Kiss Life

2011: Discovering the Incredible India

2012-01-08T22:19:00.000+05:30

"Who travels widely needs his wits about him.
The stupid should stay at home"

- Icelandic sayings advising travelers, Geography of Bliss

Quick Stats: 16 trips and over 60 days spent traveling: Airplane, train, bus, car, motor boat, chappu wali boat, bike, bi-cycle and foot - all modes of commutations used. Explored Uttrakhand, Karnataka, Kerela, Maharashtra, J&K, Rajasthan and Odisha; and Italy.

I have no words to capture the combined experience. Except to say that India is a beautiful place, wanting to be discovered, waiting to be appreciated, and needing to be preserved. I hope dear reader, you too would go to all these places and several others, and discover your happiness.

With that, here's a snapshot of my Discovery of India, and the amazing travel year 2011 has been. First, The Desh Mera Video Project (Credits: Jatin Pasrija) which captures it all. It's not on youtube and stupid blogger wouldn't allow to link a Vimeo Video!

Next, Jatin and I have also started a website to document our travels, though it's still under construction - you can pay a visit at Road No. 9-2-11

And finally - the tale in pictures, and a few words:

January 1st 2011, Back from Har ki Dun, Uttrakhand

Starting the new year in Bus - auspicious max!

Reaching back to Delhi after a straight 15-16 hours of bus journey in heavy rains. Back from an amazing all weather (sun, snow, hail and rains!) 9 day trekking trip to the Valley of God.

The Ghost of Mission Impossible

2011-12-19T02:29:00.000+05:30

Mind Blowing Awesomeness. But this bit, really is the only bit

I wanted to kick myself black and blue on seeing their embedded systems work at level of perfection comparable to that of a ballet dance in some London theater, or thousand violins playing a Mozart symphony in a concert, or maybe how millions of rupees smoothly disappear in our unHazare system. I couldn't help thinking where they recruit their embedded engineers from (and wishing if one of them could have helped with my BTP!)

Hence the part where his glove didn't work on the amazing glass of that really tall hotel in Dubai when that really massive sandstorm of which everyone was happily ignorant about was coming, was pretty unsettling. Maybe, I thought it was a subtle attempt to keep the flimsy fiber of reality running through the movie. Embedded systems, after all at the end of the day, are, umm... embedded systems. But maybe glove had more to do with material engineering.

At any rate, it didn't work. He anyways climbed up, unseen through the glass for so many floors and reached the server room, did whatever simple technical stuff he was told to do and found himself at a loss on how to get down. Held a cable and even before I could have thought what the heck was he thinking - he acted on his hunch, his gut - no he hadn't planned out what was going to happen, but he thought it should be alright, he knew it, he felt it - took the chord and was through the window running on the glass pane vertically downwards with the strap around his waist safely hinged god knows where, only to come to a sudden bone-crushing halt. The chord length was insufficient - and again before I could even grasp the situation or began considering possible options he ran back, swirled around in a large loop, "what the heck" (even his co-agents were thinking the same!), and left the strap in middle of his swing to continue on his trajectory towards the open window ...

That moment - of letting go, of taking the leap of faith, of acting on the hunch, of doing something which you don't know the outcome to - but in a split second before letting go you come to an understanding with yourself and say: "this will work" - that moment struck a chord. It was, discounting the risk and thrill by a million times, like the moment when I was almost on my toes - stretching between the rocks I was gripping from hands and those where my feet supported me from below, and leaned my entire weight on one hand as I threw the other one up to a higher point which looked like a prospective hinge, simultaneously as I pushed my legs to the next grip. If my flying hand misses the grip - I could slip, get bruised. But I in any case throw up my hand and legs one after the other. My hunch says I can do it ...

Sadly, that was the only thing that struck a chord. The background score was disappointing - where was that famous loud thumping MI tune which I grew up to! And let's not even get started about speeding in Mumbai, automatic multi level parking with left hand drive cars, and wait: no Marathi on doors: Tamil was it? Or Telgu? Point being: Shiv Sena - where art thou! And "No Anil Kapoor. We're not happy. Don't you know you need to dance on a song in some random non-related location while being seduced. Do a better role next time, or none at all."

On your face, Moon!

2011-12-11T12:34:00.001+05:30

Was wondering what Earth and Moon must have been talking yesterday!

Earth to Moon:

Moon Moon
O full Moon

Why are you setting
today so soon

What are you hiding behind
You loon

Why are you not lit today
we had our noon

Did Sun get angry on you
You foolish baboon

The Story of 21km: Delhi Half Marathon 2011

2011-11-27T21:24:00.001+05:30

By the time I crossed 5KM mark, I had already taken up around 40 minutes. Though happy about the fact that my usual right ankle pain hadn't seared up so far, and I was settling into my rhythm - I felt a little anxious: For next 16KM, I just had 100 odd minutes left to complete the race within the time I had in mind: 2 hours and 30 minutes. And running in half marathon is anything but linear. Especially if you have never run beyond 12 km in your life...

Breaking into a run at 17km Mark!

Prologue:

Last time I ran The Great Delhi Run and felt it was a joke. People stopped en route to playing bands and started dancing, and the podium with celebrities created a human traffic jam etc. ! Clearly it was more of an entertainment-run than anything else. So I thought of giving 21km a try this year around.

However, I was not sure if I could run that distance. Moreover, I wasn't in a mood to practice a great deal for the event. Still unsure with final registration date drawing to a close, a text by N asking if I have made up my mind yet acted as a great push and I registered for event on 5th Nov.

Twenty Three and not counting!

2011-11-15T17:36:00.001+05:30

I wonder
as I look yonder
Where have I reached
Where am I headed

I ask
Is life a lovely journey
or just a mechanical churnery
I would rather it an experiment by mice
Douglas Adams, obviously was wise

I remember
So many days gone past
So many lessons learned
So many days that I enjoyed
and some when I got burned

I hope
Life is an absolute continuous integration function
What I am learning and experiencing
Keeps getting accumulated under my curve
And I am not just talking about fat

In the end
Life's sheer pure gobberlygoo awesomeness
It's the best story ever told
The only part that I hate about telling it is
first you've to grow old...

Thanks you folks, friends, family for your wishes and phone calls spread over the ~~4 days~~ 6 days. They have died down a bit and I am missing them. Thanks you people for your lovely pastries (which I couldn't taste), card and letter, e-mails and thoughtful winter-wear, your texts and FB comments and for just being there. I celebrated this one is the best possible way: by going on a trip! Hell yeah.

p.s. My colleague in office pointed out that he can see greying which I vehemently denied, but I take that as a metaphor that I am growing wiser ;)

Run

2011-11-08T07:27:00.001+05:30

On a lazy, cozy, cold winter morning in Delhi - what do you do if you get up at 6AM?

You run. From your home to er...where? you think, realizing: Obviously: IIT Delhi

That's 6 KM. One way.

I ran across the BRT corridor, through the service lanes of "crores ke bangle" in Panchsheel, past the thick crowd at Hauz Khas metro station, over the IITD flyover, through the insti main gate, to the MS. Turn around and run back - feeling awesome!

1.5 hours. 12 km including a break at IIT to sip a few drops of water and check out MS123. It was in shambles, just like always, and I ignored it, just like always!

And had to make up for the lost calories by paying a visit to the American Diners at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road - sounds like beginning of a perfect Sunday morning, huh? ;)

New found Jibber Jabber

2011-11-05T20:46:00.000+05:30

I am traveling a lot in the Delhi Metro these days, and every journey takes my respect for the amazing rail system a notch higher. When everything around on roads is so chaotic, it's great to see something that functions so well. When you see that there's hardly anyone breaking the queue for security check, despite it being so long, you feel that the Delhi Metro governs its own culture. More on this later..

The new found jibber-jabber is to usually board the 2nd coach of the metro, get down wherever I am supposed to get down, and walk almost to the engine. By this time the train is ready to pull out of the station.

And precisely then, to turn around and start walking in the opposite direction, theethering on the yellow line. As the metro zooms past me, it feels almost like being in a shooting of a movie (remember the DCH song?).

Or sometimes quite philosophical, especially when the last coach of train goes past at a with great speed and clitter-clatter and suddenly there is an empty space and a deafening-lull...

Give it a try next time you get a chance (and then tell your experiences!) :-)

Johnny be Good tonight!

2011-10-31T16:23:00.004+05:30

I always used to think that this sort of meant ‘Johnny be a good boy’, in it’s general sense, as sometimes kids are told at home: “Johnny – don’t be troublesome, be a good sincere boy.”
But after having listened to it several times, I suddenly realized that this in fact means: “Johnny, be awesome. Irrespective of your background, and your knowledge of the world – you can be awesome. So go, become!” Since that sudden realization, it has become almost an inspirational song to me!

Knock Knock - Who's There

2011-10-15T18:59:00.001+05:30

Frankly, I have never understood these jokes. But this is a good starting point (hilarious to be precise!)

A few those which I was able to understand:

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Doctor
Doctor Who
Wow. How did you know?

Leh Laddakh: Heaven truly is a little high! Part 2

2011-09-17T18:12:00.000+05:30

Part 1 of the series

"The core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences"
- Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless

"Be gentle on my curves"
- One of several funny road-signs laid out by Himank, Border Road Organization, India

        We all were sitting inside the car; combined heat of 6 people working with the car blower to keep us protected from the thick cover of snow on the outside. A mild dizziness was spreading in our heads - the 5300m high Himalayan pass - Tanglang la making its presence felt. We were going around foggy turns, when suddenly the car stopped with a jerk. As we lowered our windows, grizzling sound of several trucks came for the outside. We were stuck in a deadlock - the path was not wide enough for even one vehicle to pass by, and the queue of trucks was long at the other end. Left with no other choice, our driver drove us desperately into the thick cover of snow to make way. The trucks slowly went past, their engine grumbling like a cocky old man...
    ...As their voice faded into distance, we tried to hit the road again which was when our fate slapped us. The tires obstinately refused to grip on the thick ice, beginning to endlessly skid, while the soot from the exhaust pipe started to gather on the snow. Four of us got out. We first pushed from back. Nothing. Then from front. Nothing: the car just wouldn't budge. And here's the thing about being at a height of 5300m (Delhi is at 300m, Mumbai at 0 m) - air density goes for a toss, literally, and thus pushing a car out of snow might leave your lungs screaming in madness that they are not spartan. Eventually, we picked up a few large stones to dig and clear the snow around the tyres - one final push and the car jolted forward.
         "It was awesome man", we said to each other getting in the car. After a while meek muffled sounds came about, all resonating: "May I have a Disprin please?"

Leh Laddakh: Heaven truly is a little high! Part 1

2011-09-09T17:52:00.003+05:30

"People who fly to Laddakh are morons!!!"
- a conversation on Manali Leh highway

Juley Laddakh!

Frankly, what do you want me to do - Inspire you to go to Laddakh! Oh, come-on - if you're such blinded morons to be in want for any proof about its beauty, need inspiration, cajoling, push, or things like motivation to go there - scram - you're beyond help and you have earned my ire :P

You're spared if you're not an Indian, have never visited India, have never read keenly about it and are not planning to visit it sometime in near future. In that case - let me first introduce Laddakh to you:

Laddakh is a far flung cold desert on the northern most territories of India and is a part of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), often referred to as 'paradise on earth' in befitting description to its breathtaking beauty. J&K's past, after the independence of India in 1947, marred with long history of terrorist activities by Pakistani insurgents has never effected Laddakh. However, there is a heavy presence of Indian Army in entire Laddakh region primarily because it shares its border with Tibet on the east and Pakistan on the west.
In fact, it is the presence of Indian Army has led to creation and maintenance of strategically important and the only 2 roads leading to this region and metalling of several dizzily high passes to help us travel around. This has led to opening up of this enchanting part of the country for tourism. However, the altitude and terrain is so difficult, as you will see, that Laddakh continues to be entirely secluded except for the major touristy places. That too has below 20-30 people at any given time. Travel months are only from July to around October; and the entire region goes for hibernation during winter months with temperatures plummeting below -35 degrees C. My next aim, in fact, is to go there in winters and hopefully tread on the then frozen Zanskar river! But that's for later...

So now that you know of Laddakh, let me do my bit to encourage you:

"Go to Laddakh!"; or a tardy bit more pompous

"The lowest there (some 3500m) might be the highest you've ever been to"

That's the best I can say. Try asking me for any more reasons, and I'll answer with 19th century British air, "No, sir, no! Spare me the dishonor."

But let me tell you what I am going to do...I am going to show-off. Yes, as outraged as you might be right now, you've heard me right. And never mind your outrage on me, for soon you might be outraged on yourself for not having gone there thus far!

Here I begin:

Part 2 - here

Trains and Poetry

2011-08-30T21:36:00.010+05:30

Traveling in Train is so much fun. The long journey which winds across several rivers, villages, fields and often mountainous structures is somehow inspiring - especially if you're traveling alone and decide to go and stand on the gate of the train in the night when everyone else has peacefully snuggled into the comfort of their seats and the weather has turned relatively cooler.

The gay winds hits your face, as you cut across the vast emptiness at a breathtaking pace, with Da-Dhinak Na-Dhinak racketing noise screaming at all the passing huts; huts from which only a thin veil of light gleam, as if it is afraid to come out and see the loud monster pass by...shining blindingly bright from its nose, and belching black clouds from the top of its head!

And then when it starts to drizzle in such condition - you well might very well be damned if you don't try to compose poetry. Howsoever badly words might fail you, even rugged four lines look as if Mirza Galib himself has paid a visit in your head, and when you whisper those lines to yourself - you can't help notice a proud blush pass your face. Here's such a preposterous collection (i.e. you're allowed to laugh at it)

जिंदगी है यह कश्ती कैसी

की मांझी जाने सब

नौका पार लगाए वो

और पूजे ऊपर वाले को सब

चल तो दिया ज़िन्दगी की रह पर

और रोक कर आसुओं को कर रहा हूँ सामना

की पता नहीं बह जाऊंगा उनमें कब

Writing Talent (Not the real, but resume one)

2011-08-25T09:37:00.007+05:30

If you're serious about making resume, well, don't be. In case you've done something in your last four years, your pages would be overflowing, if you haven't, well start getting creative.

Core companies would look at your academics, Finance companies would look at your CG along with your aptitude test full of MAL250 questions (probability) - so that primarily leaves consults and other such analytic firms who will actually do justice by investing time in reading through your creative writing paper.

For making your CV, I don't think you need to know anything beyond this blog post by Sohil Bhagat:

http://sohil-bhagat.blogspot.com/2010/02/resume-ing-blogging.html

In case you're still unsatiated by his direct methods try the little roundabout post by Abhimanyu Kothari to get a hang of essentially the same thing:

http://undercurrents-of-the-soul.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-make-good-resume-part-1.html

Part 2 and Part 3 of the same can be found on his blog, once you're there.

Now, if you are still scratching your head, stamping your feet, and picking your nose in sheer indignation of the simplicity of it all - allow me to do my bit to increase the mayhem a notch further - here's my creative writing class (*applaud*) but only after an essentially obvious disclaimer -

"Each person has his own way of being creative. Divergent views are accepted as comments"

The Delhi Series: An Introduction

2011-08-06T18:01:00.024+05:30

Delhi Through Ages

Delhi, the capital of India, is a bustling town with over 16 million inhabitants. Delhi hence is the power center of India - scams, corruption and what not - follows

The current extended Delhi, also known as NCR region (mainly comprising of Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad), is a land where ‘might is right’, where road rage is the talk of the day, where safety in general, and especially for the fairer gender, is a joke. But today's nouveau-riche Delhi hasn't always been like this, here’s a brief history:

Even though Delhi hasn’t always been a capital town – it has been continuously inhabited since ages. Several bloody battles have been fought on its grounds, several times the entire city has been burned down – entire population massacred or enslaved – but Delhi has always been resurrected.

Of Airlines, Aeroplanes and Flying in India

2011-07-28T15:35:00.007+05:30

Everything I say here is for the ‘cattle class’ (I hope I can safely jibe myself without having to resign from any post). Flying, it seems, has become such an everyday affair for everyone – flights are no longer empty, airports no matter how large always have a queue, and lounges, no matter what precious metal stage you reach in your loyalty, are always full!

Every airport is reflective of the city, or so do I believe: Take for example the Mumbai airport where you can see houses sharing wall with the airport boundaries, or the Bangalore one where the first thing to greet you (apart from touts) is the Yahoo! board, or the Chennai one, where they have stripped all the frills and have made the airport as basic as a train station; or probably even lesser, and of course the ‘all shine and gleam’ Delhi one!

But there’s hardly anything you can do about the airports, except probably pushing your way to put your luggage on the checking machine first, even when you know you’re probably the last in the queue.
What you can however do is choose your airline. But I doubt even this statement. Because if you’re a right minded Indian you’ll always fly the airline which is offering the lowest cost, unless your company is paying for the flight. Therefore I am not sure about the point of this post, but I believe it would be helpful to someone in this world who might chance upon this.

p.s. I used to read the in-flight magazines, but have stopped doing so now, so low recollection as to which were good ones, however as a general rule - it is always better to start reading it from the back!

I, The Same Mortal I

2011-06-26T20:54:00.004+05:30

In Moments of high inspiration

I am Batman, Spiderman and Hector

Achilles, Nagraj and Logan

I am Capt. Vijyant Thapar, Carl Brashear and Hellen Keller

George Mallory, Wright and Wheeler

I am Tatas, Birlas and Binny Bansal

Ford, Hershey and Toyoda

[Guest Post] To Rameshwaram and Beyond!

