Do Not Disturb

I get unsolicited calls all the time. I even attend to calls of the guy who had this number before I got it. When I was driving to office yesterday, ulta-pulta Nitin got this thing into my head. 20,000 bux for reporting unsolicited calls!

I got one from ICICI-Lombard, trying to sell me an insurance I already have. I mean how foolish is that. I already have a policy from them only! Anyway, I got the call one, told them I wasn't interested, and I got a call again, and logged into the "Do not disturb" activation. To my surprize, I registered for the service 6 months ago. Wait a second!! That means I'm entitled to a fine!

So I went right ahead and registered a complaint. And this is going to be my new hobby. Lets see if I can make a living out of it!

Labels: Economics, Life, Society

My quote and I quote

Don't count your chickens while they are being culled....

Labels: Food, Humor, Life, Thought

Is Delhi taking its toll?

I have been commuting frequently between Noida and South Delhi off late, and taking the DND Flyway is really convenient. Apart from the little stop at the toll plaza, the drive is smooth and enjoyable, the distance is shorter and it saves a lot of time. I always thought that the DND people were doing a nice service to the nation, even though they charge a little exorbitantly. They actually made a Net Profit of 659 Lakhs in the quarter ending December 07, which is up more than 100% year on year. Great. They even publish a code of ethics and stuff on their website. Nice.

My opinion about the company however took a U-Turn following 2 observations. I was driving towards Delhi, and nearing the Toll-Plaza when I saw an Ambulance approach in the same direction, with its siren blazing and emergency light on. Now, I have noticed that in the last few years, people have become conscientious enough to give way to Ambulances, even at the cost of slowing down or stopping on the side. Most of the cars did just that, they tucked the cars into the extreme side of the lane, and gave enough space for the ambulance to proceed to the Toll Plaza first. Then, at the toll plaza, the guy handling the booth decided to have a lengthy conversation with the ambulance driver, and this lasted atleast a minute. It takes a normal car about 10 seconds to pay and pass.

I was obviously not pleased with the conduct of the guy incharge, and I chose to vent my anger at the guy handling the booth in my lane. This is the conversation that ensued:

Me (Angry) : "Bhaiya Ambulance se bhi paise lete ho kya?" Do you even charge ambulances?
Booth Guy : "Sir Patient hota hai to nahi lete.." Sir we don't charge them when there is a Patient inside.
Me : "to itni der kyun lag rahi hai" Then why is it taking so long.
Booth Guy: "Sir gaadi ka number note karna hota hai" Sir, we have to note down the registration number of the car.

I pay and leave, as disgusted as can be.

The next day, while going to office, I see this:


a new redlight has been put up for turning right towards the new toll plaza meant to service the Mayur Vihar area. NTBCL made sure that the traffic was smoothly controlled when the overbridge was being made over the toll road, and none of their customers was inconvenienced. They even waited long enough for everything to be perfectly complete (in their area of course) before opening passage in this direction (The opposite direction had been opened earlier as it did not require the ovebridge). Net effect: A new red light on Noida Link road, in the narrowest (2 lane) part. I had been expecting a traffic jam at the light the day it opened, and that is just what happened. Unfortunately, drivers in Delhi have a habit of forming 2 lanes to turn right. This leaves just one lane on the extreme left for cars to move towards Noida. Moreover, 007's will take the leftmost lane and cut across to wait infront of the 2 right-turn lanes, and stick their ass out to block all traffic. POOF.

Now, there should have been a slip road in place before opening the traffic. Turns out that there is a plan to make that slip road, and I'm not sure who is making it. There is a large concrete wall in place that will most probably hold the landfill in place. But who is doing it. If NTBCL is doing it, why were they allowed to open traffic before completing the slip road. If MCD/PWD is making it, why were they napping all this time?

End result, the DND Flyway is causing some nasty traffic snarls outside their territory. I hold them responsible!

And are toll roads the answer? Anyone who has travelled to Gurgaon on the new toll road recently (after the opening of the toll plaza) will probably give you a nice long lecture about how useless it is! Do images speak louder than words? I'll leave you with this image..





It takes upto 1 hour to cross this toll plaza. Delhi to Gurgaon in 10 mins?? I guess the absurd toll of 16 rupees is to blame. How can you expect people to shell out 16 bucks and move on quickly. Why is it not 17.25 then?

Labels: Economics, Life, Politics, Society, Travel

Ouch!

Denying the obvious to not hurt someones feelings, hurts a lot more :(

Labels: Communication, Economics, Humor, Life

Bal Kutir

I never went to an orphanage, at least not with the sole purpose of interacting with the kids, until yesterday. My mother used to cringe at any suggestion of my doing so, because she somehow finds it downright upsetting. Even I was somehow convinced that I would be a little upset to meet some underprivileged kids. That, however was not the case. I've been part of some food donation campaigns, but the interaction with kids there is limited to distributing some basic food items, and those kids aren't really orphans. We mostly help out the nomadic labourers with their food supply. I am personally not convinced with this form of Social giving, because I feel it serves a very short term and narrow purpose, but that discussion I can leave for later.

