A birthday and more...

Strato's birthday has come and gone. Can't believe it has been a year since this. Can recount a thousand happy tales from the past year and a few sad ones as well. The happy ones are centered around evenings spent watching movies, strolling in the dark and creepy campus gardens or giving surprises. And oh yes, those first times - (The first walk, the first movie and many things more suited to the confines of my mind and heart! ) Let us just leave the sad tales alone.
All in all, the lady in question has a rocking love life (by her own admission). Wish her all the luck and happy moments !

It felt nice to celebrate a birthday the way kids do. Bursting balloons, donning the birthday hat with all its frills hanging around, playing music in the background and smearing a pretty face with dark, black chocolate cake - I did all this and more. And to top it all, a nice piece of cake did the cameo, perched triumphantly on Strato's nose, making her resemble Mickey Mouse more than I resemble Hulk Hogan. Alas, I don't have a million dollars to dole out to Strato in legal suits, so cannot publish the photographs here.

In fact, the whole weekend was dominated by this agenda. I bought a nice French liqeur bottle, a few scented candles and in general, cleaned up my room. On Saturday, I also made aloo ke parathe. Bhagwan ki kasam, they were very delicious. The first one looked like a disgruntled amoeba, but the next two wore a more proper parathaish appearance. Then we had a nice get together with a pseudo-Surd friend and an old grouppie with her Mister ( the adjective old, by the way, is only for the association). Had a nice laugh and a not-that-nice dinner.

If you are in Mumbai and looking around for a place to have dessert/birthday cake, do try Birdys. Not immodestly priced and tastes like heaven. Very few things known to mankind could be more pleasant (and sinful?) than eating that rich chocolate cake. However, Pritam da dhaba turned out be a disappointment. The Rogan Josh had a faint bitterness reminiscent more of choloroquinol than curry patta. The Veg Makkhanwala was sweet. Overall, the food was something I wouldn't like to torture my palette with again. But there was something about the ambience that made me feel good. Can't say whether it was the open space, the rural setting or just the occasion.

There comes a time in everyone's life when you decide that you can't take it any more. Whether it is excess of work or lack of it. Excess of food or lack of it. Excess of vigorous physical activity or lack of it. The former makes you resemble a kid from Ethiopia, the latter makes you a true baniya with a waste size in nervous 50s . Right now, I have developed expertise in hunting houseflies, mosquitoes and other members of that gharana. And in the process of taking revenge, a spider has made me resemble a distant relative of Angelina Jolie.

It has also been a year since I attended the Oktoberfest last year. When the festival is on, even the trees in the gardens get to drink huge amounts of beer. Six million visitors, infinite amount of beer and only limited numbers of toilets - you get what I mean. It is one of those times when irrigating the trees no longer remains the forte of Indian men. The overflowing imagery aside, the atmosphere is as festive as it gets. I miss those times for the spirit in the air ( not the spirits in the masse ).


[http://home.kiski.net/~maury/poems/eliot.html]
"If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard
, One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went--
Then you may count that day well spent. "
-George Eliot

Cherish thy friends, kyunki:


zindagi ke safar mein,guzar jate hain jo makam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate
zindagi ke safar mein,guzar jate hain jo makam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate

phool khilte hain,
log milte hain
phool khilte hain,
log milte hain magar
patjhad main jo phool
murjha jate hain
woh baharon ke aane se khilte nahin
kuchh log ek roz jo bichad jate hain
woj hazaron ke aane se milte nahin
umr bhar chahe koi pukara kare unka naam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate
http://www.free-lyrics.org

aankh dhoka hai
kya bharosa hai
aankh dhoka hai kya bharosa hai suno
doston shak dosti ka dushman hai
apne dil me ise ghar banane na do
kal tadapna pade yaad me unki
rok lo roothkar unko jaane na do
baad me pyaar ke chahe bhejo hazaron salaam
woh phir nahi aate
woh phir nahi aate


subaah aate hai
raat jaate hai
subaah aate hai
raat jaate hai yuhi
waqt chalta hi rehta hai rukta nahi
ek pal me ye aage nikal jaata hai
aadmi theek se dekh paata nahin
aur parde pe manzar badal jaata hai
ek baar chale jaate hai jo din raat subaah shaam
woh phir nahi aate
woh phir nahi aate

zindagi ke safar mein,guzar jate hain jo makam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate

