A nameless Crisis

I go home once in about 2 or 3 months.

It's not like 36 hours of travel or anything. Just the mindset. A matter of 6 hours... Here I am, in Chennai, preparing to return to Bangalore. I absolutely abhor the idea. I wanna stay here forever. But then, gotta go, I gotta go! It's gonna take at least a week at Bangalore before I can get to like stuff there again..

And then, coming to Chennai is an issue in itself. By the way, I like my work nowadays. Not just the coding, there are a lot of other avenues in IBM. I know I would like the work only as long as I stay at Bangalore. I know I am never gonna want to think about returning to Bangalore, once I am at Chennai. I will keep thinking about the Arts, the Literature, the Football and everything that is not Coding. Identity Crisis, sort of.

So, here I am, in Chennai, preparing to return to Bangalore. :(




PS: I have no idea how certain people can go home and come back every week. Either they hate their job so much that they want to breathe out every week, or they believe they are settled for life.

PS2: Chennai roxx for eva.

PS3: Well, I can go on..

India - Behind the Scenes

The Irony is that I took this pic from inside a Volvo A/C bus.
The pic is pretty much self explanatory. Click to enlarge..

Aamir to CNN IBN : Make sure you read this!

"We should bring up our children in way where we should teach them to be more sensitive. I see around me that a lot of parents encourage their kids to be very competitive. And they want them to come first in everything and I think that creates people who grow up to be extremely selfish and want to achieve their goals without any regard for what is happening around them.

If we bring up our children in a manner where we teach them to be sensitive towards other children, I'm hoping that by the time they are 18 they would grow up to be caring adults. And therefore are caring towards society and the people around them and are not selfish."

I Second that...
I third that...
I fourth that...

Complete interview at:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/muslims-should-come-out-to-protest-2611-aamir/81297-8.html?from=rssfeed

This is Jack's "Sentiment Time.."

Going back home from Office everyday isn't very easy. To ignore the Table Tennis temptation and take up a 30 min walk interspersed with 30 minutes of bus-travel is not very desirable. It was on one such busy evening (note: 'busy' for the rest of the world), that I overheard (er.. actually, 'heard' would be a good enough word) a person shouting at his mom over the phone. Loud statements of "Don't torture me ma..","You're a head ache.","Amma, Have you gone deaf?","Don't you have any other work?" irritated me, all this, along with the guy cutting the phone quite often, and his mom calling him again and again.

I wanted to tell him a few things. I didn't..(lack of socialising skills, perhaps). I had no idea what situation he was in or why he was doing that. I have seen a few of my friends doing the same in the past. I now have this blog to express this one thing I want to tell them all, this, which i didn't tell them before, because I felt it was unnecessary to intrude into anyone's personal life uninvited.

There is not a single soul in this world who cares for you more than your parents. Not one. Let them be the cruelest parents possible, but they still are doing it all for you.

It's perfectly fine if you do not want to do what they ask you to do. Fine, my mom wanted me to do my MBA and become an Investment Banker (or in her terms, the MBAs who earn a lot), which was totally against my interest. She keeps telling me often that i should do my MBA soon. Very very often. To a guy who only wants to write his life away. But then, She only wants me to do that because she wants me to be the rich guy, with a life full of all the "happies events". I know for sure that I can not be that guy. It's no use saying, "I won't". It will only make her sad. Put it this way, "I'll try to do it" and go ahead and do what you want to do. A Mother or a father hearing an OK from his/her kid is one of those Mastercard moments for them. Priceless. Making your parents happy (even if fictitious) is probably the best thing you can do with your life. Anyway, If you are sure you will succeed in your pursuits, they're the first two persons in the world who're going to be happy for you.

Try saying OK even if you are not going to do it. Let them be happy.

Thank You for reading thru.

I don't want any feedback on this. Take these words if you want / trash them if you don't. A Yes or No would do, if at all you wanna say something. No "Comments" pls.

Be a Sport, Man. Be a Sport!

Aswin ban gayaa Columnist! You can find the Bangalore Sports Column at

Citizen Matters

The Game is ON!!

FIGHT CLUB - 1999

Director - David Fincher
Based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Frank verdict: Awesome Movie , one of the best among the movies I've seen. No idea why it is number 23 in the IMDB top 250 movies list. A lot more thought provoking, a lot more intelligently made and it's definitely got a better plot than most of the movies above it. I am probably exaggerating, but then, this movie goes to show that the will of one man can change anything.


Edward Norton comes up with a super performance in the movie, and Brad Pitt is most definitely the style icon of Hollywood. Underline that.

The movie is about Norton and his insomnia. Sounds simple? Okay, let me rephrase it. The movie is about the story of one man (Norton) as he establishes one of America's biggest underground organisations ever, The Fight Club (which gives birth to Operation Mayhem later). If you think there's a big difference between the two, you got to think again. So, we have Norton who goes to a doc to see if he can cure his insomnia..his mental pain. The doc tells him that pain, as such, is something else, like what folks with testicular cancer undergo. Now, Norton goes to the weekly meeting of the cancer-affected, where they pour their heart out, and our hero sleeps like a log after that. This being his cure, he picks out all such meetings in town, from Alcoholics anonymous to all-cancer-stuff anonymous and attends them through out the week. All this till he meets Marla.

Marla's presence disturbs him too much and he loses his sleep again. He confronts Marla one evening and divides the days of the week into two so that he can attend his meetings in peace, and won't see her again. That has to get him back his sleep.

In comes Tyler. Norton meets Brad Pitt (Tyler) during a flight journey, gets his card, and goes home only to find his condo blown up. He has nowhere to go, so he calls up Tyler (who doesn't pick the phone, and calls him back [This is perhaps the first and best clue] ) and goes to meet him. He stays with him after that and gets introduced to his world of Soaps & dynamites. Tyler and Norton punch eath other for fun, discover the thrill in fighting, and start it as a hobby. People around them are tempted to check it out and find that they like it too. This fight-for-fun network grows into one of the biggest in the United States, what with Tyler handing out assignments every week to the members. And these assignments include a variety of things from blowing up a computer shop to picking up a fight with a total stranger. Marla comes and goes in the middle, and the incoherence in her behaviour kept telling me something was wrong, though i had no idea what. And the Fight Club grows into one of US's biggest threats under Tyler, with Norton kept in the dark regarding most of the activities.

The Rules of the Club:
---------------------
The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is - you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. Third rule of Fight Club, someone yells Stop!, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule, one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes. Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.


Yea, coming back to the story, One fine day, Tyler goes missing. And Norton embarks on a journey throughout the USA to find Tyler, when he realises the mammoth reach and strength of the once small time gang called Fight Club. All this under the smart, capable and genius ways of Tyler Durden, who is spoken of as nothing less than God. Each wing of the Fight Club is now as strong and independent as the other, and is capable of surviving without explicit leadership. Norton decides this should end, and doubles up his speed to find Tyler, only to discover a bigger truth.. Tyler doen't exist!

So, who is Tyler Durden?

That changes everything you thought you'd seen so far.

I wouldn't write the climax here in case you haven't watched it yet. Ten on Ten. Anyday.

