I hate the fact that there are only two strong Indian politicians.. one is Mayavati.. the other is Narendra Modi....
I had this false impression that the Indian politics had really matured after the last Lok Sabha elections, which were fought on the issue of development!
alas.. Hindutva and Caste politics are the only way to a sure shot victory.
I hope that Modi loses this election... But then I know how politics is :(
Monday, December 10, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Diwali at IIT Kharagpur - II
Even though I did post once on the same theme a couple of years back.. but i feel that there is no fear at all of repeating myself...
Illumination at IIT is at a different league.... So is Rangoli... And anyone any any anyone who has lived in kgp during a diwali knows what i mean.
The preparations for this event go beyond a month.... Much more than any other single event/thing in KGP (as much as i can think of right now).
This was the Gold winning theme from our hostel.
Just a rough idea of the work... 20-30 people with 20-35 night-outs each. 200 guys with 1-2 nightouts. Money between 50-95 thousand. 20000 to 50000 diyas..... and each of this for about 10 hostels.
If you are bowled by the pics... trust me you dont know how much grander and opulent the real thing is... You have to have to come to kharagpur during a Diwali to see it.
Illumination at IIT is at a different league.... So is Rangoli... And anyone any any anyone who has lived in kgp during a diwali knows what i mean.
The preparations for this event go beyond a month.... Much more than any other single event/thing in KGP (as much as i can think of right now).
This was the Gold winning theme from our hostel.
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Just a rough idea of the work... 20-30 people with 20-35 night-outs each. 200 guys with 1-2 nightouts. Money between 50-95 thousand. 20000 to 50000 diyas..... and each of this for about 10 hostels.
If you are bowled by the pics... trust me you dont know how much grander and opulent the real thing is... You have to have to come to kharagpur during a Diwali to see it.
Friday, October 12, 2007
How chinese... how Indian as well :)
http://www.adinochang.com/archives/chinese-culture-versus-german-culture.html
Saturday, October 06, 2007
As bad as it gets...
if u have ne plans for this one... Dil Dosti Etc.2007 give it a skip.... this is the worst movie ever made... I wonder if Hindu college had heard the story and the dialogs before allowing the film makers to shoot on campus.... or if they did.. what message they were trying to send..
I should say that I did see the movie in 15-20 mins flat... but i dont regret.
May be that is why i may have missed the whole concept on which the movie was.....
neone who liked this one? or who thinks i should spend some more time seeing the whole movie?
I should say that I did see the movie in 15-20 mins flat... but i dont regret.
May be that is why i may have missed the whole concept on which the movie was.....
neone who liked this one? or who thinks i should spend some more time seeing the whole movie?
Monday, September 03, 2007
Lauding Chuhara....
Well i am not a person who understands arts.... my attempt at learning it was an abysmal failure :(
But i liked all the work of our own Chuhara.... This one is dedicated to him :)
Here is his profile link....
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Religion and Me.
I have always thought of Religion(in the Hindu Society) as a way of the Brahmins to have a free lunch. They have been successful for over centuries now to have their free meal. To me the Brahmins are the most unproductive part of the Indian Society. I consider myself a Hindu to the extent that my parents are. I don't believe in Religion. To me, Religion is only spiritual, in the sense that i may like parts of different Religions say Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism or Christianity. I believe in the principle of Moral Values than Religious ones.
Religion has always been one point of confrontation between me and my mom... She is the religious kind of a woman (not an extreme one though), the kind that most Indian middle class women are. I mean she prays daily for 10 minutes, goes to the temples occasionally and is extremely devotional. But this is not the point of confrontation.
Like many at my age and with the kind of education that I have received, I don't spend a minute in a month praying. I think that there are many of my kind and that I am not the odd person out. There have been times when we have had serious and intense arguments. My mom thinks it necessary to pray daily or atleast weekly and I am the kind who will not do it.. No matter what.
