Random Walks

happy happy joy joy

2012-01-15T23:32:00.000-08:00

Nostalgia!
4am, Bhola and Katik in the room, fighter-max days at IIT! and this song makes all of us very very happy :)

Almighty glimpse...

2011-11-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

My God.. If there is that World with static time, zero space and may be identical cause-effect. I know you are there! Can you please tell.. watssup!? do you have a moment? wanna catch up with you and get to life :)

Blurred days...

2011-10-01T13:42:00.001-07:00

The rambling mind puts its dreamy nets over everything. And then.. in the warp and woof of thoughts is all this World - hells and heavens, worst and best.

This task doesn't seem to give any joy or grace now. But, the silence and sweet songs tell some dreams might see the light.

I just hope.. these storms and illusions might teach some better ways!

Just a dream...

2011-09-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

I dreamt of Jamaica...

I lived a Rastafari life...

I wish...

The biggest junkyard - human brain

2011-07-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

The structure and working of the human brain is obviously fascinating, but getting lost in reading the brain anatomy book by John Nolte on a lazy Sunday without a background in medical lingo gets the mind thinking in the ways, interesting though, other than the intended.

The brain is very very structured. Thank God! Control of all fundamental mechanisms, sensory data processing, motor controls, personality/behavioural traits, language and cognitive skills are all managed at specific locations. Evolution is the statistical re-shuffling of the gene-pool in the combining DNAs over an insanely long period of time.. I feel, understanding evolution is the learning of refinement in the controller mechanisms of life forms, core of which is the brain.

A neuron is like a tiny piece of semiconductor (or actually the other way round :P) ready to quickly transmit some kind of messages through ionization. The human brain has neurons of the order of fcuking 100 billion!! This factory requires approx 25% of total oxygen supply in the body. This bunch of neurons is very carefully floating in some cerebro-spinal fluid, all of which is enclosed in a hard helmet of the skull.

Now at the psychological level and yet to understand this as a machine, all worldly and unworldly patterns of sight, touch, thoughts, feelings, encoded DNA formats for internal processes, blah blah blah are simply stored in and processed with interconnections of these 100 billion neurons. Yes! the whole stuff about life and this world and beyond of which we think or imagine are just patterns in this gray thingi. A deeper understanding might get depressing, but I seriously can never believe the sci-fi stud thinkers of all times who can imagine complete brain control by electronically barging in the brain circuitry. It will be something freaky.. out of wits. On the other hand, some ancient wise people have experienced and explained the brain and everything of us to have some higher connections which transcend the worldly thinking (and so can't be rationalized in existing science). However, lets take this interesting thing - so many chemicals just fool around with the normal functioning of the brain! Fundamentally, the 'highs' and 'kicks' are just some equivalent changes in thoughts which chemicals induce. So, its all in our t h o u g h t s!! One thought can even spike the blood supply to the brain or alter the functioning of a portion of the brain.

Defining mind is very difficult in the tangible space but the safest assumption is that its as real as the outside world. Thoughts evolve with every single step in the evolution along with the refinement of the DNA (which is just a chemical composition or a mathematical encoding of some structure). The linkage between these two worlds, the kick-ass mix of chemistry/biology with psychology/spirtuality, happens at the understanding of the brain from different sides!

Times of Mumbai

2011-05-22T04:03:00.001-07:00

Not peaceful but still liking it to do something at DB. The diversity of my group rocks! At different places, just 5 people from all over - an Armenian, a Russian, one Italiano, a French and one bleddy Indian ;)

Quite a big water tank top on the terrace above 12'th floor in the middle of Tilak Nagar (Chembur) from where almost 1/5th of the whole Mumbai city is visible, turns out to be one awesome party place! Whole night in the cool breeze at that height is a kind of pleasure which can't be easily expected in Mumbai! I just fantasize to find such a place near the Powai lake.

Some people discover some things very late.. But once known, it becomes an addiction and just can't help enjoying it. At least back at home in Pune, I'm liking it to drive around anywhere and everywhere. Awaiting some nice rains and long drives!

Not so funky, but a kids like room! It was initially an unorthodox idea for that kind of a bedroom in an apartment. But, having no other quick option to find any bachelor's suited place for rent, I took it up. Actually, a fancy room looks like a super kewl place to live for now!

Back at homeland on weekends gives the much needed peacefulness and bliss! Sunday afty grand lunch and an instant tripping off to sleep feels like some kind of a dream coming true ;)

Still catching up with lots of people everywhere! Still catching up with all the new south park episodes! Still catching up with a lot of music I hadn't known after getting out of the college.

Waiting to hit London sometime soon. In spite of all the pain, there is something which I like in this big bad world of investment banking. For me, It all started in this beautiful city.. Just awaiting to get there again at least for some time ;)

Random walks in holy spaces

2011-05-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

You certainly have the right for prescribed activities but never at anytime in their results.

- Bhagavad Gita (2:47)

Desire is the root cause of all suffering.

- Gautama Buddha

On the face, all of these words appear to be pure shite! May be religious ways to fool people or a loser's instinct. If not for the results, I wouldn't have done the things. Whatever I do, desire leads me to do it. These teachings are not even meant for hedging emotions for expectations, in a way - If things go well, I'll eat the cake and be happy. If things go bad, I'll try to listen to the above. What they teach is something which goes very very deep.

We always try to seek the good (pleasure and comfort) and avoid the bad (pain and discomfort). The mind always thinks in a relativistic manner. Life moves in positive if environment arranges for only the good or the mind thinks of things as good. Same is the reverse case. By the laws of nature, existence of pleasure or comfort is impossible without the existence of pain or discomfort. Its just the two sides of the coin and the whole emotional roller-coaster ride is the flipping of mind between the good and bad. So, is it a zero-sum game or a completely random process? Both will be far from the meaning of life. Lord Krishna and the great Buddha settle down this problem.

Waves roll over the surface of the ocean. Every single high is followed by a low and no low fails to get back to a high. But deep down within there is perfect calmness. Desire and comfort remain at the surface. They will be driven by the circumstances and each tide, good or bad, will be followed by the other. The heart might get full with ecstasy or it might get wrung by hands that don't hear any cry. But deep inside is the true spirit of humankind. The bonding of true relationships, the search of a free mind for God, oneness with all of nature, unfolding of the purpose of life, ... All of these are unshakable and this is where the teachings show the way. All the worldly things remain the same, just the understanding changes. Mind doesn't consider only the tip of the iceberg on the waves... but the floating iceberg in a tiny part of the top of an entire ocean. The understanding of the game-plan of God can give the most solid support to stand on. Right now, I can just try to think. To map this in real life and make the mind free is a journey worth lifetime :)

Kickstarted!

2011-04-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

The time I reached Mumbai, the whole country was watching Cricket. One of the best cheering moments were at the BPCL colony where the arrangements made were like a huge marriage reception, just to cheer for the final match. But what went totally insane was a night-out at Marine drive. The celebration near Wankhede stadium and all along that road was fcuking crazy and we were there till the early hours of the morning when police started to really drive out the people.

Next day started my real life of Mumbai. A month at Holiday Inn is kick-ass! I just love this room, the swimming pool and every day's breakfast. Its gonna be very sad to leave this royal accommodation after a month long stay, but the juice is totally worth the squeeze :D

Catching up with long lost friends and hanging around with some fellas like in the South Park, has been the best of all things. I haven't given a shit to whether its a working day or holiday.. I'm spacing out and enjoying every day!

But sometime soon, real work will start. Sometime soon, I'll have to find a place to live in this city. Sometime soon, I'll buy a car. And sometime.. I'll find a sweetheart bitch of my dreams ;)

Good bye cruel world

2011-03-27T02:19:00.001-07:00

I spent quite a lot of time reading and learning some holy-shit for which I've started another blog. Writing here after quite a long time, because I sat down right now to recollect how much I got pissed in the last 15 months. I thought of gathering all of it, rolling it up together and throwing it down at this place once and for all.

Goodbye, cruel world
I'm leaving you today
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!

Thats how I left! Starting from the very first day, I couldn't feel any intimate connection with anything that existed. Moving around places never stopped being a head-ache. I survived with food but nowhere found a convenient source of eating good parathas for which the whole of NCR region rocks. I loved the dhaba food on the state-highway, but every hog meant an upset for next few days. Alcohol was fun until a lot of fake beer was consumed. House brokers are so skilled that even if more than half the houses are vacant, the house rents are maintained at an optimal maximum simply by fooling the crowd. My landlord ripped me royally and took an awesome pride in proving that his money sucking skills are much better than any skill I might have learnt at IIT/IIM. It took a little time to understand the kind of people involved in the whole black-and-white real estate business there. Weather extremes were a joke! On weekends, I loved spending empty time or almost comtemplating to go back to office for work. Had a few very good flatmates, but for them weekends meant going home and escaping from the barren land. Among the people I saw, the most common hobbies were booze, buying apartments, striking political deals or any activity that maximizes some kind of show-off culture on an aggregate. I firmly believe that malls aren't the only places to find a proof of existence of society, but all of it seemed to happen in malls only! If a bunch of political fat cats want to boom a barren land adjoining the national capital, please don't call it a city where normal societal framework close to Indian culture can exist. It can be a new face to the upcoming boom in India which can provide an enormous rise to GDP and all macro-economic variables and among different groups in the society... I feel, that face is ugly!

Well, its not actually that bad :P But the land of Gurgaon is not a friendly place for sure to which almost all my friends can attest. I lived for 15 months and actually learnt quite a lot. I made numerous attempts to find something worthwhile - studying math, gymming, dance, aerobics, morning biking, skating, ... The learning was - NOTHING CAN SUBSTITUTE THE NATURAL WAY OF LIFE. For some Gurgaon can be a perfect place and at the same time no place in the world will be free from all the problems. I want some kick-ass people around me :). I want to engage my mind with things that I can naturally like. I will be intimate with things that go back to my roots. People with whom you can spend hours together are much dearer than any kind of ego and greed satisfaction that could fascinate the mind. Food or alcohol can never become any kind of means to spend time. Even if its not always good to live in comfortable atmosphere, persistently living in a psychologically 'out of synch' environment is a sure cause of mental screw-up! The most important one is - Never fcuking get bored in life! Getting bored is a horrible crime!

I think its time to improve! The recessionary hit gave pretty painful and unknown problems to solve but like the stock indices, positive expectations or uptrend sets in a wave of happiness and life becomes full as before. The times of boom might never come back but downturns have their teachings all along the way. It seems like a new life altogether now while spending an amazing time back at home. Moving to Mumbai in the next weekend - no high hopes, but just an open mind to achieve the things in life there. Thats where it all started off - the 4 years in the jungles of IIT. Its the City of Dreams :)

time.. midnight
mood.. max peaceful
song.. Bob Marley playlist is looping
food.. pav bhaji for dinner
work.. go back to sleep now :)

I’ve got a strong urge to fly!

2011-01-10T23:55:00.001-08:00

Some memories, some songs, some ideas, some thoughts .. make me very happy and nostalgic. They make me so full that I wish I have them less often. Also, I fantasize building castles in the air and get stuck in the dreamy nets of the future.

The reality is – There is a caged bird in each one of us. I have faith that its wings are bright and its destiny is to breathe the air of freedom. This bird wants to fly over the mountains and oceans to explore many many things in the world, in its journey of life. I seek that freedom!

Happiness?

2010-11-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

We optmize over happiness so much, even though it doesn't depend only on our actions. Everything looks so relative and the mind constantly searches for new stimulations and covering up the earlier screw-ups. The more I try to think, more is the prevailing confusion to understand the underlying patterns of anything that exists. Everything till now was driven by herd mentality and now with an open ended entry into the big bad world, there is no anchor and ship is tossing around randomly.

