A penguin's point of view

When in Los Angeles

2010-03-16T10:59:00.002+05:30

• You hear Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and a lot of other languages except English.

• It is perfectly alright to speak to a stranger in Spanish and expect him to understand it, even if he doesn’t look Mexican.

• Freeways have more traffic than regular surfaced streets.

• Traffic can come to a standstill on freeways. (Reminds me of Mumbai minus the honking.)

• You always complain about the traffic and high taxes.

• You can get mugged on the main road in downtown.

• If the Metro bus coin collecting machine doesn’t work, you ride for free.

• It is common to see beggars begging inside fast food restaurants.

• The most dangerous areas are the most expensive to live in.

• An Indian driving license can be used for driving, but not a license from another state in US.

• You refer to every place east of LA as the “east coast”.

• You complain about how conservative East Coast people are.

• The Bay Area is “way up north” and has “terrible” weather.

• You love wearing summer clothing in winter.

• Santa Monica is your favourite beach just because Baywatch was shot there.

PS- this post is an original copyrighted piece of work. Any resemblance to a similar article is purely coincidential.

The Great Wizards Trip

2009-08-12T01:47:00.001+05:30

This post should have come up a long time ago. But due to time constraints and ill health of my computer, that could not happen.

After the mad chase in Delhi, I’m writing about the other awesome events that happened during the trip to Uttaranchal…oops…Uttarakhand.

India TV: Gaur se dekhiye isse…. Anoop turned the boring news report into something really funny by muting the channel and giving out commentary like “yeh aapke bathroom mein bhi ho sakte hain”.

The virus attack: Mundu was attacked by an unknown virus which led to a system crash. The effects were no response to any input and a blank screen. The system also refused to process any food input and expelled it immediately. We suspected that the cause of failure was placing the system in its natural habitat, amidst other similar systems. We were extremely disappointed when the Mundu refused to execute Jhingalala.exe as the executable code was overwritten by the virus. The attack was probably because the other systems were threatened by the presence of the high speed advanced Mundu system. After several attempts to reboot the system, we finally got it working in safe mode, where the system started performing its regular actions at 1/10^th of the regular speed. “Sleep mode” was the only message on the screen at that time. The system then suddenly started functioning at super high speeds, leading to magnificent download rates.

Shilpa’s zoozoo voice: Exertion due to singing activities left Shilpa’s voice in a zoozoo state. The sound output was in very high frequency sounds. Mimicry of the zoozoo voice led to physical fights nearly throwing Ron into the pool.

Ron and his chicken: Ron eats chicken for lunch, chicken for dinner, and chicken for breakfast if given the option. He eats so much chicken that all the chicken-type birds at the zoo started schreeching when he went near their cage. The tiger also consumes less chicken than Ron. We’ve decided to arrange his wedding at a poultry farm followed by reception at KFC (where beep will proudly say “I did my MS here”.)

Gul explaining PJs: This can’t get any better. Gul explained the Sher-lekar joke to me when I asked Anoop where the tiger was. “Let’s keep the windows open at night. The insects would be asleep anyway” was another masterpiece.

The boozing: The girls’vodka party, followed by crazy dancing, middlewear tossing, jumping on the bed. No more to be said about this. *Wink wink*

The boating: We made a 6 seater Indian boat out of the 3 little duckies, and were the center of attraction in the lake. I have lost track of how many people photographed us. Something gives me a feeling that we were on the local front page the next day.

Dumb charades: Crazy games at Corbett park on the first night. Mundu acting out words like mitochondria. “Bhaagte hue bhoot ki udti hui lungi” was another favourite.

The other side of Jyot: We saw a completely new side of Jyot during the trip. Jyot saying “what yaar” all the time, giving out gaalis Dilli style “b***********”, wearing Hawaiian shorts and trying to look firangi, buying a 20 rs yellow ball and getting people to touch and autograph it.

Weird accents: Hindi in all new forms- haryanvi, Punjabi and bhojpuri.

Crazy bus driver: Nanaji, our eccentric bus driver, who cooked chicken and rotis in the open, drove the bus like a plane, leading to people praying and calling up home, possibly for the last time.

Ice cream cutting: The farewell at India Gate. VJ Wiz ice cream. Which I missed thanks to Jet Airways.

Beeped words: A set of strictly banned words like paper, exam, Pandit, wumpus, elly, which led to interesting conversations like “Hey look at the beep family”. “The baby beep is sooooo cute.”

Unpalatable food at Corbett: Tomato soup with no tomato, gutter water for drinking.

I know this list isn’t exhaustive, so people please keep adding!!

Bhaagam Bhag in Delhi

2009-06-18T00:52:00.003+05:30

I just got back from an awesome 10 day trip to Uttaranchal with my class. It’s undoubtedly one of the best trips of my life and I’m gonna cherish it forever. There’s a lot of crazy stuff that happened on the trip, which will have a separate post dedicated to it. This post is about the very last part of the trip. I would have written about this at the end, but this was such a huge event, that I decided to blog about it first.

On the last day, we took a bus from Nainital to Delhi. The journey took about 10 hours. At Delhi, two others and I were to go to the airport and return to Mumbai by flight, while the others were to take a train back. My flight was by Jet Air at 10.30 pm and the other two had a Go Air 10.40 pm flight. Hence check in time for all of us was not before 9 pm.

As per schedule, we reached Delhi by 6 pm and headed towards India Gate. It had just rained and the weather was very pleasant. After the usual photo-session-wizards-ishtyle, we decided to celebrate the wizards spirit by cutting…wait for it….ice cream. While the ice cream was being arranged for, I decided to do a tele check-in. By then it was about 7.40 pm.

