Arbit Ramblings

Hyatt on the road to Sharjah

2006-10-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

D.U.Bhai at night

2006-10-06T05:47:00.000-07:00

Desert Safari

2006-10-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Dubai is a really a boring city, unless one finds the steel and glass buildings and the sea of automobiles on the road or the mall explorations sexy. especially for one coming fom the calm serene cool green realm of Temirtau.(why do i forget i spent 99% of my life so far in the land of chaos and kachara?)
endless watching the movies, soaps on TV or mindless sleeping throught the weeekends is not a solution. Desert safari seems like a good option to venture out of dubai city and see some 'natural beauty' or breathe some non airconditioned unpolluted air. Afterall the hotel ppl and VB, my boss, recommended it as cure to the ennui.

It costs around 160 DHs per person, but since the Ramadan is on and hence no bellydance it wud be only 120 Dhs. Whatay! a straight 25% discount on a/c of no Bellydance!! or rather, a 33% premium for bellydancing!!

we went in a landcruiser. Indeed there are no other vehicles fit for desert safari other than landcruisers-our driver sez. The desert(well, dubai is no more a desert town, it has become a major hub in the ME) is around 40 mins drive (averaging 120 km/hr) from the hotel.

the entire desert is mottled with landcruisers scattered around like houseflies.

well the ride proved to be exciting. it was like riding on Indian roads. quite a lot of ups and downs. Three kids(relatively speaking) from coimbatore were screaming and shreiking like mad though I doubt one guy peed in his pants (sorry cudnt check) .

I managed to get some snaps and in the process to verify the tall claims made by canon abt their image stabilisation. here are some..

the dunes. I took it from inside the Cruiser, I was seated in the back, in automode with a li'l zoom so that vehicle's dash board and driver's head are off the frame.

the sands.. the pattern on the sand is made by the wind erasing the tyre marks left by the safari vehicles. I took it from the Cruiser while it was doing the bumpy ride across the dunes.

we stopped in a wadi in the desert. the sun was behind a dune. So i took this snap. now i wish i had a UV filter.

the camel farm in the wadi. it was feeding time for the camels and there were more tourists than the camels and the farm hands put together, with every tourist clicking away frantically at the camels with oohs and aahs in japanese, korean, russian, english, Hindi and even Malayalam. I too joined the melee and took a couple of snaps.

Without a UV filter it is near impossible to get a good pic of the sun in the daylight, an experienced hand had opined. Which meant I had to wait till the sun sets. which also meant I postpone the desert buggy ride (a 250 cc contraption with which you can ride on smaller dunes) . I got this pic before we set out for the desert camp, the dinner time watering hole.

Test drive.

2006-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Quite eager to check out the new camera.
Tried checking the zoom.
From my hotel window I can see this building that was coming up two blocks away. took a snap in the normal auto mode without zoom.

then zoomed to near the derrick of that building and took this snap

hmm.. not bad isnt it..
Dont I stand a good chance getting into the papparazzidom? ;)

Which one to buy

2006-09-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

Wanted: A good digital camera, with minimujm optical zoom 10x, 6 mega pixels, and less noise at higher ISOs. AND WITH WARRANTY.
Moi budget: 2000 Dhs
Asked a couple of pals, they didnt have much clue, posted the same on the Photography NB @ Dbabble. Did own research and finally zeroed in on 3 models- Canon Powertshot S3 IS, Sony Cybershot H5 and Panazonic Lumix FZ30
Did some research
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_s3-review/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_h5-review/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz30-review/index.shtml
and also the fabulous www.dpreview.com

kicked out Panazonic in the round 1, But was caught in a fix which one to choose-sony or canon. Went to the shop, Sony had a tag of 1900 Dhs while canon came for 1775 Dhs with a 1GB card. Tried my best bargaining, no avail. Then the shopkeeper himself, I had visited his shop for at least 5 times to bargain, told em Canon is a safe bet since it has less noise when it comes to higher ISOs and a better imaging chip.!!