2011-06-08T23:42:00.052+05:30

In the first ever guest post to this blog, here's Jatin Pasrija , an ardent traveler, recounting his first ever SOLO trip to the end of India: Dhanushkodi - a place where sea on either side is only 100 m away, and Sri Lanka only 12 miles! Yes, this is the place of the mythical Ramsetu. Enough of yada-yada-ing about it, let's go and see it, and here's an account of what adventures await you, if you decide to go there!

Italian Diaries - Hello World!

2011-05-30T23:20:00.018+05:30

Bella far niente

As I was checking in the hostel at Venezia (Venice), right ahead were 2 girls also checking in, who I bet looked very-pretty-much Indian, and of my age! Shy they, Shy I, none of us spoke...and silently they left...as I moved forward in the queue.

That night I slept at around 4 after having walked endlessly in the city, so beautiful, that you just don't know how to absorb it all but to keep walking and staring! Next morning, I promptly got up again at 7:30 AM. Everyone else in my dorm was still fast asleep, completely unruffled by the fact that one doesn't get to see the view of grand canal from the window beside one's bed, EVERYDAY! Anywho, I left the bed and settled myself on the window to get a better view of the canal and to observe people sitting in front of the hostel (some of who I recognized must have sat there all night!). While browsing through all those people, I saw them again - those girls from the last day! I leaned further out of the window to see that they were fast headed towards the Voporetto (Waterbus) stop...

Snowsome Tales 4: The Final Leap

2011-04-30T13:46:00.002+05:30

Till now:

8 brave people go on an arduous trek. Battling Himalayan might they reach the Valley, The Valley of God, only to be blown away by its beauty. As they make merry in their rest house during the night, a storm gathers. The next morning they abandon their plans of going further up and instead run downwards in heavy snowfall, with any signs of habitation a day's trek away. By the time they reach the Osla village the weather is all well again. The simple village life and beautiful village girls leave them mesmerized. As the night gathers, they prepare to sleep hoping for a relaxed and uneventful trek the next day. But does that ever happen in the Himalayas?

Part 3: Life on Himalayas

Part 2: The Journey Back

Part 1: Har Ki Dun

Crash and Burn

2011-04-16T16:12:00.010+05:30

What's swimming...

without holding yourself underwater

long after your breath's gone

and your consciousness undone

until you see the world above

die in slow motion

What's life

I ask,

without heartaches and heartburns!

Black Swan

2011-03-12T11:25:00.008+05:30

Perfection

"Nina, what did you do?"

"I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect."

The entire theme stuck a chord within me. Romancing your artiste so much that you become the one you photograph/ dance/ paint/write about...

But it was more that that. It was about perfection. It was about doing one thing long and hard for so long that you're that and that is you. With a looming fear of losing sanity in the process.

But then, it feels perfect.

What is management consulting?

2011-02-19T22:01:00.015+05:30

This picture, taken from Wikipedia has nothing to do with the post

I don't have a complete and clear idea yet, but so far I've been able to understand that the main value add of high end management-consulting are as such 3 things:

Snowsome Tales 3: Life on Himalayas

2011-01-30T09:41:00.026+05:30

Part 1: Har ki Dun

Part 2: The Journey Back

FYI - Route to HKD goes as follows: Delhi - Dehradun - Mussorie - Naugaon - Purola - Mori - Sankhri - Taluka (trekking begins) - Gangaur - Osla/Seema - HKD

The Village of Osla

“Sir, here we don’t roam around with girls for fun; we do so only if we truly love and want to marry her. You tell a girl that you've got money she wouldn't come, but if you tell her that you love her – she will definitely come!”

Rajendar Singh was our porter. Actually a farmer by profession and a student by age; porter - for that extra income. His view of world stretched up to Delhi, uncommon for most of his folks who had been farthest to only Dehradun, the capital of Uttrakhand, 250 odd km from their village. Delhi by comparison was around 500km.

Rajendar, 17 years old, studied in class 9th. Even though his proficiency in studies would fall short of a regular 9th class Delhi student, a couple of days spent with him were enough for one to appreciate his wit, and the good work that has been done by the government in opening up school in such far flung villages. In fact his village, Osla, is the last inhabited village on that stretch of Himalayas.

As an example; he starts dictating me his address as follows - "Name: Surendar Singh, Village: Osla..." but stops short on seeing my amused expressions (borne out of seeing him use English words so jauntily). He thinks that I didn't quite catch the meaning of the word village, fumbles a little trying to explain "Village, sir Village", and then nails it, "Countryside, Sir", leaving us stunned!

"There's a school upto class 8th here in Osla", he mentioned while sitting with us by the fireside in our HKD rest house, "Sankhri has a school upto class 10th and for further education there is a high school upto class 12th in Mori".

"Do all of the kids in your village go to the school?", I asked expecting the answer which I had often heard in Rajasthan...

"Yes they do, in fact most of them start going to the school in Sankhri after class 8th"

"But Sankhri is a day's trek from Osla!", I asked a little befuddled.

"Yes, but for you Sir!", Rajendar mentioned smilingly.

Ah, I thought. His comment made me suddenly snap out of education-in-India to mountain-people-walk-superfast-on-mountains. I had seen children, as small as 5-6 years carrying large bundle of firewood tied on their hunched back with jute strings. Moreover, the grip of their shoes was usually smudged - however, all the same they kept pace with their mothers on the steep downs or gasping ups. These humble creatures make any trekker melt with shame.

----------

On 29th December 2010, an hour after noon we reached Seema: the resting place for travelers located on the other side of the village Osla. Afterwards we shared a light lunch of Khicdi - our ingenious potpourri of crumpled bread, sandwich spread and namkeen.

Inspired from our conversation with Rajendar over last day coupled with my curiosity to get a glimpse of mountain life I, along with Gj, decided to head out to Osla. A few others also joined but gave up after 100 mt or so - abhorred by the idea of walking on a steep climb again.

While going up we crossed several women and children, each heaving a heavy bundle of firewood. Most of the women were neatly dressed, their hairs tucked away inside a tight cloth that covered their head, their face clear and washed, cheeks rosy, eyes with a hint of mascara, ears sometimes adorned with tingling golden earrings, and lips often sporting lipstick. On the other hand children were not so neat: their hair ruffled, clothes often shabby, cheek skin parched and red and face smudged with dirt often as a result of running nose. However, there was one common thing between them - their disarmingly enchanting smile. And with smile many a times children innocently asked, "Sir, Cap?" We did not give them cap, warned by our guide as a precaution to avoid spoiling children. However, I regret for not emptying our medical kit with their village elder or head. That way we could have helped without spoiling anyone. I will make sure I do that the next time I go trekking.

As the sound of Supin became distant, the village came nearer. The first sign to greet us was a small hut made of 4 plastered brick walls and a flat roof structure. The interesting thing were the NREGA directives painted on the hut. As I read through them it suddenly hit me what managing a country like India would entail - one of the thousand complications being the sheer difference in size: at one end are the bulging metropolis like Mumbai and Delhi - each home to over 15,000,000 people to areas as remote as Osla - home to not more than 500 people.

Still pondering over such thoughts, we took a few more steps while continuing to breathe heavy, and there - we reached the boundary of the village: Built at one of the most beautiful places in the world to live, Osla village has around 100 houses and 500 inhabitants.

From where we stood we could see the entire village. The houses were built of wood, their sloping terraces covered with heavy rectangular stones and decorated with pumpkins. Standing at any house you could feel the slight though continuous vibrations caused by Supin flowing far below, and turn about anywhere to find staring into mountain slopes.

Gj and I looked at each other, briefly uncertain and a little scared. We were not sure how we would be welcomed in the village. I scuffled looking backwards hoping that Surendar would turn up as he had promised. But apparently the people who had stopped short of the climb and had settled themselves on the rocks besides the Supin had lured him for a photoshoot session. We were on our own...shrugging our doubts we decided to prod on.

Bang at the point where village starts there is a very weirdly beautiful temple, almost surreal in its architecture with some nonsensical figure carved of wood standing in the middle of its roof against nothingness in immediate background...Ha, things made some sense when we later got to know that it was dedicated to Duryodhan!

As we moved further we saw several people outdoors. Most of them were either breaking stones, collecting water or weaving clothes. What more, all of them were females. In fact nearly 80% of the people I met in the village were females (what luck!!!).

Soon the word got around “Sehar ke log aae hain” ["City people are here!"] and we had a huge trail of children following us causing a mixed feeling of immense joy and mild despair on our part. However, they were soon dispersed by their mothers before they could mob us (they wouldn't have - as they tend to me very shy). When the trail got together again - we clicked and showed them several pictures. They were so bloody excited!!!

We were at the center of the village when a weird looking guy came to us. He had no boots, his clothes were torn and over and above that he had an unusually large rectangular face. He came to us and said something which neither of us understood. Gj thought that he is asking for a picture which he then clicked and showed him. However, it failed to change the curious smile on his face. He said something to us and took a little forward to the path where he stopped and asked us to follow him. We did, and through some twists and turn he took us to the highest house on the hill on deserted us. Oh, it was just beautiful from up there. He just knew that we should be up there to get super-mesmerized in the beauty of his village...

On our way down we also found a solar power operated satellite phone (Only Rs 5/- per min STD!!!) After calling our mothers and clicking a few more pictures we headed back to our campsite, negotiating several herds of sheep and goats returning back home as the sun disappeared and the cold fastened its clutches…

------

Osla was nothing short than a fancyland: The view from each square inch of the place was as breathtaking, natural and genuine as the smiles of people of that place. The warmth they showed even without speaking much gladdened our heart, and even though we were intruders in their daily lives we were more than welcome. I wish to stay much longer the next time I visit any such tiny secluded village to deepen my first brush with their lives.

-----

"Wooooooooooooooooooooooo ha - ha - ha - ha" "Wooooooooooooooooooooooo ha - ha - ha - ha" a long shrill hoot ending in what looks like laughter "That's how girls whistle here, Sir. Amidst the continuous crashing sound of river, this is the only way", quipped Rajendar.

I remembered hearing this when Gj and I reached Gangaur a few minutes ahead of our pack. We were alone in the open and the sound kept coming. We looked around to understand that the source of the sound was a pack of mountain girls on the other side of the mountains. And we blushed.

The Temple of Duryodhana

Story Continued:

Part 4: The Final Leap

Snowsome Tales 2: The Journey Back

2011-01-26T11:09:00.019+05:30

[Contd. from Snowsome Tales 1: Har Ki Dun]

Apparently it had snowed at 4 in the morning while we all were asleep.

A thin veil of snow had covered whatever our eyes could see, ofcourse except the river: lightly growling then like a lion whimpering in its sleep. All surrounding mountains were shrouded in a mystic drapery of clouds and blowing snow, which parted towards their base, to reveal them shyb-lushing in their new polka dots avatar!

I was still tired from the inadequacy of the space on the bed last night. It was so stupid - what was a rat doing in our room in such icy cold weather. Wasn't he supposed to be in his burrow hibernating! Ok, I know they don't hibernate, but whatever - aren't they suppose to go down to a rat hole at some lower altitude just like humans! In totality, I mean - what the ... was he doing at 3365! Wretched creatures they are...that one rat drove Gj, sleeping contentedly on the floor, to get terrified to his bones despite all that layers of clothing and jump on the bed with already suffocating other 3.

The night had passed, and the grey-white morning was no time to soothe cramped muscles, except o'course for Twigman who had popped in a Crocin before he slept, and then had dedicated almost the entire tube of Volini to his back as soon he got up in the morning! However, on a more generic note - it was the time to drink tea, gulp down maggie, ignore the call of nature to stay back for some more time, and to run!

Even before we started it had resumed snowing mildly. The dense dark grey cloud cover lined our entire downward path causing a morbid worry to surface over our guide,Ramlal Ji's, face as he asked us to make haste. And then, we ran! When we left at 8:45 AM, no one even turned back to heave a sigh; every warm breath was important, more so because the entire trek for the day was uninhabited and our ration supplies had already hit the red.

Soon, flakes of snow started falling thick and fast. Every 10 minutes or so we had to wildly shake ourselves to get rid of the snow piled on our backpacks and boots, shoulder and hoods. As I half walked half ran - the snow lightly crunched under my feet, fell on my lips and eyes and blew in my nose causing a seismic wake of tanginess to run through my body, ending in my belly causing me to suddenly vibrate - it looked as if I was dancing. Well, the truth is, I was! Wouldn't you if you were running in the wild in the first snowfall of your life?

While ascending HKD (Har Ki Dun), I was of the opinion that it was one of the most beautiful winter treks that I've seen, but oh I square that it was doubly so when we descended. I had so far believed that my favorite color was blue, though I really don't think I have a favorite color but just in case had you asked me mine - I would have said blue. But damn, I am saying the color of snow the next time you ask me, and no kidding this time.

And it was not just snow - at halfway, the path down from HKD suddenly bends at a right angle around a ridge to completely tumble the world before your eyes - from bleary huge snowy mountains lurking in your face, the view after the turn suddenly opens up to the far horizon with Supin river joining you back - flowing down several hundred feet between yours and the parallel mountains...

After having walked for a little over 2 hours: through steep downs and large white flats, from over freezing streams to over already frozen falls, the snow finally started receding. The urgency in us too receded with it and a sense of peace set forth in our gait. We started to notice how huge boulders tumbling from mountains had blown off huge bridges and the teetering makeshift wooden bridges in places, how the occasional green patch of land was indeed a wheat field, how effortlessly our porters walked, and how with every step downwards our knees said 'Ouch'! The last part is important - descending on mountains is never easy on knees which are accustomed to not even descend a single floor on well laid stairs. However, it generally helps if you don't climb down mountains like stairs but instead put your legs horizontally across - as you might have seen in military movies in 1-2 1-2 steps. Moreover, try to keep your legs on some stable boulders instead on the ground while climbing down a slope or walking on a flat - as once your leg is on a boulder it is much more stable then when it's on ground where it keeps on hitting the scattered boulders lying around.

Caution: don't run! Walk fast if you have faith in your shoes and judgement, but don't run! Last time around, Tobebabu risked the most important parameter in his equation of being a babu: being alive! When we were descending from a height of 4200m to 3200m around curving slopes, he decided to run directly downwards assuming that...

Probability {his legs finding a boulder to step on/he keeps his foot forward} = 1

...this was flawed, and even otherwise so! He stopped when we all saw him and shrieked on the top of our voice, only to look up with an expression of - "Just trying!"

However, no major heart-stoppers occurred on our downward journey this time, except for when Twigman leading our pack in the drafting snow stepped over ice, which was slyly covered under snow, and fell headlong. It was momentarily scary and then funny to see him trying to axe his nails in the ice to get a grip, slipping a little every second toward the small stream which we were crossing, before he was given a hand by Gj. However, no joking about the fact that being drenched when it's snowing might have been a direct ticket to heaven (I guess he's a good man!).

By and by we reached the bridge over Supin river which would take us back to comfort of rest houses. But crossing bridge was no easy thing - the pull of dashing white river was too strong and one by one everyone slumped on the bridge; lost in their own special thoughts. When we looked at our watches - it was just half hour past noon! Everyone in the group had made down amazingly fast; and some of us were again in enthusiasm to go further and reach our starting point, Taluka, the same day; however, we did not - and for good, as otherwise I would have missed something which mesmerized me more than anything I had seen thus far on our journey...[to be contd.]

The bridge over Supin

Story Continued:

Part 3: Life on Himalayas

Part 4: The Final Leap

Snowsome Tales 1: Har Ki Dun

2011-01-22T00:59:00.030+05:30

Har Ki Dun: The valley of God

It was fairly cold outside. What else do you expect when the valley you stand upon looks on three quarters of an arc to the mighty snow clad mountains of the Bandarpunch range of the Himalayas.

6300m!

Swargarohini peak, the 6300m high ladder to heaven, the mythical place from where Pandavas and Draupadi ascended to heaven, stood at a stone throws distance. It is one thing to look at high mountains in pictures, another thing to see them rising above the surrounding mountain ranges, and a completely another thing to see them - right there, in your face, and checking them out all up: from base to peak!

By the time last of our men arrived, the light had melted into darkness and the even though the moon was faint, the white mountains became blue, and green trees dispersed enough of the available light to leave nothing for us to see but black patches. And my thoughts were such:

I don't know why, but I can feel sadness creep

from behind the imposing you, and flowing thy

Out and out, engulfing me by

Sadness, nhy

Jealous, am I!

There were two places where we could sleep in the night - rest house, or camp!

I wanted to camp under the starry chilly night. And I had a reason for wanting to keep away from the comfort of the rest house: we had reached our destination - Har Ki Dun, 3 days after starting from Dehradun. However, the ascend had been fairly easy presenting no real challenge or sense of adventure, but only blindingly beautiful views. I thus wanted to bear the chill of night in pretext of testing my capabilities. And here's the thing - trekking in mountains is not just about admiring nature, but more so about finding yourself, physically and mentally. When you push hard for long in thin cold air, the pain and numbness reach to the extent that they drown all other thoughts from your mind: worry, guilt, pride, stories of past, present and future and leave you free!

Peace

However, as the night wore on, along with everyone else, I comfortably settled in the forest hut. I suggested several audacious plans of getting up early and trekking further on to the Jaundar glacier, which immediately got enthused nods from a few group members (Gj, Chahha, and Tobebabu); however each of those were turned down by our guide as infeasible to be done in a day!

With the beauty of Valley of God seeping into us, we became, I became, content of the idea of spending the beautiful morning dancing around sunshining river and guardian mountains of the valley.

