I have been cursing myself for not updating the blog for long, even though had a few things in mind, guess my ultimate weakness comes forth - procrastination, sigh..!! Aah well, this has nothing to do with my current post, or in a well mimicked dialog of Vikram in Anniyan, by GB, "This is an unwanted statement completely irrelevant to the current situation!" Right, I need to know where to stop and hence I stop. Coming to current post, lets say its a short story, with good morals. :D ;)
Scene 1:
Somewhere in the world and sometime of the year - apparently in northern hemisphere and the first half of the year (some relevance, just for fun..!! :D), a person X (male) facing challenges ahead, tries to put his mind in work in a library, reading through the lines in the bunch of scripts lying on the table. After around half a days' of hard work (2 hrs precisely, but since its between 10am and 12 noon, half a day makes sense..!! :)), he takes his eyes off the scripts for a breather, and refreshment appears in the form of chemically and biologically most viable component, a girl, sitting nearby. Not that she was the only one, but there are only few with whom the glances meet at the same time. The day just ends with a few more of coincidental glances and small smile.
Scene 2,3,4,5....:
Many more days pass with the usual coincidental glances, meet-ups and bigger smiles.
This is a strange scenario, coz you dunno whether you are supposed to smile the next time you see a person as the ice has grown to such an extent, that you become indifferent towards it.
Scene- uh.. I lost track, lets take a variable n :
On a particular morning, X gets off the bus, and yet again coincidentally, the same girl, also in the same bus, gets off and both start walking towards their work, again same place. So far, its been only exchange of smiles, but today the girl had the shades on, so X thought, well lets give her a pass. So they start crossing the road. Both of them had some loud music running in their ears, obviously the surrounding sound turns to oblivion. And X gets a brilliant idea to change the song in his ipod while crossing the road and takes his ipod from his pocket, concentrating on the song he wants to listen. The girl not far, is also crossing the road, when a screeching sound distracts her. She turns back to notice that X had just stopped in front of the van. The scene henceforth:
Van Driver: %@#$^&%^&#$@$$@%$$%^&
X(Cant hear coz of the music in his ears..!! :)) just sees the disturbed driver: Entschuldigung..!!
And he walks past the van onto the other side, without even the slightest tremors of the incident. Well for once he notices the girl in front of him turn back and smile and say:
The girl: These mp3 players, could be threatening at times.
X: Well, who says technology always make life easier?
The girl: true..!!
X: BTW, am Harish.
The girl: Hi, am Lina.
And the rest is history. Some relief that the ice was finally broken.
Moral 1: There is always some positive in everything that happens.
Moral 2: Embarrassment is deep inward feeling which is very short-lived, concealing one deep within an impression of ridicule, but its upto an individual to carry the moment in an appropriate manner, which negates the same.
Moral 3: NEVER CHANGE MUSIC WHILE CROSSING THE ROAD..!!!
Jun 29, 2009
Jun 4, 2009
Food for 'Thought'..!!!
One of the biggest experiences of living an independent life, on the negative side, other than returning to an empty house (home is too good a word for this dorm..!!), with no one to talk, etc, is the fact the one has to enter the kitchen asap, to prepare the ingredients, for the 'thought' process to work on. Ironically, sometimes the neurons give out the impulses so late, that you enter into an empty kitchen at 9pm (the stores generally close by that time..!!!) after a tiry day giving you no other option than to go to bed with as much water, to dilute the HCl in the stomach, as food. And then you also have these days.
So the other day, after returning from work, I decided for some royal hogging night. Since my room mate, Ganesh (GB), had been taking care of quite a lot of cooking during my exams, I thought of giving him a break and doing everything by myself. One of the easiest of the side dishes, which goes with any vegetable, any number of vegetables and rice and chapathi, and even bread, is Rajma and I have been making quite a lot of them. So yet again I chose to make Rajma, with a mix of all the vegetables that I had, carrots, potatoes, peas, capsicum, etc (cant remember if I'd put anything else..!!). The aroma was quite good and the taste was even mesmerizing, I know this is quite a lot of yapping, but the words carry their weightage here. So with the side dish ready, we just made some rice, as the idea of chapathi meant we would have had dinner at midnight. After a royal dinner with 2 servings of royal hogging, and quite a full stomach, after a long time for me, these were the words from GB, which just furiated the HCl in my stomach to digest the food within a second and the taste of the Rajma turned into oblivion.
