Friday, December 28, 2007

happy (?) holidays

'Tis the festive season. Only it doesn't seem so festive, does it? Torrential rains in Sumatra and Bali causing landslide and killing many, Floods in Sri Lanka, Bangalore and Mexico, and then LTTE and Sri Lankan army battling it out. The latest in this collection of disturbing happenings, Benazir Bhutto shot dead by Al-Qaeda in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Well, sorta takes the ring out of "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!"...

So its Mother Earth and/or Destiny unleashing her/their fury somewhere, and one can safely rely on terrorists to be at their jobs everywhere else on this planet. I suppose the terrorists/naxalites and other anarchists are pretty much the only ones who are always working, no matter what happens in this world. Highly dedicated towards their cause of spreading ill-will, fear and destruction on this planet. I'm guessing the drive to excel (?) comes from the competition they face from Global-Warming Inc and AIDS, Cancer and associates. The race is on, mate. Let's see who is crowned the destroyer of mankind.

Well, come to think of it, not like this stuff doesn't happen on non-holidays. A part of routine. Then why is it that it kinda makes a deeper impression during hols? Or is it just me? Was reading a friend's blog, he started off all shocked and appalled at Bhutto's murder, and then talked about Santas and elves spreading cheer among children in his neighbourhood. Seemed a little strange to me. Maybe he could've continued about Benazir, and the repercussions on Pakistan. But he didn't. Probably he had the whole 'new year' and 'joy and happiness' thing going.

I'm still stuck at the Benazir assasination. Seriously, killing someone and then blowing yourself up (and hence killing more people).. This requires a heck of a brainwasher. Just too much of avoidable bloodshed going on here. Switch the TV on, and you see such images being thrust into your faces. Can't blame people if they get desensitized due to the overdose of goriness. Sucks.

I think I'm over-stressing and over-thinking about this. Oh well, what the heck. Put the movie on, pass me some popcorn. Happy new year people!

Friday, December 21, 2007

quarky quirks and delhi ki sardi

So, it is December and it's as cold as it gets in Delhi. Though I am a little disappointed. Haven't seen fog after 12 noon yet :(. And yes, internet is the life-saver again when the cold and cruel wave of boredom sweeps across the place. And so, here I am, under the imminent danger of losing one or two of my toes to frostbite (and this is when i am wearing socks).

The big Q is getting closer and closer. Its bigger than ever. We hit 10 lakh already!!! :D Can feel the fever and fervour... PCQuest already in. Hmm... Its gonna be hard work, come January. Exciting. It's as if Quark is not just the "annual technical extravaganza of BITS, Pilani - Goa Campus".. but some sort of hot-shot celeb everyone is waiting for, and going all out to ensure Q has a great time. Publicity writers, Org Co people (no, not orgy Eeshan), Sponsorship guys.. EPC too...
Everyones all busy and on with it. It feels nice when your Delhi friends suddenly tell you they are participating, when your college is in Goa. Its been through ups and downs, seen tops and bottoms, been strange yet charming so far. Can only get better. Yup, Quark is gonna be here soon..!!! check this out. www.bits-quark.org

(and the sentence before the last one was a very miserable attempt at getting the names of all quarks (subatomic particles, stoopid!) in a sentence.)

(and you had to read the paragraph above coz:
1. Im bored, and seriously have nothing to do.
2. other people are busy with quark, least i can do is bestow upon this fest a great privilege, by giving it a little space on this phenomenal, stupendous, etc etc (fingers too cold and it takes time typing big words) and sexy blog. blah!
3. Madhura told me to update me blog.)

And its highly cold. And i don't have any interesting stories to tell. Well, nothing except that I would've been Pocahontas if this world was Disneyworld, and that Facebook is one of the best ways to kill time, and that my fingers are frozen, and that my feet pretty soon will have icicles on em.

And I went for the alumni lunch today, and called a 2001 batch girl "old" :P

Adios Amigos.

