I lou my glasses :)

I had broken my glasses last night,
The screw fell out, went out of sight.
My spects were then no more one-pieced,
My vision blurred, trouble increased.

I couldn't recognize people 3 feet away from me
I couldn't tell a P from an R, or a D!
I was asked to count fingers again and again
That whole exercise really was a pain.

The tune in my head was a strange medley
Of 'What's going on' and 'Everything's so blurry'.
Internet and PC-time was antagonizing
As my anti-glare lenses were missing.

Then today, I thought I'll get them repaired
Even when the rain was playing truant and unfair.
I didn't give up, got wet in the process though.
Pakdofyd a Bakra to accompany me to Vasco.

The opticians were really sweet and nice,
They put in a new screw for no price.
The two pieces were then reunited,
Glasses back to business, I was delighted!

The tune in my head aint a medley anymore,
"I can see clearly now", as Marley had sung before.
I can recognize people, and attend classes,
I lou my awesome -wait for it- glasses!

:D

Inertia

This is a term that reminds most (well, most people who have had something to do with science) of Newton, physics and mechanics. Strictly speaking, inertia is the resistance an object has to a change in its state of motion. If a body is moving, it will keep doing so till an external force tries to stop it. Same way with a body at rest.

Now, how do you define rest? It really depends on the frame of reference right? If the object does not change its position with respect to this frame with time, it is 'at rest'. Now, if this frame of reference is moving (with respect to another boss-frame of reference of course), the 'stationary' object isn't well, stationary.

Similarly, an object that is perceived to be moving in one frame of reference can be taken as stationary in another. It all really depends on what the observer assumes to be the basic frame of reference. Where am I going with this explanation of high-school physics? Well, try applying this to 'real life'. Day-to-day situations. You are slogging your behind off at something, while your superior thinks you aren't moving at all. And things happen the other way round sometimes.

So if reality is just a bunch of perceptions, what is constant? Or in other fancy words, what remains unvarying between all the intersections of varied perceptions we label truth? And if it all really is this futile, why bother at all?

I am not so sure I know the answer to the first question. I'm guessing one word answers the second.

Inertia.

Confusion

Ok. No idea why I'm going public with this. Maybe I've grown over it. Had been writing this since past semester. Yeah, took an awful lot of time. Added stanzas whenever I pleased. This piece suffered a lot, blame my whims and fancies. And now it dies.

Flow

Myriad thoughts
Reflected in her eyes
A sardonic smile
The perfect disguise

Commanding her rationale
To dive, ponder and pause
To unearth her own being
Find out who she was

The cherub
A carefree, foamy wave
Golden under the sun
Merrily ambling away

The sensitive
A soothing, patient brook
Talks to the mind
Returns what worries took

The thinker
Serene expanse of blue
A pebble's ripples
Contemplating old and new

The ambitious
A proud, roaring waterfall
Stones, hills, rocks
Wanting to conquer them all

The sorrowed
Bare, disobedient lament
A trickle, a deluge
Unrestrained drops of sentiment

The erudite
Orb's wisdom pouring in
Ocean gleaming in the sun
Ageless, all-pervading

The destructor
The whirlpool in the sea
A twisted motive,
Engulfing all in her fury

The mellowed
Meandering to the deep ranks
Recollecting and reminiscing
The voyage between two banks

The nature
The spirit in her entirety
Rediscovering herself,
The unvarying, elemental identity

randomness prevails

How I Met Your Mother (and a friend) once taught me that nothing good can happen after 2 am. Its 2: 21 now. Long day. And yup, when its past 2 you end up saying things you won't otherwise. Or putting up random posts either.

Why am I up? I don't have classes till like 12 noon tomorrow. Ever wondered that for one instant we invented the word noon? I mean, a little past 12:00:00... and its pm, while the left hand side of the limit is all am.

Why am I blogging? I'm not so sure. Blues have got me all blue-ie. Like ONE time I'd admit I write stuff I won't ever put up on a blog, or that I could sing once upon a time, or that I'm actually one of the royals of Monaco.

Does this post make any sense? It logically does. Mathematical logic.

Randomly generated post ends here now.

The Usual Post-Terrorist-Attack Terrorist Bashing

The title says it all. Probably not the first and won't be the last, going by the way the government's approaching the issue, with the Home Minister more intent on clarifying all's well between the Centre and the State govt than send out a strong and stern warning to terrorists.

