Today will be a first for me in many ways...

This week has been really hectic for me though i didnt have any academic work as such. And today is the day. The first time i would be boarding an aeroplane. The first time i would be going out of the country.
This week i had lots of unique experiences. A hurried trip to Chennai that wasnt planned at all. No, Chennai isnt new for me. The hurried one day trip was. A visit to the Consulate for Visa. The whole process of going to another country even for a small time is so complicated. Got the visa today in speed post after frantic efforts. Fought with time to extract money from the atms and convert it into traveler's cheques.
Not to forget installing OSs in that laptop, taking printouts of the required documents etc ...
So, now we are all set to go. Except a small hitch, the tickets. Need to get them from the agent tomorrow.
Also, i shifted my room. Now i will be enjoying 100Mbps lan. More importantly my pc can go back to linux. But i would sure miss the old wing....
The rain today has been the heaviest since a long long time...

I will be flying away to Japan soon. Wish me luck. And hope that i return well and sound :D

For the nonplussed readers who may ask why I am going to Japan, refer to the post on March 1st 2005, 7:45am. All my work in this summer culminates in the next week.

All this is going to happen only if i get the proper tickets today morning. Otherwise...

Kshitij Rescue would act in Robocup Osaka in a few days.

The next post would be from somewhere outside the country .... :)

Felt like blogging ...

so i am here. At 3 am. In a few hours i will be home again. And after a few days i will be back here again. The vicious cycle will never end. Or maybe it will end after an year? I certainly hope so.
Life of Pi. A book that has been inhabiting my room for more than a month. A book that wont take more than a few hours to read. A book that is a well known Booker winner. A book that already half a dozen people have borrowed, read and returned to me. A book that has already been reissued from the library for four times. A book i am yet to read.
Attended a FSIS session today. Am quite skeptical of their new hostel-as-house policy. I consider their idea of cramming two boys in a single room outrageous. So do i consider their Masterplan (which has been put up on site in quite an indecipherable pdf).
Suddenly, i stopped writing this post and started reading a blog which i used to consider interesting. But the sarcasm in the latest post was so obnoxious that it totally drove me off. It will be quite some time before i return to that one (if ever)
Sarcasm, one of my favorite forms of dialogue. No, it is favourite. You know what is the best thing to have happened to American-English? The internet. And ofcourse, M$Word. These are annihilating the poor original British english. Read an article by Thomas Friedman who was talking about the rise of the Irish Economy. Ireland now has the second largest per capita income in Europe after .... Luxemborg!
One of the reasons of success other than 'free education', 'embracing globalisation' etc is 'using English'
I am going home in a couple of hours. Oh, did i mention that already??
I hope the rescue is complete for now.
I am signing off.

Confused yet fine ...

Thats how my state of being seems to be. Confused about what? No idea. Just that the whole day i have been doing nothing, seemed capable to do nothing. Lazed around trying to figure what was wrong. The result.. nothing. Why is it that sometimes everything is fine, no troubles, no problems, no tensions, yet you do not feel good. You are surrounded by people, but you seem to be lonely. But no one can tell that anything is wrong because there is no change in your behaviour. Everything is fine but you arent.
The playlist comprises of the whole hindi songs directory. Hence, listened to a lot of songs which are actually good that i forgot ever existed that too on my pc.
What else ( thats the title of the song currently being played, in hindi ofcourse)
Lost into oblivion.
Life is good but can be better :)