A practical believer

This is getting serious[Ref: this article]. A profoundly philosophical debate (or rather, a thought) has been spurred inside me. And it only restrengthens my earlier thoughts.
Many times in my childhood, I recited a prayer from Ramayana. I exhorted Lord Shiva to come to my rescue whenever I was in trouble. I saw almost-miracles happen. But the fact is, I only remember those times when I prayed and it helped.
What about the time when I got sick with malaria and typhoid simultaneously? Imagine what it must have done to a person who weighed 45kg when he should be weighing 60kg. What about the time when I cried in agony? And at least some people will say, you did something that deserved the punishment. Nice! When prayer works, it is work of God. When prayer doesn't work, it is because I deserved punishment. Or may be, it worked in some other form. May be I weighed 46 instead of 45 after I recovered.
Can there be a better all-explaining hypothesis?

Similarly for God. So many people relentlessly try to prove the existence of God. How can you doubt a holy scripture- they say. Just because a million people believe in a book (whether Ramayan or Bible) is not a reason enough. For centuries, people believed that the Earth is round. And to top it all, humans were banished to painful deaths for contradicting that belief. Therefore, just because a million people believe something isn't enough for me to believe.

At the other end of the spectrum, some people adopt an ultra-rational and scientific approach to the issue. And that is where I intercept the logic.

I don't claim that Rama existed, nor do I deny it. Similarly for Jesus. However, I do think that historical and unambiguous proofs do not exist to collaborate such claims. That is where faith comes in, and logic departs. You believe what you want to believe.

On this string of thoughts is a very interesting article:(). Now I am willing to give credit to this theory.

Mind you, I am not an atheist. I am a practical believer. I pray to God, but I do that to compose myself. And it composes me because it takes my mind off the instant worries.

People say everything happens for good. What it actually implies is the widely known tendency of human brain to reconcile everything. There are popular theories in psychology about human brain trying to process information using models and templates. Religion, by the very nature of it, becomes an ingrained template in our mind and whenever a dissonance arises, we try to find the means to reconcile things. Given human capability for selective amnesia, we invariably end up with the belief that everything happens for good.

Think about it. . . Do you believe the scientific theory that we evolved from chimpanzees and apes? At what point in that evolution did the religions start? My conjecture is that all these religious practices are a result of evolution. Religious practices must have evolved as a means to strengthen the cohesion within groups. Over the years, the practices got intertwined with available scientific knowledge in those ages. Geniuses must have existed even in those times! This intertwining might explain why we are able to observe rational or scientific justification in many religious practices.
If you really believe evolution as a scientific theory, can you not see the immediate contradiction with the texts in Bible and

Are we willing to accept the fact the religion is a matter of faith, and not scientific debate? That when someone says, "There is no proof that Rama/Jesus existed", it is not equivalent to saying "You are an idiot if you believe in Rama/Jesus".

The missionary practices, or the practices of other religions to spread their own faith point towards the hypothesis that religions must have evolved from tribes as a means to ensure survival. The greater the numbers, the greater the chances of survival. Hence, there was a need to spread faith. But the spread of Buddhism may not be explained by such simplistic logic.

To conclude it all, ladies and gentlemen, the God (or His/Her representations) we pray to are human imaginations. And I stand by it.
But it doesn't hurt to pray to God if it brings calm and composure.

The 2H message!