GB: Machan, 'Sambhar' super da..!!!
Me: @#$%^%^&$#@#@@#%%$^%^&, and the curses never ended till I went to bed..!!!
Striking irony, there was not even an atom of Sambhar powder in it..!! hmph..!!!
So the other day, after returning from work, I decided for some royal hogging night. Since my room mate, Ganesh (GB), had been taking care of quite a lot of cooking during my exams, I thought of giving him a break and doing everything by myself. One of the easiest of the side dishes, which goes with any vegetable, any number of vegetables and rice and chapathi, and even bread, is Rajma and I have been making quite a lot of them. So yet again I chose to make Rajma, with a mix of all the vegetables that I had, carrots, potatoes, peas, capsicum, etc (cant remember if I'd put anything else..!!). The aroma was quite good and the taste was even mesmerizing, I know this is quite a lot of yapping, but the words carry their weightage here. So with the side dish ready, we just made some rice, as the idea of chapathi meant we would have had dinner at midnight. After a royal dinner with 2 servings of royal hogging, and quite a full stomach, after a long time for me, these were the words from GB, which just furiated the HCl in my stomach to digest the food within a second and the taste of the Rajma turned into oblivion.
GB: Machan, 'Sambhar' super da..!!!
Me: @#$%^%^&$#@#@@#%%$^%^&, and the curses never ended till I went to bed..!!!
Striking irony, there was not even an atom of Sambhar powder in it..!! hmph..!!!
May 5, 2009
"Nice cut" - say what..!! @#@$%@#..!!!
4 months, 23 days - the time span, after which I finally gave in to the luring of the automatic-razor, to mow my hair, and provide a neat cut. A very straight-forward difference between developed and developing country, the Barbers here use more of automatic-razor than a scissor, pretty concerned sight for any person sitting for a hair-CUT and not a shave. The history of hair cutting for me has always been, ahem, shoddy, and so I had very little hopes and considering the high expenses for hair-styling saloons (yes, I did consider them..!!), I thought, lets give it another chance, naturally my mistake.
After around half an hour's wait, I heard the person calling me to take a seat. I dont know if it always happens with me, whenever, I consider that this barber is cutting well and I should stick with this guy, the next time, somehow, that doesnt work out. Probably, a conspiracy, for all the first-timers, of letting loose their 'handicraft' on me. sigh..!! Nevertheless, expecting the worst I sat on the chair (a reverse psychology theory, which failed miserably..!!). As I started speaking in german, the owner, directed the barber to speak in english, I think. "Finally, some luck going my way", were the first words, and also the only instance where things seemed to go in the right direction.
"Please cut in half the length, evenly in all sides". The guy had a confused look and then wobbled his head sideways, reminding our peculiar way of nodding. One thing about the european people, when I say they know english, it means a literal translation of the sentence in their language, and so the verbs could go haywire. A reason why, I have a new respect for Wren-&-Martin for authoring the wonderful book. Alright, the biggest fiasco of the day is yet to happen, and its not the cutting part. I dont know what prompted me, probably the confused look on his face, but I asked him to give a suggestion, and the guy suggested for a mushroom cut. Nevertheless, I asked him not to make too short, and the rest is history, as my worst nightmare had already begun the moment I asked him for his suggestion. Ironically, after the cut, the guy shows an extra mirror asking if the cut was aligned properly at the back, I only took time to think which would be the apt curse for him, which almost came out of my mouth when he let out the words "Nice cut..!!". Fighting hard to keep my mouth shut, I paid the 10 euros (Oh yes, thats the cheapest..!!), and left the place. After coming out and looking at a glass window, I could only laugh it out, as nothing else could be done and realised that I wouldnt need a cut for the next 6 months.