June 16, 2005 AD

This is the third time tonight, that i logged off, with thoughts of going to the hostel, only to return to the lab and sit in front of this pc again. Once it was because, i thought i got an idea to solve the problem. The second time it was because my mind was assaulted with thoughts coercing it to try another trick on that program. The third time had nothing to do with my mind or thoughts, it is the rain which has pushed me back to the lab. But yeah, the weather is awesome, especially after the horrible summer that we had to suffer. So, after a long time, i am blogging in the lab.
I actually felt like blogging in the evening, but then it struck me that the blog anniversary must be somewhere around this time. I checked and it turned out to be the next day, i.e today :D.
So, thats it, 365 days have passed since i first blogged.
Thanks Akshay for introducing me to the Blog-world.
Thanks Simeen for giving me various tips.
Thanks Pati for popularising my blog.
Thanks Rastogi for idolising my blog :D.
Ofcourse, thanks all readers for wasting your time reading my ramblings.
Hey, wait a minute, why should i thank the readers ?? Shouldnt it be the other way round?? Shouldnt they thank me for maintaining this wonderful blog that provided them with that most useful way to waste time when they were too bored to do anything else??
After all the thanks are exchanged, ... lets continue.
Thats where this post was saved as draft. This is the first time that a post was not finished in one sitting. The break came because Su was good enough to come to lab to pick me up and take me to the hostel on a bike. Hence, Thanks Su :)
More than required grtitude for one year; this post ends here.

PS: This is the 117 Post. :)

horrorscope ... painistry

First time when it was suggested, i brushed it off as a joke. But then the nagging began. "how will it make any difference to you?", "Just want to know about your health." blah blah yak yak. Finally i gave in. Thought that i would just enjoy the experience. And so we went to a city-renowned palmist. Yes, a Palmist. I often felt that the theory of how-the-lines-on-your-palm-tell-your-future is much better than how-the-stars-in-the-heavens-predict-your-future. And this particular exponent of the former theory is apparently quite popular going by the queue that was waiting for his audience. Since, his place was quite near our house, we took our token, rested at home and came back to that 'palm-house' at just the right time.

My turn came, we entered after 'removing our footwear'. He was around 50, corpulent and domineering.
(All the conversation has been translated from telugu to english)
He: Are you studying?
Me: Yes, Engineering.
I tenderly offered my right palm, he just glanced at it before he started off on his list of insinuations.
He: Why are you losing interest in your studies ??
Me: (bewildered!! what!! wanted to reply(WTR): i havent the faintest clue what the hell you are talking. True, i havent been studying much, but i am managing pretty well) Reply: erm...cough
He: You are depressed and have lost interest in studies.
Me: (depressed!! I havent been more jollier in my life!! WTR: dude, get ur facts right) Reply: cough... no (a squeak)
He: I am asking you
All this while, he has been scratching on my palm with his reynolds pen, highlighting the lines and curves on my beautiful palm. He ended up making it look ghastly.
And then, relief came in the form of a courier service, who came to deliver a credit card. He wanted a signature and the Pan number or passport number etc. Our man did not even bother to get up. He signed, wrote his telephone number and asked the courier guy to be content with it. The courier guy persisted saying that telephone number wont do, Pan number, Pan number. Our guy joked saying, "Do you people really need the proof of my existence, dont you know me?". Our man brusquely brushed away the poor courier guy and resumed the study of my palm. By this time, i had got back my senses, and wanted to get the hell out of there. He continued...
He: Health is totally fine.
Me: (WTR: If there is any problem with me, that comes under health. Shall i show my medical report and prove it to you?? Get something right dude!! ) Reply: /:) (raised eyebrow.)
My escort: But, will his health be all right??
He: Its totally fine. The problem is his depressed mind.
Me: (WTR: Now, you accuse me of being a psychosomatic!!!) Reply: Stoic Silence
He: You have chances of going abroad in the near future.
Me: (gloating. well, he is bound to get something right afterall.) Reply: Straight Face
He: You may fall into troubles relating to love.
Me: (WTR: Come on, get real. I dont even have a love-life.. is that the trouble you are talking about?) Reply: /:)
He magically produced a ring from nowhere, and put it on my finger. I wanted to snatch it off immediately, but i waited till i was out of his sight.
I finally left shaking my head in disbelief at this strange ordeal.

