Clear Mist

CSK - the "fair" winners

2010-04-26T15:57:00.005+05:30

Chennai Super Kings made it to the final of the IPL in 2008 and 2010, lost in 2008 and won in 2010 - but what they won both times was the Kingfisher fair play award. Ostensibly just another category allowing a heavyweight sponsor to stamp its brand, this award nevertheless created a different perspective to view the proceedings from - awarding the means rather than the ends. And CSK scored a perfect 10 this time!

Just a bit of background - the fair play award consists of 10 points per match to be awarded by the umpires. Up to 4 points on how the team upheld the spirit of the game, and up to 2 points each for the respect the team showed to the opponents, laws of the game and umpires (2 = exemplary, 1 = good, 0 = average). At an age where we are almost accepting sledging as the fourth aspect of the game, where we revere the brash Australian ends-justify-means competitive spirit; recognizing and rewarding "fairness" is probably the carrot everyone needs.

The T20 format in itself rules out a lot of negative tactics we see in tests and ODIs, but there is still a lot of personal discipline and ethics called for from the players. Its hard to keep aggression, pressure, disappointment and triumph tacit, but not that hard to keep it unoffensive. Have you ever seen Dhoni utter so much as he did after the couple of sixes he hit off Irfan Pathan at Dharamshala? Probably not. But did that offend anyone - absolutely not. In the finals, Sachin gloved a ball down the leg side, Dhoni appealed but it was given a wide. What happened then? No words exchanged, no angry glance, no dissent for the umpire; a bitter pill swallowed and moved on. Respect to umpire, opponent and laws of the game - all embodied in a few moments of doing "nothing".

We once admired the mighty Australians who were at the top of the ranking charts in any which form/aspect of cricket, and tried to learn from them, but that learning came with a side effect that was visible on Zaheer Khan in the 2003 WC final. Now, IPL is the new craze, IPL champions the new heroes, and we want to learn from them too - but this time without any side effects. When you can lead like Dhoni, bat like Vijay, field like Raina and bowl like Bollinger you don't have to make gross predictions in the press conference like Ponting, throw jelly beans like Flintoff, talk about the batsman's wife like McGrath or declare your intentions like Aamir Sohail.

Stor-re-telling

2009-04-05T19:40:00.005+05:30

Just finished watching Dev D, and I can't help drawing parallels with another re-told movie Mithya (Starring Ranveer Shorey and Neha Dhupia).
They were both based on retro superhits - Devdas and Don. There were "popular" remakes of both these movies, and both starring Shah Rukh Khan. Although, Bansali's Devdas will go down as another classic, Farhan Akhtar's Don will probably lost in the memory lane.

Dev D and Mithya are lesser-known directors' bold and unique re-interpretation of classic stories. In Mithya, Rajat Kapoor highlights the true sense of an identity crisis. The red diary in Bachchan's Don and the CD in Shah Rukh's Don were the sole evidence of the don-imposter's true identity, the loss of which puts the protagonist in dire situations, but is found eventually. In Mithya, there is no diary or CD, just the imposter's memory which tells him who he originally is - and the poor fellow loses his memory actually, and begins to think that he is in fact The Don. Now that's an identity crisis! The highlight of this movie - after the memory loss, Ranveer has a dream, where the scene he sees is from his original life, but the characters filling the scene are from the goon gang he is living with.

Dev D is Anurag Kashyap's no-holds-barred tandav! Its the same as Sehwag mercilessly assaulting the bowlers irrespective of the match situation or like Yanni creating magic out of disparate instruments in incongruous tones - "take that! its my choice, its my freedom!".
The re-interpretation in Dev D is more in terms of characters than the plot, except of course the fact that its set in modern day Punjab. Dev is the quintessential egotist, an impulsive one at that - a character for whom you sense early that he is on the doom path, for whom you feel like advising at first but later retort that he deserved this! The non-mortal end for this character in the story was the master stroke, because such characters exist in the real world, they survive.

Ram gopal verma ki aag... oh puhlease!! Lets not honor it by talking about it in this league.

NRIPL - will be fun too!

2009-03-24T19:50:00.005+05:30

I liked the ToI headline "IPL becomes NRIPL". Quite creative!

Anyways, I think the home ministry's strictness on this issue has been commendable. Elections are up ahead, and they very well know that this move will also be heavily criticized, (Modi said its a "national shame" and many more) but still they stood by it.

The reason why I say its commendable is, commitment does not always mean that you say something will be done, and do it. Commitment also involves saying "No" when you know you can't do it, or when you doubt whether you can do it. Best effort is not commitment. The government could have stretched a bit, but it chose playing it safe, but what the heck, that's exactly the players want.