I gave the call center guy my flight details, PNR no, name, etc. while he hunted for it in their database. After a long time, he calmly said “Madam, your flight has been cancelled for the day. It has been combined with our other flight to Mumbai 9W *** which departs at 8.30 pm.”

I think the blood in my veins just stopped flowing for a second. “My flight is preponed???? I have not been informed about this. Don’t you inform your passengers?” “Madam, we sent you an SMS but it did not go through”.

Without wasting time on why the message was delayed and such minutiae, I got straight to the point. “Is there any other Jet or Jet Lite flight later today that I can take?” “Sorry Mam, 8.30 is our last Jet flight and Jet Lite is full for today. Is there anything else I can help you with?” (Yea rite, first you tell me that I can’t get home tonight and then you have the cheek to ask me if you can help me.) I mentally abused the guy (I was in Delhi after all) and immediately got my things to the car. Fighting my way through the teary huggy crowd, I managed to get the other 2 and the driver into the car and start for the airport.

I called up Go Air to see if I could get a seat on the flight my friends were going to take. There were just 2 seats available at a price of Rs 6000+. This was a price I was not about to pay for a low cost airline that didn’t even provide snacks, especially after giving up a full service airline seat.

In the meanwhile I also called up my parents in Mumbai to inform them about the situation. They got psyched at the thought of me getting stranded alone, that too in Delhi. They immediately started calling up all their friends in Delhi. I was cool with taking a flight early next morning without paying any extra money, even if that meant spending the night at the airport. I have been traveling alone since the age of 11 and am used to airport environments. The only problem was that I was exhausted after the trip and the sudden change in temperature (15 at Nainital- 40 in Delhi) had taken a toll on my health, leading to a sore throat.

Luckily, we didn’t face any traffic on the way to the airport and managed to reach in about 30 mins, and reached at about 8.10, just 20 minutes before my proponed flight was to depart. My plan was as follows: Go to Jet Air, see what next flight I could get. Then go to all other airlines and see if I could get a flight out on the same night and take one if the price was acceptable. The terminal of Jet Air as per my e-ticket was 1A, which is where the car dropped me. Incidentally, the Go Air terminal was also 1A.

As soon as I got off the car, I observed that all the doors of the terminal were shut. It had some repair work going on and a notice was put up for the temporary terminals for the airlines. Jet Air was at 1D, while Go Air was at another. I should mention here, that the new and renovated Indira Gandhi International airport is HUGE and spread out. 1A and 1D were pretty far apart. Not only that, 1D was one level higher. I left my suitcase with my friends and took off like a rocket. Since their flight was at 10.40, they could wait out till 9.10 at least. The marathon from 1A to 1D took about 7 minutes, during which I nearly knocked over a policeman. I finally found 1D, showed my identity docs to the guard and ran to the Jet Air counter.

Bad news. The check-in for the Mumbai flight had closed. The lady at the counter was a typical Delhite snob, who didn’t care for courtesies or even smiles. I explained my situation to her and she told me that there was no other Jet or Jet Lite flight that night. However, she did assure me that I could get a seat on another Jet flight at no extra cost. I asked her about the flights the next day and she said that a seat was available on a 6.30 am flight. At that point, I took a proper look at the airport terminal, which is brand new and looked more like a mall. I could have easily spent days here without getting bored. There was also a KFC and Pizza Hut, a bookstore and other such places. If only I weren’t sick. The marathon without water had made my throat even worse. Anyway, I decided then that I certainly would not shell out 6000 rs to take a “budget ” flight back home and waste my precious full service flight ticket. I mentally pictured my parents jumping around at the idea.

I was still not willing to give up that easily. I reminded the Delhi snob that my ticket was booked as a points redemption, indirectly hinting that I am their faithful customer and they couldn’t afford to give me stupid excuses like SMS not going and then not caring about it. But the Delhi lady couldn’t care less. As a last chance, I asked her if she could put me on another airline that night. I was sure there would be some extra cost, but it would at least save me the trouble of running to every other airline asking them for tickets back home. (And the thought of running all the way back to the 1A terminal was just too much).

To my surprise, the Delhi snob said that she could put me on a Kingfisher flight if there was a seat available, at no extra cost. I couldn’t believe my ears and thanked the lady. Without a smile or any expression, she waddled her way slowly to the Kingfisher counter, and waddled back while I waited to hear what was in store for me. “There is a seat available on the 9.30 Kingfisher Red flight.” Yay! I was going to be home that night, without having to pay extra. I heaved a sigh of relief. I immediately called up my friends, who brought my luggage for me. I thanked them and proceeded towards the Kingfisher counter for a check-in. I also called up home and almost saw my parents grin from ear to ear. I realized at that point that I had been given a Red flight, which was a low-cost flight. Though they did provide snacks, it would not beat the service given by Jet or Kingfisher. I never miss out on an opportunity to give up free stuff (more importantly, free food). Fortunately, the Kingfisher guy was friendlier than the Jet lady. I asked him if there was a Kingfisher flight that I could take. Luckily, there was one at 10 pm and a seat was available! I couldn’t believe my luck. I finally got a chance to fly Kingfisher without paying for it!

I completed the check-in formalities and took a seat. I didn’t realize how tired I was and how dry my throat had become. Three days of uphill climbing at Nainital had left an impact on my leg muscles. Not to forget the airport marathon. I took a glass of water and then explored the whole airport. If only I weren’t tired, I would have happily spent a few hours there and taken the morning flight.

