Another blogger rides the bus

Halloween, some interviews, and a mid term!

2009-11-06T18:54:00.001-08:00

Phew! The past three weeks went past me like a dog whose tail was on fire! Lets see...previously I was bitching about how much work I got to do in grad school. Lets chuck that, this blog is become too much of a whiner's blog :)

So lets start with the happiest, most recent memory- Halloween! This being my first Halloween ever, I had no idea what to do....I got a stupid mask but hardly wore it cos it was too suffocating. IV looked like some Indian railway station/bazaar that day! People thronging up and down, in a colourful array of costumes, all high with booze,dope and what not! I kinda didn't fit in though...I mean I dig Diwali, Holi, etc...but this? Maybe next year I will get a decent costume :) And guys, the girls were just a feast for the eyes. My friend Urmish literally thanked me for having dragged him to IV!

I also had a few interviews! The most high profile one was with Microsoft- I had to answer three open-ended questions...keeping my fingers crossed! Then I had an interview with Novacoast - a Santa Barbara based company- the interviewer asked me 7 questions from 7 different languages! The day I had my microsoft interview I also had a midterm- one of the toughest ones I have ever faced :(

I also got a bike! But its kinda rickety and old, so I gotta tune it up a bit. And we got a diwali function this weekend- so I am looking forward to some Indian food and Urmish's guitar playing :) (Diwali2009)

Grad School is tough!

2009-10-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

Phew! Every week I wait with bated breath for Thursday night...cos that is when my 3 day weekend starts! I know...you must be thinking...this guy has a three day weekend? His life is made right? No way! Cos the other 4 days are so engaging and there is so much going on in Grad school you literally have no time to stand and stare! And since this is a Thursday night I thought , hey, let me empty my head a little.

So what happens in Grad school? Well, I read papers. I work on assignments. I work on projects. I try to keep up with what the Prof is talking about. And since I am in the hellish quarter system, I just try to get by. And since I am a Masters student, I am totally confused :)

But hey, its fun. I am finally learning stuff. Hadn't done anything in years! Am working on this project for one of my courses- its a web application for the cloud and we are gonna make it using Google App Engine, Python and Django- all of which I gotta learn! But hey that is cool-how about the weather? I still don't get California-one day it rains, one day its sunny, and one day its cold! Crazy! And you gotta come back after a long day in this crazy weather & make yourself some food before you drop off! Welcome to grad school!

Life in the US

2009-09-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hiya folks! Its been a long time since I blogged...probably cos I was busy adding numerous layers of fat while I was at home for 3 months! Now that I am in the US, and I finally have a laptop I was like hey, lets start blabbing again.

Ok, so before coming here I was like- "Wow! I am finally going to the US of A!" and everyone around me was behaving as if I was gonna go to a different planet! Well, I have been here for a little over 2 weeks and let me tell you, life is not that different.

Everyone is polite here. Now that is something weird when you come here the first time. Especially if you have roamed around in Mumbai where people only have time to curse you.

Vehicles stop when you want to cross the road! This is again a bit scary cos a line of vehicles is waiting for you to cross the road!

Now a bit about the place where I am. I am staying in this real small city(lol) called Goleta. Its a city of 10,000 people. I am sure there are housing societies in India with more ;)

Goleta is actually kind of like a small, rich village. Everyone either has a car- or a bike! That is probably cos we're close to UCSB. One more crazy thing- bikes with gears are cheaper than bikes without them! And if you accidentally call a bike a cycle- you are bound to get no response (it happened to me in Kmart,hehe)

Some things are still different for me. I haven't yet got used to seeing vehicles drive on the right. Every time I am waiting to cross at an intersection, I would think-"That vehicle would turn left" and then it wouldn't and I would be stumped! Guess it would take a while for my tiny little brain to get adjusted to.

And ya, we simply HAVE to cook here. Eating out on a regular basis is pretty expensive, especially if you involuntarily end up converting dollars to rupees. Luckily one roomie of mine is a Gujju, so he got tons of masalas :) The tough part is using them.

As I am in Southern California, the weather is pretty much the same as that in India. In fact its been really hot for the past few days. Nights are pretty cool.

A bit about the university. UCSB is a beautiful campus. Its surrounded by beaches and mountains on all sides! You have to watch out for bikes rather than cars! Loads of skateboarders too. There is a beach right opposite my department!

