Welcome to my Tiffin Carrier

Ten Currently In Production Vehicles that I would Love to own

2010-12-12T09:37:00.006+05:30

In no specific order.

1. The 2010 MV Agusta (If it's motorcycles, it has to be Agusta) Brutale 990R

2. The Vespa LX 150

3. The Gulfstream G250

4. The Sunseeker Manhattan 52

5. The Inimitable Bajaj RE 4S

6. The 2011 Tesla Roadster (She doesn't have a 3litre Engine. Not even close. She has batteries)

7. The 2010 Mini Cooper CONVERTIBLE

8. The Seabreacher J - The Dolphin Inspired Submarine -THAT JUMPS.

9. The TREK Cruiser - Retro Inspired Class

10. The Segway X2 Adventure

Public Policy? Really?

2010-12-11T07:30:00.002+05:30

This blog-post is a result of a conversation I had at some point in the recent past with Piglet. It's a thought that has spent years germinating in my head, and being refined by all the online-Greenpeace-activism, the VNS Eco-club, the Teach For India CA-ship, and all that other cool stuff, that momentarily made me feel good about myself.

That's the problem with social work. Working at the grass-roots is a commendable task that takes balls and grit - something I'd never imagine having, but that's hardly the point here. The fact is, that grass-roots work doesn't go too far. That one family that you work with might benefit, and in your own little World, it gives you a level of satisfaction, for having helped them. You're elated, because you helped further the cause of human rights, or environmentalism, or educational equality. Or at least, that's what you feel.

Let's admit that a lot of this Social work is happening. Each claiming to be more productive at the "grass-roots". What they fail to understand, is that, well, for a change to be meaningful, and more importantly, sustainable, you NEED a critical mass - the kind that these one-off acts of random kindness can't provide.

Add to this the general attitude of The Community's Little Helpers, and we're asking for a disaster. What attitude? Even if we ignore their holier-than-thou persona, the fact remains, that they fool themselves into believing that they are making a LARGE positive change. They thrive on that high of that one smile.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. "Grass-roots" work, is no more than symptomatic - at best.

If you want that critical mass for sustenance, the issue HAS TO BE tackled at the Policy level. By Government. Now it's easy to argue that these NGOs step in because the Government doesn't do it's job efficiently and all of that. But you can't replace the Government. And forgive me for sounding like I live in a Utopian bubble, but you can't deny that the solution is to better the Government - not try and replace it.

I'll end with a simple example. For two decades at least now, the in-the-know's have been ranting about rain-water-harvesting, about needing to refuel the water table, and about, in general, how construction of infrastructure, as a process, needs to turn green. And may be a few hundred people listened - and these folks screamed with joy, saying, that these few hundred are "a significant start", or "making a statement". The NGOs get lost there. They make it their job to create that scene. Not solve the problem.

When the Government stepped in (on the goading of some Organizations that UNDERSTOOD, that work needs to be at the policy level, not the grass-roots), and made it compulsory to implement rain-water-harvesting, and used recycled steel, people started doing it. EVERYONE did it. It made an impact to the environment. Problem mitigated.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that we should do away with these Social Work Organizations altogether. God knows the State needs a watchdog - but NOT a replacement. All I'm saying, is that they need to change their focus. Public awareness, and "grass-roots" aside, they need to wake up to the fact that a Top-Down approach is what will work in India. Awarenes and activism amongst the policy makers. Not traffic-blocking rallies down MG Road.

:)

Another Blogthings Quiz. Just.

2010-12-10T08:00:00.000+05:30

You Are Merlot

Smooth, confident, and popular - you're the type most likely to order wine for the whole group.

You seem to breeze through life on your intuition and wit. And no one seems to mind!

You're comfortable in any social situation you find yourself in, and you never feel outclassed.

And while you live a charmed life, you never let it go to your head. You are truly down to earth and a great friend.

Deep down you are: Balanced and mature

Your partying style: Surprisingly wild... when you let loose, you really let loose

Your company is enjoyed best with: Some greasy pizza

What Kind of Wine Are You?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Pieces for Peace? I don't know, really

2010-12-09T14:47:00.004+05:30

The human race is becoming more and more intolerant. This, clubbed with the new feeling of empowerment and independence, is playing out in bemusing ways, on the Governance and International Relations scene. The DPRK now has the gall to stand up to the PRC; the small island states sprinkled across the four oceans that were traditionally US allies, are now opposing its climate change policy. The ugly face of this intolerance, though, is the effect it's having on the World Map. Any sign of civil conflict, and everyone's waiting to tear the country to bits. They want an Azad Kashmir. They got a Kosovo, and a Timor Leste. Darfur Now. What next?

My honest opinion, of the entire referendum concept, is that it breeds, and in a sense provides validation to this intolerance. The SPLA/M never saw eye-to-eye with the Sudanese Government, so they just split? Snowball that idea, and you'll soon have India divided into three new countries - the Red, the Orange, and the third part will simply be Palmed Off, because three parties had conflicting interests, and they tried to sort it out, but failed.

Speaking of conflict. That's the excuse they're using. I'm not denying that the human rights violations in Sudan are anywhere near acceptable, or that the quickest solution need be sought to end what is almost a deja vu of Nazi Germany.

But the question I'm asking here is, will the split, if it happens, really solve a problem?

Look at any population density map of Sudan. Apart from the evident density around that beautiful city that is Khartoum, practically ALL of Sudan's native population, now lives in Southern Sudan. So when the split happens, what we're looking at, is a rich, now smaller, less dense state, with an image of having done everything by the book, and a small, new, dense state, with a reputation to reckon with. Either that, or you have all of that AND a mass-migration (as happens with most of these questions of division) to boot.

Now apart from that, the war that ravaged the county is heavily dependent on labour from neighbouring Egypt, Algeria and the Middle East, for skilled and semi-skilled work. It is rather evident, that these workers will now move to the North, and the South will be left with trained warriors.

Many World leaders, and now myself, have questioned the validity of this move. South Sudan will turn into a hotbed for criminal activities. They wont' be well to do, most of them will have ruthlessly served in a rebel military, and as a state, they epitomize this intolerance that I speak about. Add to that, an object of intense envy, buttressing them up North. And you have a recipe for disaster.

The basic question I'm asking is simple:

Have they recovered sufficiently from the genocide, to be prepared for a plebiscite?

There's always going to be conflicting views on this conflict, and this here is mine. I'm no trained prescient, so Que Sera Sera.

Peace Out.

2010-06-29T20:20:00.000+05:30

You Are a Cartographer

You have a wide range of knowledge and you're very detail oriented.

You have a photographic memory, and you remember places very well.

Like a middle ages cartographer, you're also very adventurous and curious about the world.

In modern times, you would make a good non-fiction writer or scientist.

What's Your Medieval Profession?

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

2010-06-06T08:49:00.000+05:30

You Are Serious

You are so wise it's intoxicating. People are blown away by the things you say.

In life, you are happy to take the sweet with the sour. You wouldn't want to feel too much of one emotion.

You are likely very literary and philosophical. You savor life, and you appreciate others who do as well.

You are very cosmopolitan and urban. It drives you crazy when people have a limited or provincial perspective.

The Cocktail Test

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

On Debating

2010-06-06T07:30:00.004+05:30

The UADC was a total bummer. My adjudicator tests were wrongly entered into the tab, so the spreadsheet took it upon itself to ensure that it made a mess of me at the tournament. But that trip to Thailand wasn't all in vain. The picnic in Ayudhya, spending time with friends, gorging on Pizza, and not to mention being flummoxed by the absolute kisch that was The Egypt.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about an altogether different perspective-shift that the UADC brought about. At some point between break-night and boarding the plane back, I experienced an almost-epiphany type conversion.

I told myself that I'd had enough of judging. That I now wanted to speak. Senior Year; nothing to lose or gain. Well I've spoken at one debate last year, and it was clear that I should stick to judging. My then team-mates still curse me for making their first ever debate as random as I did. Both of them have now gone on to become good debaters in their own right, and we now manage to look back at that tournament and laugh about it. About how I crashed onto the floor of the Physics Lab, or how Ashish wanted Ariel Sharon to admit to the mass-murder of Jews.

Either way, I was second on the speaker tab; from the bottom, of-course.

For above stated reasons, it was overwhelming the positive response I got to the transition. Arawn agreed to help us train, and his girlfriend said she "wondered why I didn't speak earlier". Psychick said he thought I was decent, and is always willing to sit and deconstruct my speeches and offer constructive feedback.

But what was most bemusing, was how easy it was to find two people who were readily willing to team with me. After RIDL, I wouldn't have given a double-take even if Iyer wanted to disown me. But it's been more than a year, and I think the horrors of her past don't haunt her any more. Either way, I'm looking forward to teaming with the liliput. She's a joy to be around, and the last time I checked, she was clocking some killer scores at the UADC. Shreyas Pai is another unfortuante young man who doesn't know what he signed up for. He's bursting with energy, and for a freshman, with the kind of pedigree that LDSMSRIT offers, he's not bad at all. We gel really well, the three of us, but whether that'll translate to good team dynamic, only time will tell. Either way, if we need to be a respectable team, all of us: particularly myself, need practice. Copious amounts of it. And we hope to get it starting two weeks from now, at tippsy dippsy's Circuit Debate.

Oh, well. At the end of the day, it's debating. It's about learning and having fun. Besides, only time will tell if I can ever clock seven minutes of smooth-flowing speech. Haha.

On Fairness Cream

2010-06-02T15:50:00.002+05:30

I found it bemusing that Bipasha Basu's then boyfriend did an advert for fairness-cream. I found it bemusing that international brands are taking so much interest in the Indian fairness-cream market. The size of the Rs. 1100 Crore complexion-conscious Indian market is worth a thought. For all the talk about India making its mark on the global platform and all that, there are still some things that just haven't changed.
For one, our need to ape the west is so strong, that I am writing this weblog entry in English. And fairness generates a *huge* premium in the marriage market.
For another, we still think it's alright to hold an individual responsible for their height, complexion, family and other complex nuances that was no fault of theirs whatsoever.

I don't per se have a problem with people using fairness cream. Well, may be I do. The thing is, if something, even purely cosmetic, makes you feel better about yourself intrinsically (a la MJ), then you should do it. But if you're making hazardous, temporary cosmetic changes because said changes will improve your standing or value, in the perspective of others (a la Rakhi Sawant), then I have a huge problem. You can't fully blame people for wanting that though.

The crux of the problem, is the societal pressure on women (and now increasingly on men) to be gora. I don't get why it's so important for someone to be fair to have value in the marriage-market. What is all that hype about appearence being only skin-deep, and love being about the inner-person? All nonsense. You know the most ironic thing, though? In the western world, where gorapan is the norm, Indian women are lusted after because they are dusky. It's just that the latin americans and the Hispanics are proud of their color. We, as a culture, are not. And much as a lot of us would like to believe that we're moving away from giving importance to fairness, the Rs. 1100,00,00,000 (yes, nine zeroes. I could buy about twenty A380s with that much) will lead one to believe otherwise.

The vox populi view on fairness products can be divided broadly into four categories.

1) It's a good thing: This group believes that everyone must be fair, and that fairness products remove the divide that is caused between dark and fair. Firangbhakts.

2) It's wrong: This group strongly advocates that skintone is a non-issue, and that it is racially abusing yourself to use these products.

3) Well, what can we say: My group. Strongly opposed to the need to be fair, but recognizing that until such time that society stops giving it so much importance, it may be important for someone's self confidence to use these products.

Groups 2) & 3) often see the other as an infinite negative spiral.

4) It's okay for women: This is the most detestable, yet most common group: Why men, they ask. Their sexist justification that fairness is more a virtue for women doesn't fly with me. I don't get how it's okay for women to want to be fair, but not for men. I think they read too much M&B, where all the hunks are tall, dark, handsome.

Okay, so my point is, that the fairness cream market isn't as large as it is because people want to be fair, as much as it is because people want other people to be fair. The problem is that complexional profiling is accepted in India. The problem is that nobody sees the problem. The general public is okay with the notion that fair is better than dark.

I'm not trying to be preachy here. I'm just saying we're a great country and we'd be greater still if we had some subtle paradigm shifts on this front.

The Dr. M S Ramaiah Memorial Parliamentary Debate 2009

2009-05-03T06:50:00.001+05:30

“The Literary & Debating Society of MSRIT hosted the Dr. MSR Memorial Parliamentary Debate between the 25th and 27th of April 2009”, reads the event report that I am compiling, largely for lack of anything better to do. For those of you that are currently unaware of that fact, I’m a part of the Literary & Debating Society. No, really, they think I can be useful. They sent me to this really cool third-world country and all, last year. Enough about that for now; let’s talk about the tournament. Bando, Nanda and Kalrav won it, FYI.

I, for one, learnt a lot of fairly interesting things from the tournament. These include:

1) Never Trust MS Excel completely: It gets its calculations alright, but sometimes, when you don’t have enough RAM to sort successively by four parameters, it’ll do the first two, and then just do an A-Z sort. So check and recheck. Had it not been for Eashan (May The Force Be With You), we’d have run a tournament with a faulty tab system. I’m not tabbing next year. That, however, is a bridge we will cross only when we come to it.

2) Shah is WAY cool: For starters, he knows how MPJ works. He can also make zero-matter speeches, and still keep crowds entertained (refer Masters’ Debate). Also, the thing he did in the semi-finals, where he got both teams to thank the runner, was just hot.

3) Agarwal’s Chairing Style is Entertaining: This one’s either an Oxford hangover, or just his love for PD oozing out of all his pores. But it’s great fun to watch how he goes around systematically thanking and inviting speakers. Some people love his feedback, some others (like in Rd4), don’t. The nice part is that he just says what he wants to, irrespective.

