The View Down Here

To Calcutta

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:24:00 +0000

I'm writing after a long time again..... Well, over the past few months, it seems that I've been made to eat my words. Firstly, the title of the blog was supposed to convey my "unbiased oppinion" on things. I've finally realised that "unbiased opinion" is an oxymoron.
A few posts ago, I wrote about me prefering girls over 5' 3"; guess what, I've fallen head-over-heels for a girl who is 5' 3" (in fact the same girl that prompted me to write the post in the first place) But, as luck would have it, she's already committed and I'm left wondering if it would have been better if I had asked her out a long time ago, instead of wasting my time with height restrictions.
Finally to the main object of this post; I'm going to Calcutta for a vacation and I've never been more excited about anything else for a long, long time. It is a 2000 km train journey. With a train journey that long, the possibilities are endless....
My train leaves in an hour and half. I should have been on the train by now, but it has been delayed by an hour and half. The beginning feels ominous. Hopefully I'll write again once I get back.

I "Leave" Again

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:27:00 +0000

After spending the most interesting four months of my life at Chennai, I'm finally going back; albeit for just a month. Why have these months been the most interesting of my life? Well, firstly, it is my first time away from my family and that reduction of responsibility is quite different from anything I have felt before. These four months have given me insights into people and events in a way I never had till now. Strangely, I have also understood how to get myself to work in time. It has also been a time for a personal academic upheavel. The subject is very dear to me. I am beginning to understand it's nuances better. My only regret is that I couldnot chronicle the birds of this place. Hopefully I'll get it done come January.

A view from a different place

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:26:00 +0000

I have moved from Mumbai to Chennai in August this year to pursue my Master's degree. And though I am not surrounded by geniuses, I am around people smart enough to make me feel like a babe in the woods.

The place where I am studying is funny to say the least. It has these complicated, twisted rules that make no sense what-so-ever. It has compulsory attendance, and then, to "make sure that students don't miss classes", they turn off the internet in the hostel rooms from 12 in the night to 2 in the afternoon. The list is endless and I shall write again soon when I have a bit more time on my hands.

A New Height Limit

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:26:00 +0000

I had decided, when I started this blog, that I'd avoid any personal posts. But, I just can't resist posting this.

I'm rather tall, so, I had a self-imposed minimum height criterion regarding people I'd go out on a date with. It was 5 feet 3 inches. I realised only three days ago how short that limit was, and it had to be increased to be usable. So, now I've revised it to 5 feet 5 inches. I hope the extra two inches does the trick. ^_^

Back After Two Years!!!

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:42:00 +0000

It has been two years since I last wrote on this blog, or on any blog for that matter. Over the course of two years, a lot has changed; in me, in my way of writing, in the world around me. For starters, I have improved on my writing skills a bit. I've finally found a subject I like and something I can do for at least the next few years of my life. But on the other hand, I've become a nastier person, so the view down here is going to be a bit more critical than what it had previously been (which is saying a lot) .
In the past two years, the world around me has changed too. The financial meltdown has set in, and from oil prices looking to cross the $200 barrier, we are looking at a situation where it barely sells at $60. The effects of climate change have become more noticeable. But those are all on the large scale.
Coming a bit closer to home; the trains have become more crowded. The open fields behind my house have been replaced by construction sites, suggesting that the crowding of the trains won't stop. I have also become less lazy, so there will be more additions to this blog soon....................

The Games for the Dead

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:14:00 +0000

Well, my grandfather died recently and the incident has shown me a characteristic of people that I had not noticed earlier.
We are scared of death. This is very evident in the WAY we treat the dead. We have elaborate funerals and a whole lot of rituals. One ritual involves "feeding" the dead things they liked to eat when they were alive. The ridiculous thing is that my grandfather was never a fan of food. He would eat almost anything that was given to him. He was a man with little desires. He never cared about people remembering him after his death. All he cared about was his family. He always wanted to have a simple funeral, with very little fuss so that his family would not be troubled by his death.

Alas, this was not to be. We, the living, thought that the dead man didn't know of what it was to be dead. We thought that we knew more about how to treat the dead than he did. The funeral was as elaborate as ever. The rituals still continue, and somewhere in the heavens, my grandfather is looking on disapprovingly, preparing to reprimand us when we meet him.

Ubuntu.....

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:45:00 +0000

I've switched to Ubuntu now and use windows only for gaming. The funny thing about it is that I find Ubuntu a lot simpler to use than windows. I'm a seasoned windows user who has been dealing with BOSD's and frozen screens for many years, but still, I find even a buggy Ubuntu session better than a relatively bug-free windows session. Let me elaborate......

