De-what??

Well, long time since the last post, but then, I'm a busy man :P : I gotta maintain my farm on Farmville, maintain my Mafia in Mafia Wars and of course, complete my quota of everyday's TV Series episodes (South park, Frasier, Numb3rs) and updating myself with all the bond films (right from the 60's). Yeah, I know what you are thinking. And yes, this is what people do when they have too much time to waste. In other related note, another semester has gone by and man! Are they fast! Never saw this semester come and go at all and miraculously, my attendance is not short!! You know, writing a blog is tough, take my word for it : for the past few days, every time I sit to write, I end up deferring in favor of other things. Why, just yesterday, I was about to start and I ended up going to a 2nd show movie (for the first time in my life, for all practical purposes) and thus denying my friends' claim that I was either (A) a studious guy or (B) I was something like Cinderella or something :P (midnight - magic dress etc...on those lines...). Anyway, in other unrelated notes, check out "She" by Elvis Costello (which I first heard recently) and "Woman" by John Lennon, they really inspire my feminist side. Anyway, seems like this semester's weird and abrupt end has brought out the philosopher in me and of course, you guessed it right, this is what this post is all about.Alright then, here goes.


Did you notice that sometimes, when you don't get what you want, you feel real bad. Yes, that's me, just stating the obvious (sometimes I feel I'm turning into one of my favorite words - cliché, I'm sure you'd have noticed this if you interact with me regularly.. :P). Alright, after stating the obvious, let's get to the less often occurring thing. Just reflect, how many of us think before wanting things - whether we deserve them or not. This occurs very often: one is carried away by the delusions of things around them and start to put a lot to one's store. If one were to think before hand, before wanting that is, if or not one deserves the thing they are wanting, it saves a lot of depression. I seem to have no good examples (bad ones, a lot...) for this up my sleeve, but I'm sure you'd understand. Anyway, succinctly put, what I'm trying to say is simple 

Desire only for what you deserve.

Now, let me biopsy the statement for you.First things first : the "you" reference. You see, you are the only person who would be able to decide this. Who better to decide what you deserve than yourself? Like Paulo Coelho says : "We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation." and someone else says "Don't judge me, because we're two different people, living in different worlds." No one knows you better than yourself and this is what I'm trying to put forth. Then let's get to the desire part. It is but human, to desire but then, it is also the root cause of all of man's problems. That was a bit too much of a funda, right? :P Anyway, this method of desiring only what you deserve is a completely tried and tested one (by me, of course...I don't go around collecting stats from people around me... ;)). Thing is, abstinence is what you could call stopping desiring unlimitedly. So, like I already mentioned, make your own example. And the pluses?? There are many, you don't get depressed for one thing. And whatever people might say, Life is fair and believe me, you only get what you deserve. Just like in Entanglement theories in Quantum Physics, even things you cannot connect at any level one can comprehend might be related and cause the equations to topple. Anyway, just had to put forth this thought of mine. And anyway, this comes mainly because of the marks I'm about to get in the internal examinations and I'm certainly keeping fingers crossed. I know what I deserve, do you??


Think about it. And I wish you all the best for you exams coming up, although there will be another post dedicated for that sometime this week :P.


G'Night, Sweet Dreams!!


P.S.: Please comment on my Philosopher side :P.


P.P.S.: Happy Halloween!! :)

Blog Action Day - Climate Change

Dated: 15 October, 2009


Blog Action Day: An awesome idea! I just wanna congratulate the person who had this idea. Anyway, I don't wanna waste post-space by writing an elaborate eulogy for the idea; I'm supposed to be writing about climate change. I'll have you know that, I'm no meteorologist to be able to give you hard numbers and other stats than can corroborate my views. I'd like to deal with my personal experiences with climate change and hope people understand it better and try to do something about it.