A simple story gives a complete correlation. A man was sitting in a desert. He saw water at the horizon. He became happy (this is the root cause of his problem :P). He started walking. He walked for half an hour, but the water body still seemed to be at the horizon. He actually kept on walking for a few more hours but still the water seemed far away. Now comes the foolish part. The mind gets attracted only to find water there and lose the understanding of it being a mirage. He kept on walking in that direction for days. Cheated by a wrong ideal and completely succumbing to the irrational chase of desire, finally he crashed down like a loser.

Party were there! Cyprus was the place \m/

2010-07-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

One week of holiday on the island in the Mediterranean sea was a dream coming true! After planning the office leaves, finding flights to book, slight pain for getting the visa (even for a tourist one!) and wondering what all to do in the holidays, the trip began. At the start there was a non-stop journey of Delhi to Mumbai to Paddy's house to Mumbai's international airport to Cairo to Larnaca to Limassol! But then, the next 7 days and 6 nights was power packed fun. Actually every 24 hours looked like 2 days since there was a short sleep in the morning after whole night at pubs or clubs and some evening sleep after trips to exotic places.

Few of the moments in the trip ...
Sight of Pyramids and Cairo city from the Egypt Air flight
Nice beaches and insanely hot Greek chicks every place!!
All night partying at the pubs and clubs in Limassol and the crazy party place Ayia Napa!!
Places like Troodos mountain and the monastery there, Paphos, Adonis bath and some random villages of Cyprus.. totally exotic!
Some very good friends
Finally, the last party night and the most unique birthday celebration at 5am on the streets of Limassol!

After getting back, the trip hangover was so bad that for first two days it felt like I had come to Gurgaon for the first time! God bless Cyprus!

Now, after all the lukkha and incredible fun, life is back to (boring) normal :P .. Brainstorms for trading strategies continue... Instead of wondering about when might be the next blast of a great time, the priority is to think and make living a bit better!

:(

2010-07-25T06:32:00.000-07:00

Deeds of the so called most intelligent creature on the planet can bring about a lot of pain and misery as well. Felt very sad to see pictures in this link

The Known Universe

2010-04-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Mind = Blown!

Gods of this industry!

2010-04-16T16:38:00.001-07:00

Imagine a bearded mathematician who shows up at formal business meetings without socks, a former code cracker for the U.S. Security National Agency, whose work in differential geometry is used in theoretical physics and also who has pushed the most for research in the treatment of Autism (a disorder of neural development). But what is most extra-ordinary is that this person happens to be the best trader on the planet! Chances that you haven't heard of Jim Simmons are quite high because the founder of the world's biggest and the most successful hedge fund shuns the limelight and rarely gives interviews. Right now my work is in the field of quant-intensive algorithmic trading. In simple words, it is working on mathematical models and algorithms to create computer programs that trade in the financial markets. Over a few months, while trying to read stuff related to quant trading and hedge fund industry, I was totally amazed to know about the success achieved by Jim Simmons and his army of scientists.

In 1982, Renaissance Technologies Corporation was founded in New York and none of the MBAs nor Wallstreet traders have been hired in this investment firm. Only physicists, mathematicians, astronomers and computer scientists have driven the work when they have known almost nothing about finance! So it seems like with the potential of technology, the people who have been working on characterizing the motion of particles or directions of heavenly bodies have been most successful in predicting the prices of whatever that exists in the financial markets. May be.. Its the ability to re-see the financial markets in terms of its patterns that has made the scientists more successful as compared to the economists or fancy MBAs who are well equipped for explaining the markets.

Renaissance's flagship Medallion fund which trades on almost anything from commodity futures to international government bonds, has returned frikkin 38.5% annualized, net of fees, from the end of 1989 through 2006! Whether they have audio hookups to futures exchanges to analyze noise with voice recognition software or they might have found correlations of asset prices with positions of astronomical objects, the formula for this insane success is certainly kept secretive :P. Along with huge returns, a very high management fee of 5% and a performance fee of more than 40%, Jim Simmons is the world's "smartest" billionaire. He earned an estimated $2.5 billion in 2008, which is more than five times what any top-notch investment bank's CEO might be earning. The campus near Stony Brook University might look like a space program - majority of people with PhDs in mathematical sciences. They don't even have a real website of their own and nobody knows what they really do in there to multiply the $40 billion in assets that they have currently.

All of this has been the stuff gathered out of interest in this amazing quant shop. If investments is the religion, then these people are the Gods!

In Pictures

2010-04-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

See.. think.. feel.. capture the mood..

These pictures are not mine.
If I've violated your copyrights, please tell me :(

Hope

2010-04-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Irrational optimism is actually a mental defect
Excessive pessimism is a disease

Coming back to life

2010-03-26T13:25:00.001-07:00

This blog started off with interesting things happening around. Actually, the last one year has been the most boring time of life ever! But it came with lots of outcomes and learnings, terribly important for understanding a few fundamental things.

sixth term of IIMB - extremely chill maadi time of life, similar to the final semester of IIT! With no fin companies coming for placements, there was zero requirement for any kind of preparation :D

placements - The image (or illusion) of IIM placements created in peoples' minds and the reality of which I was a part of.. Just stretch this gap to its maximum! Even though the 3 idiots was a super hit, the reality of 250 idiots from the same campus wasn't a good story! The principle to follow was - being employed somewhere is better than being unemployed and sitting back at home with two degrees from elite colleges. I landed up in some company...!

Post-IIM working in a company - Here is a simple math. Assuming 8 hours of sleep every day, at least 12 hours of the day spent for work with weekends off. In a week - more than 60 hrs are spent for the employer and approx 50 hrs that you are awake are outside office. Now, at the age of 25, if you spend quite more than 50% of your life doing something that doesn't engage you nor aligns with any of the purpose that leads you, then its quite a big problem. I couldn't have learnt this better!

Switch to a job in Gurgaon - a new place, a new life, some motivating and interesting work... But take the previous case and flip it and consider the life outside work... I'm on a path of learning something on this side of life. Life doesn't always move ahead the way you cherish but at the same time it never gets so bad that it can't get worse. Its very tricky to understand the level of trade-offs to make and rationalize the expectations. Too much dependence on things that are not possible in the environment you are in, is the cause of depression.

Fantasizing is a loser's instinct.. temporary happiness, even though its good and it works, is a fool's paradise and artificial high backfires! The pursuit of permanent sources of happiness is indeed the very need of this hour. And, I want to know how to learn some practical psychology as it is in the mind that is everything... to that extent that I feel we actually live in the world that we create in our own minds.

The Eurotrip... Ooh la la la!!

2008-12-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

People! For the last three months, I lived in my dreams. Since the first Eurotrip I had always dreamt of some things. So this! was that time. I lived in my dreams, just to make some memories.. the memories which are to stay for ever. But more than that, expose me to this culture and kinds of people who have shaken my very fundamentals.. with whom I shared some priceless moments. And most important was this recession! Worst time had to hit when I am doing an MBA in such a screwed up state. So why not consider these as the last few days of the best times of life :)
Here are few of those best things... censored version :)

Exchange@IIM... Surprisingly, even to me, this has been more than the best take-away from IIMB. You can go around somewhere in the world and not just live a non-IIM life for 3 months, but by Indian standards - a crazy student life for some time.

BEM School of Management... :P :P .... Life at a lukkha college in the lukkha country of France is beyond the thought of any Indian student. It turned out to be a big time blessing in disguise that I was kinda alone from IIMB which made the first few days terribly boring, but helped to completely get into the real student culture there. Learning french would have solved almost all the big problems I faced, but anyways I optimized over that difficulty. I experienced the lukkha times at its peak, pathetic standards of hard work, unbalanced gender ratio (actually too many girls), the "coolness" and above all the crazy parties all along. So this school was the official reason for my 3 months Eurotrip :P

Bordeaux, and in general France... After going around too many places, I got kinda bored of being in Bordeaux and in France too. People looked pretty sophisticated and the chaos which I could see in Italy and East Europe was missing. Actually, I got bored because things were good :P. But I love the country for all the sweet people and nice places and Bordeaux was one of the best of them. I learnt from French people that life is not about slogging to satisfying some desires but actually enjoying the things already at hand. Also, wine was the cheapest available drink!

Schengen Visa and the Eurail Global Youth Pass... My Best Souvenir of Europe, just like the magician's wand, this pass was for my Eurotrip. This Europe rail pass costed 800 euros but if I had to buy all the train tickets it would have crossed some 5,000 euros! Hats off to the German train website bahn.de on which I searched for my train connections to the extent a trader would use bloomberg.

Oktoberfest... The best way to start the Europe experience! Some 6-7 million litres of beer in a period of 3 weeks in 14 tents with around 8-10K ppl per tent is not a joke! This fest opened my eyes to an altogether different level of partying. I have a dream that I will visit this fest sometime once again.

Belgium and The Netherlands... In our childhood we used to have the scenery drawings with awesome nice houses with triangular tops, canals and projecting some exotic feel of the place. Places in Holland are like that. I loved the houses constructed in brick walls throughout Belgium and the Netherlands. People there are very very tall and speak nice English. Not a day went without eating lots of fries, chocolates and ice-creams. I will always remember the chilly winds in sub-zero temperature at Bruges.

Paris... I have visited Paris some 6-7 times and no wonder its such an amazing city that I have seen something different every time that I visited there.

Italiano... On the way to Milan, as soon as I changed over from a French to an Italian train, scenes drastically changed. There was a lot of "life" around and I was into a kind of the most awaited disorder. Italian people are incredible and so much relatable to Indians. I tasted some real pasta and pizza for the first time. I never got bored of seeing anything in Rome and Florence. And Venice! .. If I have shitloads of money when I marry (:P), Venice shall be THE honeymoon place.

Prague, Czech Republic... I just checked a book Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die by Steve Davey. There are no hi-funda cities to visit in that book, just some amazing exotic and mystic places. Gladly, Prague is one of them. The scenes of the Charles river and the bridge will stay as eternal snapshots in my memory. It was the right place to taste some exotic cuisine as well. And.. crazy night life was there :)

Barcelona!... People in this city live a typical IITians' schedule. They hardly sleep at night! This city showed what really, nightlife is. Sangria was the drink ;). Three nice days at this place and I loved it. Lisbon also turned out to be a nice place. But it was a totally wrong time to visit the right places, should have been in the Hot summer.

Budapest and the East Europe... This part of the world rocks! I had to cross Germany and Austria to reach all the way to Budapest but was totally worth it. This place has some crazy shit! I can actually think of making a complete tour of East Europe which is not so costly as the western countries of Europe.

Exchange junta... 100+ ppl were there from every corner of the world. Spending so much time with these fellas, I found out how fcuked up my ideas about life are. Even if I felt they were pathetic in the knowledge and wisdom of academic courses, they had strong fundamentals of life in them and I could just see and try to understand. And above all, these people knew how to party :D.

True to my mission statement - "Exploring places and people in Europe", I guess this trip was a grand success. To live in this real world, I guess now is not a time to create some kind of a bucket list for the future.. but just to find something (job?) to which I can hang on to live in a survival mode for at least a few years. Even though I feel like being back to square one, life has been completely changed by this Eurotrip experience and the nostalgia shoots up quite often to fill up my thoughts completely :)

Rocks! .. \m/

Peace...

2008-09-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

Exactly 3 weeks ago I finished off my Term 4 at IIMB. In a sense, I am actually over with the academic aspect of the student life :). "Studying for exams" - I loved screwing it up at all times and now, once and for all, its over!

Time flies faster than ever, even if there is nothing to do in life. I had cherished for the time that I spent in the last 3 weeks. There was food, sleep and AOE. I had sacrificed my entire second year at IIT for this amazing game which sends you in a different world altogether and hours pass by like minutes. Also, I climbed up to the Sinhagad fort just to find that I have grown up like a 40 years old Faatso. In these 3 weeks, life was full of peace without pain and if asked for the days which I would like to live for ever... these are the only days.