Lets evaluate the other arguments against moving it off-shore:
Financial losses - the IPL bosses are not sports-maniacs, but businessmen. For them, a bigger loss would be if the tournament was not played at all. They've in fact, mitigated a lot of risk.

Viewer sentiments - Yeah, for those who throng the stadium, this is quite a blow. But have anyone considered this - inadequate security is as much a threat to the public as it is to the players.

Lets see some advantages:
Risk aversion: One has to admit that no one can guarantee 100% security. Suppose the government complies to the security request, makes all necessary arrangement, and there's some minor disruption some where - even if that is safely dealt with (no casualities, all miscreants captured), I don't see the tournament continuing from that point onwards. Even a safely averted attack will be detrimental to the tournament's progress! Vettori, Oram and co. will be scared, and the next day we'll see pictures of Vettori with his wife and new-born in Auckland airport.

Timings: In the first edition of IPL, everyday we had one match in the afternoon slot, and one match in the evening slot. With South Africa 3.5 hours behind, both those matches will be at post office-hours for India. Talk about viewership!

So Mr. PC and Mr. Lalit Modi, I say good call!

My Alchemist

2009-03-23T18:54:00.001+05:30

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Phenomenal!!!! the best i've ever read.. [I screamed out this part, when I was just about half way through the book:]

The best gift this book has given me is an identity to several of my thoughts and instincts, which earlier I could not streamline with any school of thought that I came across in my life so far - they were antagonistic to my religious college's "spiritualism" and a bit out-of-bounds of our Indian middle class pragmatism (accept the reality, what can we do anyway). I could not stand certain attitude, but I did not know why; and I absolutely admired some others, again I did not know why. I wondered whether they were just a knee-jerk hostility and an enchanted awe blinding me, but now I can see that they were just the abuse and embrace of a single doctrine - objectivism.

And the best part is, my way of thinking is just the starting point of the Ayn Rand framework. I always knew I had a long way to go, and this certainly is the best guide to choose and follow the right path.

View all my reviews.

Cry baby vs Mr. fix it

2009-03-23T10:50:00.002+05:30

Things happening at my work place makes me remember this lesson from the book "One Minute Manager" time and again -

An employee goes to the One minute manager (OMM), and says 'I have a problem, this thing is not working. Its wrong'. The OMM replied ' what's the right thing to do then, which is not being done now'. The employee says 'I don't know', to which the OMM replies 'Then you are not reporting a problem, you are just complaining. Come back to me when you have solutions (plan A,B,C etc) for it'.

So, based on this criteria I have two sets of people in my office, as the title suggests. I strive to be in the Mr. Fix it category, though I haven't been perfect as yet.

A Tale of Two Banks

2009-03-05T18:45:00.003+05:30

Among nationalized Indian banks, only SBI has been able to match the quality of service provided by banks like ICICI, HDFC and the other multi-nationals. I spent 2 years at IIT ruing the fact the we had to forcibly bank with Canara bank. So this one experience in Bangalore was as much astonishing as it was refreshing.

I had to get a DD to pay for Karnataka state road tax. I headed off to the nearest ICICI branch (couldn't do it online, needed it immediately), asked a neat tie-wala fellow there for which queue to stand in for a DD, stood in that suffocated little enclosure (their AC was down) for about 10 minutes - just to find that my DD could not be made. Dunno whether their systems were down or there was a network issue - all I was told was the DD process may not get complete, do I want to risk it? The ATMs were down too, couldn't even withdraw cash and get the DD done at some other bank.

Then I went into a nearby PNB branch, its ATM worked fine. No suit-ties, no AC but it was spacious, fans were all round, it was confortably cool. I deposited the amount at the cash counter and was waiting for my DD. Ahead of me in the DD process queue was a labourer boy who was sending about 10000 rupees home through a DD. When the bank officials saw that he was sending a DD to another PNB account, they summoned him and explained to him the electronic funds transfer facility, that he did not need to get a DD, post it, have his folks cash it there and instead just get the money transferred there in 10 minutes. He was very skeptical but they patiently allayed all his fears, convinced him to his satisfaction, and transfered the amount he had paid (10000 plus the 42 rs charges) to the recipient account.

I had to wait, but never before my wait was so pleasant.

As random as a concentrating mind

2008-10-08T20:48:00.003+05:30

I've graduated from being at home with family in Ahmedabad to living with roomies at Rajkot and Pune, to living alone in a hostel room in Guwahati, and finally to living alone in a flat in Bangalore. Parallely, my inclination to talk and share with others have gone from 100% to, say 10%, decreasing exponentially with each transition. As a honest confession, I started this blog because I wanted others to read what I think and write (and not just because I wanted to speak out. Whenever I wrote, I waited restlessly for any of my friends to refer something about my latest post). Now in real sense, I just want to speak out, blurt out anything and everything. I believe this will help me bring up the 10% figure.