Yesterday, about 7 of us from office went to 'Bal Kutir', an orphanage run by a nice old lady in her own house. We went with the intention of holding a small drawing contest for the kids, and using their drawings to decorate our floor this Diwali, and we did just that (Yea, no surprize). But I did come back with a very different view of these children. I did not feel any pity whatsoever. Maybe because they themselves were not reeling in self pity as I had imagined. They were just back from school when we got there, and so we had some amount of trouble getting them out, and getting them started. I was a little apprehensive at first, and I didn't know what to say. So we sat them down and distributed the coloring pencils and stuff, and asked them to make any drawing about Diwali. Some started with geometrical designs, and some with diyas, and most of the tiny tots started with a contorted version of whatever the person sitting next to them was drawing. It was fun watching them draw, and helping them out. I drew a diya for 'Golu', so that he could color it in, but he did not think very highly of my artistic talents and chose to politely turn his drawing sheet over and start afresh!

Another one of the few boys there initially drew a boy holding a pataka in his hand and trying to light it with a candle, but chose to erase it when I patronizingly told him that it wasn't the most prudent method to light crackers! (yeah yeah, I'm boring.)

The kids seemed mostly unperturbed by our presence, which was probably because they interact with hordes of people all the time with rising guilt of low CSR. But they seemed to be well behaved and intelligent lot, and it was a lot of fun interacting with them. I hope to go again soon and spend some time playing cricket with them. :)


PS. There was also a guy who traced out a duck on his sheet, and along with one of the more demented people from office, insisted that it was a "Murga", and so he claimed to have made the advertisement for "Murga Chaap Patakas". Weird the people in my office I tell you :p

Labels: Education, Food, Life, Society

Live the Moment

My philosophy in life : Live the moment.

How often do we read this in interviews, slam books, orkut profiles. Almost every second person seems to have this philosophy in life. But do they really?

I personally feel that any and all disappointments that one faces in life can be traced to expectations we have. Out of ourselves, or out of other people. We let our own expectations down more often than others do. Do we really blame ourselves? If we do, can we prevent it?

Living the moment, potentially, means that you never think about the future. You expect nothing. Is is feasible? I thought I could do it, in fact to a large degree, I think I can, but then I frequently let myself down. I expect myself to have no expectations from myself. I obviously am going wrong somewhere... Can you spot it?

The harder you try, the more likely you are to fail. It obviously depends upon the importance you associate with events/people/success blah.. You expect nothing out of events you don't wish to go to, so they never seem boring. You expect nothing AT ALL out of the Himesh Reshamiya movie, so it turns out to be a hit. You expect nothing out of people you don't care about or people who aren't close to you, so they never seem to hurt you. So does that mean its best to live your life running away from everyone you seem to be getting close to? Forget about if it is best or not, can you even? Unfortunately, the human brain seems to be wired in a way that leads you into disappointment.

The sad part is, that I guess no one will ever expect anything out of Himesh Reshamiya, so expect more hits from him in the future...

I have often wondered, if I could shut out physical pain from my conscious perception. If I can ignore a smell, an irritating sound, and all other things I consciously react to, can I make pain caused by a physical wound subliminal? I've been trying it whenever I could over the years, and its not really matter of trying consciously, its only a matter of distracting your attention. As soon as you are done playing a really interesting game, or lose the grip of a really interesting novel (or the other way around), the pain slowly seeps back into your perception.

So, can I shut out disappointment? Ignorance is bliss*, isn't it? Did anyone ever bother to put a star and subscript the conditions that apply.. Ignorance may be bliss, but the path to achieving it sucks big time.

*Not applicable when you really want it. (Murphy is god)

So, when God Krishna suggested.. Karm kar, phal ki chinta mat kar, was he effectively saying ignorance is bliss? Or was he saying Live the Moment, or was he just saying expect nothing? Or was Krishna just telling Arjun that the Karma theory is gibberish? I wonder..

Let us confine ourselves to the Self then (at the cost of sounding preachy).. Is there really a way out? Can one go on living life in the moment, and not be affected with the outcomes of ones actions, or the outcomes of others actions for that matter, that directly or indirectly have an affect on us?? Is there really a way to consciously shut out all consciousness and be happy?

Comments please... I can do with some help here..

Labels: Life, Thought

Dwarfed

I never noticed that I was actually visible in this snap.. just did :) Wasn't meant to be I guess.. So here we are, DJ and I, dwarfed by the Architect of the universe.

As far as I can remember, DJ was chaining his bicycle to a stand, and Uday was enjoying the view.. and i was.. well.. enjoying the pulse of the city...

Labels: Life, Travel

My first blog post...

