December, 2008

This is how the Bangalore sky looked on 1st Dec., 2008! I normaly walk my way back to home (which is actually just a house, not a home), and last evening saw a couple of lasses on the street clicking photographs of the sky. I was stunned to see this wonderful sight: two stars had assembled near the crescent moon - making it a perfect moon-smiley!

{edited later: these are not stars - these are Mercury and Venus! Thanks to Ashish for watching CNN and letting me know).

Called mom, but she could not trace the moon from Gwl! Went home, dusted my handycam, and clicked a picture - and have placed it here without any enhancements. Isn't it just too great!

To whom do I dedicate this picture to? Hmmm ... to didi (who's back in Singapore and missnig India like yenything), and her naughty little child who enthralled me every minute with his new-found antics (the latest one was to pose like a teapot and, very cutely, say, "look I am a tea-pot!") .. Oh! I miss him so much!

[mood change]

Everytime I am sitting in the waiting lounge to board a plane, I observe this: the moment the 'boarding' of the jet commences, more than 50 people line-up in the queue. I wonder, "Why"! Everyone has numbered tickets, there's no way they can get a 'better' seat by beating others to the gate! But 10 our of 10 times, I see them lining in the queue. 

This time, while I was boarding a plane to Delhi, I wondered about this again. Called Parle to talk about this (he confesses that he is always in an analytical state) who opined that it's because these people want to grab hold of the baggage space overhead. My argument was that luggage can be easily put under the seat ahead of yours, but Parle made me concede that everyone needs space enough to spread their legs. 

After the recent family gathering, I am again longing to spend another few days en famille, and then yet another few days. I can understand, didi, how you must be feeling. 

Happy is the man with a loving family ... in a neighbouring town.

Talking about the human body ... 

Bharat called me today in the morning, and informed me that he is on bed rest, in a hospital, following severe neck and spinal pains, and is being fed through drips and all. 

While all you can do with a patient is be patient yourself, my head was abusing him from within. Here's what people do: 

1. They make sure that their Blackberries stay in their leather covers when they aren't using them;
2. They make sure that the laptop bag or backpack is well cushioned from all sides;
3. They make sure that they laminate the screens on their phones ...

and a whole lot of other stuff, but they forget that their bodies are machines as well, and need proper food, proper power, proper maintenance. I know Bharat spent the last month staring endlessly at his screen and proving his loyalties to his employers ... but any excuse for not getting proper exercise is just that - an excuse. 

People have all the time in the world to get 4 hrs of exercise in a week, and people have the know-how of what to do and not, and people can also put in a one-time effort and discover a sport they can play in their locality. But people are lazy bums who feel that by working all day they have done something commendable. 

Anyway, get well soon, Bharat. 

We don't stop playing because we grow old,

we grow old because we stop playing.

G. B. Shaw

If you are a normal teenager, there's a huge chance that you may die on your 18th birthday. Blame the public authorities for this.

One fine day, these fellows decided that the legally right age to start drinking freely in public is 18. That must have been a couple of centuries ago, probably. Teenagers just couldn't wait to get to 18, and on their 18th birthdays they would go wild gulping gallons down their throats.

These fellows also decided that the legally right age for someone to start driving is the same age - 18. Teenagers couldn't wait to get to 18, and on their 18th birthdays they made it a point to unleash the driver in them. 

The result: these children get to their 18th birthdays, over-intoxicate, and over-accelerate. It's all plain mathematics from here.

Driving should only be made legal after people are used to higher levels of intoxication ... so, around 3-4 years after drinking is made legal. Doing everything together is just too much pressure on the young, bursting 18-year-olds. Really.

On the other hand, tee-totalers who don't learn driving should be put into jail, without second thought. Unlicensed teetotalling is crime, almost blasphemy. What's the use of tee-totalers, who are anyway rare to find, who don't drive? The one, and only one, real value of a tee-totaler is to drive the drunken party animals back home with safety - there's no other thing a teetotaler can be used for. They are sober, boring, moronic, conscious, aware, and constrained within the bounds of decency - all of which makes them useless losers.

I think drink therefore I am. 