Bangalore
Bangalore, the Mecca for any Indian software engineer, the silicon valley of India, the garden city... yeah yeah World, create more hype! I didn't find any magic in this city... no youthful fervor, no sense of belongingness! Probably, this is a city where software people come to settle down after having their fun in Pune, Gurgaon or on-site locations.

The companies pay a handsome amount, which the entire city - from your landlord to the sabjiwala, from your investment advisor to the rickshaw driver - conspires to take away from you. So your real occupation is to save yourself the precious little that you can salvage in this trade between two third-parties. The customer care people (cell phone, banks, internet connection, gas connection or even driving classes) are trained to not protest when an irritated customer calls up and says 'do this, else I don't need your services. Refund my deposit'. There wouldn't be a split second for you to save your pride before they reply 'ok sir, you can withdraw your subscription by tomorrow evening'. Logic says it's basic economics, demand exceeds supply so much that you've got to expect this, but India mein senti blackmail chalna chahiye yaar!! any place!!

Job
Being an extremely small part of an extremely big company doesn't exactly feel like the seventh heaven, but it does present an opportunity. Unlike my sadistic previous section, I'm more optimistic about this one. Although I wanted to be part of a start-up, be a reasonably sizeable part of a 'smallish' company, I am now happy at my place. One of my friends is in such a company, but thanks to some unknown rascal in the US defaulting on his home loan, my friend might face the axe.

Cricket
India-Australia test series kicks off tomorrow in Bangalore, and as any other short-memoried Indian cricket fan, I am optimistic about this too. I have my tickets to the stadium for the fourth day. Ganguly is all over the news today, I really hope Dravid scores though. He is yet to score a century here. Yeah, I am a 'Dravidian' in more than one sense! Recently a Wall was erected in the stadium in Dravid's honor, and he had this to say about it "when they (karnataka cricket association) first came up with this idea, I thought it would be embarrassing, but then they said it would inspire youngsters. I finally agreed’.

Rahul bhai, you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. You were over-shadowed by Sachin and Ganguly even in your prime, its high time you raved in whatever comes your way. Because the next time this bullshit media will write good things about you would be only when, like Ganguly, you announce your exit.

Movies
After cynicism, optimism, and more optimism, here is absolute delight. The last three Hindi movies I watched were an absolute treat to any not-dumb movie lover. I saw A Wednesday, Mumbai meri jaan and Welcome to sajjanpur. Spoiler alert – ha.. who am I kidding?

Although I correctly guessed Naseeruddin Shah’s intentions at he very beginning, his monologue at the end was mind blowing. Second outstanding monologue this year for him, first being in Khuda ke liye. My favorite line of the film is when Jimmy Shergil tells the terrorist ‘ek aam insaan ki hat kya gayi, tumhe rok hi nahi, thok bhi raha hai’. Bravo!

One has to have lived in Mumbai to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan. One has to have a strong “i’ll live in india” ideology like Madhavan to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan (God forbid, some incident changes that in me. But now I know it can be changed.. changed by events beyond my control. I wont brag my ideology anymore). And one need not be an avid fan of Paresh Rawal to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan, you’ll love him anyways.

Sajjanpur was a class-apart. I’ve not seen any of the Shyam Benegal movies, but now I have to. In my opinion, the character Mahadev tries give the most positive end to every sub-plot in his book though the reality was different. The compounder and the widow were told to have lived happily ever after, though in reality they were hanged by fundamentalists of their own caste on their wedding day. (obvious)
The eunuch Munnibai was killed, though in reality she goes on become the sarpanch and much more in politics. (brilliant)
Dying for a cause one is fighting for is the noblest end one can give to any hero (hero as in.. ab samajh jao). Remember the ‘Dark Knight’ line – “you either die a hero or live long enough to get corrupted”. This movie is a sheer stroke of a genius!

Miscellaneous
Anything and everything qualifies as miscellaneous, a forwarded email educated me.
I sent my girlfriend an anonymous bouquet of roses to her workplace. A risky affair given the fact that she’s has kept this under the wraps so far. More risky because I’ll have to face her wrath even if nothing alarming happens at her work place J
A note about the heading - whenever I consciously try to concentrate (as in yoga or meditation kind of concentration), the mind wavers so much that it feels as if I was at my concentrated best a moment before I decided to concentrate. Thus, I felt that a mind attempting to concentrate can be an excellent example for randomness.
Just received an sms:
TC to sardar – ticket dikhao
Sardar – ye lo
TC – yeh ticket to purani hai
Sardar – to yeh train kya abhi showroom se nikali hai

Farewell Invitation from our Juniors

2008-05-06T13:50:00.002+05:30

Thats quite some work!