After around half an hour's wait, I heard the person calling me to take a seat. I dont know if it always happens with me, whenever, I consider that this barber is cutting well and I should stick with this guy, the next time, somehow, that doesnt work out. Probably, a conspiracy, for all the first-timers, of letting loose their 'handicraft' on me. sigh..!! Nevertheless, expecting the worst I sat on the chair (a reverse psychology theory, which failed miserably..!!). As I started speaking in german, the owner, directed the barber to speak in english, I think. "Finally, some luck going my way", were the first words, and also the only instance where things seemed to go in the right direction.
"Please cut in half the length, evenly in all sides". The guy had a confused look and then wobbled his head sideways, reminding our peculiar way of nodding. One thing about the european people, when I say they know english, it means a literal translation of the sentence in their language, and so the verbs could go haywire. A reason why, I have a new respect for Wren-&-Martin for authoring the wonderful book. Alright, the biggest fiasco of the day is yet to happen, and its not the cutting part. I dont know what prompted me, probably the confused look on his face, but I asked him to give a suggestion, and the guy suggested for a mushroom cut. Nevertheless, I asked him not to make too short, and the rest is history, as my worst nightmare had already begun the moment I asked him for his suggestion. Ironically, after the cut, the guy shows an extra mirror asking if the cut was aligned properly at the back, I only took time to think which would be the apt curse for him, which almost came out of my mouth when he let out the words "Nice cut..!!". Fighting hard to keep my mouth shut, I paid the 10 euros (Oh yes, thats the cheapest..!!), and left the place. After coming out and looking at a glass window, I could only laugh it out, as nothing else could be done and realised that I wouldnt need a cut for the next 6 months.
May 2, 2009
4 movies and yet a long day..!!!
Right then, after continuous, non-stop bragging over my pathetically long exam schedule, lasting for ages (actually 3 months), I finally get a breather to spend some time home. Thanks to weather Gods that nature ranked next. Actually got one more exam to go, but I can afford a week's relaxation. The few days after the exam were pretty tedious, as I had to compensate for the loss of working hours, for studying (I wish..!!:P), and I was waiting for Friday, May 1, thinking about getting up at 10am or 11am and just lazing around the entire day, which eventually turned out to be one of the longest days ever. These are just the aftermath of a totally screwed up schedule, suddenly you dont have anything to do, but I am happy that its only one day, although breaks like these are welcome but not frequently.
Got an initial hiccup right in the morning, when I wanted to get up at 10 or 11am but ended up waking up at 7 30am, and just rolling over for the next one hour, trying to force myself to sleep, only in vain. After a long time, I had to do 'nothing', so time given the least priority. So started the day with a movie, one of the anime series' movie, which I watch. One of the best breaks for me during the exams was the IPL and it was almost time for the same. Well during exams I used to watch the match, but after the exams, somehow the inertia to watch the match dies out, unless you have a big gang. So I decided to go for another movie during the lunch. Once done with that, I just had a glimpse of the time, and to say that it moved at a snail's pace would be an underestimation. With eyes almost popping out, as what I thought to be 6 hours turned out to only 3 hours, since lunch, I decided to go for another movie, which turned to be a wrong selection, as now the race was between the movie, time and snail as to who would top the podium. I couldnt stop the movie, as I have a bad/good habit of finishing with what I start, unless its utterly trash, here it was acceptable. The movie, Pan's Labrynth, which has got a good rating at imdb, and listed in the top-250 movies to be watched, intrigued me over its hype and, to such an extent, that I ended up searching for the reason, for the next half an hour. Somehow, I couldnt accept that the movie with the usual message of bravery, sacrifice,etc, could have such high ratings. Worse part, I even dragged Ganesh (my roommate), into watching the movie, who only had sweet curses for the director. It was almost 10pm now and I knew I wouldnt be crashing before 12 or 1am, so I hit the link again for another movie, this time a better one, Fast and Furious 4, just the kind of movie for the night, so that you dont end up sleeping on the table. And after what looked like eternity, it was 00 hrs and May 2 was here. I was so busy doing 'nothing', that I decided to give my newly-borrowed fan a wash. For once its good that I dont have a vacation, as attending classes and working would atleast add some spice. I remember one of my friends, asking me what would you do when you have 'nothing' to do? I would say her, today, by the time I went to bed, I did 'nothing', but its certainly not what I want to do, when I have 'nothing' to do. Still figuring that out.