Pranshu

Friday, November 23, 2007

random musings...

compres coming up. haven't studied yet. last mt in 10 hours. going home on 15th. confusion never stops, closing walls and ticking clocks (from clocks-coldplay). the picture poster juthika n siddhant got me today looks brilliant on my wall. made my decisions, sticking to them. lets see if things improve. i hope they do. not that easy to end something. but i gotta get over the obsession with 'welcome to india' by ludakrishna and vikram mc. what do i write? lyrics are boring. but yeah, there is a clarity of sorts in all this mess. right now at least :)

am i depressed? for a change, naah... keep smiling beautiful people :) :) :)

clarity

I worry, I weigh three times my body
I worry, I throw my fear around
But this morning, there's a calm I can't explain
The rock candy's melted, only diamonds now remain

Ooh ooh ooh ooh

By the time I recognize this moment
This moment will be gone
But I will bend the light, pretend that it somehow lingered on
Well all I got's

Ooh ooh ooh ooh

And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will pay no mind
When it won't and it won't because it can't
It just can't
It's not supposed to

Was there a second of time that I looked around?
Did I sail through or drop my anchor down
Was anything enough to kiss the ground?
And say I'm here now and she's here now

Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh

So much wasted in the afternoon
So much sacred in the month of June
How bout you

And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will wait to find
That it won't and it won't
Because it won't
And I will waste no time
Worried 'bout no rainy weather
And I will waste no time
Remaining in our lives together

:) clarity, by john mayer.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

madness has a method

...OR A REASON AT LEAST!


Test 2 approaching. And hence the expected increase in the tendency to do nothing, also known as wasting time. Well, yeah. Finished with zephyr, and biology mt pracs among other things. Zephyr over and done with and am too saturated. So this post is about the second-last bio mt expt.

Well, this time around i didn't begin with the madness. My college admins did. First of all, we have bio pracs in second year for engineering students... And then, you have a seemingly sane aim for an experiment: "DNA quantitation" as my manual calls it. So you think this is all fundoo interesting stuff till you reach the lab/read the procedure, whichever happens first. So here goes, my best friend, the bio experiment (you'll see why i used a detergent's tagline here in a short while)

All was going fine and smooth initially. We weighed green peas and ground them till we had a pea soup in our mortars (or pestle, always been confused which is what). And then, since this is a logical experiment happening in a logical university, we carefully measured about 10 ml of liquid detergent and mixed it with our soup. The detergent prevents any damage to DNA apparently.

Then we did more stuff that would make any eccentric alchemist proud of us. And then we pippetted about 5 ml of pineapple juice out of a tiny 'Real' tetra pack. Or rather saw our instructor do that. This was also supposed to help us/the DNA in some way.. probably provide it a morale boost or something. Keine Ahnung!

Pineapple did its job to the best of its capabilities; soon we could see the white DNA of the green peas floating about on top of the solution in our test tubes. So we pippetted this DNA out, and the made it hop around on a cyclomixer. Well, that was a unique experience. Quite frankly I had never seen DNA jump around like mad, trying to get outta the tube before that day. Then we did more of funky stuff. And then we copied readings. But then again, bio mt was the only fun lab this semester. All weird and gross experiments under the sun, from blood group typing ("tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe grades doonga" - anonymous) to the mung dal-phenophthalein pink... We've been through it all.

And now i better start studying...

So long for now.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Warning: All text that follows is 100% non-serious. It is as non-serious as things can possibly get. Make sure this fact sinks deep into your head. As only then will this make sense.


Blank. Anger. Nothing. Frustration. Respite. Tiredness. Zero. Submission. Numbness. Stirring. Consciousness. Silence. Vacuum. Judgement. Accusations. Misunderstandings. Null. Deadlines. Dead-ends. Truth. Reality. Clarity. Vindication. Satisfaction. Humility. Smile. Pain. Force. Misgivings. Emptyness. Tears. Dawn. Dusk.

Life.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Catching up...

Haven't blogged since quite some time. This isn't exactly the best time either.. just about a week before test 1. But then, does anything about me make sense :P.. (you'd know if you know me/have been reading my blog/believe what my sister tells people about me.)

