some arbit thoughts

Quote

2009-07-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

Long time, no post.

However time has a come for a new one as this gem of a quote appears in Joy's status message:

" We can’t control the world, but we can control how we think about it."

Orange :)

2009-01-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

Today I "plucked" oranges from a tree and ate them. Yaay!

Snowed Out

2008-12-19T16:06:00.001-08:00

Walking on a lonely road amongst evergreen trees, capped with snow, as the rays of the setting sun reflects a golden glow on the snow flakes by your feet .

The above statement is best enjoyed as a sentence on a piece of paper. Its not fun, especially the last 15 minutes of the hour long walk. Not fun at all.

2008-11-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post, so here we go.

To start, those six letters that was so definitive of everything that I was for the past 4 years is no longer a reality. I miss my old life, friends and the identity that it provided me with. Then again, going along the lines of the second question in this article, time transforms not only your surrounding, but you "the person" as well. So me missing my past is about as realistic as me "missing" Brad Pitt's life. Pointless, both of those thoughts are.

Philosophically, I have kind of reached a stale-mate with my own arguing self. The fourth question in the aforementioned article is something that I have written about and thought about for many wasted lenghts of time. The fact that its not just me is mostly certainly comforting.

The never ending serials that has often given me company and solace throughout days and nights have taken a back seat. Its been more than 6 months since I productively utilized an entire day (and night) watching episodes after episode. A friend of mine recently called me a "TV junkie" for watching one episode per day. Hearing this, The Grand Father of all Knowledge is, I am sure, laughing his big fat brain out.

Ok, meanwhile, as all human beings know,a financial, economic and social crisis have hit our economies, banks and soceities. A combination of fate and fortune ( I really dont know which) ensured that I was the spectator and not a gladiator in the ensuing saga. I like movies; being the spectator is good. You can choose sides and explore all the emotions, still retaining the option to leave the hall unscathed. More on this later.

More recently, this news and this news had been a source of great pride for me. That was until this news appeared and now I am eagerly waiting for one more to wrap up all that pride and put it into a dumpster. Cheers to co-patriots.

Doomsday 2012

2008-06-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

Nothing better than a doomsday conspiracy theory to cheer one up on a boring day! :)

Read this and this for a rather critical take on the whole issue. Read this for the fun, masala and escape from trivialities of ordinary mundane life activity.

And last but never the least, read this and this for that ever sublime "intellectual kick". :D

A tribute to ......

2008-04-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

A tribute to ******. An apple for the correct guess! :)

The twirling droplets of red,
Encircling a vision framed in blood
The searing impulse travels,yelling
A sensation; beyond articulation, a feeling.

The darkness outside seems bright;
A backdrop, worthy of the Final Fight.
The glint shines soft in unseen light,
Signaling its joy, a step closer to its birth-right.

The twitching limbs feel the still air,
As a cold sting on the standing hair;
Still the deaf nor the dead heard no sounds
The Night had spread its wings, deafening all earthly grounds.

The eternal Master moved ever so slow,
Savouring its actors as they moved along its flow;
Jets of crimson red played the carnal tune,a musical fountain:
And there I stood: cleansed, purged? An angelic baton.

Into the Wild

2008-02-29T19:21:00.000-08:00

The cult of Chris McCandless. May it never die!

Read this article to know more. Jon Krakauer has writen a biography about him titled "Into the Wild". Also it has been made into a truly wonderful movie by Sean Penn. Do watch it, absolutely beautiful movie.

P.S. Kudos to Joy for recommending it!

Disconnected( Arbit?) Thoughts

2008-02-16T23:59:00.000-08:00

Couple of days back, I wrote a quiz on the "Literature and Environment" course. The course is more about philosophy than literature or environment and hence interesting in a vague sense. A lot of stuff like Eco-criticism and Eco- feminism are things that I neither find interesting nor agree with. But still, there are these golden flashes of an elusive treasure that keeps occurring throughout. There is something about philosophy which is frustrating yet intriguing. Its like that Pandora's box which is half open and lures you in. Two steps more and you think the end shall be seen but reality shows it to be a bottomless pit.

I have always wondered what would happen if all the philosophical questions had objective answers. It would mean an end to all doubts about purpose and karma. There wouldn't be any police or law enforcement agencies, since everyone would know* what is right and what is wrong. Everyone would do only the right thing, since what is"right" becomes an absolute truth which is no longer dependent on subjective intrepretations. It would be the ideal world, but a boring one at that. Isn't uncertainty the greatest boon of mankind? I remember the dialogue of Brad Pitt as Achilles in the film Troy "The Gods envy us. Because we are mortal, because we are doomed, each moment is so much more precious."

Words are powerful, yet at some level only a symbol of man's effort to propagate( to others) and re-assure( himself) his own ideas and the objectives behind his actions. Without words an enlightened man is no different from an ordinary mendicant. Actions might speak for themselves but not so loudly nor clearly as words. Where would we be without them ?

Without words, we would have no way of sharing ideas with others, which in turn means that we would either try to figure things out ourselves or stop trying at all. Maybe the real answer is that, *that there is nothing to be figured out*! Things happen just because that is the way things are. This again is an oft repeated concept in our course. The "is"ness of a thing whereby it just "is" what it is. Probably deep down we all know that it is the truth, yet the hope of a greater reality pushes us to do more. We are not satisfied by eating good food or getting a shelter to sleep. Our wants go beyond. Maybe the realization of such a truth, *that there is nothing to be realized* might mean a return to the stone age or even behind, to a time when all we would care for is a good meal and a safe sleep.