Got an initial hiccup right in the morning, when I wanted to get up at 10 or 11am but ended up waking up at 7 30am, and just rolling over for the next one hour, trying to force myself to sleep, only in vain. After a long time, I had to do 'nothing', so time given the least priority. So started the day with a movie, one of the anime series' movie, which I watch. One of the best breaks for me during the exams was the IPL and it was almost time for the same. Well during exams I used to watch the match, but after the exams, somehow the inertia to watch the match dies out, unless you have a big gang. So I decided to go for another movie during the lunch. Once done with that, I just had a glimpse of the time, and to say that it moved at a snail's pace would be an underestimation. With eyes almost popping out, as what I thought to be 6 hours turned out to only 3 hours, since lunch, I decided to go for another movie, which turned to be a wrong selection, as now the race was between the movie, time and snail as to who would top the podium. I couldnt stop the movie, as I have a bad/good habit of finishing with what I start, unless its utterly trash, here it was acceptable. The movie, Pan's Labrynth, which has got a good rating at imdb, and listed in the top-250 movies to be watched, intrigued me over its hype and, to such an extent, that I ended up searching for the reason, for the next half an hour. Somehow, I couldnt accept that the movie with the usual message of bravery, sacrifice,etc, could have such high ratings. Worse part, I even dragged Ganesh (my roommate), into watching the movie, who only had sweet curses for the director. It was almost 10pm now and I knew I wouldnt be crashing before 12 or 1am, so I hit the link again for another movie, this time a better one, Fast and Furious 4, just the kind of movie for the night, so that you dont end up sleeping on the table. And after what looked like eternity, it was 00 hrs and May 2 was here. I was so busy doing 'nothing', that I decided to give my newly-borrowed fan a wash. For once its good that I dont have a vacation, as attending classes and working would atleast add some spice. I remember one of my friends, asking me what would you do when you have 'nothing' to do? I would say her, today, by the time I went to bed, I did 'nothing', but its certainly not what I want to do, when I have 'nothing' to do. Still figuring that out.
Apr 21, 2009
Bhuvan's postulate humbled by my dose of optimism..!!!
Right then, a long hiatus is finally broken, and I finally do justice to the unending anticipation of my loyal followers with this post (ok, please dont remove yourself..!!). The almost unending row of examination and my grit of handling them for this long, and for a few days more, has brought out a new perspective of life. The good thing here is that its almost on the verge of getting done with and I can finally get back at enjoying the sunny, not-so-hot-not-so-cold, spring outside, in about 15 days. Although may not sound convincing, but a break of 2-3 months is really overwhelming and the desparation for the 15 days to get over is unimaginable. Getting to the subject of the post, its just another one of my doses of optimism completely bolstering down on the Bhuvan's usual perspectual postulates during examinations. What can I say, optimism just beats everything and I dont seem to get over them :D (I know I need to get back on earth..!!!).
