Are IIT toppers models?

IIT-JEE!
For many, it spells terror, anxiety and even the ones who dismiss the competition(because they beat it) rather saying that it was fun or interesting would agree that it did give them goose bumps, at least as the days inched closer.

Today the IIT industry has become a huge investment ground with new coaching academies springing up in every nook and corner. There are areas entirely dedicated to the IIT coaching industry and the whole neighborhood thrives on it. The roads are covered with pamphlets and brochures of various coaching institutes.

It’s almost taken for granted that to get into IIT, you have to have coaching. And in many places (AP being the foremost here), it starts from an early age. Sometime it is even before the kid has reached puberty.

Every year, the IIT-JEE topper becomes a national celebrity. His photo comes on the front page of every news paper. He gives countless interviews to various media agencies. And thus the drama starts.

It’s a known fact that many toppers accept money from institutes that haven’t been affiliated to, just so that they can advertise for them. Now the question that needs to be answered is that is this right? This has been talked about on various blogs. Vivek addresses the problem on his blog.

What he's basically asking is that are JEE toppers models for any academy that can be hired? We might say that it seems ethically wrong. At least that’s what our gut feeling says at first instinct.
But then he also says what about a Dhoni who says that a 7 UP made him the brilliant cricketer that he is now, or Roberto Carlos attributing his football skills to the sports-drink Gatorade?
Aren’t these people lying too? So then why should the education industry be singled out? It’s a business after all. The coaching institutes are factories that need ranks because only then will they get more and more students and there never seems to be a plethora of them for newer buildings (branches) keep springing up.


In JEE
2005 2004 Priya Gupta of Delhi secured AIR 2. She was overwhelmed. Smart she was and had joined FIITJEE, a prestigious IITJEE training institute with branches all over India. However a rival institute in the mean time offered jobs to those teachers at FIITJEE who had trained Ms Gupta. When the results were declared, the rival institute claimed that they too were responsible for her success since those teachers now belong to them.

Are IITJEE toppers models?

The problem here according to me is that, since these IITJEE toppers are normal guys and girls next door, their word is taken more seriously than say a Milind Soman advertising for Nivea cold cream or the sorts.
Also in the case of celebrities like actors and sportsperson, the public has seen them grow from rookies to superstars where as in the case of an IIT topper only the final outcome is presented.
Another problem is after tenth grade the student is rather gullible and well in most cases so are his/her parents and doesn’t know which institution to join, seeing AIR hailing from a particular institution will make him/her want to join it.
Another major reason why it feels wrong is because in the case of a sports-person, celebrity you know that its like a lottery, as in only 15 people make it to the squad, or only 3-4 movies are successful each year, the point I am trying to make is that, whether Sachin drinks Boost to improve his performance or smells Agarwal incense sticks, it doesn’t matter to the common because he doesn’t want to be a cricket. But as opposed to becoming a cricketer or an actor, IIT is very much reachable, with 12000 people being called this year (including all the lists, Ok I've included reservation seats, that’s not the context here).

Do ponder over it…

Life in Metro

I saw Life in a Metro Yesterday.

I had heard from friends who had seen the movie that it was worth watching. But I didn't want to watch it because I was afraid I already knew the plot. I mean come on how hard could it be to guess? The name of the movie is Metro. Obviously the movie had to thrive on sex and more sex. Sex in the elevator, sex in the car, sex on the rooftop and sex with multiple men. And obviously this isn't the exhaustive list.(Thats impossible!). There would have to be a lot of stress, because once you earn so much and don't sleep(sleeping for rest not pleasure, pun NOT intended) work-related mostly and well the stress would lead to huge differences between the couples(mostly married ones) and this would again lead to more stress and they'd find solace in ..well...sex. With another person obviously. Some how Indians never get into drugs. It's either women or Booze(or both). At least that's what they show on the golden screen. Drugs are mostly forbidden territory, a taboo not worth chasing. But drinking bottles of poison, consuming unfathomable number of tablets(they never mention what those are, they are either really small like homeothepic medicene or really large ones, like rat poison) and newly introduced into the list, courtesy of Life in a Metro: Phenyl.
And the movie would also have few item numbers thrown in between(ok so I was wrong about this one) and because the director wouldn't want gay activists butting in, ergo a dash of homosexuality would have to be thrown in albeit it would HAVE to be something like how it was projected in Page 3. You know, being caught in the act, betraying a beautiful innocent girl in the process.(Co-incidentally it happens to be Miss Sen here as well, are they hinting something here?)
As it turned out, the movie was somewhat on those line but the director or rather the script-writer made one thing very clear: YOU CANNOT BE HAPPY IN A CITY.
Well even if you are, its short-lived. Because someone will fall short of breath or semen(though not necessarily in that order). Every two minutes feelings keep developing. And I keep insisting that it's the music that does this is. Its been stereotyped. Make a girl laugh, say something while looking her in the eye(with some really sentimental music playing in the background) and eventually all the moments will flash in her head and she'll leave her current hubby/boyfriend/fuck-buddy and come after you, running(either on a railway platform, road, beach etc).
This is fine.
But then something happens. Its almost as though the script-writer is contradicting his earlier gospel and goes against the stereotype and makes one of the couple accept the truth. Family is important. You can't leave your hubby(even if hes been having the best sex of his life for the last two years and you have been getting NOTHING AT ALL). I guess that's to show that its a man's world and that women have to endure everything(which isn't necessarily true, though as it turns out in most cases they have to).
One of the greatest gifts given to women is their power to weep. Seriously you have to be a real bastard if you don't sympathise with a woman who is crying, and to add to that the background score, its a fool proof combo. For directors, this is a steal if they capitalise on it. So even if a girl knows that she is sleeping with the man who
1. Is married with a kid
2.Is her boss
3.Will give her perks in return
she feels that maybe someday after relentless hours of fucking she'll change his feelings towards her(whore) to something else(love of his life).

The worst part is that she is successful in doing so, but by that time someone else has come into her life because you can only love someone who takes care of you when you being the douche bag that you are drinks a bottle of phenyl because your boss who was initially humping you just to let out his stress won't love you.
So well conscience comes into play and as usual messes everything up.

Also, the director very clearly wanted to show one simple fact. Old people can't have sex. They can sleep in the same bad and even have a live-in relationship but can't fornicate. Nay! That is unthinkable. But that's discrimination don't you think? Everyone around them is getting some and they have to kill the poor old lady(played beautifully by Nafisa Ali) before she gets any with her boyfriend(Dharmender, oh yes it was quite a treat watching him as well. Everytime he's day "I love you" in his "Main tera khoon peejaonga" tone, I just couldnt help sniggering).

Eventually they had to end the movie, so they showed that everyone is happy the way they are, as in the respective people they were with(or without) and that the hulla gulla should stop. It was almost like a stay-order had been passed and no more fooling around was allowed.Otherwise, if the story was to continue, we'd end up having 7 factorial relationships(read elementary permutation and combination on how).

The music was good, really good. They got these bangladeshi and kashmiri dudes to sing. They blended it into the movie by actually casting them as full time singers in the movie. At any given high or low, they'd appear with their band baja(and guitar/banjo) and start singing. Kudos to them!

Partly fictional, partly real

During a conversation:
'I'm going to miss you a lot' said I
'Oh come on, why think about whats going to happen? Besides you can't change it, so might as well get over it' was her retort.
'Was it easy for you to come up with that line?' I asked

She didn't reply.

During another conversation:
'....and well, that's about it. You're leaving tomorrow. It's going to be tough, one whole month.' I said
Here I was pouring out my feelings to her, telling her how much I am going to miss her and she was nonchalant about the whole affair. I felt almost a rage build up inside me and wanted to scream at her face
'How can you be so opaque?' is what I wanted to lash out at her, but somehow refrained from doing so.
And we carried on with our regular conversation and I continued to make her laugh but deep down melancholia was slowly settling in.

The next day, I was all groggy eyed when I logged online and realised that an offline message was waiting for me.

Damn, I’m going to miss talking to you so much. I’m already dreading it. I’m going to miss the way you talk, the analogies you draw, the way you make fun of everything, the way you make me laugh, the way you irritate me, the way you get worried about me…everything.

I just stared at the screen for a few minutes.

All you chai lovers, this is how tea is made! This is a small tea factory called well...The Tea Factory, in Ooty. They took us for a tour arond the factory. So here's the deal:




In the first step, the tea leaves are heated and all the moisture is removed from them. Once dried, they are pulverised and made to dust.
This dust goes on a conveyor belt and is further dried
I guess this just smoothens it and well spreads it evenly and enters the googy.