So while engrossed in these Eco poems and essays, I did some googling on the "Zen" school of thought. The zen philosophy says that to attain enlightenment one should be "intentionally aware" of the "present" without being "judgmental" about it. After thinking on it for sometime I concluded that it probably means one should clearly *know* and make an effort to understand what is happening ( around), without trying to figure out if it is happening for the good or bad. This again means that you shouldn't try to "interfere", but just let things be. I agree that the above statement appears to be self contradictory at multiple levels, since most of our actions are reactions to external stimuli and thus its impossible to act and yet not "interfere". At some level even our very presence is an interference. Then again, it might mean you should do those things which come *naturally*" to you, without letting the guiding hand of knowledge nor the filter of civilization change that natural course of action nor modify it. Would this mean a return to the hippie culture of 70s, where people try to portray the rebel image? I doubt. The problem with a being a rebel is that you again made the conscious decision of being a rebel. To follow zen philosophy would probably mean to act in a way as though the society was never there, neither *against it* nor *with it* nor *parallely*, but in a way that ignores its very existence itself.

OK, .. this will be continued later in another post.

Political Correctness

2008-02-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

In terms of being politically correct in speech, our Indian media has kept pace with its western counterparts at a rather amazing speed. Yesterday I read this article in Hindu which referred to a "short person" ( political correctness again :D) as a "vertically challenged" person.

"Vertically challenged". wow

Apocalypto

2008-02-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

I seriously* recommend this movie. Absolutely wonderful direction combines with brilliant acting. There is so much raw energy in this film that at no point of time does the pace slacken even a bit. This film shows that though coated thickly by the outward paints of civilization, deep down we remain what we are, animals. A particular scene, one where the lead actress, being trapped in a pit with her son, fights off a charging monkey is simply movie at its best. The film also questions the ethos of "civilization" at large, where subjugation and slavery of a vast majority is essential for uplifting the standard of living of a few at the top. This is again contrasted with the primordial hunter village societies where almost everyone is on equal footing with no great misery nor luxury. To sum things up, definitely one of the best movies I have seen till date. The rating of 7.9 in IMDB belittles its true value by a long way.

Yet another pearl of wisdom

2008-01-30T08:46:00.001-08:00

As usual, in one of those enlightening conversations with the Grandfather of All Knowledge ( a cliched but most fitting sobriquet! :)) , another pearl of wisdom came out: Here it goes,

" The passion that one feels for something is inversely proportional to how much one knows about it"

Enlightened? DEpassionate(d)*?

Serials

2007-12-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

A long time since I wrote on the serials that has got me hooked for all of the foreseeable future and hence whole of eternity from my point of view. So here we go:

1. Dexter- Absolutely love this series. This series is not meant for everyone and if you belong that subspecies( I try to differentiate them from me :P) who faint at the first sign of blood, then it certainly is NOT meant for you. However if you are a Tarantino fan and if you give "Fight Club" a rating of minimum 4 on 5, then this series is tailor made for you! Watch it and trust me, you will be clawing your way to the next epsiode. :D

2. Boston Legal- To quote the words of the great "CB", it is "Inspiring!". I can't think of a better word to describe this series. "Oh_my_God_,_I_don't_know_what_just_hit_me" level dialogue coupled with a dismissive air of superiority that the actors seem to carry themselves around with, makes this show pretty much the slickest one on T.V. Watch this and I guarantee that you would think at least once, make that twice, about getting the hell out of here and becoming a lawyer in U.S :)

3. Lost- This is my old(all?) time favorite, been around for more than 3 years now. Starting its 4th season in January, I would be lying if I tell you I haven't missed it dearly. A show that practically reinvented the wheel and proved that it is worth doing so, the only catch being that the wheel should be capable of doing stuff other than just rolling on a plane ground.:D Plane crash in an island, people having no clue where they are, and noone to rescue them. If a deja vu has never been this strong then, yea, you probably went through one of those yourself . However, if you take this cliched plot, mix it with the right amounts of science fiction, supernatural nonsense and a bit of totally arbit nonsense which noone has no( double negative!) clue about, then bingo!, you have LOST. And yes, you yourself will be pretty lost for most of the time that you watch this series. But its good, both the feeling of being lost as well as THE lost. :)

4. Prison Break- Self explanatory title and a show that is desperately trying to be what it used to be. Period

5. How I met your mother- A wannabe "Friends". Probably the only series which has got even close to the timeless masterpiece. Good fun, totally worth wasting time on.

6. South Park- Makes you realize that whatever that you have seen till then is not the grossest thing which can be seen. Whatever you have heard of till then, is not the most insane thing that can be done. You realize that there are people who don't give a damn about anything, and I mean anything. And finally you realize that Eric Cartman is gawd. I bow to thee o Cartman.

7. Heroes- This was touted to be NBC's answer to ABC's LOST. Personally I would pick LOST over this anyday, but that doesn't mean its bad. The concept in general is good, the characters are good and the actors are also doing a pretty good job out there. But somehow the direction and screenplay leaves a lot to be desired. The series has immense potential if the director and script writers can exploit it properly. Lets wait for the second half of the second season before passing the final judgment.

P.S. The numbers doesn't, doesn't , indicate any ranking of sorts. These are just the order in which the respective shows came to my mind :)

Shock

2007-12-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

I can't help but write about this. I am fully aware that these words will not influence anything in anyway. And I am also fully aware of my own inability to affect things that happen in this world. Still..

I am shocked, angry, appalled, sad, disturbed and more than anything feel a sense of incredulity at what has happened in Pakistan. How can someone, who had the highest level of protection, be murdered just like that? That too hardly 10 days after a failed assassination attempt. If the secuirity forces in Pakistan and their counter terrorist measures are this bad, then I would seriously advice each and every politician/ruler of Pakistan to start supporting the extremists and be nothing more than their puppet, if elected.

You might think why I, sitting so safely in India, in the comfort of my room, not being affected in a direct way by anything that happens in Pakistan, feel so strongly about this. I have no answer, but I DO. Benazir Bhutto might not have been Mother Teresa reincarnated, but she was as good a politician as politicians get. Educated at both Harvard and Oxford, one can at the very least assume her to be intellectually sound and politically aware ( in a global sense). For all the allegations of corruption against her, she showed her integrity and loyalty to Pakistan by taking the decision to leave the comfort and safety of London and return home to fight elections at a time when her country was being rampaged by dictators and terrorists.