Well, college opened and me and my friends found our campus (over)-crowded with juniors. But yeah, you kinda get used to seeing the mess filled with tables (and people at meal-times, OB!), LTs all full, monginis and nescafe all taken over by this swarm. Wonder what our seniors thought when we came in. But its good to have 'em around. "Guide" people as to what really they should be doing in workshop practicals/partners/G-n-the-rest, what really they should (more like should not) be attending etc etc etc. :D

And under our able(!) guidance, I'm sure theyll do well. Definition of 'well' depends on the guide (10 ptr/non 10 ptr), the bakra/bakri (probable 10 ptr or not), the context and situations, and mostly the quality of coffee (at monginis/mess/nescafe) that influences the conversation deeply.

What else? Well, we found a kitten, had it for around 28 hours, and then gave it away. Its funny sometimes. You want to help someone/something out, and you don't really know how to go about it. This kitten, a friend of mine found it somewhere. Should she have picked it up (that she did), or left it with all those dogs around.. Should we have left it at night, hoping its mother would eventually find it, or kept it in, kept it safe for the moment not knowing what to do next. Should we have listened to a lot of people who thought we'll end up killing the cat and we should have not bothered only... It gets kinda complicated at times, when you are not crystal clear about your plan, and people try thrusting their opinions on you, misinterpret your intentions.

Well, we eventually sent it to an animal shelter, PFA Goa. Hope we made the right decision.

Haven't studied for test 1. Going to have an amazing time i guess. O yeah.. German rocks!! Deutsche lernen macht spaß! One interesting thing this sem...

Well, more later. As they say in Germany, Gute Nacht!


for more information on rehabilitation of strays and related topics, contact PFA, Shantinagar (Goa) on 0832 2532514.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

killing voldemort...

Hmm.. So HP7s out, and 'voldy's gone moldy' (quoting Peeves). Things would have been a lot easier (and fun) for Harry and co if they would've just done one of the following, at least according to Delhi Times, 24th july '07.

4 FUNNY WAYS TO KILL VOLDEMORT

1. Put him on a blind date with Dolores Umbridge
2. Send him a howler, which when opened yells out 'avada kedavra'
3. Place a cardboard cut-out of Dumbledore next to his bed while he's sleeping so that it's the first thing he sees when he awakens.
4. Send him on the Oprah show where he dies while hearing a three-hour lecture about his attitude towards people.


I think the first method would've been the best... though Oprah's not that bad a bet either... Watsay muggles???

ps my shortest post ever :D

Thursday, July 12, 2007

holidays-the big fat controversy...

19 days till im back in campus. major chunk of holidays over. done nothing of note. well, apart from gettin a drivers licence that is. been chiiling at home, eating sleeping coming-online etc etc.. and occasionally meeting up with friends. quite a lot of people i've been in touch with have joined some course or the other.

my question is, if ur attending classes even in ur holidays, then well... what exactly is the point of calling this chunk of days called 'holidays' by a special name ie 'holidays' (er... guess u got the point)

i mean, think about it. people in my batch who haven't dropped a year...class 11 summer vacations (when 10th results came, 2004) we had joined some or the other coaching institute. class 12 summers we spent attending their classes. 2006 summers we were taking the exams for which we wasted the last two summer vacations. these are the first 'real' summer holidays we've got. and people still have to join some course or the other. worse for people who've dropped a year. i mean theyve been through this for one summer vacation more than freshers. sheesh..

so this makes me think... have we forgotten how to chill out?? do we HAVE to be doing something or the other even when we are officially 'on holiday'? why cant we just relax, hang out with friends, read a book (or an ebook), or if nothing then just shut up and sleep... catch up on whatever u've lost on in college... or blog and read blogs...

people talk about 'utilization' of time... well, 2 of the people i knew who were learning java are just too bored.. they left it.. well, almost. then there are people who've taken up jobs. and hence are not free to go meet up with friends...

so yeah... i guess u do learn something... but its holidays!!!

