The 8RF Game...

I've been tagged by Twilight Fairy....

Here are the rules:

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

Now that I have had my fill of "lazing and relaxing" after the rigours of the last fortnight of my intern, it's time to return to the usual mode of life. Any more lazing around and I will just be boring myself to death. So here goes 8 random facts about me.

1. Last 7 days Liquid Consumption Stats

Aerated Drinks (Coke/Thums Up/Appy Fizz) -- 22 bottles (500ml each or is it 600???)
(Just back after counting the bottles heap in the kitchen)
Water -- Hardly 2 such bottles.

Me on a lonely island with an unlimited supply of softdrinks -- I'm sure I can make it through.
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2. I seriously believe that my favourite sporting heroes are jinxed when I watch them live.
Like the only ball of the 2003 cricket WC tournament that I watched live, Sachin Tendulkar was out to Shoaib Akhtar. I sauntered to the television room when he was on the verge of his century and then it was all over!!! :(
Federer lost the French Open 2006 while I watched it live and Schumi's engine blew in the Japanese GP last year denying him his rightful title.
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3. I suppose I am low on self esteem. I deride myself a huge deal in front of others. I seriously do not know if I consider myself a weaker earthling than the person(s) in front or if the derision I heap on myself is a result of my insecurity and fear of failure.
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4. I am a loner. Being an only child, I have no idea as to what it feels like having a brother or a sister. I long to be pampered. I wish to pamper someone and feel protective about that person. I seriously wish I had a brother or a sister. But then again, being an only child always comes attached with lots of goodies -- and so I'm not complaining too much.
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5. I don't know if this is normal. But I have never had any crushes all my life -- be it cine stars, classmates or whoever whatever.
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6. I used to be a sucker for marks. Topping the class was all I used to think of and subsequently put a lot of pressure on myself.
I was always the topper of my class until I set foot in the rarefied hallows of IIT -- where I broke free off my self imposed shackles and topping the class has never been on my agenda since.
I still remember vividly the incident when I scored 16 1/4 marks in Telugu during a unit test and my competitors for the first rank scored 16 3/4 marks in the same. I cried so badly for the half mark they'd gained on me, that I threw up in the class, much to the embarrassment of the teacher and myself.
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7. My last year of stay at Kharagpur will be the 17th year of hostel life for me. 17 of 21. That's a huge number, I guess. I'd bet I have seen a huge array of people than the average person and the whole melange of characters from the motley crowd that has passed by me has made me quite worldly wise.
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8. I write long e-mails and long letters -- but the recipients haven't ever complained about their length.
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Whoooo!!! Didn't know I had to slog out so hard at that one.
And finding 8 more people :O
Well, let's save that for another day.

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Oh.... Wow O Wow !!!

This feels real good. A Huge Morale Booster especially at a time when I am pondering at all the unwise steps I took during the course of my life.

The Outlook-CNN-IBN poll places IIT Kharagpur back at the Numero Uno position in the Engineering College rankings. Back to the top. I still remember those message T-shirts junta used to flaunt when I was in my first year, proudly proclaiming, "IIT Kgp....Lonely at the Top" . Then there was the fall from grace!!! Slowly the tees vanished too.

I still cannot comprehend how these rankings are done and how the jugglery of the top 5 IIT's can happen in the rankings each year when there isn't much of a change in the way each IIT functions. Maybe just a little bit of infrastructure addition -- which appears to be of the same magnitude in all the IIT's because they have very similar fund allocations. How much ever the rankings and the ranking system may puzzle me, it is so refreshing to see my dear insti back at the top of the ladder. All I needed was a reason to move out of the gloominess and what better reason than this. Has pepped up my spirits and got me kicking.

Addendum: As if one isn't sufficient, here goes another--The Dataquest Rankings where IIT Kgp again tops the charts. :)