Brett "the Jet" Lee

This post is not about Brett Lee or Jet li. This is about the Malaya lee who runs 90 percent of all Barber shops in India.. The Malaya Lee who did not have the heart open a Barber shop in my part of Bengalooru...

I didn't realise how many days it had been since i had a haircut or a shave for that matter, till a passerby said, "Sami Saranam" when i was out for dinner on Saturday.

So, at about 9 : 30 AM on Sunday the 2nd of October, i went to the hairdressers'. This is not the first blog ever on a visit to the Hairdressers'. (Refer Vinod Ganesh's blog on Malabar Hair dressers and Gelf..). But then, this is not about the Malayalee Scissor Specialists. Today, i'd been to a "Namma Saloon", a totally Bengaloored Hindi Fellow setup. And one thing to learn out there, you need to have great marketing skills and an awesome communication quotient to get a good hair cut.

I was only the second guy in the queue when i entered the shop, but was the sixth guy called up to the altar, a good 30 minutes after I stepped in.

"Cutting? Shaving?"

I said, "Hmm.. Both".

The guy went on to take his comb and scissors and started 'workin' on my head without even asking me if I was there to trim it or cut it short. I stopped him after a few seconds and said that I wanted a military cut (:D) and if he had that machine cut technology. :P. And all this with my Broken Hindi mixed with Kannada and Tamil. He showed me the scissors and said, "Scissors." I had no idea how to argue with that statement. He then continued from where he'd left and made a statement with my head in less than 5 minutes. I am not sure where i was looking for the ensuing minutes. Perhaps , i closed my eyes. I do remember closing my eyes when he was working over the frontal lobe of my skull (that's the one in the front, isn't it?), and when I opened em after about 60 seconds, I saw a mixture of Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Brett Lee on the mirror in front of me. No, not the Jet Li from "Once upon a time in China",but the one from the Western movies. Was it Lethal Weapon 4? It looked like I'd tonsured my head about a week back and the hair had regrown in some parts. More like a brown colored Brett lee, who had this tonsure a week back, add to it the expression of Bruce Lee after any of his famous Final-Life-taking-shot from his fights.(For those who don't know, he bites his teeth, shrinks his eyes (further), manages to project his earlobes, tries so much that all his nerves and/or veins show and says, "Eeeeeeeeee"..) Add to it Jet Li's face through a filter. Ta da!

I still had some hope left in me. I said, "Front part mein Zyada hai, sides to compare karke.. Front mein aur bhi thoda cut khijiyae na?..er?.. bhaiya?"

He gave a look that looked like Ahmedijinad's reaction if you'd say "Bush Rocks!" to his face. He kept still for a second, shook his head and said,"Shaving? Haan? Square? Slope?" I was not that strong with my Math, so i shut up and nodded, what ever he'd take out of it.I had no idea what slope had to do with a Hair cut... Or squares, rectangles or circles, for that matter.

I came home, only to find Jagan thinking twice before letting me in. And people in my room have discussed about Jet Li two or three times since morning, and I have a weird feeling that my absolutely unintentional hair-do reminded them of Jet Li.

Yes, a Completely changed man in an hour. And all credit to Namma Hindi Saloon. :)

Wednesday 2 Wednesday - An Introduction

Things that happened from 7 PM on Oct 22 (a Wednesday) to this moment, every single second deserves a blog entry.. Learnt a lot of things..

I don't know if & when i'll get the time to do it, But just thought i'd put down these two lines as of now.

Travelogue updated!

Be (a)Ware !

The Landmark Book store at Forum, Bangalore. I was there recently with a few friends, and i was rummaging through a pile of books that were on a discount sale in the Non-fiction section. (If you'd be curious, one of my friends was reading the Calvin & Hobbes book there, waiting for us to move to the DVD section.. one more wondering if a Management book would be a good buy, one more undecided on buying a Wodehouse collection, and another in the Matthew Reilly section..) So, there i was, lost among the titles, looking for a book i had decided to buy the last time i was there.

"Are you looking for some specific book?", asked a voice from nowhere. I looked up. It was a total stranger. "No... Just looking through if i can find anything interesting", i said and went back into the books, without a bit of courtesy. "Oh.. You come here often?", teh guy continued and proceeded to introduce himself as a Chip Design Engineer from a reputed MNC in Bangalore, despite a glaring, should i say, 'blatant' show of disinterestedness from my end. He would not rest till he knew about me. After a few questions from him, i said 'Bye' and went back to work. So, he said,"Okay, let's keep in touch. Can i have your number?" I did not want to give my number to a total stranger. I said some bullshit about me going to change my number in a week and got his number instead, promising i'd tell him my new number after i get it. But he felt it was alright to have my current number for this week. :o I gave my number, not wanting to hurt someone i didn't even know by giving some wrong number.

It might have been anyone, from a genuine book lover who wanted to increase the circle of book-readers he knew, to a terrorist who was on a recruitment spree, what with all this news about Radically-inclined-Software-Engineers in Bangalore! I was confused, as i walked on, only to be surprised by the fact that the Matthew Reilly guy among my roomies also had to give his number to another stranger who picked up a conversation out of nowhere and claiming to be a Software Engineer! Come on, like, is this a gang operating or what???? Getting the contacts of people who run around in malls and book stores.. And for what?

I am not sure what's going on. If these guys are terrorists or just a bunch of guys who are trying to improve their socialising skills or maybe, the-guys-spelt-with-an-'a' :P I got a call from that guy yest afternoon, but i din't pick it up, just in case.

Whoever they may be, You guys refrain from giving your numbers to strangers, however business-like or high-profiled they may look.

No idea what will become of my number, but chal, it doesn't matter.. i can't think of any situation where he can misuse it. :)

Of Insomnia and Infinia..

It’s been 3 days now.. 3 nights, i should say.

I have been trying to sleep. But No, I cannot.

This Friday, I had to digest a very sad news. == I lost sleep. Well, there was at least a reason I couldn’t sleep. I got this software to play chess from a friend. Infinia. I installed it and was playing with a few guys over the net for sometime. Got bored. Saw TV. Got bored. Lied down, closed my eyes and spent about half an hour thinking why I couldn’t sleep. Got up again, drank water, looked at the sky for sometime, tried to wake my roomie, but in vain.. Tried watching some old movie I had. No. But I couldn’t sleep. It was about 5 in the morning when I slept of exhaustion. Was up by 8 or 9 in the morning. Not sure.

I did not sleep in the afternoon thinking that it may affect my night’s sleep. When darkness came over again, I was awake. Still awake. Tried to shut my eyes and think of Bhumika and Emma Watson, but heck I couldn’t sleep. Got up again. One of my roomies who knew I was awake through the previous night was looking at me in a weird way that could mean only this: “What the hell’s gotten into you???” I watched Godfather II, and another old movie. I took to Infinia again and won 3 matches in a row. One of my opponents was an American who hinted on knowing my nationality that I should have gotten up very early in the morning. I saw the time . five thirty in the AM. No way I am awake! It is quite a famous habit of mine , but for those who do not know, I sleep from 9 PM to 7 AM in general. And here I was, with 3 hours of sleep in 48. No reason, nothing. I just couldn’t sleep.