4) The DebSoc can host tournaments: Here’s where I’d miserably underestimated myself, and thoroughly misestimated most people in the Soc. I was terribly sceptical about whether at all we could pull this one off. I didn’t trust our abilities. What I learnt though, is that when people come together, everyone works, someone or the other covers up for the ones that don’t, and you always have someone to back you up, when you screw up, even, if nothing else, to simply palliate. Kudos, specially, to all the Freshmen who came in as logistics staff. We haven’t had a SINGLE complaint about runners. That, in itself, methinks, is fairly commendable.

5) UT was a good choice for DCA: She can run tabs, allocate judges, adjudicate debates, and pick the coolest motions, all with a bandaged-foot. Also, having done this a couple of times before, she’s quick on damage-control. :D

Her and I had this conversation about how the MSRIT DebSoc lacks quality adjudicators and she suggested a couple of things that we could perhaps do to increase the quality, and not just quantity of our pool. Heela, DN and Assi were the only MSR adjudicators that were eligible to break, and as far as I can see, none of ‘em is going to shift to adjudication. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t mean to sound high-handed, but the point is, there is an element of pressure on me to perform as an adjudicator, because the pool is lacking in some sense. We have good judges; they get their decisions right, but their feedback just doesn’t match-up at tournaments. (@Shah/Agarwal/Ravi: Any brainwaves?)

6) I need a break from judging NLS matches: This one goes back to the Asians semi-finals. I’ve judged far too many NLS-NLS matches for my own good. I must concede, thought, that the third round NLS1-NLS2 match was amongst the closest I’ve seen. Ranks second only to that Wadhwa/Baba (NLS!) vs. LUMS match at the Asians. What I really want to do, is to judge teams that I’ve never heard of before. Any charities that you know of that may be willing to get me tickets to Gaborone? One is considering a three-month sabbatical from adjudicating, so if there’s an inexpensive tournament in that period, I’m going to make an utter fool of myself, and my hapless, unfortunate team-mates, by speaking.

Alright. ‘nuff said. I had fun at the tournament, and I’m happy we chose to host it. A successful project, not without it’s fair share of setbacks, but successful nonetheless. I’ve just about started looking forward to next year’s MSR Memorial Debate. See you there.

Queer Lyrics, The Rembrandts, Pop Culture.

2009-04-16T17:46:00.001+05:30

There’s this television show called “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.” . It probably embodies all characteristics of a slapstick-American-comedy. Needless to say, it’s awfully popular. Some think the show has a deeper meaning, and talks about what friends are. I haven’t many of those, so I wouldn’t know. But what’s amusing, is that a majority of my peer-group claims to “relate to the characters”. How acne-ridden, under-exposed, brand-conscious Indian teenagers, can relate to an exaggerated attempt at showing urban Americana, is still a mystery. My hypothesis, claims that in most cases, one of the two following blasphemous events occurs:

(a) The person thinks that everyone in America is like that. That they have their brother-in-law’s children, or marry gay women, or have frequent affairs with colleagues. And ever since the Raj, Indians as a race have a genetic need to look up to the White Man, and by watching these shows, and learning the mannerisms, they think they’re closer to being “American” (which, if you’re having a hard time catching up to this, is the COOLEST THING EVER).

(b) This one’s the more common one. It’s just kewl (or is it kool or cul, I forget), to be able to chat about the show. It’s the In Thing to watch the darned thing, because the Americans liked it.

In any case. I’m not generalizing here, and I’m not saying the show isn’t funny. I’m just saying I don’t understand why Seventh Graders like the show so much. Whatever. This blog-post isn’t even about the Show, or the pubescent populace that claims to enjoy it. It’s about that Oh!-so-famous title song.

Back in the day (read “About five years ago”), it was a song that EVERYONE would hum. In class, on the school bus, at singing competitions, the works. It was just “The F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Song”. Little did any of them know who the Rembrandts were, let alone Rembrandt ;). It was just another way of showing that you watched the show. It’s a catchy song, and I respect The R’s as a band, but I have a nit to pick with the lyrics. With one line, in particular:

“I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...”

From what I remember, that’s not how Friends are supposed to function. Is it supposed to be this relationship where you’re there for someone BECAUSE they’re there for you too? What’s all that jazz about unconditional friendships and BFFs and all the other stuff the same giggly girls that “luv” the song talk about. Explain it to me. Please.

I’m guessing that’s just what the World has come to. The Twenty First Century. But if that’s what “Friends” are, I don’t have any. None at all.

GeMUN

2009-02-21T17:31:00.001+05:30

Hello all! For those of you that are unaware, I’m off to Italy, come Tuesday, for the Genoa Model United Nations Conference, where I shall be chairing the DiSec. I’m anticipating some high-quality policy making, and a good atmosphere in general.

Let me admit, however, that I’m scared. Primarily for the following reasons:

1) MUNs in general are scary. I’m as prepared as can be, and I’ve done all my research. BUT. Being co-chair at a GA committee is still a tremendous responsibility, and I can only hope that I don’t mess up. I don’t see why I would, except that I’ve somewhat come to accept Murphy’s Law. Having a co-chair, is however, a big relief.

2) I’m scared of long-haul flights. BLR-DXB-MXP is sure as hell long haul. Ten hours, no less. I’ve never flown that far, and this will be my first longer-than-an-hour flight alone.

3) The weather is a tad amusing, to say the least. I have frost bite at 20’C; wind-chill is an almost alien concept. I’m taking more woollens for a week, than I’d wear in Bangalore for the rest of the year; and people still think it’s not enough. I’m taking a skull-cap, for crying out loud. I’d never fathom that here.

4) I’ve never been to Europe. It’s culturally different. To rub it in, my social company for the duration of the event is a bunch of globe-trotting teenagers. Then again I don’t know how many of them can claim to have spent a week in a third-world country, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Italy is know of course for its fascination with haute couture. I don’t want to be a misfit in my blue blazer. Then again I’m going there for the MUN, and not to dress up, so let’s see.

5) The country is full of tourists, and also I’m sure, has its fair share of people that thrive off of random gullible travellers (i.e. yours truly). Hopefully, all that will be overshadowed by the sheer beauty of the place.

6) I’m vegetarian. I hope they have food. :D

So, wish me luck. Say “Godspeed”, and hopefully, I shall be back, and with not a bruise to show. Then again I know there’s a section of you that’d rather I just get lost somewhere in Europe. If you’re one of them, I sympathize. I am, however, coming back. With a vengeance, for all you care. I’m going to be back in ATD class on the 4th of March, whether either of us like it or not. Also, if I’m able to, I’ll be blogging live from Genoa; just in case you miss me (shudders at the thought that someone might actually miss him).

:(

2009-02-15T08:06:00.002+05:30

My grades came out yesterday and they suck. A semester GPA of 8.0 and a cumulative of 8.5. That's horrid. Essentially, as you sow, so you reap, and I've been an absolute sow in not at all studying. Yessir. I screwed up big-time. It's over, there's not much I can do about it. They took the Ivy straight out of my future. *Like That*.

In other news, I'm leaving for Genoa next Tuesday. I'm scared. I'm having serious doubts about my capabilities. It's all wrong. I dunno.

State of The Nation - II

2008-12-11T15:53:00.003+05:30

I was introduced to Nissim Ezekiel, in Sixth Grade English class. His ability to capture a mood or setting, simply in style and choice of vocabulory. This poem is a part of his collection"Typically Indian Poems in Typically Indian English". It's a poem that we should all read, I think. Seriously, beyond all the jokes and the wit, the verse has a point. A point, that we most desperately and urgently need to get.

The Patriot

~Nissim Ezekiel

I am standing for peace and non-violence.
Why world is fighting fighting
Why all people of world
Are not following Mahatma Gandhi,
I am simply not understanding.
Ancient Indian Wisdom is 100% correct,
I should say even 200% correct,
But modern generation is neglecting-
Too much going for fashion and foreign thing.

Other day I'm reading newspaper
(Every day I'm reading Times of India
To improve my English Language)
How one goonda fellow
Threw stone at Indirabehn.
Must be student unrest fellow, I am thinking.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I am saying (to myself)
Lend me the ears.
Everything is coming -
Regeneration, Remuneration, Contraception.
Be patiently, brothers and sisters.

You want one glass lassi?
Very good for digestion.
With little salt, lovely drink,
Better than wine;
Not that I am ever tasting the wine.
I'm the total teetotaller, completely total,
But I say
Wine is for the drunkards only.

What you think of prospects of world peace?
Pakistan behaving like this,
China behaving like that,
It is making me really sad, I am telling you.
Really, most harassing me.
All men are brothers, no?
In India also
Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Hindiwallahs
All brothers -
Though some are having funny habits.
Still, you tolerate me,
I tolerate you,
One day Ram Rajya is surely coming.

You are going?
But you will visit again
Any time, any day,
I am not believing in ceremony
Always I am enjoying your company.

State of the Nation

2008-12-03T15:47:00.003+05:30

Look at that flag. No, seriously. Just stare at it for a moment. The problem that this state is facing, as we speak, is that we're all focussing on only the Green, or only the Saffron. So much so, that we miss the big picture. We miss, that a fabric holds the two together; and that fabric is white, not red.

Ok. Enough unproductive symbolism. Moving on to what really matters. The recent happenings, in Mumbai, and the repercussions thereof, are painfully amusing to study.

Let's get down to the basics. In the vicinity of our great land lies another state. This unstable state, has a coast-guard that works like a valve. One-way movement only. Twenty heavily-armed men were allowed to travel out of its territorial waters, into ours. Three hundred Indian fishermen are rotting in Pakistani gaols, for having strayed a few miles into their waters.

Paradigm shift. Let us now assume that the attacks were completely unpredictable, inevitable, and that the security forces did as good a job as could have been done in ending this crisis. I said assume. I know there's a lot of discrepancies in all of that, but let us, for the sake of this discussion, believe. EVEN THEN it was just weird.

The Politicians:

I accept. We're in India. A country where babus and netas abound, and where they simply CANNOT resist politicizing some issues. But for Chrissake, there are boundaries. Limits, if not on what you can or cannot politicize, than at least on how tactlessly you should do it. Narendra Modi, in Bombay, was just a waste of time, effort and jet-fuel. Honestly! If he so badly wanted to help, he could have pledged aid to the Government of Maharashtra right from his office in Gandhinagar. A city, might I add, that takes its name from a man who will be anything but proud of what this country has turned into. Ministers quitting. Bureaucrats crying. More ministers resigning. More shouting, screaming and campaigning all around. Dirty. That's the only word I have for it. My dad sent me this text message last night that read "Fear not the terrorist that came by boat, but the one that came by vote." Sad, but true. I have half a mind to enter politics, just to be able to show them how it's actually done. How it should be country-before-party. The fun part, though, is that the educated urban demographic has now come to understand this, and it'll slowly filter down to the farmer in the remotest corner. I won't be amused, in the next twenty years, to see a significant and steady rise in the number of independant and communist candidates in Parliament. A good thing, perhaps, that. Perhaps not. Que Sera Sera.

2) The Media:

In India, it has of-late become a norm, to type-cast "Media walon" into people that dramaticize everything for the sake of TRPs, and don't know where to draw the line. While that is true on a lot of counts, I think it's commendable, the responsibility they showed while the events in Mumbai were being covered. I agree that some agencies have been rumour-mongers, and that it's painful how most agencies will spend months after the incident, dissecting every little, insignificant detail, and in the process, perhaps even spreading fear amongst Indians. That's not my point. My point is that while they were covering the events as they happened, most media chose to present only the facts, as they were. Which is a good thing. Also, (I think this is an Adnan Patrawala effect), but the TV channels were very particular on what "Operational Details" they chose not to telecast live. Good, that. I'm in no way saying the Indian media has come of age. It's still a scandalous, rumour-monging bitch, that is yet to understand the importance of brevity or context BUT, what I AM saying, is that we're getting there.

The Good, the bad, the ugly. Every single citizen of this country has learnt things the hard way. Let's just hope that future generations read about terrorist attacks in history textbooks, and not in the morning Daily. Hope, against all odds.

I know I shouldn't be scared, because by being scared, I'm only giving the terrorists what they want. But I'm scared; very. I tell you why.
I live in a city that has horrific civic sense, only topped by a general callous, self-centered something-bad-happened-to-you-not-to-me-so-I'd-rather-laugh-than-help mentality. Add to that a youth population that is rich, and moves so predictably, as if in one large group, thronging the CBD every evening. That a majority of our law-enforcement has palms that match McDonalds, as far as grease is concerned, doesn't particularly help. Our ministers too, are too interested in haggling for a bigger motorcade or a helicopter to go on campaign trips, that they often largely, if not completely, miss the point. (Remember the Tata Tea "Job Application" advert?)

My thoughts are confused and badly mixed-up. But I know that the human race is rotting, and that things could be a whole lot better. Whatever.

As some wise man (or woman, perhaps) once said,

The World is full of apathy to suffering. But I don't care.

H o w G ( r ) 8 i s i t ?