o well, too many people online now... if u were not musically inclined u'd think the 'ding's are a part of a jingle... er.... if i were u, i wouldve ignored myself out there.. as in not the new myself, but the myself that wrote tht sentence ie the true me as i cant be u and u cant be me.. (ignore this also plz) gotta go...

peace out.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

an amateur's lament

ok.. so here is what i did one night to while away time. please excuse the messed up rhyming scheme, extra long lines, and words that sound childish in the setup, and everything that is amateur-ish about this..

may our souls rest in peace

we talk, we laugh, with perfect grace
whatever the situation, a perfect face
the face that betrays nothing but the truth
hiding the hollow, beneath the perfect suits

we talk of big things, we boast and pledge
the hollow inside us impersonating knowledge
for forever, a part of the rat race
the hollow taking the soul's place

for we'll talk about those dying
not because we genuinely care,
but that is what the others are doing
we get to be done with our share

for we'll all wear those livestrong bands
for we'll swear by gore and live earth concert
cancer patients and polar bears
the means of upping the hollow's worth

for that soul we were born with always has to abide
with the hollow that supports the winning side
it used to be rock, but now its punk
in tune with the latest definition of funk

for we do not do what we believe in
the hollow constantly doing the talking
its eating away like it were a disease;
may our souls rest in peace.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

boredom, dogs and litchis...

well, summer hols have begun (ob), and so has the struggle to beat boredom. hence this post.. my family devouring litchis while watching inane programs on tv, or sifting thru varied channels... guess am not the only bored soul in here...

it rained here today. and we didnt let Doggie and gang come inside our house, so they werent exactly happy... oh yeah by the way.. Doggie happens to be a stray we've kinda adpoted, as in leaving accomdation (inside the house), he enjoys all the arrears including free food, water and medical attention as and when needed among others.

and hes Doggie cos well (at least 4 months back) he was what my mom called the epitome of doggieness. huge guy wid huger canines, hes the insolent self-centred self-proclaimed king of the lane who doesnt hesitate at all b4 barking at little kids and our next door neighbours ( :O ).. well... not so nice situations at times... :D

giving him company are two eccentric weirdos...

first one o em being...

merril (my sister named her that so dnt ask me) who loves 1.food, 2.jumpin on people 3. jumpin onto whatever chairs/cots u put (4 urself) outside wen u wanna enjoy the mausam 4. standing BANG in front of the car when ur about to start 5. staring at u if u happen to be arnd n arent pettin her/feedin her/payin her attn...

the other kid (hes the youngest) is a wonder-dog.. i suspect hes got supernatural powers.. hes a living suction pump... can suck anything n everything under the sun into his gut before you can say jack robinson.. and hence hes named sucker (my sister again took care of naamkaran) other abilites include poppin outta nowhere when ur engaged in ne activity regarding food, even if ur talkin to ur human counterparts abt wats cookin...

weirdos... but yeah they are the nocturnal company i have.. as in im gate ke is taraf ye teeno us taraf...

at around 2 minutes to midnight (luv dat song!!! sorry....) if i go outside to breathe in the (relatively) fresh air, i feel a leather belt sorta thing whackin me on the knee. turns out to be Doggies tail... so i try shooing him away... meanwhile sucker comes up and somehow decides i was furtively sharing a midnight snack wid Doggie.. he cant bear this treason on my part and so my hands get smelt and feet get licked. and oh yeah all this while the door was open (since i was an unsuspecting victim to the tail-attack), so merril sneaks inside and i catch her just before shes about to hop on to my bed..

n o yeah.. in case m not so lucky my dad wakes up to have water or smthn n sees me struggling wid merril. and so wid my arms around the dog's tummy, wid her hind legs kickin my knees and forelegs my shoulders, i gtta lisn 2 ma dad yell at me... sheesh....

but yeah all said and done they are adorable.... really makes ur day seein em bitin each others tails (sucker doin most f d bitin), or Doggie jus comin n sittin between ur legs wen u sittin on d park wall... hmm... and yeah u dont get bored wid em arnd...

ok.. dinner time... got impatient losers wid tails n long noses waitin outside n ma mom wid der food waitin in d kitchen...

tata fr now..