Sunday morning 6. I was thinking about the story I am working on for my book, hoping I’d sleep. And I did. Don’t know when though. Got up at eight thirty. “Insomnia” was the word running around in my head. Geez, what the heck’s gotten into me? I sent a message to a few people asking if anyone has experienced that before. No one replied. They must have thought that this was just the first step of another of my pranks.

Sunday went past. I did some traveling, and ate till the throat for dinner, taking every step to ensure that I’ll drop dead on my bed as soon as I reach home. But here goes. I didn’t sleep much last night either. At about 3 o clock in the middle of the night, after two successive losses in Infinia, and one pathetic attempt at creative writing for a friend, I decided that this was all I could take. I lied down and starting thinking about my book again. This time, sleep deserted me and badly at that. I looked at the time in my mobile now and then. And the last time I did that, that I could remember, was 4. 45. Just imagine, almost two hours of simply trying to sleep. I didn’t sleep despite the exhaustion I was (and am) feeling. It was torture, but I am not sure if it qualifies to be hell. I thought of going to the hospital 20 minutes from my home to get some of those sleeping tablets.. Thought of it more than once. And then, somehow, I fell asleep. Got up between 8 30 and 9 today. And here I am, at work, blogging about this totally strange thing happening to me.

Does anyone know anything about this? This sudden insomnia in an otherwise “Somno-phile”? :D

I’ve got problems with my dreams as well, but ya, that’s another story!


UPDATE - 24/Sep

Hurray! I found a cure.. And the reason!

The reason that i have arrived at, is that i haven't attended trainings, meetings or otehr classroom sessions in a long time! We had an area meet yesterday, and Gawd, was i sleeping!

Went home, Said good night to my roomies, slumped into my bed and ZZzzzzzzzzz...... No idea what happened what for the next 8 hours :)

LET ACTIONS SPEAK !

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD - M.K.GANDHI

http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=37977080

Instead of just discussing about India never developing in anything, i really hope to see each member of the community and each visitor to this community do something... it can be very simple things that would go a long way in inspiring others... i request you to do something..

And then... go to the Community and say what you did in the "Recent Changes" thread..

Let this be a thread of action and not words... If the nation is to change, remember..... we are gonna do it!

Tell all ur friends THIS community exists in Orkut..

Actions most definitely speak much louder than words...

Despite all our differences.. yeah, your ideas are different from mine and any others', We have a common goal..

And that is,

Jai Hind.

Mummy 3: The tomb of the Audience

The first movie in this series.. "The Mummy" was Legendary. I never knew when the movie ended. Mummy returns was a sequel that lived upto the Original’s reputation. And at the end of that movie, I only wished it lasted a little longer.
Here comes the third!

Mummy, the tomb of the Dragon emperor, returns to haunt from the Dead. And trust me, after every 20 minutes, I was wondering why I did not find out the length of the movie before entering the Theatre. Trust me, it is nowhere close to the first two editions.

The first glitch was in the form of the new Evelyn, who is not even comparable to Rachel Weisz from teh originals. Brendan Fraser is a walking example of the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” The previous two installments in the saga were all about action and this one was more about words. There were a lot of unnecessary dialogues in the movie that give you the feeling that the Director added them to increase the length of the Movie.

I must say that the sequence of events in Mummy 3 were a bit hurried. The way the bombs blast after Evelyn holds Rick’s nose to stop his snoring was a good attempt at innovation, but unfortunately, you can realize how much I had to search through the movie for such a scene. Worst of all, attempted comedy scenes were not so funny and some serious scenes were hilarious. You can’t help laughing your heart out when the emperor who-never-keeps-his-word wishes to fight Rick o Connell as a Human, just because Rick challenged him to a fight ! In any case, Alex’s female interest and the now-tiring comedy of Evelyn's brother,Jonathan, are enough to make you think that all that money you spent on the ticket and the time you spent in the theatre aren’t exactly complete wastes.

The real fans of Mummy would be left disappointed, and they will pray another such installment doesn’t come. While for the rest of the world, it will be a two hour time pass, a visit to a different world, with the tame Dragon Emperor who can be killed by a normal father-son duo and a peek into the undead world of Rick O Connell.

Cuil (pronounced cool)

My Verdict: Not So Cuil….

Cuil (a Gaelic word for Knowledge), is the new search engine on the block with an aim to kill Google, the Goliath. And this may not exactly be the David-wins story. Goliath wins hands down.

The UI of Cuil indeed lives upto its name, and the results format are also cool. But It fails where it can never afford to. The Content. A Search in Google vs Cuil format led to a 392 results vs none , reflecting the sad state of affairs at Cuil. Cuil may claim that it indexes more pages than Google, but the cached section of Google is something Cuil cannot contend with.

The team behind Cuil are former Google employees, and if I can say anything, I’ll say you can never write them off. There is no smoke without fire, and I only hope they haven’t run out of tricks yet.

Another valiant attempt, and sadly, looks like another failure.

The Dark Knight - Ten out of ten

Indeed the darkest Batman flick yet. Christopher Nolan can pat himself on the back and say Prestige was no lucky break. This man can indeed stun the audience every single time!

I had heard enough about the Joker before I actually saw the movie. “I have never seen such a terrifying villain before..” “You say Darth Vader’s the best?(followed by a wide grin)”… “Damn, was he psychotic!... You should see it to believe it!” And more of that.

I really love The Joker’s character in the Batman Comics, primarily because he chooses to play mental games with his adversaries. And the psychotic bank robber was on top of my expectations list. Next came in two-face, better known as Harvey Dent. (I am this villain fan, yes, more a fan of Darth Vader than anything on the planet). Batman came in third. I had no idea which part of the comics was being covered, except for the rise of two face, which I’ve read a lot of times before. So, to put it short, I expected a brilliantly executed movie, with a regular batman-saves-the-day storyline, a lot of action scenes, car chases and yes, a lot of mind games.

Enter PVR. Like the guy on IBNlive said, “this was the kind of movie giant screens were invented for”. The first row, unfortunately, but trust me, I neva knew the difference. I was living in Gotham for the next two hours and half !

“SPOILER ALERT!” – Yes, I need to add this. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t sit here reading reviews ! Get going !

The Opening Scene, and I became a Joker fan for life. The way he planned the bank robbery was top notch, and the way one robber kills another in a kind of relay was again top draw. Out of the six clown-masked robbers, just two remain at the end. One doubts the intentions of the mastermind of the robbery (known only as the Joker), and points the gun at the other and says, "I'm bettin' The Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash..." The other replies calmly, “No I kill the Bus driver…..”

The first gets confused, “What Bus Driver???”

A Crash, and the bus enters through the wall. (I almost stood up and clapped then..) The Height of planning, if there ever can be one!

The bus smashes the first robber.

The other person dutifully kills the bus driver and reveals himself to be the Joker…

Doesn’t sound so good uh? You got to watch it fellas!!! Height of Execution!

This scene was the sign of things to come, and the cat and mouse game to follow, the dialogues, wow!

I've got no words. This was one movie where everyone in the theatre wanted the villain to win.

