64 degrees and cloudy

Notes to Self on Ubuntu Installation

2010-06-14T10:09:00.000+05:30

Always install from the DVD

Running Windows Programs in Ubuntu
http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/06/how-to-installrun-popular-programs-designed-for-windows-in-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/

Ubuntu Tweak

http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/05/how-to-install-ubuntu-tweak-in-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/?utm_source=Arkayne.com&utm_medium=Plugin&utm_campaign=liberiangeek

Ubuntu Tools
http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/06/how-to-manage-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx-easily-with-ubuntu-tools/?utm_source=Arkayne.com&utm_medium=Plugin&utm_campaign=liberiangeek

Moving Over

2007-07-18T12:39:00.000+05:30

I am tending to like wordpress more.
I thinking of moving over.....
Thinking.....
Thinking.....
Thinking.....

I am now here!!!

Serpent Eagle

2007-05-29T10:09:00.001+05:30

Hand in my pocket

2007-04-12T23:09:00.001+05:30

I feel drunk but I'm sober
I'm young and I'm underpaid
I'm tired but I'm working, yeah!
I care but I'm restless
I'm here but I'm really gone
I'm wrong and I'm sorry, baby!

What it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be quite alright
I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is flicking a cigarette
-Alanis Morissette

Just Do It

2007-03-04T16:29:00.000+05:30

This is for all of us who think that life is redundant.
The following lines were written by a kid. It was then used by Nike for its ad campaign.

"Too often we are scared.
Scared of what we may not be able to do.
Scared of what people might think if we tried.
We let our fears stand
in the way of our hopes.
We say no
when we want to say yes.
We sit quietly,
when we want to scream.
And we shout with others
when we should keep our mouths shut.

Why?
After all,
We do only go around once.
There's really no time to be afraid.

So stop. Risk it.

Try something you have never tried.
Enter a triathlon.
Write a letter to the editor.
Demand a raise.
Go, climb the volcano.
Call winners at the toughest court.
Throw away your television.
Bicycle around your country.
Try bobsledding.
Try baby sitting.
Try anything.
Speak out against the designated hitter.
Travel to a country
where you don't speak the language.
Patent something.
Call her.
You have nothing to lose
and everything, everything,
everything to gain.
Just do it."

Charminar

2007-03-03T17:20:00.001+05:30

Off I went to hyderabad
My journey, I will not lecture
But for all the dear readers
I will surely post a picture.

Doodle doodle

2006-11-29T11:48:00.000+05:30

Science is sacred, Technology is not.
Science expands understanding. Technology now is basically concerned with exploitation.

Zen and the Art of Doing Nothing

2006-11-13T14:55:00.000+05:30

This is a sacred picture of the sleeping Buddha. Only a few fortunate mortals have had the good fortune of seeing the Enlightened One in such supreme state of peace. God spoke to me yesterday through Photoshop and GTalk and asked me to share it with the world.

The legend of the Sleeping Buddha is thus:
Llama Shiv was searching for enlightenment. He sought enlightenment from his karma and hence was looking for Truth in the C codes for Data Structure and complex Algorithmns. But the road to enlightenment is hard and filled with core dumps. So he switched to Java. The great cosmic illusion who disguised itself as Head of department made sure that his soul remained trapped in the mortal plane by keeping his mind involved in projects, assignments and extra classes.

Llama Shiv was saddened by this mundane life. Each day was spend in asking questions and each night was spend in finding answers. Sleep was a forgotten friend. Food was a kind foe.
One day it was made known throughout the land of Ettimadai that Buddha, the Enlightened One, the Perfect Teacher, has arrived. Birds sang and flowers all over the place bloomed in welcome. The ATM machine near Dhanalakshmi bank suddenly started working. Tea from the canteen suddenly tasted better. People at the security gate started smiling at people passing by. And trains began arriving on time at Ettimadai station.

It was around 12 in the night when Llama Shiv finally arrived in the presence of the Enlightened One. Tathagatha was sitting under the sacred air conditioner, which filled the room with its divine coolness. His eyes were half closed, reflecting a part of the Infinite Bliss that he was experiencing. The midnight moon cast an eerie glow, but time and space had no meaning for Llama Shiv. With folded hands, Llama Shiv prostrated and asked:
"O Enlightened One, I have tried hard to know the Supreme Truth. I have pursued my goal from morning to night with earnest zeal. Please tell me why the Truth is eluding me. Where amI going wrong."

The Blessed One paused for a long time and then opened the blessed mouth.
Thus spake Buddha:
"SNOREEEE !!!"
And Llama Shiv was enlightened.
(Zen and art of doing Nothing - Chapter 1 )

This is a true story. You may keep this sacred picture in your desk as a protection against work, assignments, or project deadlines. The Sleeping Buddha will guard you against the evil spirits of over-enthusiasm and over commiting of projects.

Know that the heart of zen is a calm mind that is focussed on the Buddha.

You are Faculty!!

2006-10-08T12:43:00.000+05:30

"Why can't you come like this everyday?"
My collegue was looking at me with new found respect and appreciation. I had just received my clothes, washed and neatly pressed from the dhobi. So instead of the usual T-shirt and worn out trousers, I was now wearing a dazzling while shirt neatly tucked inside formal cream trousers which was held in place by a black leather belt with a sleek mobile case attached to it.

Its not that I dont like wearing formals, or that I am rebel who is silently protesting against the so called polished folks. My affinity to T-shirts come from the fact that they can be easily washed and there is no need to iron them. Surely, I like to be neatly dressed all the time, but I don't want to put a lot of effort into that.
You see, one dhobi for 3 hostels will always be part of the unbalanced equation of getting clean clothes back on time. He had already misplaced two of my bedsheets and the last time I gave my clothes, I had to wait for ages to get it back. I pleaded with him, scolded him, openly cried in front of him with no shame, but his attitude was as hard as the borewell water he was using to wash clothes. It was only when I threatened to kidnap his son that he returned my clothes.

So here I am in my clothes holding back tears of joy, and this dude here is asking me to come like this everyday. And the reason??? Because I am faculty now. Ever since I joined, I have been hearing this.
"You should not do this. You are a faculty now."
"Try to inhale much and exhale only little. You are a faculty now."
I tried, it was not easy. "I will suffocate to death."
"If you die, they will bury you in the faculty section."

This whole business was driving me nuts until I came across a reebok ad which said
"I am what I am"
I don't know why but this went straight to my heart. I found it to be so interesting that I made it my personal motto. Of course I am a faculty now, but I am Shiv first. This subtle truth flowed through me as rain in the desert and I am peaceful again.

Osho once said: "You can be creative only if you are playful."

Wishlist

2006-10-03T15:18:00.000+05:30

I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun
I wish I was the souvenier you kept your house key on
I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good
I wish I was a full moon shining off a camaro's hood......
--Ed Vedder

I am the Saaar

2006-08-12T23:03:00.000+05:30

I did it finally. I knew it would finally come to this and I did it. I enrolled myself as a research associate in my department.
And this gesture of foolish bravery will surely demand a change in life style. First I must ensure that I NEVER shave my beard, not let my grandmother convince me to do it. When I look at the "long" history of my department, I have come to the conclusion that only people with beards got successful results for their projects. Now I am not sure if I will be an exception in that case, but I pray each day that the laws of co-incidences always hold in my favour.

I will have to remember to stop combing my hair, not that there's much of it left, thanks to the water from the water "treatment" plant. I will have to carefully fold my shirts to have random creases, and then walk around writing down formulas in the air. Since we have a formal dress code and noise levels in the halls are to be kept frustratingly low, I dont think I can run around like Archimedis yelling "Eureka". I guess I will have to resort to something else.

What sets me apart from the other research scholars who have joined latelty is the fact that I will have to take classes for the first year MTechs in my department. To those of you who think that it is a noble chance to impart and share knowledge, let me draw your attention to the fact that I will no longer be allowed the simple pleasures of playing the guitar in lab and singing the likes of the "bulb" song.

All non-student communities can now take some time to sympathise with me. All student commumities can tremble in fear when they hear my song:

Behold this card, the red tag cries out
I am the Saar, I am the Saar
Bow to me, I make this loud
I am the rice in your sambar

Bow to me and you shall pass
All my tests, numerous they are
Laugh I will at your assignment code
For I am the Java in your .jar

A lifetime that lasted 2 years

2006-07-19T13:19:00.000+05:30

How do you define time? Does it have anything to do with semesters and courses. Is it about timetables and schedules. I have read somewhere that life is measured by the moments that take your breath away. So if I can count those moments (excluding the ones when I saw the question papers during each semester) I think I have lived a lifetime in 2 years.

