The scariest thing

I watched the movie unbreakable today and directed by Manoj Night Shyamalan.

I realised it was a great movie in the end only as it always happens with MN's movie.I got to listen to this dialogue from the movie :

Elijah Price: You know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world.

I don't know yet my place in the world. I am scared!

B Schools

An article which matches my opinion on B-schools (Thats why i am posting it)

After all,

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

Nothing Gandhian about it

Check out this article on latest hit movie Lage raho Munnabhai.

Weekend!

Finally the favourite days of the week has arrived. After slogging out on homeworks for 3 days now I know how it feels like to be free :) .I had to submit three assignments, one on thu and two on fri. The time given was a week.I being an eternal procrastinator looked at the problems and thought they are pretty easy.This is how I finished my assignments :

Wed night

No enthu to start the assignment will wake up early and do it

Thu morn
woke up at 6...finished assignments at 0925...the problem was i had to catch the 0930 bus....missed bfast didnt take bath and was running helter skelter collecting my stuff and ran to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus...

Thu eve

worked for 5 hours continously and finished both assignments almost except one problem in each of them.slept at 230am and woke up at 0830 with class beginning at 0900....missed the bus for sure this time...I just brushed my teeth and ran like hell to the university and also thinking abt the leftover problem....reached just five mins before the class to realise that the class was cancelled...felt happy as well as sad...sad as i had put so much fight to reac the class on time for submission of assignments and happy as i have got a lot more time to solve the problem....I finished the other assignment due on fri just 10 mins before the class started...

From now on I will do everything on time!

Being an eternal procrastinator doesnt stop me from being an eternal optimist ;)

5

Once in IIT I remember when I looked at myself in the mirror, which happens once in a blue moon, that I had a few stitches between my eyebrow and eyes symmetrically positioned. Btw, I was reading about symmetry operations in my physics class and was checking out the symmetry in my face.

here goes the five :

1

I dont remember this incident though.It happened when i was less than 2 yrs old. Until then I had been thinking I had only one set of stitches between my eye and eyebrow. I had held amma's pallu and tripped over and fell on sharp protrusion.

2
This is the one i clearly remember. We were playing cricket nearby our house. I was only 4 yrs old so wasnt allowed bat or bowl. I was expected to only field. I am a sort of guy who wants to be invovled always so started going closer and closer to the batsman.I went so close that the guy swinged his bat with full force and it hit my face right above my eyes.Blood started oozing from the wound. I still remember the way the water turned red when tried to clean the wound before it was gonna be stitched. I also remember my brother getting a verbal thrashing for not looking after me while the play was going on.

3
I used to think I was a big hero in my childhood days courtesy chiru movies. I tried to jump from the top of slide and landed directly on my face, right near the mouth part which rendered me to eat only liquid food for the next few weeks.

4
This happened in IIT when I was hit by a cricket ball right next to my nose and it swelled like hell.Again had to follow a liquid diet for a few weeks as it hurt my gums pretty badly.

5
this again due to cricket ball bowled at 135 kph right in the middle of Saaranf our cult fest. It was thankfully just a cut and no swelling occured as it missed my teeth once again by just a whisker.I was wearing a bandage through out the Saarang though.

Culture shock!

I was given the course description of one of courses where it was mentioned :

1. Exams. There will be three examinations. They will be closed book, no cheat sheet, no formula list. Calculators are allowed. They will be cumulative but will emphasize most recent material. The schedule is shown below:

Exam 1 (50 minutes): 10/09/06

Exam 2 (50 minutes): 11/13/06

Exam 3 (100 minutes): 12/16/06 (10:30-12:30, SAT)

Then I thought "what an exam on 10 september!" it is already 7th



...then realised it was 10 october not 10 september.....here it was my first "culture shock"

A great Photo journal

Check out the photo journal on a bolivian jain on BBC....It is like a city inside a closed compound and doesnt have any Policemen...

here's the link....

Guess who is this person....

Me in my complete winter wear!

Mysore Sandal Soap...

One of my favourite columnists in The Hindu, V. Gangadhar, has writtem about the soap I still use in his column slice of life

do check it out.

Satisfaction!

After spending 2 days at another country I was very frustrated that I wasnt able to even have a single meal to my satisfaction.

my first day started off with a Pizza slice at 1130 then a veg burger at 1800 n then ready to eat chole at 1130 in the night with bread.I could have eaten everything at one go.

Second day I had an oat meal in the morning and an oat meal in the afty.Actually, I had gone to McDonalds in the afty for lunch where me n my friend took 5 mins to explain to the guy at the counter that we wanted a veg burger.He told us there were no veg burgers @ McDs.I got so frustrated I decided to cook something myself.My roomie took me for shopping at 5 and we returned at 2030 with a LOT of groceries.

To add salt to the wound I ended up with common cold, which I hate like hell.

Finally made aloo curry and ate it with curd rice.

Then realised what satisfaction really is! :)

Rain!

Incessant rains had lashed Hyderabad for the past 48 hours. The whole city almost came to standstill.