Anyway, here comes. I still remember that, when I was a kid, the seasons used to be in time, as opposed to now, seriously, it is October and yet, the sun is as hard as it would be in mid-summer. And rains. It's been quite a few years since it rained in time of monsoon. (who'm I kidding?? this isn't the kind of stuff I'm good at explaining...). Anyway, let me do something I am good at: use semantics to do what I like. And yes, I even looked up the Oxford Dictionary for any connotations and viola! Climate can also mean "prevailing trend of opinion or feeling", so here I am, all set to do something so easy. Anyway, no offense to the guys at the "Blog Action Day" who are trying to make the world a better place to live in, but then, so am I; I'm trying to make the world a better place to live in by dissecting the kind of "climatic changes" like I see them, like I said before, I'm no meteorologist to talk about the stuff like temperature, humidity and stuff. This is just a new perspective on "climatic changes". Anyway, while I'm at it, I'm supposed to give this link someplace in the blog: http://www.blogactionday.org/. Don't bother visiting it or anything, just a formality.

So, climatic change, huh? Well, there is an almost constant change of climate (from here on, climate will only mean "prevailing trend of opinion or feeling") in our homes, schools and everywhere around us. Sometimes we call it generation gap, sometimes something else. Whatever we say, our parents (why, sometimes even our elder siblings) can never understand why we listen to Rock, watch movies or even why we hang out with friends. This reminds me of something Shakespeare or someone else once said: "Love is one of the most beautiful thing you can experience, until it happens to your daughter" :P. Anyway, this is one of the things (climate) that hasn't changed since then, some respite! But then, like one of my favorite Professor says "Change is the only constant." and life would be dull. (I do realize that I'm just blabbering something without even thinking about it... :P). Anyway, I have no more thoughts because I have this lab internal tomorrow (today) and gotta prep for it... Hope the "Blog Action Day" people don't mind this (like they'd even care, for my post, that is... :P).

And of course, a great idea, keep it going :).

Bubye...!!

We don't need no EDUCATION!!!

Not my usual "posting" time, but then it is a weekend and thus, new rules :). Thing is, "Dead Poets' Society" aired on Star Movies in the afternoon and I ended up speculating how much the current education system in India (not to sound too *blah*, but our education system!!) is similar to that shown in the movie (Hell-ton Academy, as the students call it... :)). Seriously, on a totally related note, everyone must watch this movie at least once, it is an awesomely inspiring movie.


Anyway, let me paint you a word picture of what happens in our education system. Classes 1-7, you are taught to learn things (literally everything) by heart. You are taught to follow text books, never question new things (at least some of the teachers I had/have did that, although it was just because they were not so good at answering questions...). You are taught to remember things which you might end up never, ever using in your future and even if you do, you'll end up finding that, you did not need to remember it at all. (This post also draws from "Surely, You're joking, Mr. Feynman", Dick Feynman, my most favorite physicist...). Next, class 7-10, you are taught that marks are the things that are the most important things you could pursue. And that is not the worst part, the worst part is that people manage to believe it up until later in their lives and some never grow up. Anyway, the picture is quite changing and now, what was a priority of our generation during our 10+2, is now right since the 1st grade. Today, you find schools which apparently give you "IIT Foundation" right from the 1st standard.


Anyway, after everyone leaves the 10th std with flying colors, all start thinking 'all right, now what, IIT, AIEEE, EAMCET??' Seriously, same questions all the time and some of us didn't even know what other options they have. Anyway, here, you are taught that life always comes with four options and as long as you manage to get the right answer by hook or crook, it doesn't matter whether you know about it (like Shakespeare says: All's well that ends well or rather, ends justify the means, which is pretty much a flawed argument...). One more thing is, when you get a good percentage in your 10th standard, you are tagged to the IIT sections and you end up having nightmares about what your life is gonna be. Of course, this was the decision (of taking IIT as the optional in Intermediate) that changed my life a lot; for good or bad, is yet to be seen.


