Poems from the shower - 1

Came up with this in the shower today. It was snowing outside and I had a nasty test later in the evening:

Snow snow don't go away,
A little longer you must stay,
Until you make Prof.Della Torre say,
"It will be a take home test today!"

:D

Toilet thinking

Don't grose out looking at the title (or get excited..if you're the pervy types :p)...

This blog is just dedicated to the act of brainstorming while ridding yourself of bodily wastes. Im surprised i haven't mentioned anything about this before considering the number of times it's happened.



Here I am trying to crack a problem, understand a graph, get to grips with the working of some algorithm/code...and i feel this sudden urge to lose some weight (pun intended)...probably because i ate too much or well...umm...other gastric reasons. And since Im totally "into" what Im doing, I decide to take the book along with me into the shytehouse.

Almost, If not always, it so happens that during the "process" I somehow manage to either crack what I was doing or make some phenomenal breakthrough which helps get rid of doubts/queries in my head.

I dunno how or why...but it happens..a LOT, with me. The only plausible reasoning i can seem to come up with happens to be...throw out the old, make way for the new. Incase you aren't sure what I meant by that, here is a more blunt version: Rid yourself of some sh*t to make way for some brain cells... :D...works for me!!

Bulla ki jaana...im confused!

/*Rant mode ON...

Way before I even landed, I knew people had a lot of choices...for everything in the USA.

Be it underwear, where you get to choose from polka dotted in cotton to the Mona Lisa imprinted in some funky new material which costed $5.613 Million to research and develop (and everything else in between) or the choice between a mocha in delicate white chocolate/mint/dark chocolate/cream/chocolate sprinkles/other unpronounceable sauces and ice cream with 136 different toppings/additives/sauces ...choosing something is positively headache inducing, even if you have etched exactly what you want on your forehead.

I mean, it's good if customers have a collection of competing items to choose from...but it's not good to have to sit and prepare an Excel worksheet everytime you want to go buy shampoo! Pert Plus - Shampoo, shampoo with light conditioner, shampoo with medium conditioner, shampoo with heavy conditioner, shampoo for coloured hair, shampoo for grey hair, shampoo for soon-to-be-grey hair..4Oz..8Oz...12Oz...20Oz..33.21Oz bottles..Pull-push cap, dispenser cap, squeeze-it cap...Jesus effin christ! And to add to this, the almost squint-inducing number of rebates and moronic offers: "Buy a shampoo and a chocolate doughnut between 1 and 3PM at our Fairfax store and get 50 cents off your next purchase, if the total cost of the purchase is more than $23.75. Plus! Bonus! Mail in your bill and purchase invoice and we will give you an additional 75 cents off the next bottle of foot powder you buy!"...really...im not kidding...you need to master some spreadsheet software before you even DARE venture into the American retail jungle. And this is not even including the online shopping part of it. Seriously, that's best left for another day and another time.

And it's not just shopping that'll make you age faster than Bordeaux wine! Since the last 1 month, i've been scratching my head trying to decide what courses to take up, with which professor, in which campus..at what time! :| 0_O

..Rant mode OFF*/

Hellos from Amreeka!

My first post from the US of A! And since it's after almost a month, I'll make it worth reading..:) Since i have been mailing most of you'll regularly, most of these pics will be familiar. But nevertheless, I am posting a pictorial tour of my life in America the last 2 1/2 weeks...I'll be giving you a tour of where i live, what i eat/cook, what i've seen, what i've been doing etc...It wont be like the tour the female gives in "Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi.." ...but it'll be good nuff!

So here it goes!
Firstly, I had a stopover at Doha before I reached D.C. The Doha terminal was nice...although the place is like ARID/BONE DRY! But the duty free shop was amazing..

The view from the terminal...



At the duty free shop...

That was Doha...onwards and upwards to USA!

Well the first place we went to after landing in the US was our apartment in Dunn Loring, Merrifield, VA. Here are pics of home sweet home!

At the entrance...


The view....



Now that the neighbourhood tour is done...onto...ummm....Food??? :D

I always liked cooking, although i never WANTED/HAD to back home. Necessity is the mother of all inventions..and here i am, driven by a growling stomach, concocting some...food? *It was perfectly edible...not to worry.*



And this here...is my base of operations... *Note: Since this pic was taken, my base has been heavily reinforced with supplies and ammunitions...so its very different now!*


Ok, now that our tummys are full..lets go on a tour of D.C...

These are areas in and around my university, The George Washington University. and our apartment.







Now that the tour of D.C is done..lemme show you glimpses of what exactly I've been upto the last 2 odd weeks....quite a bit of TP in and around D.C!

Meeting up with friends...


With Georgie...


Lisner Auditorium...with the H

Kogan Plaza...tick tock...


And finally...the most amazing sights of D.C...the CARS!!!...*Im not including the babes/chicks..although we all know...*





Thats it for now...:) Hope you liked the sights and sounds of D.C!!!

In The End

"Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.."

I have about 2 weeks to go now before i enter another time, dimension of sorts. I have about 2 weeks where i can be who i am best...my parents son (oh..and a brother too!). I have some 2 weeks before i'll have to rip out whatever/whoever was nearest and dearest to me from my heart so that i can selfishly focus on starting life afresh, instead of hiding behind colourful and cherished memories of the past.

It all seems so painful, leaving loved ones and the wonderful times you've spent together behind. Now that i can count the number of days left, i realize how precious every second i spent/will spend with my mother, father, bro, Aditi and friends was/is. When in bed at night, instead of thinking about what i am supposed to do in the coming days..what i am supposed to do to start a new life, all i can seem to think of is what i did in the past and what i could've done to make it better.

But all this introspection of past thoughts, etched in my mind didn't just happen overnight. A series of events in the past week or so has given me a quick, condensed view of my past life. I went to my school, Swami Vivekanand High School a few days ago...only to see it hasn't changed one bit since i left it in March 2000. I wanted to meet my teachers, the ones who made me the person I am today, one last time. I clearly remember having cried on the day of my 10th Std. farewell party, overburdened by thoughts of having to let go of people whom you had held so close to your heart for a good decade or so. It had been 7 long years since i had gone back...and to my surprise, every single one of the teachers (even those whom i wanted to avoid) recognized me! Standing on a floor, plonk in between a group of bustling students with samosa pavs and tiffin boxes in their hands, teachers scolding some for being late and the peons shouting at some for dirtying the floor, i was, for a brief amount of time, teleported to my school days...when i was probably the one getting shouted at for being late. And yet, in a matter of few days after the farewell..i went on with my life as a junior college student and my teachers went on with theirs.

On sunday, i decided to meet the professor who taught me Physics and Mathematics in my 11th and 12th standard. He couldn't believe his eyes and was so happy to see me. Nothing had changed; the same room, the same blackboard and his bugging voice. For a minute or two, i pictured myself sitting in the class, nodding my head to whatever he said and snickering at the comments passed by my friends. And yet, in a matter of few days after my HSC...i went on with my life as an engineering student and he went on with his.

A few days ago, out of nowhere, my dad found a CD which had a few pictures and a video of my 3rd birthday. Seeing pictures of my dad and mom holding and hugging me, and the sheer delight on my face seeing so many people (and the gifts), teleported me back to the time where i was pampered by my parents beyond belief. And yet, i've been able to hold back those distant memories and get on with life...just like my parents.