Further Snippets -- Bangalore Life

Today signals the completion of 4 weeks(that's one half of my expected stay) of my work here @ Tata ELXSI, the -- The odd Elxsi is a Singaporean company that ventured into a joint venture with the Tata's and then slipped off into oblivion, but the name sounding different and maybe, posh, hung on. Considering the fact that at almost exactly the same time of the year last year, I was wriggling and writhing to get out of Vizag Steel Plant and Hyundai Motors India Ltd, painfully counting the days left out of the 3 week and 2 week schedule respectively, this is a huge huge improvement given that I am looking forward to the next 4 weeks. Great going, I must say.
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Weekends have gotten so stereotypical what with Bangalore having just malls, malls and more malls, and mind you, nothing else. It's Saturday and so we rush to the Inox theater @ Garuda Mall, to catch a 10:00 AM show. That's the only show on the weekends available for less than a 100 bucks, 99 to be exact. Venture out in the afternoon and the rates escalate to 200. Now don't count me out for being a miser, but then I simply don't think it's worth it spending 200 bucks on a movie -- a gamble on 2 or more precious hours of your life without the surety that you wouldn't run a headache at the end of it all.
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After the movie, we are off to some restaurant and after that, we lazily roam about the streets before hitting another mall, where a Landmark or a Crossword consumes most of our time. Ah!!! Bliss it is to spend some time in the company of books, wanting to buy this and that and everything. Reading a few passages from those that you happen to lay your eyes on and getting the mind into a fix deciding as to which book to take along with you to provide companionship and solace for the week and which to discard for some other time.
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After I reach back home in the night after some frantic window shopping at the malls, its time to hit the bed. Sundays, I mostly have some carried over work from office. So Sunday is for a little bit of rest at home and spending time with "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" and Seinfeld.
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Last week, we'd been to see 'Cheeni Kum' -- the best romantic comedy ever made in Hindi. Awesome dialogues, Characters one could so easily relate to, Sharp witted humour matched with great performances by the cast. Go watch it -- You'll love the jokes on chhatris and chachas, few scenes that will linger in your head for a long, long time. Though I must admit the second half was bland, boring and not even half as energy filled as the first one. Well, you have to admit though, you can't not have some dramabaazi and expect a saccharine comedy all through. It has to meander to an end somewhere. This week, its Pirates of the Caribbean.
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Last Sunday, The outgoing batch of 2001 of St John's, Gannavaram had a get together, a reunion. And guess who was missing??? Yours truly, Me!!! Oh!!! How I missed not being able to go there. I was working on my presentation for Monday when guys called up and talked to me. I was completely put off-- mood out -- for 2 hours and had to roll up in my cot to get that bad feeling out. Seeing the photos on the group makes me more jealous. Guess all of them had a jolly good time. Pesky Little Brats, all grown-ups now -- Miss you all so much.
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Coming to the HUGEST thing that happened to me at my workplace. My first BIG presentation in office. Note the keyword -- BIG. BIG doesn't exactly capture the magnitude of vastness, the hugeness of the presentation. It was colossal in many ways. Highly designated people among the audience. (Huge Play of Nerves on my part. You'd expect that naturally. Slipped on fine into my presenter's role after the first 2 minutes.) Twitched eyebrows. Stoic expressions. Questions all over in the air. Suggestions flew thick and fast. Scampered solutions. (I had to make up many, on-the-spot.) It was more of a brainstorming session that went on for 2 hours. And at the end of it all, all I had was lot of feedback, little bit of appreciation and much more work to do.
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CGPA, Cumulative Grade Point Average, and SGPA, Semester Grade Point Average, are huge depressants, I learnt yesterday. I was thinking about these after a long long time and the very mention of those dreaded words sent shivers down my spine. I could no more do any work. It spilled into a headache and I had to take permission yesterday to take the afternoon off -- I had the feeling that my head was about to burst from pressure. How my life revolves around my CGPA at this instant. Which brings me back to the cliched phrase -- How I wish I knew it's importance the moment I entered IIT.
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Finished Reading
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri -- Great insight into NRI life. Quite moving at the end. Sluggish Pace but quite lovable and enjoyable.
Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho -- The only one to write like he can, where the author uses the story of a prostitute as a metaphor to bring out the difference between love and sex. And there is a lot more one can get from it.
The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor -- enjoyable at first but then flip past the initial 100 pages and it gets monotonous and 'Awww!!! Please Stop', you'd hear yourself say. He marries the Mahabharata with the British Raj -- and the funniness reaches a yielding point very soon, turning itself to torture.
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai -- needs a bigger review. Maybe when I am out of this intern, I'll write a review. Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2006. And I have many interesting observations about it.
The Nude by Nergis Dalal -- It's a collection of short stories. Crappy book and Sick in many senses. (nothing porno about it -- just a few sick stories on relationships.)