Assassinations are not a new thing in South Asian politics. Still, this is the first time I have been exposed to one, alive as it happened. The shock that I feel, makes me think about what people in Pakistan must be going through. It is probably that very same feeling of shock and disbelief combined with anger and fear that drive nations into turmoil when leaders are killed. I can only hope that such a thing doesn't happen in Pakistan.

As UK Prime Minister said, the people who did this are nothing but cowards, "cowards afraid of democracy". Pakistan should now make them fear it even more.

Quote

2007-12-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of days back, The Grandfather of All Knowledge shared a piece of his infinite wisdom with me, while we were vetting our appetites at the good ol' tiffanys. The story in itself, though a rather short one, is not of importance here. The important part here is the final line, and it goes something like this:

" It feels good to be wanted".

Musings

2007-12-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

During one of thoes enlightening moments on campus ( and trust me, they are very very rare), I came to this realization that learning new stuff is actually fun. Such a realization came when I was having a conversation with the one grandfather of all knowledege whom I had personal access to. As usual he was putting gyaan to the surrounding mortals on those things that only he knows how he knows. Then I realized one more thing, its not the topic that makes it fun, more so its the person from whom the gyann is recieved! AND trust me, this grandfather can probably make even Man-Tech intersesting to a 4th yr mech student...... Thats saying a lot!

The purpose of me taking the pain to type this out here is rather simple. It is to re-empahsize the fact that teaching is arguably the most important of all proffessions, perhaps even more important than doctors. Teachers have such a great effect on society, yet we fail to take note of it , much less realize the sheer magnitude of it. We are living in an age where all the Toms, Dicks and Harrys who cant do anything else, end up teaching. As a high school student, I consider myself very lucky to have been taught by a select few, who had the abiliy to inspire their students. But with deepest regret, I must say, in the premier institute of technology in India, a lot is left to be desired in terms of faculty.

What is the solution here? As far as I can see, the Right to Teach should be made an exclusive one, just like the Right to practise Law or Medicine. One thing that most people don't realize is that people with a sound technical base or scientific know-how are not always the best teachers. Therefore the current practise of a Ph.D or M.S being the passport to teaching should be changed. There should be mulitple levels of qualifications which a teacher should clear and these levels should be an indication of both knowledge as well as the ability to teach. In this manner those who clear the highest levels should be made to teach in the premier institutes and they should be paid generously as well.

All this may sound complicated and cumbersome, but the social benefit of having good teachers will easily surpass the costs involved. More on this topic later.

Update!

2007-11-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post! So here we go.

During my relentless quest to find relief from madness, I stumbled across this blog, written by the "Dilbert Guy". Not only is he incredibly witty, but he is also consistent at that. Not a single post exists on that site which is not an absolute cracker. Brilliant, I say.

The past couple of months have been enlightening, if nothing else. Along with a couple of other hundred people you realize one fine morning that you must decide what to do in life in a couple of weeks time. Some people start having dreams, others don't dare to do even that. In short, you fully realize the meaning of the statement "Ignorance is bliss!" and end up saying amen to that.

Any post written in the second week of november deserves a mention about the placements, cat and app. Being in mechanical engineering is good. It reinforces your long held belief that the average IQ of all the authorities is very close to/ if not forms the retard cut off. OF course its perfectly logical to keep 120 seats in Mech and just 30 in comp sci, when there are 120 jobs in comp sci and less than 30 in Mech. Isn't the terrible complexity of decision making parameters amazing!>

How I wish I would get an I-bank job! This would be the refrain of closely 90% of the people I know. The rest simply wish they would get the same in future. Three years ago I wonder how many would have even heard of the term "I-bank". Financial boom time it is and suddenly the golden egg laying hens of yester years, the ones who gave Indian graduates their first non zero paychecks( infinitesimally non zero pay checks which were paid by PSU's are not considered) are no longer that miraculous. Cheers to them, finally we are getting a salary which makes us above poverty line by Finnish Standards!

Now the stock market is slisha going bonkers over there at one end. We have an Indian becoming the richest guy in the world and then slipping down the ladder, probably after realizing that all that extra tax to be paid was simply not worth the token of honesty. I always wonder about the incentive for anyone to be honest in this world. We all are, at most times, better off lying!

Yeah, so thats enough blog for the day. I am too sleepy to write any more!

Quote

2007-09-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

There is this documentary that I found on lan, titled "How Hitler Lost the War". The documentary ends with the following sentence:

" The malice of the wicked is never without the weakness of the virtuous".

Thought it was an interesting sentence. After all history is written by "those who hung heroes" :)

8 Arbit( Random :D) Facts

2007-09-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

This post was overdue for way too long. I was tagged by Czar, Spanky and Mathew. So here are the rules of the tag.

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

So here we go, the facts at the end of which I would have convinced everyone just how insane I am.

1. I talk to myself a lot. Yes, however vague and crazy that might sound, I do that. It is not that I talk loudly to myself, its just that whenever I think about anything, the thoughts come in the form of a voice. Dont know whether its same for everyone, never bothered to ask :D..

2. I daydream a lot. This means that you would physically be seeing me sitting in the class and looking straight at someone, but in reality my mind would be somewhere totally far off and thinking about the most arbit and unrelated of things. Because of this very same reason, I find it very difficult to concentrate continuously on anything, whether it be a conversation, lecture or what not.

3. I become emotionally attached to things very fast. Even small things hurt me a lot, even though this has reduced by a great extent in the past few years. One very small example, would be the fact whenever I am leaving anywhere, I feel sad. Its most irrational, because I know I am leaving a place to go somewhere, leaving which I will again feel sad. :D

Just as I become attached fast, I also become detached equally fast. So those two kinda make up for each other.

4. Movies interest me a lot! I am a huge movie buff and loves almost all genres. My favorite among the lot would be ones involving stylized violence. Yeah, i like stylized violence too..

