Holy Catfish! I just scared panicked dread I have not updated this since petrol was cheaper than a bottle of Grange!... You would not believe that my hands were chopped off and I was waiting for bionic ones. But I'm sorry you'll just have to take my word for it..
I am overwhelmed with an awfully big adventure, sleeping, just generally being the life of the party to every Lost Boy that crosses my path, my day is a magical flight from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to 11pm at which point I fall asleep on the couch. I am plotting and planning. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
I swear on the bones of my ancestors if one more person emails me to ask why I haven't posted today I will start posting pictures of toe fungus, or fecal murals. Honestly! Assuming I don't get distracted by counting my chest hairs..
Havent blogged for a while? Use this to generate one :D
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Not again!
Met the 'Boostu' girl again! I could not believe my rotten luck when the office bus left the campus on Friday. Very high price for not taking time to see who my neighbour is on the bus. I became aware of the situation only after she dialed the number and said her first hello. This time the first conversation was with her mom about the agalkayi[1] she had sent sometime back. She does have the sweet accent of a typical bengalooru girl, each word uttered with full sarasa sallapa. Surprisingly she got right to the point. Did mom use it or throw it away? Why didnt she use it the moment she received it? Amazing how the girl could stretch that topic to 5 mins.[2] Thankfully, this conversation was not repeated with the dad or the sister.
The second topic started off with an announcment to everybody around that her kid sister was dumb as a donkey. Apparently, wires of the geyser at her sister's house had decided to breath some fresh air and broke out of their plastic casings. The sister, for some reason talked her landlord, the father, the mother and the helpful neighbour downstairs about it. Eventually she ended up using water heated on her gas stove. Boostu girl couldnt fathom the reason for all this - How could the sister even think of spreading the news to everybody? Was she out of her mind? All she had to do was call the electrician.
I couldnt stop LOLing in my mind. It was like the recap shown before a new episode of a TV soap starts. Sit next to her to get a recap of whats happened in the family over the past couple of days.
[1] Bitter gourd
[2] I have to learn how to do that. A necessary skill for writing long essays for applications.
The second topic started off with an announcment to everybody around that her kid sister was dumb as a donkey. Apparently, wires of the geyser at her sister's house had decided to breath some fresh air and broke out of their plastic casings. The sister, for some reason talked her landlord, the father, the mother and the helpful neighbour downstairs about it. Eventually she ended up using water heated on her gas stove. Boostu girl couldnt fathom the reason for all this - How could the sister even think of spreading the news to everybody? Was she out of her mind? All she had to do was call the electrician.
I couldnt stop LOLing in my mind. It was like the recap shown before a new episode of a TV soap starts. Sit next to her to get a recap of whats happened in the family over the past couple of days.
[1] Bitter gourd
[2] I have to learn how to do that. A necessary skill for writing long essays for applications.
couple of firefox tips
Some tips I came across (aprt from the most used ones):
1. Smacking your head for not copying that text from the tab you just closed? Press 'Ctrl + Shift + T' to open a closed tab!
2. If you happen to find text like kamathnama.blogspot.com which is not clickable but you want to open it, simple select the text and then drag and drop it onto the tab bar!
3. Pressing 'Alt + Enter' instead of 'Enter' when you type in a URL opens the the site in a new tab.
Have more useful tips? Do share.
1. Smacking your head for not copying that text from the tab you just closed? Press 'Ctrl + Shift + T' to open a closed tab!
2. If you happen to find text like kamathnama.blogspot.com which is not clickable but you want to open it, simple select the text and then drag and drop it onto the tab bar!
3. Pressing 'Alt + Enter' instead of 'Enter' when you type in a URL opens the the site in a new tab.
Have more useful tips? Do share.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Monday, 21 July 2008
Recipe for ruining your ride home
1. Work for 11 works of the day.
2. Get on the bus back home, choose a seat with just one more occupant (recall that three is a crowd).
3. Open your book of the day and, this is important, look forward to a nice ride home.
4. Notice girl next to you dial a number. Expect her to be discreet.
5. Get all hopes of discretion shattered by her loud voice.
6. Listen to the conversation(s) which follows the algorithm:
while (true) {
1. shout 'boostu, boostu, boostu, boostu, boostu'[1]
2. describe why there was 'boostu, boostu' all over the uppinakayi [2]
3. get back to the 'boostu' routine.
if (tired with own voice[3])
break for 5 mins;
repeat loop with mom, dad, obscure distant cousin...