We got our memberships in Costco & Albertsons (departmental chains here). We are still in the process of setting up our apartment. We had to buy and fix our own tubelights(called fluorescents here :) ) And well, we gotta laze some time too! This is currently my ~amazing~ life here!

A new day has come

2009-05-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

And so finally the day came when we left SASTRA...the place where I lost my soul and regained most of it. The past 4 years have been crazy...the place which I hated the most in my life became the place where I made some friends I will never forget...some I might never meet again(sob :( )...but its been one hell of a ride! And so when I look back now...all those times we sat vetti in hostel doing absolutely nothing...sleeping,eating,drinking...bunking classes...eating crappy mess food..avoiding mess food(!)...bitching about the management...taking digs at the dumb ass teachers...skt's bajjis...I guess there won't be any of that now.

For all the people who helped me survive these four years, cheers to you, and I hope you have a blast for the rest for your lives :)

PS: Shit, I'm actually senti!

Another Limerick!

2009-03-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in class getting real bored. Our HOD was boring us to death, as usual. And so, I wrote this limerick, dedicated to her:

In this hour of darkness there is no time
As we all wait for the bells to chime
The dragon drones, plunging us into sorrows
With words from here and there that she borrows
Oh! Gone is the youth of prime

If you don't know what a limerick is, read this old post of mine: ClickHere

Black Ice Vs Chinese Democracy Vs Death Magnetic

2009-01-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

Three old time rock bands have released new albums towards the end of last year-AC/DC,GnR and Metallica!

Ok, a bit of my background first. After Linkin Park(yikes!) my first foray into proper rock was GnR in my 11th standard. I heard Sweet child of mine on radio/tv and absolutely loved it! I went on to listen to all their big hits and fell in love with a lot of them. Lets move on. I heard Metallica & Ac/Dc on & off in the next few years. Think I probably heard Ac/Dc the first time in the movie "School of Rock"(one hell of a movie, a must watch). I liked Metallica's first few albums better than the later ones(the ones in the 90s)- I loved Black but didn't care much for Load & Reload.
All right?! So lets get on with it!

1.Black Ice (AC/DC)

If you have heard AC/DC before, you'll love this one. Its typical of their style- which I think is plain, fucking, happy rock- no ballads, no desperation, just plain old rock for the heck of it! So lets talk about the songs. The trouble with me is that I find all AC/DC songs a bit similar to one another. And I don't pay much attention to the lyrics(except, of course when its "You shook me all night long..." or "Hard as a rock",wink wink!) The song which was first released is I believe, Rock n'Roll Train, which is awesome. Other decent songs in the album- Black Ice(title song), Big Jack, She likes Rock n'Roll. The title was taken from "black ice"-transparent ice which often proves hazardous and apparently forms in Scotland a lot(Scotland is from where the Young brothers originally hail from). According to various sources, Black Ice has outsold even Death Magnetic, Metallica's latest album

2.Chinese Democracy (Guns'n Roses)

If you were expecting anything which was typical of Axl Rose or the good'ol GnR, then forget it. This ain't anything like GnR ever played before. Its modern all right but didn't strike a chord with me. I mean I know he has spent millions of dollars and over 15 years on this piece of shit, but it remains what it is- a piece of shit. And hey-there is no Slash! The only songs I liked were "Madagascar" & "Catcher in the rye"- both of which leaked ages ago on the internet. The title is I guess a dig at the Chinese government( its definitely a oxymoron). Well its been banned in China anyway,lol. Other songs you can put up with-"I.R.S" & "Sorry".

3.Death Magnetic (Metallica)

Probably the most expected album of 2008, it has ruled the charts ever since it released(like any good old Metallica album!). Unfortunately I didn't like it a lot. Lars keeps banging on the drums a bit too hard, Hetfield's voice sounds fucked up but hey- we can finally hear Kirk Hammett's solos again! The album clocks over 70 minutes which is really long for an album these days! The average length of each song is over 7 minutes- most of modern rock can't even last 3 minutes.