This reminded me about my summer internship at Pune (Summer 2005), where it used to rain 4-5 days continously in the last 3-4 weeks of my stay. This also bought back memories of my trek in a flooded are nearby lonavala, madavli is the name of the nearby station.

3 of my batchmates decided on the trek. I had just recovered from mumps and was raring to get out of my room as I was bed ridden for a week.The 4 guys were myself, Nikhil, Jk and Raavan.
Myself and Nikhil were working at TIFR, Raavan at Pimpri (outskirts of Pune, industrial area) and Jk at Pune University.We always had to plan our social get togethers on thursday, which was the industrial holiday (sunday wasnt a holiday for Raavan).We planned to catch the morning 5 'o clock train from Pune to Mumbhai. Jk came to our place to crash in the night as he used to live far far away from Pune and Raavan was supposed meet us at 0445 at the nearby station.

On the day of trek I woke up at 0530 and realised we were late. Then I woke up Nikhil and Jk and we hurriedly got ready as Raavan was furious on the mobile at us as he reached the station at 0445.We finally reached the station at 0630 and were welcomed by Raavan's very friendly demeanour. We caught the 7'o clock train finally.When the train stopped at madavli I was shocked. It was raining like cats and dogs and also almost horizontally due to the strong breeze.I was contemplating whether to get down when Nikhil pushed me onto the platform. We all got down and enquired where the Visapur twin forts were.Raavan hadnt even got a raincoat or an umbrella so got drenched top to botom in five minutes. Others were not ar behind, eventhough we were covered from top to bottom by wind cheater and waterproof tracksuits we also got drenched from top to bottom in a few mins.

We didnt have anything till now. The only eatable available was Vada pav. Each one of us had 4 vada pavs and chai and started off on our trek.We had to cross the Mumbhai Pune expressway to get to the twin forts of Visapur. We reached a village and asked a boy to take us to the top. He told us he had to go school but told he will come with us as far as he can.We climbed some 200 feet and saw the view then we realized the magnitude of floods affecting the whole area.The whole area was looking like a huge lake just behind the Railway station.We climbed with the boy for about 500 feet. He was barefoot and was climbing the rocks at a fast pace. We had to tell him to slow down as we werent able to keep up pace wit him. He then showed us the way further up.The problem was we couldnt see the forts as the clouds were pretty low and we still didnt get a view of the fort.We carried on following the instructions of the boy and we ended up near a 10 feet wide rivulet gushing down the mountain. We were thinking whether to cross it or not.Me n Jk were against crossing it as we thought it was too dangerous.Raavan crossed it and came back but now we were unsure whether it was the right way to the top.Finally we all agreed to go back and find some one who would guide us to the top.

More about my experience in my next post..

An idea can change ur life...

The opening of the movie V for Vendetta starts off with

Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman): Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,/ The Gunpowder Treason and Plot... / I know of no reason/ Why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in his 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it... ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love... And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man... A man that made me remember the Fifth of November. A man that I will never forget.

One of my favourtie movies for the dialogues and screenplay.

After 4 years when I entered my college it was convocation day.In the same auditorium where me and my batchmates sat together to listen to the welcome address by the director of my institute we heard him giving the report of one more year gone by at our institute.The guest of honour was one whom I admire very much, which is Dr.Ratan Tata.

In hid address to us he gave us this idea:
"Think BIG and act boldly"

He added that we are setting ourselves very small targets and should try to set our aims higher.
China is building the largest dam, airport etc. and we are adding one terminal to the Delhi airport that too by 2010 wonly.

Hopefully this idea will change someone's life.

Childhood heroes.......

During our childhood days I was so credulous that I used to believe the hero was strong enough to beat up 100 goons single handedly.

One of my first movies was Gang leader (Lead role played by Chiru :) n me about 6-7 years old ). I think this was my first movie. Can't forget the song in the disco where chiru and his gang sing the song 'gang leader' which goes somewhat like this :

G......A.....N......G.....
Gang Gang
Bajaoo Bang Bang
and the disco lights focus on Chiru
GANG LEADER!

My reaction was.......... wow! this guy rocks!

In the final scene Chiru saves his family by flexing his muscles and then there u have my first childhood hero.

There is one more movie where he is a poor guy from a village without any job and falls in love with the heroine. The father of the heroine challenges him to bring 10 lakh rupees in a month and Chiru's answer :
with a fiery look in his eyes
"This is a Challenge"

Still one of my favourite scenes.

Then there was the casanova by the name Anil Kapoor.I used supposedly prostrate before the TV whenever he makes the entry in a movie. The song which I can't forget goes like this :

"sapnon ka sajan,
mera naam hai lakhan"







Although I have grown 'up' I still have utmost respect for Chiru in Gang Leader but will surely laugh if I watched a similar movie like gang leader now.

PS: I was having a conversation with my friend and he presented a very interesting point,
Israel is creating such a fuss because one of their colonels had been abducted, whereas in India 150 have died and over 700 injured and we do nothing but repeat the same statements all over again 'Pakistan should stop harboring terrorists' .