Two cities bombed on two consecutive days. We just don't learn, do we? President Bush had minced no words after 9-11 attacks. India, on the other hand, is a softie. Actually no. Our leaders would much rather use POTA to chuck their political rivals into jails, thus trivializing the law that at least offered some control over the menace. Then the Central government changes, and thus all the laws implemented by the previous one have to be changed too. So no more special laws against terrorism, while the ineffective implementation of the existing laws remains just that, ineffective.

Result? 9 blasts in Bangalore on 25th, then 17 in Ahmedabad the very next day. You don't need me to list out the other places that have been the victims of terrorism in the recent past. All the news-channels are screaming out words like Jaipur, Malegaon etc repeatedly.

Would this ever end? The UPA has had enough troubles. Inflation, trust-vote, and now these blasts. They really do not have too much time before the elections to get the people's trust back.

I do hope this is it. No more pointless bloodshed. Pretty disgusting, blowing hospitals up right when the blast victims were being brought in. Makes me wonder, who exactly is the terror-perpetrators' 'Jihad' for?

Superhero (?)

I've been away from home for quite some time, and after these fifteen days, would be away from another couple of months. Well, lots of things happen while I'm away, and my family fills me in.

This post is about the stray (one of them rather) that has adopted us, he's a dog who we call Doggie. (I've blogged about him earlier too, check out the older posts). Now, Doggie is a very responsible guy. He would come and drop you to the gate of the colony, from where you could get an auto. Not satisfied with just this, he occasionally puts his forelegs in the auto, as if to enquire whether everything is ok or not.

Well, last month he did something quite unforgettable (in more than one sense this word conveys). You see, our insurance agent had come home once, for some formalities regarding our car. Now, he wanted to see the interiors of the car. So well, my mom gave him the keys, and told him Doggie won't bite. And that the insurance guy should ignore Doggie baring his teeth, and barking unceasingly. Well, my mom couldn't convince Doggie that this guy meant no harm, and that he wouldn't have stolen the car. Doggie tried his best scaring that guy away, but when he saw that this guy was getting into his (ours, actually) car he couldn't resist. Despite my mom and sister shouting and waving some sorta stick, Doggie went and (luckily) caught the agent's trousers at the heel.

My mother and sister then rushed to the scene, and had to hit Doggie to get him to leave the harried and scared-to-death insurance agent. Doggie wasn't amused, and thought they were being really dumb and over-confident. But then again, if mom and sis were so sure of what they were doing, he decided not to bother. After all, they won't have the car once that guy was done.

Well, the insurance agent quickly finished all the formalities, and told my mother that they would be contacting us soon, and then left. My mom, in the middle of telling my dad the inspection was done (she left the exact details for later), and praying that the agent won't sue us, and other things she does, tried making amends with Doggie with quite a substantial serving of eggs and buttered bread and stuff that Doggie really likes. Doggie wasn't amused. Probably this was about principles more than anything else. So he sulked till my dad came home, and then before my mom could justify herself, the prosecution launched a barrage of accusations before the judge could even enter his house. My dad wasn't really understanding what had gone wrong, and hence turned to the witness (my sister) who then filled him in with the details.

So then my dad promised Doggie justice would be delivered and then came inside. Upon learning that Doggie was on some sort of hunger strike, he went and apologized on the family's behalf, (and I'm guessing made an offer of a few biscuits Doggie likes) and only after a lot of cajoling, did our hero relent. My mom then put extra milk and extra cream in his dinner.

Sweet, isn't it? :)

(PS. The next Sunday, we had to take our car to the insurance office to get the job done.)

exam time special.

Well, test 1 going on. Last one tomorrow, Electrical Sciences 2. I should be studying right? Tturns out three-phases and magnetic circuits aren't exactly my idea of fun. One thing I've noticed is that my mind notices everything under the sun and more often than not classifies it as 'interesting'. Well, maybe because stuff is being compared with really realy mundane activities like studying. mugging and associated activities.

Oh well, so here's a list of the things I've noticed during the last week, since before T1 began. Stuff that otherwise nobody pays much attention to. Basically exam-time specials:

1. You suddenly feel very drowsy at nights, when you could stay up surfing the net aimlessly, playing games and what not during non-exam time.

2. You start feeling very very hungry at nights (the ones you are up on), and you almost never have any food in your room. And your neighbours are sleeping too. (point 1)

3. The sudden cleaning spurt. You just HAVE to clean or wash your fan/table/clothes/room. Well, maybe it's a girls' hostel thing...