So S3 IS it is.
I hope, sincerely hope, that I made a wise decision.
Here's my baby (the pic is from http://www.canon.com.au/ since I could not take the pic of my own camera with the same camera)

Soon I ll put some quality pics on this blog instead of mindless drivel.

job

2006-09-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

job's very boring. now doing an enrichment by...
. pretending to be busy by peering at the comp screen
. making excel sheets, reports and presentations which every one know is crap
. drinking coffee ever hour
. asking boss stupid dumb questions
. extending the lunch hour to one hour and taking another hour long siesta

So finally in Dubai

2006-09-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

Dubai in 12 words -hot, boring, steel, glass, cars, traffic jams, jebelali, burdubai, deira, malls, mallus
I miss temirtau and the fun.. :(

Spam Stars

2006-05-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

I remember Prof MMM telling me the other day in WIMWI abt the use of emails as tools of persuasive communication. He was citing the examples of all those Nigerian free money mails and online lotto winnings.

Unfotunately Yahoo and Gmail dont filter all these junk to the bulk folder.

Earlier I used to delete these mails by just reading the subject line. Now I have started replying back to each and everyone of such mail. After all, there is our Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V key combo for making one's life easier.

1. Sample reply #1
"..I cant say how thrilled I am to go through your mail. As a token of my appreciation of your efforts in mailing me, I have decided to donate the whole fortune to you, save $500,000. Please send me the amount ASAP. Else I shall send out my bloodthirsty hounds after you. They love sausages like anything. And do I need to tell you what they are gonna do to you once they catch you?.."

2. Sample reply #2
"..Dude, you just gimme $1,000,000. Rest you keep for yourself. Send the money to me ASAP. Else I ll find you, catch you, sodomise you, castrate you and finally feed you to my pet sharks.."

I guess they will have a nice laugh after they read the crap I send them.

Yahoo Bulk mail

2006-05-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

Yahoo does a fantastic job, so does Gmail. They filters most of the unsolicited trash.

But generally the mails fall into 4 categories.
1. Wanna buy some viagra and have a rocking time?
2. Wanna increase ur dick size?
3. Wanna get a university degree on the sly?
4. What about a home loan?

My answers
1. No thanks, I am pretty much OK and rocking now
2. Why, I am already well endowed and I am not planning to go polevaulting with it.
3. After so much of degrees, whats the use for an extra scrap
4. Thanks, but I recently heard that many of you guys got caught in US for peddling the same?

PromiscuousiTV

2006-05-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ren TV is fun.
The channel is Russian.
Most expats here love Ren TV.
But why?
The same reason most non-Mallus had when they used to watch Surya TV.

Sane Sex!

2006-05-19T02:10:00.000-07:00

On May 17th when Sensex lost its mind and 565 pts the 'Wit' Mantri murmured in his sleep " It is just a correction"

On May 18th when the oversexed market blew 826 points he didnt find it worthwhile to give his valuable comment >>http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=127539

When the bourses get tanked, when the investors get f*cked, try to keep a cool head! Whatay cool mantri we have!

Da Wild North

2006-05-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

When I got the posting letter from ***, junta laughed at me and gave me good blessings. The place was expected to be as safe as Iraq/Afganistan. Even I was not sure abt my decision. Kazakhstan fir the bill of the place fit sending your mom-in-law on vacation, one wag remarked. And Temirtau, my destination, threw up wonderful results on Google search.

Sample this

"...Temirtau and for Igor and its 120,000 other residents, a dodgy skyline is the least of their worries. The worsening socio-economic situation in Temirtau, inflated by the down-sizing of its main employer the steel-producing combinat, and the virtual collapse of the former Soviet welfare state, is being tragically aggravated by a relatively cheap and well organised supply of illicit narcotics..." (From "Tragedy of Temirtau")

Well.. Aids, drugs, violence. Whatay place?

Just curious to know more about the place I said three Hail Googles and placed a search for images which threw up the following

I decided to pack my bags for Temirtau.

Back to mindless blogging.