Supposed to sleep, so i blog ...

blogging has been quite infrequent in these holidays. Just four posts in the month of may :o. But, how does it matter :)
My mind is quite alert and happy to be awake. My eyes pain as if some thorns have replaced those cones in the retina. Eyes, that reminds me of spectacles. 12 years, from the time they opened in this world (hindi filmy??) my eyes had been sharp and great. Many times, i had been summoned to search for that fallen minute thing on the floor, an earring, a screw etc etc. Then, i found the world around me getting blurred gradually. In that unlucky 13th year of my life, i got my spectacles, with powerful lens, -3. Yeah, in my case the eye-lens-power saga started from -3. Many people may strive for years yet not reach this coveted figure. But i kick-started from there, and now have doubled it, almost. These 8 years, the spects have become an inherent part of me. Travelled through all those shapes, huge rectagles, oval, large rectangles, squarish, thin rectangular, plastic lens ... never tried those darkening ones though.
Well, the thorns, i mean the cones are intensifying their protest, i better heed their cries. Keep the spectacles on the table, jump into the bed and sleep another fitful sleep.

This tagging business ...

With ref to this post
Am supposed to answer a few questions. So lets start.

1. Total number of films I own on dvd/video:
A. Me!! Owning stuff?? Must be kidding. Btw, i think there are some cds/videos at home, i dont remember of what :D

2. The last film I bought:
A. Refer to the answer above.

3. The last film I watched:
A. Star Wars - Episode 3 - Revenge ... in theatre, Fight Club on pc (couldnt finish due to 'unforseen circumstances'), Mass on Tv (yeah, I survived #:-S)

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
A. Shrek
    Sixth Sense
    Life is Beautiful
    Forrest Gump
    Dil Chahta hai
    Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (:D oops, this makes it six)

5. Tag five people and have them put this in their blog:
A. Now this is tough. I can tag them, but will they even consider it? Also, can we tag people who are already tagged (though it wont serve any purpose) ?? Anyway, here go the five people -
persephone
my friendly sage
M$ guy
and so on and so forth :D

ps - why is this tag-thing related to movies only ????

No idea what is going to follow :)

Because. i am extremely bored. Just spent half an hour doing nothing at all, just staring at the wall. With no thought occupying my mind, atleast none survived for any considerable length of time. So, thought why not let the fingers do the thinking.
Something regarding the blogger.com has been bothering me for a long time. Why arent they updating the stats? It still stays that i have 48 posts, am pretty sure reaching 100 now. The last post that is shown in a person's profile is one written around Dec04!
I wish for another thunderstorm.

Faint, faint, just a little whisper
slowly, slowly, it is getting richer
forever, forever, the pitch increasing
but i wonder, wonder who is singing

Long time, so here's a post

Am back from home after another brief sojourn. Unlike many priveleged, i dont have a pc at home. And going to an internet cafe is one of the worst tortures you can inflict upon yourself. They with their cramped surroundings, windows 98 with a 800x600 resolution and no browser other than iexplorer. They remind me of my early lab-1 days here. Yeah, the pcs arent much different. And so so slow! And the pc which had the ip 172.16.1.2 was somewhat a special one. Yeah it belonged to me and another guy. The only pc in that lab to have a 4GB harddisk. All others had 2GB. :D Now, now dont get envious, you dont know the full story yet. That was a pc in which windows must have been installed almost on a weekly basis. Forget linux. It was an achievement to get windows running on it. Many a time, once the os was succesfully installed and the pc seemed to be sort of working, my dear pc-partner used to discover some viruses in some files and duly delete them. Many a time, it happened that those files were critical for the os to run. And the unwary me, would come to lab, switch on the cpu, wait for an hour for it to boot, diligently stare at those welcome screens, and just when it is supposed to show the task bar, the whole screen would go blank, and i am presented with this message - "Its now safe to turn your computer off" :-s.

Well before going home, i had these visions of relaxing for four days, regroup my energies and come back with a refreshed soul. Now that, those four days have passed and i am back here, i wonder what happened. I dont feel a lil bit of difference between me-'four days back' and me-now. Spent all the time at home either sleeping or watching movies on tv.

