Aniket's Blog

San Fransisco in 1906, Before and After the earthquake

2012-02-11T20:53:00.003-05:00

I have been fascinated by the history of a city. San Fransisco was the great frontier to the west - the land of opportunities, long before the tech boom that we see now. The bustling city, had an unfortunate moment in 1906 when it experienced the worst earthquake in its history. Over 3000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed in the subsequent fires. Here is the wikipedia article on the earthquake and its aftermath. The damage in the earthquake is estimated to be $8.2 billion in 2009 dollars! That's larger than most other disasters including 9/11 and Katrina.

But we go off on a tangent. The reason for this post if s a couple of videos I found on Quora which show life in the bustling city, just before the earthquake - from a cable car going along Market Street. The second video compares this with another footage taken after the earthquake. Its eerie.

Its amazing how quickly the city was back on its feet. The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition was held here - and there were almost no visible signs of the earthquake by then. That exposition gave us the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts building near the Presidio.

I am dumbfounded by the resilience of the people here - and it makes me wonder whether it should really take us so long to change the face of Indian cities..

Pittsburgh timelapse!

2011-12-25T17:15:00.001-05:00

Found a nice time lapse of Pittsburgh on vimeo. I miss the city sometimes. I spent about 16 months there, getting my Masters, and although the work was really intense, I still did get to explore the city a lot. It was my first home in the United States, a humble city, with long roots, great people and an awesome university.

A Pittsburgh Spring from Zachary Smith on Vimeo.

RSS Overload!

2011-09-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

I am a big proponent of the RSS feed. Although it is not as popular as twitter or facebook, it is a great way to not miss an interesting article on a website that you may or may mot visit regularly. If you do not use it, I would highly recommend Google Reader to keep a track of websites that you like. There are others too, but being a google fan, I haven't tried them. I promise you, you will learn more about things you are passionate about than when you spend time on facebook, and you will never need to worry about missing a feed!

I have been curating my RSS feed from since my time at my undergrad. Its been 4 long years, and over the time I have accumulated a lot of feeds. I used to try trim the number of feeds once in a while, to the extent that I am really proud of my colelcted curation - and needless to say, very attached to it.

While at CMU, I absolutely didn't have time to read, however I still managed to keep up with my favorites. After CMU, I have been into a lot of stuff, including Design, Creativity, Marketing, Advertising, Tech, Startups, News from India included. And the Reader has been a faithful pet, getting to me on a digital platter, all of it..

Now for the problem.

Over a month back, I realized my RSS feed has become an addiction. I was subscribed to over 140 feeds at a point, getting over a 200 articles posted in my reader everyday! That is an incredible overload. Even at 2 articles a minute, I needed to spend close to 2 hours everyday just to not drown under the flood of feeds. On an occasional day, when I missed catching up, it was even worse. And the times when I traveled, there was simply no way I could catch up on the 1000+ unread articles by the time I got back. For such times, there was always the quick route of marking all articles as 'read'. Doing this felt really horrible. I felt like I needed to not miss stuff - its like trying to read all the newspapers for the past fortnight in one go.

Drowning under this weight, I hardly got any time to do anything else. I have a bunch of pictures from over 2 years that need processing, sharing etc. I sorely need to exercise, I rarely update this blog and I have no time to learn new things in depth. And that sucks!

So I decided to target getting down my feeds to a 100 for a start. I got there only last week, gut-wrenched to see some of the stuff I really enjoyed reading. However, if I really have to, I can always head over to those websites. A lot of these feeds posted more than 1 item everyday - and still sneaked in through my no-more-than-10-articles-per-day rule. These had to go.

After getting down to a 100, my next target is 50 feeds. This one is even harder, considering that a lot of the feeds now are my friends' blogs, or webcomics, which usually post only 1 article/day or lesser. I am almost halfway to my new target - down to 76, and I already feel better. This time however, I did not completely remove these sites from my life - I pushed them off to my twitter feed.

The twitter feed is way faster than the reader, but it doesn't show me 'unread' items, which means that I can dip in whenever I feel like it, and not have the 'unread' guilt hanging over my head. That way, presumably I can skim through more stuff.

The high-nosed may scoff that twitter has been around for a while and I should have known this before. I admit that I didn't / don't still get twitter. I hate the fact that I can miss reading something of value. However, I am ready to experiment with it for now. From now on, lots of feeds which post a lot, but in which I read only a few articles - i.e. have a low signal-to-noise ratio will have to go to twitter. The reader would continue to be a place where I add friends, and webcomics and a host of other stuff that doesn't update that often. I guess I would miss a few things, but this would make my reader much easier to clean, make twitter much more relevant to me, and my life uncluttered, happier and more hopefully more creative. In some ways, these would be two separate news providers for me. Twitter carrying the sensational, in the news stuff, while the Reader can continue to be the editorial page - to be read carefully and enjoyed.

Inspired by:
Zen Habits
Chris Brogan - who unsubscribed from over the 100,000+ people he was following on twitter.

Sidenote: Now that I am pushing more things on to twitter, I wonder if I will get to a point where my feed there gets overloaded.. So much so that I can't track it! I guess I will handle this problem when it comes to that.

A nation full of 'engineers'

2011-07-15T16:14:00.002-04:00

Asmita smiled as she put the finishing touches on the purple horizon in her painting. It depicted the beautiful dusk she had one seen from her Aaji’s house in the village. It showed a glowing sun setting amidst the blue mountains, far away in the evening haze. Cows grazing on the yellowed landscape, and a silhouette of the dry trees parched for water, in the hot, dry Indian summer. With a last sigh, she glanced with wistful eyes at the painting as she put away her tools - her palette, paintbrushes and the oil paints she had just finished using - into the box-bed. This was the last time she would paint in a long time to come.
Rohan’s Mom called him back home for dinner just as he was about to score the last fifteen runs required for his team to win the T20 cricket match with kids from the neighboring building. “Coming Mom”, he shouted back impatiently, slightly angry. Cricket was the only thing he had ever cared about for as long as he could remember. His eyes twinkled as he faced the opposition’s bowler, his bat swinging in a wide arc, cleanly striking the ball along the pitch for a boundary. This would be the last time he played the game for the next three years.

Nakul sat crouched under the bush, patiently and noiselessly as he waited for hours for the bird to show up. He had spotted its nest just after noon. It was high up on the tree, cozy between the trunk and a thick branch, away from the wind. It was close to dusk, surely the bird must return now, as they always do. Maybe it had gone out hunting for the day, as they always do. His legs hurt from sitting all day in this position, the camera hanging around his neck, his neck sunburned. He waited with baited breath, and... There it was! She had just flown home. In a sudden rush of excitement, he clicked away furiously, capturing the bird in its full glory; swooping in on its nest, landing nimbly on the edge, trying to be fair to all the bird babies as her beak went around distributing the spoils. The chatter of the babies made him happy, joie de vivre running through him. It was the last that that camera ever clicked nature.
Today, and later in the month they will all be appearing for their engineering entrance exams. Fighting to get into the 10,000 or so seats that ‘good’ engineering colleges in the country on offer. Not one of them will get a seat. None of them will be good engineers.

Not because they are not smart. Not because they are not intelligent. It is because, they were not supposed to be engineers. They were supposed to be painters, and poets, and athletes and ornithologists, all excelling in their fields. 5 years later, they will all be working for as ‘software engineers’, working at a tiny back-office, fixing bugs created by some unseen overlord in some far away land where they have never been. Or faking accents, helping some middle aged lady in Wyoming figure out how to use the new blender she just bought.

Working for a different overlord than the one they gained ‘independence’ from 60 years ago. Or the same one.

Very few of them will actually go back to work at their passions.

Very few of them will actually do work that will change the world in some way.

Very few of them will actually be ‘independent’.

Very few of them will ever be free...

Can I go to war with you on my side?

2011-06-18T12:35:00.000-04:00

In this article, former Indian cricket coach Gary Kirsten says of the Indian World Cup winning captain MS Dhoni:

“I have read that great leaders in the world give credit to others when things are going well and take responsibility when things are going badly. MS Dhoni is that to the ‘T’.”

Indeed that is the hallmark of a great leader, and in fact should be true of every leader if (s)he wants to win the trust, admiration and respect of the tribe. Not just as lip-service, but that is how a leader should feel from the inside. Because very few victories are achieved just due to the leader. It is always a team game. And by giving credit to people the leader empowers each member of the tribe - allows a sense of joy and belonging to permeate through.

By taking responsibility when things go badly, the leader takes away the downside - the fear of failure. This allows each individual to be creative without fear of retribution.

“I want to go to war with this guy,” Kirsten said talking of the skipper.

Are you someone who I would trust enough to go to war with?

Strangers across the Room

2010-10-04T01:32:00.000-04:00

Their eyes met at the campus bar. She was a slim petite girl. He had a broad muscular frame. At first instant, it was electric. A connection both felt. It would have been nicer if they had had a chance to talk.

She with her conservative upbringing was too shy to initiate contact. He was too skeptical to leap at the opportunity. It would have been nicer if they had had a chance to talk.

That night before sleep cradled her, she thought of what could have been. As he turned on his pillow, he wondered if he should have gone ahead and asked her out. It might have been nicer if they had had a chance to talk.

But then again, somethings in life are best left unsaid… There is a joy in incompleteness. There is a joy in the ‘could-have-beens’. In the memories which never took place…

A Heaven to Compare

2010-07-31T01:47:00.004-04:00

There was once a guy named Janardhan
Worked hard each day from eight to seven
Sometimes even till eleven!
In the hope that he would end up in heaven

Grew up in scarcity,
In school he calculated mass, velocity, density,
One of the brightest there
Destiny still forced him on a path as only she may dare,

Till yesterday he ploughed hard his field,
Cursing God for unlucky seed,
Dependent on the monsoon for his bread,
A difficult and lonely path he tread

He wished for a better life,
Away from all the strife,
On the other side the grass is always green,
In his dreams he saw a place with great sheen

A place where water was aplenty,
and the girls were dainty,
If only he could go there,
How much better he would fare

Today he was struck by lightening,
Transported to Shangri-La, in a moment delightening.
Where even in his wildest dreams he’d never been,
Here the cows were plump and the fields were green,
And he should have been as happy as ever seen!

Ever so suddenly freed of his bind,
Something yet kept pricking his mind,
He was in heaven! But he didn’t have a clue
In his mind he was ever so blue

Until God thundered, “Why so serious?”
For, no wonder, He was furious,
“What kinda bloke pines in heaven?”
To which replied Janardhan,

“Mi’Lord you see,
Now that you mention this as heaven,
I wonder myself why happy can’t I be...”

“And this may sound sappy,
This place being so free of care,
But I can’t be happy,
Despite my humble home bare,
For I ain’t got another heaven to compare!”