For small and medium  companies like MeraSport, it makes sense to network as much as possible, within the right communities. What better occasion, then, than one of the most important alumni-gatherings for the IITs - the Pan-IIT Global Conference!

Thankfully, this time it was held in IIT Madras (still don't know whether they call it IIT Chennai). The Inter-IIT was held the weekend before, and how much I regret missing it (especially since IIT Bombay won both the boys and the girls GC)! When I went to the gorgeous campus for the Pan-IIT confy, I made-up for 1% of that missed opportunity by visiting one of my meccas - the IIT Madras Volley Ground - where we once thrashed the maddus to win our volley gold (in my 4 'away' inter-iits - Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Delhi - we have always screwed the home team in the volley finale, except for 2002, when we lost to the home team - Delhi - in the finals. Why that happened is a story in itself)!!

Amidst the hanging foliage (they don't ever cut the branches, it seems) and the variety of species (deers were in abundance, and seem to have gotten used to the human crowd - they were roaming around as freely), was the nostalgic setting crowded by 3000 IITians, all talking in the lingo that only IITians can speak fluently. Then, there were some celebrities who spoke well. 

The trouble was, not many of my batchmates were around - probably not even one. Probably 50% of them are giving all they can to the US Society, while the others would have found Chennai pretty much out of reach. It would have been much more spicier had some more familar faces popped up now and then. However, I did get to meet Parshu (H6, 3-4 yrs junior to me), and Kapil Tyagi (H2, apna pyaara bachcha)! Of course, I piled on in OP's home, so that was a bonus. Then, some Guwahati guys claimed to remember the name, "Topi" from the Kharagpur Inter-IIT, but could not associate my face to it yet ... it was good-feel nonetheless.

Amongst the celebrities were Vijay Amritraj, Anil Kumble, Vishwanathan Anand, Rajiv Menon (the great cinematographer), Amartya Sen, Orkut Büyükkökten, and Hema Malini. Here's some funny stuff involving them:

Vijay Amritraj was moderating a PD involving Kumble and 4 others. He introduced the other 4, and moved on to the PD. When reminded about AK's intro, all he could say was, "Now! You want me to introduce Anil Kumble to you?!"

Vishy Anand was with his wife, who was introduced as a chess fanatic herself - but of a different kind. The narrator/announcer said, "While Vishy plays chess, her wife enacts it in her family: the King is fixed, and the Queen has all the powers!!" Pretty-Witty.

Rajiv Menon was asked, "You didn't try to become an actor?" ... to which he replied, "Well! I was always a bad student - and never obedient. I liked to give orders, hence, cinematography came naturally, acting didn't!" Rajiv Menon's humilty reminded me of A. R. Rahman (and they are good friends in life).

Hema Malini started her talk with a simple comment which earned the maximum applause: "It's good to be amongst intellectuals ... for a change!" I was never a fan of the on-screen HM, but when I observed her, I was an instant fan. There was nothing artificial about her, no airs, no sweet-talk, no efforts to look graceful, no embelishments to look out-of-the-box, just nothing gaudy! Probably the most naiive woman I may have seen (you can guess how smitten-kitten I am)!

For once, I liked a trip to Chennai. The city sucks so much that I hated the Inter-IIT of 99, and another visit which I had made this October. Infact, apart from the Pan-IIT and the stay at OP's, everything else was still awful. 

Apna contingent for Inter-IIT bagged 97.75 points, 0.25 points short of the record that we set in 98! So, that was something pleasing (yes, I want that record to sustain - that's what the kid in me wants).

The more rocking story, however, was that this was the 1st ever time that some 'away' contingent had won the GC at Madras; and also the first ever time that the boys and the girls GC were won together.

I had my conversations with Appaji Sir and Edwin Sir, and seems that the entire group is celebrating and pretty kicked about it! Why not! I, sitting miles away, can feel it myself! I was disappointed, though, to observe that the bachchas managed some 7 points in marchpast. Violating all the rules of the marchpast has been the hallmark of the IITB contingent. When our 2001-contingent lost the KGP Inter-IIT by 2 points, never did once we regret our 0 points in the marchpast. Marchpast excellence was reserved for boring contingents like Guwahati, Madras, and off-late, Roorkee. 

Hopefully the guys sang "Lova Lova" loud enough ...