Have a Break! Have a 'Chit-Chat'

On account of the notorious author of this blog suddenly taking a dislike to the atrocious colour combinations on display here and the unexplained unwillingness on his part to put down the several ideas that have been incessantly popping into his head, mythalez's blog has decided to take a break from its tyrannical author and remain stagnant for a while. Yeah, it could have done so without announcing it's sabbatical in this way, but it didnt want the readers to imagine that the author hasn't yet awakened from the dream-mare described in the previous post.

A preview of the posts that should have been written (in random order):

a. Philosophical discussion about the stupidity of bravery in anecdotal form
b. A short 'senti-sweet' story about a small working boy and his wish
c. A short nonsensical story that tries to masquerade as a supernatural horror
d. A verse that actually tries to follow some rhythm
e. The significance being shown by the British regarding the 60 years of independence of India and Pakistan through shows on Tv, photo exhibitions et al.
.. and many others which the author doesn't even remember anymore :-s

My thrilling futuristic Sci-fi DreamMare

I woke up early morning at 8am! As it is against my existential principles to be awake before it is compulsorily required, I went back to sleep. And what a sleep I had!

I was transported to some strange place. It was teeming with people, all of whom seemed as clueless like me. We were on some built up area crisscrossed by several roads. The roads didnt have any traffic. There were just people everywhere and they all looked scared. There were some loud noises continuously badgering our ear drums. Just then a huge truck came into sight and moved slowly on the road. It was really really huge, must have been two stories high and as long as a decent train. The people around me screamed and ran helter-skelter. I followed their cue and hid myself too behind a big box (what it contained I didnt know and hence shall never know!). Apparently the truck was dangerous. There were some human like creature on top of the truck, but since it was too high, I couldnt distinguish them properly. The truck went by and the people re-gathered.

I realised I was in the middle of a futuristic drama. The world has suddenly come to something and now the humans like us are battling for their lives. But, it wasnt clear as to what the problem afflicting the world was. I continued my walk with the hoard of people. We were now walking over lush green lawns spanning the length from the buildings to the roads. I had some small conversations with the people around me. The substance of those conversations escapes my memory now, so lets assume they were insignificant. The only conversation I remember was with a girl who informed me that there were some weird beings who have descended upon the world and scaring the poor peaceful humans. From other conversations, I gathered that it was being blamed on evolution.

Suddenly, the truth dawned on me. Yeah, it was as bright as the sun. And I have no clue where it came from to enlighten me with its revelations. Now, that I knew the truth and the reason behind all the strange happenings, I had to let the others know. So, I asked the people to gather in a huge room in the nearby building. As we were collecting all the people, the girl with whom I had talked earlier, slowly emerges from some dark corner. And, she looks shocking! Her face was bland and featureless i.e no eyes, ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth etc. She was walking towards us like a zombie. People noticed her and ran screaming towards the building. I did the same too but without the screaming, ofcourse. Thus her appearance made our job much easier. No, I dont know what happened to her next. We were all inside the building and she wasnt. Inside I gave the following speech:

"I hope you all know about the theory of evolution. Yeah, yeah I know some of you argue that its all rubbish and that it was God's design and it was he who left the clues and the fossils etc. However, any self-respecting scientist believes in evolution and lets go by their word. However, the more important question is how is the evolution going to continue? Till now it has been a specialisation process. That is, as the living beings have become more and more developed, the cells constituting them have become more specialised in their functions. Earlier, the amoeba had one cell which did everything, but in our body for e.g, the liver cells do completely different functions as compared to the brain cells. Now, this evolution process can continue specialising, or it might have reached the 'evolution peak' and now started on the downward slope and hence start generalising. Yeah, consider the evolution to be a normal curve, and after reaching the peak of specialisation, it will start generalising again to end up back where it started.

This generalisation process should be as slow as the earlier specialisation one. However, something seemed to have catalysed the process and made it extremely fast. Hence, the humans are now becoming weird! The girl that we ran away from- her face has generalised. Therefore, there are no particular features like nose, eyes or ears but one whole face which does everything! "

Yeah, then it was time to wake up. I woke up and realised that I was just part of an interesting sci-fi thriller and was actually playing the lead role :D. However, what put me in a conundrum was whether to call this a dream (I was saving the world!) or a nightmare (what with faceless zombies running around)?

