SrJth-PJths

Having taken the baton of daily posting from Dailyrium, I also have to pick up the associated baggage of PJ posting. While I cannot be expected to blog as well as he did, I can atleast come up with poorer PJs. So, here you go ...

R: "You know, pollen is used for archaeological dating"
S: "Well, roses are also used for dating " (courtesy Su)

R: "Dont dare mess with him!


try the canteen next door"

'myth' for some, history for some

In the context of the Rama-Setu controversies,

I came to know that, in fact, Indonesians read about the story of Ramayana, stories about Krishna and Mahabharata as part of their history lessons :) Surprising eh?

permanent change?

What do you do when you realise that your permanent address is about to change??

'you' verse-ling

smile clothes the pain
emotion obscures reason
I had wished for you
but you had a liaison!

I know, it looks like it rhymes but doesnt; a deception, just like the narrator's smile :P.

flagged

Today, I asked my Srilankan friend, "why does your country flag have a lion in it?"
He replied, "Dont know, maybe because the LTTE have a tiger as their symbol?"

Its true! Thats what he said. Though he later clarified that its rather the other way round, as obviously, Srilanka came into being first; before the tamil liberation movement.

'weathered'

I wished for heaven,
you put me on earth.
I wished for the sun,
you sent me to Britain!!

The strange case of the unaccounted flowers

This story is on the same lines as the 24 hrs one and with the same characters.

Friday:
"So when will you be leaving?", she asked him.
"Sunday evening and back by next friday night", he stated somewhat uncertainly.
"Okay, all the best for your workshop", she said and extended her hand catching him completely in surprise. Shaking hands was not something they had ever done before and his countenance completely betrayed his opinion about it while they carried out the formality

Thursday:
He was watching the cricket match. India seemed to be losing despite having the opposition 7 down quite early. This end to an insipid day at the workshop didn't exactly exhilarate his mood. Then, he felt his mobile phone buzz inside his pocket. He was expecting her call though without any explicate reason. They had talked only twice the past week, perhaps that made him certain that she would call tonight.
Yes, it was indeed her. But before, he could press yes, the call ended. So, he proceeded to call her, but once again, before he could press the green button, his mobile started flashing her incoming call. This time, he did accept it on time.
"Hi!", his voice was sweet but tired.
"Hi!! thanks a lot!!", she sounded extremely excited about something.
"Eh? for picking up the phone?", he enquired trying to sound funny.
"I got them. They are wonderful! But what's the ocassion?", she blurted.
"Eh?" , was all that she got in return from him for all her enthusiasm.
"The flowers duffer! I just got them, they are huge!" she rambled on.
"Flowers?", he was not being able to register what was going on.
"Yeah mister. You needn't put up an act. The delivery guy spilled the beans", she stated emphatically.
"Eh? flowers? delivery? who sent?", he still didn't seem to get the picture.
"You did!! But seriously so many!! Must have cost a fortune", she was finding herself in the strange position of trying to elaborate his own actions to him.
"What? I sent flowers to you??", and with this he burst out laughing so loudly that he had to leave the room so as not to disturb the more serious cricket spectators around.
"Come on, the delivery guy told your name. Ofcourse they were meant to be anonymous, but I got the name out of him", she said trying to justify her achievement.
"The delivery guy told you my name? Are you sure? Did you even get any flowers!", he continued laughing at the whole absurdity of it all.
"Almost 50 of them! and he did say your name. I dont know anyone else whose name even sounds remotely like yours. So it got to be you.", she persisted.
Finally, he started thinking seriously, trying to remember if he did indeed order some flowers. Perhaps yesterday, when he was slightly drunk after the banquet? Once again he started laughing. Not only had he not ordered flowers yesterday, he had never sent flowers to anyone all his life! And even if he had to do something extraordinary like this, he would do it online. But, he had been crippled without a net connection for the whole duration of this workshop. So it was practically impossible that he should have sent any flowers to anyone!
"Seriously, are you kidding?", he asked perhaps hoping she was trying to pull a fast one on him.
"Well, you can see with your own eyes tomorrow when you return", she stated matter-of-factly.
"But why would I send you flowers?", he wondered out loud.
"I have no idea. I first thought someone must be playing a prank, but it would be such a costly prank. Such a big bouquet will cost around 100$.", she revealed.
"It makes sense that you get anonymous flowers, after all you are so popular.", he teased, "but why would anyone send it with my name!! A weird prank it would be. Hey, maybe its Dummy?"
"Yah, I thought so too when the delivery guy told me your name. Then, I called Dummy to look at the flowers and he was more dumbstruck than me. So, it can't be him. Anyway why would he send flowers under your name?", she explained.
"Why would anyone do such a thing anyway! And when did you get the flowers?"
"At 8".
"And its 9 now. Why didn't you call earlier?", he questioned her.
"I was trying to figure out who must have sent the flowers", she answered.
At this, he changed track, "What? you said the delivery guy supplied my name. So what was the doubt then? And despite that, how could you first think it was Dummy and not me??"
"Yeah, but it seemed so improbable, so I was wondering if your officemates were playing a prank or something."
"My officemates? They have no idea where you live and I cant visualise any of them doing such a thing either. But seriously, if the guy told you it was me, why didnt you believe him? Am I not capable of sending you flowers??", after saying this he realised he had no idea what he was trying to convey.
"Well, I think its you, thats why I called you. So thanks for the flowers", she said but without conviction.
"I would love to take the credit if I could", he said further complicating matters.
"So, you havent sent the flowers? If not you, I need to find out who sent them", she tried to clarify.
"I could have sent them", he stated ambiguously.
"Well, thank you if you have sent them, otherwise thank whoever sent them. And bye for now, talk to you tomorrow", she said obviously miffed with him.
"Ahan, bye goodnight.", was all that he could manage while his mind was furiously trying to figure out how to respond to such unwarranted, unexpected, undeserving gratitude.

Faced with the strange dilemma of whether to untruthfully accept the claim that he is the sender and create mystery around his 'actions' or whether to rightfully reject the credit and turn attention to the actual mystery of the unaccounted flowers, he went back to watch the match and witness an Indian win.

Mythalez's blog is back!

yeah, after more than a month (just a month! some people may exclaim with an appalled look):-

↑ with a new look- simple, broad and hopefully easy to read.
↑ with all the past posts accorded their proper labels (was a great pain to go through all the 200 odd posts you had written before google realised that it could add the concept of labelling to posts in a blog)
↓ other changes to the architecture of the blog template that came to a nought and have been subsequently discarded.
↑ with an assurance that posts shall now be made on almost a daily basis (thank you dailyrium for the inspiration... the process of commenting on your daily posts made my blogging a daily activity, so I might as well do it on my blog :P)
↑ next post: a short story

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.