beingdesh

Category: Personal

  • the two month itch…

    Almost two months without a blog post…horrible.

    I haven’t been busy at all, because being busy means – watching movies every week, going for food outings in Bangalore, playing volleyball in office, meeting new people, writing a few stupid blogposts now and then, talking nonsense most of the times, going home and getting stuck in 4-5 books at a time.

    Nothing like that happening, the only good things that have happened for sometime now,

    • Billi form reached safely, hope 1st October goes fine too(when the form is rejected/accepted)…

    • I tasted almost the Best Wine of my life, some Italian stuff, we had that along with some Port wine from Pondicherry. Awesome stuff which went well with Pizza and Maggi, now I know why people love wine so much. By the way vows have been already broken once. Also maggi is always good, although same can’t be said about Pizza. We watched Golmaal with it and again got into a debate regarding dahi-vade it might be post modern dilemma of love, food and women & gender… 🙂
    • Some good test series scores, some not so good ones.

    • Our project team getting like 2-3 awards within a week.

    • Me scoring a goal, yes a GOAL in my company’s annual football tournament. Believe it or not it was a last minute goal hit from half-line. It was fun. Followed it up with a penalty too.

    • I have somehow rekindled my interest in Mathematics, its a lot more fun nowadays, like the good old days of school.

    • Saw Chak De…awesome movie, Shahrukh is Baap of Bollywood.

    Although most of the changes can be attributed to following factors,

    • Billi, padhai has taken me over quite a lot, I have started studying quite a lot, though the scores are not hitting a good tone, but still atleast I am giving it a shot. Have joined a test series plus a coaching and its eating up most of it, i.e. time.

    • Work at office, that speaks for itself.

    • Me shifting from up to down at home (because of Nihar and Sandy moving out), although that has made no difference at all.

    • No Sandy at workplace is a lot boring…:(

    • I have had my Sardi Khasi month of the year ( a period where I can be spotted in sweater, with a hanky, smelling of Vicks Vaporub, gargling with hot water before sleeping, popping Sinarest, Crocin at a threatening pace, choking in dreams etc etc…)

    And some of the things I have chucked due to work, Billi etc.

    • A trip to Cochin and nearby villages, to attend one of my team-mate’s wedding. All my bags were packed, my tickets were booked, but Billi came in…:(((
    • A trip to Ooty and a nearby Forest Reserve, staying at a resort, going for midnight forest tours with rangers and ofcourse Ooty tour. Btw all free of cost as a part of Happa’s Party (he going to Stanford…:))) again billi came in the way of me watching the Big Billi…:(((
    • A burrp meet which I said would go but didn’t show due to office…:((, imagine me missing loads of bak-bak and good food…:((
    • Partner, Transformers, Cricket Matches(although I hate Cricket nowadays), Hey Baby, RGV ki Aag etc etc
    • Blogging, no more of it.
    • Haven’t started the seventh Harry Potter book yet, somehow crazily wrapped up all the other six in one month, and then didn’t read the last one.
    • Started and chucked, Henry Kissinger’s -Ending the Vietnam war, Harper Lee’s To kill a mocking bird, Moby Dick and some Peter Drucker book.

    Things that will never change,

    • Me not having a Girlfriend.
    • Kapil not having a Girlfriend.
    • Stupid lunch time discussions dealing with Nihilism, work life balance, sex life of IT professionals, extreme programming, signal processing, mother boards, bluetooth, Who will die when you cry, cheap bollywood stuff, how great Satyen Kappu was, How pathetic was the food today, why cheese goes well with wine, there are three kinds of things in this world argument, why postpone GRE dates, why some people don’t work, Why grass is green, Why Public Policy is hot, I want to work for UN, I don’t want to work at all….huh

      Although Nihilism is quite interesting, enjoyed reading a bit about it. Thanks to the quark for triggering half of the above mentioned discussions. And also Kapil and Akshat for chipping in…

    • Sleep and alaasya live on…

    Moral of the story, get a girlfriend, get a good college for higher education, get a job with high paying salary and you will start watching movies and India will start playing cricket.

    p.s.- Don’t think I have gone insane, just that I am not getting time to do my stuff, I am used to talking nonsense, so that would keep happening.