The Dream II

2010-06-21T21:02:00.001-04:00

I was standing at the cliff edge. The roaring sea far below, pounding in all its majesty to my right; a small hut behind my back on the left – a poor man’s shop offering some snacks and drinks. Shabbily laid out plastic tables, not exactly new and shiny, but still offering solace to the weary traveler, and a hot cup of tea with biscuits if he so wishes. The day was hot, and the three of us had come a long way. My companions till now were – my friend, a vastly more experienced person at this kind of a thing, pointing out to me all the perils that the way had brought, unfailingly, in a way that would not be possible unless it is from the very bottom of the heart; and then there was the guide. Rugged, acquainted with the way of the mountains as well as a mountain goat, unflinchingly leading us through valleys and passes, never once unsure of his footing; as though He himself had created the rocks which we trod upon.

The journey had been challenging, but it was all towards this end. It was here which would decide the destiny, the path of all that would matter. The way down to the sea was from the left, winding, across plateaus and mountain paths. It seemed reassuring, considering that the guide and the companion were both already heading down the path. Did that look like the best way for me? I had faithfully followed them this far, unquestioning and without any harm, but was that the right way for me? Or could it be that the time had come when we split, me heading out in the search of my own destiny.

Unthinking, I veered towards the cliff edge, the waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff, threatening, menacing and unforgiving. Losing my balance, I almost careened over the edge, when suddenly I heard my name called out from the distance. It jolted me back into conscious, but I had now seen over the edge of the cliff. I had seen the sheer face of the mountain. It stood gloriously, for all these years, withstanding all the battering of the sea, the yellow sandstone gleaming under the bright hot mid-day sun. Was this it? Was I meant to take the plunge? Wouldn’t it be much faster, if not a sure shot way to reach the sea?

Just as I stood contemplating all of this, clouds gathered in the sky. As if reflecting the tumult in my mind, the environment transformed. The wind started blowing across strongly, the waves, small and calm till now transformed into large ones, dashing against the rock displaying an anger known only to them. Beyond the mountain, a twister swirled into life. The monster started snaking its way towards the cliff as I watched, transfixed, rooted to the spot.

He veered towards the cliff, threatening to swallow my people in one gulp. As I glanced towards my left, I saw the desk, with my laptop calmly resting on top. In one moment, as if deciphering my attachment to it, he moved swiftly to swallow the desk – laptop and all, never to be seen again. As pangs shot across my heart, worrying next for my beloved, the devil circled about, waiting for me to make my next move. A look of fear must have flitted across my face, because even as I regained my composure, he seemed to sense my weakness and snort at me, a smirk almost discernable within the dusty folds.

Then I saw it. Beyond the hut and the twister, stood a building, on the leeward side of the mountain, away from the sea, protected from the elements by the mountain, playing shelter to scores of children.. In a flash, my life flashed before my eyes, it was time for Qayamat – the Final Judgement. I had to decide, what I would do next. I could still dive off the cliff, and in a moment all of this picture would be behind me. I would have to count on him to be taken by surprise, and follow me into my dive leaving the others alone. I had to trust myself to land safely into the sea. If my dive failed, it would still be over quickly, I would crash onto the rocks, still spared the pain of indecision. Or I could run and join my people, the same people who I had trusted through the entire journey, and who still looked beseechingly at me through frightened eyes, ever worrying for me, the soft kindness visible even through their dilated pupils, always wishing the best for me. But I knew what he was about to do. Even as these thoughts formed in my mind, he swirled to the building – as if following my instructions, tearing apart the building, hurling innocent children to the ground, mockingly inviting me to fight, to save them, to take on a might far beyond anything I had ever dared to in my young life…

The jigsaw called life

2010-05-12T17:22:00.002-04:00

Recently I thought of an interesting idea. All of us has an ideal picture of how our life should be. Things are never in place from the start. Life is like a jigsaw puzzle: you discover the spot where a particular piece needs to go in at as you go along.

I have thought of my picture to be 3/4th complete. I have no clue whether it is or now, but thats the mental image I had. Suddenly, when least expected, another piece falls into place and you are left delighted, with the joy that only the puzzle solver can understand! Getting each new piece is a new challenge, maybe the first few are very simple - you go to school, make friends, choose your college and what you want to major in. Then you get a girlfriend, you get a job and so on. You probably question yourself as to whether she is the right partner for you, are you stuck in a wrong job. As you grow older, if you want your picture to be perfect, the pieces are more challenging to fit in.

Each one of us wants different things in life. Likely, even the same person wants different things in his life. Somewhat like suddenly discovering that the picture that you were making is actually just a small part of a larger picture. And then you move on and try to solve this larger jigsaw!

My question to you is: How much of your jigsaw do you think is complete?

Comments, please!

Colors of Fall

2009-12-05T20:41:00.000-05:00

Colors of Fall

Random Musing #1

2009-10-24T12:10:00.004-04:00

Why is it always that things that you want the most are the ones that you cannot have!

Is it because you cannot have them that you want them, or just that since you cannot have them, you feel that they are the ones you want the most ;)

Maybe, it is true that once you get something, the value of it in your eyes reduces!

On the same note: The fun is in the chase, not in the capture... Its the process which is fun, rather than the result.

Same reason why every job gets boring after a while. Initially you are learning new stuff, getting to do new things, however, as we spend more time on it, even the most interesting task becomes mundane, and we execute it like its a burden on us...

The Dream

2009-09-09T23:32:00.001-04:00

The rain came down in thin streaks. The hooded figure continued to move forward through the darkness. At times, disappearing under the cover of darkness, at times illuminated by the yellow glow of the street light. Not once did it turn and offer me a look at the face inside the black cloak.

I continued following the figure - fascinated, transfixed - by the mystique, over the smooth pavement, across streets branching off to the left. The dark river gushed along the road to the right. Its gurgles strangely amplified by the silence of the dark night, sounding more eerie than ever.

The night was strangely windless, although the rain came down at an angle, its falling drops looking like tiny silver arrows in the halo around the street lamps.

The black figure continued silently through the night. Silent. Quiet. As fascinating as ever. Unquestioningly I followed. A strange warmth glowing inside my heart.

Then suddenly it disappeared. I searched the streets around. As I searched, I saw in the distance a figure, slumped across the steps to a dark green colored door, with a golden doorknob. I rushed there and turned the crumpled body. A scream of horror escaped my mouth as I saw the face behind the hood. It was a ghostly white, contorted into a smile, a mocking, cruel smile – not unlike the clown in a circus. No, this could not have been that.

Just as I gave up hope and turned back, I saw the swish of a black cloak vanishing behind the corner. I ran in that direction, leaving behind or caution, or premise of it, splashing through the muddy puddles created by the rain, running through the equally muddy rivulets of water – towards the street along the river. The rivulets were ominously flowing in the direction away from the river.

As I turned the corner, I caught sight of the figure again walking steadily ahead at a distance. It did not seem to notice the noises that I made, mindlessly walking its own way, pace steady. The urge to see the face behind the hood irresistible, I hastened even more, catching up with it at long last. Somehow, I did not have the mind to peer into the face although I was now walking along with it now. I was content, walking up the hill, not speaking a word, not caring where the hood was taking me.

At the top of the hill, I could see a house. It shone bright in the wild night. A lamp hung outside, steady and warm in the night air. I could feel its warmth despite the distance.

Then the hood suddenly crumpled to the ground. Then there appeared the full moon in a half clouded sky, and the hood rose and made its way towards the heavens. As rigid as if made from rock, as smoothly as a ghost ship sailing into the sky. And I was left in the middle of a small clearing in the woods, the house-light still shining in the distance.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

Partition - and Indian History in General

2009-08-24T19:27:00.003-04:00

This article appeared in the Times of India - written by S A Aiyar, who at times I feel is the only saving grace of the tabloid that the newspaper has now become.

I guess, we will never conclusively know what actually panned out. The sad part is, our politics still cant accept a scholarly book without getting bitter about it. Its sad that today, children in India learn history only till 1947, that is when it ends! Did we as a nation stop making history that day? Nothing about the Indo-Pak wars, nothing about our achievements in space technology, nothing about the changes in every field that the country has undergone till now.

Sad.

We keep pondering over our Shivajis and Chandraguptas while continuing to ignore our very recent - and ten times more relevent past.

Anyway, please find the article below for convenience.

Jaswant pays price for telling the truth S A Aiyar Sunday August 23, 2009

For decades, Congress and BJP have jointly nurtured the myth that Britain teamed up with Jinnah to impose Partition on India, to institutionalise divide-and-rule even after leaving. No, says Jaswant Singh in his new book. Partition was largely due to Nehru and Sardar Patel, who insisted on a centralised India and vetoed the loose federation favoured by Jinnah.

The BJP has expelled Jaswant, and, outrageously, banned his book in Gujarat. He wonders why the party is upset by his expose of Patel/Nehru. He should have known that his expose would damage the anti-Muslim ideology of the BJP more than that of Congress.

Historically, India was a land of a thousand warring kings, along with divisions of language, region and religion. Division was a fact of life: the British did not have to invent it. Rather, as Maulana Muhammad Ali said to the British, ‘‘We divide and you rule.’’
British rule consolidated a hitherto fragmented India. Even so, British India covered only half the area and two-thirds of the population of the sub-continent. The rest lay with 600-odd princely states. Had Britain wanted to continue divide-and-rule — and Churchill certainly did — it just had to stand by its treaties with the 600 princes, who wanted independence. But the Labour Party that came to power in 1945 was against such imperial games. Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, told the princes they must join India or Pakistan. This helped create two countries out of 600 princedoms.

Jaswant portrays Jinnah as a secularist wanting a loose federation of states, each with substantial autonomy. A loose federation was initially proposed by Mountbatten but rejected by Nehru, who said it would Balkanize India. Nehru wanted a strong federal government for unity. Jinnah said this was a cloak for Hindu hegemony.

Jaswant is perhaps too soft on Jinnah, who had a communal streak as well as a secular one. His insistence that only the Muslim League could speak for Muslims was pure communalism. At one time he favoured a loose federation, but ultimately insisted on a separate Pakistan.

The interim government of 1946-47 included Congress and the Muslim League. Jinnah quarrelled daily with Congress on issue after issue to deny it legitimacy.

Liaquat Ali of the Muslim League was finance minister in the interim government, and had the power to block any expenditure. He constantly queried and blocked spending proposals of Congress ministers. Patel said he could not even appoint a chaprasi without Liaquat’s approval, which took ages.

In February 1947, Liaquat presented a socialist ‘‘poor man’s budget’’. This imposed a 25% tax on business profits over one lakh rupees, doubled the corporate tax, imposed capital gains tax, and doubled the export duty on tea. It also proposed a commission to unearth tax-evaders.

Socialists in Congress supported these proposals. But others like Patel were outraged, claiming that Liaquat was really attacking Hindu businessmen (like G D Birla) who had long financed Congress. This was a Hindu communal interpretation of a budget that equally affected Muslim and Parsi industrialists. Hindu businessmen also feared that Liaquat would selectively target them for tax evasion via the new commission, a fear some Congressmen shared.