}
7. Watch girl get down two stops before you, with the ubiquitous phone glued to the ear and curse self for not buying that iPod.
[1] fungi, moisture, mould, mold, green stuff
[2] pickle, especially South Indian
[3] noice
2. Get on the bus back home, choose a seat with just one more occupant (recall that three is a crowd).
3. Open your book of the day and, this is important, look forward to a nice ride home.
4. Notice girl next to you dial a number. Expect her to be discreet.
5. Get all hopes of discretion shattered by her loud voice.
6. Listen to the conversation(s) which follows the algorithm:
while (true) {
1. shout 'boostu, boostu, boostu, boostu, boostu'[1]
2. describe why there was 'boostu, boostu' all over the uppinakayi [2]
3. get back to the 'boostu' routine.
if (tired with own voice[3])
break for 5 mins;
repeat loop with mom, dad, obscure distant cousin...
}
7. Watch girl get down two stops before you, with the ubiquitous phone glued to the ear and curse self for not buying that iPod.
[1] fungi, moisture, mould, mold, green stuff
[2] pickle, especially South Indian
[3] noice
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Why don't I own one?
It’s very difficult. The temptation, the urge, the peer pressure to spend on the sleek little thingies. They have several titillating flavours. One of them can be used as a phone! Ok ok, it’s the other way round. Every one, and their granny (with the shiny walker), has one. They make perfect gifts for someone you (no, not love) are related to.
If its not obvious what I'm talking about let me give you a clue - they are the second most desirable objects to stick into ones ears (no, I don’t have a survey result to prove this). Following the path of the Transistor -> Radio -> Walkman and CD Player, MP3 players became instantaneously popular. The devices became smaller with advancements in flash memory technology. Then allowed more songs to be stored. Then started growing bigger to include more features. Touch pads/sliders were introduced. Non-audio files were allowed inside, photos were stored and then they started playing videos. The screens became wider and now display crisp images. The UI keeps improving in every new version. And a new version is out almost every other month1.
Despite all this, I don’t own one. Neither will I anytime in the near future. What could be the reasons for owning one?
Listen to music - the latest, your favourite or someone else's favourite. I'm not a great fan of music now. Listening to old music stored on my laptop is more than enough. Multitasking is very difficult; if I'm jogging its only jogging that I want to do and listen only to my feet hit the road, none thing.
Time pass - Listening to my favourite band prevents me from engaging in my favourite activity for passing time - books. I carry one with me wherever I go - the bus to work, travelling or waiting in the queue to book a ticket (stopped taking one to the loo).
It’s shiny - or its the 'in' thing. Even though I love new technology, I never own the latest gadgets. Be it mobile phones, laptops, watches, camera. MP3 players fall into the same category.
Are there more reasons for buying one?
[1] You'd know all this, I was just showing off that I know my tech history too
If its not obvious what I'm talking about let me give you a clue - they are the second most desirable objects to stick into ones ears (no, I don’t have a survey result to prove this). Following the path of the Transistor -> Radio -> Walkman and CD Player, MP3 players became instantaneously popular. The devices became smaller with advancements in flash memory technology. Then allowed more songs to be stored. Then started growing bigger to include more features. Touch pads/sliders were introduced. Non-audio files were allowed inside, photos were stored and then they started playing videos. The screens became wider and now display crisp images. The UI keeps improving in every new version. And a new version is out almost every other month1.
Despite all this, I don’t own one. Neither will I anytime in the near future. What could be the reasons for owning one?
Listen to music - the latest, your favourite or someone else's favourite. I'm not a great fan of music now. Listening to old music stored on my laptop is more than enough. Multitasking is very difficult; if I'm jogging its only jogging that I want to do and listen only to my feet hit the road, none thing.
Time pass - Listening to my favourite band prevents me from engaging in my favourite activity for passing time - books. I carry one with me wherever I go - the bus to work, travelling or waiting in the queue to book a ticket (stopped taking one to the loo).
It’s shiny - or its the 'in' thing. Even though I love new technology, I never own the latest gadgets. Be it mobile phones, laptops, watches, camera. MP3 players fall into the same category.
Are there more reasons for buying one?
[1] You'd know all this, I was just showing off that I know my tech history too
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Relax for a bit
I’m able to relax for a bit, now that the essay for Reliance Fellowship is out of the way. But, try as I may, there is a lingering feeling that I’ve missed something out, that I’ve let a great opportunity pass by. The 250 word limit was too… limited, for a very broad topic – How do you aspire to shape the future of India? The result was a botched job of putting together an idea and trying to somehow fit myself into it. A couple of my friends helped my clear up some of the mess, but the end result was not up to the mark.
