Monday, August 30, 2004

Rakshabandhan

Today is an Indian festival: Rakshabandhan. It is not a mojor one, but certainly celeberated throughout.
On this day, the sister ties a piece of thread (not necessrily simple looking) on his brother's arm, who, in turn vows to give her protection and help whenever she's in its need. He also gifts her something on the occasion.

This day is waited eagerly whole of August by school children for it also doubles up as a popularity contest for both boys and girls. But in college, the scene reverses. Boys are hesitant to come to attend college that day for they are more in search of love than sis in college. It leads to some really humorous events in college.

I, for one, am neither that popular that girls would come to me for tying friendship strings, nor that hip that they'd consider whacking out with me. Just caught in the middle of the current.

Olympics are over

2004 olympics are over. Now wait for another olympiad. Don't complain to me.

India, as expected performed horribly. They IInd most populated country stood in the lower rungs of the medailst ladder. Just a single silver from shooting by Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. No doubt he'll become a celebrity soon and gifted with money, land, prizes, respect, etc. Indians are so hypercritical of any achievement.

Just look at China. It most populated, but it continues to shake the world. And don't call them little people anymore. They won in almost all the events, where you require flexibility, to ones where you require stamina, to whose needing muscles and speed.

I noted that in History, those who were immolated and treated like dirt - the blacks - were the prominent medal winners for the US. The country should be proud of them and put in more funding to raise such talents which are falling for more materialistic acquirings the world has to offer.

Marion Jones didn't do anything this time. But I don't put the entire blame her. She was surrounded by doping allegations, and moreover she had a baby sometime ago. It just isn't that easy to give a repeat performance after so many factors are different.

I was just taken aback by Laure Manaudou's charm and performance. If anybody knows of anyway to contact her...I'm waiting.

Nudism and India

Was somehow led to a link to the definition and concept of Nudism, or naturism (Just odn't ask how).

In India, I can surely say that such behavior is non-existent. People here are culturally bound, as well as morally aware of how they should be in public, which I respect and adore. The lesser urban communities based on different philosophies, the better. You just can't create such differences, where people are dying of hunger and lack of resources in rural india, and the well-off ones walking on own philosophies which in one way or the other offends to the public, and hence there is no resonance between such ppl.

I can't understand why one can't commit him/her to wearing those things that cover your body - oh yes! they're called clothes - when performing any type of work other than bathing, or intercourse.

But if you go by the meaning of naturists, you would find those ppl more than often in India. Not because of philosophy relating to that of nudists, but because of unfortunate poverty and ill-health, or you can say environmentalism. Something seriuos has to be done to help them. REFORMS URGENTLY REQUIRED. The Indian metros(Dehli, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai) are dreaming of 8-lane highways, while many villages still dream of a road one day.

Wow! Look where I ended up from the heading of my topic. I should really practice on focussing my thoughts.

Hunt for books. More of a field trip.

I and a friend decided to hit the best book market in Delhi - Nai Sarak- for cheapest, newwest/oldest, and widest range of books. I had heard of it, but never had any idea of its size. Turns out it was gigantic place, where you had to be somewhat of a wrestler to push through the thronging crowds to make your way to the book-keeper to ask for book titles. The shops were at max. 2mts wide, and you can imagine the rush.

First Shop - We settled here for the owner had a demure look and shop was somewhat empty (compared to the others). We took out our list to order the books. He gave us half, and kept confirming to us that books were coming in "Bas Do Aur Minat"(Just 2 more minutes). We stood there like idiots for 45 mts before realising we could have done a recon over the whole market for better shops. Hence we left.

Second Shop - While we were looking around, thinking that we have reached the end of market, and head back, we were approached by a slovenly character, asking us if we wanted books. I resented from talking to him for his looks gave no relation to education. But my friend agreed, and he asked us to follow him into a very narrow path between two buildings. I couldn't stop my chuckling, for it seemed like a scene str8 frm a movie - us being customer, and the man being a drug dealer, pimp, ammunition trader, anything associated with the illegal, leading us into the dark alley. Finally we reached the shop, which we couldn't believe was stacking about 2000 books in a 6*5 feet hole in a wall. He sold, as well as bought books and there were students for both standing there. I regret why I didn't concieve the idea of selling my old books for some cool cash. They would've been feasted upon by rats anyways. We bought a few books at 55% the price of a fresh copy.