I recently found this written on a piece of paper. I can't remember when or why I wrote it. Must have had an interesting meeting with someone for sure ;) Read on...


Writing a blog can be a difficult exercise, especially when you sit down to write your first article and really want to make a good impression.
There are times, when after meeting someone, you feel as if you very extremely vociferous, and don’t even remember the other person speaking. I personally feel like a complete doof at such times. Unfortunately, I completely fail to check myself when I’m actually in action, blabbering away. Its only when you are departing and think of something nice to say, “It was nice talking to you”.. maybe.. Hardly. I was talking to my self all the time, oh no, I didn’t let him/her speak at all. Yes, this is the time it sets in. You didn’t let them speak. So now I slip into self evaluation mode.
I frantically try to recall the entire meeting, scouring my 4 bit memory for traces of what they may have said, and strangely, somehow, when in this mode, your memory will almost always fail you. So now you start thinking of plausible explanations for having spoken as much as you have.
Is it fair to assume that they were so interested that they did not want to interrupt, or were they thinking.. God this guy is so vain, he just cant stop talking..

Labels: Communication, Life, People, Thought

Values, Morals, Beliefs blah..

If you think I will make an attempt to differentiate, or elaborate on any of these, I won't. You can safely read the rest of the post. Only yesterday I had a discussion with a friend about how one feels right after reading a book by Ayn Rand (I mean Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged). We did mutually agree that for atleast a week, the reader moves into a Self critical and People perceptive mode. One tries to map actions of other people to the characters in the book, in order to stereotype them into Howard Roark, or Dagny Taggart. To try and evaluate your own actions and thoughts just to try and identify with the protagonist, because she does exalt them, and for atleast a week as I said, you believe her too.

So, my week ended a while ago, and today I am attending a workshop called MPG, by BW, to cut the crap, the first task of the day has been identifying the 5 key "Values" that I live by. Not those that I want to live by (Health-Weight Loss), and not those other expect me to live by, but those I actually do live by. Now this is easier said than done, because, the values I finally settled on are different from those I marked given a list of 30 values and asked to choose my top 5. So, feedback from peers, manager, self assessment, instinct and introspection, all went into these top 5. I can't say I'm completely satisfied, but then I did a fair amount of thinking, and I'll settle with these. So, whats the point?

The point is that today I realized that some things I don't really care to pay much heed to consciously, actually drive many decisions I make. On the other hand, there are values I am expected to live by, but I don't really.

Making decisions is far easier, and frequently, even the most important decisions you make don't make you question the reasons you made them. Now, that I have a pack of cards with names of common "values" written on them, I can actually take some time to think what each of these means to me. Pick a card and think what it means to me and if my actions are aligned with this value or is it totally unrelated.

Add to that a cool leather folder and 2 days in a conference room rather than on my seat, working, this workshop seems fruitful already! Ok, lunch break over, update later.

(Btw, I'm told this is one of the most expensive employee training programs in the world, but then, who said freedom comes cheap!)

End of Day 1 Update:

Day 1 ended with handing over my managers opinions about me, and lot of things about me, like skill levels required and existing skill levels in a variety of things, Talent, critical skills, communication, leadership.. the works. Add that to the review I got from a peer, and lots of introspection, the biggest outcome is that person I project myself to be, is not really what my values suggest, or what I would like to be. Apart from that, My manager and I disagree on a wode array of things, something I need to discuss in a meeting with him, and let him know that my priorities are not as mechanical as his expectations... More after day 2..

Labels: Education, Life

The journey of Books

I haven't had much time to do anything off late. All I can manage is work and few hours of reading stuff at night before I become drowsy. So, while I pretend to be busy and stay away from most chores, I've been reading a lot. Books I've finished this month include Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), H2G2: The H2G2, H2G2: The restaurant at the end of the universe (Douglas Adams), and Train to Pakistan (Khushwant Singh).

The motivation behind all this reading is a race (to finish the book), which I figured is a great way to read a book. You get done quickly, always have someone to discuss it with, and well, sometimes you win. I lost the Atlas Shrugged race, though it was close, and I'm leading the H2G2 race by an entire book! So, Train to Pakistan was read by the napping Hare, while he waits for the Tortoise to catch up! Infact the Hare now plans to read LOTR : Book 1 before getting on with the race again. (Are we there yet??)

I did intend to write a little bit about every nice book that I read, but I will refrain just yet because I'm reading (very) popular fiction and well, people have preconceived notions about the same. One thing that I would like to point out for sure, I was given the impression that Train to Pakistan might be a disappointment. It wasn't. After a long time I read a book that I couldn't put down till I finished it. A 2 page description of the monsoons in India was an absolute delight to read.