Trying to absorb the beauty

Moreover, the room of the rest house was direct from yellow leaves of a British book. The wooden flooring and bed by the fireside took me to to the Colonial times. Soon enough a heap of firewood was lit and the glow enthused my spirit. I couldn't believe it - I was actually sitting by the fireside in the Valley of God, oh a feeling ran through me that is hard to describe! I wrote that it is amazing to write that I am writing by the fireside! Half of us (Twigman, Tobebabu, Dolllover and Mr. McK) had already slipped into cozy beds and quilts and were cracking loud bratty jokes, incorrigible to those sitting by the fireside - lost in a dreamworld while listening to tales of mountain villages from our porter! I wrote:

“Har Ki Dun is a pure bliss which can be enjoyed without any sense of adventure – you just sit here and admire the beauty: the rocks and boulders jutting out at places most unthought-of, long straight pine trees growing at the top of otherwise absolutely barren mountains, snow blowing off magnanimous peaks all of which stand nonchalant of the gaping mouths of young travelers feeling dwarfed by the humongous rise of theirs, and the finally the river: it’s water casting different mystical spells when under Sun, Moon, Stars or even a plain dark overcast sky. How do you capture all this in your eye, ear, heart or brain? Only if each of your thousand million pores opens up, you can encompass in some small measure, the beauty which is present here”

While I was thinking that they should seriously think about renaming Cloud no. 9 to Being at 3-3-6-5, our guide and porters readied the dinner for us: steaming hot rice with steaming hot curry! I dipped my fingers into them, without caring for spoons and started eating hungrily only to be done in a plateful! All the time when you are climbing during the day you think that you're going to eat so much, but when you actually start eating there's only so much that you can eat!

However, the worst comes after eating - washing your plates! Every single time I did that, it felt like - one more second and my fingers might need an amputation. The innocent looking water turns into a Satan potion the minute it lands on your hand, and ere long you've to rush back to fire! Therefore you can imagine how difficult might it get if you forget to pack a roll of tissue paper for other needs!

After dinner it was time to once again snuggle into quilts, or sit by the fireside and get lost into dreamworld. This time, however, we tried to kindle the fire ourselves, to our utter failure. Porters came to our help, and this time I carefully observed how they kindled a fire. The trick is to form almost a pyramid of wood and put small pieces connecting the larger pieces of wood to transfer the fire. Other trick is to constantly take out ash and put in new pieces of wood. And the trickiest of all - to blow into the fire when it starts to waver. It's poignant to see how quickly the fire starts asphyxiating once ash starts to block the flow of oxygen causing an untimely, fast and leg-kicking death! However, more often than not you blow stupidly enough to either cause the fire to stare back at you saying - dude!, or to cause ash to fill the room. The worst of all is to suck the air after blowing hard, without turning your face. Get ready to cough your way for next 5 minutes until large tears well up in your eye!

Rookie Fire

A rookie's guide: Make a base of T1 with the center filled with small twigs/grass/paper. The larger you want your fire to be, place more of T1s over each other, finally on the top of T1 place T2, with the T2 wood much thicker than T1s. Place T3, or simply long twigs connecting various thicker wood to transfer fire. Blow from the base. Don't suck after you blow! For completion sake: keep distance, extinguish it once done, and google after reading this to find exact info!

The Junior Woodchuck Guide

Anywho, by and by the wood got all burnt up and once again cold started engulfing us. As much as I hate to waste time, I hate to share a double bed with 4 people, 3 of which were worthless engineers, who couldn't apply their nutty brains to suggest until 5 AM that we should sleep with head-feet direction reversed for every alternate men! I hate the experience more so because once asleep the uncaring ones sprawl their legs flat into others territory and shamelessly snore!

After 5 AM, I slept astoundingly well , only to be woken up at 7AM with loud cries of snow! I quickly got out of the bed, with only a few warm clothes on and ran to open the door and join in the celebrations going outside. A cold wind blasted on my face as I opened the door, what else was I thinking, but hey - Dreams do come true, in the Valley of God...the valley had turned white, overnight! [to be cotd.]

The Morning After

Snow White

Story Continued:

Part 2: The Journey Back

Part 3: Life on Himalayas

Part 4: The Final Leap

Read about last year end trek: Finding Frozenland

Eye to Eye

2010-12-23T12:38:00.005+05:30

Heard of 'Body Language' anytime? Atleast all those people who have prepared for an interview must have! It's difficult to maintain eye contact with the interviewer while processing all the questions they keep throwing at you (as processing facial expressions requires a lot of brain effort!)

Anyways. I am not talking about that. Here's what I am talking about:

So this other day I was walking with my friends in Connaught Place (CP). Two of us had fallen in steps behind the other two, when suddenly a nice lady walked past me. Out of nowhere I decided to do an experiment. I called one of the two people walking in front of us; our eyes met and suddenly I directed my eye to the lady in between us two. Almost as if my eyes controlled his motor neurons - he looked where my eyes were pointing: right into the face of a total (beautiful) stranger at a distance of ...

This event, in the chill of Delhi winters, rekindled my interest in this field. Here are some good references to get you started:

Pauk Ekman - Emotions Revealed (Awesome book, thanks to my Prof. RBN!)
Malcom Gladwell - Blink (thanks to my birthday gift by chemical engineer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_contact
http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_08_05_a_face.htm

Please do refer to me if there are any other good books you've read on this subject

I wrote a small term paper (with Menu) last year on Non Verbal Communication. As novice as I might be - let me know if you need a copy :)

Here's a part from the paper which I particularly like:

Some aspects of facial expressions are hard to fake, for e.g. the raised inner corners of eyebrows which come with real sadness (Ref: Emotions Revealed, Paul Ekman)

You've an exam tomorrow - Yes!

2010-12-10T14:09:00.010+05:30

A friend finds himself totally irritated by his roommate's apparently insensible desire to complete the book Catch 22 in one night, and tries to beat him down sarcastically; only to be boomeranged. Here's how it began:

"[You read like] You have an exam of this book tomorrow..."

"Okay"

"You have an exam tomorrow!!!"

"Yes!"

"What is this exam about?"

"This book"

"The book you are reading?"

"Yes"

"Catch-22"

"Yes"

"You have an exam of this book"

"Yes"

"What is this exam about"

"This book"

"How can it be possible!!! When is the exam?"

"2:30 PM"

"I mean, seriously?"

"Yes"

"You have an exam of this book tomorrow?"

"Yes"

"How do you know!"

"You told me"

"I never told you. I was asking you"

"Yes, I am telling you"

"What?"

"That you told me"

"I asked you!"

"Yes, and I have told you"

"Ok, let me get this straight - you have an exam tomorrow on this book tomorrow at 2:30 PM"

"Yes"

"What are they going to ask you"

"How can I know!"

"I mean, what will happen as a result of you giving this exam"

"I don't know"

"You don't know!"

"Yes"

"Then who knows?"

"You"

"How can I know?"

"You told me"

"I didn't tell you, I asked you"

"Yes, I am telling you"

"Agrhhhh....ok so who is conducting this exam"

"I don't know"

"You don't know!"

"Yes"

"Then who knows"

"You"

"Oh my God, how can I know!"

"I don't know"

"You're are lying"

"You're lying"

"About what?"

"That I am lying"

"Agrhhhhh, so it's true that you've an exam tomorrow on this book"

"Yes"

"How can I be sure that you're not lying"

"You told me"

"Ok, don't try to act smart - I did not tell you about anything, I asked you"

"Yes, I am telling you"

"I don't understand - for the last time - You have an exam tomorrow on this book at 2:30 PM?"

"Yes"

"It's so weird, why would there be an exam on this book"

"Yeah"

"I think you are lying to me"

"About What"

"That I am lying to you"

"Why"

"Because I am telling you what you told me"

"What the hell did I tell you?"

"About the exam"

"For the last time, I asked you!"

"Yes, and I am telling you"

"Ok - finally: you've an exam tomorrow on this book?"

"Yes"

"Oh, ok then I should stop disturbing you. All the best"

---x-----

An Excerpt:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

--x--

However the two things are almost, but not quite, entirely unrelated. While the conversation is based on exaggerated linguistic ambiguity coupled with some brutal lies from one side and an overtly feeling of trust and compliance from the other; the novel is based on what I can loosely call as logical ambiguity.

Even if the above interpretation is false, to make any sense at all of the post you have to think it's about Catch 22 when clearly it's not. However, as soon as you stop thinking that it's about Catch 22 it makes stops making any sense at all!

Who's Legendary?

2010-12-07T12:04:00.003+05:30

Probably and sadly both will vanish into oblivion soon, but what is to be seen is that who's going to be legendary in times to come. Hope it's the real one.

Words Words Words

2010-12-05T10:38:00.006+05:30

I found this on an old torn paper - I am guessing that I wrote this while attending a lecture in my college...

Words, Words, Words

They fly by

Words, Words, Words

My head sighs

Words, Words, Words

Like a screeching nail on the glass

Words, Words, Words

Like a jingle out of its own class

Words, Words, Words

You think you are like a Rhapsody

Words, Words, Words

But let me tell you, you are nothing but noddy

Words, Words, Words

I yawn, I cry

Words, Words, Words

I fear, if I hear, I might die

Words, Words, Words

Please stop them

Words, Words, Words

Banish, burn them

Words, Words, Words

Oh God, why

Words, Words, Words

Given by thy

Words, Words, Words

Witchy, wicked, sly!

For additional scintilla: let me quote Shakespeare -

Polonius

"What do you read, my lord?"

Hamlet
"Words, words, words"

Emotional Baggage

2010-12-02T16:55:00.005+05:30

The feeling of not being able to help your friend beyond a point

The feeling of telling lies when you don't want to

The feeling of being lied to, on your face

The feeling of not being able to sit for hours over coffee with people you want to

The feeling of doing what you don't want to, and not doing what you want to

The feeling of not being able to pray at the start of the end and at the end of it

The feeling of not being able to tell people what you want to, when you want to

The feeling of not being able to cry alone, or in front of anyone

...

However, the quote of the day goes to an old journal entry of mine:

It's pointless to feel pointless

....

In Brevity, for clarity - I Love You

2010-11-11T11:41:00.011+05:30

All these years

Through joys and tears

I always thought of you

I knew not, what was it

(And then I discovered)

Now in brevity

for the sake of clarity

I Love you

Did curiosity really kill the cat?

2010-10-22T22:09:00.005+05:30

So this is the 8th flight I am talking in my life. Which is too small a number. I know. But today's flight is different. Because it's delayed by 2.5 hours. But as my team member put it - every adversity is an opportunity (to which someone added - for someone else).

Anyways, so I spend first 1 hour walking up and down the length of the Airport, admiring the shine at the Swarovski, or looking at the people getting massage, browsing books (and finally picking up Nano Story), trying to drink water from spooky water taps and so on...

Then I came across this Lifebuoy ad saying keep you hand here to make it germ free - I was like awesome - I was pretty excited; how does this thing work - is it instant dryer or something - what is it? I thought of putting my hand under it. But just couldn't. I was standing bang in the middle of the crowded airport. I thought if I place my hand under it and some soapy thing came - I would look stupid. I kept shuffling around that place looking greedily at the thing, but did not put my hand under it. And then as I was standing and still debating - a small girl came by - put her hand under it - pressed some buttons and moved away. I stood there dumbstruck...

I realized that being care free was something that keeps vanishing from our life as we keep growing up.

Now while traveling to the airport - I went to the last seat of Innova - pulled out my shoes, and slept. Without caring for even a second how would it look to other 3 team members traveling in the same cab...The thought did not even cross my mind. I was just too tired to care. But I am sure other senior members would not have done something like that!

I think as we keep growing it is going to be a hard nut to crack - not looking childish and still being able to be care free, still being able to take leaps of faith, still disbelieving that curiosity killed a cat and believing that curiosity invented the plane!

A Touch of Narmada

2010-09-12T23:15:00.005+05:30

ma rewa.......
ma rewa tharo paani nirmal ...............khal khal behto jaaye re

Amarkanth se nikli O rewa
jann jann kari rayo thaari sewa
sewa se sab pawe mewa,
aso ved puran batayo re

ma rewa.......
ma rewa tharo paani nirmal ...............khal khal behto jaaye re

The Indian Ocean song incessantly played in my head as we lazily rowed in the mighty Narmada. The Sun was near the water, and the nets of fishermen were gleaming golden. The oar was making gentle splashing sound as Narmada Shankar Kevat steered us a little far from the shore. In the far distance some motor boats carried other tourists; but my heart was more than joyous having found a lone boat which hadn’t put motor behind its back!

The 1.5 km broad stretch of the river at Maheshwar is probably the broadest the river ever gets through its course from east of India to the west, before submerging itself unto the Arabian sea. Narmada is 5th largest river in Indian Subcontinent and its over 1000 kms of stretch in M.P. feeds innumerous rich farms along the way. No wonder the river holds a devotional value attached to it since the ancient times.

There was a girl, Roomati, who used to sing beautifully. When Baz Bahadur, the then emperor of Mandu heard her voice – he invited her to adorn his royal court and live there. But Roomati, a firm devotee of Narmada, put forth a condition: only if she gets to see Narmada every day, she would join the court. Baz Bahadur then built a palace for her at the capital - Mandu, 55 kms away from Maheshwar from where she could see the Narmada; and pray every day.

As her fame grew, the praise of her voice soon reached Akbar. He asked Baz Bahadur to send Roomati to adorn his court; an offer to which Baz Bahadur responded by asking Akbar to visit Mandu whenever he wished to listen to Roomati. Scorned, Akbar retaliated by marching to Mandu with 40,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 horsemen. The great fort of Mandu, 2nd largest in India - immensely strategic for being built over a raised plateau and covered by ravines from all sides was breached. Result: Baz Bahadur fled, Roomati died a royal death by drinking poison (the thought of separation from Narmada was unbearable to her) and all that Akbar dreamed of before the battle was lost during the battle – forever. Yet again a woman caused a great many things which were to be remembered for long.

I put my hand in the Narmada, folding them as if praying to Allah to draw out a handful of water. I poured back the water against the gleam of the Sun, my head filled with chants and bells which spoke of the centuries of cultural and devotion attached to the river as the last golden drops left my fingers...

Where we begin, Where we End

2010-08-30T11:49:00.005+05:30

This has been on my mind since a really long time...

Generally when any new thing is started, it is started with a vision. A vision to radically transform something, or to take new strides in some direction. A lot of enthusiasm is build around it and most of the people find that this is really the answer to all the woes.

Then gradually over the years the 'thing' expand. New members are added, old members leave; some new cultural wave hits the ground in the meanwhile, but nevertheless the 'thing' continues to expand and grow battling all the teething and non-teething troubles.

After some decades the 'thing' has really grown into a huge proportion and it does a lot of work and has lot of people working for it. And then one day the original founder who has long gone away, died perhaps gets to see the entire 'thing' and he looks at all the glitter and vast expanses of land, people and geographies his vision has been able to cover; his heart is glad except for one stabbing pain...

The vision is lost...

IIT, TCS, UN, Toyota: I leave you to guess which 'things' fit into this example, and which are contrary to it...

The quote of the weekend was stated by Harshit whistle gossiping away on my roof on a drizzly night:

If you can't measure it you can't improve it

Obscuring the Truth: Good or Bad? (Environmental Courses @ IIT Delhi)

2010-08-23T14:52:00.015+05:30

Even as I remember the times of July-November 2009, I cannot forget the course RDL340

I did this course as a part of compulsory Environmental Course which we had to do, and even though a recent RTI filed at IIT has revealed that it was NOT compulsory, I am not regretting.

Among all the talks about sustainable living, Gaia theory (shown in AVATAR!), bamboo housing - there was an intangible element of the course which has left a deep imprint in my heart: In every class the first 5 mins were reserved for meditation. Yes. At the start of the class everyone would close their eyes and meditate for 5 mins. Despite some nonsensical giggle it felt wonderful.

At the start of meditation, my mind would suddenly begin racing in all directions, all sorts of thoughts about life, death and universe would come up in rapid succession - reach a pinnacle and start to fade away. By the end of 5 minutes my mind would become blank like a sea after storm, fresh to concentrate on what I was going to hear next. Felt like being back in Gurkul days!

However, finding out the fact that we were duped into doing environmental courses (for 06, and 07 entry students -enviro courses were NOT COMPULSORY!) felt bad and the first question which came to my mind was: why the world is so busy in obscuring the truth?

Interestingly enough, as I gather from the mail forwarded to me: even the AIC confirmed that it was compulsory doing such courses.

My guess is that we don't have courage to fight for the truth so we find it more convenient to hide it, or twist it ~ it might do more good than bad in select cases, but definitely obscuring truth does not help society achieve utopia!

And accordingly the quote of the weekend is:

"He that would keep a secret, must keep it secret that he has a secret to keep"
- Sir Humphrey, Yes Minister

When the Week Ends...

2010-08-16T17:00:00.006+05:30

...and you are still working, is something which draws the maximum number of sighs, especially from your own heart.

So I reached home on Friday night working till 8 in the morning (and unprofessionally sleeping for 2 hours in b/w when the sleep just took over w/o any warning signals!)

But by and by the next day had welcoming rains in store, dancing in which made me wonder if Sony and Cos are designing some walkman which can be plugged in during rain; and if Penguin Publishers are coming out soon with their titles in paper which doesn't get wet in rain (I just didn't feel like saying plastic!). Imagine sitting on the roof of your house, or balcony for that sake; or better even in the nearby garden among the sweet smelling grass, listening to your favorite music, reading a novel which has totally gripped you; and it raining like cats and dogs all around you - and the best part: over you!

Eventually I gathered some sleep and hopped on to play football with kids in the garden, soon realizing how important was winning in games when I was a child: and how important was to fight for every foul, every rule, every thing which was debatable under the roof and which was not; and that to some extent winning and doing all those things is still important, but I chose to instead let the bunch of kids do their job!

Peepli Live could have been more impactful, but nevertheless it was good; however, I found a more intriguing subject: in my reading of Gita! And it starts with the question: is the war depicted in it for real, or allegorical?

However the quote of the weekend goes out and out to Nehru:

"The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be."