5. Insects, especially spiders scare the freaking life out of me. I am 100% sure that if you lock me and a large brown spider together inside a small closed enclosure like a cupboard, I would die of heart attack before the spider can even think of attacking me. Yes, I AM that scared of spiders :|

6. As a kid, I used to very very naughty. Naughty is really an euphemism here. Somehow I loved to get into fights and arguments. Also I had this vague disregard and contempt towards authority and rules in general. However all that changed after my tenth, and now I am scared, if not petrified of authority. :D

7. I am both an introvert and an extrovert at the same time. It is very natural for me to go into a shell and totally shut myself off from the outside world when I am with relatively unfamiliar people, especially of the opposite sex. But more often that not, I would call myself an extrovert and enjoy hanging around with friends as much as possible.

8. Most of the time I act without thinking. This has led to a lot of bad decisions, but also a few good ones. So in the end I guess its the right thing to do. :|

I tag GT, Unnikuttan, PG, Varun, MRP, Joy, Nai and Wiper

Nayagan

2007-09-14T03:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching "Nayagan", the tamil movie directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Kamal Hassan. As that epic sense of power, righteousness and karma slowly starts to wane and the blurred vision begins to distinguish the banal realities around, the realization finally dawns :"I just saw the greatest movie ever!"

An arbit blog!! :D

2007-07-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

now... i am NOT a mcp or any crap like that..:D./..

but this IS a hillarious blog...

http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/

DO take a look!

YAAAY!!!!

2007-06-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Thats my baby!!!!

Two weeks of ordering and wrenching, screwing(:D) and bolting has finally resulted in this..

Btw.. i haven tested whether it works yet.. :P

Update: It didnt work.. :(...

Updated Update: It has started working... bits and parts.. here and there.. :)

MVOSS

2007-02-11T07:56:00.001-08:00

Maninomander stood gazing out of the grilled window. The cold was getting to his bones these days and he longed for the arrival of summer. "Soon" , he muttered beneath his breath, suddenly not sure of what he was wishing for. Years in the army had hardened him ; no longer a stranger to either death or pain, he knew that every breath was a gift hard earned and one that should be cherished. " But I am different" he used to remind himself proudly. He still smiled upon the carefree blithe life of the young and seemed to understand the happiness in the little mischiefs of life. He always believed life to be something that should be enjoyed, not bound and strained under the chains of authority and soceity.

Still today was different. He could no longer feel the warmthness inside his heart, as though the cold outside had chilled everything including the soul. " Hmm.. How can it be so cold?. Its only November and the winter hasn't even started?! "he mused loudly. The mountain looked gloomy and dark under the setting sun, it was as though the receeding rays were robbing the tall peak of its beauty and serenity. The general blinked his eyes, almost as though he was hoping against hope to wake up and feel the warm rays of the sun against his face.

The cool breeze kept wafting in. He could sense that smell, though he couldn't place it. The cold, he thought , its all the fault of the cold!. Suddenly, the mighty general felt weak and lost, as though everything he had ever held close to his heart and mind had become false and unreal. Leaning against the grill, he bent his head into the folded arms and as if from nowhere a small drop fell to the ground. " Sir, the priest has come", the sharp voice from behind the door declared.

The Prestige

2007-02-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

Marvellous film!!!!

The best that I have seen in a long long long time!
This film is the mother of all tales with a twist. Will write more on the film later. So in the meantime please do yourself a favour and watch this film.

P.S. Kudos to Vinay aka "czar" for suggesting this movie and then taking the pains to send it via gtalk!!

ARBIT THOUGHTS

2007-01-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

I used to believe, till couple of months back, that man makes his own destiny, that our actions and choices make us what we are and decides what we will be. I was certain that the future is an unpredictable unknown entity and that whatever that I did presently was of importance because my future depended on those very actions. But as said earlier it was what I USED to believe.

Now the thing is I believe the entire world is like a series of events, discrete or continous, each influencing the other through connections which are unimaginably complicated. These sort of connections between 2 seemingly unrelated events is pretty well brought by scientific theories such as " the butterfly effect". Such connections can even explain the logic behing astrology, in which phases of our life are determined by the relative positions of planets. How the position of planets can affect our lives?.. I dont know, but I do believe that its not a totally impossible probability.

SO is the future predictable?... If it IS predictable, then it means its already decided, it means its already destined, it means our choices, decisions and actions are already laid out and we are just walking through them. It means choice is nothin but an illusion to keep the human beings in the dark about their own insignificance in the global order. But all this is true only if the future is indeed predictable....

SO what am I trying to say here>?.. Its not a solution for any problems, even if we are to finally get the truth of whether choice exists or not. Even if we realize its not, we cannot change anything bcoz all our actions including that of the current discovery was also predecided and destined to happen. Destiny, if it exists, is a weird thing, coz it makes u realize that neither the credit for successes nor the blame for failures is ures. It also brings out the irony in celebrating successes and rueing over failures..

IRONY!.. lets try n stay away from tht irony......

Arbit Update

2006-11-04T08:49:00.000-08:00

This post is exactly what the title says! Its an arbit update. No particular reasons for doing this except that the blog has undergone 3 whole months of total inactivity and it was E-roding all the way to hell.

In the mean time the 5th sem has started and has almost come to a screeching halt(read end) .Yeah, yeah we all know how time files, dont we?Mech in IITM is a weird thing as in it starts in the 4th sem and ends in the 5th. All the other sems are just beautiful decorations to make it a fully fledged 4 yr BTech. The above statement should in no way be interpreted as me saying that mech in IITM is easy or that its a cake walk. Quite the contrary it is the very opposite of cake walk,its almost a fire dance or a fire walk, depending on what you choose to do.

But what i want to get across or imply or shout at your face at this point of time is that my absence from the field of blogging has indeed met a rather gruesome death at this very moment. A complete update on bloggable(read abnormal but not anti social) events that has taken place over the sem shall soon be made.

And my words of wisdom at this point of time is:

"Choice is an illusion of life, the greatest farce that man made himself believe!"

Meebo Time

2006-08-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

hey guys..
check out the new meebo widget i have by the side...
now u can chat with me whenever i am online!!!... its way too cool!..
kudos to technology!!!!