The description of the 'Ghost Trains' brought back memories of the stories my Grandmom used to tell me about their journey to India during partition. It took my paternal grandparents 14 days to cross the border, and the trousers my grandfather started in were reduced to tattered shorts when he reached his parents house in India, where most people failed to recognise him. My paternal grandparents finally crossed the border aboard a train, and at the last station on the Pakistan, as the train slowed down, people with swords could be seen waiting to massacre the passengers. As they approached the station, the driver of the train had a change of heart, knowing well the fate of the passengers if he did stop, and Instead he went full steam ahead without the customary stop at the station. If it weren't for that driver, my grandparents would probably have perished that very day.

My maternal grandfather has similar stories to narrate about his ordeal at the time of partition. My maternal grandmother came to Delhi aboard a plane, but my grandfather had to make his way through by conventional means. First, he was given poisoned pan (betel leaf) by a friend who came to see him off at the railway station. He spat it out when he realized that it was poisoned. My granddad has a 'Om' 'ॐ' tattooed on the back of his hand. He covered that using a piece of cloth, as if he was hurt. Is train was infact attacked, and he had to blend into the crowd, and not get noticed as a Hindu refugee, so he joined the people moving the dead bodies around, and moved the bodies of several of his friends and did this job for a while to remain inconspicuous. He did finally manage to make it to Delhi in due course without getting recognised. He says that he moved the dead bodies of several of his neighbors and friends while he was at it.

These stories always gave me goosebumps, as did the story narrated in Train to Pakistan. I was specially touched because my family was directly affected by the partition. We still fail to identify with our roots. My family's customs are a mixture of the customs of the erst wile Punjab and Multan. So, when I am asked, what my native place is, I can either go into a lengthy description of why I have no native place or say 'Punjab' and ignore the interpretation. Ignorance maybe bliss, but then at such instances it does pinch not having a native place, a village, an origin.

So the point is, the book was a good read, and at the cost of sounding preachy, I think it deserves a few hours of everyone time.

So, till the tortoise catches up, I'll attend a meeting and take a nap :)

Labels: Books, Hobbies, Life

(Vivek Kapoor)s on Google

Ever since I started this blog, I regularly ego surf in Google to see where my blog turns up. I even set myself a target to displace all web pages above mine, if you searched for my name :) But then, few people do actually search for my name, and the entire effort may be futile. Then again, they don't call it ego surfing without reason!

Normally, a "Vivek Kapoor" search results in about 4 web pages above mine. Two of these are for a particular namesake working for Credit Suisse First Boston, one for vivekkapoor.com (hard to displace), and one for a particular "Brat" whose father works in the Army. Now, my Initial target was to displace this brat from the better rank, because he had no business taking my rank away from me! I've been trying for 2 months to displace the brat without luck. Today I decided to find out who exactly he was and why so many people were linking to his page (Assuming PageRank works).

To my surprise, it turned out to be a story, written by someone called Mr. Gokul Rajaram. I read through the story, and I was rather touched at the end of it. I decided to contact Mr. Rajaram for permission to post his story on my blog. Google lead me to his website, and he ironically happens to be the product manager for Google AdSense! The world often comes a full circle! I still haven't been able to contact him, so till then, you can read his story here.

I no longer have any intentions of displacing the fictional guy anymore. I'm going for the big fish now ;).

PS. The title of this post, and the repetitive use of "Vivek Kapoor" within the post ;) is a desperate attempt to go up the ranks!

Labels: Backlinked, Internet, Life

Wrong chat window?

Chats can be confusing. The inherent delay in the messages, and the inability of two people to keep their thoughts in sync while trying to communicate through texts, makes chats confusing at times. We all often find ourselves in a situation where we have no idea about what is being said in the chat window.

Sometimes, this isn't because of the reasons I gave, but because the person at the other end entered some text into the wrong chat window. Mostly, this just confuses people, unless, someone puts their foot in their mouth and drools lovingly in the wrong chat window while chatting with their better half. This is much more interesting! I agree that a singular instance of this kind does not qualify for a blog post, but then, if the girl and her boyfriend both manage this feat within a short period it definitely does!

Act 1, March 16th 2007:

11:29 PM A: mmmmmmmuah

11:30 PM mistake!

not for you

11:34 PM its so embarrasing

me: this is going on my blog!

A: nooooooooo

me: :D

11:35 PM A: thank god atleast it wasnt someone else frm your home

17 minutes

11:53 PM A: vicky blog to [nai] likh raha na?

Now, This was a genuine flaw, her boyfriend being my namesake, its not the first time she made the mistake. I had no intentions of blogging this, but then yesterday night, this happened....

Act 2, March 30th 2007:

VSA: Bitch
Vicky: ?
VSA: Oops sorry wrong window..
VSA: What are you doing anyway?
Vicky: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Vicky: my blog post is complete.. thanks!

Sorry guys, but I just could NOT resist this! I just wonder if VSA mistook me for A or someone else :D.