I found that many of the books I saw could've been pirated for there were typos, not proper hologram, and jumbled up pages in a few places. Piracy is rampant here. It becomes almost impossible to tell the diff between both sometimes.

During our browsing, we found another common friend there, and headed back, but not before stopping for some Indian delights - chaat, golgappas, idlis and thandai.

Where the olympics come from

The Olympics were originally a part of the Panhellenic Games. These were held once in 4yrs (or an olympiad) and no women could take part in it.

Here's the link: Panhellnic Games.

The site mentioned above is really interesting in content and concept. I wish I had more time to browse it, i'd be stuck for days in my room. Link after link after link to more articles.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Scornful patriotism

Last night, I had to make a trip to the Delhi Railway station. My mother had some exigent duties to perform. I left home at 10:45PM, train was to leave at 11:40PM.
Anyways, even though I am still a learner behind the wheels, we(me, mom, dad) reached there at 11. I was already angry over the unnecessary need for us to make it to the station a good 30mts before train even arrived. And then I saw more of the Indian matrix. Piles of luggage, crushing crowds, filthy surroundings, ineffectual railway enquiry services, etc. I don't know how could the common man on India be the most virile one on the planet, and still remain the most backward. Call it poor family planning, uncontrollable urges, unavailability of preventive measures or necessity for a male-child as a radical thought in Indian culture (not specific to any religion). The population explosion of India has hurt it more than anything. It crippled India.

Ok, enough of that, now back to the railway platform. Here's something I'd like to warn every1: Never try to cross a railway track on either sides of the platform. You'd meet stiff resistance with shit on the tracks, gigantic rats, unfathomable stench and dirty track lines which if broken would lead you splash into the most disgusting elements of nature you'll ever find.
Meanwhile, hordes of people continued to tussle for space. Everyone had taken a spot where they sat joking and eating food, right on the platform. Those of higher stratum preferred to use their luggage as furniture. I also found some space besides a very poor village family and kept the luggage over there. Alas! it was only a travelling bag, so squatting over it wasn't a good idea. We all had to stand. And then began "the wait". We talked of all that it frivolous, expecting the train to arrive and break that conversation soon. The piles of luggage around us increased. The infant cries multiplied. And there was no sign of the train coming. Occasionally the usual rumour-brigade bobbed their heads and picked up their luggage which made others to breathe a sigh of relief because of arrival of the train, but that wasn't true. The clock ticked by..... and soon we were nearing 12:00AM, already half-an hour over the time at which train was supposed to move, and us being on the platform for the past 1 hr.

I quarelled with my father over why he forced us to come here so early, for he had known the great Indian Railways for the last 60yrs. Both sides presented frustrated views, and got into an argument, which subsided after our energy levels were faint. Still no sign of the train.

This forced me to do some calculations. Considering all Indian families are like this, which they are, overcautious, they end up on the platform a good 1/2hr or 1hr before the train departs. Add to that the time when train comes late, which is almost everytime, it adds at least 15mts to their wait. So that makes up about a quarter of an hour to a full one every person. Multiply that by crowds arriving here every hour in counts of lakhs (10lakhs = 1 million). Multiply that by 24. And you get the hrs wasted in human life daily. Multiply that further with the major population hubs where same happens and you get a scary number for sure. Hundred or thousands of lives in human hours are wasted each day at the station itself.

I coined the term "gram-hysteria" to associate with Indian population. They like to waste time, calling it precautionary. Trying to be conservative they end up being wasteful. Still they repeat it again and again and again. And grams and groundnuts, being the favorite timepass snacks of the multitude accompany them everywhere. Its like they like whiling/wiling away time doing nothing useful. This attitude is damn contagious. So we end up with everyone infected with the gram-hysteria in every field.

After all the crap we talked about, and all the points I emphasized to my parents about slackness of India as a whole, the train arrived, 40mts late from scheduled time. It slowly backed on the tracks. We passed the usual smile. But the entertainment was far from over. People piled up like luggage on top of each other at the door of "Unreserved" compartments. It was chaotic. Those who missed one would end up sleeping on the floors or missing the train itself. I saw people being crushed under the force of 10 others on top. There was shouting and jostling, both sexes included for entry in the "Unreserved" compartment. Luckily my mother already had a confirmed reservation.
It was easy to look for the right coach and seat, and once in I found that my mother had good company with other ladies of comparable decency around. Wishing goodbyes, I left the station with my father. He commented that 40 yrs from now, he was a part of the crowd filling up in the "Unreserved". Ah! I feel nothing compared to that.