Palace Serenity

Restless with tired heart beats,
I arrive at 'Palace Serenity'
Craving for silence, pristine
away from the stark routine
away from the 'suffocacity'.

Lost amidst the tall thick trees
the building creeped into sight
covered with creepers, vine
manned by staff, numbering nine
seldom permitted in, any light.

Welcomed by manager, eager eyes
a smile disguising the smirk within
the bellboy, gloomy, dark as the air
the room, unfriendly and very bare
the palace had secrets, hidden in.

The sun deserts me, darkness lies
the dinner served, bland tasteless
five other guests around, a couple bickering
another courting, and a drunk stumbling
I see myself here lost in wilderness

Late night, howling winds, animal cries
Outside I walk, searching for my sleep
Deathly moonlight shows me the way
Up ahead, a moor mystic, shining lay
I walk around, making a complete sweep

A figure, crouched behind a rock, hides
I approach slowly, making no sound
Covered by the shadows, indistinguishable
.................

PS- I was writing this sometime in april, but had to leave it midway to attend to some 'urgent matters' (which I dont remember now :D). Never again got the mood or the 'inspiration' to continue it. Hence, I post this incomplete poem ... after all .. not everything needs an end, right?
For the unobservant, do notice the strange rhyming scheme: abccb adeed a...

this and that ...

My first blog post from my new home. Yeah, after 20 or so days, we finally get internet at our new home. Its a 8mbps max broadband line .. currently I found the download speed to be around 1.2Mbps .. good enough I say :D. The incoming broadband line is via the telephone line (ASDL its called), so there is a filter which separates the phone and the internet wires and then a modem to connect it to the pc. We had bought a router to divide the single line to our 3 rooms at home. However, the modem which is supplied by the ISP is a usb one. So, we cant connect it directly to the router. So, I have set it up such that the modem connects directly to my pc (through the usb port) and the lan wire from my pc connects to the router. The other two rooms get their connection from the router. So basically, my pc acts as the gateway for the internal network of our home ;). And it was pretty easy to set it up on Windows. And configuring the router also is just too easy. All of these seem to have been particularly designed such that 'anyone' can set it up.
However, the only problem now is that there are no empty usb slots of my ancient pc. It has just 2 slots which are used by the mouse and the modem! Now, where will my usb drive or webcam go!!

Floods in the northern part of England. The visuals that I see on TV are starkly similar to those I am used to seeing back at home in India, at this time of the year. The same with houses filled with a foot of water, the cars on the road submerged in the muddy water, the whole transport system in turmoil, the army being called in to help in some places, and so on.

We must be in the peak of summer here, however the temperatures havent gone beyond 25 as yet. By the way, going uphil on a geared cycle is much more comfortable than otherwise.

My '9 month viva' is on tuesday morning. Should I start preparing??
There is no humour in this post!! Noooo

long time no post!!

Yeah, had been pretty busy the past few weeks. Finally finished my mammoth of a report (90 pages whoaa!) .. officially called the '9 month report', expected of every phd student at the end of 9 months of the start of his studies. I wonder why they chose '9 months' .. to represent the gestation period of a Phd? :D.

Moved home. From the impersonal university halls of residence to a private rented 3 bedroom house that I am sharing with two others (obviously) .. who were my flatmates at the university flat also. An Italian guy, a Greek-Cypriot girl and an Indian guy (thats me incase you are in doubt!) make up the composition of my new residence. Nice home. Finally, have a lounge and more importantly a huge couch in the lounge. A garden at the back too. Bought TV also, on the same day that we moved :D. No internet connection as yet though :(. Will be getting it in a week I hope.

More importantly, bought a bike. A bicycle I mean. With 18 gears and no mudguards, stand or anything else (yeah there is a seat in case you were wondering :P), its pretty good. Though I bought it second hand it costed 60£ .. yeah everything is damn costly here. So, after a decade or so, I once again own a vehicle. Yeah, used to have a bicycle until my 8th class or something. And after that, never had a vehicle I could call my own. Ofcourse, used to ride around in scooters. bikes etc, but they didnt formally belong to me. Hmm ... so 10 years .. and I am again at the same state of having a plain bicycle! Should be owning a car or something. But then, whats the point? I dont know how to drive, anyway :D.