On the 22nd of July, Aditi left for the USA to pursue her higher studies. The past year and a half that i've spent with her, has by far been my best. With our fair share of ups and downs, twists and turns, i couldn't imagine she was actually leaving. Infact, it was only after a day or so did it sink into me, when i kept looking at the phone every 5 mins thinking she would call, that she had actually left. To say i was depressed would be a gross understatement. I got an email from her saying how she was missing people back home and felt lonely there. And yet, today when i woke up..somehow, i didn't feel the pain...the emptiness. I fired her an email saying she'll get over it...and get over it she will. A few more days, and i'll get on with my life preparing to leave and she'll get on with hers as a graduate student.

I watched friends cry at the station too the other day, when we had gone to bid farewell to another dear friend, Shweta. Tears were everywhere...and yet today, shes busy and tied up with her training and we all have got used to the fact that she isn't around and gone about with our daily life.

I now realize that we have to make the best of every single day we have, with whoever is around us. It wont take long for us to shove down all these wonderful memories into some corner of our head in our race against time...a race we always end up losing.

MS for Dummies! - Part 2

Now that you're done with the most difficult and time consuming part of applying for a MS; the pre-application, the next step is a lot easier and quicker. Infact, if you've done your work during the pre-application stage...this step is just putting it together..thts it!

Application:
1) The "application" can as such be classified into 2 types: The online application and the offline application. In this day and age of internet and the WWW, the online application is a no-brainer! Its a lot faster, reliable and most of all, cheaper. Infact, most universities insist on the student sending an online application instead of a printed application form.

2) Since I myself only applied online, i'll discuss about the same only. Every university application has an "electronic" as well as a "paper" part to it. Typically the electronic part consists of an online application form and payment of the application fees. In many cases, at the end of the online application, you might receive a student or application ID. Note this down and provide this number in all your correspondences with the university, online or otherwise. The application fees typically vary from as low as 25$ to as high as 85$ per application. Credit cards can be used for the very same. The paper part of the application basically consists of all the documents (SOPs, LORs, transcripts, financial statements/affidavits and in some cases additional forms prescribed by the university) required to verify the claims you have made in your online application form.

3) The transcripts and letters of recommendation must be signed/stamped on every page and must be sealed in individual envelopes, also bearing the signature and stamp on all the openings. Other documents can be put in individual sealed envelopes. All the envelopes must have your name, student/application ID, date of birth and must state the contents of that particular envelope. All the individual, white envelopes can then be placed in a larger, FIBER envelope. Also put in a single page stating the documents you have provided, your full name, date of birth and your application ID in the fiber envelope. Seal the fiber envelope properly. On the outside, write the TO address boldly and legibly in black ink. The TO address will specifically be mentioned in your application page. If in doubt, send an email over to the university. Typically, each department has a slightly different address. Apart from this, on the lower left corner, also provide the FROM address i.e YOUR address along with your telephone number (complete with the country code 91 and the area code).

4) Once you've filled the forms online, payed the application fee and organized/packed the application envelopes...do a final check as to if everything is in order as per the requirements of the university. This is when, all the work AND the lil diary i asked you to maintain in the previous step will help you out a LOT!

5) Now, you can send these applications via courier. FEDEX, DHL, UPS are the most well known courier services. But they are pretty damn expensive (even after factoring the "student" discount). On an average, they charge about Rs.900 for each packet. What you could do instead is send your packets through "agents" who'll charge you exactly HALF of what FEDEX, DHL etc charge you and ultimately your packet gets routed through FEDEX, DHL etc. only. One such agent is "Parla book house" near the McDonald's in Vile Parle. There are a few more if you bother searching/asking. Insist on a tracking number so that you'll know exactly where your packet is.

You are officially DONE with the application step. Typically you should have finished this stage by the middle of your 7th semester...sometime around October-November...LATEST by December.

TIP: Each time you pay the application fee online, either PRINT or SAVE the application confirmation page. It proves indispensable in case of any hiccups. Also, within 3-4 days of sending the application packet, send an email over to the concerned person in each university telling them that the packet has been dispatched on such and such a date and asking them to acknowledge the receipt of the same. You might not get a reply most of the times, but keep the mail for your record.

MS for Dummies!

I am (almost) at the end of the MS right of passage. Come the interview on the 27th of this month, and hopefully, all the running/writing/begging/cursing/screaming/shouting/sleepless nights and what not should bear fruit.

This blog might prove to be very useful for a LOT of people. Unlike what you will find on many websites, handbooks or what your stupid, daft counselors will tell you, this is a "hands on" view to "approaching" MS in the USA. This is what i had to go through; the good, the bad and the ugly. There were times i made some really good decisions for which i pat myself on the back now. But there were also a few for which i need to kick myself on my posterior.

Note:This blog is not GUIDE (official or unofficial) of any sort. This is being provided purely for your reference. Im simply listing the procedures and processes i followed. If you screw up..you cannot hold me responsible for it.

On that "serious" note..lets begin the journey throught the intrepid and often frustrating world of MS! The "approach" to MS can broadly be classified into 3 stages:
i. Pre-application
ii. Application
iii. Post application

Because of the length, i will be splitting this blog based on the 3 stages. Lets look at the most important, pre-application stage today.

Pre-application:

1) Engineering students who intend applying for a MS in the USA need to start scratching their heads from the 4th sem vacations itself. Wrap up your GRE/TOEFL at ANY COST in your third year itself. I recommend you take the TOEFL first. Its easier, and will get you familiar with how computer based testing works (..and the hospital like exam centre atmosphere..). Another reason you might want to finish off your GRE/TOEFLs is because, by chance (or because of your laziness/stupidity/GF/BF :p) if you screw up your tests, you'll still have some time to retake them without adversely affecting your application process.

2) You must realize, YOU and YOURSELF alone are the ones who are going to attend the MS program in the university. NOT your friend...NOT your counselor. I cannot emphasis how important it is to research/select the universities of your choice. If you are lucky, you might find a guy/gal who'll do this day in and day out (:D)..you could piggyback on them to save sometime. But the more efforts you put into this process, the more it'll save u hassles and heartburns later on.

3) This list of universities should initially consist of approximately 20 odd universities that broadly meet your requirements (fees, location, course, faculty, research, job prospects etc.). Every university has loads of information regarding these. Take some time out and go through them. You can start eliminating them on specific grounds a little later. Prepare this list if possible, BEFORE you take your GRE/TOEFL so that you can make use of the facility to automatically send your respective test scores to the universities (upto 4) you select. Trust me, this will save you gob loads of time, effort and money later on. Also, beyond those 4 universities to which your scores will automatically be sent, for the remainng, make use of the FAX services provided by ETS (the agency that conducts the GRE/TOEFL). Its cheaper that the phone services and much faster than the postal service.

4) One very important point to remember. PLEASE for the love of god..REFRAIN from using those silly rankings lists to select your list of prospective universities. This is what 90% of the people do and they end up burying themselves in cow dung. Many courses in universities in the 50-60-70 rank range are equivalent or sometimes better than those in the top 30 odd. And you stand a much better chance of getting an admit in one of these. Another point, certain university courses are MUCH better than others. For example, The Retarded State Univ. might have excellent CS courses..but stupid EE/ECE courses, even though its overall rank is high.