Then comes Engineering (I'm just taking up my own case...). You just care about not having any backlogs and care about percentages. And end up being just as confused as you ever were. Now, that was the picture of the current education system, and what is missing?? Go ahead and read the rest...


Where is the originality? Ever heard of a different and more profound (from other ones...) definition of the Newton's Laws? Or a new perception of Frost or Kipling in the English text book?? Or a different view of the Covalent Bond??? Never are you gonna come across these things, not in our education system, at least. And you know why that is? People (esp. parents) prefer looking at straight 'A's in a report card rather than come to know that their ward is doing something new and you know what get straight 'A's? Reproducing what is given in your texts or notes as it is, pathetic!!


Then comes the question of what you need to remember. Do you really think you need to remember the Periodic Table back and forth? Or the values of Sines and Cosines of odd values (any values, at that...)? Or the height of Mt.Everest, length of Nile?? I'll tell you what the thing is: You don't need to remember these things. And why? Because you can always look up the things you need for your work (no, it is not cheating...). There's this story in the book I mentioned earlier by Mr Feynman: Map of a Cat (or, something like that...) which I'd urge you to read if you ever happen to lay your hands on that book. Anyway, the point of education is not to improve your memory, it is indeed the exact opposite: don't remember things when you can get to them by using your mind. I have this nice analogy to this: Your memory is like the RAM of your computer and your brain obviously is the CPU. All I'm saying is that, when you can process data you already have to get what you want, why waste your memory? Anyway, education is not about testing about how much you can remember; it is about how much you can perceive: Education is perception.


Then there is this thing about judging people by their grades. How can you know about everyone by just a number? This is especially for teachers (none of whom, I'm sure, is reading this...). Grades do not show what kind of person you are. No more comments about this, though. I can't say much about it :).


Then there is the pressure. Especially from parents (your peers are in as much water as you are, right? :P). Get good marks, get a good Software job, get a 5 digit salary, HELL!! It doesn't matter what we want. It doesn't matter even if the thing they want you to do is something you hate. Like Keating says to Neil in Dead Poets' Society: 'You are just playing the role of a dutiful son'. Neil is so much the representation of what we face in our lives from our parents (not since, we grew up, in my case, thankfully...).


I'm kinda done with this system and feel like screaming out the Pink Floyd lyrics in my classes:

We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom...

So, let's all do this!! And try to do this and change our system for ever and hoping the coming generations not have to salvage any of this fury.

One more thing from Dead Poets' Society: CARPE DIEM!! (Seize the day!!). Stop following your precursors and let icons be bygones...

CARPE DIEM!!!!

Confessions of a Blog-a-holic a.k.a. Biopsy of a blog

Another day, another post. Sometimes I wonder why I do this. I could be doing a lot of better (for me) things like preparing for my semester exams or may be for CAT or doing my application processing work (seriously, it's getting no where, please pray for me...). Anyway, it feels a lot guilty doing this (yes, I have a conscience too :P...). I'd like to share my feelings about maintaining a blog, something I've never expressed to most people, I guess.

For knowing why I blog, you might want to refer to my previous post (again, I show the insensitivity of a *whatever* and assume that you have no better job to do... :P). So, if you are planning to start a blog yourself, you'd better read this post first...

So, the first consequence of having a blog (I'd rather list this, makes me feel better...)