Now, we had just got done with one of the major hurdles, the second most feared paper of our course, RF and Microwave Engineering. Although, in technical terms, RF refers to Radio Frequency, in 'our' terms, RF's got a glamrous definition of getting 'Royal F*cked' and it turned out to be well for most of us atleast, although it was pretty disastrous for me, but all's well that ends well, we got a bit overwhelmed and kinda underestimated the next exam which is on 24th for Bhuvan and 27th for me. Eventhough I enjoy the privilege of having 3 more days, the term slogging seems to be a necessity. So with nerves all over him, Bhuvan gets cracked-up and is in a striking dilema whether to give up the exam or take it. The thought of waiting for one year for retaking the exam,once given up, is a pretty strong reason to take all chances, nevertheless 3 days for the exam, do get on the nerves sometimes. And it is during these moments that Bhuvan's ultra-thinking brain brings out these postulates, and ofcourse there needs to be a person like me around, the main root behind those innumerable postulates of his, coz I supported the thought of giving a chance rather than wait for a year.
So here goes Bhuvan's postulate, in reference to getting prepared thoroughly and going for the exam, or preparing what is 'sufficient' and taking a chance.
Bhuvan: aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, machan, I am not taking this now.
Me: Stop acting like one....
Bhuvan: Crazy bugger..!! I know.
Me: See go through the paper, prepare the presentation and just go through the related topics. You should do fine.
Bhuvan (with a philosophical thought): Machan, u know something, there are two scenarios here. See you should have a rubber protection when you are hooking up on a girl, and you should have full gear iron-metal protection when you are going for war on the battlefield. These two things cannot get interchanged. You cant approach a hooked up girl with full gear iron-metal protection and you cant go to a battlefield with a rubber protection.
Drum-rolls please, coz here comes the dose of optimism, that completely bowled Bhuvan's theory.
Me: Machan, tell you what, consider your statements, I would say your reverse statement would work, coz you never know, the full-gear iron-metal protection might save you from a possible ambush, if there was, when you are gettin hooked up and you might as well go to a battlefield with a rubber protection, who knows the enemy might have a fleet of naked desparate ladies.
Bhuvan: Faints..!!! Nandagopal ki jai ho..!!!
Mar 19, 2009
I Hate Computers - Part 2...!!!
Machine - Bhuvan's Laptop (An absolute piece of shit..!!!)
This could only be described as destiny thats chiseling me up for handling more and more comps ahead in my life. Rings a bell, about a philosophical conversation between Bhuvan and me (yeah we do talk philosophy, at times..!!!) and timing couldn't have been perfect with just two days before the exam. Well, people do get a different perspective of life always during the exam time.
Bhuvan: Machan, what the hell are we doing? (in a thoroughly low noise, in library..!!)
Me: What does it look like, tyring to set up a crowd in library!!! ofcourse, preparing for exams, I guess..!!
Bhuvan: No actually, the basic funda is (Me: here we go again..!!), for the first half of our life, we are trying to study, how we fucked up our lives..!! (Ok, the thing one needs to know is, when we say "fucked up" means "complicated"..!!! ).
Me: yeah, and the next half, we implement them to get fucked..!!
With this small enlightenment, Bhuvan continued pondering over his philosophical axioms, and I had to get back to study with my usual race with time.
Coming to the point, of getting things complicated, computers and so far only computers have made me wonder, as to what was one thinking when laying their foundation. Working with computers, ofcourse is an epitome of convenience, but its an ultimate test of patience, with screwed up ones. And especially, comps around me seem to have an affinity towards the same.
Here Bhuvan actually tries to install another OS, ubuntu, on his laptop, with Vista on it, a bad idea, addressed to him already. However, the OS fails to mount properly due to an error in file mounting system and as a solution I ask him to use a virtual machine for the same. Looks like bhuvan had had plans of reformatting his laptop and so before installing the software, we start reformatting it. Little did I know about the approaching restraint assessment waiting for me. His hard disk was not partitioned properly and I got the brilliant idea to make things fine, only in vain to completely corrupt the file system in the hard disk. The subsequent ideologies would take us two full days to work on his laptop without results, but it couldn't have got worse, as this was already worse. Apparently, the warranty period of his laptop had recently expired, but the pains of sitting with the machine for the past 2 days has inspired him to renew the warranty. However, similar to Thomas Alva Edison's discovery of Electricity from lightening (I know the comparison is exaggeration at its extremes..!! but thats the size of the consequence of the event here..!!), bhuvan accidently happen to find the right CD for our questions, thereby reinstalling the NTFS for Windows installation and then its history.