Labels: Communication, Life

Brothers in Arms

Do we ever feel strongly about any social issue unless it affects us directly? I went to protest with my peers when students protested against the Reservation bill. Our presence there was a sign of solidarity with the idea, with the people who were leading the movement. We went to reassure them that we were there to support them. Yet, I lay in bed watching the news when MCD sealed the shops of so many people in Delhi. Their shops were their only source of livelihood, and yet, I was not concerned.


I remember when I visited the 'War Memorial' in Seoul, I went around admiring the realistic reconstruction of war scenes and the Viking style warships, the guns and everything else on display. It was like a pleasure trip for all of us. We visited the souvenir shop and I bought a Korean army Dog Tag (Which was later stolen by the infamous Kleptomaniac of DCE!), and a little medallion with the War Memorial building on one side and a figure of 2 men hugging, on the other.



We went on to have a sumptuous lunch, something I have to write about in detail someday, and moved out of the complex, and started taking pictures. There I noticed a huge statue of the 2 men hugging each other, complete with their accouterments. Won (Our guide, not the currency!) told us that the statue represented a real life incident, wherein during the war between North and South Korea, two brothers from opposite armies met on the battlefield!
Suddenly, the war memorial meant a lot more. I stood and admired the statue, the position of the two men, the way their bodies leaned on each other, as if their knees had given way, their grief apparent by the mere position of their bodies.
The globe on which they stood was cracked from between them, symbolic of their world torn apart. We even caught hold of a little terrified (by us!) kid wearing a 'be the reds' t-shirt, and made him pose with us in front of the statue :) . Apparently, quite a few of us felt the same way about the war between the two parts of Korea. I say this because that night we came back to the university and laid out huge sheets of paper and left messages of peace.


We signed our names, made India's flag, and wrote a peace message in Hindi and in English.

Sometimes you just need to be in the eye of the storm to realize its futility. I felt the same way at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The wall obviously wasn't there. Just a slight depression in the ground where it once stood, and panels with photos and descriptions of the time it was there. It's really hard for me to explain, but I'll try. Potsdamer Platz is now a wide open area right in the centre of Berlin's business district. The DB building, all the financial giants, Sony center are all a stones throw away. The Berlin wall divided this area right through the center into half. It would have been like dividing the heart of a city. Train tracks were blocked, the city was divided into half and walled. There was a little ramp onto which people were allowed to climb to see the goings on on the other side beyond the wall. I stood there with one foot on either side of the wall, and took a snap. Then I just strolled around the place feeling the pulse of the city. Among all the cities I visited in Europe, Berlin was the one that was 'Alive'. It was exciting just to be there, just to walk along the streets. Something or the other was always going on.


It felt great just to be able to cross the places where the wall once stood, especially at the Brandenburg Tor. There was also a photo exhibition depicting the Tor after the world war, in a rather debilitated state, and we took snaps there and 'Crossed' the Tor to head toward the Live 8 concert going on between the Siegesäule. Just to think that you would have been shot down if you tried to cross the place 2 decades ago.

The only image of the Berlin wall I ever had before this trip was the one created by the Scorpions music video, "Wind's of change". In the last part of the video, there are images of the Berlin wall being brought down. After I returned from Germany, this song had an entirely new meaning for me. Having talked to people who were present at Potsdamer Platz when the first piece of the Wall crumpled, and also people who hid in their house for days fearing some sort of riots would break out, the Wall was not what it used to be anymore.

Some parts of the world are not as fortunate as Germany though. Back home, I went to watch the gate closing ceremony at Wagah recently, and after the ceremony, people are allowed to walk around the fence, touch the border post, and at one point, Indians and Pakistanis are a couple of feet away, separated only by 2 cords of barbed wire. Its amazing the way you feel looking at people across the divide. There is no ill-will, no enmity, just a weird feeling, like we are caged. They probably felt the same way. I held the gaze of quite a few people, longer than necessary, just to see how their expressions changed, but they didn't. There was no trace of malice in their eyes. They were looking at us in an incredulous manner, just as we were looking at them I'm sure.

We drove back to Amritsar discussing that maybe the aggression apparent in the gate-keepers actions should be toned down a little. There are two sides to the coin as always. At one end, we are trying to spread a feeling of mutual trust and understanding, and this demands that these proceedings be toned down. On the other hand, it is a rather good location and setup to instill feelings of nationalism in people. Gradually, the discussion changed to where our next meal should be. Incidentally, in Amritsar, all you manage to think about is food! Having tried all the street food on offer, and all the famous dhabas, we settled for Crystal, which was recommended by the owner of the Jutti Shop my mum and sister ransacked.




I kept toying with the thought that maybe someday cars will be allowed to cross the Wagah, and we will be able to go to Lahore and eat a better preparation at the Food Street. Someday soon perhaps.

Labels: Food, Life, Politics, Travel

Lest I forget!