5) Organize all the information regarding the universities in a book or diary. By information i mean the postal address of the department you are applying to, the telephone number, fee structure, course structure, GRE/TOEFL codes and other remarks/doubts you may have. Try not making a soft copy of this, as this piece of paper will prove indispensable later on.

6) Run around, in your 6th sem..so that by the end of sem 6, when your results are declared, you can get your transcripts and letters of recommendation stamped/signed and ready for dispatch.

7) Take some time, to read/refer statements of purpose (SOPs) online. It shouldnt be more than one page long. Be very precise and dont try to fit in 3/4th of the dictionary. It'll not help you in ANY WAY.

8) By now, you should have your prospective list of univs, LORs, SOPs, transcripts, bank statement, affidavit of support (stamp paper ascertaining your finances) ready. Your sem 6 vacations would be going on. With this, you are ready for actually APPLYING.

Pre-application from my experience, apart from being the most important, is the most time/effort consuming stage. But, the more you work now and the better you manage your time, i can assure you, the more resources you save later on.

TIP: When selecting your list of prospective universities, irrespective of the number, select as many "middle tier" universities as you can. Lets say, if i am applying to 8 universities, 2 can be the higher ranked/rated ones, 4 of them..solid middle tier univs with a good repute and a reasonable acceptance rate and the remaining 2 being lower-tier, sure shot bets. How you classify them, depends on how much and where you look for info.

I made the headlines!!...

..or maybe the 2nd, 3rd or 4th page..of the Indian Express. I didn't even make the news because of some cool reason. But hell, i was in the paper! :D

Here's an excerpt from the news article:

"“I was stunned when I saw my mobile number in huge letters on the poster in Dadar, last three days I have on an average received two phone calls every hour about this contest,” said an exasperated Mithun Chandrashekhar, a final year computer engineering student at Somaiya College. Mithun hails from Chennai. “They call and ask, mostly in Marathi, about some ball dance, I try my best to explain what has happened in my halting Hindi,” he said."

The full article can be seen here.

Many thanks go out to Ms. Aditi Rane for scouting out this one! :)

P.S: If you've read this blog...you better read my previous one too, contains important info! :p

For all you lazy arses out there...

...POST COMMENTS DAMMIT! I see 25-30 hits each day..but NO COMMENTS.

I dont care if the blogs make u feel happy, bring about a drastic change in your life, make you jump with joy or jump from the window...whtever it is that you feel..MAKE IT KNOWN! :)

MyTHun™

Oops he did it again!

The infamous Himesh Reshammiya has been in the news, multiple times over in the past. And this time, he's back...with a lot more nasal nuances AND a freakin film of his own!

Titled "Aap kaa Surroor - The Moviee - The Real Luv Story" (..mind you, those aren't typos!..all the extra vowels, short forms etc. are the real deal) , our beloved Himesh plays the role of the lead actor and Hansika Motwani (who btw looked a LOT younger just a few DAYS ago!!!) plays the lead actress. This isn't a review; i don't wanna watch the movie, for a multitude of reasons (varying from safeguarding my self-esteem to regard for public property...puking in the theater won't be a very nice thing to do!)...and owing to the massive publicity/promotion/curiosity surrounding this movie, you'll find a large number of reviews in almost every newspaper/channel/magazine.

But, i just wanna ask one, simple, straightforward question; which i hope atleast one of you is able to answer. Why would ANYONE go watch a movie (story, direction, cast etc. not withstanding) where the lead actor has all his facial muscles concentrated in and around his nose? I came up with that statement on the basis of TWO facts:

a) No denying, this guy has GODLIKE control over his nasal canal/muscles. I mean, he can sing entire SONGS with his nose dammit! Most of us lowly mortals have to make do with the mouth...

b) I've never seen him cry/laugh/smile...do ANYTHING apart from make a stoned face, for that matter. Aren't all these expressions needed to act?

**And a few people (Shweta, Trupti, Medha and Aditi to name a few), after sadly not being able to make it to the "first day, first show", were all happy-happy-joy-joy and couldn't stop talking about the movie...**

...And there was a time, when FILMS...made sense.

I've been tagged...too!

Here go the eight facts about me (as dictated by the "game" :p)...

Un) I like to keep my hair short; irrespective of the "balding" comments. Ideally, not more than 7mm in length from the scalp to the tip.

*No, i don't measure it...simply because i cannot. A vernier calliper would help..but...*

Deux) I wish, almost every night, that i was born in Germany. I love Germany more than i love my motherland (..don't start that !@#$ about me not being patriotic). I love the culture, language, people, MUSIC, C A R S...AND the fact that they are a bunch of very smart and hardworking people.

Trois) I talk, only when i know i can make a meaningful contribution to the subject OR if im 110% sure of the authenticity/validity of what im sayin. People who BS for the heck of it and start arguments...HATE them.

Quatre) Im pretty understanding and diplomatic. But if I get angry or reach the limit of my patience/tolerance, I can be very curt, rude and hurtful.

*Ripped off from Naru's blog...simply because its SO DAMN TRUE and i couldn't have put it in better words!*

Cinq) Just like Naru, i prefer the simple things in life. LEVIS /OWNS/ Allen Solly ANY DAY of the year. Home cooked food >> fast food/junk > Hi-fi eateries. An this applies to everything...except cars... :p

Six) Oncceee again, atleast more recently, most of my good friends have been females. But, i do consider myself pretty shy when interacting with homo sapiens from the opposite sex.

Sept) Im a perfectionist...of sorts. I used to curse my dad for being the same, although inadvertently i have ended up becoming the same..altho i still have a long way to go before i can be termed a "Robot"!

Huit) I can make up crap...and bizzardly HUMONGOUS amounts of it. From gibberish names to ridiculously ludicrous random theories (and equally insane proof to back it up) ....im CRAP GOD! :D...AND, my arguing skills makes most ALMOST believe what i blurt out! :D

There you go!

Rules of the game:

Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.

At the end of your post you need to tag people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I tag Herat, Shweta(again) and Aruna.


P.S: Somehow, after a lotta ppl having told me this repeatedly, im begining to think that TamBrams...do infact have a common pool of traits..*-)

What i've done...

Man, i CANNOT get his song outta my head! As with almost every other LP song (..and most songs that i lisn to)...its just bursting at the seams with meaning. This one, What i've done, a song from their latest album, Minutes to Midnight...is in the usual LP style; hint of hard rock...electronic and amazing flow but cracker of a lyrics. It just describes mankind, the present state of the world..how we are responsible for it and we can never be forgiven for the atrocities we have commited on mother earth and fellow humans alike...splendid stuff! Here are the lyrics:

In this farewell,
There is no blood,
There is no alibi,
Cause I've drawn regret,
From the truth,
Of a thousands lies,
So let mercy come and wash away...

What I've Done,
I'll face myself,
To cross out what I've become,
Erase myself,
And let go of what I've done...

Put to rest,
What you thought of me
While, I clean this slate,
With the hands,
Of uncertainty,
So let mercy come,
And wash away...

What I've Done,
I'll face myself,
To cross out what I've become,
Erase myself,
And let go of what I've done...

For what I've done,
I start again,
And whatever pain may come,
Today this ends,
I'm forgiving what I've done...

I'll face myself,
To cross out what I've become,
Erase myself,
And let go of what I've done...