Lets check out the songs. My best friend(who is also Metallica's best fan, I'm sure of it!) suggested that I first listen to "Suicide & Redemption"- an instrumental. Its kinda long and tries hard to sound like an instrumental but fails miserably. I felt the song was desperate for some vocals! I then tried out "All nightmare long" and "The end of the line" - both of which reminded me of some old Metallica 80s song (can't place my finger on it). The songs had solos by Kirk but they were too long for my ears' comfort. "The day that never comes" was kinda decent-its supposed to be a ballad. "Unforgiven 3" sucks big time- its nothing like Unforgiven 1 or 2. In short, the album is full of long songs with solos which don't really gel and Lars drumming away to damnation and Hetfield sounding like a hoarse old man at 45. I guess the album is probably way better than most of the mod rock crap that people listen to nowadays - maybe thats why its on top of the charts! If you are a hard-core Metallica fan(like my friend!), then you might like the album. But for a moderate fan like me- who feels Metallica started losing it ever since "Load" you can skip this one all right. And oh ya this album features Robert "Gorilla" Trujillo as Bass Guitarist for the first time.

Album covers: You can check out the three album covers on the bands' websites or Wikipedia. I liked AC/DC's best. The cover for "Chinese Democracy" shows a cycle with a cane basket. Dunno whats that supposed to mean. Death Magnetic's cover has well, "Death Magnetic" written in typical boring Metallica font.

The Verdict:
AC/DC wins hands down with "Black Ice". I can listen to it any time, anywhere, without discomfort. At number 2 would be "Death Magnetic", I guess. Sorry metallica fans. At the bottom, "Chinese Democracy"- and no, no apology! Black Ice is played once a day on my speakers. The other two- I am afraid I need to take treatment for forcing myself to listen to them so that I could write this crappy review(Oh! Review tha kya?!)

How did I get the songs? Don't buy the CD, idiot! Whats p2p for? If you like the songs, and feel you wanna help the band(who are fuckin' millionaries anyways) you can buy the cd. Until then, visit isohunt.com
For those about to rock....we salute YOU!

Programming in Indic languages

2008-12-24T04:31:00.000-08:00

I wonder why no one programs in an Indian language. Why isn't software localized to a greater extent in India? Do you have to know English to be a programmer?(Check this out) After all the masses do not speak English in India. Its only the middle and upper classes that do. People in China use entirely localised versions of operating systems, programming tools and other applications. Why aren't the people in India doing that? Have you ever seen an Indic keyboard? I mean a keyboard with Hindi characters(devnagari script or wotever!) In a country with only around 65% literacy(most of the 65% can probably only sign their name, forget reading/writing in English!) most of which read/write/speak in their native languages, software systems in the native languages would have a tremendous impact on people.

I googled "Programming in hindi" and stumbled across the Hindawi Programming System(http://hindawi.in/en_US/index.php) This is a project which aims to develop Indian language versions of C,C++,Lex and DOS. Currently they support three languages-Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali. Their version of Indic C is called Shaili Guru. But the surprising part is that Hindawi's website is available in only one language- English! I have no idea how successful this project is.

Another instance of Indianisation of software is the Bharat Open Source System(BOSS)-an initiative by the Indian government to develop a localised version of Linux with support for Indian languages. Its developed by CDAC. Again, I have no idea if people are actually using it.

I think the reason programming in English is preferred because English is still a favoured language in India. Unless you speak English, you cannot get a white-collar job. That seems odd in a country with 18 official languages and hundreds of dialects and not so official ones. I guess english serves as the common mode of interaction between speakers of different languages. You can manage with hindi in most of northern india, but once you come south your only hope of getting to people is english!

Slave to routine :(

2008-12-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

I have always prided myself on being eccentric. I mean,when I was rated 4% normal on some crappy Facebook app I was overjoyed. However, suspicions that I was a prey to routine have been confirmed. I, like a majority of people on this planet, am a slave to routine. Sob!

I spend 10 months(or more) of a year in this place called Sastra. I'm so used to living in this hell-hole that I start feeling uneasy elsewhere!(even at home,sad na) Here is my schedule:

College days:
-Get up around 8, if i'm attending college. Else get up at 11/12/1
-Have coffee, skip breakfast 99% of the days
-College: Sleep in class/ Chat wid ppl/ Read a novel
-Lunch
-back to boring old class
-Evening: College over! Come running back to my room, drink tea and collapse on the bed. Laze around till dinner time
-Dinner-avoid the mess 99% of the days
-After dinner: the day starts now.Wake up to what the world is doing.Chat with people. Surf the net. Check my mail. Watch a movie. Etc
-Sleep, atmost by 2am

Weekends/Holidays:
-Get up atleast by 12, in time for lunch, which gets over at 2
-After lunch, hit the bed again
-Get up at 5pm, drink tea. Day starts now
-Laze around till night

Boo Hoo. And I thought I was different.

