The Spinning Arrow2023-11-07T21:09:34+00:00http://blog.sahil.me/Sahil Bajajmail@sahil.meThank you for stopping by2023-11-07T20:37:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/thank-you-for-stopping-by<p>I got introduced to spoken word poetry with this video:</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/cPG6nJRJeWQ?si=J_DjYLrAmqY4AOSW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>It’s still one of my favourites.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe Boxer2023-09-10T15:27:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/the-boxer<p>was<br />
an old man<br />
patient, kind<br />
boxes of records strewn<br />
all around the tiny room<br />
framed photos on the walls<br />
the smell of smoke<br />
tapping his foot to the music<br />
as I sat<br />
and listened.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFor Sale2022-11-08T01:13:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/for-sale<p>For sale: bluetooth headset, never worn. Bought
September 2019.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThere Is No Such Thing as You2022-06-16T17:20:47+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/there-is-no-such-thing<blockquote>
<p>What of all those hearts that humans use<br />
What of all those misread cues<br />
And all the junk you cast off in your wake<br />
Should tear yourself away for your own sake</p>
<p>But tonight there is no such thing as you<br />
There is no such thing as you<br />
Because tonight there is no such thing as you<br />
There is no such thing as you</p>
</blockquote>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2019160734/size=small/bgcol=333333/linkcol=ffffff/track=3939833617/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://nickhudsonindustries.bandcamp.com/album/font-of-human-fractures">Font Of Human Fractures by Nick Hudson</a></iframe>
<p>I think this is the first time I’ve come across
a song that the internet does not have lyrics
for. Looks like it’s finally time to collect that
hipster certificate that I’ve been long ignoring!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meQuiet2021-04-11T16:10:47+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/quiet<p><em>Quiet</em> I said<br />
You move too much<br />
Jumping like a nervous child</p>
<p><em>Quiet</em> I hissed<br />
I’m not in the mood<br />
I can barely hear over that din</p>
<p><em>Quiet</em> I plead<br />
I’d much rather dream<br />
Let me finally sleep, o’ restless mind</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHow to travel2021-04-09T11:20:55+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/how-to-travel<p>In 2019, fueled by my excitement at having Finally Moved to Europe, I traveled
a lot. Perhaps a little too much in retrospect (but also not enough – there’s
so many places!). On one such trip, I spied this book at an airport:</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51105928720_7f8682a819_h.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51105928720_d8d4cb5941_o.jpg 2016w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51105928720_7f8682a819_h.jpg 1600w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51105928720_b2f4f6e4fc_c.jpg 800w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51105928720_b2f4f6e4fc.jpg 500w" alt="How to Travel - book" />
<figcaption>That blue cover tho</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Pshh</em>, I told myself. <em>I already know how to travel, thank you very much.</em>
Then I found myself buying it. <em>It’ll make for a nice companion</em>.</p>
<p>It’s a series of thirty essays on themes related to travel. They’re all quite
well-written and have a relatability that simultaneously prompts ponderation.