The googy is a rotating hollow cylinder, entering which the tea gets its granulated shape that we're so used to seeing.
What goes it has to come out.
Here its placed in large trays and raked till the color changes to brown
These are now transfered to the fermentation chamber

After they are fermented, sorting takes place.

And well thats about it.

Looking at the factory, I pondered over how less an initial cost these machines would take and that setting up a tea factory isnt all that difficult. The machines are simple mechanical ones(which I confirmed) and well process as such doesnt require much labour too(unless done on a very large scale). The returns are huge as compared to the low initial investment. But yea, you gotta be next to a tea farm, this tea factory grows its own tea.

When Orkut results in Death

We hear about it so often, yet unless it happens to us, we dont tend to take it seriously. Be it having unprotected sex, drinking water which isnt clean or meeting people after getting to know them from chatrooms/social networking sites.
Its hard to figure out a person's intentions when he is online because he can seem to appear anyone he wants to be.
You can state that your passions are Hiking, Bungee Jumping and Rocket Science and that you've got the perfect figure(despite any of that being true). But the power of an avatar or lack of face to face conversations can also help 'psycho's' hide their identity quite effectively.
Recently a girl and guy got to know each other through Orkut, became really close pals, wrote each other sweet testimonials and the works. The guy was already married. They fell in love and met...

Find out what happened next...

Its quite easy to blame all this on fate and take the easy way out, but come on! Be sensible.
This is the guys profile:
(You can still see the girls testimonial I think)
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=348385650417627297

And this is the girl's:
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=11725203022944506305

A Tout le monde
Be careful on any social networking site or any of the chatrooms. I know it sounds like I am sermonising here, but its been happening to so many people and its so easy to fall in the trap.

You lie so much that you believe yourself

-Metallica

My days in Bangalore have been quite relaxing and I think I have exceeded my sleep quota(if ever there was one) by a massive margin. Finally the D-day has almost arrived and its tomorrow. Sonam, a close pal from BITS has also come to head bang(though I dont kinow how much of that can be done with Steven Tyler singing) with us fellow rockers and spent the entire day with us. A substantial part of it went watching the movie "Shootout at Lokhandwala" and well...what can I say I was impressed.

The movie is from the White Feather production house, which was co-founded by Sanjay Dutt. The movie says that it was based on true rumours and that it was. Closely connected to the Mumbai Blasts and Dawood Ibrahim and other superstar tags, the movie was rather entertaining. Just one thing, there seemed to be no twist in the tale. Its like, fine , agreed, its cool and all, killing dozens of people and wasting excessive amounts of bullets but there is no twist. But my oh my was I excited.

I realised its probably because of the background music.

Damn, they hype it up so much. Everytime, Vivek Oberoi starts smoking a cigerette or pops a cap in someone's head(thats nigger for shooting someone down), this really cool music starts playing in the background, without which the act would seem..quite bland. And then there is this choir that starts giving backing vocals and its like, oh my god, killing people is like so cool, even though you know what they are doing actually happened and its outright illegal and wrong.
The movie quite clearly tells you the repercussions of being an outlaw and more importantly, messing around with higher powers(such as larger dons living in dubai) can really screw matters and end up with you getting killed. You're much better off being a sycophant.
The incidents are apparently mostly real( I verified that by wiki-ing and googleing for over 2-3 hours). The career graph of Maya Dolas, the notorious gangster played by Vivek Oberoi can be plotted and is something like this

Co-incidentally this is also the Stress vs Strain Graph of a untypically brittle material as shown on Wikipedia.
The movie has a nice tempo and there is not a single moment when you feel bored, just that the director has a wonderful way of pissing the audience by sneaking in two item numbers without any meaning and which are totally irrelevant to the plot thus giving the movie its aesthetic value. Also, Tushar Kapoor must be the funniest hit-man ever. The director has really tried to make him look like a macho-man, but has miserably failed much to my amusement.

However, after wiki-ing about the Lokhandwala shootout, I stumbled upon ULHASNAGAR. Its apparently a major gangster town and its sarcastically said(though has known to be true) that there are killings in this town on every tuesday. Surprisingly the literacy rate of this town is 80%(according to the 2001 census), when the national average was only 60%.

Though I've never been hooked onto the technical world and well gadgets werent really my objects of desire, but in the last few weeks, I've frequented the webpages of WIRED.com than ever before.
Was doing some random googling some days back and found this interesting article.

After reading it and a little bit of wiki-ing on comcast, this is what I find out

"Comcast has a policy of terminating broadband customers who allegedly use excessive bandwidth. Comcast has declined to disclose a numerical bandwidth limit, arguing that the limit is variable on a monthly basis and dependent on the capacity of specific cable nodes. Comcast claims this policy only affects users whose bandwidth consumption is among the top one percent of high-speed internet customers."

Top 1%????
Thats top 1% of the second largest ISP in the USA. Though Comcast officials claim thats 0.01%.
And sometimes comcast bills you excessively for porn that you never ordered, there have been instances where people have been billed for nearly 1500$ for porn, sporting the Indian mentality, thats about 75000 rupees, now thats a lotta porn, A LOT! And they give you a bill, where the porn ordered is one after the other within a gap of 5 seconds.

By the way, there have been recent updates on the Comcast Issue that the article above talks about, read it here at
http://comcastissue.blogspot.com/
Its highly amusing.

One look at the consumerist website and you'd get to find out that there are thousands others like Frank and Elizabeth.

Google's cache is just amazing man!
I found a poem, written by moi, which was published in The Hindu during the whole NIE(Newspaper in Education) phase and which I thought had gone astray forever, for I lost the only hard copy that I had(misplaced would be misnomer). Years down the line, I type in my name into the coveted search box(just a regular ego search) and voila! Guess what I find?
A poem written by me when I was in class VIII(always had a little bit of a fascination with roman numerals).

Though the cache can have its repurcussions later on. Imagine blasting someone(boss maybe?) on a personal blog, you know just a regular vent of fury and then later realizing that it was all a big mistake once the head has been cooled. But those words will be etched for the world to see and you cant take them off( Techies, can they?). So think hard before you hit that publish button!

First and foremost let me apologize for the small picture, this is the maximum it would stretch, so for those who dont have a 6/6 or something close, its going to be a struggle.

Right, coming to the point!

INDIA-TODAY has done it again! Time and time it manages to piss people off with its surveys which has the opinions of 400 teachers(atleast it was the last time I checked). Their tiff with BITS hasnt yet been resolved and well their rankings without a doubt are pretty fucked up.

What is surprising is the inclusion of VIT at the number 14th spot, thus making it(as they claim on their website), the best private engineering college in India. Being a Bitsian, I would love to give the VIT publicity dept. a piece of my mind, if the authorities decided to step up to me.

What is also surprising is by how much the Outlook and India Today Survey differ, every year. I remember last year Thapar College(TIET), Patiala crept through every ranking onto a coveted 8-9th position and this year its name hasnt even been mentioned in the top 25. Can a college really fare that badly in just one year? And can VIT which was at 35 something last year become the best Private college of this nation of a billion?

IIIT-A ahead of IIIT-H? Seriously? IT-BHU at 18? And since when was IIIT-A's reputation better than that of DCE or NIT-W and other biggies?

Are the chaps at India Today(and AC Nielson) really putting in effort while coming up with the rankings? Year after year, we see the rankings where the top 5-6 spots are taken by the IITs arranged in a random order, and the other spots keep shuffling like a deck of cards. Its been 5 years and seriously they cannot take the public for granted anymore. Many people tend to swear by the ratings because they feel that since INDIA TODAY is a credible magazine, the rankings will also adhere to those standards. I havnt seen this years Nasscom Survey which appears in the OUTLOOK magazine yet, so I guess the cussing regarding that should take some time.

P.S: If you notice all the categorial ranks you'll see that they form a nice pattern, at least in the case of IIT's and also NIT-T etc.

I have just finshed a mini trip down south.

Actually it wasnt that mini. I made the following observations

Road trips can be a bitch when they span for over a week and your legs start behaving in a funny manner.

Ooty is one dirty town, it should be nicknamed the 'Cradle of Filth', and the place has got a mind of its own. The clouds are supposed to come into our rooms early morning, instead they choose to chill out a few hundred feet above and decide to piss over us, just for the fun of it.

There seems to be a Hutch monopoly in Ooty, trying to find an airtel top-up is about as difficult as finding a Bose product within your budget.

The more greek words in the name of a hotel, the worse it is.

Just because you're late and its been hot all along, you cannot go to a hill station with no warm clothes and say to yourself that 'Aah, its gonna be cool'. You know why? Coz its not gonna be cool, its gonna be COLD. And theres a difference.