Will be touring London this weekend. Yeah, I havent seen much of london. So, will be going to Madame Tussauds, London Eye, change of guards at Buckingham Palace, Oxford street and the other famous areas, Westminster areas etc etc. No .. not alone .. with my brother who will be coming here for the weekend.

This post almost looks like a regular blog post, detailing the author's activities, which is quite rare in this space. To get it back to the usual tone that we all are most used to (Wrote this on paper using a pen, yesterday night at home! .. no net at home you see):--

a passing second
a restless mind
a darting glance
an image left behind.

Flowers presented or stones thrown??

Deepa Mehta recently said after receiving an award, "This feels much better than having your effigies burnt". Nice quote eh? However, this set me thinking- whether it is better to have some radical, crazy people burn your effigies, raise slogans against you and create 'hungama' in general or receive an inconsequential award from a flattering uncritical audience? I would chose the former anyday. It gives a greater sense of accomplishment I guess :D.

Smarted by the smart card

Saturday evening. After a hectic week in which despite working seriously (with minial distractions i.e chatting and almost no procrastination :O ), I was still lagging behind quite a bit with respect to the work that needed to be done. And that afternoon was quite weird, weather wise, as it displayed the full essence of the whimsical english weather. It was bright and sunny for an hour and then it poured like the first monsoon rain back home and then got back to sunny. And repeated this whole cycle every hour. Anyway, I decided to go to the lab and get some work done. I often make such decisions during weekends but rarely implement them. But this time, I actually did, so what if I was supposed to go before 4 but went after 6?

As I reached the building and was entering the lab, I came across two other such 'lifeless' souls (lifeless because they dont have a life! they come to work on weekends!!) who were just leaving the lab and exchanged our trademark sad smiles at each other's fate. It is not usual for the 150 people strong lab (spread over two floors - internally connected) to have even 2-3 geeks working on a saturday like this. Well, I entered the lab, swiping my wallet (which contains the smartcard having the rfid tag) against the sensor to open the door only to face a dark lab. The corridors light up as I walk through them to reach my desk. Yeah. every nook and corner of the lab has a movement sensor. I sit down at my desk, do some work and lots of chatting. Right in the middle of work, it suddenly strikes me that I might me the only person in the lab. Atleast, I was sure that I am the only person in 1/4th of the lab. And looking at my wallet which is placed on the desk, I vow not to leave it behind while going out of the lab. Then, I tell myself not to be silly, as in the past 7-8 months that I have been working in this lab, I had never left my wallet behind while leaving the lab, even if for a minute. It was kind of ingrained in me to carry my wallet whenever I leave the lab. There have been numerous ocassions when other people have forgotten their cards and had to knock on the doors and wait for someone to hear them and let them in. Ofcourse, today there didnt seem to be anyone else to even hear the knocking. The best part of the building was that the wall to the external corridor had huge glass paned windows, so anyone inside could see the people outside and vice versa. Coming back to the narration, I did some work and then decided to go home. Checked the bus timings online to see that I would be leaving at the right time and not have to wait outside in the rain.

And then I leave the lab. Just as I step on the corridor outside and just after the door closes behind me, I realise that I have done it! I forgot my wallet inside! Now, I dont have the card to get it. The same card also acts as my bus pass and ofcourse, it contains my money too. Yeah, and I left my cellphone inside too. Cant even call one of my lab friends to come and help me out. I had exited on one end of the lab. I start walking to the other end, with the faint hope that someone might be there in the lab, near the windows to notice me and open the door. And yeah, right at the very end on the other side, there was this guy inside. If there was to be only one person in the lab, it had to be him. On the many ocassions that I leave the lab, late at night, I find him staring deeply into his monitor and wonder at what I assume is 'his boring life'. However, today I was thankful that he was such a workaholic. He notices me and opens the door. I thank him, and get my wallet and cellphone and then out of curiosity make a round trip around the lab to see if there was anyone else who could have helped me.

Nope, there was no one else in the lab! Whoaa, had this guy not been there, I would have been in deep trouble. Lets thank the world that it still has some no-life workaholics around. Also, lets accept the fact that your subsconsious mind holds great power over you and makes you do things that you fear you would. Or we can just say that I am clairvoyant :D.

Happy birthday Mythalez's blog!!