2008-09-17T15:18:00.002+05:30

What follows is the text of an "Idea Paper", that I submitted for the Manipal MUN. It was supposed to have "shock value". That it doesn't. It on;y springs a subtle surprise in terms of perspective, that too, in the last line only.Anyway, Here Goes :

HOW G(R)8 IS IT?
A REVIEW ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE GROUP OF EIGHT

“The G8 summit in Japan earlier this month was a painful demonstration of the pitiful state of global cooperation.” – Jeffery Sachs, in The Guardian

Are the annual G8 Summits relevant in the Twenty First Century? Even with the inclusion of the Outreach Five, is the Group representative of the needs and beliefs of this heavily globalized World? The Group is a gathering of the Heads of the most powerful countries, economically and politically, but these questions still need answering. One can’t deny that the Group of Eight has been instrumental in the implementation of multilateral treaties that have changed the face of international trade. At the same time, one can’t help but have reservations about the futility of geriatric bureaucrats, deliberating the food-crisis of the relatively under-developed nations, over a seven-course meal, and then coming to the general consensus that nothing particular need be done. A debate has been raging in the media for quite a while now, about whether the Group is redundant, and whether a change in structure could revive it, and make it any more effective. Similar arguments are proposed with respect to other international groups of similar structure, like the NAM. What nobody seems to comprehend, though, is that the uniqueness of the G8, whether for better or for worse, lies in its composition. Giving the Group more power, either military or otherwise, will simply turn it into a parallel NATO, and a growth in the number of members, even gradually, is leading us towards another General Assembly, albeit a more informal variant.
Paradigm Shift. Let’s, for a moment, assume that the G8 never existed; that Rambouilet never happened. How different would things have been? Could the impending déjà vu of the 1973 oil crisis and the global recession that followed (the reason behind the formation of the G6) have been fully avoided? Or would we be deeper in this predicament than we are now? The paragraphs that follow attempt a perspective of the possible Good, Bad and Ugly implications, of a World without the Group of Eight.
Anybody’s everybody criticizes the Group’s policy on the trade of drugs for terminal diseases. The argument is that the G8 is giving more AIDS to Africa than they are aid. Over 60% of the African population suffers from AIDS. The G8 seems to want to appear like Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes, by pledging $60Billion to help AIDS victims in Africa. That this is seriously short of the target they declared to the world at Gleneagles seems to have gone unnoticed. Funnier still, is the amount of money they’ve pledged to improve high-school and college level education, when most children in Africa, are either starving, or dying for lack of medical attention. Also, the crux of the conundrum is more in that they have chosen not to reduce the duties and thereby the cost of these drugs that are exported from member nations. Had the G8 not existed, we would probably have had multiple bilateral treaties between these member states and the African countries, for the trade of vital drugs and drug technology at a subsidized price. One can go so far as to state that the percentage of the African population affected by HIV would be much lower. On the flip-side of this coin, is the possibility that without the G8, even the token aid they have pledged, would not be available. It’s anybody’s guess what would possibly have happened, but it’s difficult to deny that the presence of the Group has altered the African populace in some way or the other.
At the recently concluded G8 Summit in Japan, President George W Bush signed-off by saying “Thank You, from the World’s Largest Polluter”. One doesn’t know now, whether to feel happy that he finally accepted the crisis, or sad, since he meant it as a joke, and all the members of the Group found it rather amusing and funny. With the exception of France, none of the G8 members are taking the Environment so seriously as even to have imposed national caps on Carbon Emission. Their modus operandi is to set up elaborate panels and committees, talk a whole lot, and then conclude that they should pollute as much as they want, because they are rich, and that the developing World should cut down on emissions drastically, to compensate.
The essence, therefore, is simple. The G8 probably is more words than action. But they’ve changed the face of Free Trade in the World. All they need to do, is accept that they are a body focused on transnational trade between super-powers. They should simply stop claiming to be seriously concerned about other facets of World development, which, one believes, is only a façade.

P e a c e

2008-09-15T19:59:00.001+05:30

What is peace? How is it defined? In a world where reality itself is relative? An ambiguity in definition is only to be expected. Spiritual Gurus suggest that peace is largely intrinsic of individuals. That it is important for one to be "at peace with oneself". Or they'll give you jargon about karmic waves. Some others, who are mere mortals, might call a peaceful day, one when they didn't have arguments with their spouses or catfights with their colleagues. The Prime Minister of India is himself probably very distraught with trying to choose which one is affecting his peace more: Prakash Karat & Mamata Bannerji, or the Indian Mujaheddin. (No. I'm not comparing the two. While one is working for the people, the other is just killing them. I'm only trying to establish that it is difficult to tell which one is personally flustering Manmohanji more). A peaceful day, for a teenager in Kashmir, is mostly one where he can attend classes at school without being disturbed by gun-fire and bombs.

The ONE THING WE ALL AGREE UPON, though, is that whatever it is, Peace is not something we currently have in the World.

Peace, to me, is a hypothetical concept. Call me a pessimist; call me a cynic. Tell people who are calling me these names that they're making gross understatements. I will continue to comprehend Peace to be a complete myth. Excuse me for using Physics as an analogy, but the disorderliness of the Universe will continue to increase consistently, for eternity. That's just how it is. It's an infinite negative spiral. There will always be people with conflicting ideas, however significant or insignificant, and the human brain is hardwired to put up a fight for what it wants. A completely peaceful World is like Absolute Zero. We all want it to happen, we've all tried different ways to bring it about, and even those of us that accept it to be an impossibility do so very grudgingly. Besides, it's all relative to other things, which are in-turn relative to other things. So we'll never know what peace really is, because we'll never see it happen. The key to survival, is to simply accept the idea that it's wrong to waste effort attempting to bring about world peace (something I was willing to dedicate my life to, until very recently), because the thing is just an unfulifillable dream. A fascinating illusion. No more; no less.

Que Sera Sera. So carry a firearm on your person. That's if, for some reason, you actually WANT to live to see another day. I don't know why anybody'd want to do that, but I guess some of you are still fooled by the rumour that tomorrow will be better.

Marigold.

2008-09-14T08:07:00.001+05:30

My mom took this. I <3 it.

Indian Mujahedin? Not Indian, I'll tell you that much.

2008-09-13T20:41:00.002+05:30

WHAT IS GOING ON?
THE KALI YUGA IS HERE.

Barkha Dutt just called serial-blasts "a monthly ritual" for India.

Taus just texted me about how sickening it was that they did things like this during Ramzan, and took shelter under the umbrella of religion.

Politics and religion in India are intertwined so intricately, that it's scary.

I just lost all faith in the concept of long-term life-goals.

Bye (may be for the last time)

2008-08-19T06:36:00.000+05:30

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.

Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.

You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.

You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.

You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Great Shot, Bindra!

2008-08-17T21:00:00.002+05:30

Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal at the Olymipcs. The first individual one ever by an Indian. I believe that's a big deal, and that we, as his compatriots, must be proud. He is obviously a phenomenal sportsman. And we should appreciate that. I don't comprehend though why the media in India is completely tearing apart his personal life. Statements from random passers-by that have never met him about how "show-off-ish" he is, about how he's a snob and about how he flies Business Class all the time. A lot was said about how he didn't celebrate his victory enough, and how Olympic Gold went to his head. About how his father spoilt him by gifting hin the hotel. Why do we care? None of this is affecting his ability as a shooter, obviously. He's currently the best in the world, at that event. When I was just asking the question "Is the press THAT desperate", I got this morning's paper. A half-page article on how the chap is single, and is the "ideal bachelor". Let the poor chap score with whomever he wants. Why is it anybody else's problem. What I'm trying to say, essentially, is that it's so typical of us Indians to criticise an achiever on some other front. If he's a good sportsperson, criticise his personality. If she's a famous singer, complain about how she's ugly (OK, that was the Chinese, but the Indians would have done it too, I'm sure). That twang of jealousy exists in all of us. We MUST dissect the poor chap until we have something bad to say about him, and then tear him apart. Why, I ask?

His achievement is unpreceedented. We must acknowledge and respect him for that, and then leave it there. But no, we won't. The Indian media will keep biting at the same scrap of news till it's mangled beyond recognition.

I know the media claims that they're the "peoples' watchdog" and it's probably wrong for me to blame them fully. But in general, the coverage of this entire event was rather sloppy.

But if any publicity really is good publicity, I genuinely hope that his achievement leads the way in focussing the limelight on sportspersons other than cricketers.

2008-08-14T13:20:00.000+05:30

2008-08-11T11:14:00.000+05:30

People Definitely Like You

You are very well liked, and many people admire you.

You are friendly, well mannered, and fun to be around.

Of course, you're not perfect... but that's okay.

Your friends are usually willing to accept you for who you are!

What People Don't Like About You:

People don't like that you're quite sensitive and easily offended. People feel like they have to watch their words around you.

People don't like that you put others down and like to gossip. They are worried that you also gossip about them!

People don't like that you forget them easily. No one wants to be friends with someone who doesn't remember their name!

What People Like About You:

People like that you truly take and interest in them. Everyone likes to be liked!

People like that you take responsibility for your actions and admit your mistakes. They appreciate your maturity.

People like that you're interesting and intriguing. You always have something interesting to say.

Do People Like You?

2008-07-28T06:51:00.000+05:30

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic

You think rationally, clearly, and quickly.

A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

K-M-U-N !

2008-07-12T07:46:00.002+05:30

Aditi Verma and myself went to the Kumarans MUN as guest speakers. I quite liked the level of debate. Kiran said the press was muddled, so I offered to write a filler for their newsletter. It's rather strange, and I'm sure somebody will edit it, or scrap it altogether. It's a letter, to the delegates. Here it is in its original transcript :

Dear Delegates,

MUNs, as I’ve said before, are the only way one can get an adrenalin rush while in a suit. Trying to add a clause to a resolution, resolving a crisis, or just holding the floor in a moderated caucus, are all seemingly simple things, but appearances can be deceptive. Adopting a foreign policy, which is very foreign indeed, and representing a country you’ve never been to, in the World body, can at times be a tad tricky, but is almost always a great deal of fun. Personally, I was very impressed by the quality of deliberation at KMUN; it’d be hard to tell that all of you were first-time MUNers. However, one can always improve, and the best way to do that, is to attend more conferences. Sometimes, it simply comes down to whether or not you crumble under pressure in a situation. This is obviously less likely to happen if you’ve been there before. It is quintessential for you to understand, that the UN is not just another arena of contention. It is as much a show of contention as it is of compromise. It’s about a hundred and ninety two countries teaming up to make the World work. Lots have argued that the UN is now dated, and powerless, and that it is no more than a puppet in the hands of the United States. I disagree. Irrespective of whether or not the UN has binding authority on member states, it carries with its decisions, the weight of the opinion of a majority of its members; a majority of the world. The UN has, in the past, successfully solved crises. The forte of the world body lies in the fact that all member nations are brought to the table, and given an equal standing, from where they can discuss or even haggle, until they unanimously agree on a plan of action. MUNs, are no different. While it is important to adhere to your country’s foreign policy, you must also be flexible enough to make compromises, if need be. It’s paramount, however, that you enjoy yourselves while ensuring all of this!

MUNs, however insignificant they may seem in the entire scheme of things, also play an instrumental part in bringing about that very cliché goal of World Peace. The fact is, delegate, you are the future of our world. MUNs give you an opportunity to understand, and experience first-hand, how Government and policy making functions. Also, I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that participating in a simulation of a body like the United Nations, would have given you a zoomed out perspective of countries, and how they interact with each other, and a thorough comprehension of current world affairs. Needless to mention, it’s also an opportunity to strut those fancy clothes that are gathering dust.

I’d like to congratulate all the delegates, and the secretarial staff of KMUN ’08, for having pulled off a blindingly satisfactory MUN conference. A toast is in order: To the future of KMUN as an event, and each one of you, as individuals. I hope to see you in more such conferences, and perhaps even as real-world diplomats one day!

Happy MUNing !

Regards,

Prithvi S Acharya,

Random. Very Random

2008-07-12T07:23:00.002+05:30

I've been ignoring TC for a while now. Perhaps because I was ill, or bored, or busy, or more likely, just plain lazy. Things have happened in the world over the last few days.

For one, Robert Mugabe thinks he "won" the elections. That's a big joke, in'nit? Think about it. It's really the easiest way to win an election. Just scare the living daylights out of all other candidates. It's easier than what they do in India. Here, you've to buy people out; that costs money. Our Government is so blatantly buying people with seats in Parliament, it's not even funny. I don't even know why they're struggling so much. They'll lose the next General elections big-time anyway. Prakash Karat is being rather interesting. Then again most of the Big Reds are quite intriguing. This debate that we're having about IAEA regulations, whether or not you agree with me, is essentially a debate about whether the UN is a sovereign body, or whether it's a US puppet. Personally, I think they should just sign the 123. Somebody needs to make a start. We can't keep waiting for Pakistan. They won't disarm until somebody nukes them. We'll be just about fine; and nuclear fuel at that price will only boost our economy. And, not to mention, our environment. Yesterday, I drove the car all the way upto Banashankari, and came back. In one piece. It's two hours and a half each way, but I didn't tire much. We went for Kiran's Kumarans MUN. The traffic sucked. My hapless passenger was probably cursing herself for having sat in the car in the first place. But honestly, that's the only way we'd have gotten there. Buses would have taken ages, and getting back on the bus would have been impossible, thanks to the mad mob fury in JC Nagar. I, for one, don't fully comprehend why anybody would go stick a pig's head on a spike outside a mosque. I don't understand why anybody has to be against a particular religion, but I'm saner than to question fundamentalists. From what I've seen, though the religious organizations in India are more than ready to have very deeply spiritual debates. Such gory acts that incite violence are just stupid, and obviously, completely uncalled for. Then again India is a country of diversity. A country that finds it very difficult, sometimes, to accept this diversity.

* Now Playing : Linger ~ The Cranberries *

This post is rather random, but I am rather random. College does that to you. it muddles your head so bad, you can't tell the difference between two seperate thoughts. Oh! And I want to watch KungFu Panda & Get Smart & Hancock. Does any of you own a movie theatre? A proper orthodox one, with rows and rows of seating and a nice big screen? Multiplexes are suffocating. And on weekdays, when I can actually afford them, they're full of the pseudo-cool college crowd. And the people that come to the movies not to watch the movie but to fully utilize the dark space they're in. Bah!

2008-07-12T07:11:00.000+05:30

You Are Strawberries with Cream

Fresh and uncomplicated, you are always enjoyed but often overlooked.

You're confident in who you are. You don't need a facade to feel better about yourself.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

2008-07-02T07:15:00.000+05:30

2008-06-29T18:48:00.001+05:30

2008-06-06T21:38:00.000+05:30

Your Personality at 35,000 Says...

Deep down, you vastly prefer being with others to being alone. You love to engage people in conversation.

You are not too sure what your place in the world is yet. You often feel invisible in a crowd.

Your gift is having a way with words. You know how to express yourself well.

You are inspired by what is possible. Real life is often too ordinary for you.