WTF IS GOING ON?

2008-11-27T11:03:00.001-08:00

Although I no longer stay in Mumbai I still have fond memories of the place. Mumbai was probably the only place where I felt the safest at any time of the day- or night. Not anymore.

Terrorists in VT station. I mean, imagine, you are buying tickets and some mad caps start firing randomly. WTF do u do?

Terrorists in two of the biggest hotels in the country. Both are landmarks. The Oberoi is one of Mumbai's tallest buildings. And the Taj Mahal, right beside the Gateway, is an excellent piece of architecture. Was, rather. Last I heard its top floor was burning.

This attack was not just a collection of bomb blasts. It was and is much more. Their sole aim was to create fear in the minds of the aam Mumbaikar. And they have succeeded. When I first heard of the attacks I was like "Oh fuck another series of bomb blasts" but hey, thats not what this is. These terrorists have attacked the very fibre of our country. And its not still not over. Hostages are still being held in the two hotels. Its like an entire city has been brought to its knees. And this city is Mumbai, the biggest and most populated city in our country, known for its resilience.

What do we do? What can I do? I'm writing a blog. How the hell is that gonna make a difference, eh? Cos every small voice matters. India is after all, the biggest democracy. I personally feel like torturing to death each one of the terrorists with my bare hands. But hey, thats what they want. Spreading hate and fear.

Just look at our country's politicians. Up till now, responsibility for every terror attack has been dispensed like bloody birthday gifts. I saw Shivraj Patil talking like a doddering old ruin and Deshmukh warning the people of Mumbai to stay inside. He said the police are fighting! Goddamn it is that all they can say? Didn't the world see how USA reacted after 9/11? And this is like our millionth terror attack. How much more before our politicians wake up and realise this is serious business and you just have to forget vote banks now. Please.

One would ask what can the government do about this. They can do hella lot more. Manmohan has proposed the creation of some kind of national security agency. For the first time the opposition has not pointed fingers at the UPA or ATS accusing them of negligence. Its time for all of us to come together and take a bold stance. The Muslim clerics need to do more than issue fatwas. They need to eradicate the dirt within.

The fact that the terrorists asked only for british and american tourists proves that this is indeed a global threat. Leaders from all over the world have condemned the attacks. Compensations have been announced. After a week or two Mumbai itself would have forgotten the gory details. That should not happen this time. We need to wake up. And real fast.

Let us support Raj Thackeray

2008-11-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

Hehe haha....don't be shocked!

Check this out: http://o3.indiatimes.com/supportrajthackeray/

NanoWrimo08!

2008-11-02T00:14:00.001-07:00

The month of November is the month to write a novel! Here comes NanoWrimo- NationalNovelWriting contest, yet again. I took part last year but hardly lasted a day. This time however I aim to finish my novel and I shall be posting each day's work on a new blog that I have created: Popatpatel's Blog

SO what exactly is Nanowrimo? You register at nanowrimo.org and you have to write 50,000 words from November 1 to November 30. At the end of November, your novel will be verified by the organisers and if you have completed it, you shall be declared a winner! Its all about quantity, and not quality.

I encourage all of you out there to give it a try!

smush it!

2008-10-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

After all these days of hearing about Google's endless set of new products we finally have a refreshing one from Yahoo! smush it! is a free web service developed by two Yahoo employess. The service aims to reduce the size of images used on web pages so that the time taken to load the web pages by the browser is considerably reduced.

End users can make use of smushit's services in 3 different ways on their website-
1. by directly uploading images
2. by providing the link to images on the web
3. by using a FireFox extension made by the developers

I used the application and it worked pretty successfully for me...all that I'm hoping for is a kind of stand-alone application that would do the same thing; until now if you needed to reduce the size of an image you had to use some software or the other-Photoshop, GIMP, etc. You can now use smushit from anywhere in the world- and it produces lossless images too!