Happy Leather anniversary to the blog. No, I dont like leather in anyway. But thats what third anniversaries are called. Yeah, today, this blog completes 3 years. Congratulations to mythalez. Started on a bored summer afternoon, today it contains 218 posts-- 212 published and 6 drafts (some of which would never be published) .

Both the blog and the blog-author have gone a long way (in many directions) over these three years. From the first post which was random typings to one which had layers of deep meaning interwoven into it. From being a nondescript guy in IIIT being initiated into the luxuries of the internet to one who blogs about the evolution of spam. From a train journey to the first plane trip on to small travelogues of Japan, Switzerland and Paris.

From winning the second place in a local programming contest to coordinating the IIIT techfest called Threads to coming third at an international competition, RoboCup. From one undecided about his future, to applying to universities, attending job interviews to a budding PhD student.

The tag posts changed in their content and the blog changed colours. Descriptions about mosquitoes and horrorscopes lead to short stories-- smallish abstract ones to slightly inspired, imaginary to partly factual. The blog is home to the prologue of a unwritten book, the provenance of 'mythalez' to mythalez's own astrology.

Mythalez varied from not wanting to meet an old friend to saying goodbye to his close ones. Campaigned, discussed and participated in IIIT elections, wrote about the institute and then bid farewell through a todo-list which was also evaluated.

A hurried preparation to leave India was complemented by the exciting journey back. The meantime was peppered with various descriptions about the british land. Fledgling attempts at cooking progressed to elaborate invitations.

And ofcourse, attempts at poetry always peek in every few posts, just too many of the verses. Every five-ten posts ought to contain some pathetic poem distorting the indentation of the blog. Anywayz, the blog rocks (Mythalez is an arrogant presumptuous narcissist :D)

Un week-end à Paris

1. Eiffel Tower is magnificent. It is pretty tall and can be seen from most parts of Paris if the view is unobstructed. And yeah, its awesome, the symmetry, the metal, the curve to the tapering top, just too good. And when its lighted its better. And when it sparkles (which is like 10 minutes every hour from 10pm in the night in summers), its quite a sight to behold. Sadly, cant describe the view from top, didnt queue up for it. Personally, I liked it better than TajMahal (these two are the only modern wonders I have visited)

Most of the tourist attractions are along the Seine river. And the whole area around that is very very charming. Especially the famous road, Champs-Élysées. The square (near Concorde where this road starts) is the biggest I have ever seen! Walking along the Seine should be quite romantic.

Sacré-Coeur, the basilica is very tall and is situated on a hill and has very rich stained glass art. Arc De Triomphe isnt very impressive, quite similar to India Gate. The palace in Versailles too is no great shakes.

Every other shop on the streets ought to be a cafe, bistro, restaurant, takeaway or some such eatery place. And those which arent about food, are about fashion like clothes, hairstyles etc. Yep, food (including drinks) and fashion seem to be their only passion :D.

Monalisa is a very small painting, attracts huge crowds and looks over rated. Other paintings around it, however, are marvellous to say the least. The beauty of these examples of the best art in the world can be perceived even by art-ignoramouses.

The Louvre museum is very well maintained. Its quite friendly and lets visitors use their cameras, mobiles etc unlike some of the less important museums around the world. Photos are not allowed only in 2-3 rooms which have the major paintings (including Monalisa). The glass pyramid entrance sets quite a contrast to the rest of the museum. In all, the museum is surely a must visit.

The public transport system is very good. The metro has many lines all of which are regularly dotted with stations, so not much walking is neccessary when using the metro. The normal rail inside the city and to the suburbs is also pretty good. But some of the metro stations would do well to have escalators. And the metro symbol painted on the trains looks pretty silly with an outline of a face cutting across a green circle.

France is famous for strikes. Well, the postal department was on strike while we were there. All post-offices were closed even on monday.

Going to Paris from London in a bus (Eurolines coach) would mean that there would be visa checking and a terrible journey on a ferry at the dead of the night (2am). Channel tunnel is only for railways, sadly.

Parisians arent friendly or inviting. They are almost rude. The concept of excuse-me and sorry exists as much on the streets of Paris as in India, which is almost nil. They dont even respond to sorry or pardon. Unlike the general perception, Parisians do know and respond in english. They also carry huge umbrellas which can almost be substituted as canopy-shades (patio umbrella) on cafe-tables in the open.