You are happy as long as you are given some personal space. It's important for you to have your own private life.

The Personality Test at 35,000 Feet

5/6/2008

2008-06-05T06:26:00.003+05:30

Today is World Environment Day. Our Government couldn't have timed the oil-price hike better. I get that it's going to affect the economy tremendously, but I still think they should completely remove the subsidy on petroleum, and have different duty rates for different fuels, and different purposes. Given, that's an implementation nightmare, but I'm being an idealist here. Making fuel less affordable will hopefully force the masses to look at alternatives. Electric vehicles, public transport, or simply more fuel efficient cars. (Or bicycles, of course)

It's a good day to remember to reduce, reuse and recycle. Nothing significant seems to have happened since Bali, and the world is still melting. It came as quite a pleasant surprise to me, that the Argentinian Government was moved enough by Greenpeace's "Ban The Bulb" Campaign, that they're actually phasing out bulbs completely.

Today is also a good day to try having a low-carbon-footprint-day. Take a bus to work, or walk. Take your own bag to the departmental store. Turn off the lights when you don't need them. Run this monitor on low-brightness. Everything counts.

Cliche as this sounds, we have one world. And it's particularly beautiful. We might as well protect it. Armageddon isn't a very pleasing thought. And it's scarier if it appears in the same sentence as 21st Century.

2008-05-24T07:06:00.000+05:30

You Are 44% Cynical

Yes, you are cynical, but more than anything, you're a realist.

You see what's screwed up in the world, but you also take time to remember what's right.

How Cynical Are You?

2008-05-06T06:14:00.004+05:30

Congratulations to Dr.Chua and Dr.Williams(and his team at HP). If I had the ability, I'd have already given them a Nobel Prize for Physics. At least this time, I don't want some computer-geek snatching the Physics award. Let them institute a Nobel for Computers. For those of you that aren't yet in the know, they discovered the FOURTH passive component in electronic circuits (after resistors, inductors, and capacitors). It's called a memristor. It's short for memory resistor. It's fabricated from Titanium Dioxide. It varies resistance according to the time integral of the input wave. So essentially, it remembers what just went through it. It's most probably the biggest thing since the IC. In under a decade, we'll be seeing HP computers that don't require shutting down. You can just turn them off, and turn them on three months later to return to the same session. Which is a good application. Also, this is amongst the biggest steps towards significantly smarter robots that will try to work like our brains (I don't believe AI is possible, or I'd have used the phrase here). And text-books will have to be re-written. (But I bet the ISC will wake up to it when my grand-daughter goes to school. The syllabus hasn't even included optical storage and flash memory. We did study about LPRs and vacuum tubes, though). I must remember to ask SD exactly how they work, these memristors.

Another thing I've been meaning to blog about for a while now, is the new Horlicks advert. The one with Darsheel Safary telling kids to "Drink Horlicks, Be Cool". Darsheel's fame has got him in the head, and now apparently he's all cocky. But I haven't issues with him. It's the ad that I can't stand. I find the entire concept down-right objectionable. For that target audience to be given the impression that wearing shades and other accessories renders you "kewl", is primarily wrong. And as icing on the cake, they've defined cool as that girl in your class having the hots for you and thinking you're cool. So essentially, the ad is trying to tell fourth-graders, that if you wear shades, all the chicks (OK, in my day 4th Graders didn't use that word, but I think now they do) will like you, and that is "cool". That idea, even if it were to work, (as GP said) would work in my age-group; not Darsheel's. I completely get that Horlicks is trying to make the best of the currently mounting peer-pressure for kids to be cool (while most of these fellows can't even spell the word properly, thanks to SMS), while at the same time, repositioning Horlicks as an enjoyable cold bevarage rather than a health-drink. The ad has probably got more children drinking Horlicks. But not because they want to be "Taller, Stronger, Sharper", but because they wan't to "Be Cool". That, whether you like it or not, has something fundamentally wrong with it. Shame on your copy-writers and creative directors; especially after that AMAZING advertizement with Konkana, for "Women's Horlicks", and the not-so-bad one where all the kids steal milk to make "Horlicks Shake". Oh! And for the record, I still drink Horlicks, and I like it. my mom believes I require the micro-nutrients in it, and it doesn't taste that bad. BUT, the fact that I drink Horlicks is standing testimony to one thing, more than anything else. HORLICKS DOESN'T MAKE YOU COOL.

At this time tomorrow, I will be in the Boarding Lounge at the Kolkata airport (assuming our visas materialise), on my way to Dhaka. Before you ask, I'm NOT going there to turn into a terrorist. Or for an MUN. As I've said on TC before, I'll be going as adjudicator for the NSU All Asian Inter-varsity Debating Championship. Sounds fancy; I hope it is. I must go buy a notebook so I can write a log. I'm not counting on having the time, resources or inclination to blog live. I may do it once or twice. Wish me luck and pray for my safe return. For one, we're flying in pressurised-cabin jet-planes, where my ears are more likely than not to pop. And Nargis (the storm, not the actress), has left me more than a little worried. For live weather in Dhaka, there's a feed-widget to the right of this column.

That is all for now.

I'm leaving, on a Jet Plane . . .

2008-05-01T19:04:00.002+05:30

Yes, on Tuesday night we leave for Dhaka. I've CAED and Physics Lab. internals before that, but those will go well. I doubt I'll update TC again before I leave.

I will be maintaining a log of events and activities, and will post them here. A couple of live posts may be on the cards. We shall see about that.

Earth Day !

2008-04-22T06:46:00.002+05:30

I pledge today, to save the planet (my namesake). I don't want to be amongst the last few generations to inhabit this planet. Much as there's so much war, and so many people are "randomly" dying, we're doing better off now, than we would without a planet in the first place. So if not for yourself, for your children, and theirs.

Happy Earth Day !

Gee !

2008-04-18T11:54:00.003+05:30

This is the kind of stuff we do in college out of sheer boredom. No we didn't bug the calculator, and NO, it isn't a trick photo. My calculator is ACTUALLY showing that display.

I Guess!

2008-04-14T12:18:00.001+05:30

Now Playing: Amanda ~ Aisha Duo

There haven't been any major posts on TC in a while, and this isn't one either. I resorted to playing Tag with Aditi Verma, doing a random BlogThings quiz, accusing Orkut of not knowing arithmetic and changing the look of my blog instead of actually sitting and writing something. I haven't had the inclination. But I like this new look. I like the search box. Pixie thinks the clock looks like the Marauders' Map. I'm bored with life. I wish I could simply brighten it up by downloading and XML file. I aren't saying I don't like things the way they are. I'm saying the monotony is unnerving. The stupid muscle catch that I now have because I slept improperly on Saturday night isn't a very nice thing to have happened.

This post is a weird and disjointed as it gets.

The all-important Second Internals start on Wednesday. I note with amusement that I'm actually studying. But then again, I want to negate the need to write the Third Internals. Quantum Mechanics is fun and I only owe it to SD to do decently in Electrical Engineering. The Computer Science teacher (Teju; who deserves a blog-post to herself, and will get it in the near future) has promised a difficult, long paper. She's young, new to teaching, and unexposed to the unruliness of Mechanical Engineers. Her staging a walk-out because the class didn't know how to behave doesn't help too much, really. So, for the first time since December '05 [ICSE Prefinals], I find myself needing to "study" for a Computers exam. I DON'T look forward to the prospect, but when you've got to study, you've got to study.

* Frowns. Makes faces. Rolls eyes in Tejuistic fashion *

The English teacher is another interesting gentleman. He can't stop bragging about his neutral accent. He's also a big flirt and his crowd-pleasing below-the-belt jokes are awfully stale, and cheese me out. We've onlt had one class so far, but I'm not really looking forward to more. The only good part is that there's no hard-core studying there.

Our Class Rep. Sharath a.k.a Charlie is one interesting fellow, and is proving to be particularly tiresome to a lot of the others in class. He doesn't like if teachers pay attention to anybody but him in class. Obviously, then, he can't stand us. I think he even told Namratha something to that effect. The quadrode couldn't care less. We just like to kick back, relax, and watch the fun as he tries his best to be the most popular chap in college. Not to mention, he's failing miserably. His intriguing negociations with Teju will feature on TC shortly.

Now Playing : Canadian Idiot ~ Weird Al

In other news, I'm going to Dhaka in May for the All-Asian Inter-Varsity Debating Championship, as an adjudicator. Ravi, Nitya and Sukalyan are coming too. I'm terribly excited. Honestly, I don't see why I shouldn't be. Most people I've told so far(about half-a-dozen in all), say only mad people visit Bangladesh in the middle of summer, but somehow they seem to miss that I amn't going on a holiday. Since I'm going 1500 miles for a debate, I figured I might as well give it my best shot. So, as soon as the internals are over, I must chew on (and completely digest) Colm Flynn, Simon Quinn, and other varied literature on current issues of international importance. That's actually a lot more fun than it sounds like. And in the long run, it'll do me good. Mom is more than a little worried that my week in Dhaka will cost me in Grades and attendance and the likes. She has a valid point. It's going to take extra effort on my part not to let my scores drop. All that, along with the evening DebSoc meetings, will ensure that I'm a busybody until the second week of May. Which is probably a good thing, since my social-life outside the college is limited, if not non-existent, in any case.

The IPL season starts next week. I'm not much of a cricket-watcher. But the publicity the event is getting is crazy. Everything I know about the IPl, I learnt at the Udbhav debate. I'm waiting for the Davis Cup playoffs. Paes & Bhupati will play together. Then they'll have a slug-fight and make up before the next event, where they will play together again and then wash dirty laundry in the tabloidistic Indian press. You can't deny though that Hesh has a fair point, and that Mirza and him make a decent team. The fireworks display at the Olympics opening ceremony in August is also likely to be a spectacle. The Chinese have been making fireworks for aeons.

I must remember to get a Drivers' Licence. And call Richard and find-out when he's starting the next Intermediate batch. If you're still reading this, congratulations. You are hereby awarded the "Most Unproductive" award. Speaking of, maybe I should get a Superlative like that on FB.

Orkut can't count.

2008-04-10T07:14:00.003+05:30

Ay Ay ! Orkut can't count for nuts. But then again so can't I.
Social Networking websites are one strange thing. They're daft, and they're a waste of tme, most often.
But they're fun, and sadly addictive.

I hereby pledge to consciously start trying to spend as little time on Orkut & FB.
I guess.

Mein Gehirn

2008-04-02T20:55:00.000+05:30

Your Mind is Orange

Of all the mind types, yours is the quickest.

You are usually thinking a mile a minute, and you could be thinking about anything at all.

Your thoughts are often scattered and random - but they're also a lot of fun!

You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about esoteric subjects, the meaning of life, and pop culture.

What Color Is Your Mind?

Let's play tag.

2008-03-24T20:19:00.003+05:30

I got tagged by Aditi Verma. It's some strange Blog phenomenon. I guess I'll do it anyway.

Five things you wish you could say to people (no names to be taken):
1) Don't think I can't see past your facade.
2)What's your problem if I talk too much. Stop listening.
3)Give me something to eat. Now.
4)Asking valid doubts isn't my form of questioning your authority.
5)Just leave me be ME.

Eight things about me:
1)I like physics; almost as much as I don't like chocolate.
2)I'm an online Greenpeace activist, but I forget to turn out the lights in my bedroom.
3)I think chivalry is IN.
4)I'm vegetarian; I don't drink or smoke. (Ravi's sureshot go-to-heaven formula, apparently, but for me, it just feels right anyway)
5)I couldn't give less what you thought about me.
6)I like to MUN !
7)I think riding a bicycle to work makes a bigger statement than a flashy car (helmet notwithstanding).
8)I'm blunt, curt, and rude. If you can't handle that, don't talk to me.

One way to win my heart (there’s just one):
Don't ask me. Ask the Cardiothoracic surgeon. You remember what I said about hearts, don't you?

Five things that cross my mind a lot:
1)Breakfast
2)Lunch
3)Dinner
4)World Peace
5)Greenpeace

One thing I wish I never did:
Be around in the 21st Century. It's such a weird place with pseudo people, and people who want world domination (yes, yes, Dubya is not a bad example. But I was referring to OB Laden).

Three Turn Offs:
1)Fake Accents (especially the so-called US Accent), Pseudo People, Bad Grammar. Anything that clearly shouts that you're trying to be something you're not.
2)Sarcasm
3)Life, in general

Four things I want to do before I die:
1)Visit a hundred countries.
2)Own a plane, and be able to fly it.
3)Win an igNobel.
4)Save a life.

One Confession:
Much as it may occasionally appear to be the contrary, I'm the most self-centered person you've ever known. Everything I do has an ulterior selfish motive.

Now. As this game of online tag demands, I must tag other Bloggers; propogate the thread ! So, I tag:

1) Archit
2) Amita
3) Ruth
4) Anindita
5) Karthik
6) Liza

Half a Decade. Wasted.

2008-03-20T19:30:00.002+05:30

1) Dubya is a strange man.
2)There were no WMD in iRaq.
3) Much as Saddam was a dictator, and probably deserved to hang, the US Government didn't have the authority to make that choice.
4) Operation Iraq Liberation was about oil.

It's been five years to the day since Yankeeland invaded Iraq (that their head-of-state still can't pronounce it is another issue altogether).It's been five years of sacrilege. In Abu Gharib, in the Museum, in households in strife-ridden Iraq.

The casualty count over the last five years is bone-chilling. It's awkward. And I still don't see stability.

Here's the thing. The US chose to over-ride the UN, and common-sense, because they firmly believed that their so-called plan was going to be fast, and obstacle-free. Or so they claimed.

This blog post is abstract and absurd. But it has one simple point.

Five years. And nothing. The stupid people deserve their econmy to crash. And crash it will.

On the hair "style"

2008-03-17T16:43:00.002+05:30

When's the last time your stubble was longer than the hair on your head?I must however admit that it's bloody comfortable for the summer ;)

Politics is dirty. Politicians are the cleanest.

