Pondering over 26/11 ...

Ok... I know this might be coming a bit too late for its content. Moreover, the timing for my last post and this one is highly skewed because, being at home, I tend to write stuff whenever I feel like doing it and am too lazy to post it on the blog. I feel it is time I voiced my feelings regarding the recent terror attacks and the lessons to be learnt from it. It might sound naive but I was reminded of the effect they had on our lives when one of my friends called up in the morning. He, along with his entire department, had gone for a trip to Nainital and he, in his words, had a really good time. Now, my department was supposed to go to Jamshedpur and we might have ended up having a great time too but the awful lot of terrorists decided to wreck havoc in everybody’s lives with the dastardly act they did.

I know I sound mean and silly. The consequences of the attack were far more horrific and disturbing than the cancellation of a trip. On a graver note, I pray for the souls of the people who lost their lives in this outrageous assault. I mean, seriously, these attacks are an insult. It’s like somebody smacks you in the face and your helplessness hits you in a way it never did. There is a lot of talk about beefing up security measures at all places. Great idea! But think of the vast expanse of land that this country has. Yes, there were security lapses and intelligence failures that shouldn’t have happened. But, howsoever strong your security system is, these trouble makers will end up finding a loop hole and cause bloodshed again. A long term solution to this problem is required. I understand it won’t be easy but somehow these terror outfits have to be wiped off (or made to change their ways and line of thought). Beefing up of security is a necessity but it might not be a solution.

I don’t think anybody reading this blog is stupid enough not to understand this. But think of the progress we can make without the fear of such violence. It has often been said that if India and Pakistan work together, the subcontinent will be a massive superpower. It is hard to imagine what these countries and their people have lost in the last 60 years, just because a small chunk of the people just couldn’t think straight. I pray that peace be bestowed upon our country and the entire world and all those people who are full of any kind of hatred which leads them to do such despicable acts realize that they can do so much better by channelizing their energies and resources to some more constructive causes.

Back after a hiatus... looking back at the semester!

Writing regularly for your blog is a tough job. I am so mad with myself for having left my blog unattended for so long. Quite a few things have happened since my last post. Apart from the little events in my life, there were attacks on Mumbai which made the world see a new, bolder face of terror. It has certainly done its bit to change the way everyone, including me, goes about their life.

On my front, another semester came to an end, leaving behind a mixed bag of memories. The first half of my stay in a single room turned out to be nice. However, being the social animal that I am, my group of friends made sure we spent loads of time hanging out and sharing even the minutest of details from our daily happenings. Still, what is good about single rooms is that you can choose to spend some “alone” time if you want to as being among friends is always an option.

Then we had our cultural fest Antaragni. There was a plan to start an unofficial blog and I was quite enthusiastic about writing for it. However, like many other plans it never saw the light of day. One of the other ideas which never materialised was the publication of an in-fest newsletter. The fact that it was cancelled due to “lack of funds”, noticeably pissed my friend and co-editor SDM, and neither did it make me happy. Well, I had a more or less jobless Antaragni, and to be very frank I wasn’t complaining. I met new people and participated in certain events I hadn’t had the time to participate in till now. The quizzes saw some great competition with teams from St. Stephen’s and NSIT raising the bar which unfortunately resulted in our team ending up winning nothing. Though, I was happy to prevent a total wipe-out by winning in “Word Games” (Cheers to my teammates... Bhaskar and NMJ!!)
Leave aside Antaragni and quizzing was good throughout the semester (totally my viewpoint). To everyone’s delight the Q-Club had regular meets and boy, these meets had some cool attendance. So much so, that we had to shift to the lecture halls to accommodate people. Then, we won some stuff, the most memorable of that coming at a particular ‘Infosys’ quiz. OK, so like enough details and well, yeah, nice time on the cultural front.

Talking of academics, ummm.... i hate to go into too much details, I managed to make up for most of my blunders in the end-sems and it turned out to be a decent outing except for the one course that I took as an elective. Now this course was sheer pain. It started off well but then we had the exams and everything changed. The instructor was a totally amazing guy with loads of knowledge but he was too idealistic and expected way too much out of the students. Even with the entire class scoring abysmally low marks, he kept on crafting totally mind-boggling questions which resulted in a class max score of ~30/100. All of us heaved a sigh of relief when he said that considering it was an elective course he wouldn’t fail anyone. But aaahaa!! The story is far from over. The same guy is taking a compulsory course next semester. God help us... :(

Towards the end of the semester we were greeted with another shocker. Our class trip to Jamshedpur was cancelled citing security concerns after the Mumbai terror attacks. Although on the flip side, it ended up adding another week to my stay at home. So, another 4 months at college come to an end. Gawd!!! Just an year and a half left and so much to do... need to buckle up and run.
Adios!

Quizzito ergo sum, par TV pe quiz shows hain kam!!!