Nano-Talk-nology

2008-01-18T17:15:00.000+05:30

Nano is the talk of the town currently, and here's a little collection of whats been said about it :)

Feature: Bumper-to-bumper length is smaller than Maruti 800, but internal space is more
Pros - Parking friendly and spacious
Cons - The real bumper is actually your own toe

Feature: It has a small trunk, only enough for one small suitcase.
Cons - its a really a good-for-nothing storage
Pros - if you have a really big suitcase, you can always put your car in it

Feature: Fuel efficiency of 22 kmpl
Pros - Healthy mileage, saving more money
Cons - Eventually 20 litres of petrol will cost more than the car

Feature: The base model comes without AC, stereo and power steering
Pros - Thats why the car is so cheap making it "The People's Car"
Cons - It assumes that Indians are sweaty, boring and muscular

Compulsive Translation Disorder

2007-09-12T09:33:00.000+05:30

If you tend to use "different different" instead of just one "different" in your otherwise impeccable English, because you are used to saying "alag alag" while speaking Hindi, you suffer from (what I call) a Compulsive Translation Disorder.

In generic terms, it's a disorder where you literally translate a phrase of one language to another language and use it though it may not mean anything in the other language. It is the reason why south Indians tend to use the conjunction "why because" instead of just "because"; Gujaratis say "best luck" instead of "best of luck"; and Bengalis greet with "what news?" instead of a simple "how are you?".

In Marathi, a common phrase to express realization or surprise is "ho ka?" which literally translates to "haan kya?" in Hindi and means absolutely nothing in Hindi. Yet, if you measure the frequency with which a Marathi-chap-speaking-Hindi uses this phrase, make sure the unit you use is Tera-Hertz.

And the one state where this disorder is actually an epidemic is Assam. I don't know what is the actual Assamese version of the following but if an Assamese person is speaking Hindi (or trying to do so), these phrases would be common:

1. Bus mein utho
2. Gussa uthta hai
3. Party khaane chalo

And sometimes the context and rendition turns them into such innuendos that those phrases become immortal.

Once we were going for a trip to Kaziranga, when one of my classmates (an Assamese, of course!) inquired - "Haathi mein kaun kaun uthega?".

Where was he on Durga pooja day - "Town gaya tha, pooja ko khaane".

A tempestuous version of him is often heard mumbling - "Mera gussa uth raha hai".

Unfortunately no antibiotic or vaccination or alternate therapy exists for this disorder, which in a way guarantees some entertainment.

So then, I'll go and come. (Translation of Tamil phrase "poittu varen", meaning "good bye")

IT vs Core Sector = Money vs Ethics

2007-08-10T09:47:00.000+05:30

Its very convenient to be in the computer science field today (amongst all engineering fields) since thats where the moolah is. So if I take up a lucrative offer at Microsoft or Oracle or our desi Infy (ya, it offers a good package at IITs), there's no ethical dilemma - I've studied comp. science for all my engineering-life!

The scenario for other branches, sadly, is quite different especially for civil, chemical and mechanical engineering students. Firstly, the number of companies offering a job in their core sector is very less; and secondly the salary they offer is comparable to (if not less than) what Infy pays to a NIIT course holder. So what do they do? - they take up IT sector jobs, get trained in Java/ SAP/ some-niche-IT-stuff and try to live happily ever after. After all, they've studied hi-tech construction/ compounds/ machines for 4 or 6 years, and here they are - showing all their might on a keyboard.

Whether or not it affects the individual conscience, this should be a matter of serious concern to the authorities (MHRD, I guess! or whosoever is the policy maker here). This is an IIT for God's sake - if such things happen here, then don't even go looking for what happens elsewhere. Students of all branches are trained to be the one of the best in their respective fields, and then robbed off the opportunities that'll actually help the government to reap the benefits of the subsidy-beans they sowed.

I can't think of anything to come up with even a single suggestion to prevent this from happening, which makes me feel guilty of crying foul here. But hey, I'm not the brightest mind in the country. I'm sure this is not a completely unsolvable problem.

Thankfully, there is a policy in place at IITG, which forbids financial firms to recruit from engineering streams - otherwise even the comp. science students will join the club :)

What's the procedure to change the room please?

2007-07-25T16:37:00.000+05:30

This question by Swami led to his ragging in the hands of his seniors in Munnabhai MBBS. I dared to ask the same question here, and not surprisingly it led to my ragging too, albeit at the hands of the authorities at IITG.