4. You get addicted. To various TV series (How I Met Your Mother being the flavour last sem, this semester its Kyle XY). Or as in my case, ebooks and comics. (Archie! Jughead! Betty & Veronica! Aaah...)

5. Almost everyone (from your college) on your gtalk list has exam-related, very creative status messages. Sample this: "State urysohn's 7th lemma on Gaussian operators in the Argand plane..backwards.." or "aaye saala ... abhi abhi hua yakeen... test 1 ke liye maine kuch ... pada nahi ... class ko ..main kab gaya .... kitab ko kisne pakda ....chalte raho .... rubarooo...". This was mine, drawing upon my QUARK experiences - "motto of the week: padh le bewkoof!"

6. Eye for detail. Makes itself really prominent these days. Like today i realized that my corridor inhabitants possess all kinds of locks. Like 107 uses a 7 lever lock, and 119 uses a real tiny one, one that you might put on your suitcase while travelling. I realized i have a 6 lever one. And the average i think is between 5 and 5.2 levers per lock in my corridor.
Or that, you suddenly find yourself making B-plans for the local nescafe/monginis outlet. If Monginis increases its stock of veg sandwiches by x%, then they would last beyond 9:30 pm. Hence more food for us, and more profit for 'em.

7. The perennial in Top-10-exam-times. The weather. It always is beautiful outside the evening before a test. Especially brilliant if you haven't touched the subject. Would've put power failure as another essential phenomenon, but well, these days it isn't restricted to exam-time and hence has lost out on its slot.

8. Overall increase in creativity. The status messages provide a glimpse. The simultaneous and exponential surge in flow of creative juices in students' minds mainfests itself in forms like newer posts on different blogs (ET, JD updated theirs already), people redecorating their rooms, revolutionary ideas of bugging the hell out of someone etc etc etc.

9. Exam time is when all your old friends decide to come online at the most inappropriate time(or is it really inappropriate?). You can't talk to them, as you have like 70% of your course left, yet you can't not talk to them. Sigh!

10. Boredom. And that oo, whacked boredom, the kind that makes you go all whacky. Like I was so bored once, I went to my (10 pointer) neighbour's room and did all kinds of keede there, including bouncing a ball on her wall. When she finally managed to get me out of her room, I kinda umm, went and tripped our corridor's main switch off. :D Twice.

Well, so long. I really should get down to those transformers now. Additions to the list are welcome! :)

Bestaluck for all your exams/results
Pranshu

(P.S.: I just realized I use 'well' a lot of times...)

bhande kali kara lo..!

in the pic: all the akhil mehtas. me, puneet, nimit, akhil, pralav.

Ok. So this post is all about our marketing trip on 25-01-2008, friday. Well, our motive was to promote Quark '08 (http://www.bits-quark.org/) in Goan colleges. And so Nimit, our respected and feared Marketing Head, Member-of-Organizing-Committee ordered all of us to be at the main gate at 7:15 sharp.

Now, before i continue, i suppose you must know the main characters in this story. These are:

1. Akhil Mehta aka TylerDurden aka Tillu. 2nd year. Bigshot on DC. And the reason for the title of this post.

2. Lita Das aka Bhonpu (according to NIMIT). 3rd year, very highly noticeable. And her 6 feet plus height is not the only factor.

3. Puneet Gupta aka Akhil Mehta. (reasons will be clear to you once you are done reading this post). 3rd year. by far the quietest 3rd year. Especially useful when you need wisecracks to be well, cracked.

4. Pranshu Sharma aka me aka Akhil Mehta. ME.

5. Pratik Mandrekar aka Akhil Mehta. 2nd year, quiet Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) driver. Smart 'local Goan'.

6. Pralav Dessai aka Akhil Mehta aka Driver Bhaiyya. 3rd year, 'local Goan' guy again. Drives the car well, including situations where a sonic boom occurs very close to his left ear.

7. Nimit Mehra aka Akhil Mehta aka THE ORGANIZER aka THE MARKETING HEAD. Boss, basically. The 'senapati' of this vaanar sena that went all around Goa on Friday.

So my day started with Lita whispering (for a change) at my door at 6 am to wake me up. So then finally we sign out of the campus by around 7 45 am. Now the plan was that Pratik and Puneet would go on Activa while the rest of us would be in the car. Then we realize the guy who rented us the Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) needed to be dropped off to Vasco. So with me and Lita stuffed on the front seat next to the driver we almost reached Vasco following Pratik who had the bike-guy sitting behind him. And then we realize, that we could have just left Puneet at the campus gate and continued.