Outside... Many things happened. Investment banks got pwned big time. Not a day passes without thinking about the the last few days of my summer internship. If some things seem to show dreams of a heavenly life, it just takes some time to see all the hopes crushed and the day-dreams converted into nightmares. No ppo, no cg, no laterals, no confidence... Its like in a plague-struck city, where perfect chaos rules. But in the midst of such a misery, there are some people who get doped. Momentarily they are transferred to an imaginary world, incredibly interesting and memorable. They only want to make the best ever out of the next few moments. Who cares what it might be like after coming back to reality, its all dark for sure :) So... in a few days begins the second Eurotrip. The place is the wine capital of the world. Parties, travel plans and all the chill... are there!

Awesome!

2008-08-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

After Sam Anderson, this is the next thing from youtube that made me roll of the floor!

(Absolutely no offense intended!)

Student Life

2008-07-05T05:26:00.001-07:00

Dear student,
- don't accept anything without questioning
- ask again and again, do not stop until you understand the lesson clearly
- an hour's study with concentration is far better than several hours of reading without concentration
- don't postpone today's work to tomorrow
- your mind is strong, you can learn anything, if you mind
- obey your parents and elders
- have compassion for old and disabled
- student life is golden life make ornaments from it

On a notebook cover, I found these fundaes for living a student life. Given that after the internship I have found myself as a useless piece of shit living in South Park, I couldn't help but rip apart this lame stuff which is taught to spoil the young minds.

- don't accept anything without questioning
Why the **** should I accept this? I don't understand how did the person who advised this tried to make a self-conflicting statement.

- ask again and again, do not stop until you understand the lesson clearly
What do you mean by this? I haven't understood at all...
Actually, this funda goes much deeper into real life. You see moths hurling themselves against flames all the time. They get the burning shock and immediately revert back. But again they want to catch the flame and they keep on doing this till they die. Man has been finding pleasure and the so called 'happiness' from the things which can never be found. We seek happiness from illusions and try to cling onto them till we get a hit on our head. Our brittle dreams get cracked, the sand castles we build get wiped by the tides, the flights of fancy end up crashing in mid-air... but do we learn then? Naah! Just like the moths we want to hurl ourselves against all the futile pursuits in this world and get cheated all the time until we die like a loser.

- an hour's study with concentration is far better than several hours of reading without concentration
This defeats the whole purpose. You wouldn't be looking like you are studying if you study only for an hour. A real nerd has to study for days long, so remember that concentration is bad! Just like cattle grazing in the field and pigs loitering in the dirt, you should be reading the books.

- don't postpone today's work to tomorrow
This sentence is imcomplete. You should never postpone your work to anytime in the future - Just avoid it altogether! Who cares! Why get the hands dirty in work if its so convenient to avoid it completely. Don't worry, life is pretty short for the things to rebound back to you :)

- you mind is strong, you can learn anything, if you mind
Never Mind!
If you can understand properly, this world is run by some crazy fools who have the power to strike a deal with those who can accept a shit deal. Your mind is strong, you can learn everything, you are a genius, .. But never mind, you aren't a good fit for this place - Get the **** Off! (I have learnt this is how you get fired.)

- obey your parents and elders
Obey your parents and elders. Period. There is nothing else you can do.

- have compassion for old and disabled
Seriously! You are going to be one someday soon. Traveling happily through the stream of life you have to drop down the waterfall some day... Look down there and await for that day.

- student life is golden life make ornaments from it
This is a killer. I cannot help but contrast the two extremes of perception of a student life. Take the student life of a kid coming from a middle class Indian family. He has to slog his way out of all the misery inflicted upon him by the school, institution and society. Every student is academically compared with every other student and this comparison becomes finer as you study further. High grades means you are among the pseud, white-collared ones in the rat race and low grades means you are among the sinners and bane for mankind. For the other end, this pic on the T-shirt which I got from Camden Market in London explains all.

Moral of this story is you make ornaments out of mud-balls but you should be ignorant of ornaments made of gold.

Well, I don't know if I have made ornaments out of my student life till now. But surely, I have made gold out of it :). Even if the destination turned out to be the entrance of a gutter, the journey was through the lake-sides and a beautiful forest!

watssup...

2008-06-12T15:10:00.001-07:00

khwaab the sheeshe ke
lekin duniya nikli pathhar ki

Berojgar

I can truly see - I have complained long about the wind and I have expected long for it to change. But now... I would rather adjust the sails.

Sweet and Sexy European Air

2008-03-19T03:09:00.001-07:00

April to June

Barclays Capital, London

Canary Wharf
Investment Bank
Great people
Stock Markets
Mathematics, ...

Sept to December

University of Bordeaux, France

The Grand European Dream - Eurotrip part 2
Chillmax Univ
The Wine Country
Parties
Loads of fun in the Land of Enjoyment, ...

Life and Career.. Looking forward with hope..

One small simple stupid story

2008-03-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

If you want it to be simple, take "****ing around" as something which is absolutely meaningless.

Once upon a time, a chap was sitting besides a parrot in some plane. The parrot kept on flapping its wings for no reason. The airhostess warned the parrot to stop doing that else it would be thrown out of the plane. But the parrot said, "Why!? I'm just ****ing around." This chap thought that it looked cool, even he could do it and so he did the same. He too replied that he was just ****ing around. So both ended up being thrown out of the plane. Now! The parrot started flying off while this innocent chap began to fall down. He shouted to the parrot, "Dude!! I'm gonna die, I cannot fly like you!!". Parrot, without showing much concern, just replied, "You Fool! Why the hell had you to **** around if you cannot fly!". The parrot flew off and lived happily ever after. Our chap fell down and died like a loser!

I've received a profound message out of this story which appears to be so abrupt and stupid. The more you can understand it in detail, the more relevant you can find it!

Crazy Days of Our Lives

2008-02-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time I had thought that at IIMs, unlike at IIT, I will be like Momma's Good Boy... attend all lectures, study well for exams, get good marks, live a good and nice life. But like some people who get screwed-up, right in their head, I don't know how to handle myself. Mid-term exams, as usual, came up so soon and all ended up in a last moment fiasco. A course called "Competition & Strategy" is a real MBA course, which means I am very good at screwing it up to the best of my potential! So it doesn't matter whether I study for that or leave it up to God. "Macroeconomics" is a very interesting course but I suffered from an inability to discriminate between what IIMs want and what I can do well, so it turned out to be a mightly Blooper! Then we have a course in which it is +1 if you do correct and -1 if you do wrong. Actually, life is like that. It is not so much for the good that you are, but for the bad things you've done that you'll be held back. In the end if the score is negative, everyone will rip you apart!

Some interesting things have happened after the exams got over. Imagine this. The two and half weeks of unshaved face, indicating that I have given up in life. Hair grown wild, a look which the barber shop guy would love to see. Eyes showed the merciless starvation of sleep. So around an hour goes to get the normal looks back so that the people can be comfortable with you.

oops! an interruption...

I forgot to introduce the best thing which has happened in IIMB. Since I am an animal who lives a social life, I need some animals around with me. Now this is a bit nerdy but cannot help it in order to explain to you properly - In some theory of some kind of mathematics, there exists a concept of Type 2 error. It says that which should not be accepted is being accepted is because its a Type 2 error. Five people have been accepted by IIMB; we are the Type 2. We live together, we laugh together, together we freak-out the academic culture of IIMB. We form the anarchism outbreak! But! Don't be under the delusion of understanding it beyond whatever I said. We have a hostel secy, potential four pointers, sports fanatics, presidents (past, present and future), etc... Just that - Our goal is Freedom, nothing worldly about it.

Type 2 decided to go out of the institute and smell the bangalore air for a change. Yeah! just for a change, but it changed our entire plan of action to relax and chill. The following sequence of events happen.
2pm: Type 2 reaches INOX to find that there is a movie which sounds good - American Gangster. All heads up for the movie but the movie was to start at 3.30.
2 to 3.15: Type 2 decides to have lunch, but not at usual brigade road / MG road places. Hostel Secy boy comes up with the idea of going to cooper chimney. As I feared, the bill shot up above expectations, but man! I found it to be an amazing place to eat. People who are unaware - Cooper Chimney in Central Mall of Bangalore Rocks! You get an amazing view though the glass walls, one of the very few buildings in Bangalore which offer such a view.
3.30: Movie was really good. If you liked Godfather (obviuosly you would have liked it), watch American Gangster... you'll like it for sure.
7:00: Type 2 suffers the daily Bangalore's favorite social mass procession of honking, shouting, jumping signals and all the mass revelry. Yep! the traffic jams :)
8:00: Type 2 decides to park at PVR to watch another movie. The 2.5 km way to institute would have been more than 1 hour long. So the next movie at 8:10 was John Rambo. If you liked Rambo movies in the childhood, you'll like this movie even now. The fighting scenes are awesome!
8:45: It felt as if there was a power-cut, but seriously just half an hour and intermission! We understood that the movie won't last even till 9.30. Since the level of fatigue was crossed beyond threshold, nothing was lost in watching yet another movie. Through some sources we got to know that the movie - Mithya is a Hindi, comedy, not-so-crappy movie. Stress level was very high after watching violent movies and facing the bangalore mass procession. Thinking that its better to watch a comedy movie and rest in peace at night, we sneaked out in the middle of the movie to buy 10pm tickets for Mithya.
10pm: After a quick dinner, we saw a contingent from IIMB for the same movie, but better prepared to hold back to the seats even if the movie turned out to be crappy. Actually, though everything was arbit in the movie and efforts to make people laugh were lame, the movie was really good. So watch Mithya but once and forget it, don't analyze it after watching.
1am: Type 2 returns back to insti. The sweetest thing in IIMB is that you can get to eat for 24 hrs. Infact, it has led to a habit of eating every 1-2 hours in the campus.
1.45am: Believe it or not, Type 2 decides to watch a legendary actor's tamil movie. We ended up this day with holyshit! Obviously why the hell would I want to see a regional language movie. But I want to tell a truth that Tamil Movies are a different form of art altogether. The actors are totally different species, highly speculative for psyching out the common man. They make movies in the world of their own. God sends a few tamil superstars to change the world, but I have no words to explain how freaked out I was when I saw this awesome movie's songs. The man is Sam Anderson. The name might act like Vandermonde if you dare to see the following video.

Warning! "The comments for this video on youtube say that If you haven't laughed for a while, this is a the best one." But actually I would recommend - If you haven't got psyched out for a while, shouted "Oh F***" out of amazement and laughed out your stomach, this is a good one.

The language of Mathematics

2007-12-22T13:03:00.000-08:00

May be I am stuck in this new world of so called Management (seriously.. I don't know why), but to the core I still love all the beautiful Mathematics. Perhaps... liking for Math, talking to the stars in the sky and South Park are few of the things which I can enjoy for ever!

One thing which caught my interest all of a sudden is this paper - http://lpmcn.univ-lyon1.fr/~lbocquet/AJPricochets.pdf

Even though I didn't completely understand this, I cannot stop admiring the mathematical instinct of this person who goes to the extent of mathematically formulating the behavior of a stone bouncing on the surface of water. Long live such ideas, long live such passions, long live the desire to break free from this artificial world and see the wonders in nature.

PS: Are there quant subjects in MBA curriculum? - There is "quant" in the name of some courses and some courses are said to require quant skills, but actually all of it is complete bullshit!

Chappar Phaadke!

2007-11-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true.

- Alchemist

Amazing are the ways of God by which life moves ahead, with all its twists and turns. I had completely given up hope in a good future (and the grand European dream) with the screwed up history repeating itself. But fortunately good things also repeat and actually some of it did, in a more magnified form. Some nice people from Barclays Capital came and found a few of my skills, which I was unaware of, to be of real good value. It was hard to believe for that day about a summer in London. But I guess it is one of those launch pads of opportunity which when you get, you just cannot afford to lose anything out of it!

Now.. there is some hope and hope is perhaps the best of all things. I have once again started to feel that the appearences of things in this world are illusionary. You never know the real almightly bolts hidden deep down there. The waves roll and toss things over the suface in the ocean, but deep within is the infinite calmness. If that depth can be found, its better to stay there. Getting confused with so many intriguing and glittering things around will give a loser feeling all the way. Don't lose your grip on the Dreams of the past, you must Fight just to keep them alive!