  • Ashtumaadi, 8 facts waalah tag done…

    Tagged by Steve and Naresh, I thought I better fullfill this one (I missed the last one I was tagged with). The title is Ashtumaadi a term quite often used by my school time pal Shameek which in Kannada means just do it (bas itna hi karo to be more specific). Also Asht reminds me of 8 so I put that particular title, add to that I just did it. Me quite busy so have put around some real random facts real quickly,

    • I don’t like my work, but I still go and do it. There is this keeda in me to show others that I can do it, add to that I am too bad in rejecting work given to me, something of which Prashant aka lamboo was a champ of (when he was working, now he studying). Add to that I don’t like most others that what I want to do, Billi is just an escape route and a window for sorting things out.
    • I don’t eat that much, as my PM puts I am rather a connoisseur of food rather than a glutton. I like the variety in food and maybe in future I want to study it, I would have been better as chef I believe.
    • I drink mostly to please my friends, my only fascination with liquor is that I like to experiment with it as I do with food. But I think I don’t really like it. That’s why its less of it nowadays. I feel non-alcoholic meetups are much less exciting. And I want to kick those people who sit on the sidelines during a drinking session, gobbling up all the liquor-goodies.
    • I like traveling in Trains, if a ever direct a movie the plot would be set in a Train, I just love the Sleeper Class journeys, travelling alone, traveling with friends, the food stalls, chaiwaalahs, the debates with TTE, the fights, the auntyjiswho ask you to exchange the berths, the stinking toilets, the magazine stalls, the smell of the metal railings of window(yes they do smell), basically everything.
    • I always have had a sorta crush on Madhuri Dikshit, I always had it in my mind that I should have been born 20 years ago to shrink that age difference, if she was not married till now maybe I could have still given her a shot. By the way having a girlfriend in the girlfriend sense of it is still pending…Also as I mentioned Madhuri I would like to mention that I love watching movies, any kind of movies.
    • I detest watching Cricket nowadays, given a chance I would throw Rahul Dravid into a gutter, I feel that he along with that stupid Chappel made Cricket what it is today-Boring. Dada and Tendulkar are the bestest players ever and I will always worship them. I also watch all kinds of sports- tennis, Golf, NBA, football, Badminton etc etc in no particular order. I play too btw …
    • I have a good enough memory, its a bit out of order but still quite in place, the pages in memory shift with time, in 90’s it was all the Tennis matches with all their set scores which I remembered, add to that the cricket matches, I have a tag based mechanism for searching through my memory. It’s complex to understand.
    • I don’t remember my dreams and I don’t try to because I get weird dreams sometimes, I feel its a sin to interpret dreams, they should be left alone as a cleanup job for mind.

    Some good posts for the same tag I came across were by- Naresh, Supriya, Steve and Sur. I wont tag anyone, this one is a bit old now.

  • Long Live the Aam Aalsi Aadmi

    If R.K.Laxman gave The Common Man (Aam Aadmi) to World, we give the world the Aam Aalsi Aadmi. Some of the charecteristics of AAA,

    • He is Aam, Aam as in Aam- the Common.
    • He is Aalsi
    • First two sentences prove that He is a Aadmi

    Also rather than being a silent witness to most of the events around him and having an opinion about it, AAA is suppose to save his energy by having an opinion but not being at the site of incident. AAA is gifted with a strong sense of instinct which helps them form opinions without even observing an incident.

    The Cartoon character is still under design but he is supposed to look quite shabby due to his Aalasya preventing him from taking a bath.

    We are in talks with Air Deccan for replacing their mascot with ours once its designed, the Aalsi theme much in sync with their timings…:)

    This character is truly inspired from one person whom I consider to be the human incarnation of the Aam Aalsi Aadmi. In his own words,

    alasya kabhi marta nahin hai…bas so jaata hai

    meTaL or LKP (its pronounced as ल क प ) is the true representative of the Aam Aalsi Aadmi, one who inspires everyone to Billi glory. From the sleepy hostels of DA-IICT to the irky dorms of IIM-Indore he effuses laziness in its full glory. In his company I have spent countless hours just doing nothing and creating some silly things like the once famous DTC (DA-IICT Tond Club). He is a true inspiration for millions of us showing that sleeping is far more superior mechanism of nutrition than food itself. Sleep gives us more energy than Carbs to basically do nothing and save it for future, quite important as the world moves towards an imminent Energy Crisis.