And then we realized the road through the jungle to Vasco had a huge huge hole in it. So Pralav tried getting us all back on a road. And I tried saving myself from being squished between the door and Lita while Lita shouted out stuff like "Hum nahin bachenge... we can't reach Vasco.. we can't reach GEC (goa engg college)... Akhil Mehta! Shut up Nimit Mehra.. Pralav bewkoof look at the road. Akhil Mehta!.."

We survived. And soon were on our way to Goa Engineering College. We reached there before 9, when the classes start. I got a good audience. Told them all about Quark, the events, the workshops, the special nights, and I told them that a London troupe of jugglers who have performed at Olympics 2004 were coming to our campus (http://www.feedingthefish.com/), and that magic shows are not just "pulling the rats out of habits" (double-slip of my tongue). So we finished with our job and soon were on our way to RIT (forgot the full form).

So we were having fun, singing songs, making Pralav change the radio station every 30 seconds and laughing uncontrollably whenever Lita would say something and Nimit would try to counter her point. "Akhil Mehta!... Nimit bewkoof.. Pralav do not drive fast. I wanna sleep... Akhil Mehta!.. Itna tez nahin... Radio chalao bewkoof!... Akhil Mehta!..." No matter who took her case/did something that annoyed her, Lita would utter 2 words "Akhil Mehta". Hence all non-Litaeans belonging to Quark-teamus kingdom, Marketingae phylum and Friday-teamus Order have a genus name of Akhil Mehta.

Well, our respected and revered and feared and non brain-severed boss was having a good time too. We all are very scared of Nimit. And we all respect him a lot. And he is a good boss. And he is not getting married to Lita. He was totally cool with us teasing him with her. And he totally was not avoiding being in the same vehicle. Pralav will not be the chauffeur of the newly-married lovebirds. Me and Tillu will not be the two witnesses needed to register a marriage. Nimit is well respected by all of us. So, he was laughing and not calling anyone a 'dumba$$'. This is when Tillu decides to tell us all about this song which is now our marketing anthem (as Nimit put it). "Bhande kali kara lo".

Now, this song fills you up with the same feelings as "aie hiphopper' and 'tic tic tic tic tic tic' do. Bhande in Punjabi means utensils. The feel that comes in this song, is unmatched. You gotta listen to it to know what i mean. Ultimate song!!! Totally cracked the Punjabis (Nimit, Tillu and Puneet) up.

Anyway, so we were continuing with "kali-karaoing the bhandes" ie our going to college, meeting students, handing them flyers worth 11 bucks each, being reminded not to be so generous with the flyers as they were expensive, put up our posters on top of every other techfest's posters, talk to some more people, and then run to the car/activa, where Nimit and Lita would mock-fight with each other. ("gimme my wallet Lita" "you give me my cellphone first" "ek haath de, ek haath le" "Im throwing your wallet outside" "Lita..." "bewkoof..."). And the rest of us would just be content with having a good laugh at their expense.

And so we continued with our trip, and then stopped in Madgaon to have lunch. Which is when we got to know Tillu speaks brilliant chaste Hindi. He told us he had just missed winning a Hindi poem-reciting competition on Hindi Diwas. Later Nimit told me the piece of Hindi literature which he had brought to life with his serene and captivating manner of speaking was "machhli jal ki rani hai".

So well then, on and on we went. Lita went on about Akhil Mehta and Kinetic Honda. I was well, just very happy 1. Tillus shorter than me 2. Litas crazier than me. Pralav was amazed Eeshan was right about what would happen on friday (he had imitated Lita very well, I believe) and happy his speedometer's 'kaanta' had the capacity to go upto 120 and not get stuck at 100. Nimit was happy we were done, and that since he was not in the car, his case would not be taken (quite wrong though, Tillu me Puneet and Pralav had fun). Puneet and Pratik were well, themsleves. All cool and calm and quiet. Enjoying the show. Tillu was being Tillu and happy that for once Lita was not yelling his name out once every 2 minutes. We had another round of Bhande kali kara lo.