Its quite amusing to see foreign tourists stare at a sign board that says : Indians 5 rupees, Others 500 rupees(We accept only cash!).

The trip started from Hyderabad via Vellore and then to Blore. From there we headed towards Mysore and finally to Ooty. We came back from Coonoor via Coimbatore, Salem, Hosur and finally back to Blore City which greeted us with arms wide open, awful downpour and a traffic jam that I'd never forget.

One complete year has come to an end.Well, almost.

My first year away from home. Living on my own. With people I had never met before(umm ok I knew some of them). My first year in BITS has been nothing short of overwhelming. There were times when I was on a high(literally), then there were times of extreme melancholy. But all in all there was no monotony, no boredom. My seniors say its the enthusiasm of the freshies that dies down by the third year because in this little place, there is only so much that you can see. I beg to differ, its about seeing the same thing in different light everyday.
I made some really close friends. I mean the guys who see you in your underwear trotting in the hallway will stick on with you till the every end won't they?
I am in love with the campus. I wont go to the extent of calling it plush, but well its somewhere there. Walking on crisp leaves, finding n+1 gates that lead us outside the campus(some of which were created from mere orifices), giving refuge to dogs(I never would've imagined oing that any where, I'm mongrel phobic), living on fluids and so much more. I've learnt more from the people here than I have from the books. Does that sound like a convenient excuse? Probably.
I have been termed as the "notorious chappal thief" for the obvious reasons. Its a tag I have to live with for the rest of my bitsian life. I have seriously never worn so many different kinds of footwear. One of every hue, one on each leg, each one so different from the other.
I have learnt that breakfast is the best thing BITS can offer in terms of meals from the mess, for thats the ultimate high and nothing can get better than that(I hope you're getting it).
But above all, its the freedom. Freedom is what you make of it. You can either get wasted, or not do something constructive, its all cool. This place lets you be.

The following is a note I found in the corridors of my hostel yesterday night/today morning:




There were talks of Our President APJ Abdul Kalam coming to the campus of BITS Pilani( thats where I reside incase you've forgotten). My sources tell me that he was approached thrice and finally succumbed to our persuasion and is now coming to our campus in less than 3 hours.

The campus has had a almost-massive makeover. The roads have become visibly cleaner, atleast the roads facing the main institute building. The leaves will continue to fall and I have never seen a rake in the campus, maybe they are stored in a secret chamber somewhere deep inside the campus. The graffiti caused by the bird scat will also not cease for we dont control their metabolism and a pigeon/crow genocide will probably have an undesirable effect on the campus I suppose.

There have been marking on the road using fresh white paint, so that the chauffers of his excellency will not get lost in our huge campus, where one can easily lose ones track if one isnt careful enough to follow the huge gigantic signboards which can be found on every corner of the institute.

The rickshaw pullers, the redi wallahs and other members of the working class have been disposed of for the day for we want to present a "hi-tech" image of the institute, which it is ofcourse.

Its not at all strange that out of 6000 odd people around 1200 students have been shortlisted by a highly confidential process which is unknown to many(hence bearing a testimonial to its confidentiality), for there's always a next time.

The clock tower and the roof tops of all bhawans(hostels) are infested with snipers who will hunt you down incase you move an inch faster than the average human response time, for they are extensively trained.

All in all, seems like its going to be a good show.

I recently got to know that Lucknow University(LU) is going to scrap some courses off the list. The reason? Too many students with criminal records are taking up these courses. These include Criminology,Criminal Justice and Social Welfare amongst others. In an effort to cleanse the university of its hooligans, any student who has had a criminal record in the past has been expelled.

Personally I find that extremly amusing.

The college authorities say that political leaders and anti-social chiefs join the college and take up these courses to camouflage their activities to pollute the educational environ by contesting for the Lucknow Univ Students Union(LUSU).

Oriental studies and Linguistics has also been proposed to be scrapped. I want to ask, how is this going to help?

The authorities say that they want to remove all those courses which arent preferred by the "regular " students.

Its bizarre.
Every computer in my hostel is playing just one song. This is the very song that everyone keeps humming while in class, mess or even the bogs(bathroom of graduating students). It is this song that keeps me up all night because someone or the other keeps singing it. And the versions change too, newer lyrics keep getting added to the existing ones, the tune too changes ranging from classical to hip-hop to thrash. High-pitched shrills, baritones and echoes can all be heard from dawn to dusk.
The song? Zombie by the Cranberries.
Okay! Agreed that the song is decent, but the sudden enthusiasm? It was sung by a guy during one of the inter-hostel contests and since then everyone has been going ga-ga over it. Its been circulated to every computer through the LAN. Every comp I see, I notice a media player icon on the desktop with "Zombie" etched on it.

I keep on forgetting that I have a blog and that I am supposed to update it every now and then. That should change I guess.

Weather has been quite unpredictable lately. Just when everyone thought that the few millimetre of rain in pilani's quota got exhausted, we get these bolts of lightning and sandstorms with winds blowing in at high velocities in all directions and the rain spanking the earth. Co-incidentally there the forces of nature have always intervened on the even of all the major exams that we've had so far.
Recently I developed few ulcers in my mouth, I infer that its from the lack of vitamin B complex in the healthy and nutritious diet that is supplied to us here at Vidya Vihar. Its pathetic, really. Can't eat anything spicy or solid. Having been living on curd rice and frooti, Bah! I am sick of it!

And congrats to Martin Scorcese, for finally getting the golden dude with the sword.

Orkut.com

A creation of Mr. Orkut Buyyokoten, a Stanford-ite and an employee of Google, which ensured that the vetti(jobless for those who aren't accustomed to the Bitsian slang) are never left jobless. It's re-united many lost friends, spread the message of many events and also ruined many lives(oh havn't you ever been addicted to it?).

It is supposed to be a forum for healthy interaction. It has all these communities based upon people's interests, which one can join. One can read and contribute(if he has joined) to the topics in each community.

There are all types of communities, and I mean ALL types. You got communites on popular and not-so-popular TV shows, movies, personalities, brands and also stuff like "The Pope should break dance" and "Bitch make me a sandwich" which is about guys telling girls to STFU make them a sandwich".

Coming to these communities. When you join any of these communities on orkut, you are demonstrating your affiliation with them. Rationally speaking, it would be expected that since you've joined these communites you should take part in the proceedings.
Yet we see that people join the communities and remain "dormant" for extended periods of time, sometimes even indefinitely.
Many a times, joining communites becomes an obsession. You just want to join more and more communities. You know you've really lost it when you join the community called "I have joined too many communities" . And then to top it off, you also have the community "Orkut Rehab".

Now for the ultimate question. What goes on in these communities?
One would expect that the community would be brimming with meaningfull discussions on the topics associated with the community. Enthusiastic members chipping in with their valuable opinions on the issues posted in the community forums.
Lets take the example "Gladiator", the community dedicated to the Oscar Winning Ridley Scott beauty. A quick glance at the forum will introduce you to the following topics:
#Give only one word for MAXIMUS
#let us make Gladiator the number one rated movie of all time
#Want to be my friendzzzzz
Out of the 200 topics in the community only 2-3 have received replies in double figures.

In another community "Internet Addicts", one of the posts read "How many hours do you spend on the internet?"
The active members of the community enthusiastically answered in succession
"atmost 2 hrs..Or sometimes 3 to 4 hrs.There was a time when I spend almost 8hrs. continous for 3 days"

"hmm.. so i m really addicted :D
12-16 hrs daily.. :)"

Almost all communities that have a substantial number of people are flooded with irrelevant games. In one of these games the last person to post wins(does that explain the smirk on my face), in others you have to answer a queston with a question. I am not against these games, do what ever you want out of your free will, but keep a separate platform for this will you? I'm sure having posts such as "Will you go out with the person above you?" in a "Aspiring Cricket Writers" community is quite relevant ;)

Also observed is a phenomenon that in every community there are a number of posts in foreign languages such as portuguese and spanish. So in an IIT-JEE aspirants community you find stuff like "FOTOS DO FLAGRA DA CICARELLI NA PRAIA"

To witness this phenomenon just create a community open to all and dont assign any moderators and voila!

I admit that for a while I too was mesmerised by Orkut and in this frenzy joined many communities aimlessly. Before I knew it, there were 356 communities on my profile. I figured out that if I spend a minimum of 2 minutes on every community every week, I'd end up spending 1/30*356, thats nearly 12 hours.
Now out of these 356 I hardly checked out 50-60 communites (even if once in a bluemoon) and actively participated in less than 15.