So thats the 3-day non-stop, mind-cracking and frustrating times with Bhuvan's laptop, where after each failed installation, he would go, what the hell human's have done to themselves and after the successful installation he comments, I know my laptop personally, we have got closer to each other!
N.B.
Me to my laptop: Dude, you are the best, am not at all talking about you, you are an exception, definitely out of their league..!!! :D
Heavenly God, please protect my laptop from all sorts of corruptions, malwares, viruses, anything that might damage it internally or externally.
Thank You.
Amen..!!!
This could only be described as destiny thats chiseling me up for handling more and more comps ahead in my life. Rings a bell, about a philosophical conversation between Bhuvan and me (yeah we do talk philosophy, at times..!!!) and timing couldn't have been perfect with just two days before the exam. Well, people do get a different perspective of life always during the exam time.
Bhuvan: Machan, what the hell are we doing? (in a thoroughly low noise, in library..!!)
Me: What does it look like, tyring to set up a crowd in library!!! ofcourse, preparing for exams, I guess..!!
Bhuvan: No actually, the basic funda is (Me: here we go again..!!), for the first half of our life, we are trying to study, how we fucked up our lives..!! (Ok, the thing one needs to know is, when we say "fucked up" means "complicated"..!!! ).
Me: yeah, and the next half, we implement them to get fucked..!!
With this small enlightenment, Bhuvan continued pondering over his philosophical axioms, and I had to get back to study with my usual race with time.
Coming to the point, of getting things complicated, computers and so far only computers have made me wonder, as to what was one thinking when laying their foundation. Working with computers, ofcourse is an epitome of convenience, but its an ultimate test of patience, with screwed up ones. And especially, comps around me seem to have an affinity towards the same.
Here Bhuvan actually tries to install another OS, ubuntu, on his laptop, with Vista on it, a bad idea, addressed to him already. However, the OS fails to mount properly due to an error in file mounting system and as a solution I ask him to use a virtual machine for the same. Looks like bhuvan had had plans of reformatting his laptop and so before installing the software, we start reformatting it. Little did I know about the approaching restraint assessment waiting for me. His hard disk was not partitioned properly and I got the brilliant idea to make things fine, only in vain to completely corrupt the file system in the hard disk. The subsequent ideologies would take us two full days to work on his laptop without results, but it couldn't have got worse, as this was already worse. Apparently, the warranty period of his laptop had recently expired, but the pains of sitting with the machine for the past 2 days has inspired him to renew the warranty. However, similar to Thomas Alva Edison's discovery of Electricity from lightening (I know the comparison is exaggeration at its extremes..!! but thats the size of the consequence of the event here..!!), bhuvan accidently happen to find the right CD for our questions, thereby reinstalling the NTFS for Windows installation and then its history.
So thats the 3-day non-stop, mind-cracking and frustrating times with Bhuvan's laptop, where after each failed installation, he would go, what the hell human's have done to themselves and after the successful installation he comments, I know my laptop personally, we have got closer to each other!
N.B.
Me to my laptop: Dude, you are the best, am not at all talking about you, you are an exception, definitely out of their league..!!! :D
Heavenly God, please protect my laptop from all sorts of corruptions, malwares, viruses, anything that might damage it internally or externally.
Thank You.
Amen..!!!
Mar 12, 2009
A year after..!!!
Time does fly, and though I have experienced it innumerably, mostly in good ways, the realization of completing a year here in Ulm, Germany, was quite exciting. The sheer thought that I have been, and I could be independent, in almost an alien environment, makes it even special. Time and again I have mentioned in my previous posts about my span here, but this has its own specialty. To make it more ironical, I am receiving a friend, who has taken the same flight on the same day and hopefully will reach here also at the same time. It'l feel good to say "welcome to Ulm!" for a change. So off I go to receive my friend, as I prepare myself for the year to be.
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