And then we came back to campus where Lita finally got her Kinetic Honda and I got to sit behind her. We covered the entire campus, I believe. Hoping someone we know would see us. Which they did. :D

Brilliant trip. And our boss is going to blog about it too!

subconscious takes over

Well, have no clue what's happening. Am in my senses but, well, there's a but'. Listening to Coldplay does that I think. Oh well, am obsessed with putting lyrics up I guess. This is one of my favourites. Yellow by Coldplay. Hope, love and optimism. All about giving yourself, and the joys associated with it. :)

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow.

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called "Yellow".
So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know, you know I love you so
You know I love you so.

I swam across
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.
Cos you were all "Yellow"
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry.

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine.
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do.

snow in delhi

The lowest temperature (till the time today's newspaper was printed) in Delhi was 1.9 degrees. That too daytime temp. Heard an NDTV reporter wondering what things would be like if Delhi hits zero degree celcius. Freezing point of water. So got me thinking (as some or the other Delhiite I know does every winter), what would it be like if it snows in Delhi...

I tried imagining snow on Rajpath. The golden glow of India Gate diffused through the pearly white of snow. NH8 all covered up in snow. Snow on the 'mast' of 'That Ship-Buliding' in Gurgaon. Snow on all the round-abouts the city has. The huge expanse between the North and South Blocs, all calmly white.

Snow around the numerous pillars in Connaught Place. On the neon lights. On the stars (stars with names and stuff of Bollywood's who's who) at PVR Saket. Lotus temple standing pure and serene, the pools surounding it all frozen and still, and a beautiful white carpet laid on the stairs there. Snow on the roof of Palika Bazaar. The streamlined Metro busily streaking along the snow-laden bridges. Yamuna ambling along, while the snowflakes fall merrily on her... White mingling with blue (well, at least before the sewer and other drains pour their black and dark venom into it). The airport would be in a sorry state though. The trains, with their yellow boards showing the destinations covered with dollops of fresh white snow.

Snow at the flyovers, with the reflectors peeping out from their white blankets and blinking as you pass them by. Snowflakes sitting playfully on the LEDs on traffic-signal (red-yellow-green lights) that tell you how much time till the signal changes; almost teasing and taunting you. Snow on the watch-tower of my school, the silvery white confetti that the Big Bell would spray around while chiming at 3 pm every weekday.

Snowfall at Aravalis (that is the Jawaharlal Nehru University region - also close to my place). Snowfall on my window. Doggie and Co. being Rudolph and other reindeer inc.

Beautiful, wouldn't it be?

:)

Taare Zameen Par :)

It was supposed to be just five of us meeting up, hanging around for a while on 31st evening. Simran couldn't come, and Pranay and Manohar were gonna take a lot of time. So me and Agastya just hung around, roaming around Basant Lok market and talking (me doing the most of it, robots aren't exactly known to be excellent conversationalists) and then i saw there was a show for TZP beginning at 6 : 45 pm. So on an impulse, I decided we would watch the movie. So after a long long wait till 6:45 (these two made it in time, surprisingly) we went in to watch the movie, me dreading I'll sleep through it as I hadn't slept properly the last night. And the movie began.

Now I had heard a lot about the directorial debut of Aamir Khan. It's good, but really senti. Maybe a little too serious for New Years, i thought. Well, with a little help from hindsight, I'd say this was one of the best ever ways to bid goodbye to a year.

No drama, no dance/romance of typical Bollywood movies. Mindblowing performance by everyone, especially Darsheel, who plays Ishaan in the movie. The beauty lied in the fact that the film said just enough. Nothing more, nothing less. Portrayed the innocence and the dreams of childhood brilliantly. The wonderful feeling of not knowing any fear, when terms and conditions attached with every darn thing of the adult world don't exist. When it makes perfect sense to bunk school and roam around the streets without any tensions when you haven't done your Math homework.

It's so easy to admit that you were wrong, that you made a mistake when you are a kid. Child has a belief that there is always a possibility that something beyond his/her thoughts exists. Something we lose as we grow up. The simplicity just touches a chord.

Taare Zameen Par shows all this, and what happens when a child is not given a chance to make himself understood. The parents blinded by their expectations just push the kid where the stereotypes tagged with success demand everyone to be. And the rigidity in our society, where everyone has to follow a set pattern, when every one is a distinct individual.

TZP is a sensitive and simple account of one such struggle of an 8 year old. A must-watch, and not just because it solemnly sensitizes the viewer towards the dyslexic and the mentally-challenged. Also as it urges you to think different, to be open-minded about people. To let the kids blossom into what they should be.

And also how simple things in life leave a greater impact on you.

Way to go Darsheel! and Aamir too. :)