I got to drive back to home again. Whew! surreal experience.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Recrudescence of "it"

I decided to sleep with cooler on, and shirt off tonite. Seems out, bad idea. My mind was engulfed with scary and philosophical dreams, featuring many of my old amigos. I can't recall (i sure don't like to), but its scenarios were such that I felt ashamed and sad at same time. It ended, with me feeling like a lunatic. I think it was bcoz of the stimulous of coool air. So I ended up waking up at 3am, turned off the cooler, wore my shirt, and listened to some good music. Those hellish mares almost mad me "Crawl in fetal position and whimper".

Shrug it off! Shrug it off! Shrug it off! Shrug it off! Shrug it off!

Opinion

"If I want your opinion, I'll give you mine."

My college isn't that bad either. It has colossal bldg(tho unfinished), resturant-style restrooms, library with subscription of every PC mag and multitude of books on subjects taught, elevator in work, good teachers except for 1 (physics). Apart from that, its only an yr old, which means seniors are just 1yr or not at all elder to me. They're pretty dumb too, so I guess I could take a permanent place in library and computer labs after I get my ID card in few days.

Boom

I'd been reeeeeeealy busy with college. Its the starting of a new second life for me. Turns out I should not be eggzaktly that exceited abt it too. Even tho it boasts of good features, what it lacks is a superior guide for me. I couldn't find a single like-minded person. There are no girls in the class.

Other than that, I've been confused as to what sleepin schedule I adopt. 11-6 or 1-8? Both have their own side-effects.
To reduce my 24-7 snoring in the classroom, I already have switched to fruits than that greasy omlette in morning.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Indian Flab

India is one lucky country. Without its cleverly planned transportation services, and designing and construction of the roads, we would've had the highest average weight figures. All the praise goes to the community effort.
Indians, as known are dull people when it comes to conditioning yourself physically. They don't care if sihouette of their muscles peek out of their shirts or not. Sure, their hormones rage wildly too on sighting a lad or lassie. But even that isn't enough to make them determined enough to prepare a body to adore. See, thats how lazy we Indians are, including me.
Even though our ancient cultures have emphasized the aesthetics of body in every book and carvings, it "ancient" now. The proponents of fitness have obviously been bitten by the western bug. Otherwise in India, one's family backgroud is measured by the size of his tummy. The more perfect it is towards being a cirle, the more of a magnate he is. People here follow the rotten doctrine of "The more empoverished one is, the thinner he is. The successful ones are full."
Now, back to the main point. Common transport is India's saving grace. Even if you are in the least mood to stress yourself, you're sure to end up like a sweating pig on a humid day. Once you're inside the buses, you'll be first receiving warm up, then main matchup against the ruthless enemy in middle of the bus, then some massaging once you've captured a comfortable place to stand, and that is followed by another session of sugar rush as you try to make your exit through protruding butts, bags, suitcases, cricket kits, utensils, etc. And once you're down, you again have to run to catch the next one (usually).
This combined effort leads to all round fitness. The paunch still protrudes to some extent due to excess of fat accumulation which Indians can't get rid of that easily. Only deep fried food sells here.
And yes, the process working remains same, nowhere in which part of the country you are. Modes of travel might be different, but end results are very satisfying.

All's well that works well. So let's all give a big round of applause to the largest nationwide collaborative effort which goes on despite being unawarded for.

Yippee!!