Ever since I was a little kid, My dad used to tell me that as soon as you get a class photo clicked, you must note down every ones name somewhere, because someday you will forget. I never really did that, but every time I came across these snaps while trying to clean out closets or trying to look for something, I always sat down and went over every ones name.
Last week, I forgot a few. It felt bad. So I'm putting it up here, and If any of you reading this know any of the people here, and their names are missing, please let me know!

Seated, Left to Right - Anuradha ?, Vikas Asthana, Anuj Agarwal, Manu Agarwal, Sadhna Gupta, Prajna Bajaj, Rajshekhar Ojha, Prajat Jha, Sonam Yankee Rabbgaye, Kanupriya Mohan
Row 1, Standing, Left to Right - Saurabh Dayal, Pallav Modi , Anirudh Singh, Vivek Kapoor, Abhishek Sharma, Joydeep Mukherjee, Kartik Talwar, Shuchi Vedvyas, Dikshant Chopra, Anjali Misra
Row 2, Standing, Left to Right - Divya ?, Aaskanksha Sethi, Geetika Grover, Ankit Saxena, Nikhil ?, Kunal Sabharwal, Hansdeep ?, KSV Sai Prashant
Row 3, Standing, Left to Right - Naveen Dabas, Himanshu Agarwal, Tushna Dora, Swati Kapoor, Arnav Sharma, Harsh Ahlawat, Stanzin Naboo
Top Row - Sushrath Kaul, Gautam Gollerkeri.


Seated left to right - Gitanjali Chauhan, ? ?, ? ?, ? ?, Kumkum Bhatia, Ragini Kaul, Suresh ?, Saylee Sethi, Anjali Misra
Row 1, standing, left to right - Rajshekhar Ojha, Vikas Asthana, Prajat Jha, Manu Agarwal, Anuj Agarwal, Kartik Talwar, Sonam Yankee Rabbgaye, Shuchi Vedvyas, Ankit Saxena, Kunal Sabharwal, Abhishek Sharma, Vivek Kapoor
Row 2, standing, left to right - Joydeep Mukherjee, Dikshant Chopra, Ayush Gupta, KSV Sai Prashant, Payal Gumber, Akanksha Sethi, Tushna Dora, Nikhil ?, Arnav Sharma
Row 3, standing, left to right - Sushrath Kaul, Naveen Dabas, Gautam Gollerkeri, Himanshu Agarwal, Aditya Sharma, Geetika Grover, Divya ?

Special thanks to Himanshu, Shuchi & Rajshekhar for reminding me of some names.

Labels: Life

Braindead

Last week was the first 80 hour work week of my life. That's double of what I'm supposed to average! I kept thinking of all the John Grisham novels I read, and wondered how people could work for 80 hours in a week. Yet, it wasn't tiring, and had I been able to explain it to my family, I probably would have worked longer! Work isn't always tiring. In fact, if you remotely enjoy your work, its actually fun.

I'm handling 4 different pieces of code at once. I manage to confuse my manager sometimes, and I always have something to do! (That does not mean that I'm always doing something..) Everyday when I come back home, I feel braindead. People talk to me and I listen in a trance, not paying attention, not registering anything. In my head, I'm subconsciously figuring out the next change I have to make in the code in order to make it work right. I actually figured one mistake out while I was asleep! I did remember the story we were told about the discovery of the structure of Benzene when I woke up!

Yet, all around me, I see people who would give an arm and a leg to leave their work and go back home, do a MBA. Anything. Do they realize that they still have to work no matter what? I didn't claim that the work I do is interesting. Infact, the last 80 hour! week, I did the most boring possible work, and you may find me jumping in peoples cubes in office complaining that I'm going mad, but I'm not really.

So, will changing my profile or education gurantee that I have an easier life?, a more interesting life? or a more fulfilling life? Unfortunately, life will have no direction until I can answer those questions, and I don't think I can answer them till my life has some direction.

Till then, I will go on hoping that either the chicken or the egg shows up!

Labels: Life

Superstar

It was pouring when I drove out for office today. Coldplay, my usual companion during the drive failed me, the CD had too many scratches from overuse I think. So, I had no choice but to turn to FM. Anyone living in Delhi these days knows that FM is quite the same as Television. All you do during a drive is flip channels and hear nothing but ads. Some sort of loyalty is necessary, otherwise all you ever get to hear is ads! I normally stick to Fever. This is probably because I liked the book by Richard Branson, and also because they play nice songs.

So, I left early today, oblivious of the traffic jam I always manage to find whenever I do so. Today I got stuck at the very first crossing. Normally, I am a stubborn ass when it comes to showing some road sense, and I stick my car and block as much traffic as I can so that the opposing traffic can move, and we don't block them unnecessarily. Today, however, something happened, and I played with the herd. I entered the queue and blocked all traffic. As, I already clarified, I don't normally do this, but today in my defense, the song playing on radio caused the problem. I was smiling, blushing, smirking and my mind was elsewhere. Fever decided to play Superstar by Jamelia.