This reflected, in part, an unwillingness to accommodate the agenda of a prickly coalition partner. Ironically, the Congress of Sonia Gandhi would in 2004-08 swallow more humiliations from a prickly partner than it did in 1946-47. But in 1947, Congress saw itself as the natural party of rule, not a mere coalition partner.

Liaquat’s tactics were stunningly successful. They convinced Patel — and later Nehru — that working with the Muslim League was impossible. Alan Campbell-Johnson says in Mission with Mountbatten that Nehru and Patel accepted Partition because ‘‘by conceding Pakistan to Jinnah they will have no more of him and eliminate his nuisance value; or as Nehru put it privately, that by cutting the head we shall get rid of headache.’’

This supports Jaswant Singh’s claim that Congress opted for Partition rather than share power with Jinnah. Pakistani historians like Ayesha Jalal argue that Congress was unwilling to make the compromises necessary in a diverse democracy, and this led to Partition. Other historians blame Jinnah and Liaquat for sabotaging any chance of a unified India.

Either way, we need to abandon the myth that the British imposed Partition on India, though Mountbatten saw it as desirable and helped promote the Jinnah-Congress agreement on it. The clincher was Liaquat’s budget and obstructionism, which drove Congress from opposing Partition to becoming a fully consenting partner in it. Jaswant Singh could have been tougher on Jinnah, but has correctly highlighted Congress’ role in Partition

____________________________________________________________________

Also it hurts that the BJP is running around like a headless chicken, not proving to be a worthy opposition to the government... Blah :x

Chamonix

2009-07-28T19:21:00.000-04:00

We took the TGV { :D :D :D } from the Gare de Lyon in Paris to Lyon, and then changed three regional trains to reach Chamonix by 4 30pm. By then we were in a disastrous state. One wheel of the big strolley bag that Minu and Payal had, had come off, and it was barely possible for two people to struggle along with it. The fact that we did not know the directions to the hostel seemed a minor blip on the radar. Eventually, we got out at the main Chamonix station, walked to the tourism office, and got to know that the Youth Hostel was 2 train stops before town. Now for very dumb reasons, and due to the shut down that our brains had undergone after a very hectic last 48 hours, we got onto the train back, and got off just 1 stop later! As a consequence, we were hauling up a hill, around 9 heavy bags, sacks, one with a broken wheel. We tried catching a bus, but nothing worked. Eventually, we reached up to the hostel at 7 20 or so, after cursing the hill we were climbing, and were more than happy to go and crash in our rooms.

An awesome journey this was, not to say, hilarious in light of posteriority.

And now, today is Sunday, the 19^th, when I sit in the Chamonix hostel room, too tired to coax myself to move from bed, content to sit and type onto my laptop the happenings till now.

On this Sunday, the others went hiking into the mountains, as a result of which they had some pretty pictures to show. I contented myself to sit and type into this journal for the entire morning, stretching well into the afternoon. We discovered that, we could travel free in the train till the end of France – to a place called Vallerene on the France-Swiss border. Having nothing better to do with our time, we decided that going on this 40 minute journey was the best thing that we could do with our time at hand. Climbing down from the hostel to Les Pellerines train station, we took the train to Vallercene. The travel was really scenic, with Mont Blanc and other snow clad peaks constantly in view. The Europeans have build so many cable cars, and to such heights that I keep getting astonished at their engineering. Cable cars reach upto heights of 3800m to a place called Augere du Midi. Apparently, this place is 8km from the Mont Blanc peak, and offers stunning views of it. However, being on a shoestring budget, we contended ourself with seeing the cars from Chamonix – from a height of 1095m, from the comfort of our train. During the 40 min journey, I was invited to showcase my singing skills by Minu and H, and needless to say, I grabbed the opportunity, my newfound confidence in my voice egging me on. Since then I have been singing a lot on the trip. :P

Vallercene was quite a disappointment. We were hoping to have dinner here, but were disappointed at the lack of eateries here. So we took the same train back to Chamonix. We were in Vallercene exactly for 10 min – from 5 50 to 6pm. :D In Chamonix, we headed to Elevation 1904 – a place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide. 1904 did not disappoint. The nice cool bar, with the friendly barman, was enticing, and H and I decided that this might be the best time to get high. We started with some Vodka and Tequila, and by the time we were done, we were 12 euros lighter in our pockets, and more light in our heads. The best thing about getting high is that you speak things as soon as they come to mind. You do not stop to think about whether what you say might sound stupid, and this was great fun! We took the bus back to hostel. H and I then played pool, which again was good fun, despite our obvious lack of judgment and concentration! We headed back to our room, me quite sleepy coz of the alcohol. Chamonix was the first place where all of us were in the same dorm. After chatting for a while, I turned in at 12 30 am or so. Irritatingly for me, H and Minu were chatting right across from my bed.

After a sleep punctuated by short gaps of “Shh…” we had to wake up early, taking the early morning train from Chamonix to Lyon. We had a short 1 hr 20 min or so gap at Lyon before our connection to Marseille. After packing some lunch from Subway, I went for a short walk around the station. I moved from the back of the station, from a blatantly office district, from under a under-rail bridge into the main Lyon downtown. Without any particular plans I entered ‘Carrefour’ the famous mall chain that I happened to spot. There were plenty of ‘Soldes’ (Sales) on, despite which, the prices were mostly unaffordable to me. I found a shop selling 3 euro tee shirts, but still I got a feeling that the cost should have been 2 euros each, and I did not buy anything. :P

People and cities

2009-07-28T19:18:00.002-04:00

Paris is perhaps the most beautiful city on earth. It has so many monuments by the French, who are great lovers of art. As I said before, every building is a postcard of its own, having its own history. The French are also very proud people, and do not like it when you talk to them in English. At times, I also found them plain rude – they will tell you they do not know English even they do! Being proud is good, but the French pride borders on arrogance. It seems they are proud of their history, much like the Indians like talking about Vedas, and ancient glory. It is high time that France woke up to the new world order, where they are not the rulers of the world. They would do well to remember that they had their asses saved by the Americans when Hitler was in town. De Gaulle himself sounds more of an opportunist rather than the great leader he is made out to be.

I may be wrong on this count coz of my lack of reading on French history, but this is the opinion that I have formed till now.

The French are more the painters, the artists, the connoisseurs than engineers, fighters or anything dashing. They have had their moments in the limelight when Napoleon was the emperor. They would do better to wake up to the new world. However, their architecture, museums are definitely worth admiring. Also at one level, I hope that Indians learn to be proud of themselves, their country, and what they can do, (rather than the pride at their history and mythology). India still has not completely shaken off its colonial yoke of her back.

Germans on the other hand are technical people, and like you would expect them to be, their systems work like clockwork. To give an example: all trams in Bremen were accurate to the minute, unlike Paris. Also all of them were functional. In the two days in Paris, our metro stopped a stop before its intended destination, and once we had to run to the TGV station to board our train in time coz of this. Also, all announcements are in French. In a city like Paris, bustling with tourists, you would expect the announcers to be bilingual. Ticket vendors, tourist info centres, lack proper English speakers, people at best can talk broken English. Irritating.

I found the Netherlands much like India. It’s got a huge population density, like India, and traffic signals are taken to be suggestions rather than rules by the public!

Paris II - the most hectic day on the trip!

2009-07-28T19:11:00.000-04:00

Next morning, all the others went to get the Free Tour of Paris, while I headed to the Musee D’ Orsay – the French National Museum – which houses French painting and sculpture from 1840s to 1910s. Again, needless to say, I was visiting it for Van Gogh. It also houses his French contemporaries, including his friend Gauguin, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro etc. Gauguin’s art comes a bit close to Van Gogh, but is nowhere as near to him. There was also Neo-Impressionist art, which is the evolving of Impressionism into an exact science, with studies made into the effect of putting opposite colors into the same frame, so as to accentuate the effect. I loved that too.

Due to the lack of time, I left the Orsay without visiting the first two floors – the sculptures. I headed from there to the Palace de Louvre, home to the famous museum. I joined here, the free tour which the others were taking. We walked along the famous 7km long road in Paris, which is the most interestin part of Paris. We saw no less than 8 different palaces, the Eiffel, the Arc de Troimphe, the Obelisk from Egypt, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, the cathedral at Sacre Monte etc. Totally worth it! We then headed to the Eiffel Tower – which he had not gone up – at 4 30. After a short wait, we were on the elevator to the top. And it was a breathtaking view on offer! We could see Paris from end to end, all of its glory, from a height of 58 stories! A tip: Carry your woolens to the top! Its real cold up there. Brr!

Tired as we were, we straggled up to the Louvre, and forced ourself into it, to see the one thing we knew inside, the Mona Lisa. Friday evenings offer a free entry to students, and that was the deciding factor for the visit. I also managed to crawl and see a few Greek, Roman, Carthage-ian sculpture. I saw a few Renaissance furniture too, before it was closing time. I must say that I could relate more to the Orsay than to the Louvre. Again, it must be said that it is huge, and probably impossible to see the entire museum with anything less than 3 days in hand.

On the way back to the hostel, we took the wrong metro, had to get off, and climb on another one back, and we were as dead as logs by the time we reached the hostel. We had to leave early next morning, and we did not even bother to look at the directions to the next hostel, which then caused a lot of pain in Chamonix.

Thunderstorm at Eiffel!

2009-07-28T19:05:00.000-04:00

Then it rained. It was a huge thunderstorm, as we were on the Seine, and it turned up our umbrellas, and we had to rush to a kiosk, not managing to stay completely dry as the wind ran askew. It was an awesome experience, and deserving the big mug of beer I had there. Dizzy from the beer, and maybe all the happiness, high on life, we headed back to the hostel, again changing 2 metros.

Versailles. and Eiffel!

2009-07-28T19:04:00.002-04:00

Versailles, is a sleepy suburb, maybe unremarkable but for the imposing shadow cast by the palace. The palace is for lack of words - grand! The grandest thing I have seen, maybe conceived by man. It is huge. The gates are gold, and the building is striking. It is a C shape, and again the tour is definitely money well spent. We passed many chambers, the chapel, the Hall of Mirrors, the Royal bedchambers etc. This is what it must be to be royalty, the imperiousity, the elegance and the grandeur. Lesser (or less moneyed) kings would have been stunned, astounded to see such opulence. At times, no corner of the room was left uncovered. Walls covered with paintings of Greek mythological figures, and later, paintings depicting Louis XIV as the supreme ruler, the unquestioned God. It also showcases the disconnect that the Royalty would have had from the masses, which famously led to the French Revolution, when the people stormed in, and Marie Antoinette, the queen, had to escape from a secret bedside route. She had replied to the statement that the Parisians no longer had bread to eat, with “Then let them eat cake”. Was it ignorance, or arrogance, or sarcasm, I do not know. But if she never ventured out of the grand palace, and their opulent gardens, it is likely to be the former! The gardens are so huge, that it would put the Mughals in Delhi to shame. Definitely visit Versailles if you can, when Paris.

Later that evening, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. She is a beauty! We wanted to see her at night, and by the time we reached there, it was quite late, and we decided not to wait in the 2 hour long queue for tickets. We instead roamed around the Seine again, before lying down on a slab of concrete on the bank.