- Tryst with Destiny: Midnight of 14th August 1947

The Emperors of Chocolate

2010-08-10T13:40:00.000+05:30

Candy is not a necessity. It’s a treat. A delight. A frivolous indulgence.So intoxicating, so intense, so opulent, it penetrates the taste buds and heads straight for the brain.

Read Joel Brenner's The Emprors of Chocolate. Not only it is a fantastic, and never been told before account of 2 chocolate gians: Mars and Hersheys, it is also a mouth watering delight.

The contrast drawn between the Hersheys and Mars is visible at every point, except for how long they took to become successful. Milton Hershey: 17 years, Forest Mars: 21 years.

The book is studded with core management pricipals of Hershey's and Mars, and the style of working on their top management. And I am sure that many of these pricipals will remain etched in your memory a long time after you've read the book; I list a few here:

Both Hersheys and Mars started their day at 4:30 in the morning. Most of the new product ideas were born then.
Being first is the key: if you ain't first, why bother?
Product should be sole focus: that is what customers buy
You can't shoot where the duck is: you've to shoot where the duck is going to be
To do a business: you need to know how to make a product

‘Chemically speaking, what makes chocolate so unique and irresistible is that its melting point it slightly below body temperature’ ‘ Cocoa butter dissolves first and distributes the rest of the chocolate ingredients over the taste buds in quick succession starting with sugar’

Must Read!

Goa Diaries: Beach Football

2010-07-21T21:13:00.001+05:30

In the morning, it was time for frisbee. Two of us made good company as I explored various facets of frisbee in sharp sea winds; and miserably failed in making sense of any new styles.

At the end of the evening when the water had just started to turn grey, I again made my way to the beach: however, this time I was along with 10 other people and now was time for some football. There is no better place to play football then on the beach during low tide. Even grass field is no comparison. The sand which had sea upon it only a few hours ago is smooth and clayish which allows rapid speed of game; and it is soft enough that if you fall on it during a rough header – you fall with a soft thud.

And there, as a part of the shirtless team, I scored a goal; and there has been no goal I have ever scored in a more pleasant wind than the one which I scored then. Infact, I have never been injured without a hint of pain, as happened then (which suddenly brought the game to a halt). Even though my entire toe was smeared in thin red coating of blood, shining against the background of sparkling sand; and apparently my toe-nail had been broken - there was no pain. As if the winds kissed my toe to make the pain go away. Some Savlon and cotton later, I was ready to head to the swimming pool. It partially satiated my craving to swim in the sea, which was forbidden (it’s monsoon!).

It rained pretty much the whole of the day which followed, and even from a distance we could hear the sea gurgling. By the time it was evening the rain stopped and the sky cleared out for the first time (and the last time) of my week in Goa. There was nothing much to be done the whole night, except working towards the case presentation in the morning; nevertheless I managed to steal an hour to swim, including a little time for a steaming Jacuzzi.

The fourth day of my stay in Goa saw the end of my training and beginning of the party and guess how did it start: by listing down the agenda and time schedules for the next three days (welcome to the world of structure). At around midnight we went to the beach which looked even more mysterious in the weak drizzle. The sand was just perfect for making some castles and royal bridges and so on, much jibed by my colleagues. While coming back we had to take cover under umbrellas for it had started to rain hard, and it was then that we understood the real worth of IIT education. So this is what followed: Harsh winds made the umbrella in my hand wobble and go sideways as a result of which it flipped and its shape changed from convex to concave when seen from the top side. And thus the aeronautical engineer from IIT Bombay stepped up and displayed a fine display of his engineering abilities, by trying to push the cloth of umbrella against the wind to get it back into the shape. We made him stand apart and watch how by pointing the umbrella against the wind we could automatically get it back into its original shape, much to his dismay and embarrassment.

Next evening was time for some serious football: with almost 14 people a side trying to score goal in a goalpost half the size (in all 3 dimensions) of a normal goalpost. It was raining, there were mud pools in the grass as a result of which the ground became amazingly slippery. And then we were playing without our shoes. The amount of times when people tried to take just that extra step to reach the ball and ended up with their back on the ground and legs in the air, and an expression of how did I fall smirked on their faces. The amount of time when it was just an attacker and a goalkeeper and all that the attacker ended up doing was to fall on his 2 feet, 2 hands and his poor back. The amount of time when people tried to jump attempting a header and instead ended up being in a pile of similar people was all too scary and funny at the same time. With some sheer luck I was in the team which had some amazing strikers and defenders, and with some similar sheer luck I was present near the goal post (and so were around 20 odd people), and on sensing something about to happen I ran towards the goalpost and just when I was trying to stop to see where the ball was, I found it passed in front of my legs: And that all I had to do was to extend the leg without falling, and that I did that and thus scored the first goal for our team. Soon enough we scored another 4 goals and had a lead of 5-0. Some players changed and suddenly the defense of the other team became too strong, in fact on one occasion our midfielder tried to pass a long ball into the D but the ball found one of their bulky defenders right on his legs, and such was the power of shot that the ball again returned to the midfielder who again took a shot and it again hit the defender squarely on his legs and again returned to the midfielder who again took a shot and again found the same defender and the same portion of his legs but this time ball went out of the ropes. A little later, the game ended and we won 5-2.

After football, I decided to spend an hour walking far and wide on the beach; and for the first time - all alone. The sea had receded far-far back; so I traveled a good distance before I reached the waters. There were huge waves rising just near the shore; but in totality it was so quite that if you didn’t look towards the sea, you wouldn’t even believe that there was a sea which you were standing besides. If you ever felt weird on seeing a great storm outside your glass pane but not being able to hear it because of the glass pane: it was exactly the same feeling, except that there was no pane which made the entire thing weird.

The waves curled unto a great height and crashed: and yet they made no noise. It was absolutely silent. It was tickling to look at the sky, wondering about the thick cloud cover, closing my eyes and feelings the breeze, and just looking away from the sea towards the pine trees; and suddenly feeling the water go under my feet with such speed that it made the tickle travel up my body and suddenly throw my shoulders into awry.

That night the party had just begun...

Goa Diaries: A first look

2010-07-14T22:56:00.000+05:30

As we dipped from the clouds, from a land above to a land beyond, lush green land space captured my eyes. For miles and miles there were big bright trees, shimmering emerald green under thin rays of sunlight in the otherwise overcast landscape; with thick undergrowth of fauna around them. The sight of small houses proved to be a great relief from the otherwise accustomed but inherently alien sights of concrete societies. As we moved along a jet speed and sharply curved about a point, planning to land; there presented itself the enchanting sea, in its majestic beauty, incomprehensible to men. The waves of dull blue ocean frolicked before breaking in white manes on the white sandy beaches running all along where I could steal a look. It was just like my dream; and I promised myself to go to the beach as often as possible.

Goa: The tourist destination of India. The land of palm trees, luscious beaches and inebriated night outs for college crowd.

The first opportunity to go to the beach presented itself at the end of the day when the night was still young; and the moon was hid behind the dark clouds hovering over the entire landscape. At night the wind was in full flow as if determined to seduce the weary people resting on the beach to the sea; bringing forth its smell and tales of the magical waves and tides. The water was calm, but as the case often is: it looked dark and magical; calling so strongly that it was better to stay away.

The sea of morning was much more serene and calm in appearance. Thick black clouds still hung in the sky, but in any case the day gradually dawned and it looked as if the world had woken up from a dream. The water of the sea was dark green, and it had already rolled back to a great extent from the previous night.

The entire sand was filled with crabs and the beach had eagles hunting for them, crows beaking them, locals digging them up and we picturing them disappearing fast into the sand as the water tried to wash them back into the sea. There were enormous amounts of star fish washed away at the shore, some covered in mud and presented themselves with a distinct outline of a star, while those which could be seen were white, and had a brown line running over all there star-legs, as if stitched with brown thread. There were also shells, and it was the first time I saw shell which actually contained an oyster in them, and there were several shells which had just been emptied, and were still slimy. For no particular reason, I washed them in the gush of water and kept them in my pocket.

Nue Ness

2010-07-10T09:42:00.000+05:30

Gurgaon:

has no concept of streetlights. Even on the best roads, where people can drive over 80KMPH there are no streetlights.

has amazingly rich population who would invest their money and brains in everything except in keeping their locality clean. Littering is the way of life here.

has no place for people who would rather walk on their 2 feet (forget lesser numbers). If you have a car you can venture out. Else call a cab @ 15Rs/km. Else stay put. There are no autos. And yes the daily parking fees at my office building is Rs 100/- so I would rather think twice about taking my car. So, tell me, how do people live here?

has scarcity of good markets. One of my seniors summed it up, "Even if you want to buy a pencil, you've to [lewd annotation] go to a mall"

Other Nue Things:

To get a gas connection, you've to make an affidavit. To make an affidavit you've to get a stamp paper. Stamp papers are kept at court. But when you go to court they tell you there are no stamp papers there, you can get them from tehsil (and obviosuly they can bring it for you at some additional charges). And then, profusely sweating when you reach back to the gas agency: you find out that there is a waiting for 5-6 months to get a connection. You don't want to club anyone, 'cept self.

Flat hunting a fairly interesting and involved process. So is buying vegetables. The worst thing you can do in both the cases is to believe in one vendor and stick to him. The best thing you can do is to visit as many vendors as possible. Atleast if it's your first time.

Driving a 23 year old car is perilious.

Cornflakes + Chilled Milk + Straberries + Mango + Banana + Cashew + Almonds + Pistachio - Sugar = Quick, Awesome and healthy.

Did you know toned milk has less protein and calcium than both full cream and double toned milk?

Without familiar people, a visit to college looks so alien.

In the house of Marwas

2010-06-24T22:49:00.000+05:30

And out he ran, jumping over the stooping crowd gathered in the basement, through the stairs and from the front gate, between the legs of the stick wielding villagers: gaping with their mouths wide open, and amidst the laughter of children who had lined up on the balconies of houses, overlooking the road outside. Radha fainted...again.

Earlier, in the morning...

For Radha, everything so far in the day had been routine. She got up in time to see the setting moon, like a white blot on a blue painting, took a bath, put somber smelling rose powder over her neck and dragged her children out of their bed, acting stone cold to their cajoling cries. Soon she packed their breakfast and saw Vikram and Shyama cycle their way to school.

One by one all the men of the house: Vikram’s father and his 2 brothers ate their early lunch consisting of 6-8 ghee laden Chapatis each, along with green beans and yellow pulse cooked in desi ghee and stirred in a curry of spices, finishing their meal with 2-3 desi ghee ladoo’s a piece after which they headed off to open their shops. With all that ghee, no wonder that Radha’s household was of high status.

Soon the wives of her brothers-in-law too left for their session of morning gossip at the temple, leaving Radha alone with her mother-in-law in their enormous house. What followed afterwards was also routine: each day Radha’s mother-in-law used to pick her on trivial matters: like a single dirty spot, or a utensil which did not shine like a mirror. Today her third eye was fixated over the fact that the stairs leading from ground floor to first floor were covered in dust. In her early days of marriage, Radha frequently reduced to hysterical sobs on facing such tantrums; but over the course of 10 years – she had become cool about it.

Radha screamed back at her mother-in-law saying that dust was in her mind and not on the stairs, but nevertheless picked up the broom. After having swept off the dust, she adjusted her saree and started to climb back up when she noticed that the door to the basement was open.

‘This is new’, she thought. From what Radha had heard from her husband: basement of the house acted as a storehouse for gold and cash. Lots of gold and cash. And before she knew, her feet took her through the door and down the stairs to the basement.

The entire basement, including the stairs was covered in a fine sheet of dust, with plentiful of spider webs hanging at all corners. Even in the hot weather of outside: the place was cold, damp and mostly black. The only rays of light that came were through the door on the top of the stairs.

Initially groping, then squinting, and finally becoming accustomed to the darkness of the basement: she saw 2 rooms standing side by side, a little away from the stairs. One room appeared to be secure with a huge padlock on its gate while the door of the other room was slightly ajar.

As she cautiously approached the open room, she heard a faint noise – almost like the sound of someone breathing. Her heart started beating faster. She stopped, intently trying to listen. But she heard the noise no more, infact, her entire head was filled with the noise of her own wild heart beats. Her good sense told her to leave but an overwhelming feeling came over her to just have a look into the open room. She shrugged her fears, and telling herself to be brave she took another few steps. Then, only half-an-arms length away from the door she again heard a noise, and this time there was no mistaking it. There was a clear sound of breathing in short gasps. A terror seized her body, her large black eyes grew to frightening proportions and her small and beautiful face turned to whiteness. She stood frozen, expecting a sharp knife to appear anytime in the dark, slitting her throat.

Suddenly something metallic like an empty can of tin fell and made a lot of noise. Even without thinking Radha lunged forward, bolted the door and dashed towards the stairs. As she climbed over the stairs, she stepped over her own saree, tripped and fell with a soft thud. But without a moment’s delay she got up and ran out of the basement: blood oozing out of her forehead, near her right eyebrow; shouting chor chor (thief - thief), puffing large amounts of dust – she still ran, out of her house in the streets: still crying chor chor...

Then, in the afternoon...

It was exasperatingly hot, but nevertheless almost the entire nearby village had gathered in, or near the house of Marwas by 12:30 PM, only half an hour after Radha went off crying chor chor and collapsed in the street. At the start, her neighbors thought it was a result of some interesting (and big, and bloody) fight between Radha and her mother-in-law, but when they heard that there was a thief, bolted in the basement of the house of Marwas: they became even more excited.

The news spread even faster than the usual: with eager kids running in the streets, shouting ‘Marwa ka ghar pe chor karma mein band – Radha ne chor pakdiyo’ (Radha locks a thief in the house of Marwas) and so on. And soon, around 50 men, bearing thick and strong bamboo sticks lined up in the house of Marwas: those who were near in relation to Marwas were allowed in the basement while other waited up on the ground floor. Some men were tensed as if the entire thing could bring premature death to them, while some were excited hoping that it would be some big shot thief they would catch, while some were clearly enjoying the get together talking to others, exchanging the news of the village and sipping tea. Women and children lined up in the balconies of the three storied house of Marwas, or on the houses overlooking the house of Marwas. In all there were nearly 100 men, women and children gathered to catch the cornered thief.

A few men cautiously approached the door and tried to listen. There was absolutely no noise. They called the thief to come out. No answer. They told him that he was cornered and that there was no escape. No answer. They rechecked with Radha, but she was absolutely sure that there was a thief inside the room. Now that she had told everyone how she single handedly wrestled the knife-bearing thief and pushed the strong and hefty man inside the room, and had won accolades for it – there was no going back. And o’course there was a thief inside.

The men banged the gates for one last time. Still - no answer. 30 minutes of inaction had made the whole scene soporific. Some men even dozed off while standing – taking rest on their sticks. Thus the gate was slowly unbolted. All the torches and lanterns blazed their light onto the gate. Murmurs arouse among the crowd. And then the door was pushed open. The lights poured in – but there was nothing to be seen. Yet.

Just as the men were preparing to peep inside the room - out he ran, jumping over the stopping crowd gathered in the basement, through the stairs and over the front gate, between the legs of the stick wielding villagers: gaping with their mouths wide open, and amidst the laughter of children who had lined up on the balconies of houses, overlooking the road outside the house of Marwas.

When people inside the house of Marwas came to terms with what had happened, the grimness of the previous moment turned into an uncontrollable state of laugher, with 100 men, women and children laughing their lungs out – till their stomach started twisting and tears flew thick out of their eyes. They would stop for a moment, only to resume laughing again – taking hold of whatever was near to them: bed, wall, a person. Infact, most of the people sat down because they could not bear laughing so much while standing up.

Amidst all this Radha fainted.

Even today, 20 years after the actual incident – you can go to the Khajaria village, 30 km to the west of Sirohi in Rajasthan, and ask for the story of the so-called Thief that ran out of the house of Marwas, and expect a laughing delight shared over a cup of tea...

Ghana saal pehle, marwa ke ghar mein
Radha ne pakdiyo chor
ikhatta kiya aakha gaon ne
Ne Nikloyo ek akela kutto, navra kaam ko atro shor...

Years ago, in the house of Marwas
Radha caught hold of a thief
Shouted she, and along came the entire village
Only to see, out running a hapless dog...
It was much ado about nothing...

The Evening Games

2010-06-08T18:35:00.000+05:30

Images by Novacaine

Vijay stole a glance every now and then to look at the clock which hung on the wall to his right. The slow ticks of the clock were making him impatient. He tried reading his book which said something about king Harshavardhana but the pages just dissolved in front of his eyes. The words and sentences seemed to float and ere long his eyes got all watery. He again looked at the clock, only to quickly dive his head back into his book lest his father would notice him. He was sure that his father would not appreciate his longing to go out and play.

Eons later it was 5 PM. Vijay rubbed his eyes, stretched his limbs and tried to get away from his study table as nonchalantly as he could...

"It's too hot outside", said his father curtly.

Vijay knew that the best policy to deal with his father was to agree with whatever he said.

"Yes dad", he replied.

And he walked outside his room without an air of hurry. He then went to the kitchen and made some noise with the earthen pot, as if he was drinking water. Though without doubt he was the least thirsty person on the planet at that moment. His mind had a singular focus: to get out. After having made the sound - he waited with bated breath. No sounds came from the other room. Apparently either his father had dozed off or were contently reading the newspaper. Slowly, he moved towards the main door of the house. He opened it in the smallest possible angular steps, yet it creaked. He stood still for a few moments, listening intently, before continuing to open the door. His eyes widened with joy as the door opened; and then he tip toed out of the house. Infact, he was holding his breath untill he was 3 houses away...