The situation was very simple. I needed to move from hostel A to hostel B since hostel B hoists the antenna I require for my project. Plus, its a well known secret here that there's a policy to keep all m.tech guys in hostel B, so this shouldn't be a problem at all. I met a fellow hostellite who had changed his room recently -

"What to do to change the hostel, mate?"
"Write an application to the chairman of the hub"
"Chairman of the what?"
"Hub"
"Hub?"
"Hub"

Now, in computer science jargon, a hub is a dumb device that receives a signal at one of its ports and forwards it on all other ports, without bothering to process that signal. I was wondering what a hub had to do with hostels (well, later i learned that it was actually HAB - Hostel Affairs Board). I wrote an application, dated 11th July 2007, and gave it to the chairman, who lazily signed it and forwarded it to the Convener of the Allotment Committee. Chuck HAB, hub it is.

I met the Convener of the Allotment Committee (lets call him CAC) the next day (12th), he assured me that this was a trivial matter and asked me to come back in two days. I went back on 16th (no, I wasn't lazy. 14th-15th was weekend), CAC told me to meet the caretaker of hostel B to get a room allotted. My mistake here - didn't notice that CAC had not signed the application.

On the same day I went to the caretaker of hostel B (with all due respect, lets call him egg-head).
"Sir, I need to come to this hostel. I've got the application approved by the chairman and CAC."
Ponders over my half page application for 6.35 atrocious minutes.
"I can't take a decision without consulting the warden"
"But sir, its already approved, the CAC said I could straight away take a room"
"Why has he not signed your application"
Sigh.. sigh..
"Please meet the warden"

17th July (morning) - warden was not in his room/lab.
17th July (afternoon) - warden was not in his room/lab.
18th July (morning) - warden was not in his room/lab.
18th July (afternoon) - warden was not in his room/lab.
19th July (morning) - warden was not in his room/lab.

19th July (afternoon) - went back to the CAC. He signed my application with the note - "this student may be allowed to stay in hostel B. This wont affect the new allotment process".

Took that double-signed application to that egg-head -
"Sir, there - I have the sign"
"The English is ambiguous, 'may be allowed' - hmm.. not clear, isn't it?"
(Mentally - "WHAT THE F**K!!!!") "Yes sir, it is"
"Did you meet the warden"
"mmmmm.. yes. He only asked me to meet the CAC"
Egg-head calls the warden, sigh!
"The warden will come here and handle this. Come on 23rd morning"

23rd morning - went to egg-head, apparently the warden had not come there yet.
"Come in the afternoon!"
23rd afternoon - went to meet the egg-head - egg-head was not in his room.

I was so pissed off, i didn't bother to go there on 24th. 25th was my birthday, and I wanted to spend it peacefully, so I decided to postpone it that day also. For the first time I was thinking whether I can manage this project without changing the hostel, but a ring-tone interrupted my multi-million-dollar thought process -

"hello"
"abbe venky! where are you? the caretaker is looking for you"
Great! I rushed to hostel B.

Egg-head was clearly quite hot, I was afraid he might hatch.
"I've been looking for you since Monday"
"Sorry sir, I was busy with my project"
"Anyways, you have to move in now"

I had plans for my birthday that evening and it took a truck load of unwilling persuasion to postpone it by one day. So, 14 days, 3 signatures, 50000 calories and a zillion mental profanities later - here I was, in my new room.

Dead Without Deadlines

2007-07-14T18:45:00.000+05:30

One of Murphy's laws states that work expands to the time allotted to it. But when you're just given the time, and it's you who has to first think of some work to do, and do it too - things just get worse.

One feeling that is ubiquitously experienced is that deadlines enhance productivity. Of course, it comes with a bit of stress but the positive effects outnumber the rest. Your brain is put to a good, continuous productive use; you are aware of a goal, you plan spontaneously, execute with tremendous diligence; you are racing against time but somehow you feel timeless - its that goal you want to achieve; even a minute's break there refreshes more than a whole day spent lazily at home. And the fulfillment that follows - ah! happiness, the wholeness, the sense of well-being, the sense of accomplishing something - is amazing. You end up doing things which you postponed for the leisurely days, on the busiest of your days. That's how it is - when your brain has gathered a momentum, its best to say - make hay while the sun shines.

On the contrary, when there's no deadline kicking your backside, you master the art of procrastinating wonderfully. You come up with innovative unprecedented reasons to convince yourself of why a particular task can be done sometime later, only to be welcoming boredom to enslave you. And that doesn't come alone - time seems to have lost all its pace, yet at the end of the day you feel a whole day sped by without making much of a difference. You feel lack of control (over what! you don't know), you grudge, you loathe things that doesn't even remotely have anything to do with you. Self-confidence goes for a toss, you doubt whether you have done anything useful in your life.

So what happens when deadline-dependent-lesser-mortals like us are put in a situation where enormous amount of self-motivation is required to keep going? We know that by the time when we actually see the deadline at the far-end of our myopic vision, it would be a bit too late to react; we know self-imposed deadlines don't work; and we know the work we're supposed to do will never be more tempting than movies or cricket. So where do we go from here? Is there is a fault with the system that created this situation, or with us?