THIS IS THE LIMIT

2006-07-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

We( inlcudes you, me and everyone else who use internet as a means of communication), are the biggest fools, cowards if this stupid order is carried out...
refer:

van Kalip Times
Lessons Learnt from the Ban on Blogger

for more gory details

F!!*k YAHOO!!!

2006-07-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

No one in their sane minds should ever use yahoo for search again. Beacuse its so goddamn stupid. About 10 minuts back, I searched in yahoo the words "some arbit thoughts" (thts the name of yours trulys site"), just to know what ranking it had in the search list. Being the excessively optimistic guy that I usually am , I expected it to come in the first page itself. Quite predictacly it didnt.....

So I moved on to the second page, this time completely SURE that its there. Again!.... it was nowhere to be found. Instead there were links to another 20 stupid sites. Frantically I moved on to the 3rd page , expecting the golden link to pop in out of heaven( or hell, entirely dependant on your point of view). Flabbergasted would be an euphemism.. I scanned the key words which I searched for any typo, spelling error,unwanted or missing punctuations or anything(ANYTHING) which might give me a satisfying explanation.. the harsh reality sinking in i kept goin......

4th page......
5th page......

and so on upto the TWENTIETH PAGE... thts f!!3ck!nG 400 links... FOUR HUNDRED BLOODY ********* LINKS!....

YAHOO HAS SIMPLY REFUSED TO ACEEPT MY EXISTENCE!//

all my egos shattered, humbled down, I decided to give google a try...
the same key words go in...

and guess what ??

"I AM **f!!3ck!nG ** LUCKY"..!!! (pun intended)
hahahhahaaaa,,, the very first link was mine... !!
BALLS TO YAHOO>..... GOOGLE IS MY ALMA MATER... my gaurdian ...
a new era has begun... loyalties that were hard strained has become crystal clear.. .. the path of the righteous man has been laid out... the beginning of yahoo's end has begun!

Important Update::: Today (i.e 18th July) on a repeated search I have found my site listed as the third in the first page in yahoo. I am completely sure that I didn miss it last time.

"Each to his own are the intrepretations made"

Football????

2006-07-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

The french are blessed!!!.. Its the only freaking explanation other than claims of sorcery, dark magic, use of extra terrestrial intelligence AND match fixing............

Philosophy(2)

2006-06-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a lot of arbit stuff lately. It began with readings on philosophy, and while at it, I read this astounding article on "Psychic Powers" by Helen Savage; Theosophical Manual . Incredibly the writer is pretty convincing in his arguments and also a lot of what he has written makes good sense. Though probably he was pretty farfetched in his ideas on astral energy and their interference, the article in itself was a written with a sound mind and firm background examples were also provided. Then I searched up some stuff on Wikipedia; String Theory and its predictions about 11 dimensions, about dark matter, dark energy(both things about which we have absolutely no idea!) and ended up reading on Chaos Theory and other stuff. Anyone who remembers anything about Quantum Chemistry that we studied will agree with one thing, that its totally vague!. Whatever we are studying, propagating, researching are mainly vague ideas which are idealized to large extents. Its almost as though, because we want to explain something we come up with theories to do it and when found that its inapplicable in certain cases, we throw them off and move on to new theories. This process has been happening on since eternity.

So while going through all these ¨attempts¨that we make to understand ourselves and nature, the picture that emerged in my mind was that of the four blind men groping at the various parts of an elephant and describing an elephant in his own way. Each one can firmly ¨prove¨ why his argument is right and yet nothing makes sense when taken as a whole. So what if this really is the case?? What if we really are blind? In our case it may not be eyesight that we lack..it maybe another sense totally unknown to us. The term ¨sixth sense¨is a cliché, but what if we really lack it and it is the key to understanding life and universe.

To make things clear, I will refer to another imaginary world. Just like Earth, or even better take it be exactly similar to Earth (lets call it E2). The Sun, Moon, planets everything being in the same position and evolution of life proceeding in the exact same fashion. BUT there is ONE difference between the living organisms in E2 and those on Earth. Its that in E2 none of the organisms developed eyesight. Except for this one simple difference everything else is the same.

So you can imagine an entire race of human beings on E2. They have the same intelligence as we do and will of course be very much inquisitive and curious about everything happening around them. In the course of time (progress will certainly be slow.. but it will happen) they will develop tools and other structures. Their entire life will revolve around sounds and they will attach to sounds more importance than what we can ever imagine. They might form social organizations, might even split into groups based on how different they sound to each other; any such crap may happen among them. But the important factor here is that they will have no clue… absolutely no clue that there is such a thing as sight that exists. Things that seem so apparent and simple to us may seem to be the greatest mysteries to them. During the course of time, they might come up with their own explanations about the workings of earth and like ourselves through the process of trial and error finally arrive at some theories which might help them ¨develop¨ in certain areas.

But the irony here is that no matter how much they think, no matter how much they develop they will never be able to comprehend the realities of the universe. They will never even begin to imagine that there are planets and stars and solar systems and galaxies. They will never ever understand the phenomena of light and other optics. All their theories and discussions will be based on ¨sounds¨and ¨touch¨ just like our theories are so much dependant on ¨sight¨. It’s not a fault; it’s just the way we have been built.

So the point I want to say here is that just like the blind human beings on planet E2, what if the real human beings are also lacking on that extra sense of perception which is required to unravel the mysteries of the universe. I know it sounds totally pessimistic and negative, but I am equally sure that no one will be able to convince the blind beings on E2 that there is an extra sense of perception present in this universe . How do you explain colors to someone who has never seen ANYTHING?.... If this really is the case then whenever we are seeking to solve any universal mystery we are like the blind beings of E2 groping around trying to explain universe from the ¨sounds¨that they can hear. This might very well expalin why the different branches of our science never seem to converge and at many times seems to be totally divergent on several aspects. When taken alone most branches are ¨pretty ¨ well explained, but if u try to combine them the result is disastrous.

There are some more points which i would like to add to this discussion. I will either write a new post or update this one in the coming days. So meantime. just think about it.......