Paris has a lot of immigrants. Its not easy to spot many native French. And in general, the parts occupied by the immigrants are dirtier than most cities in India. As such, Paris is the dirtiest foreign place that I have visited.

Paris tip1: In the direction boards, an arrow pointing downwards signifies that you should go straightahead.
Paris tip2: Stamps are available in shops labeled 'Tabac'.
Paris tip3: Buy metro tickets in bunches of 10, it will cost much cheaper.

I didnt mean to write it

Since I was finding new ways to procrastinate, I started trying to put down my signature properly using my left hand. Having succeeded, I started writing some random sentences and before I knew it, the pen switched hands and I ended up with this. Whew, its been a long time since I wrote a poem on paper :) And I guess, this is the first one that doesnt rhyme.

I walk a deserted road
by the side of the stream
with the sun playing the clouds
and the breeze with the leaves

My hand ought to caress
the gentle sparkling waters
but it twitches for the touch of
the smoothness of her skin

My ears ought to be immersed
in the pleasant twitterings of the robin
but they silently earn for
the bustle of her laugh.

My eyes ought to leisurely gaze
upon the yellow flower amidst the green
but they blur trying to remember
the radiance of her beautiful smile

My hair ought to dance
joyously with the breeze
but it sits tight longing for
her fingers to waft through it

My heart ought to blissfully relax
soaking in the pristine beauty
but it beats harder, craving to
feel her magical presence.

A Proposal for Culinary Experiments

PS ('PreScript') - I wanted to invite some friends for lunch on this sunday .. instead of the conventional phone call, i sent this mail.

Introduction: The author has been cooking since almost 9 months. Lately most of his dishes have been arbitrary, innovative and often edible. However, most of these experiments only dealt with vegeterian items and the testing team comprised of only the author. The author, for no reason, wishes to expand the horizons of both his culinary domain and the testing team.

Related Work: Chicken is a very popular food item and is cooked in several ways in various cultures. However, one of the most delicious ways of consuming it, Chicken biryani, is a rarely explored idea in these parts of the world. The author, hailing from Hyderabad, the supremo of this dish in India, assumes that he has enough background knowledge to try cooking this wonderful dish. More truthfully, the primary motivation is that the author had bought some chicken on a whim on his last visit to the not-so-entertaining Asda and wishes to utilize it.

The Proposal: The author, having a busy schedule, finds no other day of the week except sunday suitable to invite people for lunch or dinner. Also, the chicken may not be able to stave of the bacteria for another week. Both these conditions imply that the chicken has to be cooked today. The author has some kind of a fair idea of how to cook it on basis of the innumerable ocassions he watched his mother cook delicious chicken biryani. At the same time, the author also realises that one of the recipients is a pure vegetarian and may not wish to consume rice that has been cooked alongside the chicken. So, the author is ready to embark on another experiment in parallel and toss up some kind of vegetarian noodles for the 'exceptional' case. The recipients may also, alongside, enjoy some of the many movies downloaded on the author's machine if they wish to. The author being quite flexible has suggested no timeline and is willing to act as the host for either lunch, tea or dinner or a combination of them on the pre-condition that he is informed considerable time before so that he can make himself awake and active.

Conclusions and Future Work: The author has shown why cooking chicken is both an interesting and neccessary activity for this sunday. He has also presented a guideline on how this activity could be conducted and how to deal with the exceptions. In summary--
Enjoy chicken biryani and/or vegetarian noodles (hopefully .. depending upon how it turns out) at Monte R365 today.
Time no constraint but preliminary confirmation neccessary.
The future work has to be conducted by the recipients who are expected to call and confirm/reject this invitation.

References: Have been ignored.

PS ('PostScript') - Guess, this makes it pretty evident that I have become a complete phd student now ;))

Writing ... and the rest of blah

Having painstakingly accomplished the task of writing the introduction to my report (almost, havent finished yet), I have come to the conclusion that it is much more easier for me to code something in java rather than to explain the same, scientifically in the english language. Perhaps thats the distinguishing feature of a programming geek?

