Hard Work

So you thought there was some kind of a lift all the way up the peak of success???

Heights by great men reached and kept
Were not obtained by sudden flight
But, while their companions slept,
They were toiling upward in the night

-H.W.Longfellow

Well, think again...

Bored and Waiting

Opening Song : None
Opening Mood: Its Redundant, Its Redundant!!

Hello, there... I guess you are as jobless as I am right now.. Since I am writing this thing without giving much thought to it, I hope you are reading it without giving a great deal of thought either...

I worked hard.. After all producing a 40 page report is not such a easy task.. Filling up the pages requires a lotta talent... Not everyone has it.. and Certainly not me..

So yeah, as I said, I had to work hard for it. And finally it was over yesterday. Exhausted, that I was, I still had to finalize the demo.

Again, getting a demo ready is not an easy task either especially when you don't have a great GUI, no flashy animations, and no Windows.. I mean to say, it is so easy, that it looks so simple and the evaluator can easily dismiss it saying "Is this all you did for one whole year???!!"

My demo, ( which I intend to believe that it is a work of art) requires you to run a simple shell script, which will do all the compilations, check all the dependencies, and produce a few graphs as output. Not a very hi-fy thing for a layman. But it shows the immense potential for saving lots of power if the operating system is given more fine grained control over the hardware...
[I know all this is greek to you, but I am jobless, so deserve to be excused.]

Yeah, so coming back to the potential, which my project work does posess, I just hope the evaluator sees what we saw.. I hate to tell it, but this is a subjective world my friend... [ Sorry Miss Rand :( ] Not everyone SEE's the same thing even ,when they all see the same thing.

So I carry my system, [ No autorickshaw :( ] all the way from the hostel block, to the department, hoping to get over with the demo.. I sit here, and I wait. I am eager , to show the potential of my project to the world [ Right now, the evaluator is the world to me].. Only to be told by the world that it's too busy today. So we shall have it tomorrow... So my wait continues...

There are people here, behind me, beside me... We are all in the lab.. Not everyone's waiting. Some are taking print outs of their project report.. Some are using the google talk [ That's one hell of a smart chat thingie ever invented!], Some are expanding their social contacts thru the forum created by this geeky PhD student from Stanford... Google translator has helped people cross the language barriers, and people can talk to people in any language.. Everyone seems to be happy with the fact that the demo has been postponed..

Yeah, I feel I should mention here that Vishwa, the knuth has managed to see "Top gun".. Though he could not really understand how Val Kilmer could play a negative character!! [ He saw "The Ghost and the Darkness" just before watching "Top Gun"].

And , for your information, I finally managed to watch "The Gladiator". So I hope,I don't have to go and hang myself anymore..

And "The Wall" and "Thamie" who refused to acknowledge the existance of Arthas and Frostmourne, kindly check these url's. They are as real as Mr Arthur and Mr Merlin.

I am running out of stuff to kutch.. But that does not change the fact that I am Bored and Waiting...

Closing Mood: Again, Its Redundant, Its Redundant...
Closing Song: None..

On His Blindness

Opening song: None
Opening Mood: Delighted.. Solved SuDoKu in the Operations Research Sessionals!

I know I've been just copy pasting stuff , in the past few posts, but I guess I can't help it.. Not that I'm out of ideas or anything, they are very much there, but no time to put them into words ... I very much believe in what Michaelangeo said - "Triffles make perfection, but perfection is certainly no triffle".So I've decided to wait and write a neat post when I get time for it.

Now for some arbit fundae I know about the poet John Milton.
Conspiracy theorists say, he was a prominent member of the infamous "Illuminati" and in his masterpiece, "Paradise Lost" , Satan, somehow gets more prominence than God himself! No wonder, Al Pacino's character was named John Milton in the Devil's Advocate!
Anyway, this is a poem called "On his Blindness" by John Milton. Had it in high school, don't exactly remember when.. But loved it back then...

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest He returning chide,—

Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?

I fondly ask:—But Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: God doth not need

Either man's work, or His own gifts, who best

Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state

Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:—

They also serve who only stand and wait.

As we observe, Milton, (who did go blind) is really worried that he would not be able to utilize his talents to his fullest extent due to his disability, and hence,won't beable to serve God. In this angst , he asks "does God expect work from even those who are denied of light?". But good sense prevails and he realizes that God does not expect any living being to attribute their work to Him. Those who manage to face the situation, whether good or bad, and overcome it successfully, they render the best possible service.

There is a very strong sense of Karma in this poem. The last line, especially tells a lot about it. "They also serve who only stand and wait". Does it really matter what task we do, as long as we enjoy doing it? Should we try to do what we enjoy or,rather try and enjoy what we are doing?
Is doing just about anything and everything a compromise? I really don't think so.

As long as you believe in walking the path and enjoying the walk, the destination that you are heading for doesn't really matter. Because, you would have enjoyed the entire journey before you would have reached the destination. Hence , what's more important is probably, giving everything that we have in what we do.

I really can't help it ,I guess - Howard Roark's shouting aloud in my mind-

"Peter, before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done.But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences."