Yeah, I know a lot has been said about her by everyone who wasn't even present at RPM at that fateful night, but those who were, and were in their senses (Samridh, Anshul and Jai.. Saraf was definitely out!) would remember that this song was probably responsible! I know its taken rather long, but now its my turn. My word is final in this legend :) , because I am the protagonist.

One fine day during third year, a cool breeze was blowing and the sun was shining.. We were lazing around in VVS (That's short for Shri M Vishveshvaraiya Hostel, officially SMVH), the corridor of power. Samridh came with a offer we couldn't refuse :) A bunch of girls from Miranda House had (somehow) agreed to go to a pub with 5 engineering students. Now that does NOT happen very often. It in fact never happens. Kudos to Samridh for his convincing skills. (We shall talk about Samridh's skills and appeal sometime later). As I said, it was an offer we couldn't refuse.

So, we all got aptly dressed on D-day, and moved out in (was it 2280?? I definitely need to write about Samridh!) Samridh's car, to pick the girls up. We picked them up, all of us got out of the car courteously, and then we stuffed inside like wild animals in a cage, and went on to pick more gurls up! To cut a long story short, after getting lost on the way in some village and taking a lot of time, we finally got to Basant Lok, and as is the ritual with cheap-skates, got a little drunk before we entered.

We were 5 guys, and 7 girls! We had a breezy entry into the pub, no questions asked, obviously for a change. We found ourselves two tables, and sat ourselves down like good well educated people, and kept throwing sideways glances at a gay couple, the only one enjoying the dance floor and the music at the early hour. After the first few awkward moments, we unanimously decided that we all needed to get a little more drunk in order to get us started. So, we ordered our first round, then second, followed by a round of Tequilas, and then we were set for a while!

We hit the dance floor as a group of 12, and danced in the group initially. Call it inconvenience of dancing 12 at a time, or natural selection, the group gradually disintegrated into smaller ones and gradually into couples. When I realized what was going on, I found myself facing a skinny tall girl with curly hair smiling at me. We tried some random steps, and after some mumbling, we decided I should follow her steps. Lets call her S. Now, S happened to be the choreographer for the Miranda House team. So, I was better off following her. (Not to mention I had no steps to lead with). She was a good dancer to say the least. I'm sure she was capable of much better and complicated looking steps, but seeing my caliber as a dancer, she probably selected the easier ones, and I was able to follow her with ease and actually enjoy the dance. It was really a lot of fun, and a little romantic I have to admit. An hour later, when we were given a compliment, we realized that we hadn't even looked at what the others were upto for so long! It was time for a rest. So, we sat down for a while, and I had to face a few witty ones from my friends, and I could do nothing but smile. So we exchanged phone numbers, and hit the dance floor again...

Now, where does Superstar come in? The DJ at RPM that night played the song at least 6 times. So, from whatever hazy memories I have of that night, we were always dancing on that song! Whenever I hear it now, I'm reminded of that night. Later, we dropped the girls off at their place, and standing outside the car that night, thinking of what to say to this girl, all I could think of was "I had a great time, Good night." As soon as we got back into the car, all hell broke loose!

Sam: Had a great time, Good night? Had a great time, Good night? Is that all you could think of Vicky?
Me: (Feeling rather stupid) mmm...
Sam: You guys looked so cute together. Couldn't you have said "I'll call sometime", or "We should meet up again". Kyaaaa Vicky yaar....
Me: mmm....

All I could think of at this moment, was a tiny satisfaction of not making the mistake Chandler Bing always made! I knew I would call her, and probably meet her too, but what difference does it make if I didn't commit to it in word?

I was received in the Hostel amidst much fanfare, cheering and hooting. I was going red by now. So, after facing the music for a while, I decided I needed some sleep and sobering out. Ohh, btw, did I mention that S was the only one who had no drinks all evening.

A week later, Samridh decided that it was long enough for the girls not to think we were desperate, and as Engifest happened to be in the same week, we (Samridh) invited them over for the Choreo night, I think. We were all scattered somewhere in the OAT when they arrived, and we gradually grouped a little distance away from the stage and started chatting. Saraf was over animated, having lost out on the previous opportunity because of not being in his senses, he was overcompensating. Saraf was smitten by a girl (I don't remember her name, lets call her Q). Both Q and her elder sister had accompanied us to RPM that night, and Saraf had taken a liking to Q. So, when I joined the group, this conversation was going on.

Q: It was a lot of fun that day..
Saraf: Yeah it was, what is your sister doing?
Q: Explains that she is doing her Masters in something..
Saraf: Masters? She is elder to you? She doesn't look like it!

Having realized the blunder Saraf had made, we all were stunned. Anshul was the first one to find words.

Anshul: What are you saying Saraf, are you off your nut. Q definitely is the younger one..
Saraf: Taken aback by the rebuke No.. eh.. that's not what I meant..