2006-05-09T04:46:00.001-07:00

long time since i blogged + getting fed up checking mails & orkut time & again + absolutely no work at the office = rekindling this bakwaas blog

Res-solyu-shans
#1 No serious stuff
#2 100% arbit and bakwaas
#3 Anything living or dead reading this crap should consider ending his/her/its life in 5 minutes

Bam!

Mum's the word

2005-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

All the brouhaha over the IIPM,IBM and Gaurav Sabnis failed to move the mainstream media in the country. Seems strange. Afterall our journos like to splash such 'sensational' news on the front page itself. Maybe their bosses are worried about losing a dime or two from the advtg kitty.

Talking about responsible journos, of late I got two calls from the scribes of a prominent sleaze rag which claims it self to be a National Newspaper. One wanted to know my views on virginity and the other wanted my opinion on pre marital sex. Unforunately I didnt have much to say because of our media policies which saves us from dishing out the crap to the media. But it was fun reading the views expressed by the kids from the nearby colleges on these burning topics.

Mumbai Times

2005-10-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Mumbai is hot and humid, just like Malluland. And this calls for some chilled beer to refresh one up. It is fun to do quizzing with a little beer inside. We used to fill up the tank before each quiz when we were in Law College. And surprisingly the answers seemed pretty easy then. Those were the juvenile days and those acts were born out of sheer juvenile pleasures.

This time I really wanted to.

To bury the pains and pangs of the heart.

Met old pal Perry, ex-Sid Basu team and now with Bhogle. A nice jovial sardarji. The quiz was good.. The prelims questions was crackable and the finals was thrilling. Could have won by a huge margin but for the foolish tries on the buzzer for more points. Harsha Bhogle is a great quiz master, good questions, nice compering and a hit with the audience.

And they had a Yamaha fazer on display.

We thought we had won that. But no prizes for the time being. Perry said "Come to Dilli and take home the goodies"

One Memorable Q&A that went like this..

Which was the third highest revenue source for British Raj? The answer was Salt Tax, but the KJ Somaiyya guys brought the house down with laughter with their answer - Prostitution.

Now to Dilli for the finals and more laughs and.. yes.. the Fazer.

:(

2005-10-15T01:30:00.000-07:00

Second time in a row, in a week..

Tried replacing the sorrow with Piotr Arsenyevich Smirnov's C2H5OH concoction...
Boarded the night flight to Mumbai..
The tantrums thrown by an old Gujju lady at the air port enlivened the mood a bit though.
She didnt want the CISF ppl to frisk her handbag.
"What do you think I am, a terrorist?", she shouted at the poor cops.
Cant imagine her totting an AK-47 and making us pee in our pants.

:))

And yeah, the Spicejet Air Hostesses were pretty cute too.

Me Goofy Boltoi

2005-10-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

It is Confirmed!!

Here's a personality trait test result which confirms my worst fears.

My alter ego is Goofy! I am fun and great to be around, and I am always willing to help others. I ain't worried about embarrassing Myself, so I am one who is more willing to try new things. (Irish Republican Army, are you listening?)

I scored as Goofy.

Goofy

81%

Cinderella

75%

Donald Duck

69%

The Beast

69%

Sleeping Beauty

63%

Peter Pan

56%

Cruella De Ville

38%

Snow White

38%

Pinocchio

38%

Ariel

38%

Which Disney Character is Your Alter Ego?

Another day..

2005-10-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Woke up @ 3.30 pm..
Missed the appointment with Prof Gupta...
Went for the Conflu Masterplan Team meeting...
In search of an innovative idea we should develop into a bplan for an outlay of up to US$ 5 billion to win a part of $11,000 prize money at stake...
Lotsa arbit ideas such as Kochar's silicon boob plant to my own intergrated travel solution...
Listened to Saboo and Shashu working out the market potential(including exports) for Silicon implants...
Listened to TSMG ppl's presentation (the pastry was really good) ...
Listened to Capri's and Mooli's comments on my paunch (WTF!)...
Spoke to warden about the facchas's acads load and the need to break the bones of perverts...
Joined Prof Gupta, Javed and Gayab on the discussion reg. J&K Earth Quake relief programme...
Discussed with Algo and Horji about the next big international thing WIMWI students are planning...
Watched the Garba/Dandiya nautch @ LKP...
Reduced water of life's level to 3 fingers...