Closing Mood: Reflective.
Closing song: None.
2:10 P.M
23 April 2006

IF

Opening Song: None, They don't allow songs at the digital library. Can hear the swirl of the fans though..
Opening Mood: I'm happy, Did well in sessionals,without preparation.

I was browsing the net for arbit stuff, and in the blog of one of my friends, found this poem titled "IF" by Rudyard Kipling..
I first saw this poem on Shivdeep's wall , two years ago when he was my roommate.. Its been sort of an anthem,for since then... I guess, I was reading "The Anthem" at the same time!

Anyway lets read it..

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

People might say, this is a passive preachy poem.. May be, but its a wise one.. Hence, a nice one..

Closing Mood: Happy..
Closing Song: Well , its complete silence now... Even the Fans have been switched off!!
11:00 A.M
17 April, 2006

Sleeping Child

Opening Music : Tu hi meri.. - Gangster
Opening Mood : Light...

Well, I'm sitting here, at Nettin, the only nearby cyber cafe, as our institute Computer Center is packed with the first years playing some arbit flash games..
And right in front of me at Nettin, is this huge poster entitled "The Wonder of Life"... It has a picture of a sleeping child and the following wordings...

They are born with the

Innocence as we, as adults,

spend the rest of our

lives trying to reclaim.

They do not judge

or have trouble

expressing themselves.

Instead ,they appreciate

the wonders of life.

They are the best of ourselves,

magical creations of our souls

who live only to love

and be loved.

We watch every day

as they change,knowing

there is nothing we

can do to delay

this precious time..

Embrace the moment..

Its kinda strange I'm reading this now... Because for the past few days I've been reading this book called "The Tao of physics" by Fritjof Capra... where he tries to establish parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern mysticism.. In one of the chapters where he speaks about Zen, he makes a mention of the buddhist thought which says that the buddha exists in us when we are born .. And throughout our lives , we try to get back to the buddha state where we are all innocent and one with our environment.. Its kinda a process of unlearning, which will lead to a state of tranquility and happiness..

I'm not sure if the person who made the poster had a simillar thought in his mind...

( Jacques Derrida's theory of deconstruction seems to be of no help here.. )

But its quite strange that when you are thinking about a certain thing, you seem to encounter that thing at every walk of your life.. It's as if the nature know's what you are thinking about and is trying to stimulate that thought by offering related instances or examples..

Nature's one mysterious entity...

Closing Mood: I'm thinking...

Closing Song: Samjhona - Himesh Reshammiya

11:30 A.M

15 April, 2006

Thee - War( Hindi )

Opening Song: Please Forgive Me-Bryan Adams.
Opening Mood: Happy, happy :)

VJ:" Aaj mere paas gaadi hai, bangla hai, rupya hai, izzat hai,shuhrat hai... Tumhare paas kya hai?"
RV:"Mere paas... Mere paas Maa hai...."

So here we are in the ground floor of our beloved NITK's 8th hostel block, on an hot monday afternoon, tryin to watch a movie, since our sessionals had been cancelled.
Vishwa, the knuth of our class, had not seen "Top-Gun".. Now , how shameful can that be?? 4 years being in the college, with a lan that's like the movie database containing
some of the classics in the history of movie making, and you did not watch top-gun?? P'thetic.

And Thamie ,my accomplice for four years, the man who can have multiple sarcasms without having to fake it, decides , we're gonna treat vishwa with "Top gun" this
afternoon... But what a shame?!! The college lan, which boasts of having the classics in the history of movie making, does not have "Top-Gun".. Each complacent
dunderhead, hoping to save some space on his disk and hoping that some other dunderhead would still have the movie, deleted the movie off, there by leaving us with
nothing else to do, but.....

"Machcha, we have Deewar da...", Thamie sends out the war cry..

I enter the room when VJ, the hero of the movie, the tall lanky chap buys off a huge building for his mum, only to find out that his bro, Ravi ( The chubby chubby police
officer) has a document for him to sign... [ Deewar reflects "The wall" of idealogies between the two brothers.]

Killer dialogues included

• "Jao, us aadmi ka sign leke aao , jisne meri haath pe ye likh diya ki mera baap chor hai... Uske baad, tu jahan bhi sign karne ko bologe, mein karoonga.." ,

• "Khush to bahut hoge tum aaj. Woh aadmi, jisne aaj tak tumhari puja nahi ki, woh aaj tumhari chaukat par apni maa ki jaan ki bhik maange aaya hai.."

and the most famous one of all -

• "Mere Paas MAA hai..."

The movie is definitely hilarious by present standards. But what was more fun was that our Thamie was in one of those rare "I'm a 16 year old sarcastic school boy" moods...
Every time a killer dialogue comes up, Thamie pauses the movie and gives us a glorious display of his dramatic skills... His rendition of Nirupa Roy is too good.. Those raised
eyebrows, the mouth wide open, hands on the chest , taking deep breath before delivering a dramatic dialogue...Simply awesome.