To me, the worst thing is that many of my relatives(not my parents thankfully) give huge donations to the temples and the priests. I hate it. I just hate it. How can they not think of the people dying on the street everyday and make such extravagant donations in the name of GOD! If only they could educate one person in their life time, I think it would be a much bigger donation to GOD and even he would stand and laud. To me, providing food to the under privileged is a much bigger donation that filling the large bellies of the shameless priest who sits in the temple waiting for another fool to come and give a huge donation to the temple.
This post is for all those who give money to the priest in one of your favorite temples. Please donate to the poor, to one of the schools that provide free education, to one of the charities and instead of wasting hours in the name of god, do something for god's children, goto a backward area and teach something to someone.
PS:
1) I dont mean to label all the Brahmins in one category. I understand that some of them are very hardworking and pious and do not go for their prayers for money. It is only a reminder that our society is undergoing a change and it needs to keep undergoing more and more reforms daily.
2) If you will, you might label me anti-religious. I would be proud of myself if the followers of RSS or VHP labeled me Anti-Hindu (I dont want to be a Hindu of their kind). To me they are as bad as some of the Islamic Radicals if not worse.
3) I am agnostic or an Atheist (Actually I am confused about this one) . My ideas relate to the Arya Samaj kind of philosophy even them i dont agree to fully.
Religion has always been one point of confrontation between me and my mom... She is the religious kind of a woman (not an extreme one though), the kind that most Indian middle class women are. I mean she prays daily for 10 minutes, goes to the temples occasionally and is extremely devotional. But this is not the point of confrontation.
Like many at my age and with the kind of education that I have received, I don't spend a minute in a month praying. I think that there are many of my kind and that I am not the odd person out. There have been times when we have had serious and intense arguments. My mom thinks it necessary to pray daily or atleast weekly and I am the kind who will not do it.. No matter what.
To me, the worst thing is that many of my relatives(not my parents thankfully) give huge donations to the temples and the priests. I hate it. I just hate it. How can they not think of the people dying on the street everyday and make such extravagant donations in the name of GOD! If only they could educate one person in their life time, I think it would be a much bigger donation to GOD and even he would stand and laud. To me, providing food to the under privileged is a much bigger donation that filling the large bellies of the shameless priest who sits in the temple waiting for another fool to come and give a huge donation to the temple.
This post is for all those who give money to the priest in one of your favorite temples. Please donate to the poor, to one of the schools that provide free education, to one of the charities and instead of wasting hours in the name of god, do something for god's children, goto a backward area and teach something to someone.
PS:
1) I dont mean to label all the Brahmins in one category. I understand that some of them are very hardworking and pious and do not go for their prayers for money. It is only a reminder that our society is undergoing a change and it needs to keep undergoing more and more reforms daily.
2) If you will, you might label me anti-religious. I would be proud of myself if the followers of RSS or VHP labeled me Anti-Hindu (I dont want to be a Hindu of their kind). To me they are as bad as some of the Islamic Radicals if not worse.
3) I am agnostic or an Atheist (Actually I am confused about this one) . My ideas relate to the Arya Samaj kind of philosophy even them i dont agree to fully.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
A prelude to reality!
This summer was in one way the last holiday season of my life.. unless i have to drop out once more :)
We had to be on a summer training to get a feel of the real mechanical engineering. The training was as good as my knowledge of mechanical engineering(close friends should have realised that it was an intended pun). The end product was that it was over before i could learn a thing... just like most of my courses here at kharagpur ;)
But then this is not why I would label the two months at Ranchi for the summer training as "Prelude to reality". I hope that my "real" life is in no way similar to my study life.
The similarity lies in the fact that it was probably for the first time that i had to do things on my own... (I have a really good mom who has made me a spoilt brat n never let me do a thing on my own :) Well.. i have been in a few hostels now but then u dont need to worry about too many things there as well.