P.S. I came across this new article on Epistemology . It sheds some light on how our knowledge is influenced by our perception. Do give it a look

Review:- Mulholland Drive

2006-06-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

yesterday i saw this movie called the "Mulholland Drive""and i just loved it. It was directed by this guy called David Lynch and he shows you that actually there is no limit to how varied and different movies can be made, instead of just following the used trails. i dont think it was much of a big budget movie either... sort of like "Memento"..only a bit more confusing!!!..

guess i will watch some more David Lynch movies and put more commenst later.....

P.S..

for all the dumb fucks like me who didnt understand a damn thing while seeing the movie, I recommend this Ebert's review. . and Everything you wanted to know about Mulholland Drive
.. somethings will make sense after reading this!

Lost- Theories

2006-06-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

i have been reading on and on about LOST...and now i think i am LOST!!!!

check out these sites...

http://www.thehansofoundation.org/
retrieversoftruth.com
http://www.djdan.am/
letyourcompassguideyou.com
http://thedharmainitiative.org/4-8-15-16-23-42/

and last but never the least...

http://www.lostpedia.com/

Review- Lost

2006-06-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

man.. i gotta write this down somewhere.... LOST is THE BEST!!!!.. no other tv series, movie, whatever can never come close to this in the complexity of the plot involved,,, there are some 10 main characters and each one has a history that so nicely ties up with that of everyone else..... plzz guys do ureself a favour and watch the seasons 1 and 2!!!... coz if u don then u r missin somethin in ure life!!!..

.. and being the ardent wolverine fan that i am.. i was at loss of words to describe X MEN 3... it SUCKED!!!... and yea i mean it... the whole plot cud hav been dealt with a lot better.. the dark phoenix storyline was so powerful and it was totally wasted... i can only hope that in the future someone will remake the movie on the same storyline... well thts it!

P.S... anyone who has already seen LOST please join the sawyer fan club tht i started... SAWYER ROCKS!!!

Poem- Enlightment

2006-06-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

this is a poem that i wrote almost an year back.. somehow it makes a lot more sense to me now...

Enlightment

....................

The more whimsical the choices looked,
The less oriented were the aims so booked.
The sepulchral outcry of my inner beast
Frothed a reaction, less violent, yet a feast.
The unnerving soul, bounded by a totally nerved body,
And the harmonic mind, giving help, thus remaining gaudy;
Took no care, nor notice, and continued unabashed,
Still the blind images and deaf sounds flashed
still frothing reactions, now all too well lashed,
Suddenly they stopped, something amiss it seemed,
And so the loss is felt, with intensiy yet to be dreamed
Recognition , light of dawn, proves black to be blacker
With returned heir's right usurps throne of the weaker,
Unleashes the beast,and promises never to go darker..

Great Link

2006-06-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

Domain Maximus: Sidin's guide to the greatest Indian cricketers of all time especially that period between 4 and 6 pm last week

2006-05-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

Embarassment is the first step towards knowledge through experience!!!....

Eugenics in LOTR????

2006-05-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

eugenics!!!..ever heard of this term.. sounds pretty weird .. rite?..... recently i came across this term and when i did some diggin up via wiki and others a lot of interestin stuff hav come up... this thing was kinda lik the hottest thing in genetics till bout middle of twentieth century and then took a beatin to become one of most taboo things to be even talked about...

to quote wiki" Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of traits through various forms of intervention "... and its greek derivation would be "well born" or "good breeding"

now thts the literature.. now wat this thing really meant was tht in human race there are both better ones and the worse ones, and to improve human race as a whole selective breeding of humans must take place so that the new generation be better.... this was not only racist, but even within races it applied...this is very much lik the techinque adopted to make pedigreed dogs,where the ancestry is of great importance.....

This concept was first proposed by plato and this is what he said "The best men must have intercourse with the best women as frequently as possible, and the opposite is true of the very inferior".. even though this sounds very crude, this was pretty much the same methodology that the later proponents of this theory tried to take in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Modern eugenics as we know it was started by Sir Francis Galton in 1865. A surprisingly large number of famous thinkers , scientists, politicians of that time were ardent believers of this theory. The list ranged from George Bernard Shaw, Alexander Graham Bell to men like Winston Churchill and President Coolidge. The result of eugenics was devastating. In the liberal world of america it hit the worst.Its not surprising that KLU KLUX KLAN, the most infamous american group that preached white-supremacy and anti-Semitism was founded in 1866, the year after Galton proposed his eugenic theory. A broad-based social, political, and scientific movement, American eugenics reflected the fears of many whites that their once-great nation was threatened by demographic and economic change. Their understanding of the principles of genetic inheritance led eugenicists to conclude that genetically defective members of society -- including the "feeble-minded," criminals, the sexually wanton, epileptics, the insane, and non-white races -- were rapidly out-reproducing the "normal" members of society at an alarming rate, passing on their "inferior" genes at the expense of the "normal." The social cost of such a situation, they feared, would be devastating.

Galton defined eugenics as "the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage", but its doubtful that he could have foreseen the power the movement would accrue in America during the first half of the 20th century.The various eugenics soceities that came up lobbied hard and finally
in 1924, the Immigration Act was passed by majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. It set up strict quotas limiting immigrants from countries believed by eugenicists to have "inferior" stock, particularly Southern Europe and Asia. President Coolidge, who signed the bill into law, had stated when he was vice president, "America should be kept American. . . . Biological laws show that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races".This reduced the number of immigrants from abroad to fifteen percent from previous years, to control the number of "unfit" individuals entering the country. The new Act strengthened existing laws prohibiting race mixing in an attempt to maintain the gene pool.Eugenic considerations also lay behind the adoption of incest laws in much of the USA.

The result went further down the lane when proprnts arugues that the schools for the deaf and blind should be closed as boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race. Many blacks were made to undergo forced sterilization and in 1927 the US SUPREME COURT gave a ruling allowing the state of virginia to sterilize those it deemed "unfit". The most significant era of eugenic sterilization was between 1907 and 1963 when over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States.