    Other members which truly deserve the company of ल क प,

    • Inzamam-ul-haq aka Inzy, former Cricket Captain of Pakistan.
    • Sarat aka TTY (read as तू तो यार), aalasya and intelligence zipped in one file, currently lazying out at IIIT Hydbad
    • JD who is heading to IIIT HydBad 🙂 (We will all miss you at office, volleyball, home and Bangalore 😦 )

    Me leaving myself out, I am aalsi but not in the league of these extraordinary Gentlemen.

    p.s.- No offense meant against any of the above-mentioned individuals, I think they are truly all amazingly intelligent individuals…(including the great RK Laxman). And all of you take bath for sure…maybe!!! Thanks to Jaine for telling me the famous quote of LKP to work on…:)

    p.p.s- The character will be copyrighted by me soon, so no infringement…:)

  • Happy Anniversary

    For one year in Bangalore and one year at work…

    I thought I would be out of Bangalore till now, but its ok. Maybe next year! Things have started turning a bit boring nowadays but its OK, will manage.

  • Appraisal

    Had an internal appraisal last week carried out by few of my friends. Process was kicked off by quark. Got some good enough comments,

    • A man with a lot of PJs is surely connected to Desi with less than 3 links in between.
    • Desi is a person who has all nodes as outgoing and all data is generated in his mind.
    • Well for our Daisy, that would contradict the fifth law of Thermodynamics – “Data cannot be created nor destroyed “.

    • Daisy is the only “Organism” who can spread voice data (remember data is not information) even in vacuum.

    Looks more like a Theory of Desi Networks. Anyway appraisal certainly Above Expectation :).

    P.S.- Daisy is another addition to the never ending list of my nicknames, coined by Nitesh under possible influence of C2H5OH.

    List is certainly not exhaustive…

  • Padhai

    Thodi si, a bit of it, it is difficult but kya kare…

    In school people could have easily related the act of Padhai with me. I enjoyed padhai, it was just another thing which was necessary for me to live, like food and sleep. Now it seems like a burden.

    Billi Season-3 is up, but given my capricious nature I am toggling too much between things. Office, Work, Blogs, Mails, Food, Sleep, Phone, Ayn Rand, Books, Weekend timepass, just too many things clogging my mindmap at the moment. I need to be focused, Billi is much more than getting a degree, its my last attempt to enjoy studies, to be a part of that world which seems even farther from Neverland. To put in a bit simpler terms, it’s escape route from working.

    Inspiration: The Great Escape (1963)

    Just want to runaway like Steve McQueen, just hoping that after getting out of here I do a bit better than facing Nazi Guns. Have seen the movie around 10 times.

    Maybe I am trying to hide it behind the pretext of my poor run in the last two seasons but the reality is that my Mind has rusted. Still looking for a good way to Galvanize and save it, because what has gone of it won’t come back.

  • Kids are the Future, they know it !!!

    Date
    13th May’2002

    Train
    Bangalore-Delhi Rajdhani Express
    AC III Tier

    Passengers
    Pattu (that is me, school nickname), Addu and Niddu

    Travel Purpose
    Journey from Bangalore to Nagpur. Me going back home after more than a month. The time which was spent in Delhi, Nagpur, Chennai and Bangalore giving IITJEE, KCET and DA-IICT entrance, coaching and waiting for trains.

    The Incident
    Now something about the incident, we had a family sitting with us in Train, uncle-aunty and two kids, elder son gave KCET like us and the younger one a school kid, maybe about 10-11 years old.

    The Father-Son duo (the younger son) was sitting facing each other with the train moving in the direction where the Father’s back was, Kid says

    “Dad, you are looking at the past, me at the future”

    That time I could just manage to smile at this, today I think I couldn’t have managed more.

    P.S. – Thought of blogging this after I read about Sur’s incident on the same Railway route.

    P.P.S- Although it’s out of context I would like to mention that this was the first time I was traveling by Rajdhani and the food was awesome.

  • Stuck in Book Traffic courtesy Ms. Ayn Rand

    Ayn Rand is surely a genius. She has made a mess out of my reading habits. I am no way a book addict like pingu but I have read some 30 odd books in the 11 months after coming to Bangalore. But it was only after I read Fountainhead that things have started messing up.