Currently Reading
Above Average -- by Amitabha Bagchi, an IIT professor writing about an IITian. (Guess it's semi-autobiographical.)
120 days of Sodom -- by Marquis De Sade, the man responsible for the birth of the eponym - Sadism. (e-book)

In the shelf
To Kill a Mocking Bird -- by Harper Lee. I'd been wanting to read this one in a long, long time.
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Before I sign off, I must remind myself. One hour of Office time in writing my memoirs -- Who's gonna read them anyways??? I just like the freedom I enjoy at the workplace here. Hoping to have a great weekend. Auf Widerschen until then.

Time Flies!!!

More than a month since my last post!!!
Guess I have been procrastinating a lot. But then putting of things for a later date has become a way of life, I guess. I do have so many things to yap about, though.

-- Like I want to talk about the awfully-gone-wrong End semester exams, where I'd expected one thing and what appeared in the paper was another.

-- Like my 1 week stay at home, where each day I'd had to brave things that I'd get to hear, hidden away safely from me all through a semester so that it doesnt affect my stay at IIT.

-- Like I want to talk about my addiction to sitcoms especially Seinfeld as well as Two and a Half men. Like I want to write a post on the awesome and frighteningly witty one-liners in 2.5 men. Sample this -- "Love isn't blind. It's retarded!!!" :P

-- Like my developing cold feet to travel for my summer internship from my hometown to Bangalore on a unconfirmed AC 2 tier ticket.

-- Like my hodgy podgy trip the next day , this time, on a half confirmed ;), yes you heard it right, half confirmed, sleeper class ticket.

-- Like my waiting for my brother to pick me up at the Bangalore station and he awaiting a call from me announcing my arrival, thus resulting in my being stranded on the platform for atleast an hour or so.

-- Like my workplace here at TATA ELXSI, the energy sapping workplace, busy and reticent people all around my workstation, the workaholics adjacent my cabin, demanding superiors and an altogether different lifestyle that I've accustomed myself to.

-- Like the 20 minute drive from office to the bus stop and the 30 minute walk from the bus stop to my brother's place. Crazy!!! Ain't it???

-- Like the excruciatingly difficult "loner" times I have to spend in the evenings - immersing myself in novels, waiting for my brother to get back home so that we can have dinner together.

-- Like the interesting design project I have been assigned with - to design a kitchen cabinet with an easily accessible bottom rack, so that you wouldn't need to bend down and hurt your hips. (My mudhead is awaiting some sudden spark. But I must confess it hasn't been in working mode for the past 3 years. So you guys could help me through this. Any ideas welcome here :D)

-- Like my spending the first week trying to bypass proxies to access google and yahoo mail and sports sites that are blocked in office. (Successfully managed that in the end!!! Yippeeee :B)

-- Like I want to talk about how much I loved the first half of the movie 'Life in a METRO'. WOW !!! Sizzling, Scandalous and Unabashed Concoction of Extra Marital Affairs. Enough material to ponder over how westernized we have become and hopefully questioning whether we have crossed the line or not.

-- Like how I felt very bad for "Gogol" of "The Namesake", especially in the concluding pages. Something made my heart heavy, sorrow engulfing both the auricles and ventricles -- Feeling bad for his having to be emotionally and physically torn between two continents, for having had 4 failed relations, for not really understanding who he is and what he is meant to be.

-- Like walking around malls, window shopping with nothing in mind - gazing at Swarovski, drooling over Tag Hueur and desiring that slim piece of IPod Nano.

-- Like I want to comment about the artificial Bangalore life, the dullness that hangs in the air and the confused looks on the faces of many. One thing Bangalore has managed to do to me is feel insecure about not having a girlfriend. :P Guess that feel surfaces in anyone when in a crowd of 100 there are 40 couples at the very least!!!

So much to talk about. So little time. If I don't get back to work now, I'd be lagging behind on my schedule. Got a presentation to make this Thursday -- my first deliverable here. So back I go to work. Ciao............

P.S : Yooooo :D My first post from OFFICE!!! Deserves a celebration and a Pat!!!

Candid Confessions -- Have I hit NADIR???

>>---> Unenthusiastic(adj)
apathetic, indifferent, unresponsive, lukewarm, half-hearted, subdued, cool, unimpressed, unexcited, uninterested

Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

No GRE Preparation that one. 'Twas my status message in Gtalk a few days back!!!