Paris I

2009-07-28T19:04:00.001-04:00

In Paris, we got the ticket to Clichy – where we would be staying. The hostel here was pretty sophisticated, although a tad crowded, and the room gave us a view of the Eiffel Tower! Aah! Its indescribable! Later that night, Minu and I tried walking to it that night, only to discover the next day, much to our chagrin, that after walking about 40 min, we had covered about 1/6^th of the intended distance. The tower is 324 meters high, and is visible from almost everywhere in and around Paris.

The next morning – really conscious of any money that we spend – we headed to the Arc de Troimphe – the huge arch started by Napolean, and completed only after the First World War. It houses a memorial to the unknown soldier at the bottom, which we didn’t visit, considering that it would be another 5 eur. Most of the morning, we spent walking around the Ile de la Cite – the old Paris. It’s taken straight out of a postcard – not almost – but fully and wholly! Every building is picture perfect, most build in an age long gone, singing paeans to a glory long gone. Most of them seem to be build in sandstone, giving the entire area a ‘yellowish’ feel. We walked along the Seine, capturing images of bridges, the Neuew bridge, the Alexander III bridge and many more.

We saw the famous Cathedral of Notre-Dame, but saw no hunch-back! Grand, it is, no doubt. Again, it reminded me only of the power the church exerted over the bourgeoisie, and the unquestioning faith such an institution would have commanded from the people, of the excommunications, of the executions carried out in the name of God. It was still in use, the priest giving sermons in French, to the sanctimonious, morally stunted and hollow masses.

We passed by the Louvre, which we see later the next day, and the Musee D’Orsay (more later). We then took a train to Versailles, the historic suburb of Paris, which was stage to so many world shaping events.

Brussels

2009-07-28T18:57:00.000-04:00

Late into the night we returned the car, and walked back to our hostel in the Jordaan area. Next morning, we headed to Paris, the capital of France, and maybe the most chic city in the world. H and I were travelling by Bus via Brussels, while the Bremen people headed there via train. We got around 3 hours in Brussels, in which we walked to the ‘Grand Place’, the centre of Brussels. It is grand in the true sense. All building are from an age long past. Especially remarkable is the hotel in the square, built in a Gothic style, and very impressive. The hostel was the intended target of a French bombing in the 17^th C, and ironically, it was the only building in the square that remained unharmed! Haha – at the French. We also saw the Mannekin Pis statue. It is a statue of a small kid, 2 feet in height, and pissing about 2m far! As expected, we use a lot for our PJs – Man-you-can-piss jokes come up about 3 times a day… Apparently this is the Belgian National monument. What were they thinking?

Then I bought a small pack of the famous Belgian chocolate Godiva. Also had the famous Belgian waffle with ice-cream, which left an incredible taste in my mouth. Mmm Mmm!

The business district of Brussels was just outside the Gare de Nord – or the North Station, where we were in transit, and we were more than pleased to capture some of it in our grateful lenses. We caught the 4 30 pm to Paris, and it reached sharp 8 30 to Paris. H and I were so tired that we never saw any of the French countryside on the way to Paris. We once woke up to see the city of Le Mon, and it looked just like Amsterdam, so much so that for a moment I thought we had boarded the wrong bus.

Amsterdam II and Madurodam!

2009-07-28T18:55:00.000-04:00

After chatting till 3 in the morning, transferring pictures, and browsing the net at the slightly-gone-to-seed Christian hostel we were staying at, we finally slept. The irritating part about a Christian hostel is that they had a prayer at 11pm each night. And the next night, when Hrishikesh stayed up, the guy there tried giving him sermons into Christianity, and the meaning of Christ. Blah! At prayer time, we went out and sat on a corner on the canal, clicking pictures of the city, getting gr8 night shots. Canals of Amsterdam is another famous idea. I guess with the city lying under sea level, using canals was the intelligent way to provide transport in the early ages. Amsterdam was the world’s leading city (according to the Dutch) for most part of the 16-18^th Centuries. There are a lot of shops selling Indonesian food, I think coz the Dutch share the same relation with the Indonesians as the English do with Indians.

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The next morning, Minu and Payal went to Anne Frank house, which the guys were content just to see from outside, (maybe coz we had not read the book) before heading to the Madame Tussads in Amsterdam. Tussads was also very interesting, although I guess it would not have been as big as the one in London. After seeing a lot of life-like wax figures of famous people including Hu Jintao, Gandhi, Dalai Lama, and doing a few crunches with David Beckham, we were given insights into the making of the statues by a sweet young lady. Each statue costs around 150,000 euros and takes 2 months to make, with 35 different technicians working on various different aspects of the statue like the eyes, hands etc. Each hair is sewn into the scalp separately! Imagine that! The eyes are now painted the exact shade of the celebrity, before being coated with fibre to make them life like. A clay cast is first made, into which wax is poured. The wax is only a cm thick, with the inside hollow. The eyes are then inserted from the inside!

We also the saw the Neuw Kerk – the New Church – at the Dam “Central Square”. It isn’t exactly new anymore, dating back atleast to the 1700s. Now it is used as an exhibition hall, with important ceremonies like the wedding of the crown prince, and the coronation of the king taking place here. Again, not worth 4 euros that it costed us :P

We headed to Madurodam in a Peugeot – this time manual transmission – at 1pm. Thanks to Sanjeev for this great tip. Madurodam is simply not worth missing. If you are in the Netherlands to do one thing, do Madurodam! It’s the entire of Netherlands in miniature, with scale versions of important building in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haag, Utrecht, and other places like the Schiphol Airport. We clicked about a thousand snaps in the 7 hours that we spent here! There were also about a dozen working models of bridges, ships, ship locks, etc. Although interesting, the technology used was quite antiquated by now (as it is every 10 years!), and they would do well to use more electronics than pneumatics, and mechanics they use now. But heck, I am an Electronics Engineer :D

When leaving Amsterdam, I agreed to the statement that I read somewhere – the city is over-rated, not to say very expensive. In the Netherlands, I had ended up spending atleast 80 euros per day, which was double of my intended budget here!

Amsterdam... Van Gogh and more...

2009-07-28T18:52:00.000-04:00

From Rotterdam, we started our journey back. Chin would be heading back to Bremen, after dropping us off at Amsterdam. Amsterdam, the most liberal place on earth, where prostitution, gay marriage, drugs are legal. Amsterdam, which had once been the capital of the world, not unlike what Ney York is considered today. We reached the Stayokay hostel in Amsterdam at 7pm. We bid Chin adieu at 7 15, and H and I headed straight in search of the Neuwe Markt, which borders the famed red light district of Amsterdam. We roamed around a bit on the streets there. Almost naked girls, gestured, postured at us from shop gallery windows, gyrating hips, in a manner more suitable to animals, than humans. Girls of all shapes, sizes, race, color and age stood in the display windows, waiting to be used, f****d in any manner for petty cash. Cost: 30 euros for a quickie, or for oral favours, 50 for both.

Prostitution, and prostitutes have fascinated me (and a million others, I guess) for quite some time now. Women willing to sell themselves, their most intimate selves, physically, to some frustrated, self hating male – would they not have reached some kind of Nirvana, some higher state of giving, to be able to do what they do. Do they think about all this? Are they not the providers of the most basic human pleasure? Are they something akin to charity to the poor? Do they think about all this? Or are they just animals, incapable of thought, just doing what they do, unmindful and ignorant of the higher spiritual and moral plane that we tend to attach to physical act…

Again, all of this selling was unappealing, and a tad over-rated I thought, maybe coz I had seen Pattaya. In Pattaya, there was no pretence, nor any show. Nor any shops. There was a long queue, 4 km long, of Thai girls, waiting to be picked up by mostly Western tourists. Quiet, mute to all that they would go through physically. Here, it was much more glamourous, maybe more suited to a western style, than to the Orient.

Not too impressed, nor amused by what the city had to offer, I was already skeptical about Amsterdam the next day when I woke up. I went for a long walk, again at the city centre, to see the same windows deserted, shorn of all the glamour, and vice (to the god fearing, maybe) that they had to offer the previous evening, and for every evening since times immemorial, and for times forseeable.

I guess legalization of the ‘business’ would have its benefits, giving the girls some protection, and atleast legalizing their status in society. In the short time there, I did not figure out the social acceptance that the profession would have. It is likely that they are day-time students, looking for quick money, or in case of the more mature women, mothers, with kids and families to fend for. But that is not affected by legalization, is it? I read that just 5% of them are Dutch, with others coming from other lands…

After breakfast, we headed to the Main station to pick up Minu, Payal and Varad, who would be arriving by train from Bremen at 1 pm. After a coffee, we made plans to go to Madurodam the next afternoon. The exciting part about this would not only the enticement of Madurodam, but also that I would be driving again!

That afternoon, we went to the Van Gogh museum. Van Gogh, the Dutch master, who lived an extremely troubled life, fighting his demons for the most part, apart from painting some of the most exciting canvasses that I have seen (although that is just a few). The Dutch master never learnt art formally, at first learning from the paintings of past masters that he saw, treading conventionally in the early years, before exploring his own brilliant style of art. He was miles ahead of others, and maybe unlike any other genius in the field. Pointillism, impressionism were a few of his styles. I particularly liked the Pointillist paintings. Pointillism, is where the painting is created from dots of different colors, the overall effect observed from a distance, is what is desired to be a complete picture. Impressionism is where the artist is not bothered with the accuracy of the depictions he makes, rather concerning himself with the image he leaves on the mind of the viewer. These art forms were used by Vincent van Gogh, to create a effect far surpassing that of what could be achieved by forms developed earlier.

Van Gogh was born in Holland, and lived his early years there, before shifting to Paris. He painted from nature around him, from city scenes, in his own demented manner. The paintings in his last years especially look to be created under the effect of some hallucination, or dement, that he was suffering from. The forms are weirdly contorted, without much regard to perspective. I felt Van Gogh was to art what Pink Floyd were to music. Works of both appear to be created in some drug induced high, simply not conceivable by a sane human mind. Paintings which I remember off-hand now include the view of his room in Paris, a painting titled the Wheatfields, where he shows a farmer harvesting his wheat field, and shows the wheat as a devil, a raging and advancing fire, huge and monstrous, capable of swallowing the farmer in one giant leap. The peasant continues fighting with this devil, untiring, and unflinching. The colors he uses for his field are shades of yellow, and the sky is almost green. The emotions his painting created in me are indescribable. Lets say, I could relate to his genius, far different from the world he lived in, and more troubled by it, than what is good for his own good. Towards the end, he cut of a part of his own ear, saying it was done as a command from God, before admitting himself to an asylum voluntarily. His paintings from the asylum, at times depict the mental agony of his fellow sufferings… At times, he has painted brilliant nature scenes from his memory. After leaving the asylum, he committed suicide within two months. His last paintings, show his melancholy, his impending sense of doom, that of approaching death. By now, you must have guessed that I am a big fan of his, and I think, after visiting two museums with his paintings, I might be able to recognize his definitive style any time I see it. I especially like the way he yellow, and blue, and orange, in contrast to create a surreal effect.