What I've Done,
What I've Done,
Forgiving what I've done

I highly reccomend you get this song (..those of you you lisn to music that is!).
Google this up to get direct links:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 linkin park - what i've done

And if you can, do get the video of this song..its really good and puts most of the lyrics into perspective.

What they've done...

...is created the biggest monopoly in the world; created a world that voraciously feeds their selfish, capitalistic ideologies; created a world that runs according to their whims and fancies. In short, they've managed to accomplish what Hitler would have sold his eye, kidney, arm, leg and one half of his moustache to achieve.

What am i ranting about?...It's the United States of America, the sole remaining super-power which loves playing G.I.JOE...with the world as its battlefield and its biped inhabitants as pawns.

To be fair, this blog is biased. I am not the biggest fan of the U S of A. Never have i been a fan of this land of self-righteous, hypocritical snobs. Be it their pompous behaviour at the individual level or their "If you ain't American, screw you" attitude on a global scale, America isn't gonna win my vote for anything. And yet, inspite of all of this, in an attempt to make me eat my own words, fate has me heading to this very patch of land on gods green earth...

Now, you'll be asking yourself, why is it that this guy is going on and on about Amreeka?...what has it done to him to earn his wrath? Well, it hasn't done anything to me, directly, as such. But it's done a lot to shape the world i still live in...and shape it to meet its needs and requirements, often at the expense of non-American life. This means everything from staging wars on what seem trivial or capricious grounds at best, on weak foreign countries...to orchestrating what seems to be, self-inflicted wounds to bring about a set of changes that further champions Americas cause of "Defending the free world" (read as: Muhahaha, we are soo gonna own you non-Americans...its not funny!). The last point refers to a documentary, "911: Loose Change", which i saw a few days ago. Once again, as with anything coming out from the belly of the U S of A, you have to take it with a pinch of salt..but somehow, i found most (not all) of the evidence shown in the documentary, portraying the 9/11 attacks to be a meticulously planned "theatrical" produced by the Federal government of the U S of A to further its own "AGENDA", to be true. It sounds far fetched, and by all means, it might very well be the figment of a hyperactive, paranoid American imagination, but the proof (and the gob loads of it provided in the documentary) seems to thwart any suggestion of it all being a coincedence. Far too many questions have remained unanswered, far too much has been carried out behind closed curtains in the name of "Homeland security" for all of it to be a coincedence.

Frankly, apart from McDonalds (and the barrage of other fast-food chains that happily pump calories into ur arteries in exchange for your money) and therefore obesity, cosmetic surgery (boob jobs in particular) and bucket loads of fancy 3-letter (sometimes way more) acronyms...FBI,NSS,CIA,IRS and what not, America has given the world NOTHING. If you bother going through wikipedia and other online resources, most of the discoveries/inventions have their roots in Europe, Africa, Asia...anywhere but America. Heck, they have ripped off names of so many other countries/cities to name their own cities!!

What America has been successful in is, luring people from other coutries to its shores with wads of green notes and branding them and their intellect as AMERICAN. And what do they do this for?...running the likes of Microsoft, IBM, NASA, Intel, Accenture, Motorola, AMD and what not. And the irony of it all...their ego wont ever let them acknowledge the fact that America is what it is today purely because of the rest of the world, and not itself. Why else would they reject a prospective MS students VISA because he/she says that he/she intends working in the US after his/her MS?! The VISA in itself is a Vociferous Interview for Spewing Absurd answers conducted by Visually Impared Stupid Arses who cannot understand 3/4th of the documents you give them and hence ask you to repeat its contents over and over again.

God bless America!

How we stopped dreaming...

I remember as a child how i used to run up to the corner of a room, plonk my tiny butt on the floor and empty two buckets of LEGO (im assuming that most of you know what this is) and thats it; the world around me as i knew it, came to a stand still. No hunger, no urge to run to the toilet (although being a lil kid in itself comes with this privilege!)...nothin ever seemed to bother me. It was just the three of us; I, me and myself.

I would spend hours at a stretch, coming up with some whacky contraptions that moved in ways we never even thought possible. Such weird machines, creatures and what not, which were nothing but fruits of my imagination, dreams and creativity...completely uninhibited by the likes of REALITY and FACTS. I could remember an incident, wherein i had made many lil houses and one weird lil contraption sitting next to each house. When i explained all this to my mom, my mother asked me, "But where are the roads to the houses kunju?"..and looking at her face as if she had called a baboon a bus..i sprung up and replied.."No roads...cars fly..." and demonstrating what i just said using my appendages and generous helpings of sounds, just to be sure that my mother; who is grounded to reality, got what i had made.

It was all so simple back then, i just had to think or dream of something, for it to show in my "work". I wasn't tied down by functions,facts and figures. I could in effect do what came to my mind. Nothing or no one hindered the flow of thoughts being converted to action...whether they made sense or not. I didn't care if people liked/cared about what i did/made. The very fact that i had MADE something that i had THOUGHT of was fulfilling in itself.
But somewhere along the road...things changed...

...I became aware of facts and realities, about what could be done and what couldn't, about how something should be done and how something shouldn't. Slowly but steadily down the line, i didn't have to THINK anymore. I just had to accept what some bearded old fart or some eccentric nut had stated eons ago (whether it made sense to me or not) and try and apply it to problems in todays world, that didn't concern me in the first place. Somewhere down the line, i was told to stop thinking because, people before me had already done all the thinking and i only had to follow what they had come up with. Not only was i encouraged NOT to think on my own, i was actually penalized by my teachers, professors etc for doing so! I remember in one of my exams in lower-secondary school, i had to write an essay about space exploration, since the teacher had just finished a chapter on it. Instead of writing about what the teacher had read out from the text book, i came up with my own version of how stuff worked/should work. Not only did i end up getting a ZERO in the essay, i was lectured at lengths about what i had written made no sense. Why did it make no sense?...because it wasn't in the books.

I wonder which books Newton, Einstein, Faraday or any one of those 10000 guys referred. I wonder where the human race would have stood today, had all their ideas been shot down because "it didn't make sense" to others. I wonder how mankind would have evolved, if every single one of them thought or was made to think in the exact same way.

I don't care about the co-efficient of friction between the tires of a car and the road, i want cars to fly dammit!

An down came the curtains...

Ninth June Two Thousand Seven...it all came to an end. The last paper of engineering being Distributed Computing, which went off reasonably well, my engineering has come to an end (hopefully!).

So, thats it folks...The end, l'extrémité, das Ende, l'estremità, a extremidade...whteva u want to call it.

I'll write a more elaborate post tom...

Jhoom retarded jhoom...

Lol, i can't believe what im gonna say..I actually like that song; Jhoom from the movie Jhoom barabar jhoom.

Actually, its not that i LIKE it per se. Its more that when Shanker Mahadevan sings "Jhoom barabar, jhoom barabar, jhoom barabar..jhooom"..it sends me into some weird trance of sorts. Its like i could keep lisning to that verse over and over and over again.

Apart from that...everything about the movie/song sucks LOL! (No i havn't seen the movie..heck, i don't even know if its been released)..seriously, DANCE, PROPERLY DANCE...thats a name of a movie!..with Amitab Bacchan dressed up like the GAY look alike of captain Jack Sparrow, sheeesh!

Storm, Earth and Fire, heed my call!!...

...Please?