It is also observed that regardless of the number of people that are in a community, the active population is limited to a very small fraction. The vast majority(like me), just join the community and then forget about it. And this vast majority makes up those huge 6 digit numbers.

I am right now in the process of un-joining all those communities(about 98% of the origianl number), though I must admit its going to take a long time.

-Rishabh Kaul

I am suffering from what most of you refer to as a writer’s block. The earlier sentence was thus framed because I have never suffered from a writer’s block before, or if not that, then for a very long time at the least. I use the word “suffered”, as though it’s some sort of disease because it is. It a really pathetic feeling to have when you have the drive, but you lack the what’s that again? Yeah, that’s how it is. I don’t even know what’s missing.

Generally what happens when one suffers from this terrible disease is that one cannot bring one’s self to write anything that remotely makes sense to the target audience(if there is one intended) and neither to ones own self(which is actually bad). This is usually because one is devoid of any ideas in one’s cerebrum, which I believe is the main controller in our brain (something like the brain of the brain)

This is what generally happens.

Sometimes what happens is this:
Your brain gets overloaded and you don’t know what to do. By overload, I’m referring to all those ideas that are jam-packed in your brain. And yes everyone has ideas.
Now when you feel like writing something, and get the pen to paper or your finger tips to the surface of the keyboard(which ever suits you), in your brain there is a volley of random ideas each of which is quite unique and would make for an excellent write-up, story, play-you name it.
The initiative for your writing something is generally a central theme, a rough mental picture of what you are going to write, and then gradually you build up on this skeleton until something concrete comes up. And finally you polish that and voila!
Now this train of ideas in your head clashes with your central theme. Before you start to build up on this central theme you are confronted by a few thousand other ideas and you feel like including all of them somehow in this write-up of yours.

What you do then is erase whatever you have written up till then and start over.

By now you would have guessed that this is a case of infinite recursion.

Okay,perhaps not infinite.

I've got my holidays going on. And what better way to spend them than to watch movies. I've started watching Hindi ones. I started off with MAHAL.
Its a 1940's thriller.
Let me first give you the gist of the movie and don't worry I wont give out the plot as I've been doing so far for the last few movies that I've written about.
The movie has Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and a Mansion starring in it.
Shanker has recently acquires a mansion at a govt. auction. Upon reaching there he gets the low down on the folk lore about the Haveli. According to this, the builder of the house dies soon after building it. His fiance can't bear the shock and dies thereafter. Shanker sees the painting of the builder and is shocked to find out that he's a clone. As the clock strikes two he hears a lady singing, whom he cannot initially see. He truly believes that he is the reincarnation of the builder and that they are meant for each other. What follows next is an obsession. He goes totally crazy thinking about her. Every night he is hypnotised by the song of the dame. He gets married to another lady. She has a hard time with her man considering that he is mesmerised by another woman.
She soon starts going insane and complains to the police about his husbands ongoing flings. Watch the movie to know what happens next.
What I enjoyed the most about the movie was the simplicity of the plot. Its wasnt anything fancy, but it gripped the viewer for the entire 2 and a half hours that the movie was playing. The cinematography was out of this world. Black and white truly is the way to go for horror flicks and thrillers, given that the camerawork is good.
Also, let me confess that I am truly in awe of Madhubala's beauty. She had the sweetest most beautiful face of her era if not of all time. ALL she had to do to get me addicted to her was to raise one eyebrow and deliver a dialogue. I vow to watch as many movies of her as I can in these holidays.
The music of the movie too is quite splendid. Yes! This is the movie which has the Lata Mangeshkar classis "Aaayega Aayega Ane wala...".

Casino Royale is the latest Bond movie.
Bond movies have that charm associated with it. Something is so cool, so sexy and so suave about these movies.
So how did I feel after seeing this one? In one word: Strange. Strange good? Strange bad? Umm..I really don't know, just plain strange.Right coming to the point. Bond movies is mostly about the gadgets and the girls. If you remove either one of them the movies becomes too bland.
This movie had hardly any gadgets. A watch was just a watch, an Omega yes ofcourse, but all it did was show time. A phone was only but a phone, used to make outstation calls and send messages. No knives coming out from sleeves, no camouflaged cars, no cameras in a pen. Even a gun is used in the most primitive way, like a stone, used to hit masses. It was sort of very bollywoodish with a lot of Dishum dishum, running around construction sites and very little sex.
The bond girls too! Very disturbing. Ok Eva Green was decent, but the other latino one whose name I cannot remember was hardly mention-worthy.
The movie shows the scenario when Bond has been just assigned with the 00 status (the 00 in 007 means license to kill). There is this dude Le Chiffre, who is a sort of safekeeper for terrorists. He plans to blow up a plane, the largest of its kind on the Miami Airport, Bond stops this. Now to recover the losses associated with the plan failing, Le Chiffre organises a Poker game in Texas. Bond somehow manages to get inot the playing 8. Now Bond has to somehow win the game, thus making Le Chiffre bankrupt, thus busting his tushy because then the scum of the earth will be after his ass. Le chiffre will have to seek refuge and MI6 will capitalise on this.
The plot as such is very un interesting and to some interesting confusing.
Daniel Craig. What's with having a blond Bond? And whats with that body? He makes Pierce Brosnan look like a stick with genitals. The acting as such was quite ordinary. The movie induces several yawns, especially during the 2nd show. The director Martin Campbell, who co-incidentally also directed former Bond movie Goldeneye, decided to make this movie very realistic, as in Bond was stripped of his demi-god status(which one probably acquires when one is made a double O). However that sort of disappointed me. Bond isn't supposed to be realistic. He isn't supposed to have blood stains, he isn't supposed to be held captive. He is supposed to fight villians in a suit and leave the scene without a scratch. He is supposed to RIDE his cool car, not faint in it. Everyone has been marvelling about the fact that the realistic bond is cool awesome, how they love Daniel Craig, well I miss Mr. Brosnan.
But then on second thought, maybe thats just me.

I just saw one of the coolest movies ever ade, or atleast thats what I thought of it.
Pulp Fiction.
Tarantino is god. He is a genius with the camera. The way the movie was made, the way how the lives of different people merge together, the way it ALL makes sense finally. It's brilliant!
Here is a dialogue from the movie which I feel just has to be put up on my blog.
Its the character of Samuel L Jackson, Jules. Here goes:


There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.

It's 3.43, or so claims the clock on my roomy's computer. Remember the comprees I had mentioned few posts earlier? Well, they're here. 5 more to go. Then, I'll be free. But its rather strange, that I've not felt homesick at all these past few months. Guess I love this place too much, but then lately I've been feeling rather lonely. I dont know why. I'm sure its not homesickness, its just plain loneliness.
Bharti Yadav is back in the news.
Flashback:
Right, so there was this dream boat she was in love with, a college-mate. Her brother didn't like this bloke, and so he along with his cousin decided to eliminate the lover, Nitish Katara. So they kidnap him while he's out to attend a marriage and then murder him.
Try looking at the whole situation from her point of view.
Bharti Yadav after a while turns hostile and has been like that ever-since. She makes claims such as "Nitish" was just a friend.
Now the family is also quite powerful, the dad being an ex MP. So she must have been a lone warrior in this when the event took place, considering the Katara family couldnt do much. Bharati must have got threats from her brother and cousins on numerous occasions. Her family too must have been pressurising her to shut her trap, on top of that she is a girl and I am sure mustn't be having much of a say in the house. So they pack her off to London. Media wants a piece of her too.
She too must be feeling that since she has lost his lover already, none of this is going to get him back. Maybe there is so much love between the siblings that occasionally killing ones lover doesnt really affect the other person. Or maybe she loves her life way too much.

This is a picture I had taken when I was in Delhi. This was taken at the underground platform of the Delhi Metro. The picture according to me quite rightly peeks into the human psychology, the way we humans think.
Notice, how the woman near the stairs is actually contemplating whether to take the stairs or to take the "more" preferred option.
Would you rather wait in line, a line which would move so slowly? Or instead take the stairs?
What frustrates you more? Waiting in a long congested queue? Or having to walk that extra step?
Keep this between you and me: I took the stairs!

Lagey Raho Munna BhAI
V for Vendetta
Forrest Gump
The Shawshank Redemption
Saw 1
Saw 2
Lost in Translation
The Italian Job
Euro Trip
Lucky Number Slevin
3 of these I wasnt seeing for the first time.
Apart from this numerous episodes of South Park, Scrubs and Clips that are objectionable to society(need I mention more?)