Enough said about van Gogh. He was well worth the 18 euros we spent on him!

Casteel de Haar and Rotterdam

2009-07-28T18:49:00.001-04:00

The next morning, which was the Sunday the 19^th, we wanted to see as much of Netherlands as possible. First we headed to the Casteel de Haar, a medieval castle, near the Hague. The drive was 1.5 hours, and the GPS failed us here for the first time, coz the road we were travelling on was newly built and still under construction. After making 2-3 trips along the same road, we finally reached the castle by 1 or so. Like all European castles, this one was extremely well hidden by the woods around it, and consequently, it was again an exercise to find it. Entry to the complex was 14 euros per person, plus parking for the car. The castle complex was a revelation again. It had an open air market, with items ranging from 20 eur to 13000 euros! The place was bustling with tourists, and shoppers, and there were well over 200 cars parked in the parking, right in the middle of nowhere. An alien would have been very surprised to find such dense human concentration suddenly :D

Roaming around the souvenir shop, and the market, we eventually reached the castle, a tour of which would have costed us another 5 euros! Stupid Europeans. Due to lack of time, and the costs involved, we turned back towards the car. Thie 15 euros spent here, were definitely not amongst the more well spent ones, considering that we did not see the grand interiors of the castle. An interesting buy would have been a huge 5 person garden tub, 10x10 feet alteast, worth (or not worth) 13000 euros! 13000 euros! Who buys something like that! It had innumerable faucets, and other knobs, which we did not stop to decipher, especially we were not likely to be buying it anytime soon!

We headed to Rotterdam, the grand port of entry to Europe from here, with me at the wheel. Seeing Rotterdam was a childhood dream, based on what I had seen in the Childcraft series’ World Atlas. The city did not disappoint us, and we had a gala time, driving around the streets, making an error or two at signals, eventually reached the Port Street, which offered breathtaking views of the port, the ships, and the huge Erasmusburg bridge. It being Sunday, we got free parking! Aren’t we lucky! We parked right outside a shop offering Surinamese food, and walked along the harbor, click-happy, and very happy having reached our destination without losing our way. Coming back to the car, we had a Surinamese sandwich. It tasted especially good, coz it was quite spicy, not too unlike Indian food. And the chics serving it weren’t too bad either! ;)

Netherlands: ASTRAL, Dwingeloo to Stayokay, Doorwerth

2009-07-28T18:47:00.002-04:00

The next day was Friday and we rented the Merc. Due to usual laziness, we reached the shop only at 3 30 pm. From there got onto the Autobahn! GPS is a Godsend, without which it would simply not have been possible to get out of the parking lot! With it, we were at ease, like driving in the back of our courtyard. The journey was real cool, and we were feeling beyond cool, the least coz we were driving a Merc on the Autobahn!!! Stopped at a couple of places, and then entered the Netherlands, at 8 or so. My plan was to stay with Asgekar at Dwingeloo. We had some trouble finding the place, and eventually reached there only by 10 45 pm or so. At the guest house, mostly there were summer students from all over the world, who were interning at ASTRAL. They were pretty chilled out guys, as would be expected, considering that it was an excellent vacation for them. Especially coz in Holland, weed is legalized! I got offered some that night itself. I contented myself with a beer, instead. Then Chin and H had to drive to Doorwerth. They reached only to find the hostel locked for the night. Unfortunately, they had to spend the night in the car itself, while I was comfortably enjoying the heater in Ashish’s room.

Worth mentioning along the way here, is the way we discovered the numerous appliances on the dashboard of the Merc! Who would have imagined that the car has no knob at all for filling up on the petrol! When the key is in the ignition, you just go and press the lid, and presto, it opens! Discovering this was an interesting exercise, well worth the 15 minutes it took, and the oh-we-are-so-stupid feeling once we got to knowing how this works!

Next morning, looked about the ASTRAL institute, and was impressed especially by the Embedded Systems Group. Although the working there would be brilliant, it boils down to the lack of interest in the eventual goal of all that I would design. Is it ever possible to design something, without really caring about the purpose for which it would be built?

Chin and H reached Dwingeloo to pick me up by 3 pm or so, and we decided to drive down (or up) to the North Sea! The drive was mostly along the Dutch equivalent of state highways, single laned roads, in an impeccable state, with speeds of upto 100 kmph! All along the way, I got a feeling that Indian highways are now catching up with the Autobahns and other highways here. The autobahn is just 2 laned, while the Pune-Mumbai e-way has 3! India 1-0 Europe! We wanted to go to a beach, but Texel is on an island, and we would have had to pay for the ferry onto it, and decided against it. We contented ourselves with a drive to the dykes. A dyke is a tall wall constructed all along the coast of Holland, to protect it from the sea. This is required because most of the country is under sea level, and without these embankments, it would all be flooded. Netherlands, what I will remember for the most part is the windmills, and the number of sheep they have there! From what we saw on the dyke, there are likely, more sheep than people. The dyke was a stone wall. It had many different hues to it. Some coz the humans who built it, found it necessary to color it yellow, and pour tar over it at places. Then the sea played its part by creating layers of colors. Olive Green – where the moss and weeds were growing, Ochre – where the moss had dried out due to summer sun. And then there was the sea itself, a glum, dark blue, playing support to a sky of the same color. Imagine a long wall, sloping out to sea, stretching for miles, and of different hues, with sheep grazing on it. The effect created by it was immemorable.

At 7 pm or so, we started the drive back to Doorwerth, lest we not reach in time again, and have to sleep outside for the night again! After grabbing some sandwiches at the gas station (courtesy Shell) we reached the Stayokay hostel at 10. This was going to be the last night that Chin was going to stay with us, and we decided that the occasion deserved a toast. The bartender was a plump guy called Ric, who was quite chatty.The drinks were really memorable. The first that we tried was Blue Curacao mixed with Sambuca. Curacao I believe is a Dutch speciality, and Sambuka is a Brazilian drink. Ric offered this to us for free! Despite assurances from him that it was not strong, we would disagree, definitely. This was definitely the high point of the night, after which had some Tequila, and Beer, and chatted with a few non-descript foreigners. The drink made us sleepy and we collapsed as soon as we got into our dorms. Unfortunate, coz we missed out on the convo that we could have had.

Bremen

2009-07-27T17:52:00.001-04:00

The next day, went to drop Minu off at the tram stop. Later that day went to the car rental office and to the University to check that out. The infrastructure there is really good, with a huge library, which is 5 floors full of books, mostly on sciences, although most of them were in German. Then H and me went to the Werder Bremen stadium. There was no tour at that time and could only the building from outside, plus the fan shop. Caught glimpses of the stadium from corners though.

After meeting Minu at 4 or so, we toured the Schnoor area, the old town in Bremen. Narrow winding lanes having shops selling souvenirs on both sides, in buildings built as early as 1452! Made patties for dinner, with a filling of potato and spice!

Departure, and arrival

2009-07-27T17:47:00.000-04:00

Left Mumbai at 2 50 am. For some reason, was not at all in a senti mood, except for the time when I made a few phone calls to friends… Mostly coz I was going to Europe before going on to study. Also, probably coz I was going to be with friends and other known people, so the effect of being alone wasn’t there.

We reached Frankfurt at 8 15 local time, and immediately ran over a kilometer at Frankfurt airport, from terminal B to terminal A, where our next flight was at 9 am, and reached Bremen alongwith our baggage at 10am. Right outside the airport was the tram station, ready to welcome us to City of Trams. Chinmay left us to figure out how to reach Elizabeth Strasse where we were going to be staying. It was just Chin, Hrushya and I in the house for the entire first day. I slept off :D and when I woke up, these guys had got tuna pizza for me. Fish isn’t all that bad, when compared to meat. I don’t like the dryness of chicken even after trying so much.

Later that evening went to receive Minu and Varad at the Hauptbahnhoff – the central train station, where they would be coming to back from their course at Bremerhafen – some 40km from Bremen. Seeing Minu again was great. Old friends… Had some cheap coffee at the Back Factory, before catching a tram back and walked the last few stops. Chatted a bit into the night, and then slept off coz we were all pretty tired.

Europe!

2009-07-27T17:44:00.001-04:00

The next posts are dedicated to my trip to Europe, made after a lot of contemplation as to whether the trip deserves the honor of a separate blog, but eventually deciding against it. I have tried to make the posts as descriptive as possible, trying consciously to diverge from my usually overly analytical and contemplative style, since I am talking of places, not ideas.

DISCLAIMER: At a couple of places however, I have not been able to refrain about putting up my thoughts on some of the things I saw. You may read them as my travel memoirs, although I must confess that I am new to the writing style for this descriptive format. Frankly, I have not found reading about people’s travel musings even mildly interesting… However, since I wrote these for myself to read later in life, I have written so as to evoke the imagery of the location in my mind. Writing seems to clearly be insufficient to describe all the places I see, and my laziness permitting, I hope to upload a few pictures as well.

NOTE: My trip started on the 8^th July dawn from Mumbai, and will culminate in my flying off to Pittsburgh on the 3^rd August. I have made the narrative conversational (to myself :P ), and in an effort to make it informal, have not mentioned a date at most places. Read on…

Memories: BITSAT

2009-03-19T06:40:00.002-04:00

Some of the best things you get in life are the ones that you plan the least for. Call it Murphy's law or whatever. Take getting into BITS for example. All of 11th-12th was spent in preparing for the JEE. The BigDaddy of exams, the thing which was going supposed to change your life forever. After hundreds of hours of misdirected preparation, when I finally gave the JEE-mains, I knew that I was not going get a seat of my liking at an IIT of my choice, or for that matter, I wasn't going to clear the Mains at all. (This doesn't mean that I didn't shed a tear when the results came out ;) )

BITSAT was just an aside to the main story. A till-exam-day neglected poor brother of the JEE, for which I wasn't even sure whether to appear or not... I remember, my family had a holiday planned out at Mahabaleshwar, immediately after the BITSAT. So I was kinda looking forward to that, the exam being a minor hiccup in the euphoria of FINALLY being free from all entrance exams! Who in the lord's name would go to godforsaken Pilani, or the tourist haven of Goa, leaving a seat in the COE, Pune. Pune, the Oxford of the East! Pune, my hometown! If I was to leave Pune, it had to be to go to an IIT! I even seriously contemplated retaking the JEE next year.

I know BITSians will not like this, but in my pea-brain, BITS did not figure in the list of must-do things! I think, this was more because of the environment than because of my own doing. I did not know even one student who was at BITS at that point in time. Later, when I decided to go to Goa, I had to dig out contacts of contacts of contacts who had passed out from BITS 15 years back. So much for the BITS network! Also, I think, the BITSAT being in its first year, I didn't know what to expect out of it, what the cut-offs for various branches will be, and so-on.