Well when mother nature gets pissed, she sure knows how to make it KNOWN. The monsoon hasn't really got going in Mumbai as of yet, but yea...signs of its impending arrival are everywhere...even in my buildings compound...ON MY CAR! :p

Exhibit A:


A nice car (our car! :))

Exhibit B:


A nice car again...but this time..much more ECO-FRIENDLY! :D

I can only wonder what the rest of the monsoons gonna bring with it...

Luckily, nothing happened to the car, not even a scratch. Some massive winds uprooted the tree which fell on a wall, thereby its load being borne by the wall and not the car.

DWM !@#$%^ piece of !@#$!

Guess i don't have to write a blog about this one eh??..the title says it all.

But frankly, neither am i sad...nor angry...nor worried. Im not sad simply because i didn't study a rats arse worth for this exam. Im not angry well...because, well...im a mild natured guy! (ROTFL :D) And im not worried because i know i'll pass. I've written enough sensible/not so sensible crap in the paper to power my way to the 40(s).

So your obvious question (if at all) is, why didn't you study? Your paper would have been atleast /slighly/ better if you had. True, very true...im not saying otherwise either. But the thing is, i never ever liked/like/will like Data Warehousing & Mining. It is an ELECTIVE (..the kinda subject one /ELECTS/ to take) that i was FORCED to take. Talk about an antithesis!! But seriously, the HOD forced us to take this..and the fact that 3/4th of the class thought/heard that it was scoring (..and in the process decided to forfeit the god given ability to think on THEIR OWN) didn't make it any better! Im sure had i been allowed to take Parallel Processing...my paper would definitely been as good as the earlier 2 papers.

Either ways...paper #3 came to an end..good or bad, an end is an end.

Bu bye

Half a year..

Has it ever happened to you...some ONE event or a series of events taking place over a period of time, entirely changing your perspective about, well...EVERYTHING? It's so earth-shaking, you start questioning every single belief of yours; WHY is this happening?..WHAT purpose does all of this serve?..WHEN it is ever gonna end..if at all?..WHY is it just me?..WHERE is this all gonna lead me to?

At this point of time in life, you only have questions...a lot of them, cropping up in your head. Its like this endless spiral. If this never ending twist towards nothingness ever ends...it ends with a HUGE "?" staring at you. Try as you may...none of anything thats happening seems to have any reasoning, explaination behind it. Its not the fact that strange things are happening that bugs/frustrates/irritates you...its the very lack of ANY reason/substance behind those occurances that drives you up the wall...repeatedly.

Afflicted (or AFFLiC73D ;) ), that's what i called myself the last few months. Why? Because thats exactly how i had been feeling. Its like having the Midas touch...but working the other way around. Anything i touched...either went up in vapours...or dangled long enough in front of me to get my hopes up just before it disappeared into oblivion.

I started the application process for pursuing a Master of Science course in the U S of A in the month of November. Having joined a counselor (Kraft Education Services....highly NOT recommened!!)..i got the ball rolling. Back then, everything seemed nice and dandy. Looking at everyone and everything around me, i realized i stood just as good a chance of getting into a decent university/course of my choice as anyone else. I had decent academics (atleast on par with those around me)...decent extra-curriculars (..again atleast on par with others) and whatever else thats needed to land me in the U S of A. Or so i thought...

After the endless running around for everything from recommendation letters to financial documents to a hundred copies of what not...i started applying to universities..one by one..from the last week of December. After much deliberation and spending exactly infinite hours over the internet, i zeroed in on 7 universities that piqued my interest for various reasons and which seemed to accept students with a profile similar to mine. Neways, to list them out...University of Southern California (applied a lil later), Syracuse Univ, Northeastern Univ, Illinois Inst. of Tech, Rochester Inst. of Tech, Auburn Univ and Louisiana State Univ. This was a list of moderate to safe universities...hadn't applied to any of the "ambitious" univs since i didn't want my dreaded LUCK to play any part in my admissions. Having finshed sending the online applications in the 1st week of January and the application packets by the 2nd week...now all i could do was wait an watch.

Since i had poured in months worth of research into the university selection procedure, i thought my admission procedure was gonna be pretty undramatic. I mean, based on a number of factors, i sorta knew where i would almost definitely get an admit and where the chances were a lil less. So neways...it became a daily ritual of sorts now...checking the application status for each univeristy one by one...it was the first thing i did when i woke up every single day. 3 weeks or so went by uneventful...i slowly started hearing about people getting admits/rejects here and there. Neways,i had to wait till the 7th of February to get to know my first DECISION. IIT replied...and much to my surprise...in the negative; apparently my academics were LOW! (Since when is a MU 1st class LOW?! :). Ranked a distant 84, this was by far one of my 100% safes. I still cannot believe that i got a reject from these guys... Neways.."6 more to go.." i consoled myself. Oh, how stupid i was...

12th February, Syracuse Univeristy kisses me goodbye..and unlike IIT, they didn't even bother giving me a reason for my rejection; even after i explicitly sent them an email asking for the same. "5 more...quite a bit left.."...Come 20th February, RIT sends me a mail saying..."you suck, ciao". To tell you the truth...the RIT reject is what completely changed my outlook towards the whole "Applying for an MS" thingy...this university wasn't in the top 100...accepted almost everyone ..people with MUCH lower profiles had got in with SCHOLARSHIPS. I was stone cold stunned to get a reject from them. Neways...completely heart broken...i waited for the remaining "REJECTS". And i soon got one from Auburn on the 6th of March and this one gave me the most mailto:%21@#$ed reason of the lot for my rejection. Apparently, everyone from MU whom they had accepted had a "First class with distinction" in every semester and i ONLY had a pass class in my /first/ year (thanks to Mech!). These guys seriously think of us as daft fools who'll aceept whatever bull they throw at us...but then again, i dont think we have any option but to do so...Neways...3 more to go...and at the rate things were going, i had almost completely ruled out ANY chances of me going to the US for a MS this time arnound. I had immediately ruled out ANY chances of gettin into Northeastern or LSU (..i was proved right later in case of NEU...LSU, i deferred the app thinking of trying for Spring'08). By this time, everyone had atleast ONE admit..and trust me, with ONE in hand...a 100 rejects are inconsequential.

I still don't know why i did it (probably the fact that effectively only one more Univ was left..USC and the fact that pursuing an MS has been both mine and my parents dream since eons..led me to do it)..but i applied to 2 more universities...George Washington Univ (same league as Northeastern, Auburn etc) and SUNY Binghamton..ranked 124, on the 17th of March. Once again, i was kinda sure SUNY wud reply in the affirmative...but these guys were the swiftest in telling a NO..one week flat. With a reject from a univ ranked 124...i officially gave up ANY hope of an MS and decided to stop thinking about it and get on with life. But i couldn't..not with someone or the other getting an admit every alternate day or so...i had forgot how it felt to get a sound sleep. It had been weeks since i /SLEPT/ and not just lie flat on the bed staring at the nothingness. My mom was depressed...although she tried to make the best of it. Dad, well...ego getting the better of him, would be totally "OK" about it all infront of me...but i've heard plenty of times about how worried/sad he was about the whole thing from my mom.