This pretty much sums it up. The last 3 days have been entertaining afterall.

hero of the day by metallica. Thats the song I am listening to right now. Its quite different from any other Metallica song that I've heard. Now I am not questioning Metallica's originality, but its just that most of metallica's songs have that mystique associated with it, that dark feel to it. This one strangly doesnt sound like that. It almost sounds happy. Ive yet to look into the lyrics, but even then...

Winter has hit Pilani late this time, or so I have been told by those who have been here for longer than I have been. Winter coming in late means winter leaving late. It also means more torture, especially with the comprehensive exams(nicknamed compre's) inching closer towards us.
Ah! The compre-s. Its like a swarm of bees. Buzzing constantly. You can hear it, but can't quite see it. See it clearly that is. And then it becomes clearer, and you realise the horror of it all, until the day when it presents to you its full form. Standing in all its glory, it looks down at you. And you know this moment will either make you break you. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little, but its still important to a certain extent.
Leaving academics for the time being, our fest Oasis, was sort of a let down. Its probably not that the fest was bad, its just that I didnt have as much fun as I'd have wished for. Let me not go into the reasons as to why that happened. All I am saying is that, sometimes we expect too much out of something and hype it up. In reality, it isnt that big a deal.
Come to think of it, nothing is, is it?
People always try to glorify things, amplify things, exaggerate things. They make things appear to be something that they're not. Sometimes, its so much that, the thing doesnt even relate to the initial thing anymore.
So much effort is put into packaging a piece of information so that it suits the crowd that the actual essence of that information is lost. By the time a version of an incident reaches your ear, what you get to hear is something totally different from what actually happened.

I just wrote what was on my mind!

cheers
Rishabh

Its been a while.
I know I hav'nt blogged for quite some time. Now I understand why Smita stopped being such a regular blogger. College liffe rocks!
The next few weeks are going to be very tiring, because of the work ahead, but I am looking forward to it.
So much has happened in the last 40 odd days, and I want to mention all of that(well almost) on this space, but then I doubt if this post will remain as long as I intend to keep it.
Infact, I feel like ending this post right now. Yes I know, this is'nt right by blogging ethics(if thhere exists any).
Right. Bye.
Wait for more.
Rishabh

Disclaimer: This post is with reference to people of my age group or somewhere close, so if you're 4 years old or 35 years, the thoughts might not apply to you. But then again, I'm not preaching. So sure, go ahead read.

Holidays. Now it is a relative term is'nt it? The word "plan" is almost synonomous with holidays. The moment we declare to someone that we have our holidays going on, they just HAVE to ask "So, what are your plans". They just HAVE to know.
Something is always expected to be done. Free time, is meant to be utilised meaningfully and efficiently. Why? Because otherwise its wasting time.Why? Because this time will not come again.
So everytime we(or atleast me) get a long break, we make up a list in our head, as to what to do this time. We feel that now, since we have holidays, we can do so many things, because we're FREE(do you see whats happening?). You feel you are free, because you have holidays, as though the rest of the time you were religiously doing your work like a Subba Rao.
Subba Rao is defined as the every day office going sincere guy, now this classic definition was given by my friends on Orkut

Ok! So now you have this list of a thousand(am I exaggerating? Really?) things in your head, that need to be DONE. Things like shedding the extra fat. Watching "tons" of movies, visiting places,reading.

Now lets face it. How many of us actually end up doing this? Yeah, some of you feel we make excellent use of our time. Congrats you are one amongst a very very, trust me on this one, VERY small community(hey when I said "feel", I hope you actually mean, otherwise I sleep whole day and say that I made excellent use of my day). Its virtually impossible to make "excellent" use of one's time. Its just not done. Yeah, we often hear things such as, "focus", "dedication", "commitment". Most of the time we arent that focussed. We're focussed to some extent, but not to our full potential. Now we shouldnt be surprised at this. The science students, who have studied basic physics, know that the "ideal" scenario doesnt exist. There IS no perfect machine, there IS no perfect fuel, there IS no perfect presidential candidate(obviously in INDIA, the president can't do much, so he should just wear a name tag saying "hello, I love peanuts"). Hence, we can safely assume that there is no perfect brain, which can utilise all the time it has got. Hence perfection is a relative term used to signify who is the least dumbest, or who is the least wrong, or who is the least boring amongst a group of people.

Coming back to time management, the strange thing is that when we dont have holidays, most of us are actually more focussed than when we have holidays. Now this is simple enough right? So what does it tell us? WHEN YOUR ASS IS ON FIRE, YOUR GOD DAMN EFFICIENCY INCREASES. Obviously according to the second law of thermodynamics, the efficiency will not be cent per cent, but oh well.

Its because we're so excited to do so many things, we actually forget the essence of it. We read a novel, because we feel its something interesting, not becase we have to just read it. We have to lose weight because we want to get back in shape because it gives us confidence, so quit imagining yourself getting laid by Tera Patrick. So one reason is because the whole aim of getting a job done is lost.
Another reason why things seldom get done is becase we dont have proper guidance. Trying to teach ones self the computer language C
from a book takes time. You're much likely to complete the course(leave alone being fairly decent in it), if you learn it from some institute under proper guidance. You're definetely much more likely to shed those extra pounds if you enroll yourself in a proper gym with guys to train you there, rather than just go to the gym and pretty much fool around with the machines there and ending up seriously messing up that fragile body of yours.
Another addition to the list of distraction and probably the one that is potentially the most perilious of them all is the Internet. Yes, the internet is an ocean of knowledge, a treasure house and atmosphere of intellect, Ok now for the reality: How many of you log on to the net with the intention, "Today I am going to learn something new and useful, because the internet is a powerful advantage that I possess and must use it wisely."??
My point exactly.
Yahoo messenger, Orkut, Hi5, You tube. Damn!
I wanted to read so many books this summer, managed to read a few: The Fountainhead, Freakonomics, works of Khushwanth Singh and few other disappointing starts.
After watching Tom Dick and Harry, I had vowed not to watch the rubbish being made in bollywood for the rest of my holidays, and will dedicate myself towards experiencing classics(indian and western).
As of now I've seen Fanaa, Gangster, Krrish, Superman Returns and The Angrez(The Angrez has to be one of the FUNNIEST movies ever made).
Classics: zilch
I wanted to travel, visit pune, bangalore and whole lot of other places. Finally all saw was Jammu and Delhi, the hottest places to be in summer. Ok the jammu trip was more of a compulsion but every bit worth it. Getting to meet cousins is a good compensation for getting your ass burnt at 44 degrees.
A lot of time was spent Orkutting, Instant Messaging, hanging out with friends, driving lessons(ok not much just an hour a day), talking on the phone.

The guilt of not doing much in the holidays was overshadowed by the joy I got in spending time with my near ones. In the end, what matters is how you look at things.

I love sales. Especially when it has to do with branded stuff. Especially shoes!
I had to get a pair of sneakers because the other one despite serving me almost 2 years, was in a pitiful condition. Plus it was part of the college shopping list, SHOES. One pair formal, another informal. The latter remained unticked in the list.
So, shoes is one department where I always prefer branded stuff because of the durability.
So we set off for the ADIDAS store, there is some sort of sale going on there. I spend nearly an hour there, making the poor guy there bring nearly 7-8 pairs, always finding some problem or the other. Too white, too expensive, too many features, too fucked up....finally I liked one, that too quite reluctantly. I decided I would visit the Reebok store just 40 yards away, and if I didnt find anything there, I'd come back here and buy this pair.
Went to the reebok, didnt see any sale offers put up. Went in anyways. Now Reebok store made the adidas one look like crap. These guy had a huge shoe collection, and I mean huge! Generally the shoes are placed on a small stand on the wall, we see them, select them tell the guy we like it, he goes into the store room, gets the shoe of our size, and thats how it goes. This shoe stand is generally as high as a normal person (5'7) can reach by stretching his hand. Reebok's wall had shoes on it upto a 2 storied building. I am NOT kidding. This is the store next to the Loft shop in panjagutta(Non hyderababis, dont even bother).
I was staring at all of them like a puppy with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.
I put on some pairs and finally selected one I liked. The model of the shoe is called "Tempo Runner"




another angle




Now as I get up, the guy there tells me that there IS an offer going on. With every purchase of 2490 and above, you get a Reebok shoe worth 2490 free. And the free one is pretty good too, as generally one wouldnt expect it, during sales like these. Its awesome I tell ya!!!



acha this is the free one, its called 3D Runner LP, here's another pic of it

This is going to be my home for the coming 5 years (if things go as planned). I've got admission into the Msc(hons) Economics course of BITS, Pilani. For the ones who arent acquainted with the Msc(hons) programme of BITS, its a dual degree, which means I get to do Bachelors(BE) in Engineering as well as a subject of my choice(I chose economics). The engineering degree depends on your first year CGPA
As far as I know, BITS is the only college in INDIA which offers such flexibility. So, Woohoo!