2008-03-14T07:38:00.002+05:30

I know you'd be lying if you claimed that you'd never heard the phrase "Politics is Dirty Business".

That statement couldn't have been more correct, because:
1. It's Dirty
2. It's a Business

But, think about politicians. Since politics is all about popularity and back-stabbing, are politicians bad people?

My answer, is a simple NO.

Here's why. Politicians blatantly get their hands dirty. They don't deny politics. They're open about the fact that they want you to vote for them. There's politics everywhere. At work, in educational institutions, in your own drawing-room; everywhere. And there's a hoard of people that claim to be doing other productive work, while indulging full-time in sleazy politics. From this perspective, aren't politicians really nice and honest people?

Kali Yuga II

2008-02-17T21:55:00.001+05:30

Mumbai is burning. The smoke might have settled, but the damage is permanent. North Indians that live in the city will eternally fear for their life. More importantly, Mumbaikars will sub-consciously differentiate between locals and migrants, for years to come. The MNS ideology has "vital flaws in its character" (I stole that insult from reH, but it suits). Raj Sahab wants all non-Marathis out of Bombay because they're encroaching on his space. Mumbai is the country's business capital, and business is about cooperation. The city will get hit badly if all migrants went back home. A majority of taxi drivers, celebrities, and business honchos aren't locals. Imagine trying to run the Aditya Birla group from a village in Rajasthan or the Tata Group from Jamshedpur. The B in Bollywood stands for Bombay. Besides, hasn't he thought of how many Maharashtrians will lose their jobs if despotic politicians in all other states in the country decided to incite mob violence against migrants? I'm not writing this post to tell the world that Mumbai will be practically decapitated if all migrants moved out. I have no firsthand experience of living in the Maximum City, and I'm not entitled to comment.

The question I'm trying to ask here, is that if harmony in our most developed city is too much to ask for, what about the country, or the world.

Hate crimes are now almost passé in a lot of places. Kenya, India, The USA, Iraq, and a whole hoard of other developing and developed nations. The issue of contention may be creed, colour, caste, religion or political stance, but the point is, that there's too much discrimination happening, for a plethora of rather stupid issues.

In this day and age, is "World Peace" no more than an oxymoron?

One Down. Seven to Go.

2008-01-24T14:36:00.001+05:30

It’s the thirtieth of the month. More importantly however, it’s officially my last day in the first semester. The end of the beginning, or perhaps the beginning of the end? I haven’t much else to do right now. So, for my considerable (not to mention non-existent) fan base, I will now review “One Semester @ The College”. (Yes. I plagiarized Chetan Bhagat’s title. Not just that; going by the way my exams have been I may even rename this post “Seven Point Someone”. But I haven’t quoted off his book. This post isn’t about prodigious, perseverant people that make it to IIT. It’s about those that don’t even try.)

Let me clarify here, that this entry is meant as an attempt at humour, and is solely for light reading. The author has no personal vendetta against any of the individuals mentioned in the blogpost. He therefore takes no legal responsibility for any information or opinions that may be published on TiffinCarrier.

If contemporary literature, TV and films are to be trusted, grad school is all about shady parties, cheap booze, bunking classes, Pink Floyd and weed. Going by this definition, I’m clearly not having “the life”. And I have no plans whatsoever of getting anywhere near it, Thank you. I will however be lying if I said I saw no difference between school and college. For one, I only have to leave the house at 8.45, as opposed to at least an hour earlier if I was planning on catching Route 6. Further, I walk to and from college. For some yet-to-be-ascertained reason, I like that it’s less than a kilometre away. Some feeling of security, that gives me. That my commuting has a negligible carbon footprint is a bonus.

Outside Little Shop. "Little Shop" is a store that exists just outside the college gate. ITC's coffers would get signigicantly lighter if this shop was closed.

In VNS, interaction was the key to learning. And we had great teachers. The focus was on teaching and learning. The question of the teacher’s “image” was very rarely, if ever, heard of. Here, all my doubts are haughtily shot down with vague statements like “Keep your expert comments to yourself.” and “That is not within the scope of the syllabus.” Clearly, this has been happening in the classrooms of this institution for aeons. That probably explains why, when a “central syllabus” student is admitted into the college, he is given, at no extra cost, the reputation of being cocky, and (in the words of, well . . . somebody)”having bad attitude and not serious in life”. The funny part, however, is that the feeling is mutual, and everyone can really feel the love. I get the impression, very often, that the lecturers are not, at that moment, prepared to answer my “out-of-syllabus” and “expert comments” doubts, and have egos that are one size too large to graciously accept that (that I am generalizing this statement does not mean it applies to everyone). On any given day, I will respect someone who accepts that they don’t know the answer, and then gets back to me with the answer a week later, a great deal more than I would a “teacher” that simply circumvents the question. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. It could be that the teachers at school have spoilt me properly by being too good to be true. I still love them all.

I must admit, though, that there was a bit of a culture-shock in college (Okay! That was an understatement). But I’m not complaining. While my articulacy in the English language seems to have been affected severely, I can now write my name in Kannada, and plan to make the best use of my cross-cultural class, by learning to swear in Bhojpuri, Bengali & Malayalam. It took me a while to find my bearings, but thanks to a few sane, English-speakers that I have befriended, I’m quite settled-down now. Nihal , Purushothama, Namratha, Madan, Minkul, Namita, Samuel, Salman and everyone else that I’m supposed to name there but forgot. My buddies! I’ve only known them a few months, but from what I can tell, these ties will go a long way. Primarily because they’re all the type that will happily collaborate with me to hatch and execute sinister engineering-student-type plans to take over the world. Two of them even showcased their malicious capabilities by contributing the Tehelka-style photographs for this post. All pictures of faculty that appear in this post were taken by Minkul (excepting one or two by Puru), during class. Thank You *evil laugh*. Random taxonomy fact: Prithvi, Nihal & Puru, when working as a team are known as the Transistor Trio (from the initials, PNP. Yeah, that’s probably the heights of Nerdy Names, but what the heck?).

This is a strange panoramic that Samuel took. R-L: Puru, Minkul, Namratha, Me. I wasn't drunk; just having a bad hair day.

Speaking of college, I believe I took eight subjects this semester. And I’m hoping against all odds that I’ll get all those credits. Pray for me, and you will be rewarded with . . . well actually, pray for me anyway, because I’m a good human being, or some such.

1) Engineering Mathematics I
Subject Code: MAT101
Subject Teacher/s: Prof. SVCV Subba Bhatta (VSB)

Math class always promised to be fun. Sometimes, simply because he didn’t mind us dozing off in class. Except for that one time when he told me to stop leaning on the desk & sit up straight, VSB has been rather nice to me. And to the class in general. He’s the only teacher that took extra classes on Sunday morning so that he could finish portions. He will however be etched in our memories for unforgettable quotes like:
“Differential Operator, TV Operator, Electrical Operator, Mixie Operator”
*raises hand* “I’ll kick you man, that’s all.”
“You should see the thrill in the theorem-oo”
*To poor North Indians that can’t speak a word of Kannada* “Artha Aithenri? Adrali Yenu Illa Rii . . .Tumba Simple-oo”
and * drum roll*
“The point of the fact of the matter of the Thing-oo”

To be honest, his classes were a lot of fun, and he still got math into my head (no ordinary feat, that), so I really won’t mind having him teach us math next time around.

2) Engineering Chemistry I
Subject Code: CHE101
Subject Teacher/s: Prof. BM Nagabhushan (BMN), Prof. BS Durgakeri (BSD)

Prithvi Acharya’s relationship with Chemistry has always been love-hate. Much more hate than love. The 19th of January marked my last interaction with chemistry for a while (Three years, at least). Thankfully, we will part with a good taste in the mouth. Over the last four months or so, I was exposed to aspects of chemistry that are of great importance to any (wannabe?) machine-designer. I’ve just begun to accept that all sciences are inter-related, and it’s not going to cause any harm if I study some aspects of it, albeit, without much interest. I was rather surprised when I was able to tolerate chemistry class. Not just tolerate, but perhaps even like it, to some extent. Dr. Durgakeri seamlessly integrates his own style of humour into the syllabus. I will never forget his “What not to do” lecture on bomb calorimeters. He comes across as the type that really has fun teaching the subject, and in turn, infuses a palpable amount of edutainment into our otherwise not-so-stimulating routine. BMN was the dynamic type. He stuck to his lesson plan as though they were bound with glue. Feviquik, no less. He is beyond doubt amongst the most organized teachers that the college has ever employed. Don’t get me wrong here; he isn’t the boring types. Hardly. His classes are an optimal mix of fun, learning, and off-syllabus information; all the elements of a good lecture. I was rather cross with him for a while after he read my name off the roll-call list as “Prithi”, but he was soon forgiven. Besides, thanks to my having to correct him three times over, the entire class learnt my name. One semester of “Engineering Chemistry”, somehow got me over that hatred. I still don’t love the subject, but will be open to better acquaint myself with it, if I find that it will make me better at what I do.

3) Elements of Mechanical Engineering
Subject Code: ME101
Subject Teacher/s Mr. Niranjan “Nidde” Murthy, Mr. PN Girish Babu (PNG)

Sri Niranjan Murthy draws very neat diagrams. He also competes with me for the “most-brightly-dressed-male-in-college” title sometimes. Cart wheeling up to the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro will be substantially simpler than finding another compliment that I can pay him without lying. In his very first lecture, I knew something was utterly wrong. I have said so in an earlier post.
While he did technically cover the entire syllabus, he only did so as a technicality. A typical lecture would involve twenty minutes for him to draw a diagram after having come in ten minutes late, followed by twenty minutes of him simply strolling around the class, while we meticulously copied down the same. Hence the moniker “Nidde” (Kannada: Sleep). Nine-and-a-half minutes to take the attendance meant thirty seconds of valuable explanation. The chapter on “Joining Processes: Soldering, Brazing & Welding”, which I’d expect to have taken four hours, at least, was completed in 12 seconds flat. With these very words:

“Welding is the joining process. There are the two types. You done in the workshop.”

When I lost a few marks for a diagram, which, to most other people I asked looked exactly like the one in a text-book he had authored, I showed bravado by going and asking him what was wrong. His repartee was classic.

“It is fully wrong man. Where did you copied that diagram from? Is that look like a Pelton Wheel? Be happy I gave you those four marks, I should have given you two.”

Then I learnt how it was to be done here. Sit down, shut up, and go with the flow. That way, class is particularly relaxing; no mental activity whatsoever.
PNG’s classes (we had three in the entire term, I think), were particularly enlightening. He took time to ensure that we had grasped the concept behind the machine we were learning about. Cool. Only, I wish we had him for a few more classes. I remember Madan suggesting that we should have Niranjan Sir draw diagrams, while PNG explained them. That team would have been killer. Especially with the combined power of Nidde’s bright yellow shirt, and PNG’s silver-swoosh Nikes.

At the end of it all, the subject that I anticipated to be the most interesting turned out to be quite a damper. Maybe the subject is itself supremely lacklustre. Maybe it was the way I studied it. Maybe, just maybe, it was the way I was taught. Either way, I stand dreadfully disappointed.

4) Elements of Electronics
Subject Code: EC101
Subject Teacher/s: Mr. Nuthan “Newton” Prasad

In the very first week of class, he told us that the easiest way to remember the two types of doping was to remember his initials. Perhaps it was that, perhaps it was just something about his appearance, or perhaps body-language, but I had a prejudice against this gentleman right from the beginning. I committed the blunder of comparing him with Ms. Usha & Ms. Minal. I couldn’t resist it. He was teaching the exact same thing! Once I’d done that, this distaste for the man was bound to develop. That he came and said things like:

“Time may change, but I will never change”

and

“When I say something I will do it, I will do it.”

didn’t appear to help much, really.

Another bone of contention is that somehow he thinks that there is “the smart lot” and “the stupid lot”, and that he should simply give up on the latter is baffling and blatant mediocrity. Maybe I’m just complaining because in his view, I was a part of this rather unfortunate lot. But there is definitely something wrong when he says:

“Those who are weak in maths needn’t attempt this. You’ll still be able to attempt 80% of the paper.”

He has featured on this very log twice before, not in particularly good light. That he is young and energetic notwithstanding, I had to relearn some stuff that he tried to teach because he left me confounded and lost. Can you believe, after having passed ISC Electronics, I had to go back to the basic concepts of semiconductors because somehow, I managed to get quite perplexed after he’d taught it. I can’t however take away from him that he completed portions in detail. Well, almost. He left some nibbles here-and there, because:

“You must never think the portions are over. Nobody is complete.”

And quite a few of those that attended his class claim to have understood everything he taught. To do that, one is required to take everything he says for granted, because the reason is “not in the syllabus”. I didn’t fit into his class too well, but I did learn quite a few things from his lectures. Credit is due to him for those concise photocopied notes that he gives us (in his own, very flowery, running hand that too). They’re so corrigible, that one can afford to have a siesta during class. I feel he has the potential to go much farther in the academic circles, IF, he chooses to stop looking at pupils from a pedestal. Once his focus is shifted from showing-off his wealth of knowledge, to improving ours. That, however, looks relatively unlikely in the near future.

