Not such a bad day after all...

Song for the mood: Dido – Thank You

The most enjoyable moments in life are impulsive. A moment is, after all, an impulse.

I’m not a big fan of Sundays, here at IIIT-B. Today was different though. We - me, Pranav and Seema - left to have dinner at Andhra Mess, at around 7:45pm. We were finished with dinner by around 8:50pm. As always we decided to walk back by the longer route to college, to have juice or milkshakes near the Infosys campus which is along the way. When we turned the corner near Andhra Mess we saw the 356C Volvo bus which goes from Electronics City to Majestic Bus Station here in Bangalore.

Pranav, and I must thank him for this, had a sudden though … “lets get on this bus and go to Forum to have ice-cream”. I said yes … so basically Seema had no choice but to come along :-D. Now, this being a Sunday, we were dressed in our best clothes; pyjamas and loose fit T-Shirts, unshaved, ruffled hair … Seema was the female equivalent of all that … top of it she was wearing rubber chappals which she felt ashamed about. I wonder why she felt people will stare at her footwear. Anyways, so we got on the bus and in 15 minutes time we were at Forum mall (on a weekdays the same route takes over one hour. I guess today was meant to be this way). We walked into this big mall, wearing something that resembles a night dress at best … so we did the right thing; we went and got a picture clicked!

It was one of those auto picture taking machines, which clicks three pictures back to back, you select the one you like best and then you can get special effects like pencil shading or charcoal shading done on it. I liked the first one, where all three of us were looking ‘not’ at the camera; but it couldn’t be captured on paper coz the machine trims the borders and that would’ve erased our faces half. So we reluctantly took the next one.

Next, was Corner House ice-cream. Then we walked back to the bus-stop, got a bus immediately, and were back in college by 11:00pm. All the while on this small escapade, Seema kept seeing at the picture every 5 minutes. Well, actually we all did … it is a special picture, that captured a special moment … the outcome of an impulse on an otherwise ordinary day.

We keep searching for moments of joy. We go to great extents to do something that will make us feel good. It is these small moments that we miss out on. A mad lil’ idea, a bunch of friends and some time on your hands … all in all a perfect end to the day … with a lot of smiles, a great picture for the record … and a sweet memory … good night!

A tale of two Diwalis

Song for the mood: Aaj Mausam Bada Beimaan Hain - Mohd. Rafi Saahab

Yesterday, November 9 was Diwali. Big festival. Yippee.

When I was in school, diwali used to be fun! I would get up bright and early, without mum or dad having to force me out of bed. That would be followed by morning puja (I just stood quietly for the sweets), new clothes and crackers! It was also on the day of diwali, me and my pals would bunch up and visit all the houses in the society to wish them all "Happy Diwali". The motive behind doing so was to get chocolates ... yes of course. Why else would we? You see, all the folks new that kids would be coming on this particular day, so most of them would be kind and considerate enough to greet the gang with a plate of chocolates. Yes, we never really thanked anyone for the chocolates afterwards. We were always too busy trying to grab as many chocolates from the plate as we could and stuff them in our pockets. Some folks were smart, they would hand us one chocolate, individually. Some were innovative - they got sweets instead of chocolates - which we hated - becozz the whole point of this strenuous wishing exercise was to collect enough chocolates to fill up a jar atleast! What were we going to do with, sweets! Some folks would get a whole plate of snacks and wonder why none of us would even touch it ... god! Couldn't they understand the difference between chocolates and snacks? I remember the one house we would all visit the last in line, coz the lady of the house would give us bananas. Not chocolates. Not sweets. Bananas. What was she expecting us to do? Jump in the air, scratch our armpits and ape our ancestors? Whew! Anyways, I always managed to gather atleast 45-50 pieces of candy by the end of it all. Needless to say, it would last only 5 days at the most after that ... :-P

Well, this year, I, for one had the most uneventful diwali possible.

