwed up one cell phone, got the other one drunk on sea water, lost the back cover of my roomie's cell ( I was lucky to find it though) and now, I had lost it.. Nice statistics for a person who is gonna enter into the real world of responsibilities in a few weeks..

I call my cell again and again.. It was still ringing... Meaning, nobody had found it out yet.

Thats when the thought strikes me.. Why not try my luck one last time... At 10:45, along with Katti,shuaib and vaij, I go to the highway. We stop every Maruti Omni, with a hope that it would be the press van.

Somewhere around 11, a white Van stops. It's the same Maruthi Van. The same driver. I explain him the situation.

"Cell phone?" - He asks.
I nod my head.
He gestures me to hold on, opens the glove compartment of the van, and lo!!

There was my cellphone.. Intact.. just the way it was when I had lost it... I profusely thanked the chap.. He just nodded his acceptance.. I guess he was in a hurry.. He just sped away...

Good people do exist in the world.

I hope that the kela week has ended!! I vowed to be more careful about my things in the future.. Did it all happened just to teach me a lesson?? Whatever, I had learnt mine..

Only once we lose something , we begin to realize the value of it... Sometimes, it's a bit too late... Only Not this time :))

Ending Mood: Jubilant
Ending Song: Coward of the county - Kenny Rogers.

Lord(s) of the Ring

Opening Song: Wonderland - Crazy Frog
Opening Mood: Ha, with a song like this in the background, you expect me to be morose??!!!

"....It’s something unpredictable, But in the end its right,

I hope you had the time of your life..."

Lenon was strumming his guitar... We were sitting in the living room of Lyn's house, sipping the evening tea, and humming the lyrics of this Greenday song on Saturday, 29th of April...

Shuaib looked at his watch -" Dude, it’s time to leave. Its 5 'o clock already and the ring ceremony is at 6!!”.

Boy, we really had to hurry to reach college, have a bath, shave and dress up in formals.

I wore a white shirt, a black pant and a red tie. (One red ribbon around my waist and a black hat, and my magician's attire would have been complete!)

We did everything at double the speed so that we can attend the ring ceremony "in time" at 6:30 (C’mon... we've not attended the classes in time, you expect us to attend this one in time??).

I was right about being in time... the ceremony began at 6:30! (It happens only in India...)

We were told to sign a pledge, and hear the words of wisdom spoken by a few lecturers (As if classes weren't already boring enough!). The chief guest spoke well. He managed hold us captivated for quite some-time [Sir, you really have the talent :)].

Shruthi Shastry, the GR, summarized the experiences of the girls. She was in her usual "natural - acting" mode (Guys, this is not an oxymoron... It’s a talent some people do possess). She ended her discourse saying - "I don’t know about the guys, but we girls have seen it all!!"... I really wonder if they have... I mean seen it ALL??!

Sahil Barua, spoke on behalf of the guys, and boy, I tell you that was one hell of a nostalgic speech... He took us down the memory lane, rather danced us down it... Ended the speech with the awesome line from DCH -" Hum dost the, dost hai, aur rahenge - Hamesha...” Yo! Dude, that we shall remember…

This was followed by the presentation of the silver ring. The ring symbolized our lifelong "commitment" to the alma-mater!! I did a wise thing by wearing it on my middle finger! (Well, I want to reserve my ring finger... for a GOLDen one!)

After this, the hi-fi junta got out their point-and-click devices and the photogenic junta posed... The survivors were shot again and again! People made sure that every female was covered at least once (Compsci’s refer back to the graph cover problem for the funda. IT people, as usual ask thy neighbor!) .

We decided to celebrate the "Engagement" at Kalash (With the kind of financial crisis we are currently in, you expect us to go to Palkhi?? Shame on you!)

Chakra and Balu decided to shoot the strong Mallya's Bird, while Reuben, Madhu and I asked Chetan "Dude, Life's calling... Where are you??” Somehow, Chetan chose to ignore the question... I think Shuaib owes him 200 bucks for his abstinence. The food... Na, I don't remember... I was too busy climbing (on) the rocks!

By now, I guess most of us were in the heightened state of consciousness... The "Films Club" was showcasing "Mohabbatein" (YUCK!!) that night... This was keeping in mind the volatile senti state the final years were in...

When we reached the SAC, I realized I had lost the back portion of my cell phone! Oops... That meant Shuaib and I had to go all the way back, searching all along the road less traveled, before we could finally find it under our table at Kalash. (Now that's luck...). I owe Gauri (Major) a "Munch" for borrowing his bike...

Anyway, we came back and danced like crazy... I had always enjoyed the movies from the hot film's club balcony, but this was really fun... Every arbit person came and hugged you as if you were going on a war and he may never see you again... For some reason, I reciprocated with equal generosity... I guess it made them happy... They then did a step or two (Don't bother which one... All steps appear the same in our jungle dance!) before going to hug the next available person.

Some people broke down into tears at the end of the movie... No, it was not the sentiments in the movie, or even the pathos caused by its screening that stimulated the tear glands... People just got senti... I guess they realized that the ring ceremony marked the "beginning of the end" of our days in this college. It was really difficult to console some of them...

I tried hard, but not even a single drop came out. (I mean, drop of a tear…) Well, I guess its waiting for the last day (I doubt even that!)

Well, I was back in my room at 3:30 in the night and chatted for sometime. But not for too long… I was too exhausted... I had never danced like this before... Mukesh was wailing on Pradeep's comp... I guess it was an invitation to sleep.... I slept... I dreamt... I had now become "Lord of the Ring"...

PS: I forgot to mention, Pattu got the golden ring for being the best outgoing student... Congrats dude... Sorry, but trivial things like these, somehow just slip out of the mind...

Ending Mood: Man, this song kicks ass...: D
Ending Song: Whoomp - Crazy Frog.

Time:9:00 P.M
Date:1st May, 2006