    After Fountainhead I started with Harry Potter to pacify my thoughts. I mean Harry and company surely are much more simpler to comprehend in action and thoughts than Howard Roark and troupe.

    As if Roark, Gynand, the stupid acts of Dominique, the light year long dialouges of Elssworth Toohey weren’t enough, I started my interaction with John Galt. Although still somewhere in middle Dagny sounds much more rationale than Dominique.

    Ayn Rand has started given me bad dreams too. I once saw Ayn Rand in my dream and here is how the conversation went,

    Me- Hi Ayn.
    Ayn Rand- Hi Desh! There is no reason why we are talking, but should there be a reason. You can do whatever you want but let me make my home as I want to to. And then I will blast it. There is nothing known as love for the house but an animal like desire for the ones whom I never loved. It hurts me if someone thinks that profits are worthless. Philanthropy is just a juxtaposition of randomly disordered thoughts which were never objectivist in nature. Its better to eat from someone’s palter rather than cook for him blah blah blah…(to infinity)

    And then you wake up with her bakbak still rumbling in my small brain.

    Whatever I say Ayn Rand surely makes you think and maybe that’s why she is that popular. Anyways by book traffic I mean I am reading the following books at the same time and not able to complete any of them,

    • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter-1,2,3 happened in one-two weeks, third is certainly the best of the lot)
    • Atlas Shrugged
    • Short Story Collection by Satyajit Ray (quite simple stories
    • Freakonomics
    • Shantaram (read some 600 pages of it few months back and after that have had 3 failed attempts to restart it again)

    Trying for a non-congested book affair. Any suggestions?

    Technorati Tags: Ayn Rand

  • Desi aur Uski Pyari Billi

    Billi Do Hazaar Saat
    Ek Lagan Nayi

    Sawaal- Billi Do Hazaar Che main kya hua, diya kyon nahi?
    Jawaab- No Comments!

    Sawaal-Kya is baar Fotu Chipkega?
    Jawaab- Ji haan chipkega!

    Sawaal-Billi swasth ke liye kyon zaroori hai?
    Jawaab- Billi nahi nikli to Bill bharne mushkil ho jaayenge, hamara swasth to thik hi hai lekin kahi mansik swasth na kharab ho jaaye. Aji ho hi jaayega. Billi main nahi hona swasth ke liye hanikarini rahega.

    Sawaal-Bangalore main to itne saare kutte hai, fir Billi hi kyon?
    Jawaab- Kisi mahaan vyakti ne kaha hai,

    Bangalore main agar patthar faiko to ya to kutte ko lagega ya fir abhiyanta ko lagega.

    Humen socha kutto ka to yaha khatma ho raha hai, to ab hume hi patthar lagenge, to humne Billi ko chuna. Billi hume Bangalore ki takniki duniya se door jaane ka suvarna mauka degi.

    Sawaal-Billi ke liye aajkal junta main utsukta kafi jyada hai?
    Jawaab- Ji haan, Billi kafi garma-garam ho chuki hai. Kuch varsho pahle yeh nahi tha. Bharat ki nayi artha-vyavastha main in naukriyon ko kafi badhawa mila hai.

    Sawaal-Aap kya sochte hai kya is baar aap “Billi ka Tod” ya “Billi ki Ghanti” prapt karne main safal honge?
    Jawaab- Pata nahi, dekhiye kuch kah nahi sakte, baat yun hai ki aajkal Billi badi anishchit ho gayi hai, yeh ek aisa khel hai jiska nirnay hamare uttaro aur bhagwaan ke aashirwaad ke alawa, mananiya nyayalaya, kuch dangayi aivam mantri bhi nirikshan-parikshan karne ke baad ghoshity karte hai. Yahi saal le lijiye abhi tak Billi ke nirnay latke hue hai.

    Sawaal-Aap to teesri baar Billi dene ki taiyari kar rahi hai, kuch hamare darshako ke liye sandesh?
    Jawaab- Ganit aur Anglya Bhasha prayog hi zaroori nahi hai, lagan aur mehnat zaruri hai. Dete rahiye, ek na ek din Billi aapke kadam choomegi. Jai Hind!!!