I woke up at 10:00am. Had a fever the whole previous night, couldn't sleep a wink. Got up, went out for breakfast with Pranav. By the time we got back from breakfast it was almost 12:00pm. Hardly the time to have breakfast! By 1:30pm we again headed out, this time for lunch. We had to go out, since the college caterer was on leave ... and our food-committee didn't bother informing us ... so we had to go out. You can imagine what I am about to write ... yes, every restaurant, every joint was closed. Luckily for us one small joint was open where I ate some tomato-rice, with nariyal chatni. Trust me, not a good combo. We walked back to the college, then decided to go to the nearest bakery to purchase some biscuits - for the fear that joints might be closed again. There we realized that the food-joint atop the bakery, is open. So we had lunch again ... courtesy our very good friends, the 'mirandastics'. I came back to my hostel room at around 3:00pm ... and slept. I slept like a log! Must have been the lack of sleep in the past 2-3 days. Anyways, I got up around 7:00 or 7:30pm ... and then headed for dinner ... to the trusty food joint open on a diwali day. Back to room ... watched a movie ... 'Legend of Drunken Master' - Jackie Chan special. It was pretty good. And that was how diwali ended.

Maybe next year, diwali will be ... diwali. If not then I'll get something more to blog about ... either ways ... Happy Diwali!

You've got Mail ... Hate Mail...

Song for the mood: Carl Douglas - KungFu Fighting

No I can't do any kungfu. I can't even make the right kind of noise, you know the kind of, ''eeyaaaah!" or "whuaaan" sound that kungfu fighters make. I think it is the sound that confuses the opponent ... as soon as the guy makes that noise the opponent goes, "...where is that sound coming from... maan, u must have an upset tummy!" :-P The next thing he knows, *BAM*, he has a fist in his face... off to la la land... seeing stars am seeing stars!

Well, I actually want to share an extremely funny incident that happened with me about 2 months back. I had promised myself I would not make fun of this one ... but it is too damn freakin' funny! Plus I was kind of pushed to do this... ;-D I am in the senior year of the MTech course, at IIIT Bangalore. As a senior I could've opted for a teaching assistantship, but chose not to having seen the plight of my own seniors... he he. But, being an 'enthusiastic' chap (sheesh), I would generally help out the other TAs in their work. So one fine day I ended up assessing a certain Database Design assignment for a few of the groups from my junior batch.

In one of those groups was this certain Mr. A (A for ass, though I would prefer to call him R for retarded or D for dumb), the protagonist of this story. I'll be honest, Mr. A and his group did not such a great job of their assignment - and after spending more than an hour explaining them the little mistakes and faults in their analysis, design, approach, assumptions etc etc, Mr. A said, "This can't be wrong! I can't be wrong!" Ahem, buddy, it wasn't the time to be the king ... I asked him for his objections, and I'll be honest here, I answered every single one of his questions ... but ... Mr. A was kinda pissed off, I don't know at what though! Was he mad at me or was it the fact that he hadn't taken a piss for over 3-4 hours ... not kiddin', whenever I spot him in college he has the same retarded, piss-urgent look on his face! I was sure he wasn't gonna let this one go, but what he did after the next 2-3 days, was ... legendary!!

I gave him a borderline 4.0 outta 10.0 for his work; he had scored only 2.5; I kinda upped it. Some other groups that I assessed did pretty well: 4.5, 5.5 and 7.5 ... pretty good scores, considering many of them were from non computing backgrounds in their under grad engineering. After the TA revealed the grades in class ... I got a hate-mail the very next day ... The following are the contents of the 'great' mail ... and though I was kinda taken aback and sort of confused when I read it ... the first time I fell of my chair ... the reason being the splendid english. Read it yourself :-)

hi ....

Actually last night i have got my marks of DBMS test, when i saw my marks that was not "unusual"....but it becomes unusual when i saw other groups marked by you ...specially when i saw the highest marks given by you. You have just given them apprx 2 times that my group is having....which makes me below the average.