But for the namesake-show-of-handsomeness, the amazing skyscraper dive and the toooootally amazing Nose-diving-truck scene, Christian Bale did not have much to do as Batman, and I’d call it talent wasted! We all know what he is capable of!

Aaron Eckhart comes up with a stellar performance, both as Harvey Dent and Two-Face (though the latter did not have much of a part to play). And I’d go so far as to give it an Oscar nomination for an actor in a supporting role… Rachel Dawes was also scope & talent wasted.

I would have cut Nolan with words for wasting so much talent in the movie, but hell who cares, We had the Joker, and every other character had to make way for him and lose their scenes, including Batman… The Intro, the way he sets up the people on the two boats, all those fantastic dialogues and I MUST mention the way he walks out of Gotham General Hospital in that nurse dress…. Totally Awesome! The way he turns around to see some part of the hospital intact and checks his remote trigger… whoa man, Ledger must have lived the Joker! The much debated posthumous Oscar for the best actor, yes, I vote for that! (Note: not the supporting actor.. but for the central role.. The best actor!)

The Agent of Chaos ruled the movie, and how!

The BatMobile, The new two wheeled rocket, yes yes, they are all good, but I really didn’t think it’d stand a chance against the scheming Clown, and yes, I was right.

The only point is that Nolan could have bettered this best performance in the way Joker was caught in the end. I guess he wanted to say that the Joker could be caught in the end only because people in the right sense of mind decide not to blast the other boat out. But, we’ll never know…

One movie where everything is perfect, be it the storyline, be it the execution, be it the technicalities. A Great movie to hit the screens, after a long long time, both technically and by entertainment quotient.

I salute Ledger, I salute the Joker, and he’s definitely the second best villain of all time, if not first, and the only one comparable to the Darth Vader in the history of World Cinema. (ya, you would bring in the Silence of the lambs, but this is MY opinion, and no other villain is anywhere near the Clown and Anakin).

On top of IMDB, and deservedly at that.

And to all those who shout "this doesn't deserve it !"..... Why So Serious? :)

Goal of life

I simply wonder why we lack
People who laugh..
People who live..

I also wonder why the heck
People feign friendship..
People speak lies.

As we grow from three to thirty
Time goes on..
Pressure mounts on..

Hard to believe that all were once
Children who played,
Ones who forgave.

Why should the child in us so vanish
The Smile in us fades,
The truth degrades..

Why should the childishness be banished
To the depths of the soul,
In life, Is that our goal?


To survive without living?

A Message from Calvin !

Came across this C& H cartoon.. Well, I can’t put it any better than this.

Pardon the copyright infringes, if any ;) . Just spreading a real good message.

By throwing trash into the dustbin consciously every time, you can even go to the extent of making NASA think if it’s really that necessary to find if all of us can relocate to Mars.

Not with me? Go read about the Butterfly effect, will you?

Wassup Doc??

I feel hungry, but i cannot eat..

I feel sleepy, but i spend sleepless nights thinking about white, blue, shoes and grass..

My pulse is increasing abnormally at times...

So, i went to this doc and asked him, "Is this a medical problem? Or Am I in love?!!"

He said, "Not a medical condition.. Not love either.. But i have seen a lot of people coming in this week with similar symptoms. All of them had one thing in common... Are you a football fanatic?.."


EURO FEVER!

thefootballdreams.blogspot.com

I GO ON...

The morning news hour says that the National Capital is expected to be sealed by protesters… I go on...

The morning paper claims millions dying in Myanmar.. I go on...

Friend 1 had called and said he had quit his job because he didn’t like it. I go on…

I heard about this Friend 2 who claimed that he quit because he was ill treated at his workplace. I go on..

There’s this friend 3 who has been asked to leave his company, and who’s on desperate job-hunting mode. I go on.

I see a six year old carrying a box, visibly too heavy for him.. and I am sure that was child labour. I go on.

I remember this 80 year old woman who was begging on the streets of Chennai. I go on..

I also remember catching a glimpse of this “mad” man I saw when I went to Madurai. The man who waves the national flag (or was it the Gandhian flag?) every evening for as-long-as-my-friend-could-remember.. I go on..

I see all this hue and cry about the rise in fuel prices. I think of the 20+plus+rupees subsidy that the Government provides us, and people shouting at the Government! Ya, rite.. There are many people who still don’t get food to eat. And the media coverage is all about Petrol and Diesel! (Can’t blame em.. Those channels were started for ‘viewership’ too, I guess.. Profit, not people..) Well, I go on..

I see I don’t like to code my days.. Yet I go on..

I see children begging on the streets of Bangalore. I still go on.

I see people who speak the same language dying across the strait. Shouting for help, not getting any. Taking to violence, getting the odds stacked against them. Killed our Prime minister, didn’t they? I don’t know. I was a kid then.. Oh well, I go on..

I see all this furore in national and regional politics about things of no value. I still go on..

I see farmers dying, I see an all time high in urban corruption, pollution and crime. I still go on.

I see women of India crying for characters in Mega-soap-ventures on TV, and turning a blind eye to all that happening on the streets.. Recently, I saw a woman push a child to the ground because the child (perhaps 4 yrs old) was “touching” her while begging. “The little robber! These are the creatures that become robbers in the future…”, she told everyone around her. The child was crying… Who wouldn’t become a thief, if this is how the World treats him? I close my eyes for a minute, pray to God and go on.

I see people still getting that 25 or 50 rupees per day for wages, when inflation cuts their throat. I still go on.

I see the Government declare Special Economic Zones to aid MNCs… those that create solutions for conglomerates. Those which provide this techno-luxury to the world, luxury compared to all the problems that we face in our country. I see all necessities at the “aam-aadmi” level being ignored. Man, A lot of Indians still die of debts and hunger everyday. I somehow manage to go on…

I go on..

I go on developing and testing software, and providing after-sales support for the customers. I do these, that are of no value to either the country or the world. Why would you want to optimize luxury when you see basic necessities going out the window? It’s about increasing the GDP? This quasi-improvement? Go to hell, It’s about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.. Don’t blame any one else.. It’s me, It’s YOU, it’s every single person who’s contributing to it.

We don’t need nano technology. We don’t need to spend years researching on how AIDS can be stopped. (I mean, that’s a good intention, but not first priority..)

We need to ensure food for all. We need to stop this concept of people dying of Malaria, or worse.. fever.

Think about it.

I still go on, immune to all that around me. Can’t hold on for long...

Remember..

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”. – Dante

Hell is just getting HOTTER!

Momentumum updated !

Madurai tour added to the Outer ring road incident...


U know where to go!

momentumum.blogspot.com

IPL, THE FUTURE?

The Brainchild of Lalit Modi, The Indian Premier League got off to a flyer at Bangalore on the 18th of April, 2008, with SRK doing a “Chak De Kolkata!” and Vijay Mallya wondering why Dravid, Jaffer and Kallis are considered the World’s steadiest players (hee hee). Brendon McCullum made sure India (and hmmm... the world, perhaps?) sat up and took notice of what was going on. A blitzkrieg 158 in 73 deliveries with 13 sixes and 10 fours was more than just a wake up call to Bangalore’s Royal Challengers. It was also an alarm to the World, “IPL’s here.” But, is it here to stay?