For the record, the exam went well. I scored 305 (later re-evaluated to 309) and I remember cursing my PC, coz I was so sure that at times, all options on the Maths test were wrong! But who cared, right, it was all over in 4 hours or so. Yay!

After the exam, I remember driving back in the car. The radio was playing 'Zaraa Zaraa' (The song still takes me back to that moment!). Not even 20 minutes on the drive back, we were held by the traffic constable from aamchi Mumbai. Mama, so to say. Oops, stupid Puneite me, who cares for seat-belts in the post-exam euphoria! So then ensued the pleading, the 'Mama, Punyahun alot, lakshat nahi ala.. Jaudya naa..' Typically, he retorted with, 'Udya gaadi station warun gheun jaa, fine bharun.' (Take the vehicle tmrw from the police station, after paying the fine.). Then, the path of least resistance. Bribe the fellow :)

My mood (and pocket), considerably lighter, I headed back home, where a delicious Mom-made meal awaited a ravenous me!

Turns out, the heavens had conspired to make it the biggest day of my life. It shaped the course of the next 4 years. 4 wonderful years; and when I think about it, its not just 4 years, but my entire life! Looking back at all the wonderful experiences I had in Goa, I would not trade that for anything else. But that makes for an entire different series of posts...

For now, some of the best things you get in life are the ones that you plan the least for!

Select / Reject

2009-02-25T02:35:00.003-05:00

While keying in a text msg, I realized that in the T9 dictionary, select and reject comprise the same keys.

Interesting, eh!

New questions!

2009-02-05T08:56:00.004-05:00

Do humans always need to worry? Or is it just that I have an OCD which makes me worry..

Now that admits to colleges have started coming in, a new decision facing me is whether to stop at an MS, or continue working for a PhD. If only an MS, then take a job, rite? A job to recover the amount of money spent. Then after that? I want to be back to India again... When will that be? 2 years from now? 5 years from now? Or 10 years from now...

How long should one stay away from the ones he loves most in search of a more satisfying career? So eventually when I come back to India, how likely is getting a 'that' good a job in Pune? Or will it always be a compromise between a job you love, and the people you love??

As usual, for now, this decision should be pushed back till the last possible moment!

Just...

2009-02-05T08:53:00.002-05:00

Iran is years away from building a nuclear device.

So Iran is a threat, eh?

Iran is just years away from building a nuclear device.

...Comment by a British minister.

How the just changes the tone of the sentence...

Honestly, does the west have a god-given right to decide who holds what weapons? Please can someone help me out here...

Back to Blogging!

2009-01-19T23:50:00.002-05:00

I have not written here for a really really long time now. Primarily, the question being, is blogging a waste of time. I guess it is. More than a waste, it is a pastime (or timepass, as Indians say). And frankly, I have not had much of free time to while away as such. ;)

Anyway, lets hope this marks the beginning of a new year, full of blogs! Coz I know that my audience missed me. I have been inundated with questions as to why I have not posted for so long. ;D

Cheerio!

Hope for Atheism

2008-10-18T08:12:00.002-04:00

Why is it that we are born as of some particular religion? I mean, does one come into existence knowing all about the Bible, or the Bhagwad Gita or the Guru Granth Sahib? Just because my parents are of one particular religion, makes me a member of it too. Isn't that ridiculous? Shouldn't I have the right to make an informed choice of what religion I do want to follow?
(Maybe religion and informed choice are paradoxical in the same sentence ;) )

Given this, we should all be born of no religion, and be allowed to make a decision later in life. That way atleast, we'll know how many members actually support Christianity, or Hinduism or blah... Lots of those people might want to make a choice of not choosing any one particular religion, or even becoming a practicing atheist. Is that even allowed? Can I be a registered atheist? Is that so illogical?

Apparently, even in the US of A, I cannot hold public office if I am a declared atheist. Is that fair? Shouldn't I be declared worthy or unworthy of any post based on my morals, my past behavior etc. rather than whether I believe in some doctrines first preached centuries ago?

Recently, there was a case where someone sued God. It was dismissed saying that he has no 'registered residence'. Although this lawsuit may sound frivolous, it is highly symbolic. All through our childhood, we are influenced by teachings in the name of 'God', our Nanny says, "He is watching everything from above", or "the final redemption is in His court". As a child, its not in my control to make people stop throwing random ideas at me in His name. Shouldn't someone be answerable?

The bottom-line, I feel is, if people are brought us as believers of reason, I doubt many of them would turn to organized religion in the hope of comfort or happiness. An idea is: we should all be atheists by default.

Till now, atheism has been under the wraps more or less. Never in history has the spread of information been so fast as now. Now, more and more people are being exposed to atheistic ideas through sitcoms (eg. House MD, Boston Legal), through the internet, through books etc. Atheists are portrayed as reasonable people, who bear no evil in heart and have an excellent set of morals, more so even when compared to religious folk.

This makes me think atheism has a lot of hope in the future. With more and more people 'thinking', religious fanaticism (or even subscription) should ebb. Maybe the world would end up being a safer, more peaceful place...

CASH in Goa!

2008-09-29T14:11:00.003-04:00

This weekend I had Chinmay, San and Hrushya over in Goa. It promised to be a whale of a time, and it ended up belittling all expectation! Colva, Palolem and Panjim, OMG!

Here is the picassa link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aniketponkshe/CASHInGoa#

Might put in the details of the journey some other time...

For the sake of general public, the pics are all nice n clean :P

Goa Rocks!

Melancholi(ty/ness)

2008-09-08T09:24:00.002-04:00

Its been ages since I posted. Haven't found a topic interesting enough recently, I guess. It seems getting into a retrospective/self effacing mode is when I feel like posting the most!

I have had a vague sense of longing for the past 3-4 days. Finally, was able to pinpoint it to being homesick! Its just been 4 days since I got back to Goa, but I already miss Pune. It is the most awesome place to grow up, changing with the times, from the rustic pensioner's paradise, to the busting IT hub of today, a place which makes you think twice about going out at the peak traffic hours.

It has given me the most awesome friends that one could possibly asked for - never will I again find a set of people whose thoughts are so compatible with mine. With whom I have grown up with, shared teenage pangs ( and an infinite number of coffees!).

Last time I was home, I had a walk around my apartment building. It gave me an awesome high. Reminded me of the wonderful childhood that it provided me. The cricket, the hide-n-seek, the evening discussions with people who were so close to me then, but who just drifted away with time, to an extent that now we have nothing to talk when we meet. The well on the backside, through the railings of which I peered in as a kid, throwing stones into it, to see the fish swim up to them, the N number of cricket balls we rescued from it. The water tank, which acted as a makeshift pavillion. I haven't been there for the Ganesh festival for the past four years, and wont be for the next few too. I could go on!

It reminds me of the Jagjit Singh ghazal:

Ye Daulat bhi lelo
Ye Shaurat bhi lelo
Bhale chin lo Mujhse ye meri Jawani
Magar lauta do Mujkho Wjo Bachpan ka Sawn
Who Kagaz ki Khashti Who Baris Ka paani

Life will never again be so simple. So much fun! Now half the people have moved out of Pune, its all changed...

Still miss the place... :)

The zoo behind my room

2008-07-12T23:48:00.005-04:00

Outside my window, there stands a great, big mango tree. It plays home to many birds and chipmunks. Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by the menagerie that sits on my window sill, fleeing as soon as I so as much look at them. Sometimes there is even a mongoose couple out there!

Mom puts out chapatis every morning since I remember, and I think the animals have got used to finding free food here. Bit like a tree which bears regular fruit! The chipmunks have grown quite plump I must say, and they must be feeling a bit disappointed if they do not find their breakfast out on the sill!

Today I did a bit of dilettante research. I managed to google the red-crested bulbul, the five-striped Indian squirrel, the bharadwaj (besides the house sparrow, and the common crow. :P)

This one is the red-crested bulbul. Very beautiful!

The five-striped Indian squirrel. Not very uncommon, but I just love the way he nibbles with his tiny hands! Cute, ain't it? Mind you, I consider it to be the most agressive of the animals that come to my sill. Very timid against humans, but makes the poor birds run away. Legend has it that this small creature help Lord Rama help build the Sagar Setu (sea bridge) to Sri Lanka in its own tiny way. It used to roll-over in the beach sand, and go shake all of it onto the bridge! Lord Rama stroked it on the back in appreciation and ever since then it has had the stripes!

The bharadwaj (crow pheasant). Biggest of all birds here. To spot this bird is considered to be good luck in India. Ahem! It stays right in front of my window. Imagine all the luck I must have had over the years! Why doesn't someone show this to Harry Potter instead of making him drink Felix Felicis!

"The bird is quite large around 48 cm. Its head and body are purple black, the wings are chestnut above and black below, and the long tail is dark green. The bird feeds on wide range of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats other food items.

The call is that of most cuckoos is a simple repetition, in this case of a deep booming note."

The pictures here aren't mine. I will one day buy a very excellent camera. Till then, Google zindabad!

Your life will flash before your eyes! Literally...

2008-07-10T11:34:00.002-04:00

How cool is this! Research is on about how contact lenses can be used as a display-screen.

Wow!

Disconnect & Darkness :-(

2008-06-26T02:37:00.006-04:00

Last few days I feel a huge disconnect - between me and the world. I no longer relate to lots of things that I am supposed to- to things that would have hurt me, pained me, made me care about, made me think- even a year ago. I scoff at almost anything I see. TV shows, newspaper columns, advertisements... I can't relate to any of the stuff shown there. Agreed, most of it is junk, but still.
If that is not such a big deal then I can't relate to my friends either, it seems, they don't understand me either. Why blame them, things they discuss seem so trivial to me. Surely we shouldn't be wasting so much of our time on these topics. Discussions about relationships being an apt example.
In the past year, there have been only a handful of intellectually stimulating discussions with anyone at all. Although they have been fun, I seem to not want to argue with people most of the time. Everyone should form his or her opinions on their own. Arguing, discussing with others is a crutch that you need when you are unsure about yourself, when you need the approval of someone else to know that you are right.
As Ayn Rand put it, privacy and seclusion is a sign of human development. Since the world began, we have been moving from a herd mentality to living alone. So is this mental isolation yet another sign of progress?
I view most of the world in a disconnected way. Like I am removed from it, and that it cannot affect me. And even if it does, I don't care. I shall live through the pain.
Living up to my name I guess - 'Aniket' - it means unaffected, or one who is above worldly matters. :-)

Or maybe then again, I am just losing touch with reality. Going crazy...

Beckham!

2008-06-02T14:59:00.002-04:00

A tribute to his genius. Not only as a wonderful footballer, but also as an awesome marketing guy :D

This was supposed to be posted long back. Somewhere in March. Wanted to edit somethngs, but that is not likely to happen. So decided to post as it is.

David Beckham is awesome. He is a fighter and coming back into the English squad and complete his 100^th match is what showcases his fighting spirit. Just a year back he was down in the dumps, McLaren not picking him, not even playing for Madrid. From there he has really taken it upon himself to do things. Leading Madrid to the title, after all his coach put him through is a glimpse of his brilliance. And its not the first time either. It was like this when he was not picked by Sir Alex in that fateful Champion’s League match against Madrid, when he had it in him to come off the bench and score two. Though that didn’t keep him at Man U, it certainly proves that the guy loves a fight and will give his all when cornered.