And

Sent a dbab to Fenian Brotherhood...
No Reply...

:(

End of the day status: Pits

Cold Man Sach-Z

2005-10-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

Many members of the fair species find me cold and boring.
They think I am either too nerdy or too sarcastic.

WTH!

Some times I behave like a cultured chap who talks very less and is extremely chauvinistic and I get branded as a moron.
And yet, when I want to do amends by acting smart, cracking a wise joke or two, they say I am an uncouth rascal with no sense at all...

Huh!!

No wonder this state of affairs has denied me a Paro so far.. :)
Chandramukhi.. anyone?

This reminds me of an exchange between Natalya Simonova, a level 2 geek programmer at the Severnaya Space Weapons Control Centre and Agent Double-O-Seven in the movie "The Golden Eye"

Natalya: How can you act like this, how can you be so cold?
Bond: That's what keeps me alive.
Natalya: No. That's what keeps you alone.

Garba, Durga Puja et Maha Navami

2005-10-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

It is nice to see many people strutting around wearing colorful garbs. Garba is happening around. And I have missed all the Garba/Dandiya parties so far. So went to MICA for the fiesta.
It was fun watching all those backless cholis. But the fun ended there. The sort of Garba, I have seen on TV was more lively. This one paled significantly. The dances were rather slow and some of them (I think the non Gujju folks) were busy improvising their own style. I could see a Macarena here and a Bangra on the other corner. Altogether, it resembled some sort of a dance in a tribal society where everyone had the freedom to dance the way he/she wanted to.
But what the hell, why should I bother. Everyone was enjoying the programme. We are having our own Garba party the day after. Looking forward to it.

How to shake a leg

http://www.sacredcircles.com/THEDANCE/HTML/DANCEPAG/GARBA.HTM

In WIMWIland, the Bong community is gearing up for the Durga Pooja. We have got a nice statue of Devi Durga. 12th is the immersion date.

In Kerala we celebrate Vidyarambham, the initiation ceremony with Saraswathi Pooja. I remember keeping the books and utensils during the pooja time and not opening/using/touching them till Vidyarambham. Newspapers, radios, vehicles and kitchen implements were spared, lest we get stranded without food, news and transport. :)

For me, the acad books are on pooja for most part of the acad year.

On the path to recovery

2005-10-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

I couldn't call Gullu who would have set my comp right. Gava delegated the work to the local comp engineers. They gave up after tinkering for two days. And i was literally like feeling a piece of .. er.. cold meat. Then Bhagwan Google saved me from a near probable nerve wreck.

The research threw up the following.
1. My comp's NTFS partition is gone (Stop 0x00000024 error). Immediate Action: Changed the dbab nick to 'NTFS sucks'. Short Term action plan: get the data retrieved.
2. I had to retrieve my data. Immediate Action: Get the comp booted and access the NTFS partition or whatever is left of it from some other OS. Short Term action plan: mount the C volume
3. There are non-Microsoft tools which helps one to do the job. Immediate: get them!!

So i got the following from the net:
NTFS reader: To reader and retrieve my data
XFdisk: to rewrite the MBR
Partition Recovery: restoring the partition

And after nearly five hours of toil, managed to get most of the data and the comp up and running.

Hallelujah!

Well, got all my emails and SAC docs back. But all my pictures are gone.
:(

Dead

2005-10-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

My comp is gone!! I cant go beyond the Blue Screen Of Death!!

All those data and pics!!!

:((

Some one save me!!

YAO!

2005-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Yet Another Onam!

Another fine morning but this time with a little bit of effort towards the making of "Pookkalam".