RAM aur Shame

2007-03-30T20:09:00.000+05:30

The scene - a group of 43, a theft, and an accusation that the perpetrator(s) is from the group. I am from that group. Sufferers - 15 persons, again, from the group itself. I am one of them. A perfect setting for intra-group camps, cold shoulders, incriminating glares, and an incurable distrust. One of these two can happen - the traitor getting caught; or preventing that perfect setting from materializing any further. We chose the latter.

I don't know about what was right and what was not; what we could have done or what we should have done. All I know is when I smile at anyone from this jinxed group, I get a smile back. Maybe the person whom I smiled at was the real culprit, and may be he is not smiling back, he is in fact laughing his wits out in his head. But what I know is that I have not pointed my finger at an innocent someone.

And what have we got in return for this stance - a ridicule in every possible direct, indirect and in-indirect way; glances and jibes that suggest a pity one shows towards impotency; and not to mention the monetary and academic losses.

"Your class is all messed up, your network is very weak! I am sure, had this happened to your seniors, they would have caught the thief by now"
Messed up huh? From where I see, I see an example of a bunch of guys standing together in a crisis, fighting an urge to shout back at every contemptuous remark and instead absorbing the outburst of one and all. Network weak - yeah, we don't have back-stabbers. And seniors - please feel lucky that this didn't happen to you.

"You're a fearful lot. One of you should have stood up and said - 'lets check everyone's room. If you're clean, you shouldn't object the checking.' The stained guy would have tried to resist this idea"
Mr. James Bond, I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to keep that monty in his own room. The campus is BIG enough. And to be honest, this idea didn't strike us at all. Know why - we don't believe it's one of us. Now, even if that turns out to be one of us, I would very very happy to get disappointed then. I would be happy that this was not my suspicion. I would be happy that I trusted my group by default.

"Things would never be the same for you now. Your academics are going to suffer, you'll probably never even know about the facilities and resources your seniors benefited from, and what's more - your juniors will suffer too."
Why do you think we don't understand the gravity of the situation? What pleasure do you derive from telling such things time and again, with a half-mocking-half-pitying smile?
No one can deny that at least, there are 40 innocent souls in this class, yet if you want to go ahead executing everyone, then fine, DO IT. And what's more - you have already made up your mind to mess with the next 40-something batch. Great!

If someday it gets proved that the guilty was not from this class, know what we will do??
We will forgive you, with the same half-mocking-half-pitying smile, this time on our faces.

Interview with Eric Schmidt

2007-03-23T12:32:00.000+05:30

Fav lines:
1. "You learn when people talk, you don't learn very much when you yourself are talking" - on why does he teach in Stanford in spite of being the CEO of one of the most important companies of the world

2. "Internet is a scale business"

3. "They are going to do it whether you give them permission or not" - on characteristics of very successful entrepreneurs (like larry & sergey, chad & steve of youtube)

4. "They are well-managed and are perfect in their executions.. they've faced challenges that Google is yet to overcome" - on what does competitors of Google do that Google does not.
(Just compare this candid honesty to Steve Ballmer's remark on Google's strategy to allow its employees to spend 20% of their time for their pet projects to foster innovation as "unproductive, one can't expect to achieve innovation by such measures")

5. "Be engaged" - on what message would he like to give to all those entering technology business today
(Actually, the video got truncated at 10 mins. This line is in the podcast here)

The Scent of "My" Woman

2007-03-09T13:52:00.000+05:30

Dimpled cheeks, a warming smile
Eyes of sparkling pearl
Yes, it all started
When she was but a girl

Daddy's baby, mamma's pet
Touch-me-not and shy
In talks & jokes, in laugh & play
Didn't knew when the time flew by

Destiny, meanwhile, had other plans
It put her in a territory so strange
Her innocent mind couldn't concur
That times were about to change

Just when she spread her wings
Her ambition was deprived
Dreams shattered, hopes battered
She cried, and cried but survived

To sit back and grieve was worthless
To move on was wise
First lesson hence learned here
Life's sometimes a compromise.

And then, there was someone...

Was he just a friend or more
Her heart writhed in doubt
Somewhere both knew the answer
But the bloke wont speak out

Thanks to her, he did confess one day
And the intimacy started to prosper
Compassion flowed, love mellowed
No one could love like her

The time they spent together
She colored it with her vitality
With her grace and vivace
They transcended to tranquility

The time she spent waiting
For the distances to shrink
She lit her candle of love
With every heartbeat, every blink

Prompt to apologize when she missed a mark
Ready to forgive when he did
Always caring and thinking of him
In his dreams, she made hers hid

From demanding to fulfilling
From seeking to nourishing
She adapted with such ease as if
This was the reason for her being

And this is not a mysterious miracle
The answer is an easy one
The girl who fell in love one day
Is turning into a woman.

