The day after the last day of my student life …

First bachelors and then brothels. -Manto’s neighbour

A coherent rambling of the last few days’ events is in order. IIIT this summer seems desolate and devoid of all activity. It’d have been nice had some people been here – some fun bc – going out etc. Life however has been a little tepid at times, while otherwise filled with hectic activity.

It all starts with finding a place to live. It is really one of the hardest things to do. The first place we saw was decent – not great, not awesome – decent. Then this other house search broker showed us quite a few places. Eventually, after much discussion and a couple of breakfasts a place was found.

The worst part of house hunting was experienced by Manto and all. They had an independent house, they were all set. Then the neighbour spots them and yada yada yada and they are out.

I joined Microsoft yesterday. I am not sure what the confidentiality agreements allow me to say so No further Comments.

My sleep schedule is screwed up beyond quick repair. I feel sleepy by 10 and even after sleeping at midnight I wake up before 7.

Everyone else has vacated or partially vacated. Sid has left. Tipo left to the infinitely greater dismay of all of us. He was providing some entertainment. Monga of course told me that he’d leave 2-3 bags in my room. Now my room contains perhaps the most amount of stuff in the history of OBH (If you want proof visit obh 192).

The MAQ people seem to be screwing everybody. Totally. Considering they have some of the best brains in the batch. They are making them work from 8:15 AM to 9:15 PM. Horrible. Amazon seems to have a good day, at the end of which they were promised that tomorrow would be much worse. Siddarth refused to comment on the tortures at ADP, asking the junta to await further developments on his blog.

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PS: Peesu blogging – psrinivas.in

PS1: I am cribbing a lot – or so it is said …

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The future of instant messaging

Damn ING. -CeG <oBelIX>

I was sitting with headphones and loud music. I was also highly bored. So, I was randomly moving around the blogosphere – found some interesting blogs. Check out this and this. They are infinitely better than any that I usually read (save perhaps a couple). They are written by girls or rather members of the opposite sex. I got there from here. And the true beginning of my blogosphere oddesy was here.

Now, a little tired of reading (too much time at a screen reading tires me) I decided to give the people on my contacts something to do.

If you HATE Himesh Reshamiya

click HERE*.

*Caution: Reader Discretion advised*

The title of this post – The future of Instant Messaging – is not a misnomer as I probably have led you to presume. Infact, I was thinking more along the lines of “Mood aware Instant Messengers” or something like that (sounds like a title of a paper to me) or “Using Agent technologies for optimizing utilization of time with Instant Messengers” (another brilliant award winning paper ). The basic idea is that the IM’s figure out your mood – Example – if you are opening internet sites by the million or chatting randomly, they figure out you are bored and tell other instant messengers this. And if two bored instant messengers find each other they start a conversation between the users. I figure, at any point of time there is atleast one bored / vella person on your contact list. So, this would help pass the time and save you the embarresment of posting inane links to people who might be working, or starting a conversation with *&#(*$@ / *(!@&#* with someone at home ….

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PS: I had no quotes … so I put a really bad phaatta as the first line … Basically, while watching Simpsons and Cheers there were like 50-60 advertisements of ING.

PS1 – Final – liverpool v milan. Im betting on milan

A trip to dehradun, A sore throat, Life after College

Bullocks up his esophagus. -Baba

Eating Panipuri does not worsen a sore throat. -CeG <oBelIX>

Stupid Star Parivaar Award. -CeG <oBelIX>

For the annual summer mini-vacation we’d gone to Dehradun. I say mini-vacation because unlike me (the epitome of vella-ness), my parents etc are rather busy at this time. So, in pareil with a meeting my Dad had, we all went to Dehradun. Its pretty close by, some 220 kilometers. You’d think that 220 kilometers, managing 50 kmph you’d get there in 4-5 hours. The road however is in the stage of being unmade before it is made again. Perhaps in another 4-5 years we’d manage dehradun in 4-5 hours. At night however driving is much better.