I read the developer's blogs and found out that they are planning to release a API soon....best of luck to them!

Check out smushit!
The developers: Nicole Sullivan & Stoyan Stefanov

The Game World Trilogy

2008-09-29T00:53:00.000-07:00

If you read books and like fantasy, you should know there is an Indian fantasy writer too! His name is Samit Basu and he has penned his own Fantasy Series- known as The Game World Trilogy. His books combine Indian elements along with the usual stereotypes associated with the fantasy genre- numerous races, warring kingdoms and a dark lord who is not so Dark! The book starts with a prologue featuring a chimaera named Nimbu Paani! There is a desert called Al-u-Gobi, a heroine named Maya, races like asurs, rakshashas, jinns,etc. The first book was called "The Simoqin Prophecy", the second is named "The Manticore's Secret" and the final one which released recently is called "The Unwaba Revelations". The plot is full of twists and turns and you'll never know who are the good guys and bad guys until the very end! So go out to your favourite book store and get yourself a copy- today!

What the hell is going on?

2008-09-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Bomb blasts in Jaipur,Bangalore,Ahmedabad and Delhi. All within the span of 4 months. What is going on in India? Its looks like its no longer safe to even step out of your house. Every time I see a guy with the muslim cap I am like, "Shit! What if he is a terrorist?" Is this what SIMI,LeT,etc aim to achieve? By killing innocent civilians at large- hindus,muslims and christians alike?

I saw the movie Gangaajal recently. I was thinking- maybe the Muslims would destroy the terrorists in a similar way,eh?

BJP's great leader Advani says he will bring back POTA. Ya right, another ruthless act to put any scapegoat in sight behind bars.

Sometimes I wonder how this country runs. Maybe its time I start believing in god.

Chrome- yet another browser?

2008-09-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

Everyone is talking about Google's Chrome- the latest browser to hit the internet. Well I checked it out and fell in love with it instantly. It is simple, sleek, fast and wonderfully easy to use just like Google's other Apps. I've been reading a lot of blogs discussing the repercussions of a new browser. People wonder what will happen to Mozilla which Google has been funding all these days. But hey, chrome is open source(prob one of Google's firsts apart from useless things like OpenSocial).

Pros:
~It is real fast!
~Every tab has its own process- even if a tab goes mad the browser stays alive!
~The search box remembers stuff just like Firefox3
~Every new tab shows you the sites that you have visited the most

Cons:
~Now about the size. The installer is only around 400kb but it seems to have downloaded around 60mb onto my hard disk which is a lot!
~It has very less features right now- no themes, no addons, etc
~Google has said it will use data from 2% of chrome's users- privacy attack!

Check it out yourself: http://www.google.com/chrome

If you wanna know how Chrome works, read the comic here: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Russian tanks enter South Ossetia

2008-08-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that remind you of something? The last time I read anything about "Russian tanks" was in the history books, when they entered Warsaw at the end of WWII, never to leave until 1989. Read the news item here

The South Ossetians may have a sense of relief that Russia is now coming to their aid, but I feel all they are doing is running from one master to another. Reminds me a bit of Kashmir, which I've always felt should be independent of both India and Pakis.

A** Like That

2008-08-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

Ass Lickers. Boot lickers. Sycophants. Everyone knows who they are right? You see them everywhere- in your classroom, your college, your school, the workplace, the restaurant, your friends- if you have never seen a suck-up your life is good. Or you are probably one of them yourself. Why is the whole world obsessed with sucking up to the authority? Whatever happened to Hard Rock's motto- "Stick it to the man"? Why you do you have to sweet talk someone to get some work done when its your birthright?

I'm sick of this world. Every turn I take I see someone flattering someone or the other. For some people it appears to be a natural trait of which the majority are jealous! Whatever happened to good old merit? Don't people no longer get what they deserve?

Why shouldn't I do it myself, you might ask. Pataofying someone. I can't. I just can't. I hate the very idea of witnessing it, how can I do it. Is there anyone else in the world like me? Aaargh, I hate people.

Customer is king? ya right.