Well, structuring role at Barclays Capital, London - the blondes :), the city, the things ridiculously costly.. and above all shitloads of work!

The mad race

2007-08-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Competition.. the real cut-throat competition..
Whatever limits you stretch yourself to, there is a hell lot of stuff you are lacking at.
External appearances are an illusion.
Desire to succeed is in itself a mockery for which God keeps ripping on me all the time.
Death Metal is the only soothing music.
So much beauty around, I feel terribly confused, lost and deprived.
Whether life is about moving ahead or just slipping down an incline.
The principles "planned" to live by turn out to be a blasphemy.
Relative comparison makes me a complete loser.
Hope is a bad thing, perhaps the worst of all things, because its the reality which matters in the end.
Piling gloom on gloom, all that is needed to think about is - Where is this going to lead me?

Sucks..

(May be, it isn't really that bad!)

Coincidences..

2007-07-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

The year I have joined IIMB.. 07
my first b'day in IIMB on.. 7/7/7 :)
my roll number.. 177
my room number.. 007
days since I have started with the real IIMB life after the first L-sqaure party.. 7

my hostel block.. C
my section.. C
O God! My most sincere request - Now please don't let my grades be in.. C!! :O

And the journey begins..

2007-06-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Through the hallowed portals of IIM Bangalore :)

Shipwrecked, confused, swayed by distractions, vision totally blurred,.. but now who cares because this is going to be the best roller coaster ride to enjoy every moment in the coming 2 years and just live to the fullest!

Bangkok!!

2007-06-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Its pretty interesting to see how things automatically fall into their place. A major freak-out before beginning the rigorous academic life at IIM Bangalore was a must and giving the CFA with just 3 weeks of preparation would have resulted in a same screw-up, whether given in Bangalore or Bangkok. So prior cancellation of CFA in India turned out to be a blessing in disguise of a big pain :). No care for the exam results now but the Bangkok experience was all worth it!

Bangkok = unusually cheaper star hotels + thousands of sky scrapers + terribly big and amazing malls + worst traffic jams + a typical south east asian and buddhist cultural touch. I had a painful eating experience and learnt it the hard way that never eat the stuff which those south east asian (and Japanese/Korean) people eat. Once in a good looking fish I tasted something so crappy that I had to spit it out and another time a fish dipped in neat rum wasn't a thing worth tasting also. So basically KFC/McD/BurgerKing mein khaao, khush ho jaao. One thing I specially liked all the time was hearing the Thai girls speak in English, for that stretch they give to last syllables. Even though I had no enthu for shopping, one full day of walking in that shopping paradise was all worth it. Walking or catching the sky-trains was the only way to roam around during most of the day time due to the massive traffic jams in the city. I wonder how people in Bangkok get used to travelling at 1km/hr in their cars. Such a traffic jam with more than 80% cars of Merc, BMW or Toyota is worth seeing as well ;). At the Suvarnabhumi airport, the long walk between the immigration and departure gates seemed exactly like a walk in the malls. I also learnt that if its an international flight, ask for more bottles of red wine; it surely helps to remain in a non-boring state for the long flying time :).

Break Free!

2007-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

The two columns on either side of the door spoke to me.
One was Fear and the other was Desire.
Fear said "You are entering a dangerous, unfamiliar world where everything you have learned till now may prove useless!"
Desire said "You are about to leave a familiar world wherein are stored all the things you ever wanted and for which you struggled long and hard"
But then came a voice from above that speaketh "Nothing can frighten thee nor can it hold you back, just know what dost thou want and open the door to the New World!"

So now bye bye to Trilogy and the world of software; going to IIM Calcutta or IIM Bangalore :-)

Wallstreet is crazy!

2007-04-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Lukkha kartik dasa told me about the Skirt Length Theory. Since I am more lukkha :D, I browsed through the financial dictionary on investopedia and believe it or not! these weirdo terms are actually used in finance.

Skirt Length Theory:

Skirt lengths are a predictor of the stock market direction. According to the theory, if skirts are short, it means the markets are going up. And if skirt are long, it means the markets are heading down. The idea behind this theory is that shorter skirts tend to appear in times when general consumer confidence and excitement is high, meaning the markets are bullish. In contrast, the theory says long skirts are worn more in times of fear and general gloom, indicating that things are bearish. Although some investors may secretly believe in such a theory, serious analysts and investors - instead of examining skirt length to make investment decisions - insist on focusing on market fundamentals and data.
(If you see girls in mini-skirts around, just start investing :P)

Jennifer Lopez:
A technical analysis term referring to a rounding bottom in a stock's price pattern. For those unaware, Ms. Lopez is often criticized (or praised) for her round bottom. Traders like the rounding bottom in a stock pattern because it can be an indication of a positive market reversal, meaning expectations are gradually shifting from bearish to bullish.

Leading Lipstick Indicator:
An indicator based on the theory that a consumer turns to less-expensive indulgences, such as lipstick, when she (or he) feels less than confident about the future. Therefore, lipstick sales tend to increase during times of economic uncertainty or a recession. Believe it or not, the indicator has been quite a reliable signal of consumer attitudes over the years. For example, in the months following the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, lipstick sales doubled.

Boiler Room:
A place where high-pressure salespeople use banks of telephones to call lists of potential investors (known as a "sucker lists") in order to peddle speculative, even fraudulent, securities. A boiler room is called as such because of the high-pressure selling. A broker using boiler-room tactics gives customers only positive information about the stock and discourages them from doing any outside research. Boiler-room salespeople typically use catchphrases like "it's a sure thing" or "opportunities like this happen once in a lifetime". Boiler-room methods, if not illegal, clearly violate the National Association of Securities Dealers' (NASD) rules of fair practice. The North American Securities Administrators Association estimates that investors lose $10 billion a year - roughly $1 million an hour - to investment fraud promoted over the telephone!!

Naked Position:
A securities position that is not hedged from market risk. If an investor simply holds 500 shares of Ford, he or she has a naked position in Ford. If the investor wanted to cover this position, he or she could buy put option contracts, which would help protect against downward movements in the price of Ford shares.

Fat Cat:
Used to describe executives who earn what many believe to be unreasonably high salaries and bonuses. These top executives also receive generous pensions and retirement packages, consisting of extra compensation not available to other company employees. This term conjures up the image of cats that consume more than an appropriate amount of food and become grossly overweight. A real-life example of a fat cat would be former Disney CEO, Michael Eisner. For a period of five years in the late 1990s, Eisner received over $737 million in compensation, despite the fact that the company's five-year net income shrank an average of 3.1% each year.

Buy, Strip and Flip:
A type of situation that involves private equity firms buying out a target firm (usually with a leveraged buyout) and then, within a year or some other relatively short period of time, effectively selling the target firm in an IPO.

Plain Vanilla:
A plain vanilla option is the standard type of option, one with a simple expiration date and strike price and no additional features.

The Great "Suck" List

2007-04-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Bangalore traffic jams and all those agonized people quarreling in the midst of the jam
Bangalore dogs, brokers and autowaalas
Air Deccan flights
Indian Cricket and all the related things
All the humor deficit people who think that F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is the best TV serial
Mel Gibson movies
Making love in a war movie or violence in a love story
People who cannot appreciate the true beauty of South Park
IIT authorities putting restrictions on the students
Purple Haze shutting down at 11
spilling beer or running out of beer
finding nothing to eat at 3 am
any disturbance in the morning sleep
girls who don't reply back and act being too busy or pre-occupied
and also girls who want only those guys who can 24x7 hang around them
good looking chicks in the office who are married off!
not able to find any non-stinking shirt just before going to the office
Hot and Retarded HRs (most dangerous people in the company)
HRs wearing some exotic dress and smiling for no reason
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
stereotyped managers who keep bugging for every small thing
and also very bossy managers who feel too proud and over-confident of their status
people cheering for something in spite of knowing that it sucks
people who let their egos get in the way of anything they do
people who don't understand the fun in childish behaviour
gay bands, gay songs, gay talks, .. anything gay
politicians and terrorists
working hard for no reason
out of bounds memory exception in java
Honey-bee's sting

People who do not comment to this post ;) (as Maki recommends :P)

(Will keep adding more to this list)

A Few Real Gems!

2007-03-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is a collection of leave letters and applications written by people in various places of India .... Just for fun .... Get relaxed ...

1. Infosys, Bangalore : An employee applied for leave as follows:
Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please sanction me one-week leave.

2. This is from Oracle Bangalore:
From an employee who was performing the "mundan" ceremony of his 10 year old son: "as I want to shave my son's head, please leave me for two days.."

3. Another gem from CDAC. Leave-letter from an employee who was performing his daughter's wedding:
"as I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave.."

4. From H.A.L . Administration dept:
"As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave."

5. Another employee applied for half day leave as follows:
"Since I've to go to the cremation ground at 10 o-clock and I may not return, please grant me half day casual leave"

6. An incident of a leave letter
"I am suffering from fever, please declare one day holiday."

7. A leave letter to the headmaster:
"As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I request you to leave me today"

8. Another leave letter written to the headmaster:
"As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day."

9. Covering note: "I am enclosed herewith..."

10. Another one:
"Dear Sir: with reference to the above, please refer to my below..."

11. Actual letter written for application of leave:
"My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home I may be granted leave".

12. Letter writing: -
"I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."

13. A candidate's job application:
"This has reference to your advertisement calling for a ' Typist and an Accountant - Male or Female'...As I am both(!! )for the past several years and I can handle both with good experience, I am applying for the post.

Source: Sandeep Singh in the Ford group at Trilogy
(Don't know from where he may have got all this)

Apocalypto

2007-03-23T03:24:00.000-07:00

Dassi had the manhattan card and so we could watch any movie at INOX last night at half the rate. Actually we wanted to watch 300 (me for the second time :P), but since 300 is having a crazy time we were left with only one non-boring-movie option and it turned out to be brain damaging experience. Mel Gibson has come up with this most brain-dead and offensive movie I would have never imagined. Within the first few minutes itself I could see a good number of people leaving the hall, who could not suffer more from those extreme scenes. It showed the horrendous culture of a Mayan civilization and all I could make out from the movie was - We need to maintain peace on this beautiful planet where we live. May be such a brutal epic alone can show the superimportance of non-violence.
To all the calm, happy and good people - Please do not watch this lunatic creation of Mel Gibson.

O God, Let this world be a nice and beautiful place to live in.. forever!

Every dog has his weekend

2007-03-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

A Matter of Life and Death - Iron Maiden

This Saturday, in spite of the bike screwing up in the morning, I missed the lunch and camped the entire day at the Palace grounds of Bangalore. The evening began with the bands FTN and Parikrama opening the concert and later joined by Lauren Harris. It was indeed a special night with a crowd of 20,000+ shouting "Maiden, Maiden". The crowd was just waiting for the "Fear of the Dark" and the energy around was incredible. It was an amazingly spirited performance and head-banging all the way got my neck aching for a day.
I used to be casually interested in such hard rock, but thanks to this concert and listening to Led Zeppelin to get my head banging and make me mad and happy.

A few months back when I had watched the trailer of 300, I felt that another movie to the animation level of LOTR is coming up and I am not disappointed. The Spartans of ancient Greece were incredibly strong and courageous men and this movie shows 300 spartans fighting to the last man, against a million persian soldiers. The story shows that the true warriors can stand against any army.

And.. A ghoda-ride at Amoeba, my childish instincts show up all the time :P :P.

yaaay!!

2007-03-07T16:44:00.001-08:00

In the Summer of '05! Beautiful places, amazing food, beautiful people, the coolest prof, the Alps, the chocolates, the french beaches, the wine, the lap-dance, ..... the incredible days! and the research paper - http://www.springerlink.com/content/5mj5366h75556425/

Not All Pain Is Gain

2007-03-02T02:17:00.000-08:00

Corporate Ghoda-Giri Sucks Big time!

In the end.. It really doesn't matter!