Latest Johar Flick

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Yeah this is the latest movie from the Johar house of films. Karan Johar is gay agreed, but his movies arent as gay as him.
I quite liked Kal Ho na Ho.
Right, so the cast is also a typical KJ cast filled with all his buddies, Big B, Abhishek Bachchan, SRK, Rani Mukherjee and Priety Zinta. It apparently has cameos by Riteish(WTF is wrong with ritesh) Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal.
Story is supposed to be that SRK is married to Priety where as Rani is married to Bachchan Jr. Now things would be chilling as long as each couple minds their own business, but by chance or fate or whatever you call it, SRK and Rani meet, and become buddies, and then probably something more?? Wait for the movie. Yes, Big B is supposed to be this flamboyant(a la Vijay Mallya) daddy of Bachchan Jr.(How original) I think Karan is addicted to NYC. Because this one is NYC based too.
Here's the trailer of the movie,



The music of the movie was released in mid june(according to wikipedia), and the movie is scheduled to release in India on August 11. Awww, I will either be near a beach or in the middle of a desert by then.

There is this one song called MITWA in the OST. And Oh My God, its awesome! It really is, I just heard it once on TV during one of these promotional shows and fell in love with it instantly. You know we often come across these songs, whose punch line sounds oh so wonderful, but when you listen to the entire song, You sigh in despair and disappointment. But for once you wont be disappointed with this one. MITWA is really good, I've been listening to it all night today(or tonight whatever). Here's the link to the song as well.
http://www.apniisp.com/songs/indian-movie-songs/kabhi-alvida-naa-kehna/339/1.html


P.S: Please Please Please, for the love of god(or satan), call the movie by its full name instead of KANK, KANK has to be the worst short form of any movie ever made!

While talking to my friends, we occasionally use the word RnM i.e Raped and Murdered, to strike a comparision. For example: "Hey dude staying in his class is worse than getting RnM." And we have a good laugh, because the context here isnt a serious one. But what when someone is getting RnM? And what if everyone knew the accused was guilty(even the judge)? And what if after all evidences(such as DNA sampling), the accused still roamed free?

Justice, in any form, shouldnt be denied. Delaying it for a 10 year span is as good as slapping the victim on the face and telling them to get lost.

Priyadarshini was a third-year law student at Delhi University, when she was found strangled in her uncle’s Vasant Kunj residence. She had been raped, injured 14 times and then strangled with a wire

The main accused Santosh Kumar Singh was her senior in college.On the morning of January 23, Santosh was seen knocking for entrance into Priyadarshini's uncle's house, where she was living, in the Vasant Kunj area of Delhi.

On january 23rd, she was found dead in her apartment. Evidences point to the fact that she was raped, before being strangled to death by an electric wire and her face battered by a motorcycle helmet, beyond recognition.

Delivering the judgement, the Additional Sessions Judge. J.P. Thareja said of Santosh, that though he knew that "He is the man who committed the crime," he was forced to acquit him, giving him the benefit of doubt.Further adding,"The CBI in the matter of DNA evidence has not acted fairly. It tampered with the evidence of clothes of the deceased and also the blood sample of the accused."

I guess that says it all.


Following a public outcry, the CBI then appealed the district court's verdict in Delhi High Court in April 2000. But there have been no presentation of evidence or hearings in the Delhi High Court well into early 2006.

Meanwhile, according to his lawyer, Santosh Singh got married in 2004, and as of February 2006, was leading a happy family life and practising law in Delhi.

Sunday, 23rd July is her birthday. A war cry for justice in the heart of Delhi, a protest that shakes the pillars of the Govt. and one demand - Let justice be delivered immediately.


Are you ready to give her justice?



Join us :

Venue: INDIA GATE
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Date: 23rd July, 2006

Feedback: justice4priyadarshini@gmail.com
To sign the Petition for retrial in Priyadarshini Mattoo Case click here:
www.petitiononline.com/mattoo/petition.html

Blog:
http://justice4priyadarshini.blogspot.com

Here is the CNN-IBN Video on the topic.

I just started reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and some other guy. The book is mindblowing. Quite different from what one reads(ok thats such a huge cliche). One passage on page 14 made me perform some calculations and the result was interesting.

"...In a typical election period that includes campaigns for the presidency, the senate, the house of representatives, about $1 billion is spent per year-which sounds like a lot of money, unless you care to measure it with something seemingly less important than democratic elections.
It is the same amount, for instance, that Americans spend every year on chewing gum."

Now I got to know that an average pack of chewing gum with about 25 strips(taking that as average intake of chewing gum per 4 days) is 1 dollar.
So one billion packs of chewing gum for 365.25 days corresponds to 1095140.3(1.1 million dollars) dollars being spent on chewing gum EVERYDAY. The population of USA is 295,734,134.
Ofcourse this is MY estimation, the actual figures might be totally different. Since MY assumptions of 25 strips for 4 days maybe totally wrong. But still its an interesting outcome.


On another topic:
I'm having fun with google earth. Its so god damn addictive.





This is my apartments(the two large buildings with a li'l space in between them). And the white thing is a rock next to my balcony





This is my junior college(K-12, +2, intermediate whatever you call it). Narayana JC. I know I know, you dont know which building to look at.






This is my school. Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan's Public School, Jubilee Hills

 

this is my latest crush. i finally get a cell after 4 years of begging!!!! 

I'm in love with guitar solos.
I've been endlessly downloading all the top guitar solos from Limewire.
There is this list of 100 greatest guitar solos. I wasnt aware of any such list in the beginning. Then one day my pal downloaded some songs onto my comp from his I-POD(which he was showing off). It was among them that I head of this song Three Days by Jane's Addiction, the guitarist being Dave Navarro. He is the same weird looking person who was shown sitting with INXS during Rockstar:INXS.
It was quite a long song,as guitar solos are supposed to be(which I found out later). It was close to 10 mins. The first time I heard it, I wasnt thrilled or anything, probably didnt even notice it, since it was on a playlist which had about 100 songs. So my first encounter with it wasnt all that great. But after a while I started feeling its presence, and though at that time I didnt know who Jane's Addiction or who Dave Navarro was, I started liking the song. The song is featured at number 100 on the 100 greatest solos list. Though now I think it should've been higher.
It has this mesmerising feel to it, that makes you want to go through those entire 10 minutus without changing the song. Generallly in guitar solos, the trend is that the song goes on for most of the time,and towards the end, the guitarist takes over and ends the song with the guitar solo. In this one, its different, after a short span, you have long guitar solos every now and then. I just love that.
So after listening to that I started going through the list. Topping it is the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven". Now I've been told by many of my pals that this is one of the best songs ever, and its probably one of the MOST requested songs on radio. I agree its quite good, but somehow I dont hail it as MY FAVORITE. I dont like it THAT much. Its pretty good too.
At number 4 in the list is Pink Floyds Comfortably Numb. Now this song I'm crazy about. Its simply spellbinding. I've never heard guitars played that way. Its simple awesome. I still feel Pink Floyd is overrated, and didnt really like much of their music earlier(probably hadnt heard much of then), but after listening to this, I started giving them more of my attention. Some other songs which I've heard from that list amongst others and I've liked are
6.November Rain(slash)-GnR{slash is my fav. guitarist)
7.One(kirk hammett)-Metallica
13.Texas Flood-stevie ray vaughn
22. sultans of swing(knopler)-dire straits
26.Smells like teen spirit(cobain)-Nirvana{its still one of the BEST songs ever according to me)
37.Sweet child of mine(slash)-GnR(it has one of the best starting guitars ever)
44.Alive(mike mccready)-Pearl Jam
48.Sympathy for the Devil(keith richards)-The Rolling Stones
61.No more tears(zack wylide)-Ozzy
80.You shook me all night(angus young)-AC/DC