One night, was reading some magazine sitting in front of the tv when i heard the words lion and cheetah in the same sentence. Looked up to see a programme on animal planet. A cheetah was trying to distract a lion, (according to the narrator) and it seemed so. But why? The cheetah could only go that much near the lion and the lion would just roar it away. The lion was searching for something and the cheetah was trying to hinder the search. Nope, not for prey, lion was searching for the cheetah cubs, and the cheetah mother trying to lead the lion in the wrong way. Finally the lion found one cub, killed it, and went in search for another. The cheetah was helplessly standing a little away. Another cub becomes a victim and finally the lion goes away. The cheetah then goes to check if any of her litter survived the lion-onslaught. Yep, two did. two died. And why did the lion kill the cubs? Strangling the competition before it became real. It didnt want too many cheetah eating into the available prey in the area. Now we know whom to blame for the decreasing cheetah population.
Saw another similar programme which was about a group of lion cubs trying their claw at hunting. It was pretty funny. In one incident, the cubs some 5-6 of them chance upon a bunch of monkeys walking on the ground. And the hunt starts. One particular cub chased a monkey, which climbed the first available tree. The cub thought it was a kitten and followed the monkey. But it only went up half the distance that it started sliding and fell in an haphazard way on the ground. Now the monkey was the boss. It started throwing twigs and stuff at the cub, who had to retreat unable to bear the onslaught from above. In another incident, the group of cubs tried to attack a herd of buffaloes. But they really regretted their choice. A buffalo with its large horns turned around and started chasing the lions-cubs. It was so funny, the buffalo coming after the cubs. It really frightened them, finally the mother had to come to drive the buffalo away.

Facing the imminent danger that i may keep blabbering, i publish-post and logout.

Lack .. lack .. lacking

Now, why am i writing this ??

I noticed, as i looked around
ants crawling up the sand mound
one tiny guy falls back
energy, does he lack?

a step away from the line
yet walking up the incline
in his pursuit for something
but does his pace, lack the zing?

with the food, yet to bear
is the burden, which he fear?
does he lack the enthusiasm?
ponder why, his life's in chasm?

Is he a rebel, breaking away
to live life, one's own way?
searching for a new destiny
will rise, another mussolini?

No, he is not going away
maybe he just lost his way
he has joined the ranks again
and is back to being insane

But all my questions still remain

05/05/05

A rare date. A rare day. A day when i finally started doing something useful. Had spent a month with the intention of doing it, finally found the right auspicious day to start. Hope it doesnt fetter out. :)
After a long time, i am blogging in windows. Forced to do it. Wlan no longer works in my Fc3 :((. They have implemented Wep keys, and now my card doesnt associate with the ap. Someday, i will regroup my energy and try afresh to make it work. But as of now, its Windows time for fame. Californication is starting to play again now, repeating for the 15th time. Got to add to the playlist.
Quite a boring post this is turning out to be. Bear with it, O' dedicated readers. :P

This is life

Sit on a chair with your legs resting on another chair.
Enjoy the cool nice wind.
Listen to Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall"
Read the newspaper.
Chat with a nice friend.
And blog about it :D

mfsgdrsolif ,fxm

Randomly hit the keys of the keyboard. Thats something i do when i am really frustrated.
I am sick of myself.
I am a complete loser.
Reaction: "What! how can u say that. u r soo good blah blah yaak yaak ....
Trust me people, i am just a phony guy who fakes very well.
I am not frustrated because of any particular reason. A lot of factors have contributed to it.
I want to rehaul a lot of things. But i wont do it. I cant. It will continue and it will all be rosy in the end, hence it wouldnt matter then.
As i was saying, i am currently sick of myself. Anyway out?? All suggestions other than those involving the loss of my life are welcome.

So did this make me feel better? No. Relieved?? Yes.