2007-02-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on / but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to

Just the way ordinary people will find it superpainful to wake up at midnight and keep awake all the way, same I found waking up at 08:00 hrs when IIM-L calleth for interviews. May be, ditching it would have made the day go okay. But even then in some corner of my head, it seemed to shout to wake up, wear formals and go for the kind of interview which I need to learn to go (suffer) through. Well! the Hero started late though confident enough to reach jusst on time. But the clock did tick life away and I was some 120-150 seconds late! But the hope was there, I begged for the afternoon slot since it had been a substantial effort to wake up so early and keep pushing myself till Brigade road. Now adding up totally to the peak frustration, that IIM-L prof gave "phundaes" of how stupid I am if I try for MBA when I am not able to manage to such simple timelines! In the Bon Jovi's Its my life, the chap could have made for his babe just in time, but now I learn that it doesn't work that way in the real world.
Just as those South Park kids often say - You see, I learnt something today. As usual I learnt it the hard way :). Decide! decide well! and then let go, because in the end it really doesn't matter.

:-P

A visit to my Alma Mater

2007-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Day 1: At 7.00am, when I was trying to get my boarding pass, a group of ten Kingfisher airhostesses gather to the side to blow me out of my sleep! Lekhi and Kartik waited so long in spite of the screwed up flight's 3 hr delay. The air, the trees, the feel of insti was exactly the same as it was 9-10 months before, but most of the faces looked new and the dearest ones were pretty few. Met a prof with whom I could talk a lot and wondered at how freaking different it is to deal with a Trilogy manager than with an IIT prof. Evening snack, canteen hangout and video-show at Dharam's room brought the memories of those lukkha days. Visiting the funky poptates was obvious and first night's visit was with the cse chaps.
Day 2: Started to get the real humid-bombay-feel. Met all the hostel chaps together, till then it had been like a yahoo-conference only, for a long time. Life changes totally after transitioning from student life to ghoda-corporate life. Evening frisbee made me so happy :) At night, a 4'th-year-like party seemed like the best party I ever had! Stomach ached by laughing, so many memories hit all the time and everything will remain totally memorable. At late-night the lake-side cag went delightfully till the security guards appeared to throw us out of that place.
Day 3: Everything was as usual as during the IIT days. The return was again delayed, but that gave the opportunity to relish at the Linking road, Bandra KFC. Return to Bangalore was greeted by the state-wide bandh and all the day at airport was totally totally boring :(

Just a three-day visit to iitb and I've returned with the same thoughts I had when I came to Bangalore to start working in the corporate world. Feels like living those amazing days again, but as Ms Choksandik in South Park [:P] says that life is all about going forward and there is no need to go back even to the best days of life if we had lived them perfectly! A fun game is the game which gets harder as we play.

introspection and retrospection

2007-01-31T05:39:00.000-08:00

I am dumb and I screwed up!

resurrection?
Naah! Be at peace :-)

Bangalore on Uncyclopedia!

2006-11-08T01:35:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Bangalore! the city full of just two things - dogs and software professionals! So much that throwing a stone in any random direction, from any place in Bangalore, it has to hit either of the two!
The British East India Comany coined the word "Bangalore" from "Bang" + "galore", a strategic approach to lure the lusty fellow Englishmen into a false paradise.
For the history, Bangalore was captured by Tipu Sultan, heir to the throne of Mysore. Tipu Sultan fought the British in three decisive battles, under the moniker Cher of Mysore, which confused the British, since Cher had never been to Mysore before. Tipu Sultan was ultimately defeated and killed by the British during the Battle of the Tiffin Rooms to the backdrop of a soleful rendition of "Do you Believe in life after love".
The geography of Bangalore is surprisingly flat. Even more surprisingly, this flatness of Bangalore is highly contagious and now classified a world epidemic.The best feature about this flat and open architecture of the world, Swamy Fourman clarified, was that one could now plug and play with any part of the world.
The local people in Bangalore speak Kannada, which is just basically trick Canadian, but with a slightly different accent and without all the excessive "eh"s. For entertainment, the people of Bangalore enjoy recreational telephoning. The Auto-rickshaw drivers are the descendents of the maharaja Kingfisher Wodka and will charge anything at anytime on anyday. The most favorite activity that Bangaloreans indulge in is Trafficking. It is a social activity surpassing the bounds of caste, creed or religion. Every morning and evening all the people in Bangalore come out on to the streets with whatever vehicle(s) they own and create a mass procession. They honk, rev engines, brake hard, bump, double park, shout, jump traffic lights ... its a mass revelry.

The offshoring and outsourcing of work from Bangalore to the Third world, primarily the United States has caused some friction between the Indian government and the guy who heads up the main cattle ranch in America. However, the influx of foreign work to the United States has helped alliviate poverty and helped bring a certain level of stability to that country, notwithstanding the United States' repeated and contant nuclear tussles with neighbor and arch rival Canada.

Finally where does your money go in Bangalore?

40% goes towards taxes deducted at source and taxes snatched from you at gunpoint by the revenue department.
50% goes towards paying rent for a house and the interest for the house's security deposit.
20% goes towards fuel expenses for participating in the "trafficking event" every day.
10% goes towards food you never eat properly.
If you are unlucky, your landlord will extract the remaining 20% from you for house repairs.

If your total appears to exceed 100%, you might already be in debt or on the verge of bankruptcy. This might be the right time to contemplate suicide.

Oscar Wilde said sometime - "I dreamt about Bangalore once!" and here it is..

A Roller Coaster Corporate Boot Camp (eleven weeks of madness!)

2006-10-07T03:17:00.000-07:00

Some three months ago it was the painful time of transition, to leave the jungles of IIT Bombay and come out in the big bad world. But some crazy stuff happened in the last 11 weeks. Versata's (Trilogy of the past) "Boot Camp" was meant to make life go crazy. It was exceeded and everything was totally worth going through :)

"Work Hard, Party Harder", take this to an extreme and then you can get a twelve thousand feet view of this Boot Camp. This training could make a South Park episode - "Child Molestation at VU" :-P. But now I look back and see, these were truly the days of slogging to help in the long way ahead! Coming out fresh from academia, this could be the best training to wear the corporate shoes and get dancing on the corporate dance-floor.

Some two and a half months ago, after harassment by autowaalas and skilled-to-fool brokers of Bangalore, a nice flat and better knowledge of one-way-roads brought little peace. The feel of VU life started right from the first day itself! Introduction by playing 5-6 games, just all administrative work, 3-4 talks and 5* party at night.. everything on the very first day! The talks were throwing new light but at the same time sitting on bean bags was too much comfortable to avoid sleeping :P. Just in first few days we got used to a daily 14-15 hrs working office life. The most interesting part started after a week when the technologies were introduced. Things which should be taught in few months were taught in just one and a half week! Each day seemed to be terribly hectic, very exhausting but every next day was tougher and more interesting than the earlier. Best analogy can be, for our thirst these people blew the fire brigade water pipes at our mouth.. No exaggeration :-P. Hard work was very well rewarded with more and more challenging work. It was fun when I struggled to code my first few programs in Java (for I never did coding in IIT :P) and everybody paced up to the next level. The same old you-are-doomed feeling gripped me, but fortunately enthusiasm was never doomed. Despite terribly screwing up the initial assignments, things went decently later and even better. May be the initial downslide just added more to the madness and fun! May be I could learn that cogging the assignments in IIT screws you up eventually :P In the closed office space, days and nights looked the same, breakfast-lunch-dinner were dynamically defined. Even in the little sleep, I felt like thinking about the problem at hand. Deadlines couldn't get more deadly and the experience of these crazy days is priceless!

Who the hell will work so much for any salary! It all came for there was even more crazy partying and fun all the way! Bangalore, the land of pubs and 5* hotels, gave all that enjoyment. Bar nights, wine-champagne and the dance floor every wednesday night made life, in the true sense of the word - Rocking! The saturday freakouts are the most memorable moments of the VU life. Wonder Valley, Wonder-la, over-night kaveri fishing camp, amazing rafting in the waters of Kaveri, Gold-class movie, the talent competitions, bowling at Leela Palace, the memorable cricket matches.. Cheers to VU! It all just taught how to enjoy much more than work and that too in a Royal way.

The real experience started with the project. Fortunately, I got to work on a high priority project which is to be shipped to Ford directly after we finish it. It meant a lot of responsibility. I look back at the incredible last two weeks' slog! It earned us bean bags for putting maximum number of night-outs in the training :-D. Finally the icing on the cake was the memorable project-success-treat at Taj followed by the Goa trip. Not as much amazing as the French Beaches :-P, but Goa is the land of enjoyment and with fundoo people and the nice resort the fun was worth cherishing.

At the end of an amazing roller-coaster there is a sigh and this is the moment of that sigh. From now on work will be peaceful, weekends will be off, but all the madness and crazy fun will go away and these days will remain as the best memories! Eric Cartman says - "What awaits each one of us in heaven is eternal bliss, divine rest and one million dollars cash". Donno when the heaven may be attained, the real gear after the IIT life is attained :-)

Lost in Transition..

2006-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

The finishing of the most painful BTP work was a sweet release and thus ended a four year roller coaster ride in the Jungles of IIT Bombay doing something like Computer Science. The place where I lived with the most amazing people, learnt from the Gods about life and destiny and got a name to fall back on forever - IIT! Still feeling the hangover of the fourth year parties. Desparately waiting for the Convocation Day to be back at IIT with everyone, atleast for a few days..

Now back at home something really wonderful happened! I felt the bliss of a terribly peaceful life :) Eating and sleeping were the only things to be done. After crapping where-ever in the world, life back at home is the best ever..

Sitting on a screwed up windows comp with a dial-up conection at home, I realised what a heaven IIT-B LAN was! The outside world seems to be dumb and witless. But now, will be finding the real stuff happening in the new life at Trilogy@Bangalore. Getting at Trilogy had been a great struggle in the placement days but I hope the work will be rewarding enough. Gladly Harvard Business Review rates Trilogy's orientation program to be the best freshers orientation program. So it's not just any ordinary boot-camp and life is gonna get rocking! Everyone will make space when the elephant begins to dance!

I hope the convocation day comes soon..
I hope the company life gets rocking ..
I hope I can understand the real world ..
I hope I'll make it to the Land of Enjoyment (Europe) with loads of money in near future..
I hope ...

Eric Cartman says, "What awaits each one of us in heaven is eternal bliss, divine rest and one million dollars cash".

The Bruges

2006-06-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

THE Spirit of Antiquity--enshrined
In sumptuous buildings, vocal in sweet song,
In picture, speaking with heroic tongue,
And with devout solemnities entwined--
Mounts to the seat of grace within the mind:
Hence Forms that glide with swan-like ease along,
Hence motions, even amid the vulgar throng,
To an harmonious decency confined:
As if the streets were consecrated ground,
The city one vast temple, dedicate
To mutual respect in thought and deed;
To leisure, to forbearances sedate;
To social cares from jarring passions freed;
A deeper peace than that in deserts found!

Happened to read this poem of William Wordsworth and got one more nostalgic kick of the last year's time.. there in the Land of Enjoyment. The city of Brugge in Belgium.. the perfect look of incredibly well-preserved european medieval architecture, as in a fairy tale swans gliding down the winding canals and the stone houses looking like they're made of gingerbread, the touch of Renaissance, and those awesome addictive chocolates! Truly the entire city looked like a "Show Piece", and William Wordsworth obviously has hit it at it's best :)

colon O

2006-06-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

I don't remember how I happened to hit on a few pics of this ammazing russian babe!! Simply cannot stop wondering about her naturally beautiful looks!!
Xenia Kuznetsova, a Russian Actress, living in Moscow, never seen her on the TV screen, never heard about her, but only with these few pics.. flabbergasted!!
Desparately seeking any of her movies.. some helping soul, please please help!!

BELIEVE.. !

2006-05-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

When you come to the end of all the light you know and you are about to step off into the absolute darkness of the unknown, faith is believing one of two things will happen -- you will find something solid to stand on.. or you will learn to fly ..