If u are a intellectual person ..then i think i m having freedom to ask that WHETHER THAT GROUP WORK WAS SO GOOD THAT YOU JUST GIVE THEM DOUBLE THE MARKS THAT U HAVE GIVEN TO MY GROUP.

There are no groups which is having this much of variance as group assesed by you are having..between the heighest and lowest marks.

As i m the looser one (as i m below the average) so now i m requesting u to send me a ER-DIAGRAM of library management system...so that i can make me satisfy that i have been judged in right way. Bcoz i have taken reference to a standarad book for making that ER...ofcourse this was not satisfying your view

Again for some minutes i do not think to mail you ....but thinking if marks has been disclosed ..that is for the reson that if u are having complain u can put with your assesmenter...thats why i m mailing you.

One more thing this mail be annoying for you ...but thinking this also, i m sending this mail to you simply to give me satisfaction whether i was really that much WORST on that day.

I m in wait for ur ER Diagram of library management system.....to assess this time to myself by of my own. One thing i m saying u very frankely that i will see to which % it satifies my view and practical view and how far was my ER Diagram

thks
- Mr. A

Wow ... finally I had a hate mail! I replied to this, indecipherable mail, assuming that he was pissed off about his marks. I told him to get his assignment, the 'reference' book (he kept talking about some unnamed reference book the whole time during his assessment, as if it was some Database Bhagvad Gita) and we'll solve the whole sum again. Then he can compare for himself. Ok, for the benifit of all, this is the mail I wrote to him, in reply ...

Can you come and meet me? I am in room 133 in college.

If you want some help, or you have some doubts, you can come and ask face to face. Mailing doesn't solve anything. Get the reference book and whatever else you want to ... and get your own ER diagram also.

I can understand your concern, it was not such an easy test. I was only trying to help, but I guess you don't think so. Plus, your comment about the grades that other groups have gotten is being unfair to them, most of them put in a lot of effort and got in a lot of functionality.

PS: Your mail has not really pissed me off, even with all the underlines and bold letterings so you'll have to try harder than that

But, Mr. A chose to mail back! This is the reply I got ... again ... an example of excellent english ... read on!

ok...

I got the thing of which i was in need of.

Now i m having no doubt ..and as per the matter of your help is concerned ... ....all sentence told by you and all suggetions given by u are totally in my mind ....so...i do not think on my side there is anything like that........

I will meet you..but not at this time ....if u do not have any problem... you just give me a time when i can find you on your room.

Now i m thinking i do not have to write those all.....nd i m assuring you ....i will not be having need to try harder than that......because there are very few situations when any things happens unexpected for me.......b'coz...I know my limits nd weakness and i do not expect any thing beyond my limit.

Though i was not mean to make u off...but if it makes u so...sry for that ....just plz give me the time when i can meet u at your room.........i am not meeting you in college again as i know my limits ..nd weakness..

I swear, I still haven't understood a single word of what he really wanted to say! Mr. A didn't stop at this ... he came over to my room in the evening and ... fought again. For the sake of communicating, I was speaking to him in Hindi, but, being the scholarly English orator that he is, he was replying all the while in English ... and I was trying my level best not to laugh in his face while he was talking. C'mon! I'm not a sicko!

By later that night, Mr. A had already spread some rumors about me, and the possible reasons as to why I gave 'more' marks to another group. I had a terrible time in college the next few days, with obscure looks from people and all sorts of weird questions. I don't give a damn about all that, but it was pretty irritating at the time ... of course it was!

Well, Mr. A got a warning of sorts from the TAs ... of every subject ... I must thank my classmates and friends for this ... they rallied behind me and got the mess cleared. The mails that he sent me very nearly made it to the principal, but I didn't do that. Didn't want to spoil the entire class' image for one dickhead.

Mr. A (lets make that A for asshole now) is pissed even now... and his face has gone from piss-urgent to constipated in the past two months... :-D He and his equally dumbass pals smile and mutter under their breath every time they spot me in college. It happened a couple hours back when I was coming back from lunch. Whew ... some never learn ...

Hmmm ... thats it ... :-)