Fanaa

Fanaa is another film coming from the yashraj factory. The movie is directed by Kunal Kohli. It has Aamir Khan and Kajol playing the lead.
Its evident that since the day Lagaan was announced as a mega success, the expectations from Mr Khan had increased a hundred-fold. Did he live up to it? He came up with "Mangala-Mangala-Mangala-Ho" Then came RDB, the hugely succesful rebel movie, but many felt he was a miscast in the movie, though I personally enjoyed his role. So the stage was set, withing a short while, we saw the banners of Fanaa being put across cities. Its soundtracks started playing on all channels. People went ga-ga over how beautiful Kajol looked in the movie, and about Aamir's new hair-style(ahem ahem).
I was curious about the movie. Finally I found out for myself when I was invited by a pal of mine to watch the movie with him.
Fanaa-Imdb describes it as a movie in the thriller genre. Only the enlightened ones can truly find that amusing. It is.
The movie is about the rickety and screwd up love life of Zuni (Kajol) a blind confused chick and a hard core terrorist mastermind Rehan aka Bullshit(Aamir Khan).
Let me tell you one thing, when ever you hear some one say a movie is different, most of the times it means that the movie is crap. Since we're discussing mainstream cinema, different movies generally mean the same old crap repackaged with a whole lot of dhin-chak dhin-chak that bollywood is known for. Now the same be said about say a Shyam Benegal or a Nagesh Kukonoor movie.
Anyways, the first half of the movie is about the blind kajol, how she falls in love with a guide(Aamir in disguise) for no apparent reason. It is filled with a billion Shayaris(poetry). Aamir shows Kajol the entire Delhi. Here you come across some really really annoying characters who in the process of sounding funny, just sort of piss you off.
Aamir as the guide is supposed to be the pimp and casanova of old delhi apparently, and he believes in Lust and not love(wow thats something new, yawn). Kajol believes that aamir is a sweet heart. Well she's blind, so she doesnt have to worry about his looks, so the heart will do just fine.
So a hard-core romance sparks between them, and so we have some songs here and there, but thankfull it doesnt show the cast running around switzerland when they were in chandni chowk a second ago.
Kajol has like the most lenient parents in the whole world. She tells them about Aamir and they blindly accept him, they don't even bother to ask them who the guy is or how he earns his living. I guess that gives us an insight into Zuni's past lovelife and its success.
Right..so Aamir humps her like a thanks-giving turkey and she doesnt mind it either, and after that she says to him that, he doesnt need to see her again if he doesnt want to, but she gives him her telephone number anyways (She has to return to her home which is somewhere else, far away).
Now this would've been great. Its like no strings attached sex. He gets to nail her and doesnt need to care about her feelings, but apna pimp has a heart. He gets into the train, and carries her back, only to leave her after a month, while she is having her eye operation. It was as though he was playing a crual joke on her. I guess pimps have a different way of thinking.
Aamir fakes his own death, so that Kajol gets all heart-broken and doesnt really enjoy the fact that she can see again. Guess what he really wanted was to totally destroy her self esteem and give her that "I am a loser" feeling.
This is the part where we find out about Aamir Khan being a blood thirsty Jehadi. They make him look like Neo.

Post intermission session showed us what a back-stabbing SOB Aamir was to the INA. There was a cameo by Shiney Ahuja in the movie, unfortunately he dies. And one can literally hear the girls go "Awwwwww" when that happens.
At this juncture, Tabu(Ms Tyagi) is introduced, she's like some messed up lady who had a really really bad facial, because she looked much older than what she really is. She looked like the female counterpart of Droopy the dog. She is shown as the only "enlightened" one in the indian intelligence and the rest of them are protrayed as, "bozos".
She is the only one who discovers the not-so-obvious fact that Aamir is a criminal mastermind.
So now she sends troops to bust his ass, but as is the case, you cant have him being killed. The movie would actually make sense then, but that cant happen. How could it. We have to make it unrealistic. Now how do we do that? We make Aamir kill 10 INA guys and then blow up a helicopter and escape the entire seige with only a bullet.
The movie crew tireis to fool us by showing Poland and calling it Kashmir. It looks a lot like the scenes from Black. Now out of thousands of houses a wounded Aamir could end up in, he lands at the door step of Zuni. She , who had never seen hi obviously doesnt recognise him, and so doesnt her father and Rehan Jr(who believes he was born due to the mating of Rahul Dravid and her mommie).
A point to note here is that, a blind girl has to identify people by their voice and probably touch. Now if she can't recognise the voice of her lover, I guess the passion they shared was nothing more than a Booty call. And please dont feed me crap like , The snow did it to him, or People change with times. That shit dont work, even in bollywood, and that's saying a lot!
So now Aamir, who is angry at first, mellows down and starts becoming part of family for these people, till one day while playing some antakshari(singing over and over again for no apparent reason) and some naughty activities, lets Kajol know that he indeed is who he is.
Kajol is shocked and delighted. They get married, and later sing a really really fucked up song. I dont know its name, and seriously I dont really care. All i know is that the song was made up of 5 tongue twisters and had nothing more to it. Total bummer.
So now Tabu is professionally and perhaps sexually aroused with her new lead, and decides to use the media by having them reporting that some terrorist has some device(which infact looks like a a deoderant) which is a bomb trigger and he's dressed up as a jawan.
So now Kajol's father is suspicious but doesnt make a move, he takes Aamir in acar and then plans to kill him instead, but Aamir is a terrorist who is experienced, and hence kills his father in law. Father in law falls from a cliff and falls down and a thin sheet of ice is formed over his body. Co-incidentally Kajol walks from the same spot and gasps. She doesnt lose courage. She runs away from Aamir, but Amir catches up and tell her that the bomb threat of his people is a HOAX just to get a free-Kashmir. Kajolisnt affected by bull shit now. She been through enough already. So forces her husband to cut the crap and get real, which he does'nt. He takes the deo and marches out. Kajol gets a sudden message from god that she has to do the right thing or suffer in hell for a thousand years. She takes a gun, says I love you to Aamir and conveniently shoots him. Aamir finally shows some mercy to the once-blind innocent girl he had loved, by not pushing her brains out by shooting back.
So the the pan back fires and feminist people shut their trap because they got what they wanted.
This is the sad story of Fanaa.

The only person who acted well was Rehan Junior. The sound track has few good numbers, though I agree most of it is crap. This is one movie even the general public hates. So why should you be an exception?

Gangster

Gangster


Right so this is a rage now-da-days. This movie is being talked about every where. Let me make it obvious as to how this review is going to be.
I didnt like the movie. So if you want to continue, please do so at your own will.

Gangster-A love Story, is a Mahesh Butt directed movie, which thrives on the "A love story" part. It is supposed to be humane and touching and is supposed to be a different view of the gangster's love life,from the gangster's lovers perspective.
The gangster is Shiney Ahuja. He's a cute looking chap, who doesnt really look like the most ferocious person you've ever met. But now I think you people will be saying that new age killers ARENT supposed to look like killers. Agreed. But he behaves like a guy who just got out of coma. He's gotta be like the DULLEST gangster ever. He doesn't talk much. Just stares, cries, testifies and bascially does shit that pisses you off.
The lead heroine is some other bitch who has pissed EVERYBODY with her poor dialogue delivery and "I'm-a-confused-person-who-is-on-drugs" attitude. Her problem is that she can't stop drinking an bitching about her dead her life is coz she loved a gangster. So she bascially goes on and on about how HER dreams weren't fulfilled, how SHE wasnt given the freedom she wanted, HER HER HER, and I guess that sorta says it all.
Now we have the Emraan Hashmi aka Bollywood pimp. This dude's sole aim in bollywood is to make young girls who know they can't act shit, lose their on-screen virginity. I'm sorry that Emraan has become a stereotypical womaniser no matter what role he playes.