Maybe I should put up a poster of his!

Of Street Urchins and Humaneness

2008-06-02T14:41:00.002-04:00

Today I happened to see a slew of these young street-urchins all over the place. Maybe, beggar-kids even.

Incident 1: I was parking my bike at this one-single free parking slot at a crowded roadside market. These young boys – some 7-8 years of age – were poking hands into every open bike pocket that they could lay them upon. Any documents, papers, grocery items that the unsuspecting owner had left there would be gone. I stood there, wondering whether too reprimand them or not. From their point of view, they were just trying to earn a few extra bucks. Sucks to the careless, moneyed class. I decided to remain a mute spectator to there deft stealing fingers.What would you have done?

Incident 2: After dining out, when I was returning to my car, another of such kids was playing with a stray dog, tickling away the playful puppy into fits of pleasure. For a fleeting moment I had a thought: Was the street-urchin kid more like a puppy than like a Yuppie-bred kid who struts around in jerseys of his favorite soccer team?

On my getting in the car, I have no idea why (or how) he did this, a kid of 8 years, he opened the other door and tried to come and sit in! My natural reaction was to stoccatedly scream at him. The poor thing shrunk away like a puppy would have done. On second thoughts, maybe I should have granted him a joyride. He took pleasure in forcefully slamming the car-door at my face. Then he went on to beg for another rupee…

Big Eyed Fish

2008-04-24T21:34:00.000-04:00

Story of a man,
Who decided not to breathe.
Turned red, purple, then blue.
Colorful indeed.
No matter how his friends begged,
Well, he would not concede,
And now hes dead.
You see, cause everybody knows,
You got to breathe.

But, oh god,
Under the weight of life,
Things seem brighter on the other side...
Lighter on the other side...

Another one: see this monkey sitting on a tree,
One day, decided to climb down,
And run off to the city.
Look at him now, tired and drunk
And living on the street.
As good as dead.
You see, a monkey should know,
Stay up your tree.

But, oh god,
Under the weight of life,
Things seem brighter on the other side.
Oh, god,
But under the weight of life,
Things seem much brighter on the other side.

No way, no way, no way.... out... of here...

Another one: a big eyed fish,
Yeah, swimming in the sea,
Oh, how he dreamed.
He wants to be a bird,
Swooping, diving through the breeze.
One day, he caught a big blue wave,
Up onto the beach,
And now hes dead.
You see, a fishs dream,
Should stay in the sea.

But, oh god,
Under the weight of life,
Things seem brighter on the other side.

No way... no way...no way...out... of here...

No way out of life.

Friends and Perception

2008-04-19T23:50:00.003-04:00

Times change..

Priorities change..

People come into your life and drift away. Some just drift away, others move away as if on purpose. Sometimes it hurts though... Other times you don't give a dime... And thats in relation to the same person!

You change opinions about people, in fact you even question your right to have an opinion about others. Does it really matter?

About 'second winds' and public urinals...

2008-03-31T15:08:00.002-04:00

Have you ever noticed how we generally feel sleepy after dinner. Say around 10 30. Then once you get thru that drowsiness, you can stay awake till 2am effortlessly.

If you feel hungry and not eat, the hunger dies down. Then you feel hungry for a second time. This time its for real. This is when even Atish food is lovely!

Marathon runners are supposed to get a high while running. This is what pulls them through the whole race. This is the ‘runner’s high’

I wonder whether, when you are working, and feel very tired and still continue, do you get a second wind? I think so…

Why do we have this? Why aren't we biologically programmed to do whatever we are till it is no longer REALLY possible?

On a random note, is it totally pointless to wonder whether the distribution of people at public urinals is spatially Gaussian? :P

Indian Railways

2008-02-27T08:43:00.002-05:00

I fail to understand how the man who fell on the tracks had such a bad experience. Right in the middle of the cuty, you fall and it takes you 1 hour to get treatment for a severed leg, its just too disturbing.

If Mumbai aims to be a global city, basic amenties like an ambulance at railway stations is a must.

Laloo, are you listening? Or just busy dolling out sops with the elections at hand...

Whats wrong with Maharashtra?

2008-02-27T07:07:00.002-05:00

This post comes more out of worry than anything else.

What is with Maharashtra? We are supposed to be one of the more forward states in the country, one of the more industrialized places, somewhere for the rest of India to look up to. Maharashtra has a very rich culture, the people a very strong sense of identity and are very tolerant traditionally.

My watchman left for Bihar frightened by the MNS voilence. Thats when I decided to write this post. He was a nice guy. What is he was from Bihar? What gives anyone the right to generalize rowdyness with Biharis? And so what if they are? Pushing them out of Maharashtra is no way to get back. Its more logical to try and make them more civilized. Improve implementation of law and order so that only the ones not follwing it are punished.

25,000 migrant workers leaving Pune isn't good for the economy. You simply can't let one person hold the state to ransom.

Think about Maharashtrians outside the state. What if Deve Gowda says something similar and pushes all the IT people out of Bangalore?

Its important for Maharashtrians to understand that the so called 'Bhaiyyas' who flock to Bombay, Pune, Nashik come here only because of the opportunities that exist here. They are mostly doing jobs which localities find to be too low-statured. Instead of killing them, its more important that the government makes it mandatory for their employers to better living conditions for them.

The youth of Maharashtra had such great expectations from Raj. Turns out that all politicians are as stupid as the other...

I still believe that the Marathis are a very tolerant breed of people, and the MNS behavior is nothing but a blip on the radar.

Baba Amte

2008-02-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

Since decades, people have just been bent and exploited. We have been given hands to lift them up, not to strangle them.

These were the words of the noted social reformer Baba Amte, a man also known as the Messiah of the poor.

Born Murlidhar Devidas Amte, on December 24, 1914, Baba Amte, hailing from a family of Brahmin jagirdars defied rigid caste hierarchy and often shared meals with servants and played with children of lower castes.

A qualified lawyer, Amte's tryst with social activism began early in life. While a lucrative practice at Wardha was ready for him, his heart beat for the poor and the destitute.

His motto "Charity destroys, work builds" finally culminated in the building of Anandwan, a sprawling rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.

Even in his last days, Baba's thoughts were thought-provoking and challenging.

"One 's hands should be used for help and for reforms. Not for killing others. This is the only message to the present generation," he said.

Although he won several awards - the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Vibhushan in 1986 and the Magsaysay Award in 1988 - he continued to rendered service diligently and selflessly.

It is no wonder that even the Prime Minister was touched by this immense loss.

"An era in India comes to an end. He was a great son of our country who devoted all his life to Gandhian values and the service of the poor and the down- trodden," PM Manmohan Singh said.

Baba was also a strong supporter of the Narmada Bachao andolan and fought relentlessly against displacement of the tribals. His constant refrain was that compassion has no party or ideology. His message of love for the poorest of the poor will be forever remembered and worthy to be emulated.

My tribute to the great man. May his tribe increase...

God...

2008-01-12T12:14:00.000-05:00

Recently had some thoughts about God (again!), and now I am wondering whether I am an atheist or not… The thought of someone being up there, willing to take the burden of your shoulders, is so comforting. That the weight of the world isn’t on your shoulders. Maybe that someone is luck, chance, probability, but it is still there. And putting your trust in that leaves you free to work carefree. Isn’t that the most important thing?

It isn't a conventional god, its my own, for my happiness!

Book Review: Old Man and his God

2008-01-05T03:20:00.000-05:00

Last week was just amazing. With coffee plantations, elephants, deer and what not. I had been to Coorg... Club Mahindra just rocks. Am even considering joining M&M for the free employee membership! Awesome food! Ate twice of what I usually do...

As I happened to have some spare time on my hands, I was wandering around in their library. Spotted 'Old Man and his God'. Read it based on the loads of 'must read' recos I have received for it. :D First ever book my Mrs. Infosys that I read. Hopefully, first of many.

The forst thing you notice is the simple English. Simple, almost to the point of irritation. And although its so simple, lucid, it still conveys all the emotion behind it so well! The book is a collection of small anecdotes from her life. Some of the stories are really touching. As usual, won't go into any details..

Thats for you to read up!

Snapshots from Hell

2007-12-21T11:18:00.000-05:00

This is a book I have been wanting to read for ages. Ever since I heard that FPS is a lift off from this. Peter Robinson talks about life in his first year at Stanford Business School. Supposedly hell...

A lot many incidents in the book are something which I can relate too from my life as a BITSian. The mood-swings that affect the campus. It wears a sombre look all throughout the exams, apart from that it is so nice, vibrant and noisy.. During fests its full of freakish enthusiasm.. I remember last Oct, where it was hauntingly silent for 15 days.. The point is, the mood affects the whole campus, u cant stay aloof...

Then there are the changes that come in students with every passing semester. In the first, u are in awe of the institute, afraid of the exams, wanting to get good grades etc. etc... In the second you kind of fit into the scheme of things, figure out what you want out of engineering. Then come the CDCs in your third year, a lot of hard work and not enough rewards. And then finally at the end of it all are the placements. Phew.. Quite a journey.

I wouldnt miss BITS for anything. Its given me so much, it has made me who I am...

Anyway coming back to the book, its a must read for wannabe MBAs, and maybe for people who don't wanna be MBAs too!

Feminism and more

2007-12-15T19:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday had a long and fruitful discussion with one of my friends after ages. Life is so hectic that no one has the time to sit and think, discuss, fantasize and philosophize... Enjoyed it a lot. Here goes a part of what we discussed:

Traditionally women have always been 'suppressed', so to say. The poet Manu even goes as far to say that a woman is always a liability. She always has to be taken care of. First by her father, then by her husband and finally by her son. Question is, is that right? S says it is completely true in the context then. Then, there would be foreign invasions and enslavement, markets 'for' women were all part of it. Was it not right then that they were supposed to be taken care of? Obviously, yes.. You would argue it is even a duty to protect your own.

So what has changed today? Today we live in our cocoon, in a human made artificial world, where things are better for women than before. They have the freedom and the opportunity to do as they please, without fear of anything. They can even growl that they are equals- not a step behind men. Blah blah...

Maybe its not so equal in some parts of the world, but still, there is hope...

For me, the truth is, it is not about men and being equal. Its about them being different, and being able to cherish each others differences. And that's why I believe, feminism of the 'women-can-do-this-too' kind is passe. What is the point of bellowing yourself hoarse that you do something. The whole point of equality is lost when you keep declaring women can do this, women can do that. That itself shows inequality, doesn't it?

I feel now is the time for post-feminism, an era where women work hand-in-hand with men, without much ado about it and at the same time appreciating the differences between the not-so-fairer sex and themselves.