These days have been really sad. All the buses I've recently boarded have been empty. I get a seat easily, reach my destination, then get off. It just so plain boring. Previously every Indian bus trip of yours became a subject of interest among the group. The struggle, the quarrels, the emotion, the ruthless hunt for seats. It used to be so challenging. But alas, its had been drab for the past few months. I almost decided to resort to drugs to bring up some cheer in life ;-)
And today, I came down a radiant face from the bus. Because I found the good ol' Indian archaicness back during my bus trip. It was exhausting! You just couldn't act like the humble humanitarian once you're inside the bus. You need to have the nimbleness of a ballerina and flexibility of a gymnast to ride in a "truly Indian" public transport. I had to stand on one toe during the whole ride, and hang on the bars above to maintain my balance. Three more people-width to the left, and I would have had to hang on the sidebars of the bus entrance. There was a huge vegetable sack right next to me, which forced me to stand bending myself 45 degrees sideways. And I could smell the whole kitchen there and then itself.
Why need to spend gazillions on researches, when Darwanian Theory is proved in this 20 minute ride. Just tell me, What could be a better example of "survival of the fittest"? If you're weak, you're not in the circle. You either have to be mentally strong, physically strong, or verbally strong to book your place. Just like nature selects those with most survival instincts, same here.

Tale of profound emotions

While completing the final formalities for my admission, I was asked to sit down while they slowly performed the issuing of my College Admission Card. So I did. And it was next to the guard, a 6-ish feet man, dark complexion and not very aggressive looking. I decided to start a conversation with him, and started by asking about the rifle he was holding. And I think I extracted enough info from him to tease my mind for next few days.
The guy was from a rural village. He, apparently was an important figure in the local village authority. In India, you have Panchayati Raj in rural areas. Under that, each village selects its representative, or the "Sarpanch" from among themselves. He takes care of workings of his/her(its mostly male) village. A community of people gathers at a designated place regularly in case of development proposals, acts of misconduct by certain group, festivals, or just some nice chitchatter. An aggreagation of Sarpanch from all the villages holds regular meetings with the government-appointed head of the district to discuss the activities and request for reforms. You get the working now.
So, the guard told me he had served jail for 9 months for being an apprentice in the murders committed in his village. All the movie scripts, where I had seen such events rushed back and forth in my head.My mind instantly came out with different plots under which he could have done this, usually him being a raging maniac. By his story was very touching. He told me, in a low voice: "I was forced to resort to colour my hands with human blood. I had seen the gruesome death of my friends in front of my eyes. I had seen their burnt houses. When they put a gun to my head, me being one of many in the center of the circle of gun-wielding landlord's minions, I had begged for mine and my family and friends' lives. I fell on the feet of the landlord, his wife, his sons, but to no avail. Their perverse desires couldn't be stopped. I and other people decided to fight back, and had to kill to stop the killing. Then police came and jailed me. They ordered me to stay of my village for an indefinite time period."
It was apparent that he had been a part of some massacare, which usually goes unnoticed in the media because of lack of sources. The rich still have big hand in everything regarding their village, almost as if they are kings. And when they feel their grip is slowly getting loose, they resort to such acts to remind the poor farmer of their power. The landlord system was abolished long time ago in India, but not all abide by it, even now.
He told me further, that he had no intentions of serving as a bodyguard as it involoved lots of feet-licking of the incumbent. He had already threatened his secutiry company employer once that if he treats him like trash, he'd have no hesitation in making a hole through his head. I'd say thats the way to establish yourself as a brave, self-respecting individual if anybody soils your ego. He was planning to go back to his village to his family in near future and start a better life.
All my luck to him. By the time our conversation had finished, my name was called by the office peon, and I walked out with my admission slip, and said to him "Monday ko milte hain" ("see you on monday"), to which he replied back with a pleasing smile.

And I'm back in business

I finally avoided the hurdle, and got admission, finally in college. Had to get ready early, and go to the bank with ma. Then a hour long process of obtaining a draft for my college. The bank is really busy in the morning.
But how can I complete something without error? Thats just not the true programmer's way. Keeping that in context, I forgot some of my certificates, and some photographs, which I'll have to give later. Before I was rushing for the admission, just outside the college gate, I met 3 seniors sitting on their bikes. They sensed I was a fresher, and asked me to stand in the center, and were expecting some good ragging. But other than the fact that I'm utterly boring to the social man, I was in haste, so I asked them to excuse me, which they obliged. Thank GOD! If I would've given myself in hands of those asses, I would've returned pulp back home. Because I hate that (Haryanavi) culture for their attitude of fake machoism, derogatory fun, and jerking 24/7.
Now I wait for 9th, coz I might just be able to skip to a better college or course then. My classes would start only after that, so its a relaxing 3 days for me now.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

India's getting degraded

If you go by the TV ratings, the kind of programs Indian household are most "into" are the ones that give us intuition that Indian society is going towards self destruction.