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

what a day...

well its been a while since i put sumthn up. lots going on in college.. blogspot.com bein blocked.. exams in between.. e.g pracs.. and aalas being major hindrances... anyway this post is about this absolutely hilarious and mindbogglin day i had.... today the 2oth of march 2007, tuesday..

well i guess the ides of march came 5 days later for me.. was woken up by a phone call from my bored-n-alone at home-dad... tryin to explain the virtues of fasting to his half asleep daughter.. then my adopted dad abhinand (i adopted him... was missin out on free junk @ monginis..) calls me up at 8:15 am.. tryin to wake me up so i can start studyin for test 2.. told him ill wake up at 8 30.. then finally woke up at 9.. was at nescafe at around 10 20 wid maddie n abha gettin abhinand n guru to help us out wid eg..

eg pracs.. eg lecture... and now comes the funny part..

u see, i gotta go to this eye doc in panjim.. sum weird prob wid ma left eye's cornea.. anyway so i asked nandu (abhinand's got a real long name so..) if he wud cm wid me.. n like a gud obedient aagyakaari daddy he agreed.. so at around 4 pm nandu calls up.. "where are you? wat r u doin?" "am in ma room.. was dozing" "well so are we going to d doc or wat?" "yeah.. am comin.."

so then i finally woke up, got ready and we had our i cards bar-code read at the gate by 4:20pm.. and were at the zari bus stop (the nearest bus stop to our campus) by 4 30.. and were still dere by 4:50.. were countin the no of buses that had come and gone in the opposite direction while waitin for a bus to come take us to vasco.. and finally our prayers were answered. we reached vasco by around 5:10... and then the fun began...

hang on.. i gotta apologize to nandu in advance... well sorry for leakin the story daddie... but yeah well itll all be fine... and maybe 20 yrs down d line ud be tellin ur non-adopted, non-one-yr-younger-to-u kids these college life stories.. so tab ye kaam aayega..

neways
we reached, stood in this reli long line to get 2 tickets of shuttle bus (non stop dat is) to panaji.. and when our no came, i gave the guy a 500 ka note (which i borrowed frm sanskriti/abha cos d local atm wasnt wrkin) and a 1 rupee coin.. got 2 tickets... and then promptly went n sat in d bus d ticket guy vaguely pointed towards... daddie coolest leadin d way..

we sat dere chitchattin fr abt 15 mins, watchin d bus gettin filled up.. and in fact so filled up 2 ppl dint hv ne place to sit.. n so d guy came n chkd all our tickets.. n dats wen we realized we were sittin in d wrong bus dat wudve taken us to margao.. and neway by the time we got off, our bus to panjim for which we had bought the tickets had left...! so well... d two idiots (ie me n nandu) then talked to dat ticket guy who jus washed his hands off da matter and told us we couldve asked d junta arnd which bus went where.. then we decided to take a bus back to chicalim (dats a stop in the direction back to campus from vasco).. so me n an abhinand not smilin/laughin fr once then came back to chicalim... waited fr another 20 odd minutes for a bus that went to panaji and not vasco, margao or bogmalo beach...

then sat in dis bus that had the same no as abhinand id no.. 407.. so he cheered up a bit, and was back to his usual self.. laughin wid his eyes so tightly shut ud think he ws a japanese animated cartoon.. and then he slept off.. being a single parent can be stressful at times u see... beech beech mein he ll ask how far panjim was..

neway we reached panjim, and then took two bike taxis to d doctors clinic.. was awsm fun... zippin thru d road, watchin d ferries amble about in d river... neway so the fun ride ended, and to of us reached d doctor's...
...and had jus finished with climbin up d stairs to his clinic that we meet an elderly gentleman (who happened to use jus one eye acc to nandu) who tells us that the doc nt around cos deres sum family function hpnin... and dis is wen i gt an appointment like 2 weeks back.. we come back down to the road and then go back to the clinic again (nandus idea) to see if the docs really nt der n d guy wasnt jus bluffin..