<< The final product

One of the firsts in WIMWI land. According to one of old mallu admins here, most of the previous batch mallu tucchas would have utilised this as an opportunity to gulp down Holy Nirvana Water or gone to the authentic malluland hotel "4 Foods" near Thaltej Char rasta.

Project Pookkalam

The chief architects: Bamboo Singh and Auntie

The supporting cast: Todo (pronouonced as Toh-Doh), Mafia, Mili, Milky Singh, QC and a traditonal oil lamp.

A running nose and fever left me missing the 4 Foods' OnaSadya (left). Doc Milky advised me to have crocin. Insti doc prescribed "para-cetri-tetra". I took both prescriptions. May be the double dose of para had the effect. Slept peacefully till 1.00 pm.

I hope the fever has got to do nothing with my latest object of attraction.

My own country!

2005-08-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today we have the last exam and I am off to my small village in Mallu land. No internet for a week.
It has been quite a long time since I spent more than 36 hours at home. This time hopefully I should be there for three days. Post monsoons, Kerala would be clad in the emerald garb and Onam just two weeks away.
I came across some beautiful pics in the Kerala Tourism Department's website. A couple are here...

(A "Kulham" or the village pond (top) and the "Pookkalam" traditional floral carpet we make during Onam)

In Jocular Vein

2005-08-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

We have a system of bidding for the second year courses. It happens towards the fag end of each term and is done online. It is fun at times. But when things get out of hand and you end up on the losing side, one tends to think philosophical. It is strange that this year's bidding for 5th term courses took a funny turn thanks a course in philosophy. There is a course called Philiosophical Foundations of Management(PFM) which generated lot of interest among the bidders and heat in the bidding process. There was some confusion between the bidders and the administration and the end-result was the rebidding. This time the results did not look funny to me. I lost three courses I had bid successfully in the first round.

My losses...
-Explorations in Role and Identity
-Persuasive Communication
-Strategic Financial Management

My sole gain...
+Enterpreneurship and New Venture Planning
Now I have no choice but to learn..

+International Business Dispute Resolution

+Strategic Management of Intellectual Property Rights

+The Multinational Firm & Transfer Pricing and

+Data Mining and Business Intelligence

The entire problem was created by one course PFM. Thinking about Philosophy, I like the philosophical jokes the best. They are just like the subject matter. One can't make the head or tail out of them. You spend days and nights thinking about the joke, at times wondering if the joke is on you. Then you start introspecting the very existence of oneself.

Savour this..

Question: What is a recent philosophy Ph.D.'s usual question in his or her first job?Answer: "Would you like french fries with that, sir?"

Well.. I am still trying to figure the joke out. If you succeeded, then try this site, Philosophy at University of Miami, which has more such gems. Cogito ergo sum.. idiot

Jokes et al

2005-08-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

In IIMA we have an e-bulletin board service. It is called Dbabble. There are three good things I have to say about it.

1. It dessiminates information to the students

2. It has nearly 47 universal boards(NB) to discuss topics ranging from 'animal love' to 'human expressions of love', from 'sports' to mundane 'Current Affairs'..

3. It is an excellent tool for gossip and interpersonal virtual communication.

On the flip side, this service makes you an addict. And your academic performance is inversely related to your posts in Dbabble. Higher the posts lower the grades. Its no surprise that one finds very few evilian (He is the topper) posts on the dbabble.

One of the NBs is the Jokes NB, where junta put all sorts of arbit jokes, mostly email forwards and copy paste from joke sites. Some are down right funny while others are plain yucky. I like jokes. So I thought I had better start compiling a joke blog with the select jokes from the NB. And Joke-a-Blog was born on 16 August 2005, the day after India's 59th independence day.

True religion

2005-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

An agnostic I am. Yet religion fascinates me. Then one day, I chanced upon this piece of article on a true religion. Well.. not exactly a true religion, but an interesting brand of casualwear of that name. I am not a typical denim guy, though I wasted some money on a Diesel. True Religion is for those who worship celeb jeans worth a bomb. A pair of "Men's 'Joey' Patchwork Rigid - Destroyed" jeans comes with a tag of $240.00. India's percapita income (in real terms) was about $285 during 2004-05. IIIT-Hyderabad had once tom-tomed about launching a $250 PC by 2007. Indian garment industry is worth around 61 K crores (At first I didnt believe it either. But the feed came from an MR agency of repute). Looks like there is a good market for jeans wear for snobs.