The flight turned out to be pretty good. Kingfisher is the only domestic airline to provide in-flight entertainment. I watched Tom and Jerry all through until I fell asleep. I woke up just as we landed in Mumbai. Being the only flight at the 1A arrival terminal, I was out in just 10 minutes, at 12.45 am.

At the end of the day, I realised what I had achieved. A chance to fly Kingfisher using a Jet miles ticket.

Lekin raat ke baad hi to andhera hota hai!

_______________________________________________________________________

Added on 14th July:

Even though I got a chance to travel by Kingfisher, I was not going to spare Jet Airways for what they did. They ought to learn how to treat their faithful customers. I called up the Jet Privilege and narrated the entire incident to them. They gave me silly explanations, for which I gave them even better solutions. Finally, they were convinced that they were indeed at fault. I was already dreaming about free tickets. They simply kept on apologising and promising that this would never happen again. My father even threatened them that he would report this case to Mr. Goyal. (Too bad they didn't know that we don't really know him).

At the end of it, I am now a Jet Privilege member with 2500 bonus miles. What a shame, I'm getting this at the time when I'm leaving India and chances of flying Jet Air are lowering by the day

Happy Birthday hotmail!

2009-05-24T01:05:00.001+05:30

So it’s the 10th birthday of my hotmail account, which was my first email account. That also marks the 10th anniversary of my access to the internet. I still love hotmail, in spite of having a gmail account. Hotmail was the first web based free email, developed by Sabeer Bhatia in 1996, who then sold it to Microsoft. The initial space given per email account was 2 MB (yea, that’s right). Today it is 5 GB.

I still maintain that hotmail is superior to gmail in many aspects. Here’s why:

1. The spam policy is pretty clear. Whatever is not known to the address book goes straight to the junk folder. Sure, you have to keep checking the junk folder for mails from new senders. But you certainly won’t have annoying mails from wayn and Hi5 going to your inbox, and large attachments from your friends going to your spam. Gmail is supposed to learn from the “reported spam”, but unfortunately, it hasn’t learnt so far.

2. The inbox contains ONLY incoming messages and sent items contain only sent messages. Nothing sent by you or replies from other people. Every item contains only one message.

3. Hotmail does not save annoyingly long orkut headers as “names” in the address book.

I do wish Hotmail would learn some things from gmail:

1. Allow you to download all attachments at once, rather than download each one at a time.

2. Allow use of colours and filters to make your inbox organized.

Beware- It's my birthday

2009-05-20T01:00:00.001+05:30

I’m usually not a fatalistic person, but somehow, reality has got the better of me.

It’s my birthday in a few hours, and I can’t help remembering what happened on my last two birthdays.

20^th may 2007- An uncle of mine suddenly got a heart attack for the first time. He then had to stay in the ICU for a few days and then an angioplasty. Luckily he’s completely recovered from it now.

20^th may 2008- Two close family friends passed away, from cancer and old age respectively. Though both deaths were due to health reasons and not ill fate, they both happened on the same day, my birthday.

For those who don’t know it, a trend of disastrous birthdays runs in my family. My mom’s birthday is 11^th July (train blast day). Others have birthdays on 7^th December (Pearl Harbour day), 11^th September (you-know-what day), 26^th January (earthquake day).

In a few hours, it’s gonna be 20^th May 2009. So everyone reading this, watch out and take really good care of yourselves. At least for the next 24 hours.

Acknowledgements

2009-05-01T02:00:00.004+05:30

So I’m finally done with my project report and the “black book”. We’ve been forced to thank a bunch of people for their support, encouragement and all that. Now that the official acknowledgements are done, I’d like to thank a few people who actually made it possible to do the project.

1. Larry and Sergei: I can’t thank you enough. Google has brought the world to our fingertips. Searching was never this easy. I could have never learnt and used python if it weren’t for you.

2. Jimmy Wales: Documentation would have been of 10 pages if wiki didn’t exist. And thanks to all the editors and contributors out there.

3. Guido Van Rossum: Thankssssssssss. You’re awesome. Connecting applications was a piece of cake.

4. Statsoft: You gave us respite from the troublesome task of coding mining algorithms. Not just in the project, but also in the mining lab work.

5. Torrents, utorrent: Thanks to you, getting cracked software is child’s play. Thanks also for making the latest movies n tv shows available immediately. It’s saved me many movie tickets. I should dedicate an entire post to you.

6. Songs.pk: One good thing that Pakistan did for India. They stock Indian music. Which we listened to all the time while coding. (Actually, we listened to music and did a bit of coding in between.)

7. Subway, Mama Mia, Tewari Brothers: For the great cheap food that gave us the strength and motivation to work.

8. Mundu: For the great masala-chai. Although I didn’t have it myself, the expressions on others’ faces looked like it was good. Or so I believe. Also for the mascot idea.

9. Gelato: I love you guys! Double scoops of orange cheesecake ice cream had never been so affordable. What a great way to celebrate the beginning of the project success. BTW, you do owe me commission for publicizing your offer to the whole of Mumbai.

And now here’s the first release of our unofficial mascot for the software we created. To understand why it is used, you need to read the entire black book. A soft copy will be provided on request and proof of sufficient interest. Applications may be sent to zskerkar@hotmail.com

We did it again!

2009-04-18T00:32:00.003+05:30

In the last week of college, the wizards have done it again. The walk-out of the CG exam was a historic event for us. Today, history repeated itself, but only after reversing.