I attended a very interesting, rather entertainingly lecture by Prof. Rodney Brooks about the latest home robots being developed by his lab. He is the director of the CSAIL at MIT. He sure is a very good speaker. We have been having such lectures by imminent professors from all over the world as part of the 60 year anniversary celebrations of our school. For every such lecture, posters are put up all over the place announcing it. I have been noticing that almost without exceptions all the speakers look much older in person than they do on the photograph in these posters :D.

Today, I tried to sleep before 11, blasphemous I know! But, I also put an alarm for 6 in the morning, hoping to wake up and complete the introduction. However, what do you know, just as I was about to doze off, my chinese flatmate (the cute one) knocks on my door. Apparently, the windows on her laptop was acting crazy and was just continuously rebooting itself. I went to help and what do I find? That everything was in chinese!! So she had to keep translating to me what each of the options on the screen meant and on basis of her not so perfect translation, I had to figure out what to do. Anyway, since she had no important files on C:, we just recovered the windows. Nice laptop it was, didnt require CDs to recover, just needed to press a combination of keys at boot to start the recovery. And since I am wide awake now (because of this), I am blogging and after I click on the publish button in the next minute, I hope to get back to the introduction and finish off!! Its not that easy.

update: the problem with the laptop of my flatmate was due to an automatic update of Norton antivirus which deletes some system files in chinese version of xp. It was over the news as it effected, well, lots of pcs.

Stupid Tag post and other random observations

I am not particularly fond of tag posts. Yet Sumanth tagged me despite knowing this. But since he keeps linking to my blog in every other post of his .. guess I shall have to humour him. So here we go (I shall try making it as nonsensical as possible)-

1. A living person I would like to meet - I dont really like meeting people, be they living, dead or in coma. But, if I am forced to meet someone, I would rather meet someone who doesnt want to meet me. Since then, I wont be the only one to suffer and the meeting would most certainly be short :P.

2. A dead person I would like to meet - I can reiterate the above. But on second thoughts, I would like to meet any dead person. Yeah anyone as long as he/she is dead. Because I could then find answers to the age old questions about the existence of ghosts, souls, heaven, hell, god and what not!! (my inquisitive research mind seems to be acting up again!)

3. An event in the history I would like to change - The creation of blogs and specifically the idea of tag-posts. Think of all the time that people would spend productively had there been no blogs acting as a means to procrastinate work.

4. An event in the history I would like to witness - the birth of life, universe and everything ... well wouldnt that be the start of history itself? whatever.

5. A movie I would like to witness without being a part of - None! I have chanced upon some film-shootings from the balcony of my home a few times and believe me, there arent more boring things to watch in this world. Perhaps watching a snail sleep would pip it to the post of most boring event.

6. A literary character I would like to meet - Bill Waterson .. yah he is not fictional .. but he is a literary figure nevertheless (comics are literature!!). But if you insist that the character has to be fictional .. then .. Calvin ofcourse! And yeah Cecilia of PhdComics is fine too. Actually on second thoughts, Cecilia is my answer .. not calvin :D.

So, should I inflict this torture on some other souls? Ofcourse! I do have a few people whom I hate right? So Su, you are the one :P. And Halley! I dont care if you have already done this thing earlier, just post something. I seem to be missing your daily dose of inaneness :P or is it inanity?. Better not lose my sanity :D.

Aah .. now that its done .. I can get back to some normal blogging.

Been to southern part of Wales, the previous weekend. Nothing much to write about other than that we learnt how to set up a tent (we had to camp as we got bored of searching for a cheap decent place to stay :D), realising that most of the words in Welsh do not have any vowels in them (they seem to use the english alphabet but seem to only have words like wychlwchllm :P) and that driving on the motorways (M\d where \d stands for an positive integer) is very convenient and a very quick way to get around.

Watched one of my chinese flatmates make a poached egg today. She was using chopsticks to flip it over. They seem to act like extended fingers of her hand. No idea how the chopsticks users are able to control them. I never got the hang of it the few times I tried (at Japan and at Hyderabad)

Curious book in London

Finally I got my hands on this book- 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time' and read it in one go. Before reading, I had no clue as to what the book was about. I just knew that it was well appreciated by people whose opinions I value in these literary matters. And I loved it. It reminded me of 'Catcher in the rye', another book that I loved reading. Both are quite different yet similar in some ways. For one, both have the protagonists as narrators and these protagonists are not 'normal' per se. And the books are filled with their opinions about things.