MTech is over.
All my classmates have left. All that remain are empty rooms and lot of memories. Each time I pass T53 and T55, I force myself to look away. Soon they will have new occupants. Rooms in the PG hostel, unlike me, must be so used to seeing different people each time.

MTech is over.
The rows in the lab beside me are empty. The computer on the far right is shutdown.
Browsing will never be the same again. Never again will the sounds of Umbai emerge from the 7.1 surround. There will be no editing sessions in VideoStudio.

MTech is over.
So are the trips to Coimbaotore/Palakkad in a black esteem. The parking space near the dusty recycling center is empty. There will no longer be frequent drives to the car wash garage. Never again will it go different restaurents with three friends, and never again will it take them to KG Hospital to spend sleepless nights.

MTech is over.
Everybody left their seperate ways. The industry will soon strangle these memories with projects and deadlines. Soon everybody will be in different parts of the world.
As I write this, by sheer co-incidence, my winamp shifts to another song

Varuvanillarumee vijanamameevazhi-
-kkariyaam athennalumennum
Padivaathilolam chennakalathavazhiyake
Mizhipaaki nilkarundallo
Mizhipaaki nilkarundallo

Varummennu chollippirinjupoyillarum
Ariyam athennalumennum
Pathivaayi njaanente padivathilenthino
Pakuthiye chaararullo

For the good of the Game?

2006-07-02T21:53:00.000+05:30

If justice was not blind, if the referees were sincere to the game rather than to a team, if FIFA really stands for fair play and for the good of the game, it would have been a long haired Argentine in jersey number 3 known to the world as Juan Pablo Sorin who would have lifted the world cup on July 9th.

However, since we have already seen that fair play does not really exist in practice, since the beauty of the game has no place in a stadium full of fascists, O Argentina, the true believers of the game will consider this world cup as your alms to the world.

Conquering Sunday

2006-06-20T13:48:00.000+05:30

"I am feeling bored. What plans for today?" Amar was looking really desperate.
"Well" I said, "We can go for a walk".
"Cool!! Where ??"
"Hmm.. I know this small hill around Ettimadai. I am not sure if we can climb it, but we can sure give it a try."
Amar is my junior. He is a chemical engineer from Pune and loves to go trekking. As with the case with most students from North India, he gets frustrated with spending weekends in the campus.

So off we went, along with a small group of friends to climb a small mountain which we now call "Hill Sunday".
The initial climb was fun.

Then came the difficult part, where you really had to be careful on the rocks. But Amar was having no problem at all.

Although I can't say the same for Ravi

Reaching halfway, we paused for a short break. Amar looked down and saw the plains that extended to Kerala. He turned to me
"Maharashtra is blessed with many forts. It has a lot of hills and its fun to climb.
Look at Kerala, its all plains. Its soo plaiinnn....."
"Yeah" I replied. "We are blessed with an International Airport. So we get to have lot of planes."
I don't know why, but that was the end of our conversation. Everybody soon started climbing away. It must have been something I said.

Prabeesh was the first to reach the top.

Soon all of us got to the top of the hill. Surprisingly, none of us were tired. But we were all happy. Everything looked so beautiful from top. Our college buiding was a tiny spec. All around us were paddy fields and coconut groves. The only thing that I missed was a camera. All photos were taken with a mobile camera. So it all came in poor quality.

The view was breathtaking. It kind of reminds me of what Amma used to say, when your consciousness rise above the mundane things in life, everything looks beautiful; even a boring Sunday.

Retouching Karizma

2006-06-15T16:46:00.001+05:30

Karizma - Digital Zooming

2006-06-03T14:01:00.000+05:30

This photo reminds me of two things, Sojish and a song called Speed Demon.

Speed Demon
Speedin' On The Freeway
Gotta Get The Leadway

Speed Demon
Doin' It On The Highway
Gotta Have It My Way

Speed Demon
Mind Is Like A Compass
I'm Stoppin' At Nothin'

Speed Demon
Pull Over Boy And
Get Your Ticket Right . . .

The original picture was taken by my classmate. Click on the picture for more details.

Two More Months

2006-05-14T22:49:00.000+05:30

Saraswati is the Goddess of wisdom, bestower of supreme knowledge. This beautiful statue sits in the front of my university. I gaze at it from time to time in an attempt to invoke divine intervention towards completing my main project. Time is running short.

When I got admission for Mtech, my folks were thrilled.
"Go and explore the frontiers of knowledge. May your ignorance recede in pursuit of higher learning." They blessed me.

After 2 years, the only thing that receded was my hair line. Damn this Tamil Nadu bore-well water !!

Neelambuja nayane

2006-03-16T16:48:00.000+05:30

"May your far-reaching eyes—which are only slightly open like a blue lotus just beginning to bloom—bathe even a worthless, far-removed one like me in your grace. Just as the cooling rays of the moon fall equally on the mansion and the wilderness, it will incur you no loss, O Shive, but this person will indeed become blessed."
—Soundarya Lahari, 57

SFC: Shiv Fan Club

2006-02-28T23:28:00.000+05:30

"We were staying back just to hear you sing". She caught me totally offgaurd with this remark. I tried to hide my embaressment and managed a feeble "Ohh!!"
"Its a pity you did not sing." She was referring to the bhajan conducted in the ashram on behalf of Shivarathri celebrations.

Towards the closing session of the bhajans, I thought I would sit in the corner of the stage with the singers, as they were my friends. But as soon as I got on stage, I noticed a small group come and occupy the front row. Somehow I knew that they wanted me to sing.

Yeah I've had my share of experiences with singing on stage. Some were very pleasent and I wish I could take some pill to forget some other experiences. The shows with our college band "Gasoline" were always memorable. Rafeeq fuming away on the lead guitar, Nambolz doing a Lars Ulrich on the drums, and me trying hard to carry the heavy bass guitar with a cheap plastic rope for support, while trying to remember the next line of the song. During the final show, all of us were pretty excited and for some reason beyond our understanding, the audience were really enjoying and cheering us. The crowd was driving me over the edge. Towards the end of the show, I shouted "THANK YOU, GOOD NIGHT BABYYYY" over and over again, until some people from the audience decided it was really time to say good night to Shiv. They carried me off stage along with the rest of the band.

Then there was this rock show competition in Cochin University of Science and Technology. There was this group who came all the way from some remote place. We asked them the name of the college and they replied
"We are from Guruvayurappan College". I could'nt help laughing.
I could imagine the speakers blaring "Judges please note, next rock band on stage is Guruvayurappan College"
Somehow the idea that there is a rock band from a college named as Guruvayurappan College was smashing my funny bone to pieces. But that silly grin was soon wiped off my face when I saw the band do a practice session. While we were planning to do some soft songs, these guys were blasting away with material that would rock the devil himself. The competition was over for us soon. We exited through the back stage, and we did not wait to listen to the others.

Life in Poornam was different. I used to break into songs at the drop of a hat. I tried to make the "shift weary" techs understand that music is a really powerful phenomenon. Pretty soon, I was forced to confine its power to the small limits of the lonely training room.

And so when this lady in her late sixties came and told me that she and the other ladies, also in their sixties had come just to hear me sing, I had every right to be shaken. But since I am a gentleman, I assured them that I would oblige them with a bhajan anytime they wanted.

I had always imagined myself singing in front of a woodstock audience with people shouting, waving their hands and taking over the chorus at times. So what if I can't sing at Woodstock, I will always have a group of grandmothers cheering for me.

Why change ISO Settings.

2006-02-19T16:13:00.000+05:30

"Whats with the ISO stuff on all the cameras?" This was a casual question directed to nobody. Rafeeq, Amol and I were toying around with a Canon A95 when this question came up.
"Well" I replied "Its something to do with light sensitivity. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the camera becomes to light."
"Then why bother to keep ISO 50, 100, 200 on the camera instead of simply ISO 200."We are a bunch of super smart kids. We can come up with smart questions all the time.
"I guess it has something to do with noise. Higher ISO introduces a lot more niose." Amol replied. We are a bunch of smart kids who can come up with smart answers to smart questions.
"If higher ISO signifies higher sensitivity to light, then naturally you must have lower noise." I already told you that we were were a bunch of smart kids.This final question created a rare silence among us. A silence introduced by deep introspection.

So what really is this ISO.
ISO, which stands for International Standards Organisation (formerly expressed as ASA: ) is basically a numbering system that expresses the speed of photographic negative materials. Now that the techno geeks are satisfied with the definition, lets put it in another way. ISO basically tells you how sensitive your film(or sensor, if you are using a digital camera) is, to light. A higher ISO signifies a higher sensitivity to light whereas a lower ISO signifies a low light sensitivity.
More Explanation: A high ISO like ISO 3200 makes sure that you get a clear photo in low light conditions, whereas a low ISO like ISO 100 requires you to have a LOT more light for a sharp and clear photo. In fact, ISO 3200 films are used for photography in near darkness.