Their basic theme is same: One girl with purity and decision making abilities of god. Limp men. Other girls who come out good but end up on side of evil. Rift between ladies and their mother-in-law. And yes, there is always a group of vamps plotting destruction .

Basically, its the good-ol western catfight theme. Nothing else, honestly. They make ludicrous scripts, and senile attempts to bring the show back on track, but fails everytime, and in that gathers more dead people as viewers. They are on equal crap-scale as the western family soaps.

I tell you, you let this continue, and kids are going to grow up PIGS! Scorn such serials. Put their directors and producers in jail.

I'll be missing the revolution

Doom III is out. Its the biggest thing to happen to gaming market ever, on expectation basis. And seems like it keeps well ahead from its mark. People quote it to be the closest game to touch the line of brillinace in all aspects: gameplay, graphics, sound, efficient coding.

And poor me, would be missing the first, or even the second wave. FOr my FX5900Ultra is out for repairs. And doesn't seem to come back to me by mid-September. I'm stuck with a GeF2 now. That old hag can't even play many of today's games.

Curse Luck. Curse Luck. Curse Luck. Repeat.

My vocab skills have come to a dead-end

I've pondered about the question for long time: Why am I not able to grasp anything related to the language lately?
Any new words, ephemerally in the memory, and then gone. Any new expressions, same. Where's that etymological humger and zest for enunciation in me subsided?

It looks as if I have been another victim of youth-senility, where your mind stops flow of information at very early age, usually which happens after you are a happy grandparent.

Mnemisis: It works

Tried a little of mnemisis today. Tutorials obtained over mIRC. And it works quite well. The approach asks you to implement all senses to associate to an object rather than just memorizing.

I was able to remember all 45 counties of England, from New Yorkshire to Tyne&Wear. If any more of em have popped up, thats none of my fault. The webpage only listed this many.
Its more amazing because being frm India, I had never heard about most of them earlier. Moreover, I can recall them in descending order of their sizes. Yea!!

I did it in under an hour. Now I have placed a bet with my brother that if he can remeber even 35 of these in 48 hrs, I would give him a treat. I just don't think he'd be able to do so.

I'm officially out of college. Now me planning country takeover.

Today I went to my college to find that if I don't do something in the next 24 hrs, my college 1st year seat would be marked as "empty". And complete blame on the college bastards.
When I came to visit it a week ago with my parents, they told me I could submit my fee later, facing a small fine. But now that idiot is sitting in his cubicle, arguing that if I don't do it till 5th Aug, I'm out. Problem escalates because currently my father is out of country, coming back in next week.
Not even a plea to the Director of the college helped. Those insensitive slobs! I'd seriously keep them for amusement and to be mocked at when I become India's King after a shocking coup. Make them dress in colorful leaves and dance on stage to entertain my people.
Would have to work some way out of this swamp now.....

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Ghosts and Supernatual Phenomenon

Bah! Humbug. Same as Scrooge would say. I wouldn't bet a paise over existence of supernatural. Even though I wished there was, being a big fan of LOTR. How in the world would you come to such a conclusion. I may not be a big scientist to adopt that outlook, but I'm sane. And considering that nobody who profess their existence have actually seen it (other than dreams, from where most of their fears stem), they have to be crazy. In India, its the easiest way for priests to extract moolah from the superstitious crowd next door. People blame all their bad luck on evil spirits, when in reality they give all their money to these fakes to ward off those spirits.

Meanwhile, I have some great supernatual tales for the interested ones too. Would keep posting them when have good time in hand.

The kid with golden touch

He was the "thing" in my school when it came to computers. At a small age, his knowledge surpassed that of our computer teachers, and his logic could let an adult down. I don't know much about the past, but he must've won a lots of prizes in computers, seeing the respect senior grade teachers had for him.
We became friends when we represented our schools in competitions. He was two years younger to me, still had infinite knowledge about computers (not just programming, everything) than me. Told me he had bought his PSII from money he made by coding over net, at 15, when i was getting familiar to turning the PC on. And he was planning to mod his other hardware too.
I don't have a clue, but when I was around, I never saw him winning any medals. Hope I was not Jinxing him. Still I never doubted his knowledge. But I couldn't relate the cause for failure.
And now he's in last year of his school, preparing for SAT, and his aim is to make it to the MIT. I wish the very best to him.