Meanwhile, True Religion's web site looks pretty good. It has an unconventional look and is tastefully done.

Arbit Quiz

2005-08-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

Tommorrow I have a CB end term paper submission. I gotta work my ass off on the BM project. I am yet to understand the scope of my ITI term paper. And the prof will be hopping mad if I dont submit next term's IP proposal tomorrow. So cant get more arbit. I got the link from my friend Hari's blog. This was an extremely arbit quiz. It is supposed to gimme my religious leanings.

I was not surprised at the results in general. But was a bit surprised to find a trace of Discordian in me. Hail Lords Malaclypse The Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst !!

Here you go.
Take the quiz: "WHAT RELIGION BESTS SUITS YOU?"

Agnostic
You've probably studied loads of different religions, but you're just not sure if any of it is true. Evolution makes some sense to you, but it doesn't satisfy you. Lastly, your personality is one of question, but you won't go out of your way to find -The Truth- It's more of a hobby.

Fundamentalist Christian (You scored 0)
Holy Roller (You scored 0)
Average Christian (You scored 0)
True Christian (You scored 0)
Modern Satanist (You scored 2)
Theistic/Traditional Satanist (You scored 0)
Luciferian (You scored 0)
Devil Worshipper (You scored 0)
Atheist (You scored 1)
Agnostic (You scored 4)
New Aged/Wiccan (You scored 0)
Pagan/Occultist (You scored 2)
Discordian (You scored 1)
Category Unknown (You scored 0)

Hippocampus Capers

2005-08-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Of late I have fallen into the habit of forgetting things. I can remember the things of long past. But is unable to recollect in a jiffy, for example, the names of people I meet. Yesterday, when I went to meet the prof, I came across this pretty young TA. I forgot her name in a matter of minutes. I didnt want to make an ass of myself infront of her by asking for her name again. After she left, I asked the prof who she was. Prof gave me her name with a sly smile. Again, I forgot. I guess it has got to do something with my short term memory. This peculiar situation reminds me of a 2001 movie I had seen some time back. It is called 'Memento'. The movie was rated 8.7 on IMDB and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, which are pretty good ratings. I saw the movie and I liked it. The protagonist, played by Guy Pearce, is suffering from short term memory loss. This is called Anterograde Amnesia - the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. While browsing throught his bio on IMDB, I found some similarities between me and Pearce . He gave up science and maths in his school for arts and music. I gave up both for sleep and sloth. Pearce had a thin body and started buiding his body when he was 15. I still have a thin body and I have been contemplating of joining a gym to build a body since I was 15. But the similarities end here. Pearce was voted one among the sexiest men for two years. I am still to get into the Top 5 of D1, D2 or D11.

To combat this amnesia, I have started scribbling notes etc (In the movie, the hero used tattoos and Polaroid prints). But, soon I forget the fact that I had written something down on something. So, I resorted to post-its, not the square yellow gummed paper used to decorate one's work place to lend a feeling of importance to the work one does. This is an electronic 3M post-it. No more tree felling. You can download the freeware from here.Viva l' Greenpeace!

Music TV Musings

2005-08-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

24 years ago, this day, MTV "killed the radio star", thanks to the Buggles' video.
In India, lots of junta cried 'bloddy murder' against MTV. Their gripe - 'MTV is ruining Indian culture'. But all died out when Bollywood and Desi channels vied among each other to reveal anatomical curves and cleavages of the fair sex.

But I liked MTV. I liked its montages (which all the music channels have shamelessly copied since). They, the montages, were plain silly. But were welcome relief from DD's prime time fillers. I liked Cyrus and his bhakras. I loved their VJs-from spunky Mini Mathur to red hot chilli peppery Malaika.