The whole bubble got the prick in its ass during world war 2 when the nazis tortured and killed almost 6 million jews in the name of eugenics(even hitler's nazi germany followed only the policy of eugenics whereby they believed that the jews were the inferior race) . The only differnce between the nazi germany and americans was that since the americans used methods which were less cruel , public attention was not much diverted to them. But another thing we must understand is that both villains and heroes are created by man during the course of history. What i am saying is not that the nazis were the angels of earth but that the general notion of the axis powers being the bad guys and the allied powers being the good was just the result of who won the war. Probably if hitler had won the war, many of atrocities that was committed would have never come out and hitler would have been designated as a great emperor and compared to the likes of alexander and others.

hmm.. the topic has diverted quite a lt from what i wanted it to be. Actually i wil stop with eugenics as a subject and will go on to the real topic, ie eugenics in lotr. Now this is something that never occured to me while i was reading the book or watching the movies but suddenly struck like a lightning when i was reading about eugenics. The references are vague, but fundamental. We should keep in mind here the fact that LOTR was written by Tolkien in the late 1950's. This was the time when racism in America, in the aftermath of 2nd world war, was witnessing an unprecendented rise, with the KK Klan activities gettin more violent and anti black. The most blatant reference to racism is contained in the statement where all the good guys( men) are called the "THE MEN OF THE WESTERNEESE". Also hints about eugenic belief is given when Elrond and Gandalf talk about how "THE RACE OF MEN IS WANING, AND HOW LESSER MEN HAVE DESCENDED FROM GREATER SIRES"...

Also eugenic belief is blatantly shown through the character of Aragorn, who is the only one left of the Numeroean blood. His race is referred to as the "race of kings"... and in the story the line of kings falls apart through the ages as a result of which the rule of Gondor falls into the hands of "lesser mortals", ie the stewards of gondor. Also the numoreans are shown to have longer life with Aragorn's age said to be 87!... These maybe subtle things , but it does point towards tolkiens belief in a superior race, one thats born to rule, one thats better than others and one thats waning with time.

Actually there are a couple more references in LOTR , but i will leave it at this.. Go through LOTR carefully and u will find the rest, but coming back to how eugenics got suppressed and was wildly discarded after the 2nd world war, no doubt the full credit goes to the nazis.Many pre-war eugenicists engaged in what they later labeled "crypto-eugenics," purposefully taking their eugenic beliefs "underground" and becoming respected anthropologists, biologists and geneticists in the post-war world.Many scientific societies released their own similar "race statements" over the years and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, developed in response to abuses during the second World War, was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and affirmed "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family." SO>>>>>>to end with...........

HEIL HITLER!!!

Totally Roded

2006-02-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

hhhhhhhhmmm.... now i guess tht the heading is rather self explanatory...

all those of you who has any doubts as to what it might mean... yes, what you are thinking is right!.. it does mean FUCKED...now i agree tht its a rather mean term to use, but unfortunately oxford doesn have better words to describe conditions similar to the one tht the 2nd yr mech is in right now... with five 4-credit courses, a math elective and an elec course, this sem was supposed to be rape... but now it has turned out to be a total gang bang!!!...after writing four continous days of exams you are left with a weekend and suddenly you realize tht the math, PMT and the vito course is left....

last sem during my internet write ups here and elsewhere i had always maintained the view tht RAJA RAO was the worst of nature's creations... but i was proved hopelessly wrong with nature proving just how imaginative she can get in a work of art like VITO... now this guy is just unbelievable... he started of the first lecture by saying he will grant you a cup if you cant hold onto your balls during an exam of his(translation: he will fail you if you have a nature's call during the exam).. while the entire class was invloved in an animate discussion about the various methods of prevention and some methods of cure( the simplest being a portable water bottle), he came out with the next commandment... he wants 5 theory classes per week instead of the 1 which he was originally assigned and tht he wants to take 3 continous hrs once the lab gets over in first month... now thts 8 hrs per week( for the uninitaited 8 hrs is the no of hrs tht a frnd of mine attneds in the whole sem)...

now before i go on i need to clarify a point... i started writing this blog on friday, then got bored and thought i will complete it on saturday and left it at the end of last paragraph... right now its the NEXT thursday.. a lot of things as happened in between, like the entire first quiz has gotten over and my rather insensitive description of vito took a beating after the rather easy paper(i am NOT bein sarcastic here) he gave us...

ok.. i agree .. so he did set us an easy paper and i am extremely thankful to him for tht(trust me ..a bit more harder and i wud hav probably cupped)... but why in the hell does he try to psyche people out...??..its not as though we are jail criminals or something!!( hmm.. actually we are a lot worse),, but all tht withstanding, wouldn everything be a lot better if he just started behaving normally to students.. a couple of my friends who do have the enthu to attend his class have told me that the classes are really good.. so he is a good teacher and he sets easy papers, then why cant he stop acting as a psycho as well.. its really weird when people who are so good at something waste their talent by being so bad at something else..actually this topic too is too old and boring.. so let me start a new post.. tata

Encounter with the celebrated kind

2006-02-12T00:15:00.002-08:00

so this post is supposed to continue with the great trip tht the mallu fellowship of IITM took couple of weeks back....

but it aint gonna... i simply don have the mood to write bout tht write now.. perhaps later.... yes perhaps..

the true reason why i decided to blog now is tht something great happened yesterday... You know Siddharth(the guy who acted in Boys and then acted as the next to lead role with Aamir Khan in Rang De Basanti..)... yup tht very Siddharth.. yesaterday i got to meet him and actually give him a handshake!!!!....

now this may not seem all tht great to an outsider... even i used to be a great critic of all hero worshippers who used to crowd around stars and throw up glitters in the theatres whenever their name is displayed or any arbit stunt like tht, but the fact of the matter is these guys are really larger than life.. you just gotta admit tht... when u see a great film then the guy who acted in tht willl remain in your memory not tht as the actor himself but as the character he represented....
and believe me after Rang De Basanti i am a huge fan of Siddharth myself and when i got to meet him it was as though the character had jumped out of the big screen and was standing as a mortal in front of me....it really helped me emphathize with all those guys who go mad when they see Mohan Lal's name on the theatre screen... i am not justifying them, but i can emphathize with them, at least for the time being....