Knock! Knock! Mr. Basu, are you listening?? Where is the O'Brien family? OK, I am fed up of watching farces like "paanchvi paas...", etc in the name of quizzing. I remember the time when one of Mastermind or University Challenges were regularly on TV. It was perhaps the only thing on TV that I religiously followed and so did my family. BQC, however childish it might have been, was always there if you wanted some adrenaline-pumping quizzing action. Even KBC was much better than the showman-driven, moolah-distributing idiocities on-air these days.
I have been part of lots of quizzes in my college in the past two years and let me assure you that 'Quizzing' in its genuine avatar is much more exciting than seeing "over made-up" vamps dishing out soliloquies, tilting their eyebrows in every manner possible. Some people would definitely disagree but then television is supposed to cater to all sorts of audience. And I am sure there are many more of my tribe. :)
I guess the ESPN quiz is still on but being an exclusively sports thingy, its audience thins down further (Ok, here come my prejudices again).
So please, people concerned, listen... give us some "real" quiz shows and stop these KKKKK....KWIZ Shows. ;)

Alas, Federer is only a mortal !!! :(

Kudos to Rafa for playing some incredible tennis to beat the odds and vanquish the "King of grass". All right, that's enough praise for the new "champ"... :)
Now I am free to express my disappointment at what happened this Sunday night. To be very frank, I am not a die-hard tennis fan and only keep tabs on the results. However, my gut said that this one was going to be special and boy o' boy what an all-knowing gut have I got !!!

I said in my first post that I like to have an opinion on nearly everything. So, inspite of my limited understanding of the nitty-gritties of tennis, I would try to think out what went wrong for Feddy (and maybe end up justifying some of his mistakes unwittingly :) ). Now, as far as I think, Federer knew this was coming after last year's final and more so after the merciless thrashing he received in the french Open this year. Right in the first set, one could sense the difference in their approach to the game. Once Roger lost the first set, it was evident (atleast till set 4) that Nadal was calling the shots and Federer was the one catching up. Fed's genius was reflected in the way he clung on and managed to level the match inspite on being down.

Fed and Rafa have totally different styles. Federer banks more on his range and guile and Rafa relies on his agility and power. On this particular day, Federer really bungled up on shots he is worshipped for. One of the turning points of the match (Amritraj said so) was the volley Federer missed when he could have gone up 5-4 in the second set. Somehow I believe he panicked and tried a bit too hard. I would not wish to take credit from Nadal for showing unbelievable fighting spirit and conjuring some magical returns when everybody though the the rally was as good as over. Not to forget, his "bodyline" serves which completely rattled Federer. Talking of service, Federer surprised everyone too by serving brilliantly and ending up with 22 aces. I remember one of the commentators saying a few years back that true champions have this quality of producing amazing serves when they are down and that is the mark of a great player.

I would like to point out something interesting that I noticed during the third set. Nadal was on verge of winning the match and he double faulted. It somehow showed how he feared winning. This is not to be blamed on Nadal. This kind of "inner reluctance" of taking the final step When one is on the brink of doing the impossible (which in this case was beating Roger on grass), is often seen in life and more so in sport. Your insides just tell you -- "Ok, this is not happening for real. You can't be doing this", and... you just mess it all up. Federer pounced on this opportunity and took the set.

I can say a lot about the kind of tennis which was on display throughout the 5 hours of play and try to search for magnanimous adjectives to describe the match, but, it's rather pointless. For those who saw the match, they don't require that and those who missed it, would never know...

Well, Feddy, all I can say is you gotta BOUNCE back. Clay is territory enough for Nadal. The grass was yours for the taking and still is !!! Play on...

So when do you know the movie's good enough??

I am at home in Chandigarh and it was the fourth of July yesterday. No, don't believe that I am talking of a certain country's Independence day (which eventually turned out as the "slavery day" for the rest of the world.. :D). This date was a Friday and the day for the release of a much awaited movie "Jaane Tu..ya Jaane Na".

My sister and some of my cousins were here and tickets were booked well in advance. We pretty much knew what to expect and we made all efforts to get into the required mood. The movie didn't disappoint us; although on second thoughts, it could have had a much better story, or, a smaller runtime.

The movie's screenplay, presentation and caste selection was perfectly done. As is the case with many Bollywood movies these days, most of the situations escaped all kinds of logic. This one again proved that PJs are back in fashion (believe me; I am a trendsetter!! :D). However, towards the later part of the movie the comic instances started turning more comic and the ever so sweet ending leaves you with a very pleasant feeling. And I believe that was precisely the motive behind the making of this film. The performances of the lead pair is fascinating and so is that of the rest of the youngsters. The more experienced lot also added to the uniquely comic and ridiculous situations that keep propping out of nowhere throughout the movie. The music was really good, although most of the songs seem really weird when taken into the context of the movie.

It would have helped had the story had more meat, but anyway, this one is definitely a one-time watch.

P.S. Could anyone explain this new trend of naming movies after old song titles... JTYJN, Bachna ae Haseeno, My Name is Anthony Gonsalves, Om Shanti Om?? As if lifting melodies, storylines wasn't enough...:P

25 years from now....