5) Engineering Chemistry Laboratory
Subject Code: CHE102
Subject Teacher/s: Dr.Preetha Thalukder

I’ve always thought chemistry lab was fun. That impression was created in the 8th Grade, when a bubbling yellow mixture of litharge went flying out of John’s test-tube, whizzed past me, and splattered on the wall (VNS Chem. lab, on top of the main door. There’s still huge yellow blotch). And with ISC practicals being simply invigorating, I was all set for more of this. Engineering Chemistry Laboratory didn’t disappoint. It’s almost a given that the laboratory itself, in terms of infrastructure, fades in comparison to what I’d expect it to have been. Things like distilled water supply, clean beakers and properly calibrated burettes are a few things, that, after having seen in a school laboratory, I would have loved to see in college. That however didn’t stop Tuesday mornings from being loads of hilarity and entertainment. The experiments per sé were awfully simple. But, I had other issues. The proposition that one had to learn by heart the procedure and calculations from a lab manual was one that I’d never imagined I’d hear, let alone accept. The idea of a viva-voce was also new to me. What was most amusing, almost annoyingly so, was that all questions for the viva are printed in the manual with the answers, and simply committing those to memory, means one doesn’t necessarily need to understand the experiment s/he is performing to score full-marks in the viva. Purushothama & I had consecutive roll-numbers, and were almost always paired to do the experiments. We made a fairly decent team. Especially when it came to answering the viva. Because here, the chemistry that mattered the most, was the aspect that dealt with animal fat. Butter, in particular. We got away once without having been able to tell her what it was that we were titrating, by telling her that “we had to study four experiments” for that day, which was a fact, but wasn’t actually a very strong argument. Dr. Preetha was exceptionally pleasant to those of us that behaved in the lab and did the experiments properly. She’s new to college, and it’s quite clear from some of her interactions, that she hasn’t yet fully been accepted into the MSRIT family. Conceivably because she refuses to accept the mediocre and slothful approach that some of her colleagues have. The lab attendant deserves special mention here. Except I don’t know his name. He’s the guy that comes to college partially drunk on that raucous old motorcycle, and then continually pesters poor students for money to buy Old Monk & Gold Flake. In return, he is believed to help them by supplying information and formulae during crucial tests and exams. Since no student was willing to come on record about this, it will only remain a speculation. While making conversation about chemistry laboratory, one incident always pops up. I call it “Cemented Aural Orifice”. Basically, this comparatively unnatural creature that goes by the name of Nishanth dug a pipette into my left ear (Yup! That’s the one that’s already conked, with that vertigo thing), and then drained out 20ml of Portland cement solution. He claims he did it by mistake, but I continue to have my doubts. Just weeks after that, I found myself consuming a sewage water sample. For a moment I forgot the difference between a pipette and a drinking-straw. Chemistry Lab really pushed me to the edge; in ways I had never imagined.

6) Workshop Practice
Subject Code: ME102
Subject Teacher/s: Naveen “The Workshop Guy” Kumar

If there ever was a subject I feared I’d fail, it was this. Right from the very first class, when I learnt the hard way, that cutting steel with a hacksaw isn’t particularly easy. My skills with fitting continue to be appalling, to say the least. The workshop was also responsible for multiple injuries on extremities. Somehow, though, I got past fitting. After that, it was reasonably easy. We only had one welding lesson, so I don’t really know if I learnt it. Fortunately, I don’t actually care. The other scary part of Workshop was the Lab records, where there were a minimum of three diagrams to a page. I had my own way of dealing with the conundrum. I simply drew all 3D diagrams as flat, two-dimensional views. When I showed my record to the Workshop Guy (I didn’t know his name until the end of the semester. I never would have, had I not decided to research it for this blog-post), he was quite amused. Our conversation went something like this:

“Where did you copy this diagram of Bench Vice?”
“Sir, from the manual. Sir.”
“Eh. What man? But it is not like this in the manual. Show me which manual. *inquisitive glare*”
“Sir the college manual only. Sir. I can’t draw the 3D one sir, that’s why I drew it in 2D.”
“But how you did that? Did you copy from some senior?”
“No sir. I saw the diagram and drew it myself.”
“How man you are able to visualize that?”
“Sir! I’ve seen the vice in the fitting shop. Sir. So I know how it looks. That’s how I drew this view sir.”
“Are you from Central Syllabus? Which college you did PU?”
“Yes Sir. I did ISC. Why Sir?”
“That is why. Only the central syllabus students can able to see like that and draw it. Actually, that’s a good thing only.”
“Yes, Sir”

And, he gave me a nine on ten. That was fun.
Sheet metal work was by far the simplest. The lab internal test has occupied a permanent slot in my headspace. I still grin every time I so little as think about it. We had to construct this asinine looking tray from aluminium sheets. Turns out Puru & I were the only people in the entire class that got it right. Strangely that day, we shed our usual impulsive manner, and thought the entire thing through before we even started. By the time we’d got the development correct, half the class had come as close to finishing their models as they could with their absurd, one-of-a-kind developments. One chap even tried to make his tray out of five or six individual pieces (it only needed one). So when we completed the developmental drawing, we were aware of the possibility that nobody else had got it yet. We observed that a large number of people were not able to bend their sheets properly, because they’d been cut wrong in the first place. So we did a majority of our cutting and bending in hiding. We got into one of the welding booths, and requested Nihal, the burly gentleman that he is, to stand guard. I cannot fathom how, at that moment, I was being so competitive. I justified it to myself by saying it was a test, but it still isn’t the type of behaviour that classifies as Prithviesque. A bulk of the entertainment was yet to come that day. When we submitted our models, sir stared at us as though we’d performed a miracle. For a minute, he just gaped. Then he asked us where we’d “copied” the development from. He didn’t consider for a moment that we’d managed to develop the tray ourselves. He insisted that we explain our calculations. When he got around to how we’d done it, he said:

“This is also correct method. But this is not the method.”

Clearly, he meant that we didn’t do it the way he would. On being asked what “the method” was, he alleged that it would be taught to us in the next semester, when we study Engineering Drawing. This argument simply went above my head, by a few hundred metres. My mouth is known not to be discrete. As was only expected of “central syllabus”, I popped the question. I said:

“Sir, if you know we haven’t learnt it yet, how do you set it for a test?”
“That only man. I wanted to test you.”
“But you just said we weren’t supposed to be able to do it. How Sir?”
“You are able to do it no? Because I wanted to see who are the ‘creative minds’.”
“Sir?”
“See man, you are ‘the creative minds’.”

Ever since that day, he calls both of us “the creative minds”. Plus he gave us full marks for that tray!

The semester end exam went particularly well. It was probably the best fitting model I’ve ever done. So that fear of flunking went on sabbatical to Timbuktu. But the external examiner was scary. The first two questions he asked me were:

“What is your name? Where are you from?”

While I did answer all other questions properly, I messed up this pair royally. I said:

"Sir. Prithvi. Bangalore.”

And he was off. Off on a monologue that is worthy of The Bard.

“Bangalore aa? Ee city people all have the same problem. Chooru seriousness illa life nalli. Not at all serious. That’s why all the people from the small towns are coming in and grabbing your job opportunities from right under your nose. All of you have so much attitude problems. Always wasting time and enjoying life; blowing up your dad’s money. What man? Why are you doing like this? Wasting life

In retrospect, I should have said Gauribidnur.

Thankfully, it’s over and done with. It’s been an assortment of terribly hysterical incidents, but I’m still delighted not to have any more of it.

7) Constitution of India
Subject Code: HSS101
Subject Teacher/s: Mr. KR Phaneesh (KRP)

After my not-so-dismal performance in ICSE social studies, and my continued interest in Civics and current affairs due to the MUN phenomenon, I simply assumed this was going to be a walk-in-the park. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While things like “Fundamental Rights” and “Directive Principles of State Policy” were supposed to be easy, they left me flustered in the test. Not because there was something I didn’t know, but because that silly multiple choice format is overtly bothersome. Especially when you have questions like:

The preamble is:
a) Not a part of the Constitution
b) Part A of the Constitution
c) Part I of the Constitution
d) Part I-A of the Constitution

Even if I knew the Constitution inside out, that question is no sitter. Especially since the matter was under contention in the Supreme Court of India until very recently. I almost failed both the multiple choice tests. Don’t you dare accuse me of blaming the format as an excuse for not knowing my stuff; if that was the case, how’d you explain me scoring full marks in the subjective test and the group discussion? I remember the GD we had in class about Press Rights. It was rather sad since there wasn’t much opposition to the general opinion, and a group-discussion with a consensus is only as spicy as a pepper without the seeds. But I still got a twenty-on-twenty. So I’m not actually bothered. I doubt I’d be bothered if I didn’t get that score, but that is a different issue altogether.

Our professor, KRP, was “cool” epitomized. Appy tells me that he’s been amongst the more popular faculty on campus since even before she passed out of college. It’s rather obvious why. Most importantly, he understood that we only took the subject because it was compulsory. He empathized. He tried to make class as exciting as he possibly could. Some of his wisecracks and digs at contemporary celebrities were classic. I also enjoyed his class because he spoke grammatically correct English, all the time. If this is anything to go by, I can’t wait for him to come back and take classes for us next year. It’s a joyous thing that he’s a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. We found him the most approachable, so he was inevitably bombarded with questions. Not just about his subject, but about other things as well, the most prominent topic of deliberation being “Academic Autonomy at MSRIT”. And his most common argument was:

“I don’t know man. It’s not yet finalized.”

8) Environmental Studies
Subject Code: HSS102
Subject Teacher/s: Ms. Usha “Dead Body (DB)” C

If I was ever asked to state an example of cake-walk, this would indeed be it. I didn’t study an hour for the semester exam even. And I’m confident I’ll do well. Yeah, that’s what I said. Ruma Chatterji takes complete credit. She taught me Environmental Science for the four years prior, and believe-it-or-not, the portions for Ev.S here, are a replica of those for Ev.E back in the twelfth. Simply enjoy maadi! The text-book was in itself a joke. It spoke of the “Bhopal Gas Tragidy”, and other horribly misspelt disasters. It treated the subject in a rather Republican way, if you ask me. Remember Dubya trying to claim that Global Warming isn’t going to harm anybody?

The essence of the subject is lost if it is taught like this. The whole idea behind making it compulsory was that GenNext is more aware of the need for sustainable development. This off-hand treatment that the subject has received has turned it into one big joke. It doesn’t even come close to satisfying its primary objective. I am deeply saddened. If “the planet” is made out to be some arbitrary thing that is of no importance, we won’t have one for too long!

We only attended class for two reasons – attendance & comedy. The latter, brought about mostly by DB’s intense accent and dreadful spelling (like “Diary Farm”). The name, you ask? Well, Nitya was the first one to use it in my presence. Apparently it’s been doing the rounds for quite some time now. It is apt! Its roots will become rather obvious to you when you see the photograph. The thing about DB is that she’s downright strange. She appears to show zilch interest in teaching. I don’t fully blame her. She should be busy teaching Civil Engineering, not ecology. She made us do an assignment on “The Importance of Food”. Until then, I really wasn’t aware that food is important. True eye-opener that one was!

There is also some vague memory in my head about having taken Kannada classes. They were few and far between, and were thoroughly unproductive. The less said, the better.

Well then. Now that you know what I “studied” in college, it’s time you know what I “learnt”. A majority of these facts are of no use to either of us. And will never be. But I will share them with you, because I genuinely like it when other people laugh at/with me. So here goes:

1st Semester Gyaan Top20:

20. The Watermelon Juice in the canteen is not all that bad.

19. That black dog that walks all around campus is ACTUALLY called Ugly.

18. Prasith Prasad will always come late to class, if he does at all, and then come up with the most absurd excuses.

17. When one requires a Vatal Nagraj style protest, “Politician Prashant”, from my class is your man.

16. ISC = cocky & rude.

15. BMN continues to negate the presence of a duster in the classroom in spite of having been told by some of his peers that it is wrong to rub the board with your hand.

14. If you are found to be conversing with an entity of the opposite gender, (irrespective of whether the conversation is about Calculus or Chemistry) especially in English, a majority of the class will label you “stud” (Which, in my case at least, is joke of the millennium).

13. Wearing a pink shirt to college is considered gay (I can therefore be called “Casa Nova” and “Pansy” within a span of hours. People don’t necessarily care about contradictions when they’re in the insult mode).

12. Blocking “Orkut” on the college server doesn’t prevent 87.645% of the internet-users in the library from using PowerScrap or a proxy-server. The other 12.355% hack directly through the filter. All this assuming the computer is working in the first place.

11. Mobile Phones being banned are no more than a mere technicality. KRP’s phone rang minutes after he’d told us how neither faculty nor students were allowed to bring phones to college.

10. Hacksaw blades are sharp. They are capable of cutting through flesh. So are aluminium sheets.

09. If you feel like going home for the weekend, and don’t want to miss out on VSB’s class, you are simply required to write a letter to him saying that nobody will attend the class because we all have Workshop that day. You may even choose to sign it as “Special Class Student”, for confidentiality. (Yup! It actually happened. We still haven’t a clue who it was that did it.)

08. Minkul dances very well to that "Yeh Mera Dil" song from “Don”.

07. Consuming up to 20ml of sewage water does not affect one’s health. Neither does 20ml of Portland cement in the ear. But both of them leave a horrid taste in the mouth.

06. Nihal’s mother played cricket for Mysore. And his grandfather was victim to Diwan-ese bureaucracy. And he can articulate about all this in Kannada.

05. If there’s only one girl in the class, nobody takes her attendance. But math-tutorial-guy and Newton turn into infatuated wrecks in her presence. And her brother’s namesake says “Aah?” every time she asks him anything.

04. We are “the creative minds”. So we get better scores for projects we haven’t done, than for those we’ve struggled with and completed.

03. There is a “thrill” in Gauss’ Divergence Theorem. That, is the point of the matter of the fact of the thing.

02. If you let MS Word spell-check “Girish Babu”, it offers you “Garish Babe” as the first alternative.

01. After having completed three fitting models in one day, it is not necessarily customary to change your GTalk Personal Message to “I did three models in three hours.” That statement is likely to be misinterpreted.