My gradual rise in world of binary

I remember first time I used a computer. 1997, at a typist's place, writing my name on Paint, and jumping with joy.
And my father brought a PC in 1998. He, actually had it in mind since a long time, ever since his trip to England, where he saw how omnipresent the device had become, almost comparable to God over there.
In India, nothing much. Nobody still recognized its use. They found it'd corrupt their children with illegal content, hence families usually never invested in it. As you know, the news of misuse succeds that of productivity by miles. But my father knew its uses, and after months of planning got it after summer vacations. It was joy time for me!!
But I was computer illeterate. When my computer vendor asked what I'd like to have in it, I said give me some games, some multimedia, and thats it. I knew nothing much. And I found the right click that used to bring display panel for screensavers, backgrounds, etc a month after compu was installed. It was a miraculous discovery for me. I kept taking tidbits of info from friends about what device prices were, and troubling them with names of dll files my computer couldn't find, when a simple install of DirectX would've solved it. And time passed. I grew. I did nothing much for 2 years, others than getting familiar to games, windows, and smut.

It all changed when my friend was discussing computer languages with others when I was in Xth. He said C++ is a big language, and it takes yrs to master it. I argued and ended up betting I could do it in an year. The same day I brought a book on it, without having any info on any title or author. I sifted thru the pages, and kept the book in the shelf. It started str8away with concept of OOP.

After a few months, I installed a HTML edting software from a mag just out of curiosity. I ran it, and from the menus was able to put a picture on the page, with some background music. Thrilled!! I took a look at the code, the tags, and consulted a friend who already was a MCP (and he proudly flaunted it in school). He didn't help much. Just challenged me to throw up some tag names, which I did, even tho in unorthodox pronounciation. But I continued, and looked up for material over the net. Found loads of it, and came grow good at HTML. A little CSS accompanied.

I really took up C++ when I was in 11th, and it was mandatory in the course. I brought beginner level books ,and read thru the history, the principles, the working of it as fast as I could. And soon I was competing among the best in class. But it wasn't my meagre knowledge of C++ that put me in eyes of my teachers, it was Flash. After I won some competitions, the goaded me to gain more skills in C++. In 11th, I won in Flash and HTML events, and learned in programming ones. 12th was really good for me. I learned C++ a lot. I won many events, in Flash, C++, Web Designing and Gaming. The kid teachers used to send in other team, whom they considered had a golden touch, came down like rock, winning nothing the whole year. But I still consider him more skilled and logical than I am. He plans for MIT thru SAT now.

And then came an easy year of college. I still was nowhere near to geek. I didn't even know properly what a Graphics Card was, what Linux really was and what DDR meant. Soon I took up to living hours over the net, searching for info and new sites. I left my liking for sleaze. And that really really helped (and also got me loads of scolding for heavy dialup bills). I truly felt ecstasic when a conversation about computers popped up among the illeterate as well as literate majority. And thatadded to lots of victories in quizzes, programming, gaming, web designing, multimedia competitions. Becasue I knew much more. But I never did it for glamour purposes.

I am a novice in the field, still under training from the gods of the net. And my aim is still far far ahead. But don't underestimate this determined soul.

In the news: An army of 50 cloned Vidrohis more threatening than an MNC

If you read my previous posts, you would kno that I am continuously in search for breaking my own record for damaging most number of HDs in least time, esp. under very good conditions. By not even attempting perform anything evil, evil still has befriended me. All my friends are left frozen when I tell them my tales of hardware carnage. Several HDs, gamepads, RAMs, Headphones, UPS, FDD, Speakers, 5900Ultra Graphics Card (for which I'm still sulking). And even after that, I'm foremost in their list of friends they turn to for help (softwares or hardwares).

Just put me in a cloning machine, and hand me with lots of money, and lots of components with warranties, I'll make their Intl centres in India close down.

Horrible setting of events, wonderful conclusion

I cheerfully woke up expecting to go for some joggin with friend prior to my first day at college. Found out it was raining outside (even tho it rained 1st time after 4 mnths, it was unwelcome frm my side. why'd it hav to be today??). That ruined all my hopes of shedding 0.02" of waist for the day. After that a long period of slackness, followed by rush to my new second-home(college). Found out today was an empty day. Just some paltry talk with the management, and enquiries abt how my year would be, and that was it. Came back home sweating like a pig due to all the moisture in air today.