I read this book in the unlikeliest of places. Sitting in the French Consulate in London, I started reading this book. I only had to read a few pages to discover that the narrator was living somewhere in England and that he had been to France and also that he hated France. And there I was waiting for a visa to go to France. All in all, the book is a must-read if only to realise how there could be a simple view of the seemingly complicated things around us.

Yesterday, I did spend a good deal of time walking around a small part of London between Victoria and Kensington. I had been once before to central London (have been many times at Heathrow but thats not exactly the London you would want to visit) and wanted to blog about it then but never got down to it. The best memory of the previous visit was sitting high up on Trafalgar Square and watching the traffic whiz by at 2am on as saturday night. And this time, it suddenly struck me as to what exactly I was doing. I was walking in London! I would have been easily passed over as yet another South-asian origin Londoner. I was being a part of that same London that I have read about in innumerable stories and saw in so many movies. Half of the road names seemed familiar though I was in those places for the first time. I would have come across them in some story obviously ranging from the 'Umbrella Man' of Roald Dahl to various Jeffery Archer novels. Looking at the high profile shops- Armani to Harrods made me think that the world isnt such a big place afterall :D. Spent some time going around the famous 'National History Museum' which was right opposite the consulate. got drenched by the popular 'London rain' wherein you would find quite many people walking around in black suits and holding black umbrellas.

Another city that I remember most from novels is Paris. Will be visiting it some day, perhaps sooner than you think ;).

Gibberish verse

This has to be some random nonsensical words strung together without any logic because am in no position to actually write anything sensible. Yet, I am trying since I am in the mood for it. So lets see how it comes out :-s

You may never have cared
discounting the few pretentions in the past
but what matters is that I care no more
and hope this condition will forever last.

The intimacy may have withered away
a formality may have pervaded in between
Yet, endearing as you are and you shall be
you shall never be abandoned by me.

----

I felt like ending that. And start writing something else. Lets see how this new attempt comes out :-s.

An yellow that colours the sky
covering the green people moving about.
Dont ask the obvious question 'why'
because, this, I shall explain not.

The trees with their blue leaves,
fidgeting against the red wind blowing
the white barks with their numerous circles
testimony to the numerous years flowing

Throw a stone high up into the ocean
rippling the air as it cuts across the dry
followed by a reflection on the ground
and a shadow reflected on the sky

the colours may be radical, unexpected
but the vision shall remain the same
The actions may be contradictory
but the old feelings are still to blame

India vs Pakistan .. cricket series

This is not about the teams that couldnt go beyond the first round in the world cup. This is about the cricket that I played yesterday. Yeah, we were a group of 9 Indians playing against 9 Pakistanis. It was an initiave of the Pakistanis. They knew my friend and invited him. And my friend like a true Indian gathered the troops i.e others like me. The bat, ball, tape over the ball, wickets, bottles marking the boundary, everything was supplied by the Pakistanis. They apparently play regularly. And our team contained people like me who firstly, cant do much with either the bat or the ball and secondly havent even played cricket once in the past few years.

We played in this huge {park, ground, green area} kind of place in the city. It is a huge area, makes up a sizeable fraction of the city, dotted with lakes, a small reserve etc. The ground that we were playing on, had atleast 10 football games, 5-6 other cricket games, a couple of rugby games, a few kite flyers and frisbee throwers, lots of dog walkers and sunbathers around. We were playing with a taped tennis ball. This form of the ball is the commonly used one in Pakistan, I think. Its the kind of ball that all their famous swingers and fast bowlers have started learning their art with. Its a regular tennis ball that has a regular tape tightly wound around it totally covering it. In this way, the fur of the ball it protected and it becomes a bit heavier also.

Now lets get to the match details. The first match was of 8 overs each. They batted first and scored 71. The runs were scored either through wides (which were more than just a generous amount) or through boundaries. We had a few bowlers who were so quick, that you could grab a few winks between the time the ball is released and the time it reaches the batsman to be hoisted for a six. Yeah, they did seem to have a couple of Afridi followers :D. There was one bowler in our team though, who was stout, bowled very slowly and got 3-4 wickets in his two overs. He was duly rechristened as 'Ramesh Powar' by the opponents :D. The Indians started the chase disastrously, as expected, losing the first wicket in the third ball with one run on the board. Yep that was me :D, clean bowled by a fast bowler who emulates Shoaib Akhtar, i.e his run up starts closer to the boundary than the wicket. And that led to the usual top order collapse. But, then walks out our captain, my friend and like Yuvraj Singh these days, belts the ball everywhere and starts scoring very quickly with a lot of easy looking shots that have the ball 'racing to the boundary'. So, from a really hopeless situation, we were back with a chance to win the match. The game went onto the last ball, of which 3 runs were required but the batsman on strike was not the captain and so we lost.