March went by, so did April...and most of May. Each day seemed to last forever. USC were mum...they had a standard reply (if they ever replied that is!)..."Few more weeks.."...and GWU was well..stagnant too. By now almost everyone had wrapped off their application phase and moved onto the visas...And i was well..living each day as it came. Until the 24th of May that is. I doubt im gonna be able to forget this day ever in my life. Just as i was studying for an exam...during one of my routine breaks i sat down to check my mail. I had just 2 new messages...one bull...and the other not-so-bull. It was from GWU's ECE department. My hands were trembling (..i was accustomed to this by now...) ... and although i was used to rejection by now...the thought of ANOTHER was proving to be heart achingly painful. I opened the mail after some 2mins...and inside lay a very non-descript message...

..." A decision regarding your application has been made. We cannot reveal this decision to you over the phone/e-mail. Kindly wait for 2-3 weeks to get a post regarding the same." The lack of the usual CONGRATULATIONS or other such HAPPY words in the message, which i had seen in everyone elses admit messages sent shivers down my spine. In my mind, i was 99.99% sure this was yet another reject. But i just wanted to CONFIRM it for my satisfaction. I logged into GWUs online application status page...AND I SAW IT! I BLOODY SAY IT FOR THE FIRST TIME! The words..."Congratulations!"...frankly...I did not bother reading ANYTHING after that! I didn't matter!...Congratulations can only be a GOOD thing (unless they were VERY VERY sick saddists..) and a GOOD THING HAPPENED TO ME! I finally had an admit...after SIX long, agonizin, painful, depressing months! And the best part...this was from a pretty damn decent university WITH consideration for a scholarship/Assistanceship! I mean...univs one and 3 ranks above this had rejected me (Auburn/NEU)...but these guys WANTED me! I was thrilled to infinity...my dad and bro who were at home then...were elated...many calls were made in a matter of few seconds. My mom, who had gone out came back home to see 3 guys...jumping around SENSELESS!

I frankly dont care for USC anymore...but yea, if it does come..it'll only make me feel even better (..alhtough confused too) and i might take that up...but i dunno...lets just see how things pan out.

At the end...some (...all those who bothered reading it till the end!) must have found this blog to be a drag..some a pain..some inspirational..i dunno. To each his/her own. All i can tell you is...live life as it comes...each day. You have to accept the fact that many things in life aren't in your hands...you just gotta accept what comes to you..and try and make the best of it. All this...and the fact that application for MS in the US..is a game of poker where you need luck by your side...and a LOT of it. Oh this, and the fact that counselors are !##$in USELESS. Anyone thinking of applying for an MS...drop in a line via email guys...i'll help you out however i possibly can.

Bu bye

P.S: Aditi, Shweta, Uddip..guys you've stuck with me like glue through this mess...love u all (..Uddip, in a non-gay sorta way :D)..and to everyone else who stuck by me and didn't let me lose hope..THANKS A TONNE! U dunno how much it meant to me! :)

..Aur MMS kaisa tha?..

...Accha tha. And todays paper included some calculated thokofying (..aah..what im really good at.. :p).

Firstly, this is a...ummm...WEIRD subject. Its not really difficult, quite the opposite actually. Its just that you honestly don't know what to study and from where!! The text book says "..A=B", the notes say.."Muahaha u dumb ass A=X" and the paper solutions say..."You slow dog from another milky way... therz no A only!"...So yea, in the end..you tend to scratch your head thinkin wtf is happening and why the hell am i in engineering?! (..altho after spending almost 4 yrs..its a lil too late to be asking that question i suppose..)

So yea, getting back to the paper...luckily (...LOL..not so fer Patil!! :D) the first question wasn't the usual compulsory question. Upon going through the paper the first time, it seemed more like my /normal/ papers (..where i dunno half the stuff). So i was like...Meh, whteva...50-60ish attempt probably. But once i started writing and read the questions more closely...i ended up attempting about 90. This did include some thokofying/fekofying etc as mentioned above...but it was all CALCULATED crap...and this kinda crap isnt necessarily bad. (..actually its THIS kinda crap that gets you most marks haan...more so than your right answers!)

So yea, all in all...a decent nuff paper.

P.S: Mega update tom...will try putting up a huge, but...ummm good (i hope) blog. :) ...so do see it!

System Security...How was it?...

...Pretty damn good to tell you the truth!

Seriously, i never ever thought, a day would come when i would actually say i enjoyed writing a paper. But it did! And that day was TODAY!!

Today was the first..of the last. And im glad my Sem VIII exams started of with a BANG (and im REALLY glad this is not the usual...BANG...a bullet goes through my head and my half rotten brain cells ooze out from the other end...that happened a LOT with those wretched Mechanics exams..).

To tell you the truth, i had decided that this being the last semester of engineering, i'll atleast make honest attempts to study...and i for one found SS to be pretty interesting..(Viruses...routers...firewalls...cryptography...the works!). So yea, all prepared..i headed into the classroom to take my best shot at what MU had in store for me.

The moment i saw the first (which as usual...was a compulsory question..) i was kinda relieved.."Chal, 20 marks tho thokna nehi padega..". But that wasnt it! I ended up attempting ONE HUNDRED FRIGGIN MARKS in a MU paper! Holy shit!..i mean seriously people...HOLY SHIT!..and i din't have to thokofy ANYTHING! Thrilled at the end of it...i actually thought to myself..."Damn, it pays to study AT TIMES."

Neways...every coin has 2 sides...someone or something had to pay the price for so many things going right today and that something happens to be my right hand. Man..IT HURTS.../A LOT/. I just pray the doc doesnt say that there is some internal haemorrhage and he'll have to amputate it. Then..my happiness will be really shortlived! :p

In the name of religion...

I read a blog, by my friend Archana (which can be found here: http://archana-ashar.blogspot.com/2007/02/well-its-been-long.html )
...its kinda sad (and stupid) that we, humans, who so vehemently differentiate ourselves from other "animals" often end up shooting ourselves in our foot. If only other animals could communicate in a language we understood...we would have prolly been the butt of all their jokes.

Neways, since music plays a very important part in my life...it just struck me that there's a beautiful song by Alms for Shanti called Kashmakash...it makes perfect sense especially when put against what i have stated above (and what Archana has..in her blog). Here go the lyrics...

Alms For Shanti - Kashmakash
-----------------------------------
Kasmakash hai talaash hai sadiyon purani yeh pyaas hai
Chale us raste hum haste, jab dukh hai, josh aur dum
Chal hai chal, bola yeh man, tut jane ka yeh jatan
Jana hai pana hai gehraayion mein, khone ki lagan

Is par vaz main hain kayi raaz, rang, rasdi girvaaj
Kuch bujhle, kuch dhundle, kuch simte, kuch bikhre se
Jang ko hila hai chandi nadiyan, ye dariyan tez paani ka bahaav
Moksha hai haath ke daav
Kho gaya hai mera sapna
Bharam toota mera
Lut gaya jo tha apna
Kadam behke zara

Guru dakshina shaant atma
Paisa diya mila Parmatma
Shraddha saiyam duur hua bhram, lambe kash bas nikla dharam
Ab woh dhuyan kahaan mit gaye, sab disha kaisa yeh samaan
Khali khali hai yeh jahaan
Kho gaya hai mera sapna
Bharam toota mera
Lut gaya jo tha apna
Kadam behke zara

Dekho khatam hua yeh khel
Patri par se utri yeh rail
Maaro kaanto, aahe baton
Ilzam do dharam ko
Dharam toh hai sacchi neeyat
Sacchi neeyat hai insaniyat
Mutthi mein hai apni kismat
Kho gaya hai mera sapna
Bharam toota mera
Lut gaya jo tha apna
Kadam behke zara

Kho gaya hai mera sapna
Bharam toota mera
Lut gaya jo tha apna
Kadam behke zara

Kho gaya hai mera sapna
Bharam toota mera
Lut gaya jo tha apna
Kadam behke zara


Please do listen to this song...google it up..well worth it.