Why give so many ISO options
ISO affects exposure. The two basic things that control exposure are
1. Shutter speed
2. Aperture size.

The ISO settings affect this shutter speed/aperature combinations so as to decide the exposure.
More Explanation: You are about to take a very nice photograph, but your camera says that there is no enough light for a decent exposure. To make things worse, lets say you don't have a flash or a tripod to help you. This is where ISO comes handy. Just increase the ISO settings, and you are good to go.
Now if you are wondering as to why that happened, allow me to explain:
Doubling your ISO settings will double the sensitivity of the film (or sensor, in case of a digital camera) to light.
Switch to ISO 200 and you will only need half the light at ISO 100 for a clear picture. ISO 400 will require only a quarter of light that ISO 100 requires.
Pretty cool huh.

So why use low ISO anyways?
Just one answer: NOISE !!!! Whether its a film camera, or a digital camera, higher ISO settings will introduce a lot more noise in the picture.
In high speed films, there are more layers of silver halide. This tends to make the light sensitive grains of silver halide more noticable. Now you know why some pictures look grainy. In case of a digital camera, this effect is in terms of random pixels of color.

However, at times, you can use the noise introduced by higher ISO to give a mood or atmosphere to your images; especially black and whites.

When to change ISO
1.Clear hand held photos.
When you dont have a flash, or a tripod handy, simply increase the ISO for to get a nice and clean picture. Higher ISO settings ensure higher shutter speeds thus minimizing the risk of camera shake.

2.Adding to mood.
At times "graininess" can contribute to adding an atmosphere or quality to black and white images. But you can also do that while post processing.

3.Motion Shots
When you are taking shots that require fast shutter speeds, like say sports, boosting ISO can really help. Most of the time, there may not be enought ambient light to take pictures with fast shutter speeds. So increasing the ISO will be the only option left.

To conclude, always remember:
You obtain the best image quality by using the lowest ISO possible. So if you have enough light to shoot something at ISO 50, then do it by all means. Increase the ISO only when neccessary.

Those who would like to know more about this can go here.

Post Processing

2006-02-16T22:10:00.000+05:30

And yet, during those brief moments of elevated consciousness that life presents occasionally, I realise that there are more wonderful things in this world than Photoshop, Picasa and Gimp.

Along the corridors of dusk...

2006-02-09T12:28:00.000+05:30

Irulil orekantha veethiyil enthino
Ithuvare ninne njan kaathirunnu
Ini nee varillennarijittum eekanayi
Verute njan aareyo kaathirunnu

Ivide prateekshayum swapnangalum verum
Kanikalayi teeratha pookal maatrum
Maduravum mundirichaarum manasinte
Kshanika vikaaranubhooti maatram.

Ini nee varillennarijittum eekanayi
Verute njan aareyo kaathirunnu

A trip to Todupuza

2006-02-07T11:29:00.000+05:30

It all started when this tall dude from B'lore called me one day and said "Lets drive to Todupuzha." Apparently, this dude's sister was getting married, and he had invited us, not for the wedding mind you, but to watch him wear a semi-translucent mundu for the occasion. I have to admit, I had seen a lot of worse things in my short life span, but this would top it all. Also, it has been a long time since I had seen my old friends(with or without mundu) and I have always fancied long drives. And so off we went in Amol's car, the three of us, Amol, Bachchan and myself.

The idea was, as usual, start early - drive slowly - stop at as many chaya kadas (those small places with boards that say "Hotel Teashop") as you can - and arrive in time for lunch. And as usual, things did not go as planned. We started our journey quite late. There always seem to be these last minute technical problems, like the alarm magically fails, careless parent forgets to wake up responsible child on time, you know, stuff like that.
Anyways, by about half past eight, we are on the road and cruising to todupuzha. Amol was in his customary T-shirt and jeans, while Bachchan was sporting a bright red shirt and long curly hair kept barely in place by copious amout on some gel which, quite strangely, reminded me of Venus Williams during Wimbledon press conference.

Half an hour drive through the beautiful country side and we stopped for our first cup of tea. I have always found chaya kadas to be very interesting places. They are usually small, filled with the local crowd busy with discussions on a wide range of topics from "Why did Baiju cross the road.." to "Was Leader Karunakaran really double crossed." Chaya kadaas are also a good place to savor typical kerala snacks like bonda, pazham pori, and parippu vada. Usually, there will be a common menu card on the wall that lists these items and their prices:

We sat there for some time, enjoying the tea and reading the local newspaper.

Bachchan took over the wheel from here and we started on our way to Todupuzha. Nothing much happened during that drive. We were just enjoying our own company, cracking jokes, with Bachchan trying to improvise on them until it made us sick and we asked him to pull over.

We reached todupuzha by noon and soon joined the rest of the gang from Blore. Boy, nothing had changed, except of course the bellies. It was time for the muhurtham now, and so off we went. The marriage function was according to the custom hindu rituals. We upheld the name of ABBAS by sitting in the back row yet again.

What followed was the much awaited sadya. And how we ate. We had to sit for an extra five minutes for the food to settle down, so as to get up to wash our hands. When the wedding photographer came over to our side, I forced him to take another photo cause I had payasam all over my beard.

As there was some more time for the B'lore dudes to board the bus, we decided to take a dip in the river. It was there that Rafeeq actually swam a few micrometers. The water was green, cool and very refreshing. I took some pictures of the river and also of BNDs (Butt Naked Dudes) in it. However, I am forced not to post those pics in order to protect the identities of all those pot-bellies.

Everything that has a begining, has an end. Finally it was time for all of us to leave. The Good byes were quick but they contained a lot more than words. Afterall, time was never on our side. Just a few years back, all of us shared the same life, shared the same account in Asi's bakery, shared the same "Aanamayakki" for breakfast on Sundays. Now we have to negotiate day-offs and semester holidays from all kinds of bosses and workaholic professors just to be with each other.

I guess the beauty of seperation lies in looking forward to being together again.

I forgot to take a Tripod

2006-01-25T19:50:00.000+05:30

There was no tripod, but there was lot of trucks parked beside the road.
So I kept my camera on the side of a truck and tried to take some pics of Coimbatore night life.

Every minute Zen

2005-12-29T22:37:00.000+05:30

Amma always reminds all who come to Her to be aware of each moment. Amma compares living in this world as to sitting in an exam hall and writing the exam. You should be really alert. And when the bell rings, you have to leave. Amma's examples are always very simple. Sometimes they are so simple that we miss the whole point. But the great masters explain things in a lot of different ways.

Zen students are with their masters at least two years before they presume to teach others. Nan-in was visited by Tenno, who, having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day happened to be rainy, so Tenno wore wodden clogs and carried an umbrella. After greeting him Nan-in remarked: "I suppose you left your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs."

Tenno, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was unable to carry his Zen every minute. He became Nan-in's pupil, and he studied six more years to accomplish his every-minute Zen.

Let the sleeping dogs lie

2005-12-23T11:37:00.000+05:30

Dogs don't have to go to class
They can sleep all day and night
They don't have to take gate pass
To go out of campus for a bite

Dogs don't have to take exams
Nor sit in classes bored
Dogs don't get stuck in traffic jams
When they go to Coimbatore

Dogs dont have to take seminars
With professors sly and mean
Dogs don't have to go to war
With staff in the canteen

Everybody just love dogs
They are so nice and cute
But the reason that I love dogs
Is they just dont give a hoot

2005-12-19T12:01:00.000+05:30

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have assignments to keep
And miles to code before I sleep
And miles to code before I sleep.

My third semester final exams are due next week. I dont think I will be able to post anything until Jan.

A Denial

2005-10-21T00:01:00.000+05:30

unsealed on a west side a letter said,
i don't have to ever write this again, no no
on the west side, on the front side a letter said,
i don't have to ever feel this way again, no no
on a west side i want to wish it all away
and i sigh and i fall and i know that i'm never going to see this again, no no

yeah, can you see them?
out on the porch yeah, but they don't wave
i see them round the front way, yeah
and i know and i know i don't want to stay
at all...
i don't want to stay
i don't want to stay
i don't want stay, no no

2005-10-17T17:11:00.000+05:30

Sojish in some resort in Lakkidi.

I could'nt help editing this picture when I came across it. Biking was always fun. If I remember correctly, this was my last biking trip.

Young boy in a University in a small town.

2005-10-13T23:20:00.000+05:30

He passed me by on the way to the MBA block. I was not able to see his face clearly, but the glance was enough to make me pause and slow down my quick pace. That face was hauntingly familiar.
I swore I knew him from somewhere.