• Knowledge: You expect people to know the fact that you have a blog. (This totally got to me at the beginning, but then, one gets used to being ignored...) You stop mentioning your blog to anyone after about a couple of weeks and then forget it yourself too. This is when a blogger needs to be very patient and keep on writing. You know what they say : "Every blog has its day!" (If you didn't get the joke, remember that, "Every dog has its day :P").
• Condescension: Look it up if you don't know what it means. (The purpose of the sentence is to demonstrate the point...). Anyway, it is important to get through this stage, as it may lead to alienation of people and then you start getting depressed and one thing leads to another; it's a vicious circle see, and might lead to bad things.
• Requests: You start asking your friends to read your blog, but then, most of them are either busy or too self-centered and narcissistic to be able to do this and you even give up on them.
• Acceptance: This is when you lose all hope and decide that you are just another good for nothing blogger who cannot do a damn to the world around you. But then, if you are strong at heart, you keep on blogging in some silly hope that someday, someone will go through your blog and praise your effort.
• Doubt: There comes a stage when you wish you had a dollar for every post that never left the scribble pad, you'd be a 100-aire (forming new words shows creativity on your blog :P). And then you realize: what is important is not the number of posts but the the quality of those that matters.
• Guilt: You get addicted to your blog. This is the stage this blog is currently in. You start seeing this as a big waste of time and is interfering with your other works. I am not able to be so articulate when it comes to writing about this thing itself.

Well, I cannot surmise as to the next steps but will try to keep you updated about the changes. :) Anyway, all the best to anyone who's planning on starting a blog!!

Good Night!! :D

The more important F-word

Great! Just friggin' great!! Somehow, my Google related sites are loading so slow that, I have gotten very fed up with it. Please, the-guys-at-Google, do something about this. I can't stand it at all. And in case you are trying to see if I can live without the Labs in Gmail, forget it, I really can't :P. So, anyway, I'm kind of going through a "phase" in my life; isn't that what people say when they can't explain their behavior in recent times? If yes, I'm pretty much spot on! That is my problem exactly. Now, about this post: All the contents of this post are figments of my imagination and I haven't (so far, at least) come across any of the phenomenon I explain in the following lines/paragraphs (I really don't know how long this post is gonna be :D). So, anyway, this post is about the one word that can make us bunk classes, go to movies we know we're gonna hate, make us laugh 'til we cry or vice-versa (no big difference, no?), can make your day, can change your life, can give you the push you need, can make you live hell (or heaven, yes, heaven sounds better; what say? :P), can do literally, anything!! Somehow, I don't know why I haven't written this post before. And yes, the word, what say? Any guesses?? (no prizes for guessing, though... :P) Actually, this doesn't work so well on a blog...really, you can't keep the suspense for as long as you'd like...Anyway, the word is FRIEND. On a totally unrelated note, check out "Tu Hi Haqeeqat" on the Tum Mile OST, the lyrics are awesome!!



Back to the "f-word". I'd love to, actually, not love, but like: as friends :P, to express my views about real friendship. Thing is, my perception is slightly twisted as compared to the conventional way in which people usually say what friendship (PJ alert : can anyone tell me why it i called that and nor friend-car or friend-plane) is. Actually, you might as well get used to this kind of wry humor all through this post (just something I wanna give a try :D). What is a friend? You could look it up in a dictionary and yet end up not knowing what one is. Hell, some people even lead their whole lives without any real ones and assume they know what a friend is. Well, let me not get into semantics. Anyway, a friend is someone who... (kind of a clichéd beginning, so I'm discarding it :D). If you think a friend is someone who understands your predicaments and keeps you comfortable at all times, you cannot be farther from the truth. Seriously, if you call people who do that your friends, a better word would be acquaintances, or may be, well-wishers. Point number 1: Friends are not well-wishers. They are so far away from being that that, they appear to be the exact opposite (sometimes they actually are.. :D). I'll tell you clearly what a friend should be like: When you are feeling down, instead of trying to cheer you up, he/she must make you feel worse if you deserve it and try to make you cry out loud (tests have proven that, it is a great way to relieve feelings...whoever does those tests?? I'm just making it up...). Anyway, a friend should be someone with whom you can share anything, and when I say anything, I mean anything, literally. It should not be like: 'hey, that guy doesn't have the security clearance yet, may be in a couple of years...'


Ergo point number 2: No Secrets. It might be that, you have a crush on his girlfriend (my being male is totally limiting this...but you can understand...), or you spreading a funny albeit may-be-hurtful kind of rumor about him/her, or anything like that. It just boils down to not being all touchy and stuff. It really pisses me off when a friend takes these things seriously, c'mon, you listen, you laugh, you forget, right?? Anyway, somehow, I've totally gotten over GRE style writing and keeping the natural flow of writing i.e., writing as it comes to mind - I'm happy for me :D.