2008-07-14T03:45:00.000-07:00

I think it was Gandhi who said that the Customer is king, or something to that effect. I have yet to see the statement come true. In India, the customer is treated like shit. In a country where we add the entire population of Australia every year, who would give a damn about non-availability of people?! You can see this with your own eyes. In most of the small shops, its me who says thank you to the shopkeeper. All the shopkeeper cares about is his money(considering the fact that most of them are Gujjus or Maravadis!) However I think North India is still a wee bit better than the South. Having spent a few years in Mumbai where no one has the time to stand and stare, I have almost never had a pleasant experience with shopkeepers. Until I reached Tamil Nadu. In this place, shopkeepers,restaurant owners and the like act as if they are doing YOU a favour by serving you! Its the other way around, bozos! Hospitality needs a big kick in the ass if it has to get any better! Now I understand why the only tourists visiting India are hippies or oldies!

Ok I have talked about what has been prevailing for so many years in India. But now you would argue,"We have malls for every suburb in the city!". So what? Have you ever been accosted by one of those irritating salesmen in a plush showroom? One of those fair-faced idiots with a bloody fake smirk on their faces trying to rip you off.......you think that makes me happy? No way! Which is why I think there are so many coin-machines in the west.....there is no fucked up loser who is going to give you the change-everything is self-service!

So the next time you go out to buy anything don't take any shit from the guy who is selling you the stuff!

The Reverent wooing of Archibald

2008-06-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Statutory warning:This post is strictly for hardcore PG Wodehouse fans- others may read on only if they wish to

For those of you who have read Wodehouse, your favourite character must be Jeeves. I, however, disagree. My favourite happens to be Lord Emsworth- a blundering buffoon part of the Blandings Castle series; wait a minute- I have another favourite too- Psmith with the silent 'P'! But now I am going to introduce one more character-that of Mr Mulliner, who I believe is far less known than the others. Mulliner is a "pub raconteur"- a middle-aged person who when in his club(the Angler's Rest) enters a harmless conversation and totally dominates it by narrating an incident featuring one of his relatives! The stories are out of this world and keep you rapt in attention until the end when you will not know whether to laugh or cry at the story's outrageousness! I never knew he existed until my dad presented me with a Mulliner omnibus- The World of Mr Mulliner- which was a combined tome of all the three Mulliner volumes.

Let me tell you about Archibald Mulliner who features in the very first story-"The Reverent wooing of Archibald"! Archibald was a man of extra-ordinary pinheadedness- indeed Wodehouse says that had his brain been constructed of silk, he would have been hard put to it to find sufficient material to make a canary a pair of cami-knickers!!!! How dumb can a guy get,eh?! So well the whole story is about Archie, and how he falls in love with a tall girl who has more curves than a scenic railway! The only thing Archie is capable of is imitating a hen laying an egg- now I wonder why anyone would want to do that but it adds even more masala to the story's crazy theme! Well I won't give away more of the story but let me assure you- if you read this story and like it you'll like all of the Mulliner stories! So go ahead and buy The World of Mr Mulliner, right away!

Another day at Dadar station(Continued)

2008-06-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

For those who missed the first part, read it here

Have you noticed sometimes that there are some people who seem to merge with the surroundings and become a part of it? Popat was one of them. Upto the age of 4 he
never spoke and his parents had almost given up hope on him when he uttered his first words, "Alu parantha"! His mom was overjoyed and gave him a rib-crushing bear hug! From that day, Popat had alu paranthas every day. Food is the only thing which he was passionate about. He was consistent in his studies- he came first from the bottom every single year! He had no ambition in his life except eating- until that fateful day arrived. On May 13,2007, as Popat was gambolling on his way to college, he stopped by his usual vada-pav seller to have a vada-pav. There was nothing different about this activity- except that today was the first time Popat actually paid attention to what the vada-pav wala was doing. "Uncle, yeh kya kar rahe ho aap?" Popat asked the seller. "Vada bana raha hoon, dikh nahi raha kya?"-retorted the seller. Popat observed the artist's methods diligently and ran straight home. There was a strange light in his eyes which his mom had never seen.
"Mummy, I need some ingredients real quick. I need alu, oil and whatever else you need to make vada-pav...".
His mom was astonished. "They are all in the kitchen."-said she.
Popat spent a fateful hour in the kitchen tinkering with alu,besan, spices and what not. One hour later he emerged from the kitchen with garam-garam vadas and offered
them to his mom. "Here, taste karo!"
His mom tasted a vada and it was oh so delicous! She was transported back to 30 years ago when her own mom used to make her favourite dishes! "Popat! These are wonderful! I never knew you could cook! Well I never knew you could do anything....but this is great! Shabaash beta!"
Popat's face went red with happiness and pleasure. His eyes glinted with excitement and he knew his destiny had finally arrived- he was to set up a vada-pav stall!
"Ma! I am gonna set up a vada-pav stall! And then we can open more stalls and we can have a chain! Wow!"
"Aaram se beta, one step at a time.First you set up one stall, then we will see."