We were to have class test 1 and 2 (coz the lazy ass prof didn’t take class test 1 earlier) at 9 am. As you know, the only people who are present in VJTI at 9 am are the canteen guy, the quad dogs, watchman to scrutinize your ID, and some lab assistants. Even the geeks don’t come to college at 9.

Most of my class had settled in the classroom by around 9.15, which is quite an achievement. Naturally, everyone wanted to grab a seat on the last bench, huddled in groups of 3, with textbooks open on their laps.
At 9.40, a TA (this is what they call M Tech people to make them sound productive) walked in with question papers and answer sheets. He announced “Sit roll no wise and only two on a bench”.

Nobody moved an inch. No one spoke a word. We sat there in utmost silence. The TA kept staring at us, giving us weird looks(like Ghajini), glares if you may call them so. Personally, I think he was either constipated or just gotten dumped. He just didn’t know what to do. Finally, he called up someone from his mobile. And guess what? Another TA (the screeching dinosaur) came in and yelled “Roll no 1 come here. Eeeeeeeee“. Again, nobody moved. Giving up, both the TAs walked out.

We made the supervisor walk out of our class. That’s the wizard spirit!

But yea, we did go and call back Mr. Ghajini and we did write the tests (after a lot of convincing). And what’s even better, Miss Dinosaur allowed us to keep our books open too.

The new ipod shuffle

2009-03-14T23:54:00.002+05:30

Apple released the 3^rd generation of ipod shuffle earlier this week.

It’s unbelievable small, yet astonishingly big.

With a one-sized flash memory of 4GB, it is priced at 79$. Colours available are silver and black.

A unique feature of this ipod, which is not available in any other ipods, is the “voice over” feature. The ipod talks, and tells you which song you are listening to. Not just English, but 14 different languages.

This is the first shuffle that has a non-shuffle play mode. You can choose between a regular mode and shuffle mode. You can also have multiple playlists for the first time on a shuffle. It is also the first ipod shuffle that doesn’t have the trademark navigation wheel. The volume controls are on the headphones, while the mode control is on the ipod itself.

And that’s not all, it’s big enough for some personalised engraving.

Of exams and laughs

2009-03-09T00:57:00.004+05:30

I always thought the CG MST would be the best exam memory I would carry from VJTI. But I was wrong. I underestimated the novelty of paper setters in VJTI. From questions that make your stomach churn to ridiculous instructions , they have it all.

This is the paper I got for the mid semester test of Multimedia Systems.

“Please don‘t write stories”
It’s a known fact that engineering papers are graded based on their length. So, we HAVE to write looooong answers with a lot of masala to spice it up. Paraphrasing is used extensively to convert a one-sentence answer into 3 sentences, without increasing the actual content. The examiner, not wanting to waste his time in correction, didn’t want to read “stories” in a 20 mark paper.

“Write crisp answers. You may use bullets”
Hands down, this person was definitely a big fan of MS Word. If only we could submit a soft copy of the answer sheet.

“Describe a multimedia application used in VJTI. lf there is no such application, describe what activities can benefit from multimedia applications.”
No such application in VJTI? Are you kidding? I wonder if Mr/Miss Paper-Setter knows what multimedia is!

Such are the exams of the oldest and most prestigious engineering college in Maharashtra. VJTI raaks!

Rahman Raga

2009-03-01T20:24:00.002+05:30

He’s finally done it। The Oscars, not one but TWO black ladies, proudly go home with him। The Golden Globe, Baftas, and our very own Filmfare aren’t far behind. Hats off to the musical genius. Here’s a list of the lesser known famous songs of this music maestro. Source: my personal music collection.

Pray for me brother: Title track of his first English album as his contribution to fight global poverty।
Bombay Dreams- Wedding Qawalli, Love’s never easy: Featured in the Broadway musical that had packed audiences.
Delhi 6- Arziyaan: A mosque song inspired by traditional sufi music.
Janne Tu Ya Jaane na - Kahin to hogi who: A very un-Rahmanish song by Vasundhara Das and Rashid Ali
Jodha Akbar- In lamhon ke daaman: The sweet romantic song depicting Jodha and Akbar’s love story. Jodha Akbar- Khwaja mere Khwaja: The mosquito-killing sufi song. Have you seen the choreography? Kisna- Hum Hai is Pal Yahaan: Featured Vivek Oberoi in a pre-independence era love story with Antonio Bernath
Lagaan- O Re Chhori
Lakeer- Paighaam, sadiyaan
Meenaxi- Ye Rishta: Reena Bharadwaj’s debut song that topped the charts for weeks. Excellent art direction by M F Hussain.
Rang De Basanti- Tu Bin Bataaye: Slow romantic number by Madhushree.
Rang De Basanti- Khoon Chala: Riots after a public protest. Very touching song by Mohit Chouhan (of Tum se hi fame)
Saathiya- Humdum, Udi Udi, Mangalyam, Naina Milaike: The music was originally composed for Alaipayuthey, the Tamil movie starring Madhavan. It was then remade in Hindi as Saathiya. All songs except “Naika Milaike” are also in the Tamil version.
Slumdog Millionaire- Dreams On Fire
Slumdog Millionaire- Ringa Ringa: It bears a resemblance to the famous “Choli ke peeche kya hai”
Swades- Yuhi Chala
Taal- Ishq bina, Kariye Na, Nahim Saamne
Yuva- Fanaa, Badal, Kabhi Neem: Like Saathiya, music was composed for Tamil version “Ayutha Ezhuthu”, starring Madhavan and Esha Deol.
Zubeidaa- dheeme dheeme, mehendi, Hai na, Pyaara Sa Gaon
Fiza- Piya Haji Ali: A guest composition in Fiza shot at the Haji Ali dargah.
Jeans- ajooba: The originally-Tamil-but-dubbed-in-Hindi movie captured all 7 wonders of the world
Pukar- Que Sera Sera: Prabhu Deva’s rubber-man dance made everyone go towards the dance floor.
Dil Hi Dil Mein- Dola Dola: An unheard number from an even lesser-heard of film, which was a remake of You’ve got Mail.