*Oh btw...speaking of searching for songs on google, to make it easier for you..type the following:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 "name of the song" (Without the " " )... see for yourself! :)

As it is...

While MOST visitors to my site will be VERY familiar with this scenario...I think the non-engineering people deserve a peek into what really goes into a semester in engineering.

Typically a semester spans 5 odd months (+ - a few weeks...). Out of these..4 months go away doing positively NOTHING AT ALL (Bunking lectures/pracs...cursing profs/lecturers...whiling away time in the canteen...and if you are from KJSIEIT, walking to/from the college!), a week goes off preparing and motivating oneself to study...a few days go off pretending to study..and the rest PROBABLY actually studying. Going by the proverb.."An empty mind is a devils workshop"..Satan must be having a blast in and around engineering campuses...

Now going into detail about each "period" in a semester, the 4 odd months are analogous to well, an extension of the vacation of sorts. The week involving preparations/self-motivation should be included in the Oxford dictionary as a perfect example of the word PROCRASTINATION (for the uninitiated...this is the "Chal, aaj raath ko chaloo karoonga...chal pukka kal subhe...etc period). This is followed by the period thats probably an art form of sorts..PRETENDING to study. After a lot of research and what not, it has scientifically and systematically been proved that during THIS period...people tend to have better than usual perception skills i.e they are much more sensitive to the environment around and the objects (read PARENTS) in them. It has also been noted that ones reflex improves by a factor of 10 during this period (..so that you can open up your book(s) and grab your pen JUST when you hear your mother/father approaching you). After warming up the brain cells as a result of the above exercises (AND the fear of incurring the wrath of the not-so-consistent KT war lords..) ...by this time..most drones of the Mumbai University start buying and rutting paper solutions (..a 1000 coins of gold go out to Jigar/Silver shot/Easy solutions for saving our lazy butts). The actual studying phase is akin to one of the World Wars...an inevitable evil.

Somewhere between the 3rd and final phase comes a VERY interesting entity; vivas. Now this is a whole different beast altogether. After 8 semesters i have FINALLY realized what exactly you need to crack the vivas; NO SHAME WHATSOEVER (...i.e...Being called a dumb ass/fool should make you jump with glee) AND..an uncanny ability to /BULLSHIT/...and mind you...this is some very very potent bullshit...the variety that will make even the external doubt himself. Once the fracas that the vivas are, come to an end...a mini vacation of sorts ensues. Following this phase, phone bills inflate multifold...to accomodate anxious, confused and WTF'd budding MU engineers. An example of the same has been provided below for your perusal:

MU Engg. student #1: "Hello!..Arre sun, kitna hua padke?"

MU Engg. student #2: "Arre math pooch yaar...phat raha hai...kuch nehi hua..."

MU Engg. student #1: "Arre, mereko batha na...yeh subject mein kya kya important hai..kuch samaj mein nehi aa raha...text/notes se important chapters aur uske page numbers batha na yaar.."

MU Engg. student #2: "Abhe, mein text book se sab nehi kar raha hai..paagal hai kya! Kal jaake Paper Solutions khareeda meine...usse bhi dekh tha hoon..kitne papers karna hai."

MU Engg. student #1: "Shit yaar, mere idhar paper solutions bhi nehi mil raha hai..ek kaam kar..tere paper solution ka xerox nikal..kal letha hoon."

...This generally goes on for the week or so preceeding the start of the exams. Usually, thanx to the lazy bums at MU (who act as role models for us!)...each exam is followed by a 3..4..5(upto 19 DAYS!) gap between exams. Obviously as you guessed it...no one in their right sense of mind studies during this time.

So there you have it...if you factor in the number of IDLE days in a semester (starting 4 months of doing NOTHIN...a mini vacation after the viva...an huge gaps between exams)...you will agree with me when i say, Engineering in the MU is one very long, expensive and monotonous holiday!

Cheers,

MyTHun

Provoked

I saw this movie, Provoked : The True Story...finally, after having it on my harddisk for close to a week. The reason i wasn't too keen on watchin the movie was well...because of my previous experience with an Aishwarya Rai (err..Bacchan?) starring, english movie...The Mistress of Spices. That movie, in my eyes was merely used to showcase, Aishwarya...not even her acting skills (not that she has a lot of it..).

Therefore with much apprehension and the determination to do ANYTHING apart from studying, i fired up Provoked : The True Story. I'll make it short and sweet; this is how the movie goes:

Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya) kills her husband Deepak Ahluwalia (Naveen Andrews...of LOST fame) while he was in bed (the medium used to take his life is petrol+candle). The reason? Unlike how the begining of the movie portrays her to be "Noorie gone mad"...Kiranjit has been at the receiving end of her husbands abusive behaviour for 10 long years. However, the cops find evidence (the can used to carry the petrol) that nails Kiranjit as the perpetrator. Oh that, and the word of her drunk husband who was asleep when he was set ablaze. Neways, inspite of her lawyer Miriam Taylor's (..the attractive Rebecca Pidgeon) "semi-best" efforts...the edivence presented at that time and Kiranjit's umm..stereotypical "Perfect Indian housewife" attitude lands her behind bars for murder. In jail, apart from the usual bullies/dopers/prostitutes/"oooo im mean" wannabes...she meets her cell mate, Veronica Ronnie (..the charming Miranda Richardson) who inspires her to well..get over her guilt, shame blah blah and kick some ass. In the mean time, Radha Dalal (the fiery Nandita Das) and her band of merry people (who call themselves The Southhall Black Sisters)..a womens rights organization try to do their part in getting Kiranjit out. After having some brains drilled into her by her inspirational cell mate, Kiranjit finally decides to appeal against her sentence (and TADAA!..Her cell mates brother happens to be a Barristor in Her Majesty's council!)..and well..sorta wins and gets out of jail. Im skipping the part where the mother-in-law testifies against her daughter-in-law in court for no apparent reason and a constable does the same...again, for no apparent reason.

Frankly, they could have definitely cast some other actress instead of Aishwarya to play the role of Kiranjit. Not that she's doing a bad job...just that she is too damn glamourous to do the role any justice. As one of the cell mates calls her..."The Indian Barbie." They probably cast her as eyecandy to drive in SOME people to watch the movie here in India. Also, they have simply WASTED Nandita Das in this movie. There are a couple of loopholes...one of them being the way in which the judge conviniently forgets how Kiranjit had been abused for 10 years before she resorted to do what she did...it wasn't one slap that instigated her. Likewise, for no reason AT ALL, the mother-in-law and the constable go cookoo in court. This apparently, is a true story...so i cant question the chain of events that actually occured. But still, it just leaves behind a void. My conclusion? It is a reasonable movie...which superficially covers the disturbing act of domestic violence with women being the victims. Could have done with a little more depth.

Bu bye,

MyTHun

Agony of a shitty connection.

...Atlast!!!....a working Http link for Need For Speed:Most Wanted!!....yaaaay!....copy link,open Getright,paste link...start download...yippie!