Of course, all this is applicable only to urban India, where a woman can atleast choose to live her life on her own, hopefully without pressure to 'find someone'. In rural, or even semi-urban areas, I guess feminist thoughts do have some kind of motivational role to play. But even then, just having a token women president, who doesn't have that kind of stature, isn't going to help things much. (Except maybe we can crow about it...)

The argument against this is that in a marriage, even now, its the woman who is supposed to sacrifice her will for her mate... I don't know how to counter that, nor do I know when that attitude will change, but it will.

Back to the future

2007-12-13T20:22:00.000-05:00

The exams are finally done, definitely among my worse semesters. Anyway, whats done is done, and now I can get back to things I love the most. Plan to get on the next-sem project and gonna start with the micromouse now, designing the sensor circuit.

Active filters, here I come!

Madhouse Rock

2007-12-13T13:07:00.000-05:00

This morning was reading up for the Electronic Devices and Integrated Ckts (EDIC) exam. It was the last paper, and was in a bad mood. The subject is quite difficult, although interesting.

Point being- I saw these activities in the hostel:
1)People running ragged hither-tither, hair askew, like they are about to miss a train.
2)Somebody oscillating in corridors, holding a book to himself, muttering what seem to be obscenities under his breath (maybe he is cramming up formulae!)
3)People shouting, 4-at-a-time, discussing whether or not the IMPATT diode will bring about a lag of 179deg or 181deg!
4)Rock music playing so loud that the whole of BITS hears it.
5)Rock music playing so loud that the whole of BITS hears it.
6)Rock music playing so loud that the whole of BITS hears it.
7)KK shouting out 'Iin Dino", just for the fun of it, to irritate people.
8)Harried people, who have probably been up all night, responding with 'Ae's and asking him to shut up...

Doesn't the scene bear an eerie resemblance with a mental institution?

Microelectronics

2007-12-08T08:31:00.001-05:00

Just had my 4th paper.. Microelectronic Circuits. Its a beautiful subject. Its amazing how you can control devices at such small scales. The sad part is, you have to everything on your own. Faculty crunch hurts here the most. Not enough people is one reason, but what about those who are here? Shouldnt there be some quality control on teachers?
A big step in that direction needs to be evaluation of teachers by students, not the other way. Coz lots of times, I am more interested in learning than that guy is interested in teaching (or more likely, its the lack of ability on his part) :(
Anyway, got no paper for next two days. So peace...

Does it matter?

2007-12-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

Life is not about constantly worrying how it would turn out to be. It is about making the most of the moment. And the sooner I come to grips with this, the better

Bob Dylan

2007-12-05T02:46:00.000-05:00

Have recently started hearing a bit of Bo Dylan.. Blowin in the Wind is too good. And yesterday heard another of his songs.. The lyrics go something like this:

Clowns sittin to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you...

And I am wondering what it is I should do,
Its so hard to keep that smile on my face...
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you!

Am I?

An eventful day for the world...

2007-09-10T13:54:00.000-04:00

Nawaz Sharif was exiled from Pakistan in contempt of a Supreme Court decision... More importantly Britney made her long awaited comeback.She sucked from what I hear, read and see. Her dress would make any pornstar hide in shame. She has lost her shapely curves too. :(
Her transition from a nice teen icon to a nervous wreck has been heartbreaking to watch. She never was a great singer, but she was a heartthrob of millions for the way she carried herself, the image that she had... They say fame is fickle, but now-a-days its more troublesome than that. It would have been better if she had faded from the public conscience, rather than the dissection of her every action that is carried out by the unforgiving press... I pity her...

THE ARC

2007-08-14T07:12:00.002-04:00

Starting a club for encouraging students to start with amateur electronics and robotics has been a long standing dream of mine. Especially, at this campus,it is a requirement, which despite all all the amazing things it has taught me, still lacks that technical bent of mind, which you would expect as a must at one of the premium engineering institutions in the country. Now as I start of this club - THE ARC (The Hobby Electronics and Amateur Robotics Club), I actually dream of the campus, getting better and better over the next few years, competing with the best in the world...

Lack of time!!!

2007-08-10T14:54:00.000-04:00

As expected, life in the third year is quite hectic.. Its insane to try n juggle so many things. Its no longer like in second year, when you think that you will plan out your third year better... The time is NOW, the place is HERE.
Anyway, its fun being in the midst of something or the other all the time. You don't have the time to brood upon what could have been and what isn't. You are actually doing something all the time. Enjoying every moment of it!

Two idlis and a wada.. life at IGCAR, Kalpakkam, TN

2007-07-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

Doing my B.E. at BITS-Pilani, Goa gave me this wonderful opportunity of doing an intern at Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research, Kalpakkam – one of the top research institutes in the country. Now that its over, and I got some free time, I ll pen down some of my observations.

1. The first thing to notice at the place was that it has practically infinite funding. It as THE most amazing library and a 1 Gbps LAN connection.. Awraa..

2. For a ‘top’ research institution, real high end work goes on only a few of the departments. At other places, people are typical govt office lazy. Lethargy stinks through many of the departments. Its not that people there are not intelligent, but when straitjacketed and asked to complete the given work, and only the given work, even the brightest minds will be disillusioned. Then life tends to reduce to a dreary routine, with days after days of pushing through.

3. The department I worked in – Radiochemistry Lab (RCL) was one such dreary place. Still with some amount of push, we were able to get work done. Literally, we did a bit of pushing – there was no one, but us, to shift the comp from one room to another!

4. At still other places a huge amount of research is on, places like the Research Physics Laboratory, or the Reactor Safety Division will surely be interesting for people in that field.

5. Despite being in a not-so-gud dept, I did get an amazing project. I got to learn lots. Apart from working on the actual 8051 related hardware, the LabVIEW part was also very interesting. LabVIEW is a totally different idea. A graphical programming language, not a single line of code, it’s the most amazing thing I have worked with.

6. In my last week, I went to see my contact at the Safety Division. Got to see the weather prediction model software he has developed. It acquires data from the World Met Council (or something like it) and uses it to predict the radioactive fallout that would happen if there was some leak from the center. It was awesome. You could predict weather with a resolution of 2*2 km.. Talk about cool…

7. Also saw the Instrumentation Dept there. They work with a higher end software similar to LabVIEW – DasyLab. Wonder how it would have been to work in that department…

8. Now for the title: it was my standard breakfast at IGCAR. There was variety, but this was the stuff that I found to suit my palate. Seriously, the only negative aspect of life there was food. Didn’t exactly like it. Still, eventually, by the end of PS-1 found out a couple of good (more like, not bad), places. But walking 40 min way to reach a restaurant isn’t exactly the most sought for luck now, is it?

Danny Pearl's Murder - A new view

2007-06-26T22:30:00.000-04:00

Came across this blog recently. It gives an interesting though obviously not unheard of theory.

Chennai... Its blacks and whites

2007-06-24T11:56:00.001-04:00

1) Staying at Kalpakkam for the past month, I have visited Chennai atleast thrice.. Time n again, Chinmay’s words resonate in my mind: “This place is a pseudo-metro”. Its like a small town grown which has grown too big. It doesn’t have the metro culture. Other metros; Mumbai, Delhi or even Pune and Bangalore, have a distinctly western influence on the lifestyle of the junta. You see Baristas, McDonalds, Coffee Days and Pizza Huts and the like mushrooming around every street corner. Around Chennai you are still likely to see Adyar Anand Bhavan or some Udipi Restaurent.. All around is a distinct color of conservativism. You would be lucky to see a girl and a boy talking to each other at the street corner… Case in point: Two weeks back on my way to Bangalore, overheard this conversation between two ladies on the train:

(Lady 1 – In her early thirtees, among the type who wear jeans but only with an Indian top. Lady 2 – Pompous 50 year old who would consider love marriages nothing less than blasphemy. Topic : How Bangalore has changed)
L 1: I grew up in Bangalore and I have seen the city has changed a lot.. The IT industry has brought alongwith it very western influences.
L 2: I know. Now you see pubs n discos everywhere. It was never like that before.
L 1: When I was in colleges there would be no such thing. (C’mon lady maybe you didn’t know them, but surely they existed!)
L 2: Last time I was in Bangalore, I got the shock of my life.
L 1: What happened?

(Hold your breath… Such a huge thing happened.. Wait for it.. Now its coming.. You see.. the expectation is nerve jangling.. What a scandal…)

L 2: I had just woken up, and looking out of my balcony at 7 AM, I saw (C’mon I cant take it anymore) a girl and a boy, (What?? Were they doing it??) they were having tea together. (Phew??!!!!)

…Chennai isn’t still westernized. Its still very conservative at heart… Its interesting to see this direct contrast between Mumbai-Pune & Chennai-Bangalore. It makes you think what times would have been around 40 years earlier-even in urban areas…

2) Another thing worth noting is the Poster phenomena – All over TN you will see posters of politicians put every 100 metres on the road (Or is it 10!) Huge faces of Amma (Jayalalitha), Karunanidhi, MK Stalin(How could you name anyone like that??!!) staring down at you or smiling into the emptiness. A poster would be anything from around 6 feet high to a mindboggling 50 feet. I don’t know what they say (they are in Tamil), but below these figures which we generally know are smaller faces of local politicians, of every Tom, Dick n Harry who ever got into politics.. Geez.. The funniest part: When in Pondicherry, there was a poster- huge- of Stalins. Not 1, but 10.. Stalin at his graduation, Stalin as mayor, Stalin with a gold necklace. Infuriating… How do people bear with it? ( And how do these politicians themselves? After all, what happens to the posters after their use? Burnt off? Shredded.. Hehe..)

3) Last weekend Rajnikanth’s movie released. Sivaji- The Boss. All hell broke lose. The whole of South India went crazy to see their superstar. This guy seems to be a cross between Govinda and SRK. Apparently, he is a people’s actor – like Govinda, or Laxmikant Berde in Marathi- he charges rates higher than SRK. From what I hear he charged a cool 35cr for this film.. That’s more than half the film’s budget. But from the crowd pulling ability he has, the spending is totally justified from the producer’s POV. Again from hearsay, his movies aren’t even that good. Just common junta stuff.. I had thought that atleast in the south, where people are more educated, such mediocre stuff wouldn’t sell.. But then I guess, India is still just 60 year old. That’s just a kid in terms of nation-age. She has a long long way to go…

4) The only thing in Chennai that is metro-class (by that, I mean Indian metros, mind you) is public transport. The city’s bus system would be a great envy to Pune. Pune out to learn. Without going into numbers, I bet the public : private vehicle ratio is 5 times that of Pune. The buses aren’t exactly comfy or anything, but they RUN. They will be so crowded, that you cant even stand on the footboard… But still, they RUN… And they do that well… In the overpopulated cities of India, that is what is the order of the day.

Starting off...

2007-06-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well, had a plan to start a blog for a long long time... Times have changed from where I used to scoff at blogs, to being curious about blogging, to when I read my first blog on a friend's reco to where reading blogs is now as imperative as reading the news... Here goes...
Anyway, thoughts suddenly come in torrents, but right now its not the time of this torrential downpour. So, basically, I cant think of anything to write.
So hell...