While I am aware that Que Sera Sera, it’s rather tempting to predict that the three-and-a-half years that follow today will be a nauseous roller-coaster ride. One that will have its fair share of ups and downs, but one that I will come out of alive. Not just alive, but happy as well. I will also carry with me eternal snapshots from this ride; of the things I did and the people I met. A shout out to all those inimitable individuals that have made college what it is. And thanks to you, for having had the patience to have read over five thousand words of absolute junk. Either you love me, or you’re terribly jobless. You choose. I’d love to know what you thought of what is the longest post in TiffinCarrier history. Do post a comment (I’ve enabled anonymous comments, so you don’t need to be a Blogger to comment; you don’t even need an e-mail ID). I’m not fishing for compliments. No chance. I want your genuine opinion, but since this is a public blog, with a sizeable percentage of its viewers being juvenile, keep swearing at the minimum (Use asterisks if you really must). As I said, this entry is just meant to be in jest. I mean no offence at all. Peace to the World, brother!

The Age of Kali

2008-01-14T18:55:00.000+05:30

The Kaliyuga is finally here.

The SMS Generation: Redefining Dialogue?

2007-12-30T20:03:00.001+05:30

Text messaging is taking over the world. Fast, simple, inexpensive and confidential, the SMS is 160 characters of pure convenience. I detest the concept. Most simply put, I don't see how typing out a message can communicate even half as effectively as speaking. Text messages are predetermined. They don't depend on how sprightly or bored the "Hullo!" on the other end is. If we limit all discussion to specific topics, aren't we killing literature? And perhaps even handicapping the body of knowledge that is the English Language? Frequent users of SMS have already ruined the language beyond repair. What with "typin lyk tis" being "kewl". It's thoroughly annoying to receive a mispunctuated, misspelt message that I must take hours to decipher. (Yes. Hours. How am I to know that "comMon… dud" and "Come on, dude!" are one-and-the-same?) One must accept that this new script is giving a completely new life ("lyf"?) to phonetics. Why take the effort to type the extra character when "2" also sounds just the same. This new language is fascinating. It's a nice way of overcoming the length-limit on messages. But it's not English. He who tries to pass it off as English deserves to go back to school. (May be not. I hear some schools in Great Britain are considering thus script.)

An SMS is a tremendously useful tool, when it comes to getting the point across. But, does it really convey the message in its entirety? Honestly, I think not. Text can never convey feelings as coherently as voice. No! Not even if it has its more-than-fair share of emoticons. There's a fundamental difference between saying something, and typing it out. There will always be. The same way a video-con is never as interesting as chatting with somebody in the flesh. Always.

On a lighter note, since we're not conveying any more than what text (in one typeset, and one size) can convey, we might as well start chatting in C++.

Images: Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, Koodalasangama, Hampi, Hospet

2007-12-03T19:45:00.000+05:30

Logic. It simply confounds me.

2007-11-01T09:45:00.000+05:30

Most of you that have interacted with me in person have most definitely heard me rant about the state-of-education in our country, and how I hate it.

For those of you that are yet to discover my paradigm, it's quite straight. The Indian education system is overtly focussed on the capacity to memorize facts, rather than the capacity to actually understand or learn. Also, the unfortunate students that undergo this process, will find that they are being defined by numbers, and that their ability as students, or even as professionals, is determined by one written test, where it wouldn't be an exageration to say that luck plays a substantial part. In essence, I'm trying to say that we have an exam-centric education rather than a learning-centric one. I believe the latter to be the right way forward, especially since we're transitioning from the age of knowledge, to that of ideas.

I'm not writing this blogpost on impulse. I'm writing because of something that went terribly wrong in Electronics class. To put this into perspective, my portions for electronics, among other things, include solid-state-transistors, amplifiers and operational-amplifiers. (In lay-man's terms. . .well . .all that you need to know is that Operational Amplifiers are a highly complex type of amplifiers.)

Our now-famous Electronics lecturer walked into class one morning, and in his usual calligraphy wrote "Operational Amplifiers" on the black-board. Now here's the funny part. He'd completely skipped the part on "Amplifiers". This meant, that without being aware of what amplifiers are, or what ampllification is all about, we're talking about Integrated Circuit Operational Amplifiers. I was cheeky enough to stand up and blatantly ask him why he skipped the chapter. His reply was so scary, it was amusing. He said they were completely unrelated chapters (Hmm . . .Hmm . . ) and that he was doing this one first because it was a smaller chapter. (See what I mean? It's all about finishing portions).

I thought I must tell you this. I don't know why.

God save all future employers that hire us.

Breaking News!

2007-10-16T06:43:00.001+05:30

Remember the good old days, when we had a news-reader in front of that same dusty backdrop monotonously reading political news? Now, we have more news-specific TV channels than I can count on my fingers. Some are business specific, while some others are entertainment specific. I think it's really nice that the news-channel market is flourishing. Makes for more paradigms on the same issues, and sometimes even for reports on some obscure but highly entertaining subjects.

What's annoying though is the way everyone is trying to sensationalize everything in a race to TRP utopia. Those "Breaking News" and "This Just In" tickers are an ideal example. Nine-tenths of the items that show up on that annoying, distracting ticker, are either terribly obvious facts ("Breaking News: Reports suggest some MPs may be corrupt."), terribly outdated, or, in most cases, fairly useless data that doesn't affect anybody's life, directly or indirectly ("News Flash: Aishwarya Rai denies rumours of being pregnant"). They're terribly distracting and annoying, and on most occasions sidetrack my focus from that attractive news-reader, who is talking about the Sensex with much fervour – like she's invested twice as much as Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has in futures.

Another terribly annoying thing is that's happening on almost all "news" channels, is re-enactment of crimes and other activities; with trained actors playing the part of terrorists or criminals, or even worse, deceased victims. These reconstructions (well, that's what the people at the network call it), are, more often than not, exceedingly skewed, or just plain misrepresented. I pity any of the actors that get picked to play the "negative lead" in one of these silly re-enactments. I bet you a majority of them keep getting lynched by mobs, because from the point of view of the semi-literate chap watching TV, this guy made that deadly phone-call at exactly 8.32pm (Yes, haven't you noticed, these numbers show up very often, and they leave impressions in the mind).

"Sting operations" is an area of investigative journalism that is gaining popularity like the Rupee is gaining over the US$. I'm not even getting into the ethics argument here, but don't most of these stings simply confirm a prior suspicion. More importantly, how many of them have had any lasting impact whatsoever? You catch a cop taking a bribe on TV – he gets suspended. Bad luck for him. Does that mean that the next policeman that catches you without a Driver's Licence will not be willing to let you off the hook for a nice crisp note (without a receipt of course!) I don't think so. I'm not saying that CobraPost and Tehelka are wasting they're time. I'm just saying that they could probably put their smart heads to far more productive use than telling the country that corrupt officials are indeed corrupt, or that child-labour still goes on in India.

When one is talking about the Indian News Broadcast Medium, how can we forget the long standing debate on whether or not media hype is affecting legal decisions. Yup! I'm talking about Jessica Lal & the likes. I, unlike what appears to be the rest of the country's two-billion people, believe that public opinion should by no means be forced upon our judiciary. Don't get me wrong here. I agree that Manu Sharma did it, and had it not been for the NDTV petition and whatnot, he'd simply have got away with it. But the point I'm trying to make here, is that if this trend continues, we'll have SMS votes for popular trials, which will be broadcast live, from High Courts across the country. (Remember "Junta ki Adalat" , I have a strange feeling that if they reposition it a little and re-launch it in English, it'll be a big hit – so long, of course, as viewers can vote for their "favourite contestant" via text-message)

Clearly, I'm a minority here. The more a channel indulges in all these tactics that I consider to be of zilch value, the higher their rating seems to go! If you ask me, the primary function of a news network is to report the facts, and perhaps, on the odd occasion, provide a review or an expert analysis. This current, competition driven concoction of sensational drama, tongue-in-cheek quotes and perhaps a fact or two here-and-there is really not what I'm looking for when I turn to the box for news.

As I just mentioned in an earlier paragraph, I know that I'm a minority when it comes to views on this issue, but for what it's worth, these are my views. And daily happenings aren't doing much to alter them.

Infinite Negative Spiral !

2007-10-05T07:44:00.000+05:30

I am here again, but contrary to what the post title suggests, I'm not here to sulk or nag or cry or anything of that sort. I'm here to set somethings straight. All Indians are philanthropists, most so when it comes to advice. I give loads of advice as well, it runs in the family. Anyway, I've been receiving some comments about the fact that my blog is "negative", and that it's not "positive" and that I'm wasting my voice here to promulgate negativity and depression. Now let's see. . . . . Did I ever say I'm writing this blog for you? If you assumed that, let me burst your bubble here - I write my blog for ME. Yes ! It's a fully self-centred, perhaps even selfish endeavour. If reading it makes you all angry with the world, then don't read it, because that is most definitely not my aim. Getting angry doesn't take you anywhere. Besides, I've stated at least a score times on this site that a majority of my posts here are at least mildly exaggerated. So when I talk of suicidal tendencies, I'm not ACTUALLY contemplating it. The thought !

And everything I said in this post applies to itself, so don't look for a take-out from this post. I wrote it because I wanted to.

I continue to maintain that criticism is most welcome, but if you try and tell me what to write about or what light to write it in, I'm not likely to respond to that statement for the simple reason, that this is MY blog, and my notion of absolute creativity doesn't include anyone else.

Now listen to my advice: If you think I should write something or some way, tell me, but don't expect me to change. Instead, go ahead and start your own blog. (It's simple, you just get onto http://www.blogger.com/ and register. The WYSIWYG format makes it easy-to-use for anyone who is computer-literate enough to have accessed this blog in the first place.

This post might sound rude and impulsive. It is both. (I'm not even PLANNING to justify that over again)

Once again, thank you for reading. Oh! And Happy Blogging.

Nystagmus

2007-09-16T20:55:00.000+05:30

Life can be very hard. Today was one of those days when the Force decided to remind me of this fact, that while most of us attempt to deny, all of us accept eventually. Today's Salsa class was one of those odd ones where all of us guys (calling ourselves “Gentlemen” would be a bit of a fib) were dancing miserably(yours truly, being sloppiness personified), and the ladies were at what was perhaps their graceful best. That I got elbowed square on the chest by Asha, fades in comparison to the events that were to follow in the next few hours. It's been raining on-and-off all evening, and in-spite of my deciding to travel by auto-rickshaw, I was quite wet by the time I got to class. Well, at least my hair was dripping. From what I can tell, somewhere during the last ten minutes of class, one group of cheeky, rebellious water-drops decided to enter my right ear. If there was one thing I didn't want happening at that instant, it was probably water in my right ear. Anyway, I had a vertigo attack – my head started spinning, I started seeing everything in more than a bit of a blur. My brain(which, contrary to popular belief, actually exists) tends to slow down a little when I have these sudden attacks, so I can't quite explain why, against all sensibilities, I continued to dance (well, try to. Nystagmus coupled with splotchy dancing can be more than just ugly). By the time the class got over, I was thoroughly dazed, I felt like a blind man in a maze – lost. My head was still reeling a bit, and I was starting to get a little nauseous. I hitched a ride till the end of the road (Merci, Liza), from where, as per my original plans I was supposed to get into another auto. But the Universe had other plans. I walked, and walked, and walked, trying desperately, but in vain to stop an auto and get him to drop me home. (This task is especially arduous when you're walking slower than a sloth for fear of hitting the trees on the pavement) I don't exactly remember, but I think I was talking to myself all the way. I don't know how I crossed those noisy streets. The more I walked, the more the nausea crept in, the more I needed to use the restrooms. I trudged along all the way till Sankey Tank, all the way down the tank-bund, before I finally found an auto-wallah who agreed to drop me. Yay ! End of story ! I thought so too, but, as usual, I was wrong – in fact, I couldn't have been more mistaken. Just a few score metres into this leg of my journey, (Bah! Look at me ! Sensationalising everything and making it look like an episode of “The Amazing Race”) the auto's gear-box decided that it had had enough. It broke with a decisive crack. With it broke the only hope I had of getting home in one piece. By then I was tired, of the day, may be even of life itself. I started walking, again. BEL Road is virtually a death-trap for pedestrians. Imagine three kilometres of pavement, without a single street-lamp, as many pot-holes as there are leaves on an average sized Banyan tree, and a smattering of deep, slush filled ditches. Somehow, I got home. That it took me more than an hour to do so is inconsequential.

What I'm trying to take out of this 'Series of Unfortunate Events” is this :
They say everything happens for a reason, and I believe that statement to the hilt. So what I'm trying to understand, is whether I was put through these events because fate is an orthodox sadist that likes to see my suffer, or because my seventeenth alter-ego did something wrong three or four lives back. There is an other possibility, one that makes most philosophical sense, but is somehow hard to believe. Maybe, just maybe, the Forces were trying to tell me that I was capable of walking home in spite of being in a drunkard-like trance. Does that symbolise anything? What? That I can walk ten kilometres non-stop? Not that ? Something else perhaps? WELL, TO BE HONEST, I COULDN'T CARE LESS.

I'm home, sane, and in one piece. THAT is what matters the most.
Oh! talking of philosophy, why are you reading this weblog at this very instant. Why didn't you read it five minutes ago, or tomorrow. Either way, do you not have something far more productive to do with your time ?

Dabba !

2007-09-11T20:33:00.000+05:30

My weblog is called Tiffin Carrier. I remeber picking the name on impulse. I've asked myself a few times why I chose a name that I myself classify as downright-absurd. When Namita asked me yesterday, I decided to dig a little deeper into the name, and these are my picks for most likely reason :
1)Firstly, the name screams “Incredible India !”. It's one of those truly Indian inventions that have lasted without much change for atleast eighty years. If they lived through Tupperware, I have a feeling they're here to stay.
2)The term itself has a strong connection to the only love of my life – food. Any self respecting Indian foodie has memories of the tiffin-carrier.
3)This is perhaps the main reason for my having picked the name. My blog is quite like a tiffin-carrier itself. Multiple, segregated layers, each with a taste of it's own, some spicy, some sweet, which, at the end of the day synergise to form a one-of-a-kind meal. Each element unique in it's own right, while at the same time integral to the melange of other dishes on your plate.
I do hope my Tiffin Carrier leaves a pleasant, lasting taste in your mouth.
My last line has been plagarised from a board in a typical South Indian restaurant. :
“Thank You, Visit Again”

Engineering College 101

2007-09-11T06:25:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was a big day in my life (or so it was made out to be by everyone I was even vaguely acquainted with). Yesterday, was my first day in college. For those of you who are currently unaware, I will, for the next four years (if not more), be pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, at the M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, which, incidentally is down the road from my house – literally. I wouldn't call it particularly interesting, but yesterday was undeniably unique and inimitable.