Hmm...Then there is this thing about fealties. You know, a friend is not expected to declare his allegiance to another (no, being in a serious relationship doesn't count as friendship and hence, allegiance is necessary there...). In layman's terms (not that you are a layman...) your friendship with one person should not engender hatred or ennui towards another; for heaven's sake, we are humans, not super-powers, third world countries or stuff like that. If you have something with someone, keep it to yourself, why deny the chance of being another person's friend to another friend (kind of a sloppy sentence, but I'm sure you'll understand...). Hence, point no. 3: No rules, period. No conditions about being a fan of a celeb or something like that: no strings attached, literally.


I'll jump straight away to point no. 4: Don't be a sissy. Rephrasing it: trust your friend. If your friend says you can have fun if you bunk a class, you do it, no questions, no doubts. I might be coming across as pretty wound up now, but I'm sure it is OK. Just be with your friend. Next, be yourself. You know what they say : Do in Rome as Romans do (no pun intended), yeah, for once, they were wrong. Do what you want to do, not what your friend wants (man, this is tough, I'm opposing myself, but not intentionally...).


Next point: No apprehensions. Don't fear your friend: that is totally antithetical to being a friend. If you don't like a person, just ignore (as opposed to hate :)) or tell it on their face (I wouldn't recommend this, though... :D). Anyway, if you want to ask anything, play a practical joke, throw a dirty pun or anything, no fear. If you can pull this off totally, I assure you, you have a good friend indeed.


Putting it succinctly, a friend is a person who can complete your sentences before you are even half done, a person who can understand you so much that you ask him/her what you are yourself, a person so important in your life that you cannot stay even for a minute making fun of his/her short-comings and yet, the person loves you all the same, like you that is, as a friend (all this confusion because of movies where love can only mean a relation...). Anyway, I guess that is all I gotta say. If I remember something, I'll surely add it in some post :D (no, i'm not gonna leave you so easy...).


Anyway, my posts only seem to be getting longer, brace yourself :D.

Seminar Blues

You could say we were lucky. After all, the LCD Projector (I wonder why they call it that... :)) which was non-functional for the past few weeks suddenly came back to life for our Project Seminar and surprising, after A was late, our turn got postponed. Although I would have not had one of the people in the hall (a M, from the other section...) Actually, let me start from the beginning...


Project Seminar is this boring thing where you are expected to know what you are gonna do in the coming 6 months and explain it all to all the people of the class with a Seminar In charge breathing down on your necks (totally figurative :P). Anyway, it's no big deal, but it is supposed to be important because it carries some marks and one is expected to be professional (something we usually aren't : passing time in the canteen doesn't exactly count as professionalism you see...) during the seminar. And because of our roll numbers, we ended up doing the seminar at the end of the semester (somehow, there are just about 3 weeks left this semester, time really flies when you are having fun!! :P). Anyway, the main aim of the project seminar is to assess the work done by project groups towards the project.


Now, my group. Let's call them A and B and Me (no names policy of my blog, remember?). A is this lethargic fellow who only wants to stay up late and wake up late (frankly...). B is this fellow who is so frank and outspoken, sometimes he makes me freak out in public places (seriously, you need to be careful around him if you are in a public place, he might pass some snide comment at someone and you might end up getting beat up... :)). Anyway, somehow B is very serious at studies (thank God...) and takes technical studies seriously, like me and unlike A. So, we were all set to take this seminar up since we finalized an in-house project at our college under the guidance of one of our Prof.s. We were psyched (at least me an B were, A as usual was stoic about it...). I'll not bore you with the topic and stuff, if you were present at the seminar, you'd have known.