Songs sung by the legend himself:
Guru- Tere Bina: Another sufi song with real-life couple Abhiash.
Dil Se- title song: The lovely cinematography in conjunction with the beats was the chartbuster.
Swades- Yo jo des
Rang De Basanti- Lukkha Chhupi: A mother-son song by Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman.
Slumdog Millionaire- O Saaya

TAGGED

2009-02-12T23:57:00.003+05:30

A chain game most bloggers are playing these days.

RULE 1: People who are tagged must write their answers to the tag and change any question they like.
RULE 2: Tag 3 people and they cannot refuse to do this tag. They must write who tagged them and cannot tag that person again. Continue the game. And I hope it will be sheer fun.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what would be your reaction?
I'd be crushed...n then i would take a hacksaw and do the needful! *wicked grin*

2. If you have one dream which could come true, it would be?
The 70" tv with a Bose surround sound system, and a comfy barcalounger to lie in. Wudn't that be lovely.

3. Who is more blessed-loving someone or being loved by someone ?
Call me selfish, but I'd say both.

4. Can you fall in love with your best friend ?
Sure. That's how it happens most of the time, doesn't it?

5. How long would you wait for someone you love?
Till I find someone else.

6. If the person you like is secretly attached, what would you do?
Find out where he's attached, then get that person attached somewhere else. Break them up and keep the pieces for myself. Smart eh?

7. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Stray dogs. They really ought to be treated better.

8. What according to you is blogger in denial?
One who calls himself a blogger by blogging once in a blue moon.

9. What’s your fear ?
Creepy crawly bugs!

10. What colour are your socks now?
I don't usually wear socks. They don't really go well with my awesome crocs

11. What are you listening to now?
Yeh Zindagi n Pyaar ki daastan from Luck By Chance.

12. What takes you down fastest?
The elevator. It's a lot faster than running down the stairs. Though, I haven't tried jumping out the window yet.

13. Which one do you prefer - ice-cream or chocolate?
Chocolates! With ice cream on the side *smiles*

14. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Lots. First convert it to rupees. Buy a plane. Then travel round the world.

15. What was the last thing you ate?
Baskin Robbins ice cream with my own-made devils food cake! Deeelocious!

16. How old are you today?
What's important is how old you look, rather than how old you actually are. I look like a teen, n feel like one.

17. How do you vent out your anger?
Run at 8 kms/hr on the treadmill for half an hour. Burns the calories too.

18. Favourite toy as a child?
My first toy computer. I miss that baby.

18. Favourite season?
Winter. Love the cold breeze and snuggling under the covers!

19. When was the last time you cried?
While reading Kite Runner.

20. Who is the friend you have had the longest?
Too many to mention here.

21. What did you do last night?
Watched Big Bang Theory on my ipod, read a book, started my downloads and went to sleep.

22. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday! The most relaxing day. Wake up late and you don't have to worry about finishing your work coz you have Sunday to do all that.

23. Diamond or pearl?
Not really into jewelery, but of the two, I'd go for pearls. They are less flashy.

24.Would you be single & rich or married & poor ?
Single and rich.

25.What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
Snooze my alarm, and when I finally wake up, check my phone for messages. Mostly vodafone telling me about their great offers on sms-astrology.

26.If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, whom would you pick?
The one who I've known longer.

27.Would you give all in a relationship ?
Yes. If its a 2-way street.

28.What’s eating you now ?
That I have to wake up at 7.30 tomorrow. [:(]

29.Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Always been single so far and its been terrific.

30. Your opinion of 3 bloggers who you are going to tag and the one who tagged you.
Mona. My oldest friend in VJTI.

I tag the following peeps:
Gul, Varu, KD. If these people every bother to open up their blogs!

As the years flew by

2009-01-03T23:49:00.002+05:30

2009. It’s here. The year I graduate. And become an engineer. Got a job already. And now a degree. I can’t believe it. Where did these years fly by?
What have I done in the last 4 yrs? Not gained much knowledge, that’s for sure. I better pen it down before my highly volatile memory gets the better of me.

First Year: Ah! Proud to get admission into VJTI. Attending lectures (yea, we actually did that). Write out assignments (did that too). Took down notes in the lectures and actually used them during the exams. (This really takes the cake).
- Sitting outside MLR 6 under the tree waiting for the profs to turn up
- The graphics lectures. The long lines for getting the best drawing boards. The girls demanding a separate girls line.
- The sleepless nights before the graphics exam.
- The loooooong line for PAW to get the BME writeups signed.
- The entertaining shouting match in the maths lecture (Thanks to Anita).
- Physics practical vivas ending with the prof’s head horizontal on the desk.
- Time pass in the chemistry lab
- The first traditional day n rose day with the never ending photo session.
- Running around for the fests
- Freshers’ party
- The ragging in the canteen (again, thanks to Anita)
- Workshop: Getting all the work done from the guys and the instructors. 45 degrees going on and on with his jokes.
- Deolekar’s lectures with full attendance. The day he got bugged n said “so” n we laughed on his face. Poor guy, he still hasn’t figured it out. The punishment assignment with the whole class sitting in the library.
- Our first dose of submissions, vivas and GPAs.
- The first class trip to Khandala.
- Movie plans of 40+ people.