The second match was just 6 overs each. We chose to bat first and scored 48 runs. This game 'went down to the wire' too. However, this time the Pakistanis required 4 runs of the last ball to win. Then our bowler gave them a wide. So once again, the equation for the last ball was same as before. And they too lost like we had done earlier, being unable to score any run of the last ball. (No, I didnt get to bat in this match. Probably the reason why we won?)

The third and final match (final in all senses ;) ) was again of 8 overs each. We chose to chase this time (I have no idea about the reasoning behind this decision). The Pakistanis went beserk, hitting a sixer every other correct ball (we didnt relent on the wides either). By now, we also had a few tired football players who were resting, following our match with interest. So, they ended up scoring a little over one hundred. And I opened along with my captain this time. My captain started the proceedings with a six of the first ball. That somehow affected their Shoaib Akhtar emulator, who sent down 5 wides :D. And they were really 'wide'. However along came a ball straight onto the wicket, the batsman i.e captain hit it back even straighter and really hard. Standing at the runners position, I worried about the umpire that he would have to be carried off the field as the ball was sure to smash his face. And it would have, had the bowler not stretched his hand and had the ball not stuck to his palm as if there was some glue there! And our captain was gone! Two other wickets tumbled too while I was watching from the non-strikers end. Then in the next over, I got my chance to survive a few wides, score a run, run a few more as the non-striker and finally be completely beaten and bowled. The collapse never stopped and soon we were all out having just scored some 30 runs. True to the Indian style, we buckled helplessly, facing a daunting score to chase in the 'final'.

So my dear readers, it pains me greatly to report that the Pakistanis won the series 2-1. My complete contribution to the Indian team in the series was a single run scored, a few runs saved and a run out.

Trivia: A pakistani guy commented that after Pakistan was kicked out of world cup, he was hoping that atleast India would go through to later stages and there would be some matches worth watching. My friend responded, "we are good neighbours, you came out, so we had to come out too". To which I added, "ofcourse, we are good neighbours, we not just came out in support of you, we also let our other two small neighbours get through."

Ringing in the Spring

Yayy .. its spring time. Its been more than 3 weeks since it rained here. Thats the longest no-rain period since the time I have been here i.e almost 8 months now. Actually, I had to write this post in a hurry, since the ominous clouds have gathered today and seem intent on breaking the dry spell. Anyway, yeah, it had been sunny the past few days, temperatures have gone upto 25 degrees on some occasions. On the afternoons, you could find all the lawns in the university completely covered by human bodies, lying on the grass, soaking up as much sun as they can get, trying to get a bit of colour on their white skins :P.

My chinese flatmate remarked yesterday, 'every season has its own distinct smell'. Frankly, I dont know and dont care :D. But yeah the spring season seems to be quite popular. Last week, when I went to Bristol, I found photographers all over the place, clicking every last image of 'Spring time' that they could lay their eyes upon.

The major change for me however is that I no longer need to wear a jacket or a hoody or a sweater while stepping out. Got so used to wearing one or the other of them all the time that now it feels quite different and new to be going about in just a shirt or tshirt or both :D.

The university has started full scale after the month long Easter break. This break was for undergrads and msc students .. not for staff or research postgrads like me. We just had a measly 5 days.

Finally, though many appreciated the new look of the blog, I have heard a few disgruntled voices too who felt the old dark black one was better. My response to those voices: When it was dark and black as you wanted, you never appreciated it. I only used to hear complaints about how hard it is to read and so on. But now, you come out with your voices into the open and praise the old look rubbishing this new colourful one. Sorry mates, the time has passed, now you got to live with this white-green-orange-blue-red-grey thing :P.
Moral of the story, appreciate something when its there, so that it doesnt go missing before you know it :P.
I better end here before the post gets even worse :D.