The first day, we (me and Anguli) had to search for a room to live! The first place we went to was like a stable.. (not exaggerating!) There was no fan in the room. A toilet that probably even animals wud not goto! And the source of water was a tube well! Saying no did not take a thought. We were paying for the hotel room so had to settle down to something fast.. Thankfully we got something that at that time seemed to be heaven... A room with an attached bath n kitchen(which of course we would never need) and a FAN :D.. This was heaven.....
(I hope this is not the way I go around searching for a house to live on the 'real' occasion.)
But not for long. The summer had come. Oh and even in this one we were supposed to drink water from a well! A well in a city like Ranchi! Well what can I say? btw, we had not realized that the room we were in had an asbestos roof!!! How did we not? The days were like hell. fell sick for 5 days :( .. lived in Jha's house for 2 days and Vijayan's for another couple. Enough was enough.. we had to change the place..
Thankfully we got a much better room. This was a house made of brick roof. Thank god :) But then there was no water to drink again! There was one tap... It was the worst multi-functional device.. It was supposed to provide water to bath, wash and drink... Shit... how could we... I mean how could anyone do that! Thankfully for Vijayan, we din have to spend too much on water... He used to bring some for us daily :)
(I hope that this is not the way my first/second place is in the 'real' world :))
I generally dont see too many movies. And specially if they are bad prints of English movies dubbed in Hindi. But the boys(preparing for JEE) living next door were the fans of such movies... I had to see movies that i would have died but seen. (and that too dubbed in Hindi!!!) Those were tough hours. Both Anguli and me could not say no as they were like kids. Atleast 5-6 years younger.
Now the food.. Generally Ranchi is a decent place. But unfortunately for us we were living in like say what Ghaziabad would be to Delhi. The whole area had one decent hotel. That was it. The other hotels were the ones where there is an earthen tandoor on the entance and the seats of wooden planks, with a couple of images of Gods and food costing you not more than 10 rupees per plate. I guess i dont need to say more. We at times had to remain hungry but would never dare enter one of these!
(I hope this is not the food I have to eat in the 'real' world)
This is all personal. Now the professional part. Well it was even worse. Not comfort wise. But if I get such a professional future, I would die out of suffocation, if not lack of earning/promotion. We had a 6 day week. We were supposed to reach at 8:30 in the morning. Do the training till 10:30. have a break and return at 1:00, work again and leave at 4:30. All this is so good. The first day we reached HEC at 10:30. Stayed there (if that is what training was supposed to be) for 1 hour and came back home. Every day the 'staying' hours (read working hours) kept going down :)
Every week the no of working days would keep falling. At the end of the training of 8 week, we had hardly worked for 2. That too if a day at work counted for 1 hour.
(I hope that this is not how my office is. That i hate it and decide to not go there.)
btw, have you ever seen a very bad movie with a good promo... I guess loads of them.
But have you ever ever ever seen a good movie with a bad promo? Please hope that this one is. Otherwise I will be of no use just 1 yr from now!
I hope life doesnt end before I learn something from it :)
PS: 1 This is not the whole story. This is only a scene from the whole novel.
2 Dont pity me. I am not wretched.
We had to be on a summer training to get a feel of the real mechanical engineering. The training was as good as my knowledge of mechanical engineering(close friends should have realised that it was an intended pun). The end product was that it was over before i could learn a thing... just like most of my courses here at kharagpur ;)
But then this is not why I would label the two months at Ranchi for the summer training as "Prelude to reality". I hope that my "real" life is in no way similar to my study life.
The similarity lies in the fact that it was probably for the first time that i had to do things on my own... (I have a really good mom who has made me a spoilt brat n never let me do a thing on my own :) Well.. i have been in a few hostels now but then u dont need to worry about too many things there as well.
The first day, we (me and Anguli) had to search for a room to live! The first place we went to was like a stable.. (not exaggerating!) There was no fan in the room. A toilet that probably even animals wud not goto! And the source of water was a tube well! Saying no did not take a thought. We were paying for the hotel room so had to settle down to something fast.. Thankfully we got something that at that time seemed to be heaven... A room with an attached bath n kitchen(which of course we would never need) and a FAN :D.. This was heaven.....