Second Year: No longer the kids in the college. Now in our own department.
- The initial pleasure of studying subjects of our interest.
- Driving Ahire out of class. Deolekar getting mad again. And the 100 sum punishment that followed.
- Varu’s Krrish-like hairstyle.
- Anita’s screamfest part 2 that scared the shit out of the babe.
- Gul’s ROFL laugh. It was legen…wait for it…dary.
- The gossip sessions in EDC lab.
- Mass copying tutorials of EN.
- The daily climb up the smelly staircase
- Our first tryst with “no prof” in 4th sem.
- The Goa trip.
- The day trip to the water park. The hour long wait for the ST bus, and the rather uncomfortable ride. It’s not everyday that we sit on pillows. *grin*

Third year: The year of fun and festivals.
- The joy of having a ground floor class room.
- Walking out of the CG mst. What a day! We did set a trend though, for the IT class emulated us.
- The brilliant microp prof.
- A time table with only 2 subjects in the 6th sem
- No prof for CG.
- A certain “chudhail” cracking jokes while shouting.
- The new year party in true wizards style

Final year: Gosh, it’s already here. God, why are you doing this to us?
- The placements.
- The long walk to Mount Everest (damn, I lost a good amount of weight there)
- The infinite visits to the exam dept.
- Walking from one class to another.
- The annoying new class tests. Certain annoying people asking us to draw lines on the papers. Other annoying people screeching like dinosaurs.
- The wumpus in class- the day he got high (and ****) and started reciting shaayaris. Don’t be shocked, Bade Bade collegon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai.
- Walking out of the DSP mst after 15 mins- not because it was out of syllabus, but because it was so ridiculously easy, we all started laughing.

*Sigh*. Only one more sem left. If only it is as eventful as the others.

Samsung Pebble

2008-12-27T01:34:00.003+05:30

I was leafing through the December 2008 edition of JetWings during my flight when I came across something that caught my attention.

Here's presenting an mp3 player that is simple and stylish- the Samsung Pebble. It's small. It's cute. With a design to resemble a stone, it can be used as a piece of jewellery as well.

With a flash memory of 1 GB, it comes in 5 colours. Reasonably priced at 40$, it could give the Ipod Shuffle a tough time. Like the shuffle, it has no screen, which means that the user should be familiar with its functions. Another drawback is that it doesn't allow you to jump from one album to another while scrolling, so you may need to spend a really long time searching for your favourite song.

On the whole, it's a cheap, pretty device that could serve the purpose of a pendant.

World's largest TV

2008-11-15T23:25:00.003+05:30

I always thought the Samsung 70” LCD TV was on the top of my wish list.

Until I came across the new Sharp 108” LCD TV. Released in Mumbai on Friday night, it’s the largest TV that has ever been manufactured.

Boasting a height and breadth of 52” and 94” respectively, it employs 8^th generation glass substrates. Sharp has proved that it can now manufacture LCD tvs in all sizes- from 14” to gigantic ones.

With a resolution of 1920x1080, it offers a plethora of inputs, such as HDMI, which makes it compatible with a wide range of products.

That’s the good news.

The bad news? It’s gonna burn a deep hole in your pockets, perhaps burn out your wallet. This awesome device comes at a retail price of 97 lakh rupees. And of course, you will need to buy a house with a wall big enough to mount the tv.

So if you are ever on the hot seat of KBC, and AB asks you what you would do with a crore of crore rupees, you know what to say. I know I will.

iPhone vs Stone

2008-11-14T22:38:00.004+05:30

While the whole world goes “wo-how” over the new iphone 3G, here’s a picture to support those who speak against it.

I can’t help agreeing with this picture- even my simple Nokia phone provides all these features (except the touch screen), and it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.
So as I always say, it’s smarter to buy the ipod touch and use a regular mobile phone.

movie review- A Wednesday

2008-10-11T20:10:00.002+05:30

Undoubtedly one of the best movies made in the history of the film industry. It isn't the typical run-of-the-mill movie about terrorism, and how bomb blasts affect the life of people, and how they pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. It is completely a work of fiction.
It is the story of a day in Mumbai, narrated in retrospect by the Police Commissioner (Anupam Kher). The story of certain events that unfold between 2 and 6 p.m. on a Wednesday.
It begins on a normal day in Mumbai. A common man(Naseeruddin Shah) goes to the Mumbai police headquarters to lodge a complaint about a lost wallet. A little while later, the police commissioner receives a call on his mobile from an untraceable number, with a threat of a bomb being in the headquarters. Immediately, all officers are put to task, the bomb squad is called, and the bomb is located in the washroom of the headquarters. The bomb is defused and the police are on high alert. The mysterious caller calls back and claims that he has planted 5 more bombs in various locations in the city. His demands: 4 militants that are in police custody on charges of terrorism should be released that day before 5 pm. Further conditions state that those four should be accompanies to an open ground only by 2 junior police officers.
The commissioner isn't willing to give in so easily. He can't simply release terrorists, but he can't put 2 million lives at stake either. He gets his entire battalion of police to nab the caller, and even hires a college-dropout hacker to trace the caller. The terrorist is technologically well-versed, he uses different SIM cards to make calls and knows how to hide his identity. In the midst of this, the terrorist calls up a reporter (Deepal Shaw) and tells her about the bombs in the city. Like any typical gossip-hungry reporter, she immediately reaches the site and starts reporting about the happenings on TV. The police and the hacker can get no information about the caller and decide to release the terrorists. The four of them and two junior officers (Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir) are put in a police van and taken to a desserted open ground. What happens then, will keep you gripped to your seat till the very end.
The movie has no sub plots, no songs and no attempt-to-be-funny scenes. It is absolutely crisp and focused on the story. The climax has been shot extremely well. The scenes at the police headquarters and at the deserted ground are juxtaposed brilliantly. Naseer's speech about terrorists vs commoners will leave a lasting impression on your mind.
Jimmy and Aamir are calm and poised as police officers. Anupam Kher shows great depth in his role as the commissioner. Deepal Shaw is surprisingly bearable (and well-dressed). But the cake is taken away by Naseeruddin.
I would recommend it to every person concerned about terrorism. There's just one problem- you may want to become a terrorist!