We also came up with this theory that the path of a righteous hindi movie is very much decided by how much time is left in the movie.. The more the time is left, lesser the
chances of something good happening and greater the chances of things getting screwed up in the most unlikely manner.. And the lesser the time is left, greater the chances
of all sorts of miracles happening...

All and all, we had a good time, thanks Mr. Yash Chopra, the man who makes mushy-mushy movies these days,( This in no way implies that deewar was a serious and a
thought provoking movie)we managed to beat the hot summer afternoon sun, being treated to such a classic.

Please note that the title (Deewar) has nothing to do with the fact that Rahul Dravid is called "The Wall". So all you controversy theorists, don't let that thought even cross
your mind.

Highlight of the afternoon:

Thamie pauses the movie and putting up a serious face, " One day Pran and Amitabh Bacchan were waiting for a bus at a bus stop. The bus arrives, and the conductor allows pran inside, but not Bacchan... why???"
Me and Vishwa are scratching our heads,and ...
Thamie kutches " Praan jaaye, par bacchan na jaaye"!!

Final word: Thamie: " Machcha, we must watch more classics like these da..."

Closing Mood: Still happy :).
Closing Song: Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan.
Time:7:45 P.M
Date:10th April 2006.

Magic of Yanni

Opening music: Nightingale-Yanni.
Opening mood:Reflective.

They say, sometimes when you don't know what you're looking for, but still continue looking, you are likely to find the most interesting of things.

That was true in my case.

Way back during by 10th summer holdidays, I was ramshackling my grandma's cupboard hoping to find something interesting inside. I found a lot of old utensils, some old photographs, necklaces of beads and a few music cassettes..Most of them were Mukesh's Dard bhare geeths.
But there was one cassette which surprised me - "Dare To Dream" by Yanni.

I had not been exposed to the world of western music as yet. So listening to Yanni was like some sort of an eye opener.. The music was so rich.. So many instruments being played in tandem, and how well they all synchronized.. It was like poetry , only without words but sounds..

I do remember most of the songs from that album. There was Once upon a time, So long my friend, A love for life, Face in a photograph, Aria, In the mirror, Felista and few more.. I simply enjoyed it. It was definitely a treat for the ears..

That cassette was quite a rage when I was in First year engineering.. I remember, borrowing the cassette player from Adarsh's room on those rainy evenings,when we could not go out to play, just to listen to Yanni's music.

During my next visit to bangalore, I bought the whole of Yanni's collection.. And it was, trust me , mindblowing ...

Some lovely songs like Keys to Imagination, Nostalgia, Nightingale, One Man's dream.. Songs are like anthems, which will inspire you , and lift your spirits whatever the initial mood be..

When I think of Yanni, I can imagine the music starting off with one piano , and slowly the violins emerge out of nowhere, and then there will be a magical flute, and the drums chip in, with some occasional clap of hands, and a sudden silence with the piano going solo again for sometime, but not for too long.. the violins come along, complementing, filling the gaps,creating a perfect balance between sound and silence.. and then there'll be a long pause.. You'll be waiting and suddenly the music follows as if nothing ever happened.. The pitch slowly rising, the confluence of the instruments, and you find that all the instruments are being played in tandem and there is a crescendo... My god, the experience is simply exhilarating..

It is said, that the ancient Indian mystics,especially the buddhists, used to meditate for hours together, to unlearn and empty their minds of thoughts so that it would be clean and fresh again for a refill.. In my case, the music of Yanni does the same. Switch on the comp, put on the headphones, load the xmms playlist with Yanni , just close your eyes and allow the music to lead the way. You don't need to think. The music creates the thoughts. The images are formed and broken, you see darkness, you'll see flickers of light and all of a sudden a bright beam of light
simply blinds you. This happens when the instruments reach the crescendo. The clinging of cymbals , creates the images of waves crashing against the rocks with great force and then slowly receding..

Whether it's the haunting oriental flute of "Nightingale" creating images of a samurai's sword swiping its way through the bamboo field, or the piano refrains in "In the mirror" reminding you of a wind chime slowly rotating about its axis , each sound fits in so beautifully and yet each one manages to create an identity of its own.

You simply cannot feel sad when you listen to Yanni. Atleast I can't. Either the songs are inspiring you to go ahead and dream big, or they are consoling you when one of your dreams hasn't come true, but they never plunge you into depression nor do they crib about losses.

I am no great connoisseur of music, but this kind of instrumental music makes me happy. Whether it is great or not, simply doesn't matter. Its good enough for me. And I hope in the future, it'll continue to be.

2:45 P.M
3rd April 2006

Introduction to what's coming.

Life is one hell of a journey, and probably the only one worth writing about.. I had to choose a platform for documenting my experiences in this journey.. That's why I chose blogging.

I hope to write about anything that even remotely touches me, anything that makes me feel life's worth living, anything I find inspiring..

I hope to post lotsa tales, lotsa reviews ,lotsa experiences of my own as well as lotsa other interesting stuff which I may find while browsing the "web"..

I hope, the language wouldn't be a barrier in translating my experiences into words.

I hope I can translate even the most subtle feeling with minutest details...

I hope.....