Curse the biraadari of bacteria and virii ( or is it viruses?) for they trouble us thus. First I had a throat infection so bad that my deep baritone became deeper than Indian Ocean and Gulzar's lyrics. Then Strato suffered at the hands of these mercenaries. By the way, she is still recovering from those bacteria bullets.
Recently I had the good luck of riding a taxi that shook so wildly that if they shot me with a video camera, I would resemble a side dancer in Shammi Kapoor's classics. Between muttering unmentionables, I beseeched the almighty to protect me, especially since I haven't taken the life insurance yet. All of a sudden, the vibrations vanished into thin (and shaky) air. Was I lucky?
Talking of cars, I now spend half an hour every few days in a week cruising at 20. Sometimes I even top 30 (and that is only when there are no taxi drivers, trucks or street dogs in sight). But it gets kind of dazy at those speeds.
Am preparing (mostly mentally) for a trip abroad. A few months in the Chinki land would bring me back to the reality of how beautiful our eyes are. In the interim, I am planning to buy a Digital SLR. A 24 months EMI will hopefully take the bite out of this Canon purchase. It will most probably be this one.
I came across this revealing website. But wait, before you jump with unfounded (or new founded) excitement, it is NOT a link to Mallika's wardrobe. Just an eye opener. And here is a moral petition to all the devoutly religious Hindus all over the world : Do you realise how much milk is spilled every year washing Shiva Linga? Do you know how many hungry men, women and children inhabit the streets of India? Can you come out of the mental slavery of blind practices and be more humane? Will give you more punya than all the hawans and vrats.
I beseech my friends who understand this message to spread it around. Convince your mothers and fathers. Call it the double H agenda : Hygiene will come, Hunger will go. Use the milk to feed people, not wash Lord Shiva.
On the same lines, most religions seem to believe that God is hearing impaired. What are all those loud speakers for? The ones right beside my house have given me so much headache, I could hear some implosions. Wait, is it a decoy from Disprin?
Lord Ganesh is a very cute good (typical Indian pot bellied figure), and I am sure He will enjoy all the revelry. Revelry, but NOT the cacophony. Dear pundits, spare my ears. Please.
Talking of the habits of Indian men(and women), Prof Raghunathan has a very valid point. We are a very short sighted bunch of people. If only we all chose to be a little more patient and tolerant of rules, the traffic situation would improve. But we all go to the bed everynight and pray, "Chaos kayam rahe". So the situation is not susceptible to improving any time soon.
If you still do not use RSS feeds, consider yourself to be living in the stone age of internet. Consider the fact that I go through 200+ articles (but read only a few) every day. And these are select articles from select websites. You see the level of filtering? Only Aquaguard can better it.

Here's some 3-D lyrics (for its depth) :

ajnabi shahar hai
ajnabi shaam hai
zindagi ajnabi kya tera naam hai
ajeeb hai ye zindagi ye zindagi ajeeb hai
ye milti hai bicharti hai bicharke phir se milti hai
Ajnabi shehar hai
ajnabi shaam hai


aap ke bagair bhi hume
meethi lage udasiya
kya ye aap ka aap ka kamaal hai
shayad aapko khabar nahi
hil rahi hai paaon ki zameen
kya ye aap ka aap ka khayal hai
ajnabi shehar mein zindagi milgayi
ajeeb hai ye zindagi ye zindagi ajeeb hai
mein samjha tha kareeb hai ye auron ka naseeb hai
ajnabi shaher hai
ajnabi shaam hai

baat hai ye ek raat ki
aap badalo pe letey the
woh yaad hai aapne bulaya tha
sardi lag rahi thi aapko
patli chandi lapetey the
aur shawl mein khwaab ke sulaya tha
ajnabi thi sahi saans mein silgayi
ajeeb hai ye zindagi ye zindagi ajeeb hai
mere nahi ye zindagi rakeeb ka naseeb hai...

Rumblings on job...

Yours Truly works at an i-bank desk. Clearly, a blog is not the best place to voice an opinion of one's job. But I can safely say that the kind of money one makes at an i-banking desk is enough to increase inertia to very high levels. Inertia against switching to a delta-higher paying job. Inertia against starting out on one's own.