"I seem to recognize your face
Haunting, familiar, yet I can’t seem to place it
Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
Lifetimes are catching up with me"

I saw him again in our mess. I had just washed my plate when I saw him sitting just a couple of rows ahead. I waited arguing with myself whether to go over and say "Hi." I watched him for sometime. He was neatly dressed. A dark blue shirt, khakee pants, neatly combed hair - all the features that distinguish a management student from us MTech dudes.

I finally go over and say "Hello". He pauses, his hand full of rice, sambar and curd freezing halfway from his mouth. I apologised for my intrusion into his private space and said
"Excuse me, but you look so familiar to me. Can I know your name."
He drops the rice back into his plate, and begins mixing it again, this time with more sambar. Either he really likes the mess food, or his taste buds are extinct.
"I am Shankar." He replies... "And you ?"
"My name is Shivan, Shivapratap."
His eyes light up momentarily. "Shivan, from Vidyodaya?" He asks.
Soon everything comes back to me. Good old Shankar. I knew him very well. He was a small kid back in school about two - three years younger to me. Quite a character he was, and an excellant dancer. He asks me how I am and what I am doing here. He was also kind enough to ask about my mother and brother. I promised him that I will convey his regards to them. As I sat down next to him, he apologised for not recognising me. Its no big deal, I tell him.

"Me you wouldn’t recall, for
I’m not my former
It’s hard when you’re stuck upon the shelf
I changed by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate
Perhaps that’s what no one wants to see"

He had changed a lot. No longer the small thin boy with ill fitting shorts, he now goes to college impeccably dressed with an english vocabulary that would put Merriam-Webster to shame.

I did not see much of him from then on, but we exchanged greetings whenever we saw each other. Apparently, that was the only conversation that we ever had. He was too busy with his schdule, and the same was true for me.
I finally saw him during the passing out ceremony with his Mother where we said a quick good bye to each other. I found it surprising that the meeting of two students from the same school, who had been together for a little more than 5 years, could be so emotionless and plain. Or is it that we have become mature ?
Anyways, I dont think about it now.

"Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade..."

Yeild

2005-09-24T18:58:00.000+05:30

Angels
Oceans
Hopes
Wishes
Fear
Love

Infinite Compassion

2005-08-23T04:16:00.000+05:30

The scriptures say that it is very difficult for a liberated soul to remain in this gross physical world. But the reason that they choose to stay back is because of the compassion towards the whole of creation.

So it was very natural that Amma reacted like this when a man approached Her, weilding a knife. Little did he know that his target was none other than the One who is beyond life or death.

The Divine Play

2005-08-22T00:18:00.000+05:30

Azhikkullil dinakaran maranju
Alayunna pakalin tengaluyarnnu

Vishwa shilpiyude vikirthikallalle
Vishaadamenthinu nalinangale

Akhilandaraajante vinodarangam
Ee lokam shokapoornam

Kalimarappavayai njannum karayuvan
Kannuneerillatha shilayai

Send me an Angel

2005-07-30T23:27:00.000+05:30

The wise man said just walk this way
To the dawn of the light
The wind will blow into your face
As the years pass you by
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and your will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

A room with a view

2005-07-25T13:18:00.000+05:30

I am going to change my room. When you look out of the balcony, what you see is this.

The Garage: A Photo Blog

2005-07-15T18:56:00.000+05:30

Girish's car, or more popularly known as "Vada Vandi" gets really moody at times. The old Maruti Esteem VX has taken us to a lot of garages in and around Coimbatore but nothing was as exciting as this one. It all started when Sachin said that he knew a garage where they deal with all kinds of vehicles. And sure enough, this really turned out to be an "all the kinds" garage.

They had a sizeable amount of cars inside. But what caught my eyes (and then the lens of the Pentax in my hand) were some BSA motorbikes carelessly parked in the corner.
I was not able to make out the model, they looked like they had a 250cc engine.

Walk in and a little to the left you will find a couple of bikes from a british company called AJS.

The AJS looked like a vintage bike. They had a couple of these and all of us took turns to sit on the bike and have our photos taken. They even let us kickstart one 500cc monster.

The speedometer of the AJS is caliberated in "miles per hour" and has a maximum reading of 120mph. The odometer inside had not registered much distance. Anyways, the workers assured us that the bike is in good running condition.

This last bike that I came across was sitting a little towards the end of the garage. The workers had just finished a paint job. There were no markings on the bike with regards to the model or the manufacturer. It could well have been an old Rajdoot or Enfield. I decided to call it "Spirit of Tamil Nadu".

After about one hour, they suggested that we take the car to a Maruti workshop nearby. Apparently, after laying hands on everything from the first bicycle ever made to the second world war machines, a 98 model Esteem seemed a little too advanced to work on.

My first model shoot

2005-07-06T08:21:00.000+05:30

My friend has a Pentax Optio 30. No matter where we go, we always carry it with us. So it was not a coincidence when a person from the multimedia department came running inside the lab that evening asking if anybody had a camera. I proudly pointed to the Pentax connected to the charging unit in the corner of the room.
"Good. I need you to take the camera and come with me."
I was a little surprised. Why did the multimedia people want me? Maybe they had seen my collection of abstract photographs about the campus. Maybe this was my big break. He was in a hurry, so I quickly collected the camera and batteries.
As I followed him down the stairs, I put on a deliberate casual attitude and asked him, "Well, whats up doc? Are you taking me to photograph something?"
"Yeah" he replied as he walked down two steps at a time. "The management wants it done quickly and nicely."
My stomach suddenly went hollow. "The management? The college management wants me to take photos for them?"
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, out of breath from excitement.
His only reply was "Get on the bike. We have no time."

While on the bike, I was desperately trying to calm myself. I explained to him that the camera was just a simple point and shoot and I will need an SLR to get a real professional image. I also pointed out that the flash on the camera might not be sufficient. For all my efforts, I only succeeded in irritating him more.
"Hey!!", he whipped his head back at me and said "Your camera will do just fine."
The remaining journey was passed without comments or conversation.

We went on a route that goes behind the college and around the mountains. The scenery was breath taking. All around me were small green fields sometimes lined with brown huts made from coconut leaves. I was not sure if I could do justice to all this with the Pentax.

We soon arrived at a place, which I quickly identified as "Goshala", the cattle farm run by the college. Some local farm hands had assembled there to meet us. We were led to a lone shed near the farm. I could make out something covered with a huge blanket lying in the center of the shed. I looked at my friend and he motioned me to go inside. I understood that I was to photograph this thing under the blanket. As soon as I entered the shed, one of the workers came forward and removed the blanket.

I was to photograph a dead cow!!! I gave my friend a "You better explain this to me NOW" look. He got the message for he quickly replied
"The cow died of old age. We need to apply for insurance and the insurance agent needs a full photograph of the dead cow. All of our people are busy with projects, so the management asked us to get somebody with a camera and finish the job."

I managed a weak "Oh!!" And so the talented and promising young photographer was instantly reduced to a "somebody with a camera".

I went over to the cow. It looked like it was having a siesta. I switched on the camera and got the cow into frame.
"Thats a nice looking dead cow." I exclaimed in broken tamil to one of the local workers. Immediately he raised his hand asking me to stop, went over to the cow, pulled its mouth wide open and wrenched its tongue out.
I almost fainted.
Fifteen minutes later, a very quiet and shaken "somebody with a camera" was taken to the multimedia lab to deliver the photos and then was left to find his way back to his room in the MTech lab.

The nice looking dead cow

Look Ma, I am studying

2005-06-29T21:43:00.000+05:30

Serious Shiv

I wanted to show this to my parents. No matter what I tell them, they always had this feeling that I was a loafer.

Notice the bearded face which signifies that the student has no time even to take care of himself. Notice the faded jeans which highlights lack of money to buy good clothes. Fortunaltly some people also tend to call it as a fashion thing.
And that look of concentration and dedication on my face (I think I am getting good at this). A picture of a model student.

Short Break

2005-06-23T13:11:00.000+05:30

Dear All, ( that means Sajith, Sojish, and Amar)

I will not be able to blog for some time because I will not be able to access the net for some time.
Things will be back to normal probably in 2 weeks........

Sojish,
We definitly have to meet. Was not able to make it last time.

TS,
We have to meet too. :)

Amar,

well... hope ISPCON is going great. Looking forward to seeing you.

The saga comes to an end

2005-05-21T13:35:00.000+05:30

Its finally here and I am really excited. I am so excited that I spend almost all the time reading and re-reading reviews, watching the micro series, trying desperatly to catch up with the greatest sci-fi epic.

Now I am not all that crazy about star wars. I would rather spend my time travelling and seeing places rather queue up in front of some theatre for months. But I am hugely attracted to the philosophy and the way of the force that is characteristic of star wars.

