Moi

Its not easy to read people and when you talk about guys like me it seems it is impossible. Stats show that. Twice in as many months two friends who supposedly “know” me took a shot in analyzing me/reading my actions and both failed miserably. One is a pal from college days. Over the last four years we have been in touch only via the net and would catch up when we both happen to be in Bbay during our respective vacations. The other is my batchmate here, in my hostel, same dep, we have been lab partners since day one and during quizzes, mid/end sems one can locate me in his room.

I am not surprised. I want to be unpredicatable, feels good. If people can anticipate your next move they can react accordingly. That is what a level in metagame is. But the trouble is when amateurs get to this task they 9 out of 10 times can end up messing things. You need to tread carefully. If you have a doubt, disclose.

Mumbai meri jaan

Three things that I am missing  the most :

The weather: Its raining cats and dogs in Bbay, the weather is cool. Here the swealtering heat and the added humidity is taking a toll on everyone. It rains on the 4th or 5th night once the heat and the humidity during the day get unbearable.

CCD: It is walking distance from Verona. I could feast on a Chocolate fantasy with vanilla icecream, chocolate sauce and almonds, a Sizzling brownie or a Cool Blue any time I desire. After controlling myself for long I finally went all the way to the Hub (an hr drive from the hostel) to pamper my palate.

Crossword: The ambience and the collection rocks. I truly miss that. You can sit there for hours, immersed in the book and yet not realise that its time for the place to shutdown. Occasionally there are distractions too in the form of hot chicks or crazy kids but thats a good break. I had to compromise with the ambience CCD could provide me with. Though the distractions are more there but nevertheless I could peacefully wrap up the second half of “Blink” over Chocolate fantasy with vanilla icecream,chocolate sauce and almonds. Again, the extra effort to go all the way to the Hub instead of the 5 minute walk.

I do not wish to remind myself of Chocolate Avalanche and Vertigo coz its atleast 120 days before I get to feast in Mocha.

Mee Mumbaikar boltoy

90 minutes of madness

It was unparalleled madness. 90 minutes of absolute crazy behaviour. It all started at 3 AM. Deepankar and myself were returning after a long walk,we had set off from the hostel at half past midnight. It was getting cloudy with hints of a drizzle. We bump into 8 crazy second yrites (Ayya,Shady, Babaji and co.) and start to tread towards the hilltop. Within ten minutes we face torrential rain. In the strong winds and the heavy rainfall we start moving uphill. Insanity reaches its peak when after climbing over the gate we all start running. It was no small distance. We ran a little more than a kilometer in the downpour, howling and spalshing water all around. The only source of light was the lightning that kept striking  every 30 seconds.We were drenched and shivering when we reached the paradise. To add to it our ears got numb.

The lightning and the thunder that followed send shivers down our spine. It was scary, we actually screamed once. We couldn’t wait for long once it stopped raining coz it was getting cold.Missed the view of the sunrise from the hill top.

Have a lecture to attend at 9. Its the last one by ADS. I have to be present and there is no way Ill manage to get ready if I catch a nap…I hope Orkut and The Merry Muses keep me alive and awake.

This act will surely make its way to the top ten weird things I do in my life

EDC

I have just returend after discharging my last responsibility as the outgoing Student Head of the Entrepreneurial Development Cell of IIT Guwahati. Having decided lin the last semester on stepping down, addressing the first yearites was the only thing left. I wanted to share with them the vision of this cell. Their batch will play an important  role in taking EDC to its peak.

I look back and its feels good.Techniche had left a bitter taste. I had put my heart and soul and yet I ended up asking for more from both Techniche and myself. I was not satisfied. In the days that followed I failed to find a reason for the same. Probably it had to be that way else I wouldn’t have taken the responsibility of giving a face to a cell which had been on paper for two years. I am happy today. The insti Director and ex- DOSA too appreciated our intiatives and the efforts EDC was putting in. Years down the line if I look back to my days in IIT, EDC will for sure top the charts.

Signing off,
Founder Member and former Student head,
Entrepreneurial Development Cell,
IIT Guwahati.

Thin line of difference

The reason behind this post is a friend.His actions have made me attempt to define the thin line of difference between accepting defeat gracefully and never giving up. I have been wanting to put across my views very bluntly but have failed. Subtle messages have not worked either. Hence this post.

I feel this subject is contextual.

• The very fundamental question is who decides what is right and what is wrong?
• Success is always relative.
• Given the domain, sustained efforts will eventually help overcome every failure/obstacle.
• No matter how trying the circumstances are, never lose your self respect  or stoop below your dignity. If you don’t hold yourself in high esteem how do you expect others to respect you and stand by you.

I have been a sportsman all my life and one thing that I have learned is to accept defeat and take failures in my stride. And I have had my share of successes too. In fact it was the failure of not having succeeded the first time that led to something much better and different the next time. Its a simple concept of lateral thinking: You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. This means that trying harder in the same direction may not be as useful as changing direction. Effort in the same direction (approach) will not necessarily succeed.