Getting back to life...

2008-09-03T02:10:00.003+05:30

What a crazy week! 4 class tests- out of 30 marks, then reduced to 2.5 (yeah, I KNOW). I didn't care too much for them, I mean...who cares about 2.5 marks in the final year once you're placed? The tests were pretty entertaining...one of the supervisors from the M Tech class screeched like Ross making dinosaur sounds(for the non-FRIENDS addicts, don't bother). Another professor made us draw margins on both sides of the answer sheet...whaddehell has gotten into these people!!
Once they were all finally over I decided it was time to relax. The whole month of August had been pretty hectic, beginning with GRE, then placements, then these pain-in-the-ass tests.
I have virtually stopped going to theaters to watch movies, since I watch them on the computer, and due to my miserly nature. But this was a point of celebration, so I decided to catch a movie.
I caught the morning show(so at half rate) of Mumbai Meri Jaan. The movie is based on the train bomb blasts that happened two years ago. As most Bolly flicks these days, it has 5 different stories interconnected. A reporter whose life tragedy is made into a melodrama by her own colleagues (Soha), a police officer about to retire who thinks about what he has really achieved in his career (Paresh Rawal), a young executive who ponders over his principles (Madhavan), a struggling madrasi trying to get foot in Mumbai(Irfan Khan), and an anti-Muslim defeated businessman(Kay Kay Menon). All performances are brilliant with each character delineated with depth. I would recommend this movie to all those who consider Mumbai as their home town, and especially those who travel by local trains.
That evening, the entire wizards gang had gathered at Classic to celebrate a birthday. We came up with am impromptu plan to watch the first day first show of Rock On. In true wizards style, within minutes, money was collected, the attendance sheet was passed, and about 20 people signed up for the movie. *Sigh*, I am going to miss all this next year. The final toll went up to about 30.
After a meeting with a prof that lasted unto 10 mins before the movie (I wont go into the details), we just about made it to the movie.
Rock On does live up to its expectations. Farhan is truely an all-rounder. He has already proved his directorial capabilities by making a masterpiece like Dil Chahta Hai, but we get a glimpse of his singing and acting talent as well. Prachi Desai is demur and rather stoic at some parts. I wonder who her hair stylist was- it looked like she has run a road roller over her hair and stuck it together with fevicol. The lack of hair dresser talent is compensated by that of the interior decorator. Farhan and Prachi's house was WO-HOW. I was totally enthralled by the decor and furniture of the apartment, with the balcony and water wall. Arjun Rampal and Luke Kenny have given memorable performances, but the cake is taken by Purab Kohli, with his charm and sense of humour. He had always been my favourite VJ on channel V, and his charisma was the highlight of his performance. The music, of course, is mostly hardcore rock. Though most of the band songs are similar, Tum ho toh and Socha Hai remain amongst my favourites. The non-band songs Ye tumhari baatein and Phir Dekhiye are refreshingly soft. [:D] The story is somewhat old and gets predictable at some places. But overall, great movie and brilliant music. There's just one problem, you can’t dance in the theatre during the songs.
I can't believe I watched 2 movies in a week in the theatre!! I have to get back to my first love...computer/ipod shows [:)]

The CG Final

2008-08-24T19:45:00.000+05:30

Its been a while since I got back to my blog. I'd better write about the CG final before it fades out of my memory. (For those who don't know me, I've got a really weak memory retention capacity).

You're probably wondering what happened to the MST-that-never-was. Well, it never re-happened. We were told that the marks given for term work would be doubled instead.

In the meantime, we did get a teacher for CG. And I mean a real prof, not a simulated prof who never turned up in class. She didn’t take too many lectures though, but she did "clearly define" the portion from the textbook. And that's what we care about. :)

Now I'd like to mention at this point, that the portion marked was really really little compared to the actual syllabus. It was probably less than what we usually study for a

mid semester test.

So we were all pretty relaxed for this paper and were all chilled out on the final day. A lot of people(from other branches) did ask us whether we would be answering the exam this time or not.

As we got the question paper, we were relieved to see that most of the questions were of our level. Phew! But then, a lot of the questions were from our original syllabus (and not in the marked syllabus from our textbook). As you may have guessed, we all started talking to each other at once. We even had exam partners (from the first year), who were totally taken aback at seeing us. (I do hope we influenced them!!) The professor wasn't in college at that time, so the controller of exams came into our class. We explained the situation to him- that almost half the questions were out of syllabus. He told us to write whatever we knew, and to mark the unknown questions as "out of syllabus". If they were truly out of syllabus, we would be given credit for it. And that's exactly what I did. Fortunately, i knew all the "in-syllabus" questions pretty well. I attempted 140 marks (i.e. the whole paper), with about 70 marks "out-of-syllabus”.