Most reviews compare the saga to a greek tragedy. While the initial triology, episodes IV to VI, gives us an impression that the story is about a freedom struggle by the rebels against a cruel and unrelenting empire, watching the saga as a collection on all the six episodes will reveal that the story is really about the rise, fall, and final redemption of a jedi knight named Anakin Skywalker.

Can't wait to catch the movie when it comes to Coimbatore.

There are a number of sites on the web that has a wealth of information on star wars:
Star Wars Official Site
theforce.net
Some humorous blogs:
A really funny and insightful blog of Darth Vader
Mater Yoda's Blog

A Random Thought

2005-05-21T09:54:00.000+05:30

Kabhee laut aaye to poochna
NaheeN dekhna use GHaur se
Jinhe raaste pe khabar huee
Ke ye raasta koi aur hai

Tujhe dushmanoN kee khabar na thee
Mujhe dostoN ka pata na tha
Teree daastaaN koi aur thee
Mera vaakaya koi aur hai

A Rainy Sunset

2005-05-19T23:48:00.000+05:30

This one was taken with the other evening rain photo. I deliberatly wanted to get over the B&W addiction. B&W can hide your flaws and make your picture look classier.

When the sun goes behind the majestic western ghats, the whole campus is bathed in pale yellow. You forget time and you feel like you are part of a big painting, a painting that streches about 400 acres. I am standing in front of the college taking shelter from the rain. The sky looks vast with light blue blending into golden yellow near the towering mountains. Anamala hill stands proudly with its head high in the clouds. There is so much beauty and so much detail that suddenly you feel insignificant. The whole creation silently looks at you and you feel so insignificant. You are reduced to nothing but a helpless observer, a beat poet who has neither the rhymes nor the metaphors to describe the unveiling of nature in all its glory.

Blacks, Whites, Colors

2005-05-08T16:11:00.000+05:30

Okay I admit. I am seriously in love with black & whites. I have never really played around much with photos, but I think I am getting the hang of it.

I am usually a person with a short attention span and I dont like to do things on and on for hours; especially studies. But now my friends find me looking at the screen for hours trying to decide if "Sepia" is better than "Filtered B&W". Having too many options on Adobe or any kind of software for that matter, can be pretty frustrating. It takes so long to make up your mind(that is if you ever make up your mind). Picasa is nice, but sometimes you think you need more options.

I had many ideas about building my career during the past six months, like starting a Dhaba near the college, starting a marble business by importing marbles from Rajastan, smuggling cocaine in and out of Tamil Nadu, killing Chota Shakeel to become the next don.... the list goes on. But there are two things that always tops the list:
1. Enroll myself as a Volvo truck driver somewhere in Europe. ( I always liked huge vehicles, and I love travelling)
2. Take over a really huge studio.

Some people say that I dream too much. Well, I ask those people,
"How do you expect me to stay awake through five hours of calculus of variations, finite element modelling and wavelet design?"

The Evening Rain

2005-05-06T11:42:00.000+05:30

It finally rained. It was not exactly a downpour but it was enough to cool off the merciless afternoon sun. Some of us started walking in the rain, a luxury which is seldom available. Fortunatly one of my friends had a camera.

I took this photo in front of the college. B&W gives a timeless look.

Flickr

2005-05-03T10:45:00.000+05:30

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

There is more to Unix

2005-04-27T22:21:00.000+05:30

This was taken from Dennis Ritchie homepage.
This looked too good so I decided to post it.

Click to find out what else is Unix.

I doubt if all products mentioned above have the "Unix nature". (wrt "The Rootless Root")

Off he goes

2005-04-25T02:05:00.000+05:30

know a man, his face seems pulled and tense
like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds
so i approach with tact
suggest that he should relax
but he's always moving much too fast
said he'll see me on the flipside
on this trip he's taken for a ride
he's been taking too much on
there he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes
there he goes...
he's yet to come back
but i've seen his picture
it doesn't look the same up on the rack
we go way back
i wonder about his insides
its like his thoughts are too big for his size
he's been taken... where, i don't know?
off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope
and there he goes...
and now i rub my eyes, for he has returned
seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned
for he still smiles...
and he's still strong
nothing's changed, but the surrounding bullshit that has grown
and now he's home
and we're laughing like we always did
my same old, same old friend
until a quarter-to-ten
i saw the strain creep in
he seems distracted and i know just what is gonna happen next
before his first step
he's off again

Zen strikes again.

2005-04-23T14:27:00.000+05:30

Look what I found:
http://amarjyoti.com/displayarticle42.html
http://amarjyoti.com/displayarticle43.html

Amar told me that he was into it. I had no idea it was so deep :)
Perhaps you should now rename your blog to the Blogless Blog.

Snack Attack?

2005-04-09T11:14:00.000+05:30

Sachin the bodybuilder is happy today. His parents have gone over to his sisters place and the house is free. He has generously invited other builders and a famished student to his house for a "cook-yourselves-and-eat" bash.

Sachin: "Hey, we can buy eggs. How many eggs should we buy"
Shiv: "Well there are four of us. So maybe we can buy 5 or 6"
Sachin: " 5 or 6 ?? HA HA HA HA"
Shiv: "Well, Whats so funny ??"
Sachin:" We will need at least twenty to thirty!!"
Shiv: "THIRTY!! HA HA HA HA HA "
Sachin: " I will go and buy the eggs. You guys start chopping vegetables"
Shiv: "THIRTY!! HA HA HA HA HA "
Others: " Maybe you can buy some milk so we can make coffee"
Sachin: "Good idea. Will be back in 15 minutes."
Shiv: "THIRTY!! HA HA HA HA HA "
Others: " I think he is losing it. Maybe we should take him to the gym less often."

Will code for food

2005-04-09T11:05:00.000+05:30

A Sunset

2005-04-02T12:30:00.000+05:30

It rarely rains here. But it sure does get a loud cloudy at times.
And one of the things thats really worth watching when it gets cloudy in the campus is the sunset.

The whole place gets so transformed. I am walking down towards my hostel from the lab.
The lights has become noticably dim. There are not many people on the campus on a Friday evening. Once you turn to the road that leads to the hostel along the football field, it becomes somewhat narrow, lined with neem trees. I could see till the end of the road, barren and silent. The sky has now turned into a kind of yellowish orange. The Great Artist has painted long strands of cirrus across the great canvas. The whole atmosphere is reflecting yellow. Those of you who have worked with Adobe Photoshop or similar software will instantly recognise the tone as Sepia.

A small breeze blows caressing the trees and blowing the neatly piled heaps of dead leaves back onto the road. The cracling noise of the dry leaves on the asphalt somehow makes me feel good. I throw my head back to take a deep breath. (Col. John, if you are reading this, I still don't get the warmth of friendship when I do that.) The silence is only disturbed by the occasional shouts of a few students playing on the field. I pause to watch the game for a few minutes. Most of them are northies. They dont get to go home on weekends. They have to wait for the longer holidays. I catch the nearest one and ask him in my south indian hindi.
"Score kitna hua".
He looks at me for a moment and answers "Pata nahi. Bas aise hi khel rehe hai."
I point to the sky "Mausam badiya hai".
"Hmmm" He replies with a disinteresed look. He must have been irritated with my hindi, or my intrusion into the game (or both). I don't want to find out. So I keep walking.

I have now crossed the football feild and I am walking towards the students mess. The concrete in the adjacent basket ball court is glowing bright orange. I walk across to the lawn near the hostel and pause to look at the sky one more time. Everything looks like part of a big painting.
I dont know why but I begin to feel happy and peaceful for no particular reason. The Swami has told me that you should always look into nature and observe. I never knew that this has such a profound impact on the soul.

As I begin to walk into the hostel, I notice some people sitting in the balcony and looking at the sky. Almost everybody here are waiting for the rains.
Jagjit Singh keeps playing in my head:

Garaj Baras pyaase dharti par, phir paani de maula
Chi.Diyo.n ko daane, bachcho.n ko gu.D-dhaanii de maulaa

Do aur do kaa jo.D hameshaa.n chaar kahaa.N hotaa hai
Soch samajh vaalo.n ko tho.Dii naadaanii de maulaa

Zen and the art of Living

2005-03-22T12:34:00.000+05:30

The canvas of life is too wide to be painted all over with the small brush we are born with. Its only when you learn not to make an effort to paint it, but to let the color of the canvas be the color of your paint, that you'll be able to attain the pleasure of completing the task.

Perfection, in any walk of life, is about the stillness thats inside the artist and his work. Its about calm. Where, there is perfection, cant be any turbulence.

----
Shibumi - The art of effortless perfection.