My first class ever, in Engineering College, started at 9am (OK, it was SUPPOSED to start at 9.00, it only started a quarter of an hour later). Mathematics 101. A gentleman, perhaps about forty years old, walked in to the classroom (LHC 301) wearing a blue shirt, walked up to the podium, and postulated that since we had Math that hour, and he was there, therefore he MUST be our Math teacher ! I've always had an aversion to mathematical proofs, but this one was different – for some reason it made me smile. He proceeded to introduce himself as Prof. V.S.B, who will be handling math this semester. In the forty-odd minutes that ensued he spoke alternately in English, Kannada and a hybrid of both. He tried to scare us into believing that college was going to be difficult, and that if we don't work like dogs for the next four years, the forty years after will be miserable. I do understand the importance of getting good grades, but the drama-element in his speech was more than an undercurrent. I was always scared of the prospects of relative grading and GPAs. The next thing he said, is one of those things that teachers all over the world say, that amuses me infinitely (Oh, My, God ! I'm even talking in Math now). “I want everyone of you to get very good grades this semester”. Here's the thing: he claims the aforementioned, and then goes on to give us the worst grades in the history of the solar-system. Are all teachers hypocrites? Or maybe they're all just sadistic? The other possibility, which I find very hard to believe, is that they actually want us to learn something. Due credit, however, to Prof. VSB, who came thoroughly prepared to class, and is likely to do so for the next four months. I can most definitely learn something.

At 9.55 sharp, a man, in his seventies perhaps, in a prim-and-proper khakhi Safari suit, stepped into class. His stride was a clear indication of the fact that this man meant business. Before he'd said a word, he opened the windows, adjusted the podium, and wrote “Engineering Chemistry” on the black-board. “I am Prof. B.S. Durgakeri,” he said as he wrote the name on the board. He then asked each one of us, by turn, to stand up, state our names, and which city we were from. I had half a mind to say “Gauribidnur”, but decided to stick to Bangalore instead. I don't know what exactly the professor achieved from this exercise, but I noticed that he took attendance. It was a very informative experience for me though – it changed my perception of the constitution of my class. While about half of us are Bengalooruians(Ouch! That sounds horrible – I mean, if they want to rename the city anyway, they might as well call it Bendakalooru, or for all I care, Bennemasaladosapuram), another twenty percent are from rural Karnataka, and the others are from all over the country, with substantial representation from Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal. It must be mentioned here that I feel terribly sorry for Namratha Nayak, the only girl in our class of sixty-five. Yes, you read right. My class of sixty-five has sixty-four boys(men?) and one poor lady. We're putting the Yin-Yang to shame with this overwhelming testosterone overdose.

Prof. BSD went on to say that he'd retired a few years ago, but the college had invited him back for an extension “perhaps for the benefit of the students” - he more than justified that statement in the lecture that followed. His lecture on high-polymers, in fairly commendable English, was clinical – his thirty-odd years of teaching experience showing coherently.

The fifteen-minute tea-break came and went like it never actually did – I moved to the first-bench for the fun of doing it, I drank some water and, before myself, or for that matter any of us knew what hit us, this senior walked in – well,we though he was a senior who'd come to rag us (“rag” when translated to Yankee becomes “haze”). Turns out he was the electronics lecturer,who'd come to take his two-hour block period. I was hoping that this would be a much-needed respite from septuagenarians. It was, but it couldn't have gone more differently than I'd thought it would. Lecturer Nuthan (he told us his full name, but it got lost somewhere in between his hypersonic speech and my muddled brain) told us that he was an alumnus of the same institution, a very recent one at that , so he “knew all the students' tricks”. I don't mean to be rude, but Hullo! It was our first day – WE are yet to learn these tricks. He went into the numbers for us, calculating that we could afford to bunk up to twelve hours of his class during the semester, and retain our degree. He's an interesting chap, caught half way between cool-young-lecturer and “I've-got-the-power-so-I-shall-wield-it”. You can't deny though, that having very recently completed his Masters, he must be very up-to-date with all the latest research in the field of electronics – he most probably knows his stuff. He wrote “Basic Electronics” on the black-board in striking calligraphy. “By policy,” he said, he doesn't teach in the first class. So to pass time he asked us to stand, state our names and our 12^th Grade percentage. Fine, India is a competitive country, and this is most visible in Engineering colleges all over the country, but why should it matter to a lecturer how much we got? For a fleeting instant I thought he was comparing our scores with his own and classifying us into three categories:

a)How in the name of Pratibha Patil did he get in here?

b)Not bad !

c)What ? ! He beat my score? I will now hold a jealousy-based-prejudice against him.

How could I think that? Bad Prithvi ! I don't know why I thought that, but the thought passed as-soon-as he stood all (read both) the 90%ers up and asked them why they chose to study Mechanical Engineering. You see, with Electronics and Telecommunication and Computer Science engineers get jobs that pay more than average, even before they are actually full-bred Engineers, so apparently it's odd for a smart person to study Mechanical engineering. My personal opinion is almost antagonistic of this, but that's a different story altogether. One of them blabbered about wanting to get into this college so that he could shift branches later, and the other ranted about how he also wanted to shift branch if possible. The rest of the two-hours were wasted in talking and playing and all sorts of things that were of absolutely no use to my personal or professional life. His best lines during the class include “Time may change, but I never will”. “Don't make me show you my dark side”. He said these with grit oozing through the pores on his face. And he was trembling (there is a possibility that he just had stage-fright). His parting-shot had all of us in splits (well, almost) “Thank you boys . . . .a . and girl!” All said and done, Sir does bring a palpable amount of youthful energy into the class-room, and his classes promise to be lively and awakening (i.e. We will be woken from slumber, literally). Today he will teach semicons. Let's see how that goes.

He let us off almost twenty minutes early, so most of us that had brought lunch from home had finished ours before the fifty-minute lunch-break had even started. So what did we do at lunch? Sallu and myself went down, walked around. Stood in the foyer and watched Ramya get ragged for about five minutes. Having got thoroughly bored by the buzz of the courtyard, we crashed the ECE class-room. I talked gobbledygook with Suraj till about 1.30, and then went back to class. This time I sat in the fifth row.

In the vicinity of 1.45, Prof. Niranjan Murthy trundled in – more like he dragged himself into class. His subject “Elements of Mechanical Engineering” is one of my favorites this semester. But may be yesterday he'd had one morsel too much for lunch. His voice didn't carry, and his expressions changed as frequently as those of an apple. He outlined the syllabus for us – I told you it was interesting – what with engines and gears and A.C.s et all. He passed a sheet around, and asked us to write our names on it. After that I think he just did some random talk about how we MUST have attendance and MUST get good grades, and proceeded to explain the basics of the Credit system that the college has adopted only this year. Oh! And he's co-authored the University prescribed text-book, going by yesterday's class, it'll be a fairly good book. I'm really looking forward to my next MECH101 class.

2.40-3.35 was supposed to be the much anticipated “Constitution of India, and Business Ethics” class. Our anticipation went in vain because nobody showed up to take the class. The ECE class was also free this hour, so we spoke to them for some time – their narrations of Kannada class had me grinning all through, I'm waiting for my first one tomorrow. About three-quarters of our class had already left by the time I went back to pick up my bag – at about three-fifteen. I walked straight home, and was here by quarter-to-three.

I wouldn't say yesterday was uninteresting, but to say it was unproductive would be an understatement. Hopefully today, I will actually learn something !

I have Chemistry Lab at 9.00 today, so I shall go now. I can't stop raving and ranting, so watch this space for my next update !

Don't take it to heart!

2007-09-05T19:10:00.000+05:30

"The heart is a muscular organ responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions". I agree, we'd die without our hearts, but are we not over-rating it a tad? It's been medically proven that all our "thinking/feeling" is done in that grey tissue inside the skull, and not in the heart. So how can something be "heart-felt"? Why do we love someone from the bottom of our hearts? Why do we set aside the Ides of February to celebrate a pointed figure that is as unlike as the heart as possible? I get that certain thoughts and emotions get our hearts pumping, but the BRAIN-triggered adrenalin rush does a lot of other things as well. Genesis 6:5 situates the thoughts of evil men in their hearts, and Exodus 5 through 12 speak repeatedly of the Lord "hardening Pharaoh's heart." What's with something running in your veins or being your life-blood. What if, when they started speaking English, they decided that everything had to do with the liver? (They might as-well have, loss of your liver is also fatal) Would feelings then run in bile?

What I'm trying to say here, is not that there's anything wrong with blaming all your mistakes on your heart. I'm just trying to figure out why it was the heart, and not the lungs or the stomach? Is it because it's conveniently placed for movie villians to shoot/jab? Or perhaps because the silphium pod got lucky? I will perhaps never know, but it's an intriguing bit of trivia though! Why the heart?

I-Salsa ! If you can call it that !

2007-07-24T11:14:00.001+05:30

To call my first dance lesson a string of faux pas would be an understatement. To say I improved significantly on the second, would be a gross exaggeration For sheer lack of anything better to do, I signed up for dance classes with LVDS. I joined two days late, so I continue to have a lot of catching up to do. I couldn't have asked for a more accomodative class though - they took me in like I was one of them. We were all there to learn, and enjoy learning.

That being said, I must also confess that I have two left feet, and that makes dancing with me as far from easy or happy as it can ever get. Think about it - six-foot-one, lanky, out-of-step dance partner. And that too for a dance-form like Salsa, which, to say the least, is expected to portray some sort of chemistry between parters.

Let's not even get into the jive story. My jiving is sloppy, to say the least. All I can blame the smooth dance-floor, or the fact that my left leg is an inch-and-a-half shorter, or the music. But I'd rather not - I think it's just the fact that this is my first ever interface with any dance-form, and it takes one some time to be able to move and groove !

May be jiving is not my thing, may be dancing is not my thing - but I'm going through the course with all the effort I can put in, in the hope (against odds), that some day, some time, things will gradually begin to change, my footwork will begin to resemble steps, and I can tell myself that I can dance.

My dance lessons will definitely prove to be entertaining, purely because they will be hysterical from a third-person paradigm. If there's something worth being posted, you will for sure see it here. Till then, happy dancing !

"Be Fashionably Late !"

2007-07-24T11:13:00.001+05:30

They say he lost Waterloo because he arrived late . . . they also say that punctuality is an accurate indicator of a man's character . . the same people also end up being late more often than not. It's been on more than one occasion that I've turned up for a party or an event on the dot of the time specified, only to find my host not yet expecting me ! Apparently it's now become a part of "common-sense" not to show up before 8.15 for a 7 o Clock invitation. The whole concept of being on-time seems to have been plutoed. (I've been itching to use that word) . Actually, maybe not . . maybe they've just redifined being on time to meaning not being more than two hours late. It's now gone so far that it's nearly always quite embarassing to be on time.

Hoping not to create a scene by being early (read on-time) for my school farewell party, I asked one of my classmates when I should arrive. You see, I'm a little slow when it comes to all this, besides, my social life resembles that of a camel on an iceberg - so I figured I might as well ask for advice. I was seriously taken aback by the reply I got (I know that statement sounds very cliche, but I can't find better) - "Be fashionably late . . about an hour "

What ?? Being late is now fashionable ? Bald women, men in pink sarongs . .these fashion statements I can understand, but being late ? Honestly, that's a seriously lame fashion statement. The way I continue to see it, LATE IS NOT FASHIONABLE !

As I've said before, I probably will never understand the concept, so for future reference, if you ever invite me over (That would indeed be a pleasure), then if you say 7 o Clock, expect me there no later than 7 o Clock ! Got that !

Multi faceted city; Multi faceted people

2007-07-24T11:12:00.000+05:30

I moved to Bangalore in 1998, and have spent close to eight years (wow ! that's half my life) in this godforsaken city. I will admit, that this city has given me more opportunities than I would have received anywhere else, but in the same breath, I must confide, that I've never felt at home in this city. Maybe it's just the way I look at it, but I find it very hard to trust someone here. For many Bangaloreans, their image is more important then what they really are inside. Thy tend to judge themselves by what others can see in them at first sight. And because it's so important that they APPEAR to be brilliant or cool or awesome or whatever the latest word is (I must admit here, that Yankee slang is not my forte), most of these people end up having larger than life facades, which they impressively conceal themselves in, hiding the real person in them. So for someone like me, who very occasionally falls for what is false, these individuals seem to be very hollow and don't seem to have a personality. What the others think of you is what's more important.

I've learnt the hard way, that the only way to survive in this land is by not expecting anything from anyone; that way you're not disappointed when you don't get it. The crowd here lives life in the fast-lane, and people care more about there interests than they do about others' . Even the friends they make are made because they'll look good in that group. The fun part, is that these facades are so overpowering, that many get fooled by their own masks, and are strong believers in statements about themselves, that are actually make-believe.

I consider myself to be an outsider, and this is how things appear to me. The people here are definitely separated from be by a translucent and deceiving veil. But, this is the way all of it appears to me. Nothing I said in the last few lined may be true at all, but in this surreal city, it's difficult to tell content from packaging and what is true from what is not. Forgive me my trespasses if I've offended any of you hard-core Bangaloreans by saying this about you, but that's how it appears to me, and this belief is strengthened by events that I witness almost routinely.

Bangalore truly confuses and mystifies me . . the city and it's people switch from role to role with so much panache, that it difficult to tell what's what. I'm sure I'll unravel the truth around this one day (I shall from that day on, probably, become truly Bangalorean), rest assured I'll post it here.

Adios for now !