Sam&I mumbled something in agreement.

Now, It had become a little awkward, and someone mentioned that the dance performances were about to start, and we jumped at it. We all went and sat down at the steps of the OAT, well almost. S asked if I could show her around college. I agreed. We started to walk around the Saraswati Marg (also known as the ring road because its a large circle going all around the campus). All the time, she was firing questions at me, and I was handling it like a Viva, taking breaks in between to point out different parts of college. By the time we completed half a circle, I was fed up of the never-ending stream of questions. I don't remember having asked her even one, or even having gotten a chance to do so!

A whiff of music floated our way, and I immediately suggested that we should go watch the performances, and she grudgingly agreed. We went and rejoined the group. By now, I had made up my mind that this girl was too intrusive and not the type I could hold a conversation with. I was in fact fearing that she may start again. While we were sitting there on the steps, and it was cold I agree, she said "I'm feeling really cold, can't we go somewhere warm?" There, I have laid it bare. People have taken out their own interpretations of this statement, and you can read most of them wherever on the Internet they are. I however, choose to say nothing about this. I was as a whole, rather disappointed, and looking for an opportunity to get away. So, coupled with the fever I had 2 days ago, the amazing chocolate cookies Samridh had a stock of, and some mumbling about a relapse, I managed to concoct a lame excuse for myself and left Samridh alone to drop them home.

The only mistake I made that night, was to let everyone in on the conversation we had. What followed was pandemonium. I was made president of GSDCE (I stand corrected, it was S.H.A.G.) for life, and was asked to give a speech to an arbit gathering of 50 people outside the hostel late in the night, on my supreme penance. It took a while for the gossip to die down, but the legend lives on....

PS. I did try holding a conversation with her on a couple of occasions over phone, but never really hit it off..


Update:
Yesterday I got a mail from Samridh, and I just couldn't stop laughing. It had S's latest snaps. Click on image to enlarge.

Labels: Life

Happy Holi!

Colour has made my life miserable of late, but then, it may improve many people's. (As long as they don't have to worry about Profiles and devices and aaaaaargh!!)

Labels: Life

Amnesia

Have you seen 'Finding Nemo'? Remember Dorie? Well, I remember her, and its quite incredible that I do, because I am quite like her myself. I remember nothing! This is recent development, in the last few years I think, that I can manage to conveniently forget things. It helps most of the times, because your friends don't expect you to remember anything, and over time start forgiving your forgetfulness. It helps in many other ways as well; I won't go into the details, but the end result is that my amnesia keeps me a happy man. At times I am engaged in a conversation, and if anything stops my flow of thoughts, I completely forget what I was talking about! At other times I'm reminded of things I have no idea I ever did.

I saw such a photograph recently, and my memory completely failed me. It is Sonny and me, in my room's (or maybe Sonny's) balcony. In all probability this snap was taken with Bobby's camera. All of that I can infer, but I don't remember having posed that way! Knowing how boring I can be, I would have expected myself to remember having done that, but a lot seems to have passed through my 2 bit shift register since.

It's a funny sight nevertheless. Its impossible I was drunk, I really have no Idea what prompted this. Maybe Sonny can shed some light while all of you have a good laugh! (I have removed the color and done a bit of curve tweaking to improve contrast on this one. The original one has rather gaudy orange ambient light. You can see it on Sonny's Blog)

I have amnesia and deja-vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before!

Updated:

Finally, for once, I did remember. It was this photograph that prompted our actions. I am still scared of putting the actual picture up, so I have used the new ultra cool Photoshop CS 3 Extended Beta, for morphing it a bit ;) Just a consolation, some day in the future, when this post moves out of the front page, I will replace it with the unmorphed snap. Until then....

Labels: Life

The (only?) way to a womans heart.

Got this forward recently, and saw the accompanying Video a little earlier. They seem to go well together, so I'm putting em both here for the sake of a few laughs.

One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.
Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me."

I said, "WHAT??!! What was that?!"

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear...
"You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man."
She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?"
Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each outfit."

We went on to the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you... she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis.
I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier."

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it."
Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, "WHAT?"

I then said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while.
You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman."
And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?"

Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either....but at least that B---- knows I'm smarter than her.

The video may be a little exaggerated but not entirely incorrect! I do completely love this more because of the caffeine!

Labels: Life

The Electrocution: Calvin bites the Dust

This is my Gift, This is my Curse: The Electrocution: Calvin bites the Dust

Azeez Narain never fails to remind me that I lead a rather interesting life! This one though, was really arbit. I got beaten up just because somehow every one around me was from Electrical and I wasn't! One can notice that Sonny is also sitting right next to his love interest on the far left, but he didn't get a thrashing. Why me? Even T was there!

As far as my dance moves are concerned, I don't think I can say much. I'm in a catch 22 s.

Azeez,

I shall have my vengance, in this life or the next!

:)

Labels: Life