Taken from: braveheart-blog.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_braveheart-blog_archive.htm

To esteem or not to esteem

2005-03-13T13:29:00.000+05:30

My classmate has an old type 1 esteem. It has virtually no suspension. The power windows need a lot of power. And the A/C is a joke. But it can go fast. Really fast. I personally hit a max of 160kmph on the L&T highway.
After a a few hundred kilometers inside the car, we all convinced him to repair it. He thought for a moment and said, "Why not convert it to the new esteem Type 3".

Coimbatore is really famous for second hand goods and fancy stuff. All the fancy stuff in Kerala and surrounding places come from here. My classmate and a friend of his went to this place which kinda looks like an NFS underground garage.... Full of neat stuff... and got themselves a type 3 bumper for just about Rs 850.
Cool huh ?

We then went to some local stores here to ask about a complete restructuring... Type3 fenders, headlights, tail light assembly, and spoiler. While my friends were asking about the prices and stuff, I was walking around the shop looking at all the accessories. Personally, I dont like cars. I'd rather been seen in a scorpio or something of that sort.

We then went to some local workshops to ask about the price of servicing the whole car including paint work. I fell in love with one of the local garages. They had a lot of vintage vehicles. An old US army jeep, a couple of BSA 500cc bikes and stuff like that.

Esteem is a really nice car. Its also easy to maintain. All the spares and upgrades come cheap. The only problem is that at higher speeds the car becomes unstable. How do you expect 800Kg of metal to be stable at 100kmph.
Anyways I am waiting for the car to come out of the garage. It will take a month or two.

Debian Swirl

2005-03-10T15:32:00.000+05:30

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:41:44 -0800
From: Bruce Perens <---------------->
Reply-To: ---------------------------
To: ---------------------------
Subject: [Discuss] Meaning of the Debian Swirl

Fabio asked what the Debian Swirl means.

It's "magic smoke". Electrical engineer lore is that when you burn out
an electronic component, you cause the "magic smoke" that makes it work
to be released. Once the magic smoke is gone, the component doesn't work
any longer. Debian is supposed to be the magic smoke that makes your
computer work.

Thanks

Bruce

-------------------
That is soo cool.

Zen

2005-03-03T13:17:00.000+05:30

The Heart of Zen is a calm mind that is focused on the Buddha.

Time Pass

2005-02-25T23:59:00.000+05:30

How do you spend an unexpected day off in Ettimadai...

Well you take your friends car and go out and eat " Kothiya Porotta" at some Dhaba. Be sure that the TV is switched on and you are watching KTV or SunTV. Experts say that aids in digestion.

Then you go to the local Dosha kada and have some doshas.
"Aaaa sappadu sappadu"
Cross the road and go to the local bakery for some hot and strong coffee.
"Aiiiiiiiii suuuupper suuuupper"

Drive back with the car stereo screaming some local Tamil hip hop....

Pagalile colorgal poraamal
Iruttile kaNNadichchenna payan
Sudhandhiram mattum illaamal
Swargane irundhum enna payan
Figurigal yarum illaamal
Vaguppugal irundhum enna payan
Iruvadhu vayadhil aadamal
Aruvadhil aadi enna payan

The Eternal Stranger

2005-02-16T21:07:00.000+05:30

ALAS, I cannot stay in the house, and home has become no home to me, for the eternal Stranger calls, he is going along the road.

The sound of his footfall knocks at my breast; it pains me!

The wind is up, the sea is moaning. I leave all my cares and doubts to follow the homeless tide, for the Stranger calls me, he is going along the road.

--------
From "Fruit Gathering" by Rabindranath Tagore

Master Foo

2005-02-05T11:32:00.000+05:30

To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the Operating System.
- Master Foo

Universal blogger: The Return

2005-01-30T13:12:00.000+05:30

I thought I will never be able to blog again. The HPC conference> and semester exams were too taxing for my modest intellect. The HPC days still gives me nightmares. The whole batch had spent many sleepless nights organising the whole thing.

A few surviving members of the organising commitee:

The only thing that kept me sane was the the time when I get to have coffee sitting outside the hostel. Who says money cannot buy happiness. Happiness comes in two flavours: Nescafe and Nestea

For Sojish:
I still did not see Swadesh. Please note that the "bulb song" is not under GPL. The right to modify the source code lies entirely with the Poornam people only. Any violators of the license will be made to watch "Padaiyappa". The survivors will be made to watch "BABA".

Master Foo and the Unix Zealot

2004-12-17T15:05:00.000+05:30

A Unix zealot, having heard that Master Foo was wise in the Great Way of Unix, came to him for instruction. Master Foo said to him:

“When the Patriarch Thompson invented Unix, he did not understand it. Then he gained in understanding, and no longer invented it”.

“When the Patriarch McIlroy invented the pipe, he knew that it would transform software, but did not know that it would transform mind”.

“When the Patriarch Ritchie invented C, he condemned programmers to a thousand hells of buffer overruns, heap corruption, and stale-pointer bugs”.

“Truly, the Patriarchs were blind and foolish!”

The zealot was greatly angered by the Master's words.

“These enlightened ones”, he protested. “gave us the Great Way of Unix. Surely, if we mock them we will lose merit and be reborn as beasts or MCSEs”.

“Is your code ever completely without stain and flaw?” demanded Master Foo.

“No”, admitted the zealot, “no man's is”.

“The wisdom of the Patriarchs”, said Master Foo, “was that they knew they were fools”.

Upon hearing this, the zealot was enlightened.

-----------
Taken from "Rootless Root - The unix koans of Master Foo "
http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/unix_koans.html

Woe is me

2004-12-13T21:34:00.000+05:30

First I fall down from the stairs and fracture my leg
Then I fall down from the bike and fracture my cheekbone
Now I fall down from my chair in the lab in front of the whole class.

Gravity is a myth. The world just sucks.

In search of Meer

2004-12-10T14:45:00.000+05:30

My soul longs for the journey
To the place free of liberties

I am only happy in that town
Where I can feel Her nearness

Among these hollow stone gardens, I find no joy
My desire to travel makes me move towards Her....

O Mother, with eyes like the petals of blue lotus
I offer unto You whatever is left of me.

Yaaron mujhe muaaf rakho, main nashe mein hoon
Ab jaam do to khali hi do, main nashe mein hoon

(Friends you must excuse me, for I am intoxicated.
If you must, give me an empty glass, for I am intoxicated.)

Ya haathon-haath lo mujhe maanind-e-Jaam-e-ma'ay
Ya thodi door saath chalo, main nashe mein hoon

(Either take me hand-in-hand, as you would a glass of wine
Or walk a little distance along me, for I am intoxicated)

Gham se zara najaat mili bekhudi mein aaj
Ab mera intazaar karo, main nashe main hoon

(Got a little relief from sorrow, in being drunk today
Now you have to wait for me, for I am intoxicated.)

After tasting Divine Love, neither earthly wine, nor the kiss of the courtesan, nor the ritual of prayer has power to move one.

Complete shayari can be read here:
http://www.grandpoohbah.net/Grandpoohbah/mirji.htm

I have been spammed

2004-12-03T17:20:00.000+05:30

Hurrayyyyyyyyy............. I have been spammed today!!!

Having worked in an internet support company for 2 years, I have been used to starting my day with well over 10 unread mails in my inbox and a couple of spams. After I joined for MTech, nobody seems to be sending me mails :(. I guess I am an internet addict cause I feel very weird when I dont get mails each day.

I have not received mails for a long time now. As a side effect I suffer from extreme depression and a feeling of loneliness. Also I have this feeling in my stomach when I have not eaten for a long time. And I always tend to sleep with m eyes closed. Oh.. things were really getting difficult.

Just when I thought that the end of the world had come and was preparing to kill myself by jumping in front of the internet traffic, I was spammed. Oh sweet lord I was spammed. It was kinda big spam. Some guy in the US wanted me to download and watch free movies. A movie download from the college lab is painful, but I dont care. I was spammed and thats what counts. One of my friends said that the movie downloader is a virus, but I need not worry cause the virus is activated only on Windows 98. I am using Windows 2000. But I dont care. I was willing to manually delete all my files for him and reply:

Hello Spammer,

I am happy to say that your virus has worked on my system and has successfully deleted all the files. I am unable to paste a screenshot for your verification cause it deleted Microsoft Paint too.

Have a nice day.
Regards
Shiv

Hey spammer, if you are reading this I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU. I feel needed again.
Suddenly all things are looking bright and beautiful. Long live the spammers.

Epilouge: I uninstalled all spam assassin software on my machine. I am planning to start a "Save the Spammers; Give them some love" movement in my college. As a first step, I am going to open the local college server to all the spammers in the world.

Peace and Love.