Have you ever felt so damn tied down with work and yet felt like you don't really want to move a finger but just relax??? If you'd ever felt that way, you would understand what my status was trying to convey. When a friend who was online asked me what I was up to, I quickly lamented "No work" while I actually meant, "Lots of work to do, dude, but zilch tempo".

Well, Sample My Workload -- 2 Term Papers, 1 B Plan submission, 1 Project Report, 3 Class Tests and One Huge MATLAB Program all in the span of a week. All I do is sit in front of computer doing absolutely random crap or loiter around the corridor just hoping the mood to complete (or start) the work just pops out of nowhere. Wonder how that's feasible??? I need someone to fix my mind. Anyone out there to help fix it???

>>---> One of my childhood pals reminded me the other day how down in the dumps and sulky I have been behaving of late. He says “You’ve put a plug to all your humour channels."(Wonder if I had one in the first place, though the way he was talking, he meant I had many :D) "Creativity is an offspring of humour", he goes on. So he says he notices a dearth of creativity and humour in all my actions, writings and thoughts..... I just sighed. He at least meant I had been funny and witty and creative for some part of my life.

>>---> I used to pride myself over having a strong memory..... Well, Not anymore!!! I was in a quiz the last week when a few questions I'd heard before popped up. However hard I tried, I couldn't just recall the answers. Just as the quiz master gave out the answer, I'd gasp and let out a "Ptch....Shit, I knew this. Should have got it". Damn!!!

>>---> My tummy's looking like it's going to explode. Well, what else do you expect when you gorge twice a day at the very many Nescafe outlets that have mushroomed in the campus? This puff, That sandwich, This tart, That muffin and what not, finally washed down with a refreshingly chilled Ice Tea. No lunch, No supper in our rotten mess. Just Nescafe!!! My taste buds are having a blast while my pockets are getting blasted..... Damn big hole I can see already.

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POWER is like doing DRUGS

"Power tends to corrupt.
Absolute power Corrupts absolutely."

Just the slightest hint of power seems to set off a chemical reaction in the head of any/every person bestowed with it. It's hard to stay away from sinning as a result of that "Chemical Locha". Even if it is just trivial powers you have, I'd bet, it is insanely impossible to prevent yourself from nepotism, swindling as well as quite hard maintaining a docile head all through.

Power is like doing drugs.
Once you've had little, you want more.
Once you've had it, you're no more YOU.

The past few months, I've accidentally stumbled upon seemingly innocuous and nice people -- I'd have vouched for their sincerity and steadfastness before they were in power --, being the cause of some astonishingly unimaginable acts, after power had been thrust on them. Power can change most people -- 180 degree the persona changes. One just can't help.

Those already corrupt and knowing the privileges power carries along with it go to any depths to possess it. I don't want to get any controversial but then a respectable college going guy cleaning seniors' plates for being a part of a committee of 20 people. Just Yuck!!! It's so demeaning oneself. Surely there must be better ways of making it to the destination. And if there aren't any, it only means that the system is highly flawed and needs a change.

So those of you who have mistakenly stumbled upon this and might assume "Power" in the near future -- Just review your self every now and then once you get the clout in your hands and please do keep the degree of nepotism, swindling and all that down to the bare minimum and more importantly, you would do with a sane head on your shoulders, because as I already emphasized power corrupts anybody -- You, Me or Anybody else on Planet Earth.

P.S: Power hasn't spared me either. Being the SPL (School Pupil Leader) in my class 10, I used to favour my friends in many aspects -- guilty on several charges of nepotism.

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Peace of Mind

Life offers some funny twists along it's path. It's imperative that life doesn't provide everything on a platter but then little do we realize that very fact. Of late, the innumerable twists and turns that have engulfed my life have left me bewildered.

I have been befuddled with a stream of such nasty twists -- never before did I witness such a sudden spurt of tricky situations. At first, it seemed kind of awkward. Then, to add to that, my reactions to these intricacies defied all logic. Maybe the shocking nature of these petty convolutions agitated me and pretty upset me leading to those diverse, extreme, unsolicited responses.

I haven't been the same since. Lost in Thoughts.

So many questions float in the air. Concentration has been wavering since. So the march begins to set things right.

Before I attempt putting things back on the right track, I still have many unanswered questions.

What is it that I want ???
What have I set out to achieve???
What will be the aftermath of my decisions???

Nothing is clear. Yet I am determined. I don't want trivial unimportant issues to ruin the big picture.

Still in the elusive search for PEACE OF MIND...........

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