The Basic structure of IPL has been a ditto of the English Premier League (EPL) Soccer. But then, the season is different. The atmosphere is different. And of course, the location.. It’s different. If a cricket tourney on such mammoth proportions can succeed, it must be in the subcontinent… Where Cricket is far more than just a religion, and cricketers, either Gods or Devils (Classification positively performance based ). But there’s one fact that still hangs as a question mark over IPL’s future. EPL extends from June to April every year. That is so, because Club football is the name of the game and International football is.. let’s say…scarce. International Cricket, on the other hand, is what Cricket is all about. Is IPL just going to be a fun-filled extravaganza held once or twice an year, when every major cricketing country decides it’s time for a two-week break? Or is it going to follow in the footsteps of the EPL for good? To put all questions together, Is IPL the dawn of a new era in the world of Cricket, the defining moment when ICC rethinks its strategies? Or a passing cloud, like the ICL was/is and may be, will be. Only Time, BCCI, ECB, CA and ICC can decide.

Cricket has become boring, have you heard? Test matches don’t get the kind of rousing reception they used to get, even in the subcontinent. The Ind-SA series held recently, was a perfect example. I could see many empty seats on weekdays and/or the first 2 days of the Chennai test match (Even when Indian batsmen were on song, forget the Motera!) People perhaps think Cricket is a good pastime for the weekend (Well, I should say, the cricket-crazy-cacophonics have matured. It’s high time they stopped seeing Cricket as Wars on the Cricket field, and real Wars as a pastime on Television sets and News channels). The inaugural IPL seems to have its set of issues, from print media coverage to the crowd, with a news site reporting SRK wondering why only 237 tickets were sold for a Knight Riders’ match at Kolkata some days earlier. Probably Preity Zinta won’t have such issues We are a set of PZFs (No.. Not PDFs.. This means “Preity Zinta Fans”) who wouldn’t let her down. Yay! ...and Oh, SRK needn’t worry anymore. McCullum just got every Kolkata fan on his/her feet, and how!

Stopping this beating around the garden thing, let’s get back to the EPL-IPL mismatch. Lalit can expect the first version to be a success, but the succeeding versions and the future of IPL hang by a thread. (Some sites and blogs swear it is worse than that). We’ve seen the reception for the Edelweiss-ICL (second version) held recently. Think Modi, you can do better.

EPL matches, as many of you may know, are on weekends mostly. Now that ICC has no other options but to accept IPL’s arrival and study Modi’s money-minting-network, BCCI can in fact, go ahead and look at the possibility of a league on the lines of EPL, through the year, or at least a few months! Of course , International matches should be given top priority, lest it back fires on BCCI. But coming to think about it, the idea can, in fact, succeed. Under normal circumstances, at any point of time, an average of three countries ( 2 half the time and 4 at other times) would require their players for International Duty. And worst case, six countries. We still have players from four test playing nations + Ireland + Scotland + Canada + the domestic talent on the cards. That’s enough to field 12 players, huh? Yeah, players will have a tough time shuttling between continents, but if their schedule isn’t too harsh, they indeed can manage their time, given the IPL glitz generated over the week...and this is where the International Cricket Council steps in.

One question now. Are all the top notch talents in the world part of IPL? No. There is still a lot of talent to tap in, on the British Isles and the Caribbean Isles, to name a few. Not to forget ICL, with its top quality players , who can be our own SPL(Scottish Premier League). Oh well, just kidding. The Stanford 20-20 in the Caribbean Isles can be globalised to a certain extent (say, 4 players max from outside the Windies or like that). It can be worked out, definitely. There’s no denying that a lot of international players are willing to settle there for life, and swing to the Caribbean music. And ECB’s plans to work out a league of its own should be carefully planned and executed, for England is more Soccer-crazy. (Don’t you mess with Football, now! – from a Soccer-holic). Bottomline, ECB may end up getting the finger from the English fan-dom.

Yeah, coming back to what ICC can plan, The International tours can be restricted to 9 months an year, to start with, and the other 3 to the T20 leagues to have a good time. ICC will end up victorious in financial affairs, and oh, u seriously have a doubt? A lot of players have been complaining that International schedules are too harsh now. “9 months and done, mate. Go to your family.” Sounds like a good employer, doesn’t it? And the humans that the players are, they’d be lured by the leagues and they’d end up playing those 3 months for S20, IPL, ICL or ECL (English Cricket League, hee hee). A Nokia Man Of The Match contest, A Charlie Webster (or someone half as beautiful) for a presenter, match up sessions, expert predictions, fantasy leagues(this one’s already on!), Transfer window rumours, what else can you ask for, yeh Cricket fan? And oh , an ICC Champions’ league between the top teams from various leagues, perhaps? Bliss! And Everyone is happy, come EOD.

You: “EOD?”

Me: “Am a software engineer.. “

You : “Oh…”

Me : “Yeah..”

And if ICC doesn’t want to accept this radical change looming around Cricket, or answer this indirect question posted by Lalit, “Come on ICC, Compare your bank accounts to that of FIFA, will you?” The Ball, and IPL’s future, is in ICC’s Change-control-committee’s court!

Whatever that future may be, It is clear for now that Lalit Modi has proved his business acumen, and that is the bottom line. Some say Brendon Mccullum would find a place in tenth grade history books, and Some say that the entire credit, in future, would go to Zee and Kapil Dev’s efforts. Or Would it?

MOMENTUMUM - a Travelogue

Will update here if i update there :D

1. The Outer ring Road accident

2. May 16 at Madurai

The life of a Placement Coordinator - unedited version!

NOTE: Applicable only to CITians, and ones without an empty head at that. Published on request by a friend. An old rejected article ;)

I want to run away,

Never say goodbye..

I wanna know the truth

Instead of wondering why..

I wanna know the answers

No more lies..

I wanna shut the door

And open up my mind.

It all starts towards the end of your third year. Aah! How well life can treat a guy! To think of all those happy moments when you wondered if you had to do anything at all for the next few days, spending the days thinking, wandering aimlessly… nobody would know how long they would last…but , you would never notice it at the mercy of 60 students and one HOD searching for a person whom everyone can blame for the next 365 days..

One would hear all sorts of facilities a PC could get.. “There’s a room at the end of the corridor… Two systems, speakers, DVD writer, sofa, fans, never ending supply of stationeries and the room is a cool place to hide when in danger…” , “You would get OD for all companies, no need to attend half the classes, far from the madding crowd running after their degrees..”, “You can move with all the HRs from various companies, a PC can interact with an HR as much as the Principal himself can.”, “You would be one of the most respected in the department, after all, it’s a great service that you do..”

Well, who can resist? There would be the urge in every mind to become a placement coordinator. And yet, something would be shouting like Hell from the back of your mind. “The job sounds great.. Why do they call it a service?! cool place to hide? Why should I hide?!.... running after degrees?..” All of it would sound strangely vague. You would see your senior PCs waiting with scapegoat-like looks in front of rooms you wouldn’t want to enter often. The only word they’d say to your query about a PC job would be “NOOOOOooooo!” Yet, enticed by the sweet words around you, you would volunteer (forced, in the case of wise people who would try everything to escape..) and stand for an election that’d be regretted very soon.