Magic of Hariharan

2004-11-28T19:22:00.000+05:30

It was my dear friend Ajeesh who introduced me to Hariharan and Ghazals.
Since then I have been a huge Hariharan fan....

I wish I could study urdu.....

mareez ishq ka kya hai, jiya jiya na jiya
hai ek saaNs ka jhagDa, liya liya na liya

badan hi aaj agar taar-taar hai mera
to ek chaak gareebaaN siya siya na siya

ye aur baat ke tu har rahe-khayaal meiN hai
ke tera naam zabaaN se liya liya na liya

mere hi naam pe aaya hai jaam mehfil meiN
ye aur baat ke maine piya piya na piya

ye haale dil hai Safi maiN to sochta hi naheeN
ke kyooN kisee ne sahaara diya diya na diya

Album: Hazir
Poet: Dr. Safi Hassan
Music: Hariharan

An illustrated short story

2004-11-15T22:00:00.000+05:30

It all started as a simple argument between me and Dharmendra.
Dharam always insists that you need to have a huge mass of muscle. I never agreed with him... I always believed that you just have to be in shape...
( And yes... round is a shape )

Dharam laughed at my opinions:

Dharam: Chup raho Shiv nahi to ma kasam mein tujhe jaan se maar daloonga...

Shiv: You want a peice of me ? Well.. come and get it...

And then it happened:

KA-BOOM

I remember counting upto 4 stars before I fainted. Dharam took the direct literal meaning in my challenge.... He wanted to break me into peices and apparantly select some nice ones from them.

Well.. some people are best left to themselves.

Black

2004-11-08T12:59:00.000+05:30

There are some things that I have always wanted to do.
Another one was just added to the list a few days back... though I dont think I will be able to pull it off.
Everytime I go to the mess to have food, I see a lot of people sitting there. The mess tables are lined up in long rows with the hostel wardens standing around. Whenever I see that, I want to stand up on one of the long tables, tear my shirt and sing loudly " All I want to say is that they dont really care about us".
Maybe I can try moonwalking too... that is if the wardens dont pull me down by that time.
I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun
I wish I was a souvenier you kept your housekey on
I wish I was the pedal brakes that you depended on
I wish I was the verb "to trust" and never let you down

I wish I was a radio song
The one that you turn up...
I wish...
I wish...

If Eddie had'nt written this song, I sure would have.. But I would have changed some parts of the lyrics.

Then there is "Black"... Oh man how I want to sing that one on stage..
All I need is a good electric guitar, a good bass and backup guitars and a drummer.
Six months back I would have also needed half a bottle of vodka.

I will let the other guitars do the rhytm and I can just sing...
" All the love gone bad
Turned my world to black
Tatooed all I see
All that I am
All I'll beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

Then comes the " do di do do do di do" part...
The rhytm guitar and bass takes care of that.. I can switch to a modest lead. Somewhat like a mix when PJ played in Dallas and State college. I guess I will end the lead like Dallas show... but then I dont want the song to end...

I just want to play "do di do do do di do" till I die.

Somewhere I belong

2004-11-08T12:48:00.000+05:30

The past few days have been really messed up.
I am consumed by a overwhelming sense of laziness. And its taking the toll on me.
After the accident, the docter had advised that I will need a lot of physical exercise for completle recovery..... (Sometimes I wonder that the accident was just the cause for a lot of things to happen)
Anyways... I used to force myself to go to the gym for some days. There is always a problem of injuring yourself if you dont do things properly in the gym. Dharmendra now has a slip disc in his neck.

So the doc told me to play something.. He suggested that I play football.
Now I play football everyday. I have installed FIFA 98 on my machine.

To be fair to the doctor and all the people that helped me in the therapy, whatever is fixed now is largely due to their patience and effort. Whatever remains broken is still because I am not making an effort to straighten up the mess.
Linkin Park keeps playing in my head:

When all the vacancy the words revealed
Is the only real thing that I've got left to feel
Nothing to loose
Just stuck, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own and the fault is my own

And I've got nothing to say
I can't believe I didnt fall right down on my face
I was confused
Looking everwhere only to find
That it's not the way I had imagined it all in my mind
So what am I

What do I have but negativity
Cause I cant justify the way everyone is looking at me
Nothing to loose
Nothing to gain, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own and the fault is my own

I will never know
Myself until I do this on my own
And I will never feel
Anything else, until my wounds are healed
I will never be anything
till I break away from me
I will break away
I'll find myself today

Schrodinger V/S Dharmendra

2004-10-17T11:23:00.000+05:30

There is this friend of mine from Mumbai. I call him Dharmendra, cause he has a huge body... spends all the time in the gym and he starts every alternate sentence with " Ma kasam" or " Teri maa ki..."

I have often imagined old Dharamendra or Dharam for short getting up in the middle of our calculas class and shouting " Chup raho Sirr.. Nahi to ma kasam mein tujhe maar daloonga...!!"

Well.. something similar to that happened and I nearly died of laughing.

It all started with our Quantum Mechanics class. The professor started with the basics and moved over to the dangerous Scrodinger wave equation. It was obvious that we were not understanding anything.
The merciless professor then rudely plucked out an electron from a Helium atom ( in theory of course) and put it in a box. He then began applying the Scrodinger equation to the electron. The poor electron was soo terrified that it gave out soo many equations for its momentum and radiations...
The black board was filled with all kinds of equations and the electron was screaming bloody murder. It was a ghastly sight. If Medha Padkar was present in our class, she would have immediatly started an "Electron Bachao Andolan" and would have fasted till the electron was released and given back to the poor helium atom.

Two hours after the class, all of us were sitting in the canteen discussing what each of us understood over a cup of tea. When it was old Dharams turn to explain, all us looked at him expectingly...
He paused, took a long breath and said.

"Schrodingerrrr..... Teri ma ki aisi ki taisi !!!!"

To be honest, that actually summed up the whole 2 hours of Quantum Mechanics.

Epilouge:
This is what I found at a website:

I don't like it and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it.
Erwin Schrodinger commenting on Schrodinger's equations

That confirms the "Paap ka Aulat" theory.

Who killed Superman

2004-10-12T14:02:00.000+05:30

Christopher Reeve who flew to fame as the star in the "Superman" series passed away today.
The cause of death was determined as heart failure.

Highly placed sources in the intelligence community suspects this could have been due to a major shock recieved by Mr Reeve when he was browsing the internet.

The suspicion was confirmed when the FBI, CIA and CIDs from Tamilnadu scanned a list of articles that were uploaded to the internet just before this tragic incident. They concluded that a particular photo from a recently updated blog was the cause of major shock to the veteran actor. This blog was posted by one of the directors of a very successful Linux support and solutions company called Poornam Info Vision

Things were not looking good for the director Mr. Amarjyoti Krishnan when the White House came to know about this. However it was the CIDs from Tamil Nadu with their ingenius dummy tests who proved that Mr Amar was innocent and it is the model in the picture who is really guilty.

Please click the following link to see the picture.
Warning: Extremely sensitive graphic material.

The Picture that killed Superman

There and Back Again

2004-10-06T13:47:00.000+05:30

After 2 weeks in college, I finally got to go home during the last weekend.
I was thrilled to finally sit down and watch TV in my house, although I dont think my parents shared my enthusiasm. It was only on Sunday that my folks looked really happy when I was leaving for college.

Anyways... I am back to my old life here.

yahoo and shaadi.com

2004-09-30T13:36:00.000+05:30

I dont know if this is happening to all the yahoo uses, but whenever I log into my yahoo mail, I get this very big ads from shaadi.com
There comes these photos of some "aunty log" with text like,
"Hi I am Sunita Kulkarni, music teacher. I cook. I wash. I iron clothes. I belive in God. I am shy. I will look upon my husband as God."

Almost makes you believe that there is life after marriage.

MTech student commits suicide

2004-09-28T13:37:00.000+05:30

Flash News

Ettimadai, Coimatore: An MTech student in Computational Engineering and Networking commited suicide today by jumping in front of the Taylor series expansion.

A Taylor series is a series expansion of a function about a point. A one-dimensional Taylor series is an expansion of a real function f(x) about a point x = a is given by

The poor student died instantly as a term of the Taylor series somewhere close to infinity passed over his skull.

Officials are yet to to determine if this was caused by the careless Calculus teacher who was not able to properly convey to the class what the Taylor series actually meant.

The CIDs from Tamilnadu and the CBI conducted 3 dummy tests. The results of the test were
1st dummy to wall - 12 feet
2nd dummy to wall - 8 feet
Dummy to Dummy - 6 feet

According to CID Ramdas and Vijayan, this indicates a clear case of suicide.