Happy Women's Day -- In celebration of God's best ceration

Khul jaa.... book book

2007-01-23T14:26:00.000+05:30

Recently, one of my profs Mr. Bean (name changed due to survival reasons) announced in the class that in this term the exams won't be open-book as they were in the last term. We will have conventional closed-book exams this time. I didn't know whether to be happy or sad on hearing this. So here's a little analysis -

Advantages of open-book exams:

If you manage to identify the chapter correctly, your blind shot will at least hit the zone, if not the target.
You only have to exchange the page numbers, instead of the whole answers.
It’s easier to pretend that you are thinking when you are groping into a book. This comes in handy when the subject prof is invigilating as well.
At least, now you can pass time for three hours, which again, can impress the invigilator.
You can start preparing for the re-exam then and there.

Disadvantages:

The questions asked are either unsolved exercises or the author himself would have proclaimed that to be “out of the scope of this book”.
You don’t get questions like “define this” where you can write “the blah blah of the blah blah is called new blah new blah” and secure 2 marks.
You feel empowered to do nothing. You can’t even make the excuse “I was not prepared, else I would have..“ to yourself.
You have to buy the book.

And the result is - I am still confused. How the heavens does the prof manages to do this every single time!!!

Made In India

2007-01-10T14:40:00.000+05:30

This tag has eluded software products for long, though Indians have been an ingredient in almost all of them. Be it outsourced services or offshored products, one thing is common - we are the anonymous back-end. Time is ripe for our desi visionaries and innovators to create a mark, not only for themselves but also for a new reputation that India deserves.

Proto is an event showcasing technology startups in the country, bringing together VCs and aspiring entrepreneurs. I think its tagline says more than any other text or quote on its site - "Create. Collaborate. Contribute"

Whether it matches the scale of Demo or not, remains to be seen. I hope it does (perhaps get even bigger)!

Kambakht Comeback!!

2007-01-07T13:08:00.000+05:30

Eureka eureka!! I think I found out how Indian cricket works. Its the 'comeback' theory.

After losing the one day series 4-0 to the South Africans, the victory in the first test was hailed as one of the best comebacks by the resurgent team India, with Sreesanth dancing his way to glory. Alas, we lost the test series 2-1. Wanna know what's going on - they're just staging for another comeback performance, for a comeback is the best entertainment we can ever wish for. We write 'em off completely, call them underdogs (even with Sachin, Sehwag and Dravid in the team), sympathize, lose all hopes; and then comes a victory. A praise which was reserved for each match in-between, hoping we'll win this time - all comes out in a heap. One or more heroes are hence created. (Don't be surprised if you now watch an ad with Sreesanth swirling his bat and dancing, and then drinking Bournvita happily)

But how can they come back unless they go down into the dumps again? So here they are, spelling doom for themselves. After all, each player should have an opportunity to drink Bournvita on TV.

With comeback king, Sourav dada, and VVS Laxman - whose every appearance is called a comeback by the media - in the side, we can be rest assured that blogs of this kind will continue to be written round the year. So now, team India will come back to home to play the WI; when they come, back them with your support and encouragement and they'll expectedly stun us with yet another comeback. I should soon get my mathematical formula ready for this phenomena, and we shall be able to predict the outcome of a series given just the itinerary. Predicting the 'hero' is still an open area for research.

Shah Rukh Khan dived on the axe with KANK and Don. Wonder what he is up to!

Migration

2007-01-06T20:10:00.000+05:30

Clear Mist is my third blogosphere since i knew what blogging was (or i thought i knew). I started the first one during my seventh sem in engineering, scribbled something and was very happy to see my own contents on the anyone-can-view-it-from-anywhere platform. It didn't take long for me to realize the same thing again - "anyone can view it from anywhere, so I better remove my crap before someone reads it!". The second innings began at my stint at Persistent Systems (a product-based software firm in Pune), with a couple of humorous posts. I've still retained them, though both posts seem out of place with a '2007' tag. I had titled that blog Laughter is Contagious, but as contagious would imply - I might have spread it but apparently I was soon cured of my own humor, and that blog stagnated at the very state it began with.

So here I am, migrated to a new land (or e-land?? whatever!), with a caption and tagline that would virtually allow me to post anything (crap or even worse crap). Though I am very fond of oxymorons, that's not how Clear Mist originated. In fact, I see clear mist every morning!

Its a foggy Jan here at Guwahati, and every morning when I go "dhoom machake" on my pedalled bike to the department, the visibility is just knee high - the fog floats two three feets above the ground. So even though you can see nothing ahead, you can see the road that lays below - follow it, and if you just know which turns to take, you'll reach to the acad building, safe and sound.