And then, one gloomy day, (heavy downpour in my case.. heavens crying for me!) they would announce the inevitable. And then, you will be permitted to enter that room at the end of the corridor.. The Placement Cell… You should notice they call it a CELL, to warn people. One must praise whoever named it that way. But, You’d be very happy to imagine 60 careers in your hand, and that you, the champion, should decide the fate of many! And a mix of responsibilty and pride that a lot of people have put so much trust in u!

It would sound very simple. You got to call a company, it would come. You got to arrange rooms, mike, projector, food. The process would be over once you send people into the interview in order. Then the result, and pack up. And you’d get infinite supply of food from a good restaurant. Very cool, eh? Trust me, jumping from the top of Eiffel tower would sound thrilling too…

When companies start coming, you will be working overtime. Running around arranging stuff, ordering people, and coordinating with a real sweet lady HR with eyes that can disturb your sleep for at least a week. Food will be good, and you’ll like it. Then, things will unwind and the Devil would start smiling at you. The problems that you’ll have to face would rival George Bush’s Iraq war policy. To put it simply, you’ll believe you will be screwed up. There would be this instance of someone returning the projector the evening before a company, and you’re left with nothing to conduct a PPT and the accounts section would shout rules and procedures at you. The management would shout at your inefficiency, and people would tell you if their vote was wrong after all. All this when you are madly searching for that ******* who returned the projector you had somehow obtained by a lot of begging the previous day. There would also be this instance where you are screwed up for absolutely nothing by approximately everyone for you-will-not-know-what! You’ll be sabotaged for the poor conduct of even one person from your class during any company. Well, if you ask me, you’ll have the toughest time diverting telephone calls to office and receiving faxes, which eventually turn out to be political posters, hotel menus or permission letters for girls to leave their hostels. And a thousand others you wouldn’t want to pen down for fear of losing a degree. And, yes.. there’s the enquiry…

20 people, one big table, you enter the room to push the room to silence.. you can identify the bigtime people at the head of the table. People seated all around you. You, on the other hand, standing, looking at the head, imagining that this could only be a dream. There would be questions thrown at you from every corner of the room, half in the global language and half in the local language. You must be very careful not to mix those questions up.. “comeon.. now, who asked first? Yes.. but this guy’s senior.. should I answer the first or second? And hey, should I reply in English or Tamil?!” Trrrring.. your time is up, and you can kiss your luck goodbye. Before you decide which to answer first, they would decide what to do next, with a usual fine on all Placement coordinators without ”partiality”, without even caring if the guy had actually been in the city during the so called MISTAKE which could range anywhere between a change in the initial during an address by one of those gentlemen, or using any of the halls that were entirely…. free (did u think otherwise?) without permission, because the permitted halls were not enough, and you used that hall to keep the pride of the college flying high.

I don’t want to waste time n space writing about those bashi-bazouks who call themselves students, who would have just got placed that day, and would ask if they can attend the next company that sets its foot inside college. They would enquire you about things the HR people themselves would not know, and would spread the word that you are as dumb as a dead dodo. And think about those students who might say you are misusing your ‘POWER’! Well, can you be held responsible for giving him a black eye?!

Now now.. lets get get back to the facilities a PC can get… A big room? Yes, to finish records and observations before your lab tests.. and yes, to hide from danger.. Yes, people run after degrees, and you do not… because you’ve lost hope you’d actually get one! Yes, you do move with HRs at the expense of classes, and you’d be left in a situation that you’ll have to attend ten extra hours beforehand if you are to refrain yourself from attending classes at a later date due to Typhoid. Huh!

AND YES, ONE HELL OF A SERVICE!!!!

At the end of the day, the things that would get you some sleep are an occasional pity that someone felt for you, or those lovely eyes I’d mentioned about. And now, you have your juniors coming upto you and askin you what all they got to do to be a good PC just-like-you. And you will only be able to say….. “NOOOOOoooooo!”

Ambition - N.A

* Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy! *

Lazybones rock, and this is to prove it.

Interesting thought. Probably in today's world, the word LAZY is looked down on, as more of a negative word. What is being Lazy?? Not doing something now, since there is no necessity to do it now. Not that we'll never do it.(Did i say we??) We will do it. But that's only when we have to do it.

No point buying an umbrella in summer and waiting for the rainy season. I'll buy one the day when it rains. It prolly costs me a few bucks more, but saves me the burden of carrying it around unnecessarily.(bad example, i should say, but that's the point anyway.. Think of life and its problems.. You'll find similar options. Just can't cook up any on the spot. Bad cook, me am :))

The Software Industry has come to this line where it splits employees to two groups and evaluate them among the group, the ambitious lot and the lazy bones. But, as fate would have it, they call the ambitious over-working lot as the Hardworkers, and the lazy gang as the Smart workers.

There were these two freshers who joined in a team's bench near mah cubicle. I could see the team lead give the same assignment to both of them, and giving them equal time to do it. One of them, who is a hardworker, worked on it around the clock, eager to complete it as early as possible and get a good name, move up soon blah blah blah.. The other one will always be on Orkut or gmail or more often in the Cafeteria or on the Table tennis gang (good company to me, that man was & is). Yet, he completed his tasks first... And not just once, he completed every task before the other did. He eventually got the first break into the project.

Hmm.. Like my mom used to say when i was at school, "if u can get the second & third ranks in class everytime without even opening your book, imagine what u can do if u sit down & work hard..". I used to tell her, "I'd not only get worse marks, but also get fed up with life. Trust me." Same way, if the smart-worker(a.k.a the lazy bugger) had actually worked on the tasks 24x7, he's have completed it prolly half an hour earlier than what he did. But, he'd have missed out on several wonderful TT games, and quality time with friends, or those chaat everyday at the cafeteria.

Wake up, people. The age of hard-workers is about to end.

PS: this article is applicable only to the lazy bones who've got brains. :)

H.U.N.G.E.R

FEAR.. What are you afraid of? From Cockroaches to Guns to Wars to Riots to Heights to your life to every damn phobia in the dictionary... No person on earth is absolutely fearless.. What evokes fear in one person need not and mostly, will not evoke it in another....

Well, most of you reading this won't be able to understand what generates things like begging and crime in our society... Hunger... How many of you are afraid of hunger? Probably a new and curious fear... huh? Please note, It is on top of Dr.Abdul Kalam's list of national shames... Whether YOU are afraid of it or not is another matter, the Indian Nation is... That has been the most pressing problem for India.. 60 years on, and we're not able to feed our people.. Every chief minister and prime minister who have assumed office knows how much power this word holds.. It has toppled governments in the past, mind you..

Why do people resort to the lowest possible level a human can ever get to? Begging? No shame.. No self-respect.. Why? Hunger.... Huh, Not eating for a day probably makes you faint.... Eating at a wayside motel one day results in food poisoning in most cases, but wait..

There are people who'd give anything to get that "food-poison". There are people in your city or village who haven't tasted good food ever since he/she was born. Hunger can make you beg, hunger can make you steal, hunger makes you the equivalent of any 5 sensed creature that roams the place... Eradicating Hunger (a.k.a poverty) can erase things like begging and can reduce crime rate by atleast 50%, if not more.