A little while later, the CG prof came in. She was cool (a bit too cool) and told us to "relax, don't worry, everything will be fine". She came to the same conclusion as the Controller of Exams, so I was really happy.

And that's how the CG tribulation ended. We thought it would have been a little more exciting, but what the hell, it’s the first time in my life that I’ve attempted 140 marks in an exam.

Oh by the way, I scored a 10 in CG!!! I wonder if the exam department knows that my account in the lab where we were supposed to do the programs was totally empty!

A Graphic Revolution

2008-06-07T03:43:00.000+05:30

20th Feb 2008. Probably the most memorable (and revolutionary) day of mine in VJTI till date.
It was the week of our mid semester tests of the 6th semester. The CG (computer graphics) exam was scheduled in the afternoon- 3.30 to 4.30 pm to be precise.
VJTI is well known for its lack of faculty. The situation has reached its zenith, for we officially did not have a professor for this subject. We had some lectures taken by the high brain society of our class (yes you are reading right!!) The syllabus had been marked for the exam through a mutual agreement between the "student-professors" and the HOD. We were told that a certain temporary professor would set the paper. (Do not even think about asking why this temporary professor could not teach us in the first place. Rumours say that he attended the lectures taken by the students. Ever hears of "swapping roles"?)
The supervisor that day was a junior professor of the dept, not more than 2 years older than us.
Time: 3.30 pm. Question papers handed out. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I saw the question paper. I couldn’t figure out a single question, let alone the answers! I looked around the class to observe the reactions of the other students. They looked as perplexed as me. I tried to think about what I could write in the exam, just so that my answer paper was not totally blank.
Time: 3.35 pm. Two of the toppers of my class walked in and said "Does anybody know the answers?” That broke the silence. People started murmuring about the absurdity of the questions. Murmurs soon turned into loud voices as we explained our situation to the supervisor. The classroom turned into a huge discussion room, and everyone started explaining to each other that the questions could not have been answered with our minimal knowledge of the subject. Other professors also came in to the classroom to add to the commotion. Whoever said that fish markets were noisy!
Time: 3.40 pm. The supervisor, obviously vexed, decided to bring some level of decorum into the "exam hall", which was now beginning to look like the Indian parliament. She gave us two options- either nobody write the exam, or everybody write. We decided that we should speak to the HOD as soon as possible. Along with our classmates in the neighbouring class, we marched down to the HOD's office. Obviously, the HOD could not speak to 50 students at once in her cabin (and she was probably intimidated at seeing us hording around her office) and told us to go back to class and she would join us shortly. So we marched right back to the class.
Time: 4.00 pm. By now, some of the students had already started discussing the solutions to the questions in the paper. The others started discussing about what we would tell the HOD when she came up. The verdict was that we demand a re-exam, drawn from the syllabus, nevertheless. As we waited further, some of the camera-savvy people started taking videos of people's reactions to an exam. "All questions out of syllabus" was written unanimously on the answer sheets and handed over to the supervisor. We realised that nobody was going to turn up to discuss the matter.
Time: 4.30 pm. As we left the exam hall, we realised that some of our classmates were bullied into writing the exam by some professors. Worse, some noticed that the absurd questions in the paper were actually printed in our textbook!

The picture shows our answer papers. As you may have guessed, the top right paper is mine. I didnt even bother to take the trouble of copying the questions.
If you think this was interesting, wait till I fill in about the final CG exam. Till then, sayonara!

Bollywood masala

2008-05-31T00:35:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Bollywood- the largest film industry in the world, churning out more than 300 films a year. What's famous about these movies is the filmy "ishtyle". Most masala movies are known to leave us challenging our logic, and sometimes, education. Now this was a movie that have left me absolutely dumbstruck.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham: ( I apolise to the director if I have spelt the movie name fallaciously. I should have probably checked with the numerologist before typing). The situation is somewhat like this. SRK has been kicked out of his house by the patriarch Amitabh Bachchan for marrying a girl (kajol) below their social status. So SRK, along with Kajol and her little sister pack off to London with just a few pennies in their pocket. Somehow in 10 years, they have a sprawling house in London thatwould put even houses from the Barjatya mush factory to shame. In the second half, Kajol's sister has as overnight transition, from a small town tomboy to a snobbish bimbette( now played by Kareena Kapoor). Now SRK's little brother (played by Hrithik in the 2nd half) goes home after 10 years to find out that bade bhaiya has been thrown out ages ago. You may wonder how he didnt find out all these years. Didnt he ever call home or visit in the vacations? In true Hindi film style, he promises his "maa" that he will bring back her "laadla beta". So he sets off, to London, to find his "big brother" (Does that ring a bell somewhere?). As soon as he lands in London, he gets admission to a certain college almost instantaneously. What's even better (or convenient), is that he bumps into Kareena on his first day of college. And of course, he recognises her and remembers their conversations of 10 years ago (and so does she), even though they had met just a few times. Hats off to him for his terrific memory! Hrithik informs Kareena about his master plan and his promise to mommy dearest. When Hrithik meets SRK, the latter has absolutely no clue that this is his little brother, the person who lived in the very house as him. I guess his memory wasnt as effective. Anyway, SRK allows Hrithik to be a guest in his house and the story coninues. The climax too, was rather predictable, with Amitabh suddenly landing in London (in his private aircraft, neverthless). All's well that ends well, Daddy dearest asks his son to forgive him and come back home. Phew!

More to come ahead....