Venky Super Thought #1: Sometimes we are really confused with our lives, not knowing what to do next. But what we do know is the constraints that binds us, either self-imposed or simply imposed. So if we start moving towards wherever destiny takes us, but make wise choices along the way, we'll still end up where we always wanted to.

As I said, now I can post anything :)
Do come back if you don't want to, and if you want to - don't complain then that I didn't warn.

Mandal's 11

2007-01-06T18:59:00.000+05:30

More than the social and economic factors, in my opinion the education factor determines how backward a community is. Backward classes constitute of 52% of our country's population. In other words, there are only 48% general category people in this nation. Its just because of an era of education and awareness, that this 'forward' upper classes don't require any special reservations.

Imagine that this new 27% reservation gets implemented and subsequently it leads to the emergence of an era of erotic IIM and IIT grads and IAS officers taking the reins of the nation, who in turn, further increase the percentage of reservation, so much so that one day the to-be-extinct general class people start an agitation for at least 10% quota for general 'upper' castes. What would follow is an adaptation of Mandal's 11 points (which define whether a caste or community is backward or not) for the upper castes.

Legend:
“they”=obc people in the next era
“us”=general category people in the next era
Original Mandal's indicators are in blue

Social
Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others.
Why not!! Its their turn to take the revenge. After years of being called backward, they'll take the first opportunity to call economically poor people like us backward, though this point comes in the 'social' section

Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labor for their livelihood.
Once OBC dominated vocations like construction workers, plumbers and carpenters, will finally have some reservations for general category people, which would subsequently make this sector as the main source of livelihood for general category people.

Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively.
Most women among us will be smart enough to get married to some OBC guy to avail the benefits. And owing to shortage of prospective OBC guys, the girls will be booked right from the age of 12 (that allows availing benefits in high school as well). So, the 25% percent criteria will be met with ease.
And about 10% of the guys will be gifted with some unnatural attraction. So those lucky few guys will avail the benefits too.

Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average.
Reservation in higher studies, jobs, promotions, on-site tours, tax redemptions, share dividends, increments, compensations and even in begging, will make it impossible for an average household run with only the man earning.

Educational
Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average.
Reservations in schools too.. you must be kidding. There wont be any reservations in schools, thanks to one intelligent and smart quota-generated bureaucrat. According to this Mr. Smart, there would be reservation only in nursery and kindergartens i.e. 50% for SC/STs and 50% for OBCs. Those who do not do nursery and KGs will not be admitted in schools. So that explains the number of children who will never be attending schools !!

Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average.
According to the previous rule, there wont be any general quota students in schools. Therefore, number of general quota students dropping out = 0
Number of OBC quota students dropping out = 0 (thats exactly why the quotas are there)
State average = 0%
25% of 0% = 0
So, is 0 > 0, well, for our convenience, YES.

Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average
Same old mathematics. Just that, here we assume 0<0 style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Economic
Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average.
Mandal forgot to put the word 'immediate' before family. Hence, if someone is of OBC category, his son's nephew's aunt's grandmother's daughter's son-in-law's brother's wife can also avail the benefits of reservation. So you can imagine how much the combined family assets might be!

Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average.
Kachcha houses!!! People living in 'kachchas' will alone cross that 25% mark.

Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households.
well.. i hope the OBCs will not be this harsh on us!!

Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average.
We wont be dumb after all!! If we know that taking consumption loans will make us eligible under Mandal's criteria, will we not take up that loan?

Inzy's interview

2007-01-06T18:35:00.000+05:30

Context: India beat Pakistan convincingly on 13th Feb 2006. Dhoni, with his swash-buckling innings, guides India to a superb win. Inzy's reaction to the defeat, well, here's my version of it:

Rameez: So Inzy, disappointed with your performance today?
Inzy: Bismilla-e-rehman-e-rahim. Thank you allah.ya the indian batsman
is play very good today. we is try very hard but is not win the game.

Rameez: Any words for Dhoni?
Inzy: Ya dhoni is play very well. He is hit his shot very hard in our
gaps. In start, we is protect our gaps very well. the grass is also
thick.. but dhoni is split our gaps with his bat.

Rameez: Another ordinary bowling performance?
Inzy: Ya our balls is loose. the bowler is went for many run. Asif is
bowled well. Also, after some shots the ball is out of shape. umpire is
not give another ball.. it is tough to play with one ball

Rameez: Dropped catches.. did that prove costly?
Inzy: ya the ball is not stick to our hands. we is practice a lot
sticking our bat in our hands.. but now we is more practice sticking
balls in our hands.

Rameez: Any plans for the next match?
Inzy: ya India is on top but we is try to bounce on our back. Insha
allah we is play better.

Rameez: All the best Inzy
Inzy: Thanks is to you