    Kya Desi Billi prapt kar payenge.

    SMS kijiye Desi Y (haan ke liye) ya Desi N(na ke liye) 242424 par

    Dhanyawaad.

    Pichle Varsh ke Desi ke Billi-Adventure

    Technorati Tags: CAT, Humor

  • It was IIT time again…

    Yesterday was IITJEE day. This time 2.5 lakh people appeared for it compared to 1.5 lakh which sat for screening when I gave it. Nice to read that they gave a Multiple Choice questions based easier exam. Now its time when people will start searching for IITJEE 2007 solutions everywhere and start comparing them with what they have put up in papers. In my days there were two phases, now its one which takes away a bit of pressure from the students. Screening sorted out some 25K people for mains. But giving the final main exam was quite an affair.

    I still remember the day, 5th May 2002. Me and niddu had lodged up in a nice hotel at Sitabardi, Nagpur. Both of us back from a month long Crash Course at Delhi, quite tired of studies. Actually we both were with quite less expectations but still there is always that hope.

    Niddu left for his centre in morning, I guess it was LNIT. Mine was CP Berrar College, and as I heard it was quite far. Amol Kaka, my dad’s cousin bro came to pick me up in the morning. It was quite hot, I had a really short haircut that time and I still remember my head burning. My kaka left me with some stuff to eat(chips, a coke and biscuits) at that was quite a remote place. Ok now it was exam time.

    So it started with Chemistry, giving the paper I was feeling lie god, I could solve almost all the stuff in paper and felt like GOD!!! You know those days solving everything really meant that. All the 12 questions, I think I did well with 10 of them. The thing was the first half was marred by Band-Baaja waalahs and as people in Nagpur told me later CP Berrar was there area. In middle of first paper I asked the invigilator for telling them to stop. They stopped after sometime but when you are playing well nothing matters.

    When I came out of the hall, I heard that everyone has done well, I shouldn’t say I was disappointed but I felt a bit foolish and becoming so happy and all. Ok, next was Physics, Ok Physics, now here was a subject I never really understood quite well, I mean for 2 years I had done mostly mathematics and neglected Physics quite a lot. Before that I munched through biscuits, chips and a boiling Coke or maybe it was Pepsi. Ok then Physics started and it was horrible, I looked around and saw 3-4 guys even sleeping, I thought its OK you will make it, no thermodynamics, OMG then what will I do, a simple lab experiment based question, yes done, at least one done. Somehow I managed to crack a question on Mechanics which surprised me. I was sweating heavily and it was getting quite hot, sweat fell on the answer sheet and rubbed off a bit of ink from one of the answers I had put, the bench was Ok as compared to other exams I have given but they started feeling uncomfortable. You see I quite literally put my sweat in IITJEE. It was the longest time I had spent thinking useless things and seeing around and solving something here and there but I knew this was over. But I saw 5-6 guys sleeping around me in the hall this time and I thought maybe I am doing not so bad, you know that hope never dis in an Indian Brain.

    Amol Kaka brought me lunch in the break and asked how did it go? I said ok, there were a few people I knew around, mostly my school seniors but I avoided talking to people that day, quite unlike me. Also my Kaka told me that the temperature was something like 48-49 C that day. God! I thought maybe it was not that bad and I was sweating due to the heat only. The last paper was Mathematics which I enjoyed as much as the Chemistry paper, the difference being that there wasn’t much noise this time round. Also the first half was damn hot, when I thought the temperature was around 50 and I was sweating again, the second hour hot wind started blowing and all the doors and windows of CP Berrar started banging themselves like stupid Rock show headbangers. Someone’s answer sheet also flew across the room and all.

    It ended, I went back to hotel, had a chat with Niddu and we both knew it was over. We had to leave for Bangalore the next day and needless to say we were both a bit disappointed. A month later I think they sent me a report card which said rank something 7050. Anyway it ended but it was quite a nice experience. Those were the last days when I enjoyed studying a bit.

    Anyway I hope all the students enjoyed giving exams, and not everyone will get in, but for those who don’t still giving the JEE will remain a good memory stored somewhere in there brains.

    Caught one blogger putting up the experience of JEE 2007

    Technorati Tags: , , IITJEE 2007,