Something which I've learnt from the past few days ...

2006-05-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

... is to put your utmost trust in what the Murphy Lord has to say - If anything can go wrong, it will and that too at the most inopportune time in the order of causing the most damage. Illusion is to think of anything not going wrong, it will anyway and if you circumvent all the ways in which the thing can go wrong then surely a new way of getting it wrong will arise :-). Since nature has always to take the side of the hidden flaw, left to themselves things will go from bad to worse.

So chill and be at peace. It may be so, but don't think of it. Sieze a few pleasures you can and do whatever little you can. Learn the practical wisdom of calling things to be good, when you receive blows say that they are flowers, when you are driven around like slaves say that you are free! Hide the carrion with roses :-)

I know.. all of it sounds pessimistic, cynical, discouraged or crappy.. May be I don't really believe in all of it, but I'll ever keep wondering about the existence of God and the so called Evil, both at the same time in this same world..

The "Jamun Lunch" Day

2006-05-21T02:34:00.000-07:00

Its a pretty boring life now-a-days trying to finish off the BTP work with only a few people around. In the midst of this painful summer heat today we tried something interesting. The jamuns made an awesome lunch :-D

Lekhi dude climbs up the tree and cannot stop eating the best ones while throwing the jamuns down

Happy Tree Friends :-)

Gulti collecting many in the bag but we can't stop eating while sitting there

This chap feeling so happy in the leaves of the tree

And by the time we were back and ready only a few were left and we were almost full :-P

Song of the free

2006-05-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

The wounded snake its hood unfurls,
The flame stirred up doth blaze,
The desert air resounds the calls
Of heart-struck lion's rage.

The cloud puts forth it deluge strength
When lightning cleaves its breast,
When the soul is stirred to its in most depth
Great ones unfold their best.

Let eyes grow dim and heart grow faint,
And friendship fail and love betray,
Let Fate its hundred horrors send,
And clotted darkness block the way.

All nature wear one angry frown,
To crush you out - still know, my soul,
You are Divine. March on and on,
Nor right nor left but to the goal.

Nor angel I, nor man, nor brute,
Nor body, mind, nor he nor she,
The books do stop in wonder mute
To tell my nature; I am He.

Before the sun, the moon, the earth,
Before the stars or comets free,
Before e'en time has had its birth,
I was, I am, and I will be.

The beauteous earth, the glorious sun,
The calm sweet moon, the spangled sky,
Causation's law do make them run;
They live in bonds, in bonds they die.

And mind its mantle dreamy net
Cast o'er them all and holds them fast.
In warp and woof of thought are set,
Earth, hells, and heavens, or worst or best.

Know these are but the outer crust -
All space and time, all effect, cause.
I am beyond all sense, all thoughts,
The witness of the universe.

Not two nor many, 'tis but one,
And thus in me all me's I have;
I cannot hate, I cannot shun
Myself from me, I can but love.

From dreams awake, from bonds be free,
Be not afraid. This mystery,
My shadow, cannot frighten me,
Know once for all that I am He.

-- Swami Vivekananda

Hangover of the last lap of IIT life

2006-05-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Summary of the last sem -- the life changing TRILOGY crack .. the screwed up CAT verbal score .. partying every night in the whole of Jan and Feb .. Cognitive Psychology, One Course to Rule them All! .. the crazy South Park addiction .. digging out all the keedas done in IIT life and profile writing .. the memorable Valedictory functions .. and the unkind BTP fiasco! Thus.. this four year IIT roller coaster ride is about to end, with all the ups and downs it had to end with a small downside - the painful project stuff demanding more work.

Now before starting the work to satisfy my guide, I had to visit home to get the much needed defragmentation and garbage removal. Fortunately got in touch with a few long lost school friends, met them and just felt the way I was and I used to think some 6-7 years ago!

Currently all the juniors have flown away for their internships and the batchmates leaving one after the other bidding a tearful adieu. Emotions saturate to say a Good Bye to the ones with whom I have lived these best days of my life. Fortunately there are a few who are staying back atleast till I leave this place and saving me from getting into a total vacuum.

Exactly one year ago I was chillin out there in the Land of Enjoyment (read Europe) and I still get kicks of the reminiscences of those days. Hoping to be there with loads of money! Just as Andy says in Shawshank Redemption - Hope is a good thing, may be the best of all things and no good thing ever dies.

May be what Gandalf says in The Fellowship of the Ring holds the ground --

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."

current song: Eine Kliene Nacht Musik of Mozart
current mood: vacant
current work to be done: go back to the btp papers and coding
current desire: finish off the project work, chill out here and go back home asapp
current plan: tonight pizza_n_wine@poptates <:-P

signing off =;

Recent Walks..

2006-03-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

Finally finished with all the episodes of South Park. For the uninitiated - This is one crazy serial, with some crazy kids, with all the crazy things happening in a crazy screwed-up town called South Park in Colorado. No words to express how amazing this work of Trey Parker and Matt Stone is. Seriously, nothing on the TV screen can influence your life and thoughts as much as this stuff.Stan and Kyle's friendship! Will Kenny stop being killed? Cartman's authority and all the dude people :)) Earth, planets, teachers, celebrities, strange beings from other planets, any weirdo tragedy.. nobody can stop these kids from having that fun. Hail these Kids, I worship them all!

This funky little game of Pacman caught my interest for I had nothing to do in life. Played this game a lot when I was a kid, but crossing even 50K was a task! and just a few days ago, donno from where the inspiration arose and I cracked 100K+ \:D/ .. and here is that snapshot of my full two weeks' hard work :D

But finally something painful :(( .. Unfortunately my btp prof is not just any IIT prof but a God and God expected a lukkha like me to work so hard and do a hell lot of coding :O in these happy days of final semester! .. Trying to do four months work in some 4-5 weeks, I am screwed up like this frog
Life is tough and painful buddy.. you've just to hang in around there.. Walking in this dark tunnel the light I see is most probably of the approaching train.. Chaos, panic or disorder.. when shall I break free!?

The Night to remember!

2006-03-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

The night of 1'st March '06 will ever remain as a very special memory of the Computer Science department life of the stay in this jungle called IIT Bombay! After four years of survival in this academic life along with the batchmates, here was the moment to come together and have the memories of the batch to cherish. At the Sun City came the studs of btech4.cse.iitb who grabbed the "Best Undergraduate Placements in India"! Champagne, Whiskey, dance, food and a helluva great time. Simply the "One Party to Rule them All"!!
A Rocking Party .. Donno how the four years just passed by, but will remember this party for ever and for ever ..

The Batch Cake!

The kind of group photo which already evokes the nostalgic feel

We were out :-)

Dance, masti, dinner and finally this photograph

The right girl will come someday ..

2006-02-26T06:26:00.000-08:00

Boys are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. The girls don't want to reach for the good ones because they're afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground, that aren't as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think that there is something wrong with them, when in reality, they are amazing.
And then I learn, just to be a little patient and the right girl, the one who takes a chance to find the good, right apple, will come someday...

(Tech :O) Daya-Fest

2006-01-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

And just a day ago, got over the annual technical pilgrimage of so many people all over the country. I didn't see quite a lot of it, but witnessed a few godly situations.
Walking down by the side of Physics dept to Kresit (sorry.. all the roads in IIT are nameless), there was a plumber fitting a pipe and joining it to the other with screws and all.. and voila!! some people from some college were so intently watching that event happening in Techfest at IIT Bombay!! :))

IIT plumbers are God, and their work is worth watching.. or
There are just too much lukkha people in the world.. or
Those were all the kinds of events in Techfest this year :))

Whatever it may be, I guess (very sadly) in the absence of Good People, like me (:-O) and my batchmates, this fest has become a daya-fest!

So now Techfest over.. waiting for bholasingh to crack a job for the next partytime.. Still unsure whether I can pass in my BTP this semester :((.. getting out of the addiction to southpark and slimegames.. should be trying to attend a few lectures and check out watssup with my guide after a long time..

Ai khuda... do zindagi de mujhe .. (pari's signature)

Holy $hit!

2006-01-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

Life has totally changed after the Trilogy episode and now I no more love the feline species with the weirdo CAT ditching me. May be what my mom says is right - Everything that happens, happens for the good!.. May be it is just to make life more peaceful and try all the helluva great stuff in the coming semester! :D

Cannot help watching Sex_is_Zero so many times, the movie to which I credit the Trilogy crack :)), helped me survive after that painful nightout .. Kartik man! How much to thank you for this movie!!

Shania Twain sings so well! Sania Mirza plays so well! and I've started worshipping Eric Cartman (for the uninitiated: South Park).

Waiting desparately to go and roll over the beaches of Goa.. The Indian Riviera can bring back atleast a few of the memories of French Rivieran days..

Only in 2 days that shady prof is trying to put all the Philosophy of Religion in my head, God knows for what :O

Cannot understand why should I be doing my BTP now.. but dude! Thou shalt need Thy degree :P

Trying to solve Esridhar's Conjecture: There are a prime number of cats in this world. I take it's special case for India, assuming 6 IIMs and more than 0.175 million lunatics. Try it..

And.. Please help me making the list of goddam crazy things to be done in the last semester of IIT life..

Wow!

2005-12-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Had a hell lot of fun at home.. much needed thing after the frustrating semester..
Nothing beats the food and sleep at home. Met a few chaps and then a nice girl of school time!!
Now supposedly at IITb again to mug for placements :)) Desperately waiting for KartikD to return from his gulf land with lots and lots of chocolates and pringles!.. Bholasingh too man! wanna play TT..

TT.. TT.. TT.. TT.. TT..

2005-12-08T21:49:00.001-08:00

Posting after a long time.. for there was nothing good to tell in the last days of the disastrous semester :((
Now yesterday me and bholasingh did some crazy thing.. It was 5.30 when we had wada-pavs from the canteen. Thought of playing cricket, but saw that there was nobody in the hostel having the enthu. So thought of trying hand with TT. Thus we started at around 5.45pm and kept playing and playing till 01.00hrs of the next day!!! took only a few 5 min breaks, no food, and became gods of TT in just a day!!
More than 7 continuous hours of TT and that too for no special reason! But now I am feeling so tired, legs paining like hell, and my right hand fingers so kinda numb that I'm not able to type properly :(
Whole night in my dreams kept hearing the TT ball.. counting the score.. and now I am not feeling like doing anything but just sit and watch movies..
I guess there will be many more such crazy things to do in the time to come .. during the last few days at IIT :)

Happy Diwali!!

2005-10-30T06:47:00.000-08:00

Life is beautiful!

2005-10-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Fire in the Exam!!

2005-10-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Papers got distributed and the exam started as usual.. 5 mins past and the questions seemed hopeless.. And all of a sudden a prof enters the room telling everybody to run out of kresit!!! what a surprise when we saw that there was fire in the best building in the iitb campus!
Donno what all got burnt in the fire which broke out but the exam got khatched :D..
Exam worth remembering ;)

Thought for the Day! (from Pari dude!)

2005-10-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

When you know what you really want to do.. Half of the problems in life are solved!

Fight and die rather than escape and live.

2005-10-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Some shitty thing happened today, wasn't so bad but seems like I would never give up thinking about it :-((
Learn one important thing.. Fight and die rather than escape and live.
Its obviously comfortable to escape some grinding and be at peace watching the hell that is happening ahead.. but it is just similar to the rabbit feeling secure by closing its eyes, even at the mouth of a tiger.
Do not deny and escape from climbing the peak ahead or O ye man, thou shalt miss the sight of beautiful heaven which you have always dreamt of.. mysterious are the ways of God!

Thus spake Esridhar.. who is everytime at a little higher mental state than the normal human beings..