Popat's best friend, Rohan owned a dilapidated shop outside Dadar station. Popat went to him with his proposal of a shop. At the outset Rohan was a little skeptical. But when Rohan tasted a sample vada-pav of his he was a changed man! He gave Popat permission to set up shop outside his own- on one condition- that Popat should help him find the girl he had met.
"You remember the girl I met the other day at Dadar station? I lost her number and I can't sleep since that time! You got to help me find out who she is, somehow.",said Rohan.
Not grasping the full extent of what Rohan said, Popat agreed. But how was he to help Rohan? There were approximately 20 million people living in and around Bombay. Supposing that half of them belonged to the fairer sex Rohan's girl could be any one of 10 million!

How on earth was he supposed to find her out? Popat set up the stall and started his business. He was in his business all alone- for he could not afford to have any helpers. But being positioned in a very profitable location- right outside Dadar station(west,ofcourse!) - he started making a profit right from day two! The nearest vada-pav wala was only on the next street and as long as Bombay's maxim that every street should have a vada-pav guy was followed, most of them were a success! However
Rohan had given him only a week to keep up his part of the bargain.

On the evening of the last day, Rohan visited his shop. He said,"So Popat, have we made any progress?", to which Popat only stuttered and stammered. As Rohan turned aside to have a glass of water, a girl came to buy a vada-pav. Popat gave her one and as she went her own way, Rohan shouted,"Abe she is the girl I was searching for!"
and ran after her. Popat grunted and followed suit behind him! "Where did she go, where did she go?" they said to each other. "There, on platform 3! A train is just entering the platform, we gotta make it before she leaves! Hurry!"- shouted Rohan and ran up the staris, two at a time.

Will Rohan meet the girl?
Will Popat's vada-pav stall survive in the city that never sleeps?
~to be continued, yet again~

A day at Dadar station

2008-05-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Rohan stepped into line as he waited to get a ticket. In front of him was a hot chick, an old man, and a woman in sari. The girl was listening to GnR in a very loud volume on her ipod. The old man was staring endlessly into space. The woman was haggling with the guy at the counter for change. As he awaited his turn, a tall man wearing some common-looking clothes hurriedly tried to rush to the front of the line. Immediately the entire 300 people assembled there(all to get a ticket!) awoke and screamed,"Roko,maaro!" and the woman hustled him away from the front. The man slowly slunk away to the end of the line. Today was not his day. This was just another day at Dadar station, one of Mumbai's busiest stations on the Suburban lines. Rohan just yawned lazily as he moved in front and finally got his ticket. He was just going home after a hard days work of trying to buy some books for his next year at school! He stepped onto platform 3 where the fast trains arrived and waited for the next locomotive to arrive.

Now Rohan was really hungry. After a huge breakfast somewhere back in time he had not had anything the whole day(except for of course, the occasional samosa and lime juice!) He was just thinking of what delicacies his mom would have prepared for his dinner when he heard a girl's voice calling him. "Hi! Rohan! Is it you?!" He saw a short girl standing behind him looking up at him eagerly. Rohan was confused. "Umm....do I know you?"
"Don't you remember....Delhi....6th standard?"
"Oh ya....now I remember...what on earth are you doing here?", said Rohan although he had no idea who he was talking to.
"Oh we shifted to Mumbai a year ago....am in Khalsa now....."-the girl.
"Listen, I gotta go now....here is my number...call me up sometime!", and she actually gave Rohan her number and vanished! Rohan was astounded at the drastic turn of events....here he was meeting an old friend after like 7 years or something. He was still standing in a trance when the train came. As usual it was carrying a zillion mumbaikars and an another zillion were waiting to get on it. Rohan dreamily tried to climb against the crowd and got crushed. In the process his shoe got untied and fell down below the train onto one of the country's dirtiest platforms. However, there was a fixed smile on his face. When he reached home, he was really quiet. He quietly finished his dinner and went to bed. His mom was worried- she had made his favourite dish and he hadn't even noticed it. Rohan went to sleep with the smile still on his face. He never met the girl again.