Acha so the story is this, girl loves gangster. Gangster has to do gang work(which is never shown in the movie), girl become an alcoholic because her son is killed in an encounter. Now the interesting thing about this gangster is that he's charming and immensely romantic. He's not your average "I wanna nail you" sleaze ball. This guy has feelings, and respects this girl and doesnt have sex with her (perhaps for the entire movie), the child incase you were wondering, was adopted. Man this guy just doesnt fit to be a gangster.
Meanwhile, this girl starts finding great friendsship with Emraan Hashmi who is a singer in some bar whose name I dont really remember. So now this girl is an alcoholic and turs up at emraan's house in the wee hours of the morning almost nude, asking for whisky. You think this is freaky?
She finds him really nice and is attracted by him, and well the obvious happens, Hashmi goes to bed with her.
Now we can't have one guy screwing around with another man's wife, that too a world class gangster, and the gangster just being ignorant. So this gangster dude finds out and beats the crap out of our romeo, and the girl takes hashmi's side(yawn). Now our gangster dude, cries and beggs her to take her back. So now we know this gangster has no self esteem and that he has major comittment issues. He's sort of a metro-sexual gangster in an obscure way.
So, now gangster has a shift of heart, and decides to quit doing his black business, and the in the movie this is portrayed as something which is as easy as breaking a kit-kat into 2 pieces.
So now our gangster who used to earn millions by killing others now does physical hard labor and gets few currency notes. What a waste of talent.
Now they decide to leave Korea and go back to India, for which gangster promises the girl that he has to get fake passports or else police will get them busted. While doing so, he meets the don, who is infact his grandpa, but much more eveil(Gulshan Grover), he goes on and on about how the girl has distracted this prodigy, and now the gangster must be killed and the girl abused by his men sexually. Well gangster is smart, he kills grover instead *surprise surprise*
Meanwhile, the girl somehow meets hashmi and confesses that she is pregnant. Hasmi acts like the perfect gentleman and tells her to turn gangster in marry him instead(how convenient), because he can take better care of the baby.Now the dumb bitch is utterly confused because hasmi is messing with her brain. She stops thinking.
Acha now comes and interesting scene. She is waiting at seoul station, and waits and waits and finally gangster comes, all bruised and battered like a war hero. He is nearly 100 metres in front of her. He slips and starts falling off the steps, she starts running towards. He fall on a surface. She stops too. Now he again starts slipping down further more stairs, and she continues her jogging till he stops moving. So bascially what we have here is a mathematical function known as "When he fall, she run"
So after a long time, they connect and guess what? A million police vehicles arrive and gangster is super pissed and super surprised, he doesnt say one word, screams a lot though. Oh the betrayal. But apparently the girl did this to SET HIM FREE. *snorts*, Yeah right.
So now she goes to Hashmi, who infact turns out to be a police officer who used her. He indirectly confesses that she sucks in the bed and that he was doing his nation a favor and comitting a personal sacrifice by having sex with this girl(what a strange thing to say for a pimp).
She is shocked. She is angry She takes a gun and kills emraan hasmi, not before he takes a gun and shoots her shoulder. Hashmi dies. Meanwhile girl gets a letter from gangster who is in jail saying that "He understod what she did and doesnt blame her. He knos she was tricked". I tell you people, this guy is too sweet to be a gangster. TOO sweet. He's got to have an alter ego, because this man is too much of a pussy to kill kids and women mercilessly.
RIGHT! Now the girl and the gangster have an instant connection and she understands him. She goes to the top of the hospital in which she is admitted, screams a little bit and jumps from the 20th floor at the same instant this gangster guy is hung. Talk about timing.
The last seen is copied from Gladiator, withonly the roles reversed. Here the girl enters the field(supposedly heaven) with the gangster and kid laughing out loud and well the movie ends.
I didnt like the movie.
However it has a great soundtrack Honestly. The songs are amazingly sung with great back groud scores like all Mahesh Butt movies. Its an addictive album. Ya ali, tuhi shab hai are one of the best hindi songs I've heard this year. Here's the remixed version of Tuhi Shab hai.

After my last exam, I was left with 2 months of holidays, and considering that I already had 2 months of hols before that, I started getting irritated, and decided to make better use of my time rather than spend hours endlessly on Orkut.
I had always wanted to join a driving school. The course is for 150 Kilometres, where they teach you the basics, and other automobile related stuff like repairing and mechanical works etc.
You know relativity is an interesting concept. It makes you feel good about yourself. I thought I was a bad driver. I [i]thought[/i]. But in reality I am not. I'm pretty good considering I'm done with only 60 km's of driving. Except the reverse gear, I seem to be doing well in everything else. But the other guys, oh my god THEY DO SUCK! Ok now you know that modesty is'nt one of my virtues. But seriously, in my driving class, there's this dude who lives right next to South semi-Mega star Nagarjuna. And apparently he's been taking the classes for the last one month, and he still is pretty bad. Can't start the damn thing properly without n jerks.
So far I've driven only the Maruti 800, hopefull will practice in my Santro now.
The driving school is about 8 Kms from my house. I have to wake up at 6.20, reach the place by 7. By 7.05 the class starts and by 7.55 it ends. Generally I drive 8-9 Kms everyday. And this includes heavy traffic(look a little traffic on a small street is like heavy traffic isnt it?), totally empty roads and other gullies. So its fun. The teachers arent much older than I am, most of them in early twenties. Pakka hyderabdies. Fun guys to be with. They whistle at girls, when the girls block the car , saying "Madam, please hat jaayiye, yahan par pose wose nahi karne ka, kya?"
The ride back home is quite fun too. I take a bus till a point that is 1 km from my house, then its upto me, I can either walk on the railway tracks when I'm in the mood, or take an auto.
Some times the bus doesnt come for a long while (you see I hate waiting. I am not the guy who prefers patience. If I had to wait 3 years to go to heaven, or prefer Hell this instant, I'd go for satan), I take a share auto. People in India are familiar with share auto's. These are regular auto's, just that many passengers can be accomodated who are going to a common destination. Its much more cheaper(simple division). The auto wallah earns more this way, and the passengers Feel they are getting a great bargain. So both parties are happy.
Now for the people who are familiar with SHARE auto's and and have been in them, I have a question to ask, Whats the maximum number of people you've seen in them? I've seen 5 sittng in the back, and 4 in the front including the driver, so that makes it 9. Today's auto ride had 8, which is also a large number. I was in the front seat. Now there was one dude sitting next to me(he's sort of a pal of the auto wallah or so it seems), and the other dude is the autowallah himself. I am big. I need my space. I feel unforcomfy when I'm denied that pleasure. I was sitting in an awkward position. So i had to hold on to something. I saw some sort of rod and i grasped it. Now there were two things one could do. Either grasp it with ease, in which case my hand would be tightly sqeezed between the rod and the other dude's buttocks, or twist my hand the cling on the other side, which let me tell you is extemely painful. I chose pain.

I plan to post more regularly from now on....

TRIP TO VELLORE part ll

 

So we waited there for a while.
And a new tension took birth. There was sweat trickling down my face, and I was really and utterly confused, because I didnt know which branch I wanted. There was everything except CSE and ECE. There are those who since the age of 6 know that they wanna grow up and end up in VLSI designing, where as I'm almost 18 and still have no idea what branch I'd want. So I called my "partner-in-crime" Aayan and Hyderabad, and asked for his advice, and he told me to go with EEE. It was like KBC man. Anyways, it was my turn finally, and I was to go to the stage and submit my documents. The dude over there, probably some faculty member started giggling as though I was the most ridiculou thing he saw, and asked me (in a stupid manner that reminded of Crabbe and Goyle), "Are you a boy or a girl?", "Sir I have a beard, so why don't you guess that?"
"No No from behind ugh you ha ha ugh look like ugh girl only no?"
If there was ever a facial expression for FucK yOU, I wish I knew it.
So anyways, I had to wait for another 20 minutes, before some 10 of us were taken into an AC room, with 10 computers and guys behind them. This was supposed to be the ACTUAL counselling. The word counselling is sort of misleading. One expects the people to counsel you on the various branches and scopes and past records and stuff, but counselling here has an entire different meaning. Counselling is, going to the comp guy, telling him you're DOB and the branch you want.I was realy really confused man. The main worry was between Mechanical and Electrical, I closed my eyes and tried to recollect the first formula that came to my mind in physics, it was the basic V=IR. So I took EEE. Now please please please dont EVER select a branch this way. I did it because I didnt know what I wanted. You people are smart, you should know better. And then talk to the "so-called" finance dude, who was looking like a jovial drunkard(but nice guy).
After that we had to decide on the hostel room. Got to know that the only rooms availible were the 4 bedded and the 6 bedded rooms. Look Narayana had given me enough homosexuality around me, now I am not implying that homosexuality is bad, or that all men are gay, or that 6 men in a room HAVE to become gay, but then 6 dudes in a room for 4 years is killing. However, I supposed one can change the room after months from the beginning of courses. Atleast thats what was being told to us.
Bas, thats about it, left the campus, came to the hotel, slept for an hour, saw School of Rock. Our train got delayed by 2 hours, so we decided to travel back to vellore city, since we hardly had any luggage with us. I wanted to visit a net cafe. My told me there was one near CMC, so we went through the CMC campus, its ok, like a regular hospital, maybe its better from the inside. While I was walking under a tree, some fluid-gel fell on my head. And it was stinking. OH CRAP! Man I was super pissed, I dint know what to do, I got most of it off my head. Then i went to the nearest store, got a napking, cleaned my head like a zillion times, didnt want to wash my head, coz otherwise the goo would spread over my face. And that would suck big time. Anyways, went to the cafe, ate something there, and came back to the station. Got to know from some other dudes that EEE is the toughest branch(the others who knew ppl at Vit), but by then twas too late so whatever.

Anyways that was the past. I'm happy to announce that I'm not going to go to VIT.
Thats done, the 10000 is gone but thats ok too. So I guess thats that.