2005-10-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

See.. there is this ammazing dog in our hostel. okay.. The last week he was only in our wing. He slept at the same place. Before that for 15 days he was in the opposite wing. and in the summer he lived in the UK wing.. you know that wing na.. the last wing of h5. Now he is near the telephone all the time.. He listens to everybody talking on the phone. Whenever you are talking in the corridor he comes nearby and just keeps listening.. and when you finish talking goes back to his place. He will keep following you when you are in the corridor or anywhere outside. Now he knows everybody in the hostel. He knows everything that is happening in our hostel.. What I feel is that dog is an ISI agent. Because he is a dog nobody can believe that he is an agent! That is why he is all the time doing such things ..

OMG!!

2005-10-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

21-23 were questions from a 73 lines RC.. was trying to read for 21'st question and JUST 5 mins left!! This was the most panicky situation I ever faced!!! So I have royally screwed up my GRE verbal.. anyway for 20 days effort got a decent score.. and got over with the chaotic words paining me all the time..

But now begins the most important thing.. To BELL the CAT.. 45 days to go and will be trying really hard now..

Life as Usual!

2005-09-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Woke up late.. just to find that I slept on my specks :(( and GRE book as my pillow.. It was 8.45 and had to go for the SimCat!..
Now this MockCat was the worst ever and I seriously don't understand why the hell are my scores so fluctuating.. came back and slept again..

The worst questions haunting me..
* When will my CAT scores show up their true numbers?
* Why the hell am I studying for GRE? But why the hell should I not study for GRE?
* When will I stop remembering the Europe days which make the present things feel so sick?
* And above all.. when will I break free??

The hills are alive!

2005-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Just saw the movie "Sound of Music" and remembered the alps!
Here goes the song --

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears

My heart wants to beat like the wings of a bird
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to pray

I go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I heard before
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I'll sing once more

GRE fever..

2005-08-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

Seriously God only knows whats gonna happen on the gre day..
The hero enjoyed the days in europe when he supposedly had to prepare for such an unknown exam.. but how could he!!
And now with less than 10 days remaining I have to go at a mindblowing speed to atleast catchup with some score.. let the 1400+ score go to hell...

Now the hero has to fight really hard!!

Eurotrip album

2005-08-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

So last traces of the memoirs of eurotrip up at http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~pradeepk/photos/eurotrip

The bitter truth.. aka Murphy's Laws!

2005-08-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Came across this interesting stuff.. Atleast for me it was really worth reading!

If anything can go wrong, it will
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter.
A falling object will always land where it can do the most damage.
In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.
Where patience fails, force prevails.
A bird in the hand is messy

So just remember that no matter how perfect things are made to appear, Murphy's law will take effect and screw it up.

Reminiscences

2005-08-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

The hero is remembering many things in his dreams and finds it really bad after waking up.
Just had a dream recalling the cycle-trip! Stefan tells all about the trip. I find something like a cycle trip in the scenic regions of germany to be very exciting totally unaware of the awesome stamina that these people have! Went to favorite park in the morning of sunday after the badhiya badhiya verma uncle treat on saturday! Met remy and tobias in the S-bahn while coming. And then started the cycle trip. Best cycle, the lake on the way, what an amazing greenery everywhere, going up the vine-yards, great lunch at the restaurant, the panoramic view from the top of vine-yard slopes, cycling along the Neckar river, the sunflower fields, the rathaus of every small town we visited, ice-cream at Marbach, some palace on the way, and best was the nice cool weather all throughout the day! I was so tired at the end of that day..

Wake up buddy.. and get back to work..

wtf..

2005-08-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

My btp prof wanted me to do the lit survey in the summers which I didn't do and I will do it this weekend!
My internship prof wants little documentation of internship work which I didn't do and I will do it this weekend!
I haven't mugged wordlist for yesterday and today. and that I will do it this weekend!
I did not get the CAT forms till now as it was raining and I will do it this weekend!
I did not attend any networks lectures and I have it's quiz on tuesday. I will need to study for that.. I will do it this weekend!
I couldn't submit the f#$&ing OS assignment this tuesday and just posponed it to monday risking very low marks. That I will do this weekend!
I haven't washed any of my clothes yet. I will do it this weekend!
I haven't made the album of europe pics yet and I will do it this weekend!
My room needs nice cleaning to get rid of all the fungus. I will do it this weekend!
Many tuts to go in next week and I haven't attended all the lectures.. seriously laggin behind.. I will do it this weekend!
AND most importantly!! I haven't yet started _properly_ to study for CAT. and I will do it this weekend!! for sure!!!

"Welcome back!" is what the hero hears after such a long time.. ;)

And it just ENDS..

2005-07-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

It had been a terrible time to return back after having such an amazing eurotrip! Just felt like too much of pleasure just brings lots of pain :(((
Bid the last farewell of this internship at stuttgart airport.. was terribly sleepy at frankfurt airport.. got sick the moment I touched mumbai airport.. rested for a few days at home.. faced the most terrible floods in mumbai and reached IIT Powai alive! Now alive and kicking in IIT and back to work.
Now worst problem being, I am remembering the europe days too much and just cannot do anything but hope I will go once again there with loads of money and enjoy there once again as the hero enjoyed in the summers. Will be making the gala-blog soon of the entire eurotrip and it will remain as the best memory!

The hero now knows best how to enjoy and with the europe experience the hero has to get back to work..

Hail Europe!

And Now..

2005-07-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

And now comes the toughest part of the internship.. This week I have to prepare the report of the research I have done here :P.. only if it had been a non-technical report I could have written a 100 pages fundoo report but it has to be technical :(( ... So the last 5 days here and I have to sit and keep writing something to show that I DID do work here.. and that's really the case also :PP .. in August again will need to write the stuff for submitting the paper!

And on sat had an amazing trip to Berlin!! The capital city of Germany is indeed awesome, and so awesome that I missed my last connection to come back to Stuttgart and got caught just to have fun! I had to put a night out at some station.. So the nearest to Stuttgart I could come was Frankfurt and then watched Frankfurt at night.. Then in the morning of the next day just slept nicely and at night went to the ballet show with the iitd girl here. and man!! what a show!! With the opera show in Vienna, ballet at staatstheater of Stuttgart and Louvre of Paris I have had seen the really best of european art..

hmm.. and now thinking of doing something interesting in the 5 days time left here.. feeling really sad to go back and start getting grilled at IIT :(

Jungle trip!

2005-07-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

So yesterday night Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli thought of having fun in the forest with not more excitement remaining in anything else. So best way was to get lost in the forest behind the univ and then fight to come back. And this indeed happened quite successfully but unfortunately more successfully than really needed :(
All the three started at 20:00 hrs and went right into the forest where it seemed to be thickest and really this turned out to be an amazing nature trip as well. Then came the familiar lake but a new view of it. got a bench to sit amongst the multi-colored trees and the three started to talk about their latest explorings in europe which is the most common topic everytime.
Well then it started to become dark after 22:00 hrs and then we still kept going ahead getting to know that we have crossed the forest and reaching some town on the other side and only way to get back would be crossing the forest somewhere again.. Yipee!!! goal was achieved.
Legolas decided to have the midnight trip and sitting (sleeping as well) on the footpath was the best out of the way thing Legolas has done till now. Cool air, a cat displaying acrobats around, people sometimes watching suspiciously walking around and sky getting pitch darker with only clouds and few stars trying to see though them. Best thing would have been to sleep there itself returning back in the morning. But only for food, the need to return back got priority. and now started the fun!!
Went straight into some section of the forest hoping that crossing it would lead to some known part of the univ.. But no! it went into some known highway just to tell us that we were walking on the wrong way. Gimli kept cribbing all the time but now his turn be proved correct was in light. So all listened to him and then went to the part of the forest just behind the big stadium of the univ and the tallest chemistry building in the univ was visible.. seemed relaxed but didn´t prove to be the real when we saw that the darkness is too dark for walking through the forest :(( and hopefully even if there were no wild creatures in the forest we still thought of ditching getting into the thick woods for some unknown danger.
It was 01:00 of the next day, stomach was cribbing for food and still needed to find a way. Then came the best part of using the head wisely. The busses came from the univ but god knows why they didn`t GO to the univ. So tracing the reverse direction of every bus we could see on the way just walked along the highway to see the nice metal-glass informatica building and with great fight against the tired limbs cooked food.. Wow!! what a taste after getting so much terribly hungry!! Legolas needed nothing but the flat ground below to sleep and again was walking through the forest happily in his dreams ;)
Now the hero wants to have parties in the forest and not in the limelight..

Eurotrip : Episode 3

2005-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. Its tough to have so much patience to tell all about the France trip which was the best ever trip till now. 2 days at Paris and 2 days in French Riviera was just an AWESOME time..
But too much bored to write everything :( .. so ditch.
Let those beautiful moments be absent in the blog!

Rhine and the Wasserfall

2005-06-30T02:58:00.000-07:00

"When God was looking for a place to set up a paradise, the sunny slopes between the Taunus mountains and the Rhine nearly won the prize".. The frommer's description of Rheingau started as this and I just couldn't resist to check out this place. And indeed this place was such a paradise. The calm Rhine flowing with infinite vineyards on one side and mountains and islands on the other side made that day! Enjoyed the entire journey with the sweet rhine wine!!
And then triberg waterfall being the highest waterfall in Germany was the best ever waterfall I've ever seen even in pictures.. seriously!!

So now next 4 days in France and this is gonna be the best eurotrip episode I think!

Life as usual..

2005-06-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Three days .. no visits anywhere.. no parties.. nothing really special going on :(
some routine monotonous algo running for a few days...
wake up in the morning - ditch having a bath everyday saying that tomo will be better - hurry the breakfast with something simplest to eat.. chocolates! - go and then a little lukkha - then more lukkha - come back for lunch - then try hard on the problem only to find that the earlier way cannot work and try for a new way .. - prof may come.. then just tell a few little efforts you made and he seems happy.. have a little chat.. - then 5.30 and Yo.. timeup, nobody is there in the group - roam around somewhere like a floating cloud.. on the koenig street?, then come back and make dinner along with all the iit guys here.. ditch muggin the wordlist saying that there is still enuf time.. then at nightwalk and sort of back to the room only to eat something more and off to sleep!
Well now.. tomo having a party in our group!.. donno for what.. where..
anyway.. read few of the William Wordsworth poems, they are just to make you happy :)

Enjoy.. Enjoy.. Enjoy..

2005-06-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

If you need to learn any big thing in life and change the way to live... then learn this damn important thing from europeans.. "Learn to Enjoy!" .. Just learn to enjoy!
Now tonight visited the Sommerfest of the Stuttgart University and saw so many guys and chicks just chilling out their life and having an ammazing fun!! Sounds normal that college ppl coming together and having fun.. but this one was too much.. cant descibe in words.. Just screwed the shit out of me..

Just let everything take care of itself, and enjoy life... Enjoy Life!

Oh God.. my most sincere request!.. pour into me a little of this european stuff ..

Eurotrip: Episode 2.