And then it strikes me!!!....69Hrs for 700Mb.....HOLY MOTHER OF JEWISH CLOWNS!!..THATS A LONG TIME! But i don't have much of a choice with a 64K connection i suppose,so i crib,mutter the choicest words at my cablewala and let the download continue,all the while thinking of the speeds my friend's get...not that its gonna help me much anyways!

So...a whole day passes by....65Hrs for 650Mb,seems almost as if time has frozen.But then,i console myself sayin...its just 3 days of continuous downloading,not all that bad eh? True,if only my dad doesn't check the mail a 100 times a day....if only i didn't have to talk with 100 ppl online....if only i didn't have 100 lil 2mb pieces of software to download in the middle! You see,a 64K connection is not very MULTI TASKING friendly...i keep something for download and commit the horrible mistake of chatting with someone,rest assured,the message i type at 7.43PM will reach the intended recipient EXACTLY at 8.43PM...kinda defies the very purpose of "Instant" Messaging doesn't it?

Either ways...3 days turns 6,which in turn becomes 9...but then finally i see some light at the end of a rather long,dark,slow,disconnection prone tunnel....90% of the download done....about 6 more hours to go,thats digestable i presume.

Either ways,after much pain and agony (and cursing), the download is finally done. All happy an all,i go about announcing it to the world+dog,until it hits me like a rather heavy/large egg....THAT WAS JUST CD 1....HOLY BAZOOKAS!...3 MORE CD'S TO GO!!....this is when i go through the now,everyday practice of muttering the choicest words at my cablewala,thinking about the speeds my friend's get..you know..the usual cycle.

After almost an entire month....ITS FINALLY !@#$% DONE!!!!...i immidiately run out to the temple,armed with a coconut and tell the priest to do the needful.Then i run back home just as fast...eager to Unzip the game...ignoring the 20 diferent IM windows that have popped up...ignoring my mom's call for lunch...ignoring my body's urge to relieve itself of some weight..:)

Alright....after the usual virus scan an all....the moment of truth has arrived...Unzipping CD1...10...50...100%...OK....Unzipping CD2...10...50...100%..OK...Unzipping CD3...10...50...100%..OK...(NOTE: It doesn't really go that fast....its a lot slower....teasing you all the while...) and then finally....CD4...10...50...70...90...99%......its then i realize....WAIT A SEC....ITS BEEN AT 99% A TAD TOO LONG FOR COMFORT....this thought is followed by repeated chanting of the gayatri mantra...kissing the monitor...patting the CPU...anything that WONT/SHOULD NOT really help,but i do it anyways....but then alas....at 99%...."CRC FAILURE.The File is corrupt,please obtain another copy and try again."....im left speechless....all the life sucked outta me....and its then i think about what might have gone wrong,perhaps TWO coconuts would have helped me out?

Bu bye
MyTHun

Hear ye..hear ye!

Ola peepul...
I am in the process of shiftin base from MSN My Space to Blogger fer a multitude of reasons (:D)...

So i'll b transferrin blogs from My Space to blogger over a period of the next few days...People who have been reading my blogs regularly will have to wait a few days before i start up with new stuff. Those who havn't read my earlier blogs...FEAST YOUR EYES on them! LOL


MyTH

The "Engineer"...

Seriously,i can't even think of life on earth w/o my PC...i can go w/o food,water,peeing for multiple days...but not w/o my PC.And i care more for/about my PC than anything/anybody else....could say i am obsessed with it even!

So,by now you must have figured it out that my PC is my most prized possession and since it means more to me than anything else on god's green earth,the mere thought of some stranger who calls himself an "Engineer" (hahahaha) even touching it w/ a 10 feet pole freaks every living stem cell in my 5 9" 68Kg body.

So in today's blog,i'll try my level best to prove why your friendly neighbourhood computer dealers Engineer is a bl00dy fool....

Alright, i just googled up the exact definition of the word "Engineer" so as to provide some credence to the statements that will follow soon...

"An engineer is someone who practices the engineering profession; a professional practitioner of engineering; someone who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and produce goods for society."


Now,using the method of contradiction,i shall prove that the so called "Engineer" is anything but one.


"An engineer is someone who practices the engineering profession..." ......statement (1)

Ok,that one is just bl00dy obvious....The only profession that the guy who can barely speak english and who himself doesn't know what he's doing and hence tries his level best to avoid/dodge the questions you throw at him practices is,the profession of fooling innocent..nanhe munhe...pyare pyare gullible people..:)..i don't suppose there is any engineering involved in it and hence i say he's NOT an engineer.

"...someone who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and produce goods for society." ......statement (2)

Hahahahahahaha....im sorry...but that was just too much...lol...trying to fit that guy into that definition...lol....:p...this is gonna be good....

Ok,now i will take an example to further substantiate my arguement:

D00D:"Arre,my PC keeps making some weird sound..Buzzz....Boooze...something like that...what could be the problem?"

(Note:I have skipped the part wherein you have to wait for about a week after you actually called the dealer who promises you that the "Engineer" will be at your place the next day at 13.25 Hrs....)

Pseudo Engineer:" .... "

D00D:"Well?...what could be the problem...?"

Pseudo Engineer:"...i (will) check and tell..."

D00D:"Hmmm...."

5...10...15mins go by....and the guy is still checking...how to open the case.
Finally...he manages to open the damn thing...*Drum rolls*

D00D:"...So,problem kya hai?" *Now a lil impatient*

Psuedo Engineer:"Actually i need to make a phone(call) ...i need to ask something..."

D00D:...WT* for!!...you din't even do anything!!

Pseudo Engineer then dials a number...talks to some guy in the office...and then keeps the phone down.

Pseudo Engineer:"Sir, we has(ve) to format (the) PC..."

D00D:"....*stunned*....FORMAT?...KAYKELIYE?..I JUST TOLD YOU SOME SOUND IS COMING....WHY IN THE NAME OF JINGOLALA DO YOU NEED TO FORMAT FOR THAT?"

Pseudo Engineer:"It will works(work) after that sir...."

An hour goes by...the PC is still making the buzzing sound...and the d00d is at his wits end seeing all his data/games/MP3's fly away like the birdie...After the format,the pseudo engineer gets up...scratches his head...kind of perplexed himself hearing the persistant BUZZing...and says..."Another phone(call) i have to make sir..."

D00D:*Rolls eyes*

After the call....

Pseudo Engineer:"Sir,aapka PC mein kuch gadbad hai..."

D00D:".....YOU THINK SO TOO....???..WOW!"

...this cycle goes on...and on...until the PC itself gets frustrated looking at the Pseudo Engineer screwing around and stops buzzing...

Alright,from the above conversation...i came up with this definition of the Pseudo Engineer...

"A Pseudo Engineer is someone who practices the Pseudo Engineering profession; a professional practitioner of Pseudo Engineering; someone who uses his broken english and ability to make phone calls to solve anything but the actual problem and produce much more problems for society."

But this completely contradicts statement (1) and (2) made above.

Therefore,by the method of contradiction..we have proved that the guy your dealer sends over to skroo up your PC is a bumbling baboon belting out broken english and hence is not fit to be called an engineer.


BTW,the problem with the PC was some dust clogging the fan which in turn was causing the buzzing sound...

Bu bye
MyTHun