~Here is the second part~

Parva

2008-04-22T12:20:00.000-07:00

A month back I read an entirely different version of the Mahabharata known as Parva. Previously I had read the Rajaji version and obviously seen the never ending series on television! However this version by SL Bhyrappa(a kannada writer) took an entirely different approach. The entire epic was made devoid of any divinity or magic and had substitutions which explained what exactly had happened in totally different ways. For instance, previously I thought Kunti had learnt some mantra through the use of which she gave birth to her 3 sons-by praying to 3 different gods. However in Parva, there is a concept known as Niyoga ceremony. When the husband is dead, or incapable of making his wife conceive, the husband can authorise a Niyoga ceremony in which some learned elder,sage or rishi has intercourse with the wife for the sole purpose of carrying on the race! This was totally mind-blowing!

The book also has chapters with PoVs(as a friend of mine says!) or Point of Views! It deals with the story from various view points such as Draupadi, Bheema, etc. Reading this book has rejuvenated my interest in books- I just watched the LOTR movies once again and I am planning to re-read them all yet again!

Whats cooking?

2008-03-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Its been quite some time since I posted here so I thought I'll just write a general one on how things have been going on with my life. The whole of February I was busy with Online Programming. There happens to be a great site called SPOJ(http://spoj.pl) where one can practise problems posed in the most common programming contests of the world. I put all my efforts into it for a whole month(along with my friend, Ashish) and managed to get my rank down to 800 odd from god knows where(5000+!). During the same time, we had our tech fest(Daksh) and cult test(Kuruksastra) and so college pretty much didn't happen those days. And then came along a bloody mid sem acting like a khabab mein haddi in all my plans! Well, now I've cooled down a bit on the SPOJ front. Been trying to learn stuff(asp.net/ajax) for the upcoming microsoft project.

This month, something happened which only deepened my mistrust for free hosts. My website, lappet.topcities.com was unceremoniously deleted by topcities.com without so much as a tiny email. I should have realised that they were unscrupulous when the same thing happened 7 years back(ravi.topcities.com was deleted, I thought it was a mistake,stupid me!). Thankfully I had a backup of all the files and managed to find a better,free(er) host! The site has now been moved to http://lappet.110mb.com. All the pages look just the same, I know, I'm gonna make some changes pretty soon. Also in the pipeline is a section dedicated the problems I(and Ashish) have solved @ SPOJ.

I've got the power!

2008-02-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it....If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterward.
- Michael Crichton

Ever since I laid my hands on a computer I have had the urge to create something with it- something new which people can use, which would revolutionize the way people use computers. I took the first step in that direction many years ago, when I was in the 9th standard. I created my first successful program- a fake virus named Lappet! I was so happy with it that I had put it up on a site (don't remember the name, something like download-freeware.net) and it registered more 3500 downloads before the site went off the web. Now, eons later I resubmitted the program to download.com and voila! It has been accepted! The Lappet virus is now listed at download.com! To download it go here or click on the button below.

Boo hoo....he called me Monkey!

2008-02-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

The recent spate of events which occurred in the Sydney test match have thrown a lot of people into fits of laughter. When was the last time you called someone a monkey and they actually cried? Kindergarten? 1st standard? Welcome to the amazing world of Australians, for whom words like "bastard" are common place....but "monkey"? No way, that is totally racist. For a team who have been the experts in sledging throughout cricketing history, this accusation of racism has only improved their image of swashbuckling, proud and arrogant winners. Now I am not an avid cricket fan. But this brilliant piece of work by Ponting & Co. charged me up so much that I had to say something about it. We all know what Bhajji said on field- he ought to be fined for it no doubt- but not on counts of racism.
Here is a piece of work which you may think is racist- it tracks The Birth of Andrew Symonds
An Australian journalist who found the entire affair unfair has compiled a list of A-Z acceptable sledges which you can hurl at those Aussies. Check it out