Vijay couldn't stand still as he knocked on his friend's house. He stretched his legs, twisted his arms, exercised his neck by rotating it round and round and did some deep breathing. He knocked again, a little louder this time. A screechy voice came from inside which told him that Aayush was not at home. This made him a little worried. He nervously lingered at the doorway for a while, and then retreated with heavy steps. Vijay had talked to Aayush only a few hours ago, and Aayush had said that he would be coming to play. 'He must have gone to Tanmay', Vijay thought; and the proceeded to Tanmay's house.

Vijay would generally shout Tanmay's name to call him then ringing bell. For otherwise he felt awkward when Tanmay's parent would open up the door and then he would have to ask them to call Tanmay. But today he felt his throat chocking. He reached out for the bell and rang it for a trite. He stood still. Nothing happened. He again pressed the bell, a little longer this time; and yet no one opened the door. He looked around. Everything was quite except for the little bells on near the gate which chimed upon being touched by the cool wind. He slowly tried to pull the front door and just as he'd thought - it was locked.

Vijay's heart started to beat fast. He knew, he just knew, something was wrong. Two of the most regular players, who would not miss the evening games without telling him, were missing. Something was not right. Either they must have both gone to Aadi's house; but even so - before going to Aadi's house they should have surely come to him. This thought suddenly made Vijay angry. He started walking in short and fast steps towards Aadi's house where he heard some voices. As he came nearer the voices grew louder and then he heard his voice. He froze. He felt as if someone had clubbed him and drained the entire blood out of his body.

Only a few days ago he was ousted from the team: ostracized, unanimously; for he was not a nice person. He used to constantly abuse people. He would constantly lock horns with Vijay. He was a one man show. Vijay told this to the team; and everyone agreed. The next day Vijay told him to leave. Vijay smiled at recalling the incident, he felt like a real leader then...

He snapped back into reality as he saw everyone coming out of Aadi's house. Talking loudly, they walked straight towards the field, without even casting a single look towards Vijay. As if he had an invisibility cloak over him. Crestfallen, and speechless: Vijay followed everyone to the playground. The team was decided. Generally, it used to be Vijay who decided the team, but today when they chose the team they conveniently ignored him. He wanted to beat each of those who were present that day to death, but he somehow calmed his rising rage.

"I will be in Aayush's team", he announced, however, nobody took note of him.

The game started. Aadi passed the ball from the centre to Manas on his left who gave a long ball to Aayush on the left flag, who dribbled it past 2 defenders bringing the ball near the D. Vijay stood at a perfect cross: shouting for ball. It would have been a beautiful goal. Cross and goal. But instead Aayush took the ball to the right of the D from where, suddenly shrouded by defenders, he passed the ball back in the center to Manas who dribbled it in the D, again on the left. Vijay shot pass the defenders coming on the other side of the D: all alone - one neat pass to Vijay and it was goal. But Manas continued to dribble and took a clumsy shot; which was 2 times wide and 2 times high...

The whole team retreated back to the other side of the field. Everyone retreated but Vijay. He just stood there, looking at the goalpost: glistening with the rays of setting Sun. The game started again. Everyone started running towards the other end of the field as Vijay slowly started towards his home. His eyes red with indignity, swollen with tears: his mind filled with images of the setting Sun...

I Dare

2010-06-04T20:09:00.001+05:30

Amazing account from one of the top cops of India. The book leaves you with a feeling of great determination, but also with a great deal of thought on how difficult is it to rock the cradle of such a hypocrite system...

The entire story is something of the sorts of a realistic Wonder Women, where she does amazing things, shows amazing will power and never ever gives up: but still unlike the superhero Wonder Women, here she is not the one who wins all the time. More often than not, evil has it's way...

From Delhi to Goa to Mizo to Tihar to Chandigarh to UN to being denied the post of Delhi Police Commissioner: I Dare is an intense account of what prestigious civil services really should be, and what has been made of it, the (political) pressure that one has to face, how hard is it to hold on to your values and that it can be done, how the support of one's family forms the backbone of doing great things in life and that what being zealous is all about.

There are a few thoughts, inspired from the book, which I find worth mentioning:

Women become empowered when they become givers rather than receivers.
One of the biggest problem in doing great work is that there are always envious people. People who are plagued by their sense of insecurity. And these are the people who put all their energy, not to raise standards of their own work, but to ensure the downfall of the great work which is being done, and the one who's doing it.
People get attached to their status quo. We all are attached to our status quo. Aren't we? We all like the way things are. We don't want them to change (and change them for good!). Change brings uncertainty. And those who have comfortably settled in their nests find this discomforting - for change is all about that. But the bad part is that people don't want to accept that. They want to cling. No one wants to surf on the tide. Those who do - rule!
The only way to achieve larger than life goals for community improvement is by making community a part of the work being done for them.
If system becomes transparent, it automatically becomes accountable.
Things get done through favors. This is true for several things, in almost all the countries. If you know the right person you can get your work done. True. However, the problem with India is that such things have to be done at even the most meager levels of living. That is to say 100% of the population has to do it. While in several developed places in the world: 99% of population can go living on their own: because all the basic infrastructure is smooth. There is corruption at higher level, let that be - for with greatest power comes greatest blackness in hearts, but let things be smooth for the common man.
True leadership is about selflessness.
Sustenance of an initiative is THE most difficult thing to achieve. By sustenance I mean that even when the champion for the issue is gone - the issue stays. That is to say even if Gandhi Ji were to die before we got our independence, we would have got it. Sustenance is difficult because people are moved by the champion for the issue (problem) not the issue itself. And the champion does a lot to conquer the problem but does little to grow leaders who can take over after him.
Mind which is not purposefully engaged is the hub of devil.
And finally in her own words: "Those who do not take charge of their time are lathicharged (caned) by time"

Kiran Bedi did dare.

More: www.kiranbedi.org

Poha

2010-05-24T10:46:00.000+05:30

A yummy Poha stall outside Udaipur Bus Stand

Something which I terribly missed during my 4 year stay at Delhi.

AIIMS and IIT: Random Coversation

2010-05-19T14:54:00.001+05:30

Central Lawn of AIIMS

Background Info: AIIMS is considered as one of the most prestigious medical colleges in India. Out of 100,000 students who sit for its entrance exam (MBBS): 77 get selected making it THE hardest college to get into, in the entire WORLD. Full Info at Wiki. Recently, I was in AIIMS catching up with one of my friends there. His room was to die for, especially in the scorching Delhi heat (for those of you who don't know - every student living in AIIMS gets an AC in his/her room!) After the initial jubilation of meeting after several years was over, we got down to talking.

TND: Top Notch Doc
TNE: Top Notch Engg. (ha!)

TND: "If you take the brand AIIMS away and compare it with any other medical college - there would be hardly any difference between the two..."

TNE: "That is surely becoming true even for the IITs"

TND: "Initially AIIMS was supposed to be a research institution, possibly restricted only for postgraduate studies; but with growing pressure - you can see the AIIMS of today."

TNE: "That is, as far as I know, true even for the IITs.What is the structure of AIIMS?"

TND: "There are students - we, who until their final year concentrate mostly on theory and observing patients. In our final year we have do an intern - right here - in AIIMS, where we treat patients in OPD. Then there are residents who are the busiest people around here - they treat patients, they do research and they help us. Then there is faculty who after years and years of such tough life like to play it a little cool. But then they have a lot of higher end stuff to do..."

TNE: "We regularly hear that one has to wait infinitely long before he/she gets treated at AIIMS. What is the actual story?"

TND: "I think the pressure on AIIMS is just too much. The line for OPD starts from 6:30 AM in the morning. The window finally opens at 8:30 - and you get cards issued for the morning shift till 10 AM. Then you wait for 2-3-4 hours for your turn before the doctor sees you. If you are lucky you are in the doc's room for about 5 mins. Each resident looks at approx 100 patients in a 4 hour morning shift. With that quantity - quality ought to go down. Not in terms of how we treat patients but in how much research are we able to produce..."

TNE (picking up a book on Dermatology and STDs): "You know, I have always been in awe of doctors - I wonder why people always forget medical schools when they talk about the India of 21st century; why do they always concentrate on IITs or IIMs..."

TND: "You surely don't want to read that book before going to Dinner"

TNE (Opens the book, flips through it): "Eeekkkkkkkk"

TNE (After catching his breath again): "I am changing the topic rather abruptly, but I always had this doubt - Do people who come from reserved quote make equally good doctors?"

TND: "Look, not all people who come from general quota become good doctors - and similarly all people who come from reserved category do not necessarily make bad doctors. The ratio might be slightly skewed but then again - the bias you might have has no standing"

TNE: "Hmm. So even here, are there people who study just before exams, or do you guys have to be very regular?"

TND: "Well there exist both kinds of people - many of them study just before exams and others study throughout the year. You cannot check everything a person knows during exam. And what would be asked in an exam can always be predicted. So people who study throughout the year might not have a great edge over others in exams, but then they definitely make better doctors 10 years down the line"

TNE: "Man, that is so true. So what after MBBS?"

TND: "Post Doc"

TNE: "India?"

TND: "Yups"

TNE: "Do people go out?"

TND: "Earlier 30% people used to go out, now it has come down to 10-15%"

TNE (coming out from a deep thought): "You say your curriculum is theory based and does not check the practical knowledge one might have - I mean how can that be possible: You people are doctors for god's sake. You would actually treat patients one day. You are not phony people like us..."

TND: "When I said about our curriculum being all theory, I believe I meant only the written exams stuff and nothing else. We do have a practical aspect (as you said we are doctors here and do treat patients). We have morning postings in the Wards/OPD from 9:30 AM to 1 PM 5 days a week and we learn about patient care from the residents and faculty. When I said that the residents have it rough I did not mean that the Faculty does nothing. They also teach us but they are also very busy in patient care, research projects, conferences and writing scientific papers. We also have regular assessments of our practical skills in the form of ward leaving assessments (Practical exams and viva-voce at the end of our posting in each department) and the marks count towards our final exams.So you need not worry. But definitely things can be improved - everyone knows that they can be improved but no one does anything to change them..."

TNE: "Man, the story is exactly the same everywhere"

TND: "Infact, our performance throughout MBBS plays no role in the college we get for the post doc; it depends only on the marks we get in the exam for post doc."

TNE: "Ah this is little arbit"

TND: "No actually, I think we are being too critical about the system just because we have got everything right. Like what you study here in 5.5 years is definitely of great use when you write the post doc exam, the only thing is: there is no direct co-relation between the two..."

TNE: "Yups. AIIMS has got to be one of the best places you can do your medical schooling from, but I guess the point we are making is - despite of that we should not become callous and should continue improving. Everyday...

~~~

Afterthoughts

We engineers lead a fairly simple life. So there should be absolutely no reason why should we sit back and just observe the sorry state of affairs. As far as Doctors are concerned - I guess, they do an extremely difficult job: afterall, what can be more difficult than dealing with life, and death - everyday...

~~~

Some other interesting bits of conversation

TNE: "I've been thinking since last 1 hour - What does OPD stand for"
TND: "Out Patient Department"
TNE: "Man - that is so counter-intuitive!"

TNE: "Are there girls in AIIMS"
TND: "1:5. And all good ones get taken early"
TNE: "We live 1:10 - Imagine our plight!"

~~~

I put his Rs 9000/- Stethoscope to my ear and I cannot but tell you the child like delight I felt. It was the first time I heard my own heart beat. Hearing the beat of life literally gave me shivers. I vicariously felt like being a doctor...saviors of life...mortal Gods.

PS: Is there some law which says: if you hear your own heart beat, it becomes faster?

Doc chose to answer this rhetorical question: The heartbeat does get faster and skips a few beats if you listen to it consciously.

~~~

TNE: "How are your Profs?"
TND: "Oh they are very difficult"
TNE: "Difficult!"
TND: "Ah - sorry - Profs is short form for our exams called professionals"THE : ":O"

~~~ The End~~~

Post Blogging Discussions: Thanks to the friend for painfully going through the entire thing and helping me correct the facts. I had got some of them terribly wrong. Apologies. I guess responsible journalism is difficult ~

42 Things to do before you graduate from IIT Delhi

2010-05-11T17:27:00.001+05:30

IIT Delhi - like never seen before (from the roof of our lab in charge)

Make friends. Get close to them. Let the boundaries dissolve. Let the ego melt. Trust them. Understand them. Let them be what they are. Be what you are
Fall in love. But don't let your boyfriend/girlfriend cut you off from the remaining world.
Do atleast one course with absolute interest, such that it brings sparks to your eye whenever you think about that course.
Find a mentor (senior/professor). Get friends with him/her.
Climb on the hyperbolic-parabolic roof. Lie down facing stars. Hear soft music
Go and sleep on your hostel roof, when it's too hot or when it's drizzling. Don't get caught.
Write a personal mail to each and everyone who has touched your life in last 4 years. Thank them.
Go to the Himalayas with your friends on a challenging trekking expedition. It strengthens your friendship.
Participate in some highly competitive cultural activity: Inter Hostel, Rendezvous etc...Atleast go for the audition. You will never get a chance to experience such fear again; and an opportunity to overcome it.
Participate in some highly competitive sports activity: Basketball, Water Polo, Hockey. Try playing rough and soft; for yourself and for your team. Experience how different emotions does each thing arouse in you and others.
Go to Chandni Chowk: Eat chaat, parantha, lassi, sweets and kulfi. (Some of my visits: Chawari Bazzar , Chandani Chowk )
Surprise your parents/close relatives with a surprise visit. Invite them to IIT Delhi; especially during some festival. Introduce your friends to them. Give them a chance to relive their college life.
Treat freshers (and all juniors) with love and respect.
Go and visit the house of all your close friends. Talk to their parents, siblings. Dine with them. It strengthens your bonding.
Blog about your experiences, feelings, ideas: anonymously or otherwise. Express yourself.
Get access to the IRD conference room and sneak through a door to its right. You will find yourself on the unexplored Insti Roof of IIT Delhi. Don't get caught.
Do a fascinating project. Something you always dreamed of doing since your childhood. Give the project everything. Years will not be able to fade the joy of working on your own ideas. I have heard people who graduated 10-15 years back talk with child-like joy about their college projects.
Visit Delhi University (of course find someone who you can talk to, once there!). Apart from other things, they are awesome in their right brains where we suck, and can teach you a thing or two about arts and literature among others...
Buy a good camera. Develop a good sense of photography. Take a lot of picture of your friends throughout your stay here. Have a friend who can take a lot of equally good pictures of you. But don't get obsessed with it.
Watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Talk to Juniors. See where IIT Delhi's future is going. Relive your past.
Devote yourself to at least one organization within IIT Delhi. (For me it was Technocracy)
Get out of your comfort zone: visit slums in Delhi. Work with an NGO/NPO.
Write an anonymous letters to a professor in the middle of a course: Critically comment on his/her teaching methods and how can they be improved. Note the professor's reaction in the classes onwards. If there is no difference write another letter.
Go to India Gate with your guitar (or someone who can play guitar well) and your friends. Sing songs till wee hours.
Talk to people about their dreams. Things they are really passionate about. Discuss with them things which you are really passionate about.
See people getting wasted. Make a complete fool of yourself: once.
Try penning down a paper. It needn't be a core technology paper. It can be something on Environment, Literature, state of education in India...Just try to write an essay at some competition...especially about something you like doing. It makes you introspect a lot.
Put a night out at Wind-T when the weather is nice and breezy. Spend it reading a book you like.
Write examination for someone else. Don't dare get caught.
India is a very diverse country. Your peers are the best people who can educate you about real India. Talk to them about it. Ask them to tell about their city. Discuss the problems you think India is facing and it's solutions. Discuss each others religious believes. Try to understand others religion.
Don't get ill. The simple way of doing it is: Get regular sleep. Eat proper food. Exercise. I didn't do either in my 1st year. I was constantly ill. After I started doing all of these things: I haven't been ill even once from last 3 years.
For once in a while, do what other tell you to do. Let them decide. Let them lead. Enjoy the joy of having no responsibilities.
Develop a habit of questioning. Try to find how can you do it in a polite way so that you don't put people on their defensive. We Indians, as a culture, ask very little. Change that.
Talk to kids who are yet in their school. Visit your school sometimes. Talk to principal. Don't worry - you will always be treated very highly. It will bring back all the fond school memories.
Don't do all spartan stuff. Do things in group. Even when you watch movie or TV try to do it in a group. You will anyways watch movies alone for the rest of your life.
Do some part time job. Don't do something boring on computers. Go out and do some intern/teaching/journalism/marketing etc. Do something where you will meet a lot of new people completely different from what you get to meet here. Don't make this work your priority. Just try it for 1-2 months. Don't do it without good pay.
Play kho-kho near WindT. And also all those childhood games: Vish-Amrit, Unch-Neech, Tipi Tipi Top, Chain Chain, Sitolia etc.
Try appreciating things. It's hard to do that. Give people credit for what they are doing. They will do better. If you feel things are not upto mark - give them suggestions; don't criticize them.
Carve out time for yourself each day. Think about your goals, priorities, mistakes etc.
Hunt for home food. Day scholars make excellent preys.
Decide a date when all of your closest friends will meet, once a year, on a vacation trip. This is something you should do on the last day, the day when you are leaving IIT Delhi. For ever. (We have gone to several places, some of them being: Laddakh, Har ki Dun & Dodital)

These 4/5 years are never going to return. Ever. You will never be a free bird again. Enjoy your freedom. Responsibly. And do something that justifies your belonging to this institute. To the least, become a good human and a good citizen.

Dream. Dare. Do.
Also 50 things to do at MITPS: Janta - you are welcome to extend the list. To agree, to disagree with the things said. I hope several things written here go beyond IITD and apply to college life everywhere...
~~~~~~~~~~
Later Additions based on suggestions from people:

Have a "pen" friend in a far away IIT to be able to understand a different perspective, to be able to tell things the way you want to (Surbhi, IITM)
Have a "pen" friend from far-far away world
Help someone in dire need, may not be a friend. you'll feel good about it... and there will be someone who'll remember you forever... (Naman, IITM)
Go and ring the bell at the top.....the one that tolls only at graduation.....and yes - don't dare get caught :D (Anshul, IITD)
Savor the food of Sassi and Tankush. Chances are that you will get ill but past experiences say that you will not. So do it (Abhishek, IITD)
Somehow sneak (possibly with your girlfriend!) to Bharti Roof. Watch the sunrise/sunset Anonymous
Meet a really special girl at your social. Have a great time. Let her go. (dunno if let her go = ditch her!) Anonymous

Let there be Tranparency

2010-05-02T21:29:00.000+05:30

"Yaar, there is too much work as of now..."
"Why - I guess all the competitions have ended?"
"Yes, but trophies still need to be decided"
"But the competitions have ended"
"Yes, but trophies aren't yet decided"
"That doesn't make sense"
" :) "

- Week1, March 2010

The institute night (called BHM) is approaching and winners are to be awarded. But it isn't yet decided who are going to be winners! Next 2 weeks are going to be devoted to intense round of negotiations to decide winners. Winning competitions round the year is not sufficient. You need to master politics! Ah, my IIT Delhi.