Very few people amongst those who graduated from my batch currently seem to be satisfied with their jobs. Others are barely satisfied, if at all. And I don't think it is because of the nature of their jobs. Fresh out of the college, especially one as revered and coveted as IIMA, people have expectations, and not all of those are realistic. The college life presents far more academic or intellectual challenges than most jobs I have heard of. The challenge in real life, I realise, is more in the manner of being able to manage everything and doing a great job of it. To expect some pathbreaking earth-shattering task in one's job isn't a wise thing to do.
I sit on my chair for hours (long hours compared to government jobs, short hours compared to my peers in London, HK or NY). I do number crunching and wafer crunching simultaneously, sipping Real Juice intermittently (or Tropicana, even though Frooti is my favorite). I prepare presentations and spreadsheets. I hear tales from my friends across seven seas and realise how far seperated impressions can be from reality.

Anyway, I am just back from a well-timed one week vacation at home, followed by an adventurous trip to Khopoli. This town is located some 70 kms from Mumbai and makes for an interesting a-few-hour-getaway. A hired Sumo (of the automotive kinds) cost us 1800 Rs and it took us around an hour and a half to navigate through the traffic laden roads of Mumbai to reach this place. Hiring the taxi itself was a learning experience. Having received his entire sum in advance, the travel agent started showing dubious signals. It didn't help that we were dressed more like tourists than local residents. After some angry words, open threats and many excuses, we were given our money back and we struck a deal with another agent.
The photos of the trip are here.
It was a huge waterfall. I would put the estimate at around 150 feet, though even a figure of 175 wouldn't surprise me. We managed to get almost right underneath it, though a really enterprising girl amongst us actually ventured into the vortex area of the waterfall. For a few seconds, I really was scared. What if I slipped? The presence of what looked like a bunch of skilled swimmers didn't completely alleviate the fear. But all in all, it was an experience I hadn't had before. One of us had a really really amazing tumble. Am in the process of getting that video uploaded.

It is high time I shared some of the new blogs I have stumbled into of late. Some are pretty interesting - for instance, there is a female New York Taxi driver who is publishing a book. And her blog is alleged to receive thousands of hits daily. At least initially, the blogs are very informative. Both because the cultural setting is very new and because a lady in that setting is not a common occurrence. Then there is Brewhaha, which you must absolutely visit if you are in Bangalore. Also in the list is www.whatay.com, the new avataar of Domain Maximus, a popular blog.

The last one reminded me of my own programming days. For long, programming in all its forms has been my most preferred mental activity. The pleasure of seeing the correct output even in the face of most weird (but valid, nonetheless) inputs has been surpassed by only the most primitive of human activities. Those were my days at IIT, when a new programming task meant staring dazy-eyed at the monitor and emptying many a wafer packets. Many of my friends complimented me on my skills in this arena, and one of them very recently did. I was very pleasantly surprised. From trying to solve a sudoku using basic principles to emulating a pool game in the most simplified versions, I have tried many tricks. My deepest connections with the inside of an operating system developed when we did kernel coding for SE Linux. While I will resist spewing technical jargon ( both because it would be rude and because I have forgotten half the jargon myself! ), I must say the experience was exhilarating. I landed my first summer internship (but which I declined a little while later) because I was able to write insta code. I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching a class of ~50 students. And the best moments were when we got the sadistic delight of crashing the students' programs by giving input that landed in the gray zone of validity, weirdity and insanity. Sorry everyone who was at the receiving end. I intended no harm!



Dil kya karey
jab kisi ko
kisi se pyar ho jaye...
jane kehan, kab kisi ko,
kisi se...

New photo blog - trip to Khopoli

Another photoblog is here:
www.bhomsphotos.blogspot.com

An updated (and more verbal) description of the trip will arrive in a day or two. :-)


It's rocking...