A mosqi here, a mosqi there, mosqis everywhere

This is summer. Hyderabad summer. So its hot. Not comfortable to sleep even at 1 in the night. The only way to cool your room is to open the door and usher in the fresh cool air. As every cloud has a silver lining, ever gust of wind has some embedded mosquitoes in it. Its not that i am against insect life. But the world would have been a calmer place had these insectia minded their own business. But these under-developed beings are quite curious about humans. Actually the mosquitoes suck. Suck the human blood for their experiments. But they have an hidden agenda too. They seem to be nocturnal beings. And their collective aim seems to convert poor innocent homosapiens like me into their kind. No, not into insects but into nocturnals. As soon as you lie on the bed, and switch off the light, they set to task and start all their sucking experiments (all puns intended). Why allow them into your room in the first place you may ask. But unless, you invite these, your room's temperature isnt going to be pleasant. But once these are in, you can forget all chances of attaining the goal of holidays - sleep. So, you are going to be awake anyway.
After a few hours, before the sun is about to wake, the mosqis return to their haven, and i can visit my heaven for a few hours before the noon-day door-bangings begin.
What a lame guy, losing his sleep over a few mosqis. Before you leap to any such conclusions, read on.
Jet mat. The only guy affected by its aroma is me. So, then the great war begins. Observe the flight, analyse the curve, learn from the previous sorties of the mosqi, wait for the oppurtune moment to strike. Notice! the mosqi is within reach, the mosqi is slowing down, out shoots the hand to capture the intruder. Succesful you may have been, but before you even have a chance to gloat, you are faced with a flying threesome. You win another battle. But the numbers dont decrease. After exhausting yourself, you sit for some time, only to chance upon a new batallion flying all around you.
Raise the white flag. Huddle in front of your dear pc, and type down your miseries.

A post ...

I am blogging now just because i havent blogged in some time now. Actually dont at all feel like blogging these days. Nothing to be frustrated or bored of. Not required to do anything. So cant postpone something by blogging (instead of doing that task). Since am comfortably leading a calm peaceful lazy life, nothing to blog about. What a leisurely life!!

Alas, these days will soon come to an end...........

The Unending Election Fiasco

The sole aim of this post is to expend my frustration. Better read the post below if you have come here to appreciate my writing style... :D

Election
Re-election
Re-Election Nullified
Another Re-election to be held in the next sem.

I guess this is just half the story. Who knows how many more re-elections we are going to have before they are finally satisified with the elections. They here solely refers to the Ec and the Slc. What the HELL do they think of themselves??
I really wanted to reply to them. But had to restrain myself, whats the point in spammimg? Already two people have put the grievences pretty well. I expect the Ec answers them soon. Otherwise, they are going to get lot of hatemails.
If anyone has a misconception that things can get better at IIIT, then well, you have a misconception. Things only seem to get worse. (Except the Canteen though, it rocks as of now.)
Dont the Ec realise that they are responsible to the students? Particularly the contestants? First of all, on the evening i.e the end of the first elections, they cancelled the election. And everyone knew of the various leads etc. A lot of politics may have been played on that night. Then they held elections on the next day, the day of the Farewell. Only this time, they did not discover any bugs at the last minute. Hence they withheld the results. Slowly, anyhow the results have leaked out. Now everyone knows who won, so they nullify the election. What the Hell!!!
Malpractices!! What practices? The most number of malpractices seem to be done by the Ec. Actually, most of it is not Ec's fault . The Ec is just a worker for the Slc. Any decision of the Ec is basically a decision of the Slc. If malpractices are a problem, what ever was the Slc doing during the last elections? What happened then are called Malpractices. Those things are called intimidating voters blah blah. This time we had vigorous campaigning, Yes. Sometimes the campaigning bent and maybe broke some rules. Yes. But none of these are serious enough to repeat the whole process again. Silly us, we took care not to break any rule. We should have done all sorts of campaigning, broken all code of conduct etc. At max, what they would have done is another re-election. They put down some ambiguous statements as rules, interpret the rules in some way and expect everyone else to have the same interpretation somehow magically.
They plan to re held the re-elections at the start of the next sem. Do they expect the graduating people to come to IIIT and vote, or even login from wherever and vote? 1/3rd of the current voters are no longer going to vote. I wonder how many of the remaining would vote either. Why should anyone, when the probability of the re-elections again is so high!
And, Who the Hell is going to apolozise for wasting my time for so many days!! Do they even have an iota of an idea, how much effort the contestants have put in? What do they know about the time and effort taken to select the team, come up with the agenda, fight against the mis-information campaign, And Campaign!! Tell them to try to convince me why Re-elections are required. We had to convince hundreds of people why they should vote for us. Do they think, we are profited in some manner if we become MPs? This is not a pay thing. And there wont be any kick-backs either. Whoever is contesting is doing that either with genuine interest in doing something for the campus, take up some responsiblity, bring some change or else have some fun by coming out of hibernation (This is applicable in some cases).
Is this the Slc way of having 'Selection' through 'Election'? Keep having elections until the appropriate guy in your opinion wins??