(I hope this is not the way I go around searching for a house to live on the 'real' occasion.)
But not for long. The summer had come. Oh and even in this one we were supposed to drink water from a well! A well in a city like Ranchi! Well what can I say? btw, we had not realized that the room we were in had an asbestos roof!!! How did we not? The days were like hell. fell sick for 5 days :( .. lived in Jha's house for 2 days and Vijayan's for another couple. Enough was enough.. we had to change the place..
Thankfully we got a much better room. This was a house made of brick roof. Thank god :) But then there was no water to drink again! There was one tap... It was the worst multi-functional device.. It was supposed to provide water to bath, wash and drink... Shit... how could we... I mean how could anyone do that! Thankfully for Vijayan, we din have to spend too much on water... He used to bring some for us daily :)
(I hope that this is not the way my first/second place is in the 'real' world :))
I generally dont see too many movies. And specially if they are bad prints of English movies dubbed in Hindi. But the boys(preparing for JEE) living next door were the fans of such movies... I had to see movies that i would have died but seen. (and that too dubbed in Hindi!!!) Those were tough hours. Both Anguli and me could not say no as they were like kids. Atleast 5-6 years younger.
Now the food.. Generally Ranchi is a decent place. But unfortunately for us we were living in like say what Ghaziabad would be to Delhi. The whole area had one decent hotel. That was it. The other hotels were the ones where there is an earthen tandoor on the entance and the seats of wooden planks, with a couple of images of Gods and food costing you not more than 10 rupees per plate. I guess i dont need to say more. We at times had to remain hungry but would never dare enter one of these!
(I hope this is not the food I have to eat in the 'real' world)
This is all personal. Now the professional part. Well it was even worse. Not comfort wise. But if I get such a professional future, I would die out of suffocation, if not lack of earning/promotion. We had a 6 day week. We were supposed to reach at 8:30 in the morning. Do the training till 10:30. have a break and return at 1:00, work again and leave at 4:30. All this is so good. The first day we reached HEC at 10:30. Stayed there (if that is what training was supposed to be) for 1 hour and came back home. Every day the 'staying' hours (read working hours) kept going down :)
Every week the no of working days would keep falling. At the end of the training of 8 week, we had hardly worked for 2. That too if a day at work counted for 1 hour.
(I hope that this is not how my office is. That i hate it and decide to not go there.)
btw, have you ever seen a very bad movie with a good promo... I guess loads of them.
But have you ever ever ever seen a good movie with a bad promo? Please hope that this one is. Otherwise I will be of no use just 1 yr from now!
I hope life doesnt end before I learn something from it :)
PS: 1 This is not the whole story. This is only a scene from the whole novel.
2 Dont pity me. I am not wretched.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
to visual studio....
I have been doing this thing called .net for only 2 weeks now and am already more than stumped...
It is as good as programming language gets....
I dont think that putting the codes and fundas will excite many of you...
but the best things are sometimes better heard than said...
So if u havent done .net yet plz plz do it... It is too good not to be known!
Now this is geeky and all.. but still I think that i know what objects are! i guess u must have heard OOP for sometime now.. I have been for more than 10 yrs now.. but only last week realised how powerful it was and why there's been this hype abt it for so many years..
After Visual studio, i am a bigger Microsoft fan :)
It is as good as programming language gets....
I dont think that putting the codes and fundas will excite many of you...
but the best things are sometimes better heard than said...
So if u havent done .net yet plz plz do it... It is too good not to be known!
Now this is geeky and all.. but still I think that i know what objects are! i guess u must have heard OOP for sometime now.. I have been for more than 10 yrs now.. but only last week realised how powerful it was and why there's been this hype abt it for so many years..
After Visual studio, i am a bigger Microsoft fan :)
Monday, March 05, 2007
The Indian era.....