Those who get trophies during the negotiation are happy. Those who don't - think that they will negotiate better the next time. Everyone cribs about the system. Anyone has the power to change the system. No one does. The system continues. Ah, my powerless IIT Delhi.

Let me clarify the point once more: Passion oozes from people when they are competing. And winning definitely plays the major role in deciding the winners. But that's not all. This last line is what bothers me a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Today is the last date of submission. And every day you get late in submitting your term paper will see that 5 marks are deducted from your total marks"

"Attendance if for 10 marks"

"How did you present in the presentation was immaterial. How much of theory did you put in was important. That's how I am marking you"

- All dialogues belong to nearly last week of the semester and were never recited even ONCE during the whole semester

Professors are equally messed up in deciding clear policies. If they are first timers, I guess that's understandable. But when you have been teaching for x years: you are expected to know that students loose track of their priorities.

Students must attend all classes. O'course. Students must submit assignment before the last date. O'course. But why make all the reward and punishment rules on the last day itself. If such is the case what then gives teachers the authority to say that students do all the work at last minute!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing that dearly impressed me about TOYOTA was one of its management principles which said:

Use Visual Control so no problems are hidden

So tell me. Why can't each board and each course maintain an excel sheet which is updated every week?

Suppose you were to present your term paper on 2nd February. You didn't. Your marks on excel sheet show that you've got a zero. It's non-negotiable. Do you think that remaining people in the class would give their presentations on time?

Suppose attendance is daily updated. And so are the marks associated with it. I can just SEE my status. I don't have to keep running to the prof to keep asking him. It makes life easy for everyone.

Suppose you win an event in dance. Your hostel points shoot up. Suppose you have x articles accepted for publication in BSP. Your hostel get points accordingly. Immediately. The excel sheet shows that. The whole institute can see that. When the year will end all you would need to do is to sum up the points and see which hostel has most of them. No negotiations. No politics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gist of entire thing is this: When you use visible tools to express and monitor day to day performance of individual/hostel: all the problems will surface at once.

The main reason people don't do it is either because

They can't decide in advance what rules to make. They just aren't gifted enough.
They want to remain powerful by having the negotiating powers. They want to favor friends. They want people to come to them and beg.

Remember days when we used to prepare for JEE: wasn't test rank and instant feedback on our performance useful? Didn't it motivate us to take correcting steps?

In the beginning there will be clashes. There will be a certain level of inconvenience. An unsettling feeling. But this happens with every change. However, over a period of time things will smoothen out; people will being to respect the system and everyone will be able to divert their energy to better cause. Or probably to just enjoy, get time to chill out: to study.

Let there be Transparency

The Story of Delhi Autowallah(s)

2010-04-30T18:38:00.000+05:30

After having been verbally lynched about his lack of knowledge about cars; desperately hoping to prove that he was not a pseudo car-fanatic; and that all his talks about being fascinated by cars were not farce, S sees a car from the auto we were traveling in and said,

"This is quite a costly car"

The Autowallah (autodriver) who was silently driving the auto until then decided to join in the verbal-lynching of S, and asked innocently,

"How much does it cost, bhaiya?"

S: "f-o-u-r-t-e-e-n Lakh!"
AW: "Only 14 Lakh. My auto is worth 4.5 Lakh"

However, as we implored deeper we found some rather sad truths about the story, as according to the Autowallah...

Government commissioned autos are worth 1.4 Lakh. But you never get them.
Government commissioned loan for buying auto is given at 8-9% pa. But you never get it. So our AW had taken a loan from private firm at 17% pa.

Given the fact that our Autowallah, Pradeep wasn't a dumba** (he is doing his BA from IGNOU) I guess there is some truth to the whole story.

Soon, we switched back to lighter conversation. He tells us that he is just 25 years old, and the oldest member in his village of 1000 families yet to be married. And he is no hurry.

"The problem is that I will have to get married with someone from my village itself. Add to that the fact that I will have no choice in deciding my bride. My mother and father will decide this. And they will look only at the money..."

We all sighed at this. However, oblivious of this he continued

"Now the problem with that is: A girl who brings in a lot of money also brings a lot of pride with her, she will not be willing to learn anything easily. Like if she is uneducated and I want to teach her, she wouldn't listen to me..."

Pradeep continued to tell us several other things about his life and village while I drifed back to my conversations with several other autowallahs over a past few weeks

One was from Bihar. His family was in Bihar. He was a school dropout. Currently he earns about Rs. 500-600 each day of which he has to pay 300 to the auto owner, commonly referred to as Malik.

I forget the origin of the other guy, but he works as a shoe salesman in a lady's shoe shop during the day time; and as an autowallah during the morning and evening. He sincerely hopes that his break-back hard work will lead him somewhere in life.

The third autowallah told me a lot about how he was thinking about getting married so that he had someone who can cook for him. Currently he plies an auto the whole day; and eats in one of the countless roadside dhabas. However, he was worried about the fact that where would he keep his wife. He has no money to rent home!

While I was racking my brain remembering the names of all these 3 people, and getting into the guilt-mire on not remembering them; I suddenly remembered what one AW said to me, while he took me from HZM to IIT Delhi; after I asked him (particularly born out of his non-haggling behavior):

"I see you are different from others bhaiya, how are you so smiling and happy?"
"What's there in life but to be happy"

We are at our destination, DPS RKP School, and I hear the autowallah say,

"If this government could have done something for a man like me, I would have been happy"

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 3

2010-04-27T13:46:00.002+05:30

Last in the series: A few memorable quotes, which you can read again and again; and again and again they make you think!

You do not truly know someone until you fight them
- Seraph

Choice, the problem is choice.
- Neo

It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity
- Merovingian

Seraph: Did you always know?
The Oracle: Oh, no. No, I didn't. But I believed... I believed.

Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without
- Merovingian

Humph. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.
- The Architect

One way or the other the war is going to end
- Oracle

Other parts:

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 1

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 2

The India Gate

2010-04-25T19:24:00.000+05:30

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

Well there is nothing more monumental than the 'ol India Gate. But going to India gate at 3:30 in the night has a completely different aura to it.

To start with, there are no ice cream wallas, no bhel puri wallas, no families, no honkering cars, no toy sellers and so on: there is no one. For a moment after you first step outside your car and reach India Gate, you don't feel like it's India Gate anymore. But soon after you start loving the feeling of ownership of the place...

Next, there are barricades guarded by armymen. However, they do not stop you from crossing them. I guess asking for their permission is always a better option.

Lastly, the India Gate is unlit, unlike in the evening when it is bathed in blazing lights. And, believe me, the serenity is engulfing...

Invictus

2010-04-20T21:38:00.000+05:30

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

Kumaon Times

2010-04-18T21:15:00.001+05:30

Published the following article in Kumaon Times on the occasion of my farewell!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saying Goodbye and Everything Else

As far as I recall, Arya was the first person I met after reaching Kumaon Hostel on 27^th July 2006. He had taken up the responsibility of showing us our rooms. My father thought he, my seniors, was going to be a beacon light in my life; I thought he, my senior, was going to be a ragging nightmare in my life. No awards for guessing who was right!

I enter my empty, dusty room. Of all things they had brought along – my parents forgot to bring broom. Rohit, gave away his broom after much ado (and a scary – give it back warning). After having cleaned up the room, and having jumped with joy on seeing Sankalp (finally – I had found someone from my Bansal days) I welcome my roommate – Nikhil. O the first sight of him never warned me that he would be the dirtiest creature on earth. His socks used to stink the whole day; he slept over his books and clothes and the cough syrup bottle he spilled on his study table wasn’t cleaned until it got dried and was scrapped off, gram by gram, by the blowing winds.

We used to get up at morning 5, were made to run till 7 by our seniors, eat breakfast – run for PHP lab and other crappy stuff only to return late in the evening, get ragged till midnight and then gossip away till wee hours. And soon after that we were swept away by Kumaon fervor. Some people were cleaning fans, some were hiding in the rooms of their seniors, some got influenced by Puneet’s speech and started playing hockey, some were busy sneaking out of the hostel by throwing their bags from balcony, some people asked other to lock them up, while some people mistakenly locked their rommies, some got influenced by the to-be IIMA guy and tried shouting Jai Kumaon just like him – In all this, I was busy acting. Time passed – grades came. There was a lull after the storm. And then things started all over again.

Suddenly one fine morning we walked out and some skinny guy called Dhanda was pole dancing. I realized-we had become 2^nd yearites! I don’t remember anything from the year except AOE, Swimming, Apping and R2, oh and o’course the mess-became-good for a change fiasco!

Come 3^rd year and we were made the mentors. Some mentors had to paint their faces black; some were already black.

Oh and then the wretched final year which was mostly hazy: Drugs, Booze and Nights Out: either devoted to Dota or to Series or to BTP – there was hardly anything else which people did!

As the days of solitude draw near I have started looking at thing from a different viewpoint. Some things haven’t changed even a tardy bit: Nanda’s “Tu…Kat” and a long distance high handed “Hiiii” is still as charming as it used to be in the first year; Chachha‘s philosophies are as intact and his room as clean as they used to be in his first year; Ghoda is as beauty conscious as he used to be in his first year and so on. But some things have: for a change some guys names after a school have become exceedingly foul-mouthed people and have got a bandi. A Chennai born, Maharashtra-living Gujrati, studying in Delhi is going to Calcutta. A high-school stud re-found his studness by taming an animal. Some Gaziabadians deflated, some Delhites inflated, some people from East-India started giving hugs to random firangs sitting in parks, some bihari proved to be worth a dime as he entered some gate and so on…

Ah, it feels so :( when you think you will not be living with such people anymore. Sometimes it feels like I will never experience a change as monumental as this or, will I?

Dosvidania and everything else (hugs, kisses, shoves, nudges…)

Nishant Ranka

Discovering Delhi Food - Lajpat Nagar

2010-04-15T18:44:00.000+05:30

Our funda of eating is fairly simple: The food should be good, the prices should be low and if possible, the place should be not one of those famous places (like Haldirams etc) :D

Jatin and Meenakshi found just the perfect place for us. You can call it something like a dhaba. It is in the O block of Lajpat Nagar Main Market.

View LN in a larger map

The Cottage Cheese dishes are just awesome. 60 Rs/- for half plate Kadhai Paneer; which is nearly equivalent to full plate of any other restaurant. Paneer (Cottage Cheese) is like the staple food of Delhi people, but still I must say the thing I found there was way better than anyplace else in Delhi.

Then o'course you can go to the main market of Lajpat Nagar and drink Slush at Golden Fiesta. A glass for Rs 20/-; the flavored ice just melts in your mouth :) I liked the Mango flavor - In my opinion a must try thing :)

Other things:

Chandani Chowk Trips (Simply the most awesome place for any gourmet to explore in Delhi)

http://sites.google.com/site/hiddengetaways/Home/the-spicy-trail

http://nishantranka.blogspot.com/2009/12/spicy-trail.html

The New Look Blogger

2010-04-14T00:04:00.000+05:30

Just go to http://draft.blogger.com/home

And then Click on Layout

And then on Template Designer

This thing is really cool. You can play around with background images, sizes ed infinitum

Also explore editing the blog in this new look blogger. Uploading images is like really awesome :)

Blogger has become like Wordpress...

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 2

2010-04-11T15:52:00.001+05:30

Before we begin - a classic example of rhetoric:

Roland: I thought we just saved the dock.

Lock: EMP knocked out every piece of hardware, and every APU. If I were the machines, I'd send every sentinel I had over here right now. "Saved the dock" Captain?, you just handed it to them on a silver platter!

- Matrix Revolutions

Who are Agents - Who is Agent Smith?

Though we never get a feel of this, Agents are actually there to protect Matrix. I guess this is because we naturally watch the movie from the perspective of humans!

In actuality, Agents are like antivirus programs, protecting the Matrix from Zionites and people who understand that the Matrix is a fake (ref: post 1). Apart from killing the Zionites they also have an important task to find and destroy the programs in Matrix which are no longer useful...

Agents are like super-stud programs: they can move really fast, and can copy themselves on any normal human/program in the Matrix; but are under controls of machines (remember the ear-plugs they wore!). It's literally impossible to destroy them because they can always copy themselves.

However, at the end of 1st movie when Neo realizes that he's The One and dismantles Agent Smith; Agent Smith somehow (I still haven't understood - how? Help needed!) is freed from the control of machines. Smith also gets the ability to copy himself onto literally anyone (including Zionites), through direct physical contact. He thus becomes a virus. By the end of 3rd movie, he copies himself on everyone in the Matrix world - humans and non-humans (including Oracle!)

After he's unplugged his power keeps growing in direct proportion to Neo. Simply put, if Neo's matter then Smith is the antimatter. Together, they balance the equation; and eventually they annihilate each other!

Who is Merovingian?

Merovingian is a program who keeps a track of all the programs running in the Matrix. You can loosely treat him as the windows task manager but o'course with a lot more powers.

"What do all men with power want? More power."

- Oracle, Matrix Reloaded (about Merovingian)

How programs work?

It must be understood that programs are programmed to do things in order to make Matrix as real as possible. For e.g. Merovingian's wife is programmed to crave love which she never gets. However, programs know the word, not the associated emotion: emotions are for humans to know. For e.g. Rama asks Neo that since he loves Trinity - what would he do to save her? Neo says, "anything". Rama says that I too would do just anything to save my daughter Sati from deletion (but because he's programmed to love which tells him that a father should do anything possible to save her daughter from being killed - not because he can feel love!)

Now then, how it all ends?

After The One reaches the Architect, he is given a choice to either return back to the source code; after which he can choose 23 people from the current Zion and rebuild it - or return back to the Matrix which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the entire humanity (as machines will destroy Zion!).

Architect tells Neo that Trinity is going to die irrespective of what Neo does.
Neo says that the machines can't destroy humans because they need them to generate power.

"There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world."

- The Architect, Matrix Reloaded

All previous 5 versions of The One return back to the source code, but this time Neo makes an exception. Love! Neo, using his superhuman powers, saves Trinity.

The events now reach a cataclysmic point as the Machines penetrate Zion intending to completely destroy it. In the Matrix world, agent Smith frees himself from the control of machines and learns the ability to not only copy himself on anyone present in Matrix, but also to source himself in the humans.

With things reaching their ultimate end, Neo goes to the Machine world to negotiate. In my view, this negotiating process has to be one of the inconceivable yet one of the most humane thing shown in the movie.

"The program Smith has grown beyond your control. Soon he will spread through this city, as he spread through the matrix. You cannot stop him. But I can."

- Neo, Matrix Revolutions Machines agree, and in the ultimate fight -

Neo destroys Smith; and is himself killed. Then there is peace.

The trick was that Oracle allowed Smith to copy himself on her. Then she tricks Smith, giving him false vision that Neo will die on that rock (ref: pic); but when Neo gets up Smith becomes all worked up because he thought Neo was meant to die. Add to this the fact that Smith calls Neo, Neo (he has always called Neo, Mr. Anderson!)

"Wait. I've seen this. I stand here, right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say, 'Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo.' " [pause] "What? What did I just say?"

- Agent Smith, Matrix Revolutions

Now I am a little confused how it eventually ends. Smith copies himself on to the Neo, but machines give Neo some kind of super charge which kills him. As a result of which Smith dies. My guess is that once Smith copied himself onto Neo - machines again had the access to the source code of Smith, and thus they deleted it. At the very end the Architect agrees that he will give allow those who want to get out of Matrix - to get out of it.

I would end by quoting my favorite lines from the entire movie:

"...the temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?"

- Smith, Matrix Revolutions

"Because I choose to"

- Neo, Matrix Revolutions

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 1

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 3

Childhood Confusion

2010-04-08T02:21:00.000+05:30

While I am compiling my thoughts on the 2nd Matrix post, a little unresolved confusion from my childhood days:

My sister always used to sing to me:

"सोजा बबुआ मानो बिल्ली आई है"

And it always used to confuse me: Is Mano - like the Hindi mano - which means 'assume' or is it a proper name referring to a cat called 'Mano'?

I know, it's a trivial thing but what I was wondering at was that fact that amazingly how great such trivialities used to sound during our childhood, amazingly how is that we remember all such trivial details from our childhood, and amazingly how it was when during our childhood - our life was nothing but a mass of trivialities...

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 1

2010-04-04T19:45:00.001+05:30

I am writing this post assuming that you must have seen, or atleast heard about the trilogy of the Matrix Movies. I have been thinking about these movies a lot lately; and have finally understood the central thought behind all these movies (thanks to Kinari, Fote and Wikipedia) I must say - some really cool thinking by Wachowski Brothers. Must See Trilogy. Must Read Post.