And dont one like the news they break on their site. e.g. the one which said Big B is gonna play Gabbar Singh. or their movie reviews

Trivia time:
And why did Trevor Horn and co name their band "Buggles"? According to Horn (as per some sources) that was the worst and the most disgusting name they could come up with. Hmmm.. Hornies could have been a better nomen. Bad branding.

Quizzing&allthatjazz

2005-08-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

Quizzing&allthatjazz

This blog started by another crackpot from WIMWI is a quiz blog or thats what he claims. Addu is my partner in quizzing and some other lesser crimes. Though only a post old, the blog looks promising. Hope he'll get it going.

Rendezvous with Harsha Bhogle

2005-07-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today Harsha was there in the campus. This cool dude was visiting his alma-mater. He was the cynosure of all eyes in the AMA organised talk. The talk was studded with witty gems.

A few of his googlies...
... On Indian Hockey: "If Indian Hockey is A and Excellence is B, then A intersection B is a null set"
...On Tendlya: "If Gavaskar's batting was the epitome of the pre-lib junta's favourite fixed deposit schemes, Tendulkar's is the shining example of post liberalisation equity markets"

Post talk, Harsha chatted with us-his facchas-for a 'Bhogling' two hours. Junta wanted to know more about his life in WIMWI than cricket. But still he gave us lots and lots of gyan on cricket and his life as a commentator.

{Here's me and other wimwians all ears to Harsha Bhai}

Harsha Bhogle is a WIMWIan. But he is not an I-Banker or a consulant or an FMCG Head Honcho. He did what he loved doing and the rest is history.

Ballistics

2005-07-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

I like this font very much. Its a kinda cool. Trebuchet it is. The name Trebuchet sends me some good vibes of some games I used to play.

One was the good old AOE. Trebuchet was a damn good contraption to blast ones enemies miles away. Talking about AOE, I got most of my primary level world history gyan by playing this game and later AoC series. Rise of Nations helped me finish the rest. Looking back, it is hard to believe that the entire span of human history was in my hands! Humor apart, it was fun building barracks and ramparts and training soldiers to kill. The game studio seems to have done a great deal of research whilst developing the game. Indeed, the trebuchets in real life worked very much like their game cousins. if you are neither a game freak nor a history geek, I suggest you borrow a CD or a DVD of "LOTR-Return of the King". There is this battle scene, where the Mordor Orcs 'release' the prisoners of war and later pulverise the city of Gondor. Their tool for diplomatic and war missions - the humble trebuchet. For the scientifically inclined there is this site which gives some dope on trebuchet.

<{Strange Cousins}>

When I was young, my brer gifted me a catapult. It was a hand held thingie made of two twigs and a piece of rubber tube. It was a peacemaker, trebuchet and toy - all rolled into one. Like Orcs had Gondor for fun, we had another bastion. The mango trees. In summer, the mango orchards in Kerala, blessed with hanging bunches of mangoes, were children's playground. Adding to the mirth, were the crows and the smaller birds. Some of us had fun bringing down a sparrow or a song thrush once in a while. Apparently none of us knew about the WWF or Greenpeace or Prakriti club then. Once, a braver cousin of mine once tried to get a crow. He managed to escape with a few pecks from the angry murder. That day I learnt that I could outrun the rest of the gang.

I do miss my childhood.

So much for trebuchets, games and fonts.. Its time to take a nap before going to sleep in ITI class.

Moi first blog

2005-07-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

So far life has been simple. Am used to reading blogs and putting arbit replies. Got bored, had enuff.. or whatever. So got this wild idea, to find out how green is the grass over here. Lemme start blogging.

But mind you. I am a born lazy goose. Unlike the blogs my friends keep, say Evilian's Catharisis or Jith's Uncertainity,this may die young. Infant mortality, sort of.

For those who pass by my blog another day, dont forget to kudo me if you spy another arbit post in this blog, for I would have shaken off my laziness for a while. So much for archaic stuff. But what should I blog on? Lemme see.