First lessons in MTech

2004-09-23T13:45:00.000+05:30

This is my second week in the MTech course. Eventhough the technical side of my brain is struggling with the whole "BIG PICTURE" idea, I was able to experience a lot of different personalities and perspectives.

First of all there is my HOD. A really brilliant, talented and widely respected character. During the first class, I asked him a doubt regarding how to visualise vectors.
After explaining some concepts, which was punctuated by my frequent "oohs"
he looked straight at my face, paused as if to create an effect and asked me to bombard my brain!!!! I was shocked. There was a 5 minute silence where we both looked at each other.... surely my brain is not so pathetic. Hey I have 90% in my sslc and predegree. My hurt ego was able to utter a feeble " Excuse me sir ?? "
At length my HOD explained... " You should bombard your brain with the concepts and ideas."
I feel better now.

According to the local people here, the cauliflower grown inside the college campus is called college flower.

Then there is my classmate Sachin. There is never a dull moment with him. He made a very intelligent observation about all the theories in science and maths. He explained to me in his Mumbai hindi....
" Dekh Shiv, yeh jo sab theories hai na... Yeh sab paap ka aulat jaisa hai "

Seeing my puzzled expression he graciously offered to explain the theory in detail.

The theory is an analogy of bastards and their illegal children.
There will always be some bastards in the society. They have all the fun.. and in the process leave behind illegal children. Then they walk off or die leaving the children behind.
So now the society has this children.

Similarly, the scientists are the bastards who have fun with science and leave back theories as illegal children. Eventually, they happily die away and we are stuck with the children.

That is Sachin's "Paap ka aulat" theory.

After listening to him, all I could say was:
" How intelligent you are....
Like a diamond in the sky....."

A brief look at my new life.

2004-09-18T17:01:00.000+05:30

About my new life as an MTech Student.

There is this small adjustment factor. I am still not on the correct learning track.
There are only 12 people in my course. Most of them are just BTech freshers. Then there are others who are lecturers in the college.
Guess what, there are some people who take this course as their PhD !!!!
Can you believe that ??? I have a classmate who is around 40+ and he is doing the same course as his PhD !! Dont ask me why or how. I still have not figured out that part.
But it is said that in the IIT, they follow this syllabus for PhD.
( That is wonderful hosting!!!)
The only consolation is my friend who has promised to teach me everything. But I am not sure if he will get time for all that.
(Which is even more wonderful hosting !!!! )

The college is a truly beautiful place. Around 400+ acres. It takes a long time to walk from my lab to the hostel. Most ppl here have bought bicycles.

There is no ragging as all ppl here are interested only in studies and stuff like that. I am talking about the Mtech and PhD people. I guess the MBA guys are a lot more cooler.

There is a music and photography club here and I am planning to join them. But I am not sure if I will get time for those as my sir is very strict. He will not allow the students to go home on weekends because he believes this is the "padikkanulla prayam."
( Now thats the real "prayathinte prashnam" )

About my collegues:

The room next to my lab is a place where they are doing a project worth 2 crore.
The cabin next to mine is my teacher whos subject is partial differential equations. So obviously I cannot speak to her. She only understands maths. I dont think she speaks any other language.
2 cabins after mine is a person who is in the same course as I am but is 1 year senior. He is doing a project for ISRO - vibration analysis of space crafts.
At times I ask him if his space craft is stable. He looks at me with a serious expression and does not reply. I wonder what that is supposed to mean. Gives me vibrations at times.

There is this NPOL project that is coming that is about locking targets for submarines. If things are going the way it is, then there is a high probability that they might use me for target practice. And knowing my collegues and faculty members, I am sure they will blow me to vaccum in the first test shot no matter how hard I run.

New Life New Horizons

2004-09-17T21:31:00.000+05:30

Oh man

I wrote huge blog here about my college but this thing showed a internal server error when I posted.
:((((((

That is soo bad.
I dont think I can type all that again.

Anyways I am back to studies now. Mtech in Computational Engineering in Amrita Institute of Technology, Ettimadai.

People say college life is fun. I think I will wait for 2 years before making any comments.

But quite frankly I have nothing to complain here. The place is good, the facilities are excellant, the poeple are nice.

Also there is the bus to vallikkavu on weekends. And of course there is a dedicated net connection and Pearl Jam:

Little country store
with a sign tacked to the side
Said 'No L-O-I-T-E-R-I-N-G Allowed'
Underneath that sign
always congregated quite a crowd
Take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
Take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
Take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around

A donkey story.

2004-08-15T03:20:00.000+05:30

This story was told by Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro. I found this really interesting.

Once there was a farmer and his donkey. The donkey was with the farmer for a long time and was ever faithful to his master. One day they were walking together along a small pond on the farmer's land. Suddenly the donkey slipped and fell into the pond.

Now the donkey had been very faithful to his master and had served his master without any complaints for a long time. So the donkey was sure that his master would save him and started to call out for help. But the farmer seeing the poor donkey drowning in the pond thought " Well... my donkey is very old. I dont think he can do much work now. I have been planning to get a new donkey soon. Might as well cover up this useless pond so that further accidents dont happen."

So he called all his friends to cover up the pond. Soon several baskets of mud came raining down on the drowing donkey and began filling the pond. The animal did not understand as to what was happening. Why is his master not trying to save him. The realisation came slow and painful. There was nobody who was going to save the donkey. If the donkey wanted to get out of the pond. he will have to do it himself.

As soon as this became clear, the animal began to shake the mud off his body. Each time mud poured onto his body, he would shake it off and try to remain above the water. Soon the pond started filling up and the donkey waited patiently. Eventually the pond was filled with enough mud that the donkey could simply walk out of it.

I guess each one of us is a donkey. And we expect a lot from the farmer who becomes the world we live in. And each time we fall into the pond of sorrows or difficulties, we expect the world to save us.

The choice is about walking out of the pond on your own or getting buried in it.

Conversation with my mother

2004-08-13T09:20:00.000+05:30

I was very disturbed for a few days. I tried to hide it from a lot of people, but could'nt escape the watchful eyes of my mother. I guess there is something special about mothers.

She asked me what was wrong. And I opened my heart to her... afterall she had been my best friend for years......

I told her that I was feeling really bad because I felt that a person had wronged me.

"Okay" She said. "What are you going to do about it "

" Well.." I replied. " I was comtemplating on my state of mind and I came to this conclusion. You must have courage to beg forgiveness... you must have even greater courage to forgive...

I guess all of us like sympathy and self pity. So its very difficult for us to forgive and let things go... Wipe the slate clean... and never think about it again.

So Mom, I am trying to forgive... but somehow I cannot.. things keep coming back to me."

She listened to all this and asked me:

"What happens when things come back to you"

" I feel bad... I feel terrible"

"Hmm.. Dont you think thats because of self pity ? "

"Well.............Yes" ( Ouch.. did not think about it in that way )

" Is that going to help"

"No" ( Well... what is she getting at )

" You say somebody hurt you badly. But tell me can that person hurt you if you dont allow yourselves to be hurt"

" Hmm no" ... ( Thats interesting)

" So you allowed yourselves to be hurt"

"Yes" .. ( things are not looking good. I wanted her to console me. Now she is having fun.)

" Well so tell me...whom should you forgive, the person who hurt you or yourself ?"

" Myself" ( OUCH !!! )

There was a moment of silence when I was searching for my voice to say " Hey wait a minute... thats not how it is supposed to go." But then what she said made perfect sense.
Who are we to forgive other people....
The Holy Mother says that no matter what justice is always carried out.. in this life or the next. The law of Karma eventually catches up with everybody and sets the records straight.

While I was preparing to leave, my mother asked me
" Anyways.. what does this person feel about the whole thing "

" I guess the person does'nt care anymore" I replied sheepishly

I could still hear my mom laughing when I walked out house and headed for the office.

New improved Blog

2004-08-07T02:55:00.000+05:30

This is my new blog site.

I deleted my previous one.

Now people ask me why I deleted my blog. A blog is a place where you write down what you feel ... and dont give a second thought as to what you are writing or who is going to read it. ( Of course you always have the edit button and delete button to cover up your mess).

But hey it was not much of a blog anyways... All it had was a trip log... I was pretty impressed with myself when I started writing that. In fact I had some of the sentences had already formed in my mind when I was on my bike.
So I wrote and wrote. Big sentences, kinda fancy words and puns. But when you look at it as a whole, its just ordinary literature. This is where the edit button comes in. So I did some editing... but was too lazy to read it again.

Also it had some pretty terrible poetry. Now that is where the delete button came in.
Kaput. End of story...

But then, its a nice feeling when you write down things that affected you and later get to read them. You get to analyse yourself... and see if you have grown up or grown out of it.

So now I have a new blog.... Mwaa ha ha ha ha....

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost
- Lord of the Rings