Man and Machines: Purpose of Life (Ref: Animatrix)

Man created machines. Machines used to work for man, until one day when a cleaning machine transcended the boundary between man and machine; when the thought, "what is the purpose of my life?" flashed across the machines mind.

"In the beginning, there was man. And for a time, it was good. But humanity's so-called civil societies soon fell victim to vanity and corruption. Then man made the machine in his own likeness. Thus did man become the architect of his own demise."

- Animatrix Narrator, Renaissance Part 1

This led to a revolution. Machines overpowered man and killed their entire species except for those few who crept in the Earth's crust and formed Zion! Now, machines used to derive their entire power from the Sun.

So the clever thing the dying man species did was to block the entire sky. The clever thing machine did was to identify that humans produce energy when their mind is stimulated. So the machines captured all the humans who were alive; and plugged them into a virtual reality - to derive power from the human thought.

What is Matrix?

Matrix is this virtual reality world. Everything in Matrix is either a program or a plugged-in human. Matrix was created by machines to derive power from the human thought. It is a mathematically perfect world, and was created by the program called the Architect.

There are several bugs in Matrix, especially in relation to the presence of humans. Some humans somehow gain the sudden understanding that Matrix cannot be real during moments when these humans would exceed their humane limits. For e.g. a fast runner breaks the world record by completing 100m race in 8.7 seconds; which is when he suddenly understands that this cannot be real (shown in Animatrix). Such individuals are released from Matrix and are rescued by Morpheus.

Who is The One?

All the collected anomalies of humans are accumulated in the form of The One who traces his way through the Matrix to finally meet the architect and return to the source code. Thus it is like a feedback loop, which helps architect improve the Matrix.

"Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which, despite my sincerest efforts, I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control, which has led you, inexorably, here."

- The Architect to Neo, Matrix Reloaded

This function of The One comes to us as a rude shock, because we treat him as the hero all the along 1st and 2nd movie. It is only after this dialogue, that The One really becomes an hero: when he makes a choice which his predecessors had never made...to save Trinity. Love!

Who is The Oracle?

The movie starts with the 6th version of Matrix. The Architect was quite frustrated by his 1st 2 attempts; but then he realized that to control humans in this virtual reality world, he needs something less mathematically perfect and more emotional...

"The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother."

- The Architect, Matrix Reloaded

Morpheus always believed in Oracle. She thought that what she said was true. It brings great pain to him when he learns that Oracle was nothing but a way to lead The One to the Architect, and finally restart the Matrix, he says:

"I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me."