Dehradun’s a nice place. A very quiet city during the day. The buzz starts around late afternoon, and by evening the whole place is utter bedlam. The lack of a plant-ish bone in my body is rather disconcerting given that both my parents have PhD’s in botany. I personally prefer concrete to forests – mostly for the immense dislike for all insects, roaches and other members of the animal family that have more than two legs.

However, if you do go to dehradun, visit the FRI. It is the Forest Research Institute or summat like that. The campus is gorgeous. The building is stunning. Its the kind of place I’d like to study in … Its heavenly.

The best thing about road-trips however is the journey – and the conversation. Also the eating at dhabas and what not – very different cuisine. Dhabas seem to be the latest on the paneer bandwagon. The last time I’d gone for a road-trip in the north the dhabas all had very standard fare – some dal, some roti and some sabji. Now, its all hep and modern, keeping in touch with the punjabi paneer afficanados. There’s butter naan, panner butter masala, kadhai paneer etc. Against the advice of my mother (who believed that paneer would not be good) I tried Shahi Paneer. I expected something simple, elegant and yet delightful. However, it was not up to the mark, nothing great. Rather so-so. Ho-Hum.

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The routine at home has been rather weird, non-conformant with the rest of the holidays. My sister is also vella, so we’ve been roaming around Delhi. The weirdest thing is that whenever I come  home for a stay more than a week, I fall sick just before I am about to leave. Some niggly piggly pidda thing. This time it is a sore throat.

I have been keeping track of the infection. This involves opening my mouth in front of a mirror and shining a torch into the darkness much to the amazement of my Mother and to the utter grossing out of my sister. I have figured out what a sore throat looks like. There are some red pimple like things on the back of my throat which I presume are the infection. I’ve been observing their growth (they seem less potent now). I tried taking pictures with the cell phone camera but the digital zoom makes it look real crap.

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Microsoft advanced the joining date. Im coming back to college early. I know its all very yucky of me, but I came up with a list of stuff that I would buy with the first salary. Yeah, yeah, I know, its cliched, its been done before, its so lame … skip the section if you so wish …

1. An internet connection

2. World of Warcraft

3. A digital camera – one of the nice ones

That’s all I got so far, apart from the necessities …

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PS – Playing online scrable – www.isc.ro

PS1 – Wireless LAN at home

PS2 -www.last.fm

PS3 – Pati PLaying poker and sweep

Of Books and Movies

Yossarian Lives. -Joseph Heller

Over the course of this short sojourn, I have read a few books and seen a couple of the rather crappy hindi movies.

Catch 22.
This is one of the best books ever written. It is insanely funny. It is witty and sarcastic. It is not the type of book that is hard to put down. Infact if you put it down you wont pick it up again. It is hard to read – and you have to read every single word to realize the genius, appreciate the beauty (etc). It is also the most random book I have read, it does not follow a strict timeline – its kind of like Memento (or the other film in which random stuff happens randomly). Leaving all that aside, it is still a brilliant read …

e
This is a very different book. It is composed of a series of emails within the employees of an advertising agency. It has tiny twists that are extremely well thought of. It also has some dilbert type situations. Overall its very funny – esp in the way it is presented.

Lord of the Rings
I finally read the whole of the lord of the rings. Though the movie is perhaps the best adaptation of the book that could have been made, the book is still a very good read. The parts they screwed up in the movie (Frodo’s journey ) are the best parts to read in the book. Also, a lot of stuff happens which is just not in the movie (for lack of time). Anyway, after reading the book, you can only just appreciate the genius that is JRR Tolkein. Plus you see the movie in a whole different way.

Namaste London, Spiderman 3, <the one whose name is not worth remembering>
I saw three movies in the cinema. All in the name of going out with the family and all. All CRAP. Total waste of the admission fee.  In general the following applies – There is no story. The acting is shoddy. There are some parts of the movie(s) in which you will just put your head in your hands and ask “Why God? WHY?“.

The rest in another post – Till then – Ciao.