When you are spending more than the usual amount of time sitting doing nothing much, you can either have really negative thoughts or else you think too deeply about stuff which should not have mattered to you otherwise.
I am in the midst of my summer-break at IIT Kanpur and in my spare time, I have been thinking about and discussing really unusual stuff with my friends. Although I am just halfway through with my degree programme and have two more years to go. However, when you spend so much time with people of your own age you tend to develop a special bond with quite a few of them.
Due to similar reasons, you have this uneasy feeling at times that you are going to leave them all one day and head off in completely different directions. My friends and I were talking about this one day. Then we began picturing our reunion, 25 years from now.
The first thing that came to our mind was that the people who are doing 5 year courses (which is quite a few of my friends) would not have their reunion bash with the rest of us. So, some pain right away. And then we pictured ourselves with greyish hair, more civilised demeanor (hopefully :P ) and most importantly with a family (:O, again hopefully).
All of it felt so weird. Then we would talk about stuff we used to do much to the bewilderment of our spouses and kids. How will it feel to stand in the same mess queue, visit the same lecture halls we now detest and visiting the rooms where we spent most fascinating years of our life? Would we remember everybody and their idiosyncrasies which we just can't do without presently? Well, I believe we would because they seem so much a part of us currently... However, everyone knows that in spite of the shrinking world (due to the very familiar orkut, facebook, etc.), rarely do we care for the people we have left behind, largely due to the pressures of our life.
Well, I really think I would not prod this issue further... One thing's for sure; Reunions are meant to be special and if any of my batchmates is reading this.... he will know -- ours will be too!!!

Boredom spawns creativity...

I won't necessarily call it boredom... While sitting in my lab, I wrote this totally stupid parody of the Ronan Keating song, "When you say nothin' at all". Then I spent some hours drawing stuff and playing the song on my guitar, before finally putting it together in a video.
I hope it makes its audience (if there is any) smile, if not laugh....

P.S. I cannot help if you totally detest the vocals :), and listen to it wearing earphones, if available. The recording quality isn't great!!

iitj@iitk.ac.in ...

Now, this is an important issue. I can only pray that the people behind the scheme of introducing six new IITs have thought out well ahead and know what all this is leading to. Imagine that the first six IITs took around 25-30 years to make a mark for themselves and now we have six new ones springing up like worthless mushrooms, sucking out life from the greener grass to survive.
Come to think of it. There is only one reason of naming these institutes as IITs - cashing on the brand name!! The government could have set up "institutes" (and not IITs) and helped establish a good educational standard.

Moreover, what kind of a future are those nearly 800 students going to have who will be meted out step-motherly treatment from their foster institutes?? For the first three years of their programme they would attend evening classes, kept away from institute posts and honours, thus losing out on the very essence of college life. On the cost of exaggerating, i would say this could have a lasting impact on their lives... And this would continue for the first two or three batches.

Another problem is 'infrastructure'. We, at IITK, have been having serious issues for the past one year regarding allocation of hostels due to the increasing number of seats. There has been discontent among a major chunk of the student community due to their batches being split up to accomodate the increasing number of heads. Now, when they see their problems multiplying due to people (and i'm sorry to say that) who do not deserve to be in IIT, they are justified to curse the policy makers.

The IITs have maintained their status as a premier technology institution for a very long time. I hope God puts in some sense into our policy-makers before they ruin the good work done by some sane people. :)

And by the way, the email id in the topic is for real. This is where you mail if you have any queries regarding IIT Rajasthan. So much for a separate identity... :P

Time to read...

I have been in Kanpur for the past twenty days. Well, yes, I have my summer break but I am doing a summer project so I am braving the heat wave without the usual coolers and ACs. However the stay has been real fun. I had firmly made up my mind that I will rejuvenate my reading habits which have reached near extinction of late. With high ambitions, I caught hold of "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. The first few pages were really ambiguous. Moreover, the mammoth size of the book and the illegibly small print got me less and less excited until I finally gave it up.

Then I chanced upon Chetan Bhagat's "The 3 mistakes of my life". Now, the size of the book and my past experience with Bhagat's books encouraged me to pick it up. Little wonder I finished it in close to 3 hrs. There's something about this guy's writing that just grips you. This one's handled graver issues than the previous books. The way the author has written about religious divides in Gujarat (the Godhra issue, etc.) is worth some appreciation. The plot is gripping and the language is in-your-face, as always. This one is definitely, at least, a one-time read.

Before I sign-off, I have an interesting observation. Bhagat has written three books. We have three protagonists whose names were Hari (FPS), Shyam (one night...) and Govind (3 mistakes). Can you find the connection here???

P.S. I have started off with "Atlas Shrugged" again and I am more determined this time around... :)

Reasons I am here...

Since the time I was really small I have had this weird habit of thinking too much... and I am not saying I can boast about this habit because I believe the stuff I thought about wasn't always useful. Then I have this strong opinion on everything and of late I have been in the habit of ruthlessly trying to impose "my" opinion on everybody I meet. More or less everytime this has ended up in hours of heated discussions, culminating in angry uproars and minor rifts.
So, I think I would rather write everything that comes to my mind and be happy without causing trouble to anybody... :)

Another reason of starting a blog is ... well ...

I am sitting here in this boring room,
It's just another sunny 'friday' afternoon,
I am wasting my time, I got nothing to do,
I am feeling so dull, I'm feeling so blue....

And...ya... this is THE reason... :P