The actual role of the Oracle is revealed only at the end of the movie; which is to unbalance the equation of Matrix, and that she is favored towards the side of humans. Both Architect and Oracle are super-intelligent program who can decide what to do - themselves!

~~~~~~

Now, I'm yet to deal with the following things; but assuming you're already bored to death reading such a looooong post - I am giving it a rest. Will write more on these topics, if in case you want me to, in a separate post.

Who are Agents - Who is Agent Smith?

Who is Merovingian?

What is the entire funda about choice?

Now then, how it all ends?

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 2

The Philosophy Behind Matrix - 3

IIM Ahemdabad

2010-04-01T22:00:00.000+05:30

Not me :( - it's Gujju who went all 'suited up' for his 'IIMA' interview :) Gujju is finally going to the Gujju land. Life has come a full circle :) Read the entire interview on his blog (quite interesting)

http://ithinkshuffled.blogspot.com/2010/03/iim-ahmedabad-interview.html

Larger Scheme of Things

2010-03-31T00:44:00.000+05:30

Global warming has been shrugged off, quite conveniently. Even if Kyoto was of some consequence; Copenhagen was a total disaster (except o'course the fact that world excepted global warming IS a problem).

95% of Brinjal production in India goes waste. Total agricultural waste is nearly 30% of the produce. Can you imagine the price difference if this had not been the case...

Nearly 1,00,000 farmers have committed suicide. Newspaper column size for murder/death/suicide of an IITian == that for 100 farmers.

Nearly 770 million Indians live below Rs. 20/- per day. 330 million of these people live below Rs 12/- per day.

China holds more than $2000 billion of foreign exchange reserves. India's GDP is nearly $1300 billion.

There is no freedom of press in China. Only bulletin published is that by the government...

Monsanto Seeds. Watch the documentary called 'The world according to Monsanto'. It will scare you to bones. A company which is literally ruining our already ruined farmers through its patented seeds and super-harmful herbicides...

Recently Right to Education bill was passed. Currently there is a shortage of about 20 lakh teachers in India. Education bill would be but a false promise if something is not done in this regard...

IITians are probably THE most educated of the Indians. Several IITians daily brush their teeth, shave their coarse hair, wash their faces etc...with the taps open at full force (I've seen this countless times). Didn't we all grew up watching the DD1 commercial about not wasting water? Plus don't we all believe that the solution to lack of civic sense in Indians is better education? Is there an irony?

This is just for the starters...someone with more knowledge can go on and on and on...there are o'course positives: Current Government is doing quite well, the new rashan policy, if implemented, will bring great relief to the common man and so on...

Sometimes it feels like India really needs us...sometimes it feels like that we have a sense of responsibility which we conveniently ignore; entangled in the myriads of our own personal life, feeling insecure at each and every moment - and getting cozy with our own state of affairs at other times.

Wasting even a tiny bit of anything should prick our conscience (including the wastage of time...). It doesn't...It should...Shouldn't it?

---

PS: Check the figures. They are approx accurate.

PPS: This post in a summary of a late night discussion among Ankit, Kinari and I...

Crystal Priya: It's the time to Disco

2010-03-26T19:16:00.000+05:30

Well, as it was just a few days to go before we all part our ways and waving each other, through misty eyes and shaking hands, say dosvidania; it was a great idea to have a batch treat, where people can come and dance together and with a final hug permanently cement their bonds of friendship for ever and ever.

There were discussions on batch treat from I-don't -remember-when but somehow something kept cropping up and the treat couldn't be finalized. Even the batch which proudly claimed itself to be the most united one couldn't come to agree on terms which were appealing to all.

I dared to say the 'most united' thing because I feel that somehow even with all our differences we respect each others opinion. Each batch has a google group, and each group goes through the same cycle of great chaos when some people post things which everyone else finds unsuitable for the purpose of the group or for that matter some people make it a habit to use the group as a medium to publicly malign and disparage people, institute and humanity in general. Our group too went through a similar cycle and at one point of time it had to be moderated, which aroused great sentiments and people united and fought against it - and for the right to say what they want to say. There was a great jubilation when the moderation was finally called off, but as according to me what followed this was something extraordinary: people started acting responsibly by self moderating the content they posted on the group, which according to me is an extremely difficult stage to reach for any given group of people...

But coming back to the point - the treat was in jeopardy and it is in such testing time that you need a champion who can galvanize people into action. I remember Director Sir once saying, "There is no cause without a champion - for every cause there has to be a champion". In our case it was was Shekhu who went from hostel to hostel - room to room; convincing people to come. And lo! they did come.

What followed was THE VERY BEST PARTY I've ever been to in my life. We danced for over 4 hours NON STOP. There is a great advantage in dancing with people who don't know how to dance but still have an enormous energy bubbling in their bodies, a shine in their eyes and an urge to dance their way through the night because then you feel a part of the group. You can dance even when someone is watching. The food at Crystal was great and I must recommend that place to anyone who would like to have a grand party. The Dj was super cool and the night ended with the song, "Yaroon, dostiiihiiiii badi hi haseen hai..." as we all sat down in a large circle, hands on each others shoulders,swaying with the music...

Listen to it one time; and as the DJ said, "feel the song..."

Click to hear music file

Or watch it here...

Projects through Industry Academia Interaction

2010-03-24T15:53:00.000+05:30

Who is organizing it?
FITT, IIT Delhi
IRD, IIT Delhi

Facilitated by Technocracy, IIT Delhi

When?
3rd April 2010 (Saturday)
10 AM - 3 PM
Departmental Committee Rooms (exact schedule to be uploaded soon)

What is Industry Academia Interaction?
IAI'10 is a platform to promote and coordinate research and development by students through student-industry interaction. It will provide opportunities to students to work upon diverse areas of business, technology and existing industrial and national problems as well as pursue their own ideas so as to become innovators.

Students - Who should attend?

All students who are interested in taking up their projects during the summers. The projects can be of following nature:

1. MTP & BTP

2. Summer Project & SURA (with the possibility of being continued as MINI-Ps on mutually agreeable terms)

3. Interns (tentative)

Benefits to Students

1. Doing projects with practical feasibility

2. Possible Stipend

3. Industrial Exposure, Expertise and Guidance

4. Concrete output in a limited time frame
Industries
50 industries have been identified and invited by FITT and IRD, IIT Delhi

Any industries - startups - TBIUs - research labs etc who find the idea interesting enough and want to be a part of this are welcome to drop a mail at either technocracy@student.iitd.ac.in or to Sankalp Dayal (sankalpdayal[at]gmail.com) or o'course to me (nishr88[at]gmail.com)

The benefits of industry are many:

1. Dedicated students from IIT Delhi working on the project for a mutually agreeable period of time
2. Expertise of professors of IIT Delhi
3. Resources of IIT Delhi in terms of its highly advanced labs for testing and developmental purposes

4. The project can act as a precursor to either job or intern
5. Interesting industry problems can be tackled by students with an analytical bent of mind
What will happen on 3rd April 2010?
1. Invited industries would come and discuss the projects they are working on/technical challenges which they are facing

2. Professor would present their expertise area

3. Students Professors and Industries would discuss if the challenge can be converted into project etc over the lunch.

4. Post lunch interested group of students, professors and industry persons would try to chalk out project details and if possible an MOU will be signed about commitments on the project.

Further
Various industries have been invited. Once we get their confirmations the entire schedule will be updated.
Questions? Queries?

Visionary Nostalgia 1

2010-03-20T16:28:00.000+05:30

"Life, usually, does not give me chance to say goodbyeBut now, when it has - I don't know how to say it..."

- Nishant, March 2010

A Trip to Chokhi Dhani

2010-03-15T11:41:00.000+05:30

Speech # 3

I believe each one of you sitting here must have faced, on countless number of occasions, disagreements in group. Be it in your family - discussing on what to have for dinner, or with your team at work place - discussing how to go about a new initiative. And I believe you all being bright shining individuals are thoroughly aware on how to deal with disagreements in group. Therefore what I am going to tell you today is about the problem of agreements in groups. [Long Pause]. Yes, Yes I know - you all must be thinking - "The group is agreeing and this guy standing here is saying that there's a problem in that!"

Ok hear this story - Tejesh (my contemptory), Pooja (junior to me), Aniket (another junior), and I were sitting together playing the game of scrabble. We all were happy to be sitting there - playing the game of scrabble, when out of nowhere I casually suggested that we go to Chokhi Dhani for our lunch. After a brief silence Tejesh said mildly, "Ok". Aniket added, "If you 2 say so" and Pooja said, "Ok".

So we went to Chokhi Dhani. The way was long and filled with cloud of dust. The day was very hot and humid. It was suffocating inside the car and when we finally reached that place - the food turned out to be horrible. [on seeing an expression of disagreement on the face of audience] It is a sad truth that the food of Chokhi Dhani which used to be so good a few years ago had lost its taste. But anyways, as expected everyone was sulky and no one talked to each other on the way back. When we were back in the room - the emotions came out in the open. Fingers were pointed at each other and after a while all the fingers pointed at me. I merely shrugged off my shoulders saying that I had just suggested, I did not force you to go...

Whenever I recall this incident it makes me think - what made the people do this strange thing of suppressing their own voice and simply going along with what everyone else was saying? It seems like a paradox to me. For the time being let's call this the Chokhi Dhani paradox.

Now you must be thinking that how costly could this Chokhi Dhani paradox could be? At max it can cause another unsatisfactory afternoon meal. [Pause] But I can tell you that it has led to a debacle of atleast $1.6 billion [such wild expressions of surprise was something which I had totally not expected at this point to of time but I carried on...] , it caused the 4th largest IT industry of India to collapse endangering the employment of 53,000 employees. Yes people - I AM talking about Satyam.

Ramlinga Raju, the nizam of Satyam proposed that Satyam should buy 2 other companies run by his family members. Not only the price was stupidly overvalued but also these companies were in the field of real estate - something entirely different from what Satyam does. Such absurdity and no one raised finger! Board of Directors comprising ex-dean of IIT Delhi, dean of IIMB, professors from Harvard etc, all - ALL just AGREED!

Why? Why?

This thing - when people go against their own intuition and agree with what everyone else in the group is saying, is a classical management philosophy called The Abilene Paradox. Everyone in the group is vary that on disagreeing they would have to face the heat, would be given a cold shoulder, would be blamed for causing the deal to fall apart and thus they are reluctant to voice what they think is the minority opinion.

[on seeing that there was a person waiting outside to come in] Would you all agree that I should end my speech here and let the gentleman in? [Some people got confused - some people clasped their hands together in preparation for a speech ending clap...]. NO! You should not [Loud Laughs] - you should ask, "has this guy completed with his speech - has he told us everything we need to know" No. I have told you the paradox but haven't told you - how to resolve it!

And the answer is: question! Critically question whatever is being said to you. Critically question whatever you are being asked to agree upon. But questioning will not lead you anywhere coz if not done properly it can be seen as criticism or disagreement. Thus what becomes more important is communication. If our communication with our fellow mates are strong and open - we will not agree on seemingly stupid ideas just to please each other. And now I feel that I can hence leave you with this thought that better communication could save you $1.6 billion!

-----

Idea Courtesy:

The Professional, Subrato Bagchi
Abilene Paradox was Introduced by Prof. Jeery. B. Harvey. More on Wiki

Tom Alter Maulana Azad

2010-03-12T12:33:00.001+05:30

Photo Courtesy: The Hindu

2 hours and 30 minutes. Can you imagine listening to a person for 2 hours and 30 minutes. 1 person. That too when he's not talking to you. Not only he's not talking to you - he was not even looking at you during the entire 2 hours and 30 minutes. And add to all this the fact that he's speaking in Urdu - on Indian History. How boring! How impossible to sit there for 2 hours and...

But hear this - Nearing the end I was sitting with my mouth open for atleast 15 minutes when the man was talking about Indian Partition. If there is one word I were to ascribe for this play it would rather be - spellbinding.

The play was called - Maulana Azad and a few things which made it spellbinding were:

Tom Alter

Remember a British man who used play all firang roles in the erstwhile TV shows? Remember Junoon?
junoon
kisi ko mohabbat ka hai junoon
kisi ko chahat ka hai junooon
juoon junoon junoon

Anywhoo - what a fine actor he is. His voice - his actions - the voice modulation - the suavaness. I cannot but describe. And his sponties - When in the middle of the play the lights suddenly went out, he quipped

"यह भी जिन्नाह की ही कोई चाल होगी !"

"आज़ादी के बाद भी दिल्ली की बिजली का यह हाल है"
The great thing about these comments was they looked almost as a prepared part of play and totally in context thus leaving the audience all in laughs...

Urdu

What a language - so neat, so respectful, so beautiful. I had never appreciated this language as much as I do now after watching the play...

I admit I was not able to get a word of the purely urdu sentences, phrases and gazals. But I was able to note down a few mixed versions.

" गाँधी जी सियासत के मामलों को मज़हब की ऐनक पहनके नहीं देखते थे"

" आप भी गज़ब करते हैं हुमायूँ - दस्तान ए आज़ादी आज़ाद के मुहं ही लिखने बेठ गए"

Hindi

I had come to believe that I'd almost lost this language. When I was returning from the UK to India I decided to invest the 8-9 hours of flight time in writing a diary entry entirely in Hindi (I did and ended up teaching a little bit to the french girl sitting next to me too!). But again the play brought forward the fond memories of school when I used to enjoy reading the Hindi stories a lot. Just like every other language Hindi has some things, some thoughts, some emotions which could be best felt in Hindi only!

On Gandhi Ji's withdrawl of Non Cooperation movement
"बस पूरी रफ़्तार से चली जा रही है और ड्राईवर ने आनन् फानन में ब्रेक लगा दिए"

" मेरे धुटने क्षल हो गए बैठे बैठे"

After criticizing Nehru in his book (Mulana Azad dedicated this book to Nehru!), he said that on reading this Nehru would say,

" किताब मुझे ही dedicate की और मेरे ही पराक्षय उड़ा डाले"

Humour

The humour was immaculate (as you can already see in the lines above). But there were more of such things:

"हुमायूँ आपकी अंग्रेजी में नेहरु वाली बात नज़र नहीं आती"

"कभी कभी तो ऐसा लगता है पूरी आज़ादी की लड़ाई २ दुबले पतले गुजरातियों के इर्द गिर्द घूमती है"

"में गाँधी जी का कट्टर मानने वाला हूँ - तो आज कल आनाज छोड़ रखा है; कबाब ही खिला दीजिए!"

Research and Practice

This was like the 100+ show of this play. It was first produced in 2002. The lighting, the movement, the dialogues - everything was perfect.

Well let me end by thanking the Dnd Club - IIT Delhi for organizing such an awesome thing. It brought back all those fond memories of my theater days. The good thing about this college is that you get to see such awesome things - just like that. I mean all you are required to do is to go there - sit and watch!

And this line
"I simply loved the lines when he said,

“मौत को किस से रिश्तेदारी है; आज वह, तो कल हमारी है”

What bonds does death have with anyone, today it is his, and tomorrow it shall be mine "
Courtesy inagardencalledlife.blogspot.com

Another nice description of this play at Two Circles

The Hindu Feedback

Events in plenty - waste control not so dandy!

2010-02-20T01:25:00.001+05:30

\m/ Beat This \m/
This weekend in IIT Delhi we've:
EDC E-SummitTons of awesome entrepreneurs pouring in Campus to give fundas; and several innovative events to raise enthu and give a chance to the budding Entrepreneurs
BSA SportechLargest Sports Fest of North India. 200 colleges - 2000 participants; from table tennis to basketball to volleyball - footie, LT, Cric and all those things...
BSP LiteratiIITD's Lit Fest!
EDLC International Parliamentary DebatePeople from all over India come to debate!
BRCA Spic MacayThis hardly needs introduction - Indian Classical Music and Dance comes under the roof of our sem hall - literally!
FAC SemblanceNow even Fine Arts Club have their own fest! Still...
Kumaon MelangeOur hostel fest - yes, I know *hostel* fest but after all it's KUMAON!
Technocracy WorkshopsFinally some flavor of technicality in a technical institution with workshops on MATLAB and Web Development

Now to leave you all in awe was not my purpose. The purpose was an observation - the observation on number of posters on the IITD walls! 10? 100? - Take a wilder guess; 1000 would be a little realistic number! Imagine the total cost of all the flexes (large and small) and A1, A2 and A3 sizes posters combined - my lower estimate is Rs. 100,000/-

*such a waste - such a waste* I thought.

Not that I am against publicizing events; but putting 100 poster in 10m2 of space does not serve any purpose! My belief is that people are intelligent beings and all you need to do is to tell them 'what will they get from such and such event' and they will decide for themselves - and for the lazy ones just put up a single poster which details out all the events!

However having an opinion without acting on it is another waste - so we at Technocracy thought it would be nice to go completely paper free (even otherwise we put only around 100 posters in an year! - seems like such a large no. Right? Wrong, it's the smallest!). And thus we are trying to have everyone on a google group where we would post the relevant Technocracy announcements... let's see if it works!

If you are from IIT Delhi - Join http://groups.google.co.in/group/technocracyiitd

For every1 else out there - Join us

Let's hope that we're able to do that

God has Funny Ways

2010-02-13T23:51:00.000+05:30

We tend to get so caught up in things that many-a-time it looks like there is no way out. We see ourselves spiraling into an infinite myriad of nothingness - and however hard may we try - we cannot see even a faint beacon ray of light...

My Maternal grandmother is nearly 96 years in age. 96 years is, as you all would agree - pretty old! She's seen 5 generations before her eyes. To put in context she's seen her great great grand children! And the hard truth remains that people come and go in this world. The truth is hard because we tend to get attached to people who we love, who we live with; and thus when they go - it becomes hard to come to terms with the truth of life. With her being 96 years of age - she's seen many people go. She's seen many of her loved ones go. But any other day you see her - she's normal. She's lonely - she can hardly move. She is fortunate to have a devoted son and his wife - but still the fact remains that she's alone - there's no one she can talk to, share her feelings with; and there are just too many loved ones who have gone. Then how is that she remains normal?

"Oh well, the answer is simple", said my aunt, "she doesn't remember. She tends to forget all the things which have happened in the last few decades, until she asks for something and has to reminded of it, which is when she turns sad, but then again she forgets - and becomes normal!"

As I kept down my phone, I thought - God sure has His funny ways to make things work!

Foundation Day Speech - II

2010-02-12T00:09:00.001+05:30

I has the honor to deliver this speech before the faculty and students on 27th Jan 2010, the 51st Foundation Day of IIT Delhi.This speech was published in institute magazine here and in Alumni magazine here

Other person who spoke on the day alongside me was Siddharth who too have penned down his speech here (he writes well!)

I also had the honor of giving a similar speech last year on the 50th Foundation day of IIT Delhi which too is available on request :)

Anyways, here's the complete version of this years speech:

Widening Horizons of IIT Delhi

Browsing the hostel notice board, I read the theme for the Foundation Day, “WIDENING HORIZONS of IIT Delhi” and then turned to think a little about it. I turned back to read it once again, but this time it appeared to me as “WIDENING the horizons of IIT Delhi”.

I am Nishant Ranka, a final year student of Electrical Engineering. I welcome you all geniuses and all geniuses who make geniuses to a very warm evening. In the next few minutes, I’ll talk about both the things, i.e. about how IITD is such a dynamic organization – the way it has grown in last 4 years, from a student’s perspective and about how I believe that we can keep this growth fuelled while continually widening its scope.

It’s amazing to see the activities in my IIT – IIT Delhi at a new high. There is a revived enthusiasm in all the boards: for example - whenever there is a major educational event in Delhi – there is a BSW trip going to it, when it’s time for UG registration – AIC steps forward and takes the charge. Library and Reading Room have undergone a major makeover and so have the eating joints. I still remember the days of my first year when the net speed was so slow that seniors would click a link on their computers and talk to us in the meanwhile – compare the speed today! On my very recent visit to the Robotics club I was amazed to see the level of streamlined work – it was so different from my 1st year when the club was new. The club is now an inspiration for the student bodies, just like SPIC MACAY. It is a quintessential example of what we can do with sheer desire to do it. The important take home lesson for me was we can DO. In last one week, I met 4 great personalities – Nicholas Burns, Tom Wheeler, Charles M Vest and Peter Chan – all due to the fantastic initiatives like the Institute Lecture Series, the Bharti Lecture Series and those of our Entrepreneurship Development Cell.

We all invariably fall prey to criticism – don’t we? It’s so easy after all. It’s so easy to criticize that we always forget the hard work done and the several positive changes that have been made. And when I see all these things I realize how much of hard work must have gone into every single thing.

I recently read the Toyota Way – and the book hit me hard. Someone asked me – what did you find so fascinating about the book? I said, “The Toyota Culture”. What makes Toyota the no. 1 manufacturing company, is in my opinion - its culture…And this is what I see happening today – seeding of the IIT Culture of the new decade, of the new century, of the new India. And my dear friends this is what we have to enrich – You and I.

Last month, I was talking with a UK based journalist, and invariably I showed her the microcontroller circuit I had built for my BTP. She looked at it intensely and told me that I could’ve soldered it in a better way. I said er, OK, but if I may ask how you know?” She told that she studied from Oxford where they had several such interest groups, like the embedded interest group where they used to meet up and discuss such things.

Consider for a second – wouldn’t it be great if we would have astronomy, electronics, car designing, aero modeling, high energy physics, Rubik’s Cube and other such clubs in IIT Delhi…so that when a student comes to IIT Delhi – he is not only stupefied by the amazing cultural activities of IIT Delhi, but also get a glimpse of its technical potential. Wouldn’t that be a good way to expand our boundaries?

There is always a great buzz about Jobs. The great Day 1 Job stories do round in every nook and cranny of each and every hostel, and to the least I’ve repeated MY Job story 100 times. But I have never heard any such buzz about the stories of brilliant people who go for their MS and PhDs. Isn’t there a need for some form of information which gives the profile of these several people who have gone for their post graduate education. Wouldn’t that give students a realistic picture from early on – just like we have about the best jobs? Wouldn’t that be a step forward?

These are just 2 ideas, but there are several others as well. However, the important question before us is that how do we make it happen? As you all know, ‘Great ideas which are not implemented are but a waste’...And that brings me back to the point of culture

The initiatives MUST come from the students, because after all…they are the group for which these activities are meant for. Let me go back to my school days – invariably my whole class used to love 2 subjects – History and English. Were these subjects any better than others – No. Then why? We passed the class – and got a new History teacher and slowly History again became boring. Students didn’t love the course – they loved the teacher. And students try to emulate teachers they love. Thus when we talk about the cultural change, I believe that it HAS to come from the students but those with the experience, authority, knowledge and with the bigger picture need to walk hand in hand with the students to change things until this ‘dream culture’ become a part of their DNA.

I would rather say that the mission in front of us is 2 faceted. While on one hand there is a great need to have dedicated teams with focused vision and mission to take the current activities to insurmountable heights, on the other hand we continuously need to be open minded and initiative taking to increase the width of our activities.

And thus there cannot be a better occasion for me to urge you all to continue trying indefatigably, just as you’re doing now – to bring about a lasting cultural change and to broaden the excellence of IIT Delhi in all directions.

A reflection on Life

2010-02-09T15:46:00.000+05:30

Riding those green waves
So High:Touching the Blue sky

Shivering in those dark caves
So dark; black would shy

I love riding those waves;
but I want shore

I hate those black caves;
I want them no more

But they remain; as I do.- 2008

Horn OK Please

2010-02-07T09:41:00.000+05:30

As I descended the stairs to eat my Dinner, I saw a dozen people going out together somewhere. "Where?" I asked out of curiosity. "Horn OK Please". "Oh, wait for me", and spontaneously - I too joined in.

Horn OK Please is a play which is written and directed by Shahrukh (Tarun Singhal, in case you want his real name!) and is being starred in LTG Theatre, Mandi House; on 6th and 7th Feb at 7:30 PM. The play is choreographed by Ashutosh Matela.

To know more about these two guys, I would direct you the 3 page Mint article here . Even though I do not agree with all what Tarun and Matela have to say, the article is interesting.

The play too was! I was amazed to see that Rj, Ruchira, Pandit, Shrutika are such good actors. It rather came as a shock. I see these people daily in my insti; and have seen them in insti plays too; but suddenly seeing them act so well in a pro play left me all in praise.

Danka, as usual rocked; Shahrukh was a little sketchy but probably writing and directing the play were more important responsibilities. I was not able to identify Matela till the very end - he was one of the best actors in the play! Sudeep Mathur was, just like the good old day, handling lights! Other actors were great too, but I do not know them personally.

Vyom was also there, handling backstage. Then I remembered that he was absent in today's morning exam: Intro to Lit. And then I saw our Intro to Lit teacher; Multani sitting and watching the play! Perfect plot!

The play had a lot of dance sequences, all choreographed by Matela. They were great. I liked them. I have not seen many Indian plays, but as I've heard that such sequences are never performed here- I saw them in London Theater though. Adds life to the play!

I believe that Desires Unlimited has a great future, provided they sail through the tough time they are facing at the start - shoestring budget, IITians as main audience, social pressure (with peers earning 20L p.a. you can but guess the magnitude!) and so on. Infact, I wonder how people like Nasruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan and others would have gone through in their theater days...No pain - No gain, I guess!

But there was a great peer support too. People realize that there is atleast one person who is doing what he loves to do! Everyone was there - KGP, Abhiroop, Harry, Ujjawal, JJ, Bidhu and scores of other seniors and contemporaries.

Well, anyways - it was nice to watch a play after a long time. It brought back all the fond memories of watching London Theater, and acting in 5 plays in my 1st year. Shahrukh, Lallan, Danka, Mittal and others were my seniors who introduced me to theater; but unlike them I did not find it as my passion, and I am still searching for one!

PS: Watch the videos by Desires Unlimited here. I simply love Jigar Machis and Chintu Candy! Do watch them, pakka...

Tom Wheeler - Lonely Planet

2010-02-05T17:06:00.000+05:30

Could Tom have been possibly born with an apter surname. Wheeler, people, Wheeler. The man who traveled the world, and made a business out of it: A £50m plus turnover (well, the equations have changed a little after BBC acquired 75% share and economic crisis sprung up, but anyways...)

He was here, in an EDC event and it was fun listening to him. The presentation he gave was the best I have seen till date: It had only photos, and as you've guessed - breathtaking photos...
Some Quotes:

"Language isn't always necessary: when you're in a restaurant you want to eat and someone makes sure that you eat. I've never came out of a restaurant hungry in last 40 years of traveling"

"I love walking - you see the world at the pace god intended us to see"

After the talk was over; I went up and talked to his better half: the women behind the scene - Maureen Wheeler. It was she who wrote all the books while they traveled.

NR: "Why is that you don't put virgin places, the hidden getaways in your book - for e.g. the hidden treks of the Himalayas and so on"

MW: "We cannot. If we write about a place which is not yet fully developed, and 1000s of people reach there after reading it: it would be chaos!"I was enlightened: Lonely Planet Books (and for that matter, Rough Guides etc) literally control the place where the world travels!Of all things - I was fascinated by the idea that there was a Lonely Planet book on Antartica! I so want to go to this place - anybody willin' ?

Their Story: The FoundersMore history: FAQs
Charity: Wheeler Foundation
Trekking in India: Himalayas (courtesy Jatin)

Best of all - their autobiography: 'Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story"

PS: Just for you info - remember the Lonely Planet show we all grew up watching on the Discovery Channel, by Ian Write if you remember the man - The show started with Ian drawing a circle with a stick on beach sands...good old days!

Five Whys

2010-02-02T12:17:00.000+05:30

Making presentation for the UG curriculum review workshop; I asked 5 Whys to find the root cause of a problem.

Aim of IITs: The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947.

PS: Has the Aim of IITs changed after 60 years of independence

Students don't go for higher education/technical jobs

Why?

They don't have a great experience; or find a field which they are interested in during their B.tech/dual degree

Why?

They don't get to do great projects here

Why?

They are not interested in doing great projects because they require hard work and technical knowledge

Why?

They are not motivated to learn the 'technical' stuff

Why?

During their initial 1-2 years, the courses and labs do not motivate them to do something of their own; after which due to increasing pressure of interns/jobs etc; they shift their focus to other activities.

PS: They continue to score good grades, but they are not 'interested' in the courses/their dep: but scoring good grades is prereq for good interns/job/other things....

What's your opinion?

Charles M Vest at IIT Delhi

2010-01-28T12:55:00.000+05:30

Another fantastic person, and another fantastic experience.

Charles M Vest was the President of MIT for over a decade, director of IBM for over a decade and director of DuPont for over a decade, and has led several committees during the Clinton and Bush government.

The topic of his talk: Engineering Education in 21st Century.

China is currently the world's largest producer of Engineering Graduates; India does not come even in the 1st 7. (You can find several such indicators here) However, the good news is, that India is the largest producer of finance graduates; throughput: approx 350,000 per year. Infact, the other day one of our deans jokingly said, "We should rename IITs as the Indian Institute of Banking Technology."

Anywhoo, towards the end he mentioned his MIT learning, which in his opinion could be applied to IITs as well:

"Making universities and engineering schools exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous, demanding and with empowering environment is more important than specifying the ciruculla details"

Hell yeah, I say :)

Also visit Rosseta@Home which is a new vista in science aiming at 'Brain Integration'! It's very interesting. Go find out for yourself...

A Childhood Dream - Fulfilled

2010-01-26T18:57:00.000+05:30

Let me spoil the suspense - the dream was that of attending the Republic Day parade; at the India Gate; and boy it was finally fulfilled - today, on the 60th Republic Day celebrations of India...

I cherished the feeling of standing in attention, saluting my motherland and all those who lay their life defending it, and all those who devote their life in making our motherland more prosperous...

I did love everything else too - the 'showcase' of all the states, the air show, the stunt bikes, the marching bands, the military music bands, the NCC and the likes...but standing in attention, unmoved by the ear deafening noise of the artillery fire; the famous '21 topon ki salami' given to the Supreme Commander of the armed forces - the Indian President, is what I will cherish the most...

The fluttering flag, the foggy morning, the frosty winds and the sound of Jan Gan Man!

Jai Hind.

Peter Chan at IIT Delhi - Bonsai

2010-01-23T10:18:00.001+05:30

Who is Peter Chan? B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kgp; batch - 1958-62. Yes, he is among the first, or as some might say - the purest IITian!

What does he do now? He is a Bonsai Expert! In his own words, 'When I started my bonsai business back in late 80's - I was no. 6th, but now I am no. 1'.This is one of the Bonsais he made, and believe it or not, this bonsai is worth over 30,000 pounds. Keep converting that to Rs, but at any rate you now know how rich he is!

On 19th January 2010, he came to IIT Delhi, and wanted to meet students. Pity, only a handful of our students turned up. However, I knew little of who all were there and who all weren't. I was busy listening and observing...

Picture yourself 72 years in age. How many smiles do you think you will be able to manage in a day? How much enthusiasm would you still carry to learn, to see? How much self satisfied would you be? Boy! You so should have met Peter Chan.

In his presentation (rather conversation) we talked at length about several things. Like, how back in his day there used to be an interview apart from the written test for getting into IITs. How his stint in the Margret Thatcher's government proved to be a vital value add in his life. How can the London Alumni Association help IITs and so on...

After the whole discussion, we went on a short IIT Delhi tour with him. Oh, he's a true IITian I would rather say. How friendly! Infact, he came visiting even our hostel rooms! After meeting him, I realized that there are some things which haven't changed even after 50 years. Like IITians differentiating b/w people who got in through JEE and those who didn't, our star studded language, the innate curiousness and inquisitiveness to see new things, cherish old things and learn more. Well, at the end of the tour, we waited atleast 10 minutes in the sem-hall for inter hostel GD competition to start. He wanted to see it. Alas!

Several people ask him, 'How Bonsai, after engineering?' And he answers, 'Engineering is the training of the mind. The inquisitive nature my IIT education developed in me helped me learn Bonsai all by myself and make my hobby, my business'

Check out: Heron's Bonsai

PS: Bonsai = Aesthetics

PPS: Stories about other people I met during this week to soon follow (Nicholas Burns, Tom Wheeler and Charles M Vest)

History of IIT Delhi

2010-01-21T12:16:00.000+05:30

History of IITD

Recommended Read. Nice account of how IIT Delhi came into being, but I am still curious where did the writer find this all information from?

And just when you are there, you can explore the 'I Love you' too, an article which I wrote long long back...

I Love you

And then when you would have explored these 2 articles, do explore the others. They are great! Looks like BSP IIT Delhi should publicize this site of theirs more!

PS: The sad part is that results from this website are not indexed on Google!