But the worst was to come in 2nd half. I had a nice time till 5PM. Played soccer in the rain outside, ate lots of fruits, fragged some purposeless souls, Simpsons. And as night great, I came back to my love interest, the PC. While I was working on it, a sudden fluctuation, and it turned off. I has removed the UPS bcoz it was giving problems. Turns out, BAD MISTAKE! SHOULD'VE GOT IT FIXED TODAY ITSELF. So next time I boot up, it says it is having prob with a file, and won't even show the booting screen. No method seemed ot work. I hastily turn up at my friend's to disrupt his dinner and connect my HD with his PC. Did all that could do. To no avail. I come back home, with sullen face, like I just lost a comrade, KIA. Then I decided to do run scandisk thoroughly using bootup floppy.
Meanwhile, my parents asked me and my brother if we'd like to order some dinner. We finally agreed to a food joint, turns out we dialled to a jerk who was just having fun with our order. Hence, wrong num for 1st place. So I call up the 2nd place. Turns out, that was the num for 1st one. I call them back, it says their chain exists only places very very far from whre I live. That was gone too. So I called the last place, and turned out nobody was responding. Bad omen. I became tense over the unlucky instances happening in the past few hrs. I explained to my brother that the supreme powers don't want us to taste delightful treats today. But he insisted I call up a friend to ask the number. So I did. He only had number for the last choice of joint.

By the time that ended, my HDD scan was finished. It threw up a bad sector (ah, to my pity, this would be 4th time in 9 months I'll have to go back to replace the HDD) message. I had saved the erronous file somewhere else, so I replaced it back (working copy), and then Windows started, checked disk thoroughly, and spit out that I had 16KB in badsectors. But my account came back normal. Ah!
And we dialled the number my friend gave to me, and it worked. We placed order for some really satisfying food. MMMMMMMMMM

Finally it all came back to normal.

Monday, August 02, 2004

Gods come home. Finally.

Delhi, the capital of India, where my abode is, had been declared drought-hit area this year. Strange, because this came right after it received record-breaking rainfall last year, giving all the residents of Delhi, and all the farmers in surrounding states a state of elation.
Today, right now (5:30AM), outside, is the first time it has rained this summer. Ah! the scent of wet earth is just intoxicating. My soul seems regenerated. The nature and I reveling in the change of skies.
I wandered around outside, finding that nobody had woken up from their sleep, after watching India go down to a defeat in the finals of Asia Cup (cricket) last night. Anyways, I had some quality time outside, even though people usually advise to avoid the first showers of the season. Lets hope the weather gods show more mercy on us in the coming days and give us some overwhelming weather!

Thats my future knocking

Today is the first day of my college. I was in a better college (popularitywise) before, but had to leave it because of the course choices. A 4yr course in my new one would definitely benifit over 3yr one in my earlier college. Apart from that, the standards I felt of previous college and the University they were affiliated to is awful, even though it is considered to be best in India, and one of the colleges under it is ranked among top 15 on planet.
I would have to lose a precious year tho, but I don't regret it as what I learnt in that year has changed me a lot, and none of it is going out of this little brain now.

Paradoxical Situation: Two weeks ago, I was ragging (process of getting familiar with the seniors by introducing yourself and doing all the insane things seniors ask you to do) my juniors in my previous college. Today, I'll be walking on the footsteps of my new college expecting the same.
I just hope I don't lose my mind, and my egotist aspect doesn't show up there, or I'm going to face their wrath in the coming year.

Would tell you where I reach after 4 yrs from now.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Back to my good 'ol self!

Yesterday was quite a shock to me. Amazingly, I woke up at 4:50AM, I probed the net for a while, then went joggin for 3kms with a friend and excercised too. Came back to a healthy breakfast of fruits and curd. That was topped up by a nice ebook session for a few hours, then football in the evening. Whoa! All this attention to my physical self in a day. If I could continue it, I'd be reborn in a week.
And along came Sunday. I woke up early, but due to my friend's absence, missed the jogging and excercising. Have been sitting in front of the PC for the past 3 hrs. Wonder what good that would do to me? Even sitting and typing burn calories. Lets hope its just enough.