I work with Ubuntu 7.04 aka Feisty Fawn. After 6.10, I had created a wish-list of what I wanted in the next version of Ubuntu - and surprise, surprise - 7.04 has included everything on the wish-list along with a few features I wanted, but never really mentioned. I run Ubuntu with beryl, with the effects at maximum. I just love it. I can create a presentation in one workspace while checking my mail on another. What's more, I can see both at the same time thanks to the 'skydome'. Personally, I find that openoffice.org beats MS-Office any day. It is reinforced by the fact that while presentations created on Office 2003 have problems when editing on Office XP, there are no such problems if you do it with OO.o, though 2003 is just a cosmetic change over XP.
Now to the windows programs. As I type this, my anti-virus has piped up and told me that it has updated itself. To make matters worse, windows has just realised that I have shortcuts on the desktop that I won't use. It has popped up a bubble asking me to click it if I want to clean the shortcuts. Why does this bloody bugger of windows not understand that it is MY desktop and I will keep it the way I want it.......
Unubutu is nice and quiet in comparison. It does pop up a balloon if updates are available, but all in all, it's a much more pleasurable experience.

So KUDOS UBUNTU!!!!!

???

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:54:00 +0000

I didn't write a title for this post because I just wasn't sure what title to put. This post is about the recent decision of the Maharashtra Government to ban sex-education from the syllabus.
The very fact that the subject was banned is bad enough but the way the decision was taken makes it even worse. The incident exposes the hooliganism that has taken over Indian politics. Burning books in the Assembly is definitely not a way to protest, is it? It is also, perhaps, the best example of something that I had realized a long time ago. Indian parents shirk from responsibility. It happened when many TV channels were taken off air for showing content deemed inappropriate for children. It is the parents who should be responsible for what their wards watch and not the TV channel. Here, children are denied knowledge of sex just because the adults are to shy. What else should you expect other than a rise in sexual crimes? Adults are perverts and they expect their children to be the same. If they get knowledge about the way their body functions they would be disillusioned about a whole lot of things. It would destroy many prejudices on which this current social structure is based.
I usually try to avoid such a direct assault in my posts but this incident has really made me blow my lid. I wonder do these people want. Do they want the next generation to die of AIDS...?

The 'Co-operation' Begins....

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Following some serious protests by the public, the MSEB has finally decided to review its load-shedding policy. The plan is that if the general public manage to reduce the use of electricity, there will be no power-cuts. Talk about grabbing the bull by its horns. The stupidest part of this plan is that though it would solve a part of the problem, it will not go away completely unless there is an increase in the supply and reduction in what the company likes to call "distributive losses" or, in the lay-man's term, electricity theft.

A Thanks To The Electricity Board

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:43:00 +0000

The 'Power Crisis' in Maharashtra has become more severe. The load-shedding time has been increased and people like my parents are rejoicing. Why? Well, because now I am spending less time on the PC and more time with my books. I am happy too. I never knew that there were so many things that you can do without electricity. I now exercise more regularly. I go out for treks and I have even learnt to sleep among mosquitoes. I will always be grateful to the MSEB for bringing me out of my shell.

The MSEB has liberated us from the clutches of electricity while they have sacrificed themselves to the 'demon'. The MSEB engineers are forcing themselves to use electricity by turning on the air conditioners and all the electrical appliances they can find at their offices while they have freed us poor souls from the misery of the use of such appliances. They have even forced the demon on the malls and multiplexes. But, as a compensation, they charge them at a lesser rate.

Even though the whole world is succumbing to electricity, I thank the MSEB for keeping us from it(though I would like it if they would not charge us extra for their efforts), and hope that they will be (un)able to continue their good work.

The View Down Here

noreply@blogger.com (AC) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:23:00 +0000

The view down here is quite 'extra'-ordinary. Why, you may ask. Well, because everything down here is very ordinary with its share of 'extras'. What extras? That is a rather difficult question to answer because though everything here seems extra-ordinary, to be really able to separate the 'extra' seems to be a very difficult task. For example: The road is being repaired, which is ordinary. To see the road be in a very repairable condition two days after the 'repairs' are completed seems out of the ordinary at first glance.But wait! The same thing is happening everytime the road is repaired. Now that makes it ordinary, doesn't it???

I have not even started with it and it has succeded in confusing me, but I'm sure I will find a better example soon.