The MBA application hunting season will start in a few weeks; time to list down all the accomplishments and don the creativity cap to put them together in different ways. Turn it into an Eton Mess, if time permits. Time to track down recommenders; urge them to fill them up before the deadline. The party is all set to start, are you ready?
The MBA application hunting season will start in a few weeks; time to list down all the accomplishments and don the creativity cap to put them together in different ways. Turn it into an Eton Mess, if time permits. Time to track down recommenders; urge them to fill them up before the deadline. The party is all set to start, are you ready?
Saturday, 5 July 2008
Opinion on "My Name is Red"
My Name Is Red
Have you watched Peep Show? This wonderful book is sort of a refined version, set in middle ages [1]; and yes, definitely far more engrossing. If you live outside the UK and are completely unaware of the show - the whole sitcom is shot from the perspective of the two main characters, Mark and Jeremy. There is no protagonist of this book, unless 'west asian miniature painting' is considered one. Orhan has employed a wonderful way to narrate the whole story, all 500 pages of it. Each of the 59 chapters is narrated from one person/animal/satan/colour's perspective. Yes, you read it right, satan himself speaks out.
Oh, by the way, do watch Peep Show; you'll see the same characters in the UK version of the Mac vs. PC ads as well.
A corpse speaks out in the first chapter, describes a murder with all the gory details; one of the most interesting way to start a novel. The author then narrates everything from the voices of different characters about the events that occur over a span of one or two weeks. There is Black (that name might be the result of translation from Turkish Kara, like Hindi's Kallu or Kannada's Kariya); miniaturists 'Butterfly', 'Olive', 'Stork'; Black's uncle Enishthe Effendi and his beautiful, confused, cunning daughter Shekure; Master Osman the master miniaturist (Head Illuminator to be precise); Esther the Jewish clothier, who also acts as the messenger between secret lovers; A dog, horse, tree, a coin, two beggars, satan, even death aid the author in narrating the murder of an artist and the subsequent events. The author also describes the influence that Frankish methods had on other forms of art.
I'm not going into a full blown review of the book, you can find plenty on the net. The author does sometimes go very deep into art and the way artists think, but the interesting characters and narration takes the edge off. I'd definitely recommend it you want something more than a light read.
For a proper review go to Wikipedia, or here (the cover is not the same as mine; mine's better)
[1] I recommend reading the Chronology sometime during the first couple of chapters
Have you watched Peep Show? This wonderful book is sort of a refined version, set in middle ages [1]; and yes, definitely far more engrossing. If you live outside the UK and are completely unaware of the show - the whole sitcom is shot from the perspective of the two main characters, Mark and Jeremy. There is no protagonist of this book, unless 'west asian miniature painting' is considered one. Orhan has employed a wonderful way to narrate the whole story, all 500 pages of it. Each of the 59 chapters is narrated from one person/animal/satan/colour's perspective. Yes, you read it right, satan himself speaks out.
Oh, by the way, do watch Peep Show; you'll see the same characters in the UK version of the Mac vs. PC ads as well.
A corpse speaks out in the first chapter, describes a murder with all the gory details; one of the most interesting way to start a novel. The author then narrates everything from the voices of different characters about the events that occur over a span of one or two weeks. There is Black (that name might be the result of translation from Turkish Kara, like Hindi's Kallu or Kannada's Kariya); miniaturists 'Butterfly', 'Olive', 'Stork'; Black's uncle Enishthe Effendi and his beautiful, confused, cunning daughter Shekure; Master Osman the master miniaturist (Head Illuminator to be precise); Esther the Jewish clothier, who also acts as the messenger between secret lovers; A dog, horse, tree, a coin, two beggars, satan, even death aid the author in narrating the murder of an artist and the subsequent events. The author also describes the influence that Frankish methods had on other forms of art.
I'm not going into a full blown review of the book, you can find plenty on the net. The author does sometimes go very deep into art and the way artists think, but the interesting characters and narration takes the edge off. I'd definitely recommend it you want something more than a light read.
For a proper review go to Wikipedia, or here (the cover is not the same as mine; mine's better)
[1] I recommend reading the Chronology sometime during the first couple of chapters
Thursday, 3 July 2008
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