Moral of the story (as my friend usually puts it) : India is a land of pacifists.

Trek Diaries 2..

chk out the previous entry on my trek before carrying on.

Our group was christened as 'Bajrang Dal' (the reason being pretty obvious). The only one out of the 31 groups which led to a state of depression in our tent.

Trip to Kullu
After lunch we freshened ourselves up and headed to Kullu. It is about 8 km from our camp.There was nothing much in Kullu to look around. We just shopped for a few things for the trek and returned to our base camp.


Cheapos didn't buy the caps! The owner of the shop was very amiable.He only gave the guys the caps carefully choosing so that each one wears a different design one.










On the way we got off from the bus, as we had lot of time in our hands so we visited the baes river.















We found a lot of stones having a flat surface then we started throwing stones so that they bounce off the water as many times as possible.



But Robstoy had plans for weightlifting :D



















Now to the most memorable event of the day!























We have camp fire every night during our trek. It is organized by each group every night. The group which landed a day earlier had the responsibility for our first night at the base camp. They came to our camp for singers/stand up comedians etc. I teasingly asked robstoy whether he was interested to sing and he agreed. On top of that we had an air guitar specialist rishi with him.I knew it was going to end in disaster so I closed my eyes when they performed. The song Robstoy sung was 'Sweet child of mine' with rishi as the air guitarist. It was a disaster Robstoy singing and Rishi giving out sound of a guitar. He finished the song quickly to the relief of our camp mates.

I came to know later that he finished the song quickly because he had forgot the lyrics of the song but he was happy that he had got an audience for his singing performance.

Great spirit.Hail Robstoy!

Trek Diaries 1..

The beginning
Just packed an air bag for the trek.Packing for a trek is pretty simple where u needn't take bath for a week :) . Then a 24 hr train trip to Delhi which I slept throughout. One of my school friends, Nisha Mohan, came to receive us at the station.She was our guide for the day. We roamed around the markets and malls of Noida.

The next day we met up with other guys of the group n were off to the Babeli base camp which took approximately 18 hours (Due to the Mountainous terrain).

You can't eat a lot on the way due to the meandering path which causes a vommiting sensation.










On the way we had a bad experience of eating at a Dhabha.The guys gave us salad and curd with what we had ordered originally. Then they added around 160 bucks for the salad and curd with the bill. We ended up having a heated exchange with the dhabha guys as the food also wasnt great at all.






The next day morning on the way to base camp, pit stop for b/fast :










Tomorrow the chicks will be all over us



We reached the camp around noon starved to death.We arrived just during the lunch time and went directly to thulp food.The food was great throughout the trek. i don't know why do we get bad food only in our hostels :( . I am learning cooking and found that its not tough at all to cook a decent meal.
















The anti climax after reaching the camp :












Finally they ended up all over eachother! :D


More in a few days time....captions courtesy Robstoy!

lets be on the safer side

I am back from one of the treks organized by youth hostel assoc. of India (YHAI).

In one of the camps I met one of the pioneers of the trekking expedition organised by YHAI. He is a professor of Botany, did mountaineering course in 1964.He is presently Vice president of YHAI.

We were talking about the general attitude around the world about the love for travel n adventure. He mentioned "we Indians always want to be on the safe side. We would never like to take risks. We have very bright brains but we still need to develop fearlessness towards taking risks.Many of them don'tcometo our trek eventhough evrything is taken care of and you just need to trek because of the fear who will go to the himalayas." He mentioned how he met many foreign students who go broke while travelling. Don't where they are heading next day and also on the shoe string budget they travel.

This is where I had been....on the background is the lake being formed from the snow at 13000 feet...

Height of irrationality

Check out the interview of our great Union minister (HRD) regarding reservations. It shows the level of IQ our great parliamentarians have. It is pretty evident that he didnt even care to look at the figures what the reporter is quoting. The minister has only one reply 'Reservations are necessary for development of backward sections of societies' for each and every question.

Afterall, democracy is the best of the worst forms of government we can think of. Everywhere the politicians have learnt to beat the system actually more than that eat up whole of the system and show no responsiblity towards the good of the nation. The only concern of the politicians these days being power. How to not lose it.....they can stoop to any level to achieve this...even sponsor riots, underground gangs and what all...

God save the world!

Sickly , Starved and Wild!

I am at home finally.....slow internet speed is killing me....Amma after looking at me said 'enna da Raghu ivlo sickly ya terriyara apparom idhe enna kaad mardhi mudi!IIT la saapad poda maatala' (u look so sickly and wild!don't they feed you at IIT)

will blog frequently again when i get access to broadband which is expected after I come back from my trek(jun 12)..

Look Gay....

The billboard reads :
" LOOK GAY IN GAYMAN TAILORED SUITS"

Nice advertising indeed!

My favourite dialogue...

Maximus: [after swiftly dispatching another gladiator] Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Crowd: Spaniard, Spaniard, Spaniard...

photo credit: Sudhir