India poised is only a recent thing that many of us have realised through a campaign of ads on print and TV... The fact that India was 'poised' is known and is being observed for more than 3-4 yrs now.. Things are more than visible..
This post is both for the optimists and the pessimists.. I happen to be a big optimist about the future of the India story.... (though i have to agree that the journey to success will be rather long and tough one..
The way the Indian companies have grown is well documented.. We are already the largest and the best in many fields.. when i say many, it does not stand for outsourcing.. It stands for everything that you could think of...
From satellites to cars... from axles to aircraft maintenance.. from CD to Nuclear power plants... from wind energy to pharma.... There are arguments about the quality and all of the indian products.. but then who manufactures all the high quality "GAP" & "UCB" shirt that people wear in the name of quality?
It is the Indian companies... who manufactures the high quality CD's and DVD's labelled as SONY etc...
The Tata Corus deal is more than well publicised.. thanks to the media.. But then there are a lot more deals than just this one.. The foreign investments by the indian companies now exceed the FDI in India! 15 yrs back when the country took to globalisation, there were open opposition and lobbying by the indian corporates... no more.. today reliance and bharti and tatas welcome foreign companies with open arms to take up the challange... The this in itself is a testimony to the confidence and the maturity of the Indian corporates....
There are a lot of articles.. research papers on the net that speak in a similar tone.. but then this post is specially for those who are full time pessimists... if u happen to be one.. then buddy u need to be more neutral first.. dont try to argument that the world is as bad as it was for
India.. atleast accept that somethings are better indeed... then may be a couple of years from now.. who knows...
BTW pls see this india poised video..
This post is both for the optimists and the pessimists.. I happen to be a big optimist about the future of the India story.... (though i have to agree that the journey to success will be rather long and tough one..
The way the Indian companies have grown is well documented.. We are already the largest and the best in many fields.. when i say many, it does not stand for outsourcing.. It stands for everything that you could think of...
From satellites to cars... from axles to aircraft maintenance.. from CD to Nuclear power plants... from wind energy to pharma.... There are arguments about the quality and all of the indian products.. but then who manufactures all the high quality "GAP" & "UCB" shirt that people wear in the name of quality?
It is the Indian companies... who manufactures the high quality CD's and DVD's labelled as SONY etc...
The Tata Corus deal is more than well publicised.. thanks to the media.. But then there are a lot more deals than just this one.. The foreign investments by the indian companies now exceed the FDI in India! 15 yrs back when the country took to globalisation, there were open opposition and lobbying by the indian corporates... no more.. today reliance and bharti and tatas welcome foreign companies with open arms to take up the challange... The this in itself is a testimony to the confidence and the maturity of the Indian corporates....
There are a lot of articles.. research papers on the net that speak in a similar tone.. but then this post is specially for those who are full time pessimists... if u happen to be one.. then buddy u need to be more neutral first.. dont try to argument that the world is as bad as it was for
India.. atleast accept that somethings are better indeed... then may be a couple of years from now.. who knows...BTW pls see this india poised video..
Monday, February 12, 2007
It happens only in BIHAR.....
Could any one of these ever be a beauty contest winner in any other place in the world... One of these must be laloo yadav's relative.. n the other... Ram vilas paswan's ... ROFL....
if u dont believe me... click here
Sorry if any of u were repulsed by the image....
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Wake up call......
Now this is gettting real creepy for me.... have failed in the actuary exams for 3 times in a row... This is probably the only thing academically that i love to do..... really really love to ... and have never been insincere in working when it comes to actuary... but unfortunately...
Hopefully for me things will get better the next time...
No excuses... just that things are not as simple and that i take a lot of things for granted...
This is not for any of u reading.. but more for myself that i need to remind myself everyday that i need to work harder and harder at this thing for the next few months at least......
Hopefully for me things will get better the next time...
No excuses... just that things are not as simple and that i take a lot of things for granted...
This is not for any of u reading.. but more for myself that i need to remind myself everyday that i need to work harder and harder at this thing for the next few months at least......
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