so well... u can guess wat we were going thru... wasted about 120 bucks, and 3 hrs on reaching the place.. and then d guys gone dancin in a wedding... so then to give those 120 bucks sum alue, we decided to blow up another 100 odd bucks, and had 1 pav bhaji each (abhinand had a lassi too) at legacy of bombay, jahan do teen baar poochh kar pahunch gaye the..

anyway, then we were jus tlkin abt the freaky day we had had till then.. and jus speculatin wat cud happen next.. abhinand: the chef dies while makin our pav bhaji.. me: the lassi's poisoned.. nandu: the guys gonna cm up n say "sorry ma'am bt u gotta leave cos ur laughin too loud, disturbin others".. me: the guys gonna cm up n say "sorry sir bt u gotta leave cos ur laughin too loud, disturbin others".. nandu: sum customer only will get so pissed he ll cm n start a fight.. me: yeah n u can keep fightin wid him n ill go back to the campus.. etc etc. then began the speculatin round..
..the hypotheses dat a 1/5th msc phy + electronics n instumentation pro and a 1/8th comp sci engineer came up wid were dat we would be made to wait till 9 30 for our pav bhaji and then we ll realize its too late neway so chuck d pav and the bhaji n get to the campus.. where we wud be declared late by computer ji/mr computer cos we entered d campus at 10:01.. and i dunno weird stuff.

so neway we finally finished wid our snax.. and asked a guy who told abhinand he needed to walk (to reduce da adipose on him) n headed to the bus stand, knowin fully well we hv missed d last shuttle to vasco, which generally leaves at arnd 7:30
..bt the programmer up above in the sky so blue/grey/black (depends) had smthn else in his mind.. so not only did we get the tickets fr d shuttle, it turned out to be a pretty comfy bus and it started off pretty much as soon as we sat..
somehow the india-bermuda match then made its presence felt in our convos.. and i got to know that india were 279 wen the 40th over ended... and by the time their innings ended they had made 413 runs.. so well.. we too had finished 40 overs.. bt the day hadnt ended yet..

41st over.. we encountered these deadly speed reducin bumps dat can reduce ur life span too..
42nd over.. ditto
43rd over.. we brainstormed over our options in the slog overs.. whether to get down at chicalim or to go back to vasco.. decided we ll head to vasco if we dnt get to chicalim by dot 8 30pm (since more options of cmin bak frm vasco.. chicalim deres a strong chance of gettin stranded)
44th over.. its 8 30 in nandus watch.. bus hasnt reached chicalim
45th over.. bus reaches chicalim. time 8 32pm... we get off

45.1 we see a bus standin at the other end n make a rush fr it
45.2 it turns out to be leavin fr margao
45.3 we see 2 bright headlights headin towards us
45.4 we realize its a tanker carryin highly inflammable stuff
45.5 bus to bogmalo beach
46.0 OUR bus.. takin us back to zari..

46.1,2,3,4,5,6 i hpnd to get a seat next to an extremely exuberant drunk guy who went on explaining on the phone dat he had just missed called (if u get wat i mean) "aise heitch kiya tha" usne phone..

48th over (=47.1,2..6).. we reach the zari bus stop, and safely make our way to NH17B thru the village n its varied smells, and wet patches that might not always be water..

49.1 we see a drunkard who just missd bein flattened by a qualis
49.2 we see a plane that luks like a UFO, n keeos circlin around the entire time
49.3 we see a tanker cntainin highly inflammable stuff (again) going at speeds u generally see in car races..
49.4 we see a car most prob bein driven by a drunk guy.. loud music blarin out.. it swerved and came pretty close to nandu.. my daddy.. magnetic personality.. nt d cars fault :P
49.5 that car enters our campus...!!!
and finally the proverbial cherry on the top..
last ball of the day..
... we enter the campus, and i put my id card on the table in frnt of the bar code reader in d guards cabin, wen two of us are instructed to get outta d cabin, and give our cards fr entry thry a window especially made for this purpose...

so yeah well...
one freaky day... serves a reminder.. murphy rules!! and so do his rules...
well
ciao
gnyt
pranshu