Unless you let go your past you shall fail to embrace the future. Its one thing to work your way in acads through sheer hardwork and perseverence but there are certain situations in life where this principle doesn’t hold true, especially when it involves many others in your life. I remember the quote in one of my previous blogs “At times winning is not the only thing, it is everything”. But it tastes good only if it is done in a fair manner and you in your right deserved it.

All I wish to say is that  I have lost respect for a friend who still doesn’t honour his actions and hence himself.

What men really want?

For a change, coz of inf vellapa, got to reading this forward. I really  liked it. Reason: I do not know. Thought of circulating it amongst my friends.But as I had already recieved the same from three different people,I end up putting it up here.

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down.  Finally, the guys’ side of the story. (I must admit, it’s pretty good.) We always hear “the rules”  from the female side.  Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules!
Please note:  These are all numbered “1″…  ON PURPOSE!

1.  Men ARE not mind readers.

1.  Learn to work the toilet seat.  You’re a big girl.  If it’s up, put it down.  We need it up, you need it down.  You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1.  Sunday sports.  It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides.  You can’t change it, let it be.

1.  Shopping is NOT a sport.  And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1.  Crying is blackmail.

1.  Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1.  Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1.  Come to us with a problem ONLY IF you want help solving it.  That’s what we do.  Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1.  A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem.  See a doctor.

1.  Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.  In fact, all comments become Null and Void after 7 Days.

1.  If you won’t dress like the Victoria’s Secret girls, DON’T expect us to act like Soap Opera guys.

1.  If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1.  If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one .

1.  You can either ask us to do something  OR tell us how you want it done. Not both.  If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1.  Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1.  Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1.  ALL men see in ONLY 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, NOT a color.  Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what Mauve is.

1.  If it itches, it WILL be scratched.  We do that.

1.  If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” we will act like nothing’s wrong. We know that you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1.  If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, then Expect an answer you don’t
want to hear.

1.  When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine… Really.

1.  Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about, unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as football, the shotgun formation, cars or golf.

1  You have ENOUGH clothes.

1.  You have TOO MANY shoes.

1.  I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1.  Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men really don’t mind that?  It’s like camping.

Rs 2 lakh for falling into a pit

This news in 9 days old. It had the entire nation glued to their telivision sets for the entire weekend.The TRP of the news channels rocketted to 17. Just to get a better idea, the TRP of news channels was 13 when Pramod Mahajan had died. A little Prince in Kurukshetra falls into a 60 feet deep and nine inch wide hole. He fell on friday as a five year old and came out on Sunday as a 6 year old. His bday was on Saturday. On his appearance after the 50 hr ordeal he recieved an applause of the magnitude that Zizou might have got if he had won the world cup for France.(As reported by TOI).

A few healdines and reports from the newspapers:

“It was a human drama that kept the nation engrossed during the weekend and turned him into India’s most heart tugging kid”

“5 year old turns 6 in pit”

“Prince wins battle of Kurukshetra” (At first glance this seems to be plagiarised from some history textbook refering to a victory by some Nawab over the British)

“Fast unto rescue:Not without my Prince: Mumbai teacher”

A few more facts:

The CM of Haryana Mr. Hooda, MP Naveen Jindal and former MP CM Digvijay Singh all made their presence felt.

Several Army, Air force and fire safety experts were involved in the “rescue operations”.

In addition to Rs 2 lakh being given to the familly of Prince, the CM announced a package of Rs. 51,000 to army personnel, civilians and local villagers who provided a helping hand.

All TV channels devoted prime coverage and newspapers front page space. TIMES Now taking all the credit and getting their backs patted by experts by organzing a debate on “Did media pressure help?”.

Prince belonged to an OBC caste.

I guess the last fact sums up everything. There now seems to be a logical flow of events, how simple and clear. I also wish to know what the armymen and their families posted along LOC, in J&K and in the Naxal dominated regions opine.

Set of events which surprisingly didn’t happen:

Mahesh Bhatt not invited in the debate at 10 PM on Times Now. He also didn’t announce his next movie inspired by little Prince.

Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati and others not visiting Prince. How cruel on their part?

A dalit leader not blaming the government and the upper caste for obvious reasons and not demanding further reservations in some domain left untouched.

OBC/SC/ST etc kids in other villages not falling in pits.

Among all these surprises there is one thing where our Indianness was truly reflected:

The village was parched for water. A contractor had started drilling the hole in search of water. Eventually he gave up and papered them with two sandbags.There was only a mention of this. No action I guess has been taken against him and the village is still dry.

Jai Hind.

P.S: I realise that I have overlooked his “bravery”, the “trauma” he and his family underwent and  that this blog has a dose of racism…

P.P.S: There is a wave of freshness in every hostel.The First yearites have finally arrived… this is mouth watering On the flip side, in a batch of 320 odd the number of females is only 17 (or less)