"This mail is to inform the student community regarding nullification of Elections that were held on 30th March due to complaints received regarding malpractices."
The next time you do not like the way results the going to turn out, just make some complaints. They will nullify the elections.

"Fresh elections will be held under closely supervised conditions during the first week of the next academic year."
Closely supervised conditions!! What are they going to do? Put us contestants under room arrest or something??

"The candidates for SP councils will remain the same and no new nominations will be invited."
How can they assume that the contestants would still be interested in participating in this fiasco of a process called Elections?? What about new nominations to the Ec. I guess that is the most basic requirement as of now. And i guess, i dont need to start about the Slc now, everyone must have an idea of tHEiR visions.

I wanted to write a post on Campaining. How and how not to do it. Guess, some other day, when and if the fiasco ends.

Warning: Do not talk about elections if you meet me in person. I am not going to waste any more time on it.

PS: One good thing, Though having (unofficially) won the elections (despite not being the favourites), we dont need to fulfil our agenda (though we showed that we can do it).

Yet another early morning post ...

My blogging time seems to have shifted from 3 to 5. Well, this atleast allows me to witness the sunrise. These being holidays, such days are going to increase. I hope i enter decently into the fourth year after a not so impressive performance in the EndSems to say the least. A long summer is looking forward to us. A summer which may be eventful in many ways. Hopefully a summer which is cool. Lets try something different today...

She looked down the road. The wait hasnt yet ended. She is still there, on the pavement, all alone. All alone among a million people. People moving everywhere. People moving in front of her and behind her. People walking across the street, people sleeping in their rooms in the buildings lining the road. People sipping coffee and reading the newspapers. Newspapers full of news. News about the uprisings in Iraq, the political bickerings in Bihar, the company mergers, the sporting feats and ofcourse, the predictions for the future. Somehow, strangely, 1/12 of the people all over the world seem to have been destined to the same fate by these columns everyday.
Anyhow, lets get back to the her. In her red dress, she looks up the street forlornly. When will the waited come? Someone taps her shoulder from behind. She turns around slowly only to face a rag doll. A rag doll with a hand stretched out. A rag doll with expectant eyes looking up to her, hoping for some coins. A dilemna now adds onto her burderned mind. Should she give or not? The heart says "Give, she really seems to need some money, poor hungy girl". The mind says, " No, unless we stop helping these people, they wont start to help themselves. The parents conveniently send their sons and daughters to beg and then use that money instead of working hard themselves. Shouldnt encourage this practice." Before the fight between the heart and the mind ends, the doll makes its way towards better prospects. Thus, not taking a decision also turned out to be a decision.
Relieved, her mind gets back to the prime concern. How long shall she be waiting for her dear? Maybe some trouble has befallen. Maybe she should go get some help. Maybe she should just be more patient. Every passing second makes the dub-dub louder. Her gentle heart is overworking itself. Come soon, she pleads. Someone pushes her on his way to reach somewhere quickly. She murders him with his eyes. Fortunately for him, his back was facing her. Had he looked at her, he would have instantly turned to ashes. She wonders about these people. Each busy in his own pursuit, with not a thought for the people along the way. What do they do once they reach their destination? Run after another one. Run. That reminds her. And she looks up the street again. Willing an appearance, materialise into view at the peak of that slanted road. But all that appear are minute droplets in her eyes. She didnt even realise that her eyes were moist. She closes her eyes tightly. She shouldnt let anyone see her now. Atleast not her teary eyes. She should be strong. Or atleast act strong. Thats what she is has been told time and again. Be strong. Dont cry. But why? When crying can peel away your grief, why shouldnt she cry?
She seem to be loosing all hope. Just then, through her closed eyes, she experiences the pleasure. The pleasure of that familiar touch. That familiar sound. She opens her eyes. The eyes now filled with tears of joy. She bends down and gets her face licked. Who was more joyful, its hard to say. She hugs her Tequila. A hug that communicates all her love.
Picking up her puppy, she heads back home. Its almost time for school now.