Sojourn TADA

2006-02-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ok... so much time has passed since my last update and this that it just and simply doesn’t make any sense to update it any more!!!.... That too with just 30 more minutes for the LAN to be switched off...

but still I am going to blog... Whatever the DUCK the reasons against it are!!!( now this is an expression that I learned from a friend of mine who stayed with me for saarang.. he uses the D word instead of the F word, an excellent idea I must say)..

Now to give a brief intro into all the things that happened... I wrote my end sems, went to Muscat to see my parents (truly had gr8 time eating FOOD after almost 4 months.. the stuff we get here is HUGGA), came back to this Ducking place,, went for an awesome (SIMPLY AWESOME) trip to TADA falls and finally lived through a SAARANG...

now I will go on bout the TADA trip in this blog... the other things shall also be converted into black and white but later..

to start with, this crazy idea of going to some really uninhabited area and spending a night there, or doing something really adventurous like that came up while the entire mallu gang of iitm was at SHAKES and CREAMS being treated to some delicious ice creams by B'Day boy jikku...
though the initial enthu was shown primarily by only three people (I wont go into names here, but yours truly was one of them.. I just hate being modest), there was a general consensus among junta and so it was decided that we will make an adventure trip... the initial place suggested by hari annan was a place called aerkkad... after some amount of research we found that actually there were much better places much closer to Chennai, thus we further arrowed our options to KAMBAKKAM and TADA...

Hair’s brother was an ex- iitian and was a member of the (now extinct)adventure club of iit... he had gone to this TADA falls before and thus it was decided that the place of our sojourn was TADA.... a group of 3rd yrs from my hostel had gone there some months back.. But they went for a one day trip hiring a cab... this very idea was on the spot vetoed by all... we wanted a raw trip... a pure adventurous trekking trip that one day we could blog about the way I am doing right now... so we made our own plans... on the 2nd day before the scheduled departure date we found luck in the form a 5th yr who gave us valuable information about the place.. He had made a similar trip to TADA (a RAW trip) while in his second yr... they had set a camp and had spent one night there in the forest... now this was exactly our plan and the very fact that someone who did the same was there helped us a lot (at least mentally)... he told us not to worry too much about water and that the river water in the upper streams is drinkable... this single piece of info reduced our luggage by at least 4 kgs per person...
on the last day before D-day (departure day).. We started our food collecting.... it was real fun... ashith and I went for food collection... our policy was simple... go to a store and then literally buy that store... We did actually buy the entire glucose, Maggi noodles and tiger biscuits that was in a mini supermarket... It was good! A first hand experience of sorts into how whole sale dealers feel when making transactions...

Thus on the next day morning we were all ready. To make the extremely tiring process of making each guy get up on time easier most of us had decided to stay in Godav for the night... ..... Quite incidentally enough there were NINE of us ...the magic number reminding us of the immortal FELLOWSHIP in LORD OF THE RINGS.... (and obviously since I am writing this blog I get to be Aragorn).... and so finally with backpacks containing food, water(in some cases a bit impure water also), torches, knives and what not!!!, we set foot on a journey to our very own MOUNT DOOM....

... to be continued

P.S... Anyone who thinks that over dramatization of common mundane matters has taken place, is thinking right and can go get his donkey Ducked!!!!!

Philosophy(1)

2005-11-29T03:31:00.000-08:00

SOOOO..... i am back...
actually today was pretty weird day to start... for one thing i was up till FIVE in the morning mugging hard for my exam and in the end most of the paper turned out to be from the very few portions that i left..... ok, so what?One more among the infinities to prove Murphy Is Never Wrong!!!
Ok... so balls to murphy... every murphy will have his day.. i am just glad that its today and not tomorrow(have to be optimistic)...

Now all these happenings have caused me to think philosophically... *if you havent understood this yet, i am one of those thinking freaks who can go on and on in the realms of philosophy*... philosohy is something like can escape from the real world we are living in, most of us have our well cut out objectives and aims and are sort of forced to strive hard and sweat it out in one way or an another. What philosophy gives is an outlet for you to grow above these common mundane matters and look at everything from that higher ledge.. Its often a very good way to relieve yourself cause then when you are at that higher ledge whatever that seemed the world to you from down now looks so small and the inherent triviality in almost everything associated with human lives becomes clear. Now this can be a pretty maddening experience and unless you pull yourself out pretty fast you end up being hooked there and will probably start giving up in life after that.... Coz just look at what we are.. before we even realize it time flies by your side and suddenly all the adventures are over before it even got started.. the happiness, sadness, fear all sensations being just momentary and fleeting and whatever you did to achieve all that being a total waste once its gone. Its a fact that past is almost like a dream. whatever feelings or experiences one had in the past its impossible for him to relive it again and reexperience whatever he did before. The irony here is that present is being converted into the past every moment and the moments are gone, as though they never really were there....

STOP..

i am psyching myself out.. will certainly come back to this topic when i am in a better state of mind.. so cya

Poem- Flagrant Fragrances

2005-11-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

hmmm.. this is my first post...actually i dont know much on what to write here and also i havent got much time right now. Yup this was pretty bad idea on my part to satrt blogging on the eve of my end sems.But guess i am a bit off the hook anyways.. so here i go.. this was a poem written by me in the beginning of this sem, the only one i have written in hostel... actually iit is not the best place to write poems.. but somehow this one came through.. so i will start off with this and be sure i will keep things updated

Flagrant Fragrances.

Scintillating smells go whisking by,
A flash, memoirs, a black lightning fly;
Seldom stopped atop mountains misty,
Neither caught among the fishing feisty:
Trace, dreams tangible, remains felt
Among senses which know no breaks nor melt;
Sixth to infintiy, undefined, it seems
Diffusion a thing with no ends or gleams:
Now where to have thee gone?
Leaving minds searching desires it hasn yet borne,
Old books and Old minds together fail,
Like ships unmoored, without their sail:
Thus with surrealistic shows of blatant beligerances
I go again in search of the flagrant fragrances.