2005-06-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Spent a lot of time on friday night searching for the places in Benelux. Even though I had to catch the very early morning train, I slept at around 1'o clock. Woke up at 5.00.. was feeling damn sleepy but the excitement for freaking out was more!
Just managed to catch the S-bahn in time and got the ICE to Koln. Now an interesting experience in the train. I knew that Koln is the center for gays and lesbians and that got I got to see in the train to Koln itself!! two lesbians sitting on the side, hands in hands, touching each other where-ever infinitely often, and all.. shit!! I had no reason to move somewhere but just keep sitting there watching the live show! Height was they went to WC together... what kinda lesbian love man!! too much is their defence mechanism and weird fundaes..
Then had a little time at Koln to see the beutiful cathedral and river. Then caught the IC to brussels and chinmay was waiting there till my train arrived brussels-midi at 11.32.
Then as usual got the city map and started to see brussels.. One thing - people knew english nicely here.. had no problem with language. The best buildings in brussels was a nice sight. Palaces were awesome. For the first time saw a city with a perfect medieval touch.
Now we went to Brugge just becos frommers.com said that it was a good attraction but in public opinion it was highly underrated. And man! this city turned out to be a jackpot! To desribe the city in the simplest word - "The entire city was a show piece". Just anything made of chocolates, every shop with best of exotic things, river through the city, nice garden with swans in the pond, bridges, cute small buildings, and taste of medieval stuff. This is the best city I have seen so far! Seriously whosoever goes to belgium, just dont miss brugge.
Then went to antwerp and this turned out to be a mavali city. Red light area, negros, and signs of place being like amsterdam! But the port was nice and had a great time there.
Then returned back to Brussels and enjoyed the night life. It was awesome. past midnight and the city was alive and kicking. One crazy thing we found everywhere was people crowded in front of ice-cream shops in that chilling weather! Indeed fools.. but after checking this everywhere we too had ice-creams and one scoop (equivalent to 3 indian scoops) was just more than enough... Man! people just enjoy the night here..
Then came the painful part.. niteout at the brussels-midi station. But it wasn't that much of pain as we found 2 american girls and 2 guys and kept chatting for a lot of time. Over so many layers of clothing too the chill was unbearable... and weird part was we just didn't have any 1 or 2 euro change to get beer or wine to beat the chill :((.. the warmest place we found was the telephone booth.. some 1 degree warmer in which somehow uncomfortably I could sleep but not more than 30 mins..
So all the night stayed up and in the morning one shady fellow came to offer me hashish!... just didn't see at him and continued our sight-seeing of brussels. This place holds a great importance for european union. The headquarters, court of justice and so many important places here.. really Brussels rocks!
Then went to luxembourg for sleeping in the train for 3 hrs and pushing ahead in the trip. Now Luxembourg was just like a french city and chinmay put it as it was just like Monaco.. beautiful city with valleys, historical part below, the modern town on the above, dwellings of richest europeans, and overall a sexy city! Just roamed around and bid farewell to Belgium and Luxembourg.
So that was simply a memorable trip!

I ate a raw fish!

2005-06-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yes.. today I found an interesting burger with a nice looking fish inside. Just couldn't guess that the fish may be raw!! Now in this Deutschland I have eaten everything and infact I like it more now. Pork, beef, rabbit, any bird, as long as it tastes good I dont mind eating it.
So now I am totally into non-veg and I have full freedom to eat anything which these people eat :D, atleast till I come back home...

Eurotrip: episode 1.

2005-06-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

Was pretty excited about going to vienna and salzburg. So in the late hour of nite at 00:00 felt quite fresh enough. It was a german train, so obviously started verry much on time. in the coup had an old couple sitting ahead and a decent babe on the side. Seeing not much opportunity to interact just felt asleep after putting the bag on the top. And then! Wow!! some station came in the early morning at 4:30 types and found myself with 3 babes in the coup!!! one sleeping ahead and two on the side. But all sleeping :( So me too slept again and woke up just like an hour before vienna came. Had a little chat with the nice babes, but was a big fight for them to understand english :(
Then in Vienna, Anosh came on time. Really Anosh made the best stay in Vienna possible! With a little breakfast went to tour the historical city. It was a nice and new experience for me. Felt great seeing all the palaces! The BEST thing is Vienna is their Opera show and you can find people wearing some majestic kind of dress all throughout the historical part of the city trying to sell the tickets for the show. But so costly something like 60 euros and the cheapest was some 26 euros. Was thinking whether to get it or not.. but then a little search showed that "Stehplatz" which is the standing place costed only 5 euros!! Without thinking a bit, just ran and got the tickets. So there was the very best time to come at 8'o clock at night.
In almost every european city, on weekends the main city is the best attraction, with all lukkha european people coming and having fun, dancing, watching streetplays, having ice-cream. In short Enjoying! I too had the same and enjoyed a lot! and in Vienna it was really special.
Then had some 5 hrs to spend before the opera show. So went to danube, a nice river in Vienna and then to a cute and small city, Baden just near Vienna.
So now was the thing which has turned out to be the best ever thing I have seen! The opera show was in the museum of natural history which is a big palace like building in the heart of the historical city. Velvet walls, big paintings, majestic art just everywhere. And then came the group who was to perform and for 2 hours I felt like in Heaven! Anyone who goes to Vienna just cannot miss this show or just never miss this show anywhere you can find it! Violin, Ballet, Singing, an altogether awesome experience. The best masterpeice of european art indeed.
Then returned late at night, had dinner at McD and had much needed night sleep.
Next day caught the train to salzburg, again met a nice babe, cuty-cuty babe. Salzburg is the best attraction in the german-austrian alps and indeed felt awesome seeing the river, tombs of the church and palaces in the background of little snow-capped mountains. check out the pics at photos.yahoo.com/euro_internship and they will tell you everything. An awesome scenic beauty indeed! Met harsha there and had a nice time. For lunch had a sexy fish-burger in the place which seemed to be like a fish-fest!
Then went to a little place of a lake. A peaceful, serene lake, with again the little snow-capped mountains in the background. It was the best place to lukkha for 1 hr.
Then came to munich and watched that city for some one and half hour. I will have to go to munich sometime to see all the places there.. Just the look nearby the main station was cool, so the city must be awesome!
Then came back by the best ICE train.. What a train man! Max-comfortable and high-class.

So this was the first weekend episode of eurotrip! Lots of fun and gotta learn lots of things :D
Now thou shalt get back to work!

PS: I have a dream.. 5000 euros, 1 month holiday and 30 days eurail pass..

That was the best time man!!!!!!!!

2005-05-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

"mm.. Hi, I am here at Offenberg for some one and half hour, which are the nice places to visit in the city"
"I zont.. know here.. I from Berlin."
"Ohh.. ok.. nice, So tell me where all you roam around in berlin!?"

And it just started in this weird way with the hot chick sitting alone in the train! and had an awesome time! :D Why did the station came so soon..:(
Just never thought of such a friendly hot babe talking so lovingly in german-english.. Seems like I should just ask for a date in the next opportunity of this kind :PP

Remember - When opportunity knocks, just break open the door!

The terrible night.. and the luckiest morning!

2005-05-24T00:46:00.000-07:00

Went to the store called Lidl as usual, bought things as usual, came back as usual, but then got a very unusual shock when my most valued digi-cam was missing from my bag. Left only one possibility that I left the cam sometime while putting things in my bag at the store. Just ran back like a crazy monkey to find the shop closed. Just asked madly to all the people around what could be done.. just to get the answer - "wait for the morning" :((
Whole night was in full nabad.. camera worth 250 euros and just left like that :O .. was the stupidest mistake ever and costed me such a hell lot! Whole night found out few cheapest digi-cams but not worth less than some 170 euros. 10% of my internship money just screwed up like that!
In the morning found the korean guy who knew nice english and german! This guy turned out to be the luckiest person for me.. indeed!! Went to the store and fortunately the same lady who sat that unfateful evening was there on the nicest morning. And the with the smile of that lady saying the camera was there just felt like getting naked and kissing her all over :O .. Ohh not really but was damn ecstatic! Thanked so much to the korean guy and to the lady there.. haaaaa.. just normal now.. will try to sleep tonight then :)

Hail Germany!

So now the hero has learnt to take utmost care of all the stuff!

I will..

2005-05-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

I will have a Mercedes-Benz one day..
Yes.. Surely I will just have it!

Mercedes-Benz.. Mercedes Benz..
Just the Mercedes Benz...

bodensee!!

2005-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

So this weekend visited Lake Constance in the southern part of Germany.. Simply an awesome place!!
Konstanz is the cutest city I've ever seen! And Radolfzell had a nice mystic look. I will upload the photos soon at photos.yahoo.com/euro_internship and let the pics speak it all..
German countryside, beautiful lake, infi sexy babes, nice view from train and the best fish burger made it a cool weekend!

Tie the key round you neck!

2005-05-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Just came out of the door to feel the nice breeze and see the swaying of trees and then heard a thudd at the back.. It was the closing door which made that sound, but the real shock registered when I put my hand in my pocket to find that I didn't have the key!!!!! Every german door is made in a way that when you are out of the room you MUST have the key. And there was no way to get in the room :((
Kept fighting .. went here and there and checked with all the ppl in the guest house, but only fighting to tell them that I couldn't get in my room. Almost nobody understood english and at the end just a sort of sorry came from all :((
Finally an indian guy living in the guest house came and he understood the problem.. That was the blessed moment. Having experienced the same disaster before, he told me to go to some place where some unknown person lived who had the duplicate keys.. Then came that guy and my room opened, just looked at the keys lying happily on the table!

So now..

2005-05-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

All the great novelty in things has come to an end and the initial euphoria has faded. Watching the best of babes has become a normal routine. And now I have to WORK.. I have to work and do the thing which I have come here for.. But its not just mugging some shit, working here is pretty interesting with very helpful people and nice atmosphere around.
Anyway.. this weekend is extended by the holiday on monday and so will be visiting some interesting places around!

Rational Subsets of HNN extensions :O :O

2005-05-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

The hero found that there is gonna be a talk by some prof from some unknown university. So he inquired about it. Our hero's prof also told to attend the talk saying that the prof is working in good things of 'formal languages'. So the hero got pretty interested and attended the talk early in the morning at 9.30. Hero sat among the most elite ppl in the informatik department and the talk started with an intro in German :O .. Hero couldn't understand a bit and then things just became comfortable with english slides and english talk starting. But right from the first line everything turned highly incomprehensible and the hero suffered for full 1hr and 15 mins. listening the the most enlightening talk which was to be shown in some conference. So now the hero has to beware of the most technical and mad ppl here whose prime intention is to go terribly deep in something and pain the innocent souls.

Pass Orange Junior =))))))))

2005-05-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

This is the pass meant for school children here and i got it for travelling in the city :))).. I seriously dont know why the age limit was 21, which I haven't crossed yet! So now I can travel in this ammazing green and sexy city for the whole month in just 15.60 euros \:D/

In the Fangorn forest!

2005-05-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

It was exactly like the Fangorn forest!! This place so near, just 10 min walking distance.And such a beautiful lake in the midst of the forest. Everything looked like the scenes from LOTR. So this was the first great european sight seeing!
Just missing a windows dabba to upload the pics :(

In the heavens..

2005-05-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Just an amazing nice and cool place. Got a really studd room to live with only lappy remaining. Every time I just donno what all I eat, it tastes the same all the time - tasteless. I'll have to start cooking soon.
Will check out the things in the univ today and will explore this beautiful city tomo!
All people here are nice and the coolest is my Prof :DD

This is gonna be a damn rocking summer!!

So finally...

2005-05-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

Reached Europe!!!!!!!!

too much to tell.. will write later on.

Run.. Just Run

2005-04-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Long you’ll live and high you’ll fly
And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry,
And all you touch and all you see,
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down it’s time to dig another one.

Next Friday.. at this time..

2005-04-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

Next Friday, at this time I will be at home. Maxo joy of getting over with everything in the semester and peacefully at home. Grades may come or may not come.. I dont care a damn for the grades now $**%#&.
About now.. still on the roller coaster ride waiting for it to finish and check out europe!

CSE 6'th sem @ iitb Rocks!!

2005-04-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

Seriously life has become a 24hrs per day roller coaster ride.. Just terrible enjoying it!!

And its the time..

2005-04-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Its the time for Endsem to start. Somewhat repetition of the same old stories.. Life is as usual, only more hectic now-a-days.Plan to sleep a hell lot after the exam ends.13 days to go for light to shine and 22 days to go to land in Europe!

The song of the free

2005-04-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

The wounded snake its hood unfurls,
The flame stirred up doth blaze,
The desert air resounds the calls
Of heart-struck lion's rage.

The cloud puts forth it deluge strength
When lightning cleaves its breast,
When the soul is stirred to its in most depth
Great ones unfold their best.

Let eyes grow dim and heart grow faint,
And friendship fail and love betray,
Let Fate its hundred horrors send,
And clotted darkness block the way.

All nature wear one angry frown,To crush you out - still know, my soul,
You are Divine. March on and on,
Nor right nor left but to the goal.
......

-- Swami Vivekananda