So, we were done with the presentation (yeah, we copied some parts, but that was legit stuff...) and ready with the details and well prepared to face the questions too. Coming clean, I'm not good at speaking to crowds. It totally freaks me out and yet, I try my best. Anyway, as it turns out, neither was each of my group-mates.


To start off the day, it was raining cats and dogs in the morning and yet, daringly, I set off to the college wearing my rain-coat (my friends call it Hagrid's coat, if did not get the joke, I'd love it :P). But then, the magnitude of the rain was so much so that, I got soaked anyway (from the waist down...believe me it looked ridiculous...). All wet, as opposed to all set which I was planning to be, I was riding as B started calling me continuously. Man! Is he a worrier!! Anyway, I reached college in good time only to find that, we would be having the seminar in the afternoon session, although it worked fine for us as A could not make it to college until around 11. Trying to dry myself and simultaneously explaining some of the seminar stuff to B the time for our turn was up. Somehow, A got stuck up (in conversation outside the seminar hall...) and we almost conceded our turn to the next batch who were almost about to start before we even entered the hall. Anyway, why I wanted to do it first was that, I simply wanted to get it over with and couldn't have the responsibility on me until later. And of course, I was dressed in formals like a dork and couldn't stand it so much.


Rule no. 1: Look professional. Yeah, I looked that and so did, surprisingly, A. B on the other hand, the first one to reach the college incidentally, came in a freakingly shiny shirt one of those you wear only to night clubs and stuff. Every time he came in front of the projector, his shirt was shining like hell :D. Apparently, he mistook professional to be stylish... :P


Rule no. 2: Be well prepared. Honestly, by some cosmic joke, A was the only guy truly prepared. Me and B on the other hand, being true engineers (A wants to be a Manager (MBA)...), had prepared to think on our toes and do our preparation through the seminar :P. And this was one of the biggest mistakes one can make.


Well, these are pretty much the rules and there is one more...Don't alienate the people by asking them questions during their own seminars, it doesn't help, although it did not hurt our seminar much.


Anyway, the seminar started (finally!!). Then started the problem. A started the presentation and was explaining things at an excruciatingly slow pace that everyone was freaked out (see comments on FB for more details... :P). He had the longest part of the presentation and somehow managed to call B by his "Orkut name" which freaked B out. I was to know later that, A faced one of the problems B and I faced during the seminar. Anyway, after double the time A promised to take up for his part, I was called next (feels weird to be called Mr. Munaf Hussain, sounds too dorky... :)).


My phobia set in. There I was, in front of a crowd (around 35 people, no less... :)). Anyway, I started off well. But I have this stupid habit of looking at the people I'm speaking to in the eye (most of the time, no pun intended... :)). And what was more, a couple of people (you know who you are, I'd be surprised if you were reading my blog, no offense...) in the audience (if you can call the group that...) started smiling (although it was more like laughing, mocking, whatever...) at me and I started to feel like laughing too and lost track of what I was saying, and although I ended up doing the presentation well, it could have been better. I managed to forget some of the jokes and funny analogies in my presentation which I was keen to say, that was more because of my crowd-o-phobia, though...


Apparently, B also faced the same problem as I (not the crowd-o-phobia) did. Anyway, it was not so loud though. He should have been a bit louder. Then came the question session. I was totally prepped to answer all the questions. This part was a bit disappointing. I expected a lot more questions, what with my freaking people out with my questions during their own seminars, I guess it is Gandhi-giri season :P. Anyway, our seminar in charge took up the mantle and asked a couple of questions and we were excused. I, as usual, spent the rest of the time LP-ing (ask someone from MJ what that means.. :P) in the last row :).


Anyway, facing the crowd still freaks me out, somehow :P. It was lucky though, many things could've gone wrong but didn't - in your face, Murphy!! For more on Murphy's Law, click on it. This was my experience today, do share yours in the comment (Anonymous comments are OK too.. :P)


P.S.: If A and/or B are reading this, don't mind my frankness :D.