Have you ever imagined how many humans are ready to take the place of your dalmatian at home? Think about it.

That's Hunger...

"Forget everything and Run, fellas..
Forget everything and EAT GOOD FOOD.....That is all that matters"
-Mentality of many people below the poverty line...

The govt doesn't do much.. But you can definitely change atleast ONE life... Donate Food whenever possible. All those leftovers at home, you think it's not good enough to eat the next day. There are millions who don't think that way.

Am not against boozing and parties, but just for the factsheet, the amount spent in one average treat / birthday party that i attend can feed many for a year! Do put on your thinking caps...

Silencing...

I've been alone for sometime now,
It's been so silent, save the distant crow..

Things are much different from what it used to be,
It used to be so congested, populated and noisy.

There were a lot of believers, "believe",
Said the higher one, "so that i can relieve

You of all your fears, your troubles and everyday shall be fun!"
"Why can't u help without expecting anything in return?

You need them to bow to you and worship you?
Whilst you yourself ask them not to expect anything back
They, these believers, they have no clue,
Their minds are black(ened), Reason they lack."

Not many i know have spoken out before,
And not even a few know what had become of them,
But now that i did, i was blessed to know more,
This grave is so silent, save the distant crow....

PS: Please say through comments what you got from this.... I want to know how each of you interpret it. Thank you!

Eternal-ity

Silence... One that conveys meaning,
That which means complete understanding,
Those two pairs of eyes that prove this,
Love they live, Life they kiss....

Such is the love destined for so beautiful
a place as this; So involved, so joyful..
This place , amidst eternal bliss
Expects that love to come to it, that is its wish...

Where is this love that it wishes?
Where is this place, oh..where?
Where is this love that place misses?
That love that should fill it, fill it right there!

Waiting eternally, waiting for that eternal-ity,
That eternality called love that would complete this picture;
How long the place will wait, oh.. what a pity!
Complete this eternal-ity, complete this picture.......

ps: AABB AABB ABAB ABAB. Is there any name for this rhyme format? :)

Sphoorti - truly illuminating... An official post, for a change

Would we have fire if we did not need light?

Many think only about how bad things have become in our country, throwing light on so many malpractices we have learnt to live with in our everyday life. This one’s about the other side of the coin.. about the goodness that grows from within the darkness, to illuminate lives. And darkness I can bear, if this is the fruit it bears…..

It was on the much debated Social Networking site Orkut that I first stumbled upon this organization… Sphoorti.

“We are a simple grassroots level organization working for underprivileged children - homeless, orphaned, abandoned and other at-risk groups.”

This is how Sphoorti (www.sphoorti.org) introduces itself to the country. It began as a thought, as a dream of Mr.Srivyal Vuyyuri, an M.A in Economics, University of Toledo, Ohio. More than this, I must mention that he is one of the few persons who remind you of the long forgotten words of Mahatma Gandhi, “to be the change one wants to see”.

Sphoorti doesn’t want itself to be quoted as just another NGO or non profit organization. Rather, it announces itself as an IMPACT organisation committed to impact the lives of underprivileged children 24 X 7, 365 days a year. Sphoorti is a platform for concerned citizens to build futures for underprivileged children. For Srivyal, it's an execution of his passion and the work, to quote him, is still in progress.

Coming back to first person narration, I was more than just puzzled on looking at the educational qualification of Srivyal. I probably haven’t seen anybody less than 50 years old commit the rest of his lifetime-full time into such organizations before. So, I contacted him more out of curiosity than anything else… And learnt that he took up economics to understand concepts like poverty, illiteracy and unemployment .. To quote him again, “But then after understanding, if there is no action, it is as good as not understanding. Knowledge when not backed by action is equivalent to ignorance..”. Srivyal had worked for 5 to 6 years in high end companies before deciding to quit and follow his passion. He is a freelance researcher now in the areas of Macroeconomics and Capital markets, but plans into pack that up and dive full time into Sphoorti. “People do not take these organizations seriously if they don’t have a full time caretaker”. And it is definitely creating immediate impact on lives that would not have had the opportunity to be as bright as they are today.

Sphoorti takes in underprivileged children and equips them with the weapon they would wield against the world in the future.. Education! Sphoorti is located near Hyderabad, and it houses 40+ children in a place that Srivyal managed to take for rent after a long long search. It is ironic to note that not many people were willing to rent out to a Children’s home as children may deface walls and vacating the children in the future wouldn’t be easy. More or less, it reflects the day’s India . We want our places to be clean, manageable and to ourselves. Going out of the way to help people isn’t really in the bigger picture. But, when you read this, you can imagine how many real lives you can clean by compromising on the ‘quasi cleanliness’ we wish to maintain.

After a barrage of skepticism and ridicule, Srivyal finally managed to get the place where it is housed today, a bit far away from the main city. And Sphoorti has started its mission from that locality itself. Now, its plan is to “be the change” for 300 kids by 2011, and a thousand in a decade’s time. Srivyal insisted that he didn’t dream of Sphoorti to be the biggest grassroots organization in A.P, but the best of them all.. And to repeat it, “Not the Biggest, But the BEST..”.

So, how does Srivyal make ends meet? Does he draw a salary? He chips in immediately, “Sphoorti needs to grow a lot bigger for me to have a salary and all. My wife is working and as of now, my brother has decided to sponsor many of my expenses than sponsoring a child!”. It has really been a rollercoaster ride for Srivyal and Team, but people chipping in at the right time to help has seen it grow to where it is now, with 4 caretakers for 45 kids (stats in December 2007). Being the economist that he is, he’s ensured that Sphoorti is well structured, and all it takes to take care of the living expenses of the child is 12,500 per annum. Now, let’s see.. By regular-MNC-standards, that’s two weekends of entertainment! Obviously a better way to spend money, really!

Sphoorti’s back-end team believes that a lot more people want to be the change, but they are not sure IF they can and HOW they can.. Peer pressure, Family pressure and Ignorance tops the list of hurdles in their path.

To quote Srivyal, there is no one individual who can take credit for Sphoorti. Sphoorti aims to produce more responsible and confident citizens by the minute, and I dare say, it is living up to that till now. But yes, every solution has its own unique problems and Sphoorti is no different. It’s a general feeling among the Srivyals of today that professionalism is missing in this field. “B Schools all over the place are churning out managers for corporate management. Managers should be trained to manage any organization, be it corporate or non profit organizations or anything”, another social activist complains. Adding to that, lack of awareness and donor un-involvement are the hurdles ahead. The Kids at places such as Sphoorti need more companionship, love and friendship than money. While the current investors (yes, Sphoorti calls its donors as “Investors” since they have a say in the policy making) are keeping in constant touch with the kids they sponsor, the same cannot be said of the future, as the world gets faster than ever before and people may not find any time to spare with the children. It will be interesting to see what the behind-the-screen team has up its sleeve to tackle the situation.

And the awareness part, I leave to all of you…. I can only hope we see more Sphoortis in the future… Back your noble intentions by strong organizational structures and take on the world!

India needs more people to fight for its literacy campaign to make any 2020 or a 2050 dream a reality. Else, it will be difficult to dream about anything other than winning 20-20 cricket!

Yo ppl! IF YOU STAY IN AND AROUND HYDERABAD, GO SPEND TIME WITH THE KIDS. IT'S WHAT THEY LIKE MOST.. AND THAT IS ALL THEY EXPECT!

IF MONEY IS WHAT YOU CAN SPEND , AND NOT TIME, DONATE!

Future plans : sphoorti.org/proposal.htm

Crazy post, this!

Back in Chennai for the weekend, and back among words. :) Two things i most definitely love.

There are four things you can dedicate yourself to....

1. Do what you want to do..

2. Do what you are good at...

3. Do what others want you to do..

4. Do what others think you are good at..

Think this needs no more explanation.. Any questions?

The choice is yours.





Can i make a career out of freaky writing?
_________________________________________

I ain't very good at writing, to be frank.. Probably the best i could do was be one of the top 50 writers at college.. Not a great sign for a career out of writing, but still, writing is something i prefer to operating systems. And writing? Not the sort of research writing or serious political analysis stuff.. I can still do that if necessary, but then , not the most preferred, i must say. All i want to do in life is commenting, commentating (does the word exist???!) and of course, the title should come somewhere in the post, write some 'balderdash', as a kolkatakaar friend of mine would say.

But then, i know i ain't a great writer.. so going that way is probably.. a stupid decision. yeah, i can hear you scowling, "You need to improve your writing bos, and ya can go yar way!", but wat the hell is the big idea in 'improving'? How can you improve in writing nonsense.. Oh no, if i hear your mind right, you are asking me to stay in my bangalore house for some more time.. That's gonna improve my nonsense for sure, and at the end of it, Kilpauk will be waiting to embrace me! (as if it's not already!)

Next, we move on to what i am good at.. Acads.. Yes, ok, fairly good at that. But heck no, no researches pls.. I ain't the kind of person who likes wine.. The more i know about stuff, the more interested i should be in knowing a fat lot more about the stuff... Come on, ppl.. I get bored very.. and note, VERY easily.. I don't even like the same colour for a long time.. Black and blue have been my favourite colours most of the time, and i haven't fancied green much.. But then, most of the time is not exactly the same as all the time. Then wth (this time, where the hell) does research come into the picture???

Operating systems.. That comes under an all new category, WHAT I ACTUALLY DO!!!! NOw, this is a damn interesting part of Computer Science.. I love it, but i don't know how long this love will last, given the fact that i have a reputation for losing interest in things (probably something to do with a psychiatrist??? :) paithyathuku vaithiyam paakara paithyakaara doctor ke ennala paithyam pidichaa, apram anda paithyathuku vaithiyam paakara paithyakaara doctor ah endha paithyathuku vaithiyam paakara paithyakaara doctor ta kaatradhu??? fine, i guess i was talking about nonsense sometime earlier, and this one, i think, is Crazy Mohan's..)

Back to OS.. I like it, and i like doing it, though i am not very good at CS-oriented concepts. But then, advancing in an OS career is risky, as any technical career requires that you learn more, more and more avbout the subject every passing day.. Basically... I am a somberi, you know!

Categories 3 & 4.. Damn, i don't give a damn about those!

And that's all i got to say about it.

And yeah, by what all you see on this page, please tell me if i can make a career out of freaky writing!!!!

QWIZY'S

Am a below average quizzer.. but i dunno wth makes me think i m gud enuf to start my own quiz blog..

Chk out qwizys.blogspot.com

Sit tight and LISTEN!

Hey ppl,

Glad to be back among words.

Wrote CAT in 2006 November. Ariyaa vayasu... MBA na enna ne seriya theriyaadu.. 99.71 with the biggest ever flop show in Verbal.

Apavae sonnen.. 2007 2008 free.. will write again in 2009 nu.. In fact, i was afraid to write CAT in 2006 itself, because i did not want to repeat my engineering debacle. ..

"Doing something because everyone did it." If left to me and the single-window system, i would have been the last fellow on earth to choose Electronics and Communication Engineering. Electronics.. Physics la enakku pidikaada orey chapter. I was dreaming about Biotechnology and Bsc Physics and Mechanical engineering. Irundaalum ECE eduthen.. Yaen?

Biotech future India la illa.. U have to come to US.. - Courtesy, my brother. Which i now see to be true. Top Biotech researches are being done at the top US univs... And i am an India-fanatic.. in the sense I don't LIKE to leave India. Though it sure isn't the same as i won't leave India.

Bsc Physics - doing it in India is pathetic. - everybody.
True. I applied for NUS and my choices-priority wise-read as follows
1. Bsc Physics
2. medicine
3. CS engg
4. Dentistry
Perhaps the ppl at NUS thought that the list was at best ambiguous. So, i got rejected despite a good academic score and extra curricular record. :)

Mechanical Engg - NO!! - Courtesy, every person i met. "You'll get ECE and CS in top colleges for your mark.. why in the world are you thinking about Mechanical?" I won't accept it to be true (and i didn't, but to no avail), though i don't want to argue about it now that it is a thing of the past...

Got into ECE at CIT.. spent 4 years trying to learn about things i wish noone ever invented.

Then, the scene shifts to 2007 January. I was so happy about my CAT marks. It both proved i am eligible for an IIM any day (since i could get so much by just browsing through mock papers for 2 weeks) and also that there was no way i was going to get into one in 2007 June, thanks to Verbal.

I didn't know what people learnt at the IIMs.. i knew it was management and i knew it meant money.. huge amounts.. I was not ready to do something, i did not know about.

Right from my childhood, i had to know why i am asked to do something before doing it. "Why should i do it? What difference does it make?" These kind of questions have to be answered before i do anything. MBA? i really did not know then..

Come 2007 November.. And i had ANNOUNCED to the world i was just taking CAT for fun, and not seriously, just to ensure i don't lose touch (though it sounds kinda arrogant n overcnfident, thats it! ;) ).

Just Sit tight and LISTEN folks (title of the post).. if you wake up one fine day and go write CAT just like that with the last serious mock cat you took was an year ago (the previous cat :D), it's a crime, and i repeat, A CRIME, if you clear it! 96 is not a bad mark to me, NO! it means i can get 96 anyday with an 85 min in all three sections and a 97+ in quants... That's all i wanted to know... if i was eligible for an IIM and an S P Jain! that's t! So stop asking me my marks as if something went terribly wrong for me!

I had been announcing from January 2007 that i won't waste an year of work experience for anything! I needed atleast 2 years at IBM(or any other company for that matter), and a desired 3 years, before i did anything close to an MBA! I want my work experience to be counted as a better part of my profile rather than a temporary stint! I want to prove something, folks! Otherwise, wats the difference between me and all the trash talking folks who are "ALSO" PGDBMs?

I must plan and decide WHAT i am going to learn and strengthen there before i actually step in.. It's taken a year for me to get a basic idea about my future, and it's gonna take 2 more before i decide.. I wont take CAT 08 seriously either! (unless i feel suicidal at work, which doesn't seem to be the case..)

CAT 2009 will be my serious attempt, and that's how the picture looks. I will take CAT 08 too, but no, don't ask me bout it. I announce it here!