Here are some excerpts that I particularly enjoyed:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>From <strong>What Is ‘Exotic’?</strong></p>
<p><em>[Exotic] merely means anywhere we yearn to go which we suspect has
something important to teach us. […] The exotic is evidence of what is
missing in ourselves.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>Travel as a Cure for Shyness</strong></p>
<p><em>Through travel, you’re freeing yourself from your inhibitions. You’re
growing up – and into yourself.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>Pretty Cities</strong></p>
<p><em>It would be a good deal easier if we could remain in much the same mood
wherever we happened to be. It is maddening how vulnerable we are to the
coded messages that emanate from buildings.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>The Longing to Talk to Strangers</strong></p>
<p><em>[…] tourism tends to separate us from the inhabitants of the countries
we’ve come to visit. They remain shadowy, occasional figures […]</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>The Little Restaurant</strong></p>
<p><em>Almost all of us are, when we travel, in search of this ideal
establishment: the little restaurant. […] The place has no anxiety about
itself. […] Everything is simple, fresh, yet absolutely remarkable.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>In Defence of Crowds</strong></p>
<p><em>The grander and more hopeful ambition is to transform our experience of
being one of many; to turn the idea of a group from an insult to a virtue:
to make belonging as nice as it can be.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>From <strong>Drawing Rather than Taking Photographs</strong></p>
<p><em>The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. […] glory is
not at all in going, but in being.</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>And finally, from the apt <strong>The Advantages of Staying at Home</strong></p>
<p><em>[…] the vast labour of getting ourselves physically to a place won’t
necessarily get us any closer to the essence of what we’ve been seeking […]
in daydreaming of the ideal location, we may have already enjoyed the very
best that any place has to offer us.</em></p>
</li>
</ul>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meDistance2021-04-07T16:40:39+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/distance<p>And all those times<br />
Why were you thinking<br />
That distant look<br />
Eyes gazing afar<br />
Into another place that</p>
<p>I will never know<br />
I will never know?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTwo years later: Hallo, Deutschland!2021-01-31T11:17:05+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/two-years-later-hallo-deutschland<p>Moin from the rainy city of Hamburg, Germany’s bastion of the north where I
have now been for more than <em>two</em> years! (two years?! When did that even
happen?)</p>
<p>Despite the duration of my current residence, I never really got around to
blogging much about it (I never really got around to blogging much at all, but
that is a lament for another day). So without any further ado, here’s a post
about some of the little oddities that I came across after moving here:</p>
<h4 id="square-pillows">Square pillows</h4>
<p>On the bed of my first (temporary) accommodation, I found a pair of rather
large, misshapen pillows that were decidedly square. I initially put this down
to one of those hotel oddities, and only later realised that not only was this
the norm, but people actually seem to like them! The “standard” size is 80 x 80
cm and I once made the mistake of buying one from IKEA – it took up over half
my bed. There actually are smaller ones, but these are mystifyingly narrow (40
x 80), which essentially makes them too small to be any good. The silliest part
is that even if you do manage to procure what I can only describe as a “normal”
sized pillow, getting a pillowcase that fits will be next to impossible.</p>
<h4 id="home-addresses">Home addresses</h4>
<p>Every country does this differently. In Germany, the postcode comes <em>before</em>
the city name and most addresses do not include an apartment number. This is
because the names of all the inhabitants of an apartment building are listed
outside the building – a visitor need only ring the bell corresponding to the
name in order to be buzzed in (which leads to a fun walk up the stairs peering
at every door if the resident forgets to tell you which floor they live on).
The whole system is quite unnerving because it goes against the general
preference of anonymity that permeates other aspects of life here (privacy is
one of the most oft-cited reasons for people <a href="https://text.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-cash-is-still-king?t=1609104647493">preferring cash payments instead
of cards</a>, and also why - unlike most of its neighbours - <a href="https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/germany-street-view?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2">Germany
has terrible coverage of Google street view</a>).</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118488_2980ed6e1f_h.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118488_8a98172d77_o.jpg 3024w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118488_2980ed6e1f_h.jpg 1200w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118488_aa0f55d98d_c.jpg 600w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118488_aa0f55d98d.jpg 375w" alt="Names on doorbells" />
<figcaption>It doesn't say which floor the person lives on, which means I
have to leave my building, ring a doorbell, ask for the floor, and re-enter
my building whenever Amazon conveniently leaves my parcels at a neighbour's</figcaption>
</figure>
<h4 id="carbonated-water">Carbonated water</h4>
<p>It’s everywhere. Woe betide you if you order water and forget to specify that
you prefer still water. Not only will you imagine yourself being judged, but
you’ll also have to drink a liquid that is as unlike water as it possibly could
be. In the supermarket, bottled water usually comes in three varieties: still,
carbonated, and even more carbonated. To add to the confusing, these can be
labelled in a variety of ways – ohne, naturelle, still, classic, medium,
sprudel, original, mild, and probably more! Also most water dispensing machines
feature carbonated as the largest, easiest to press button, to which of course
yours truly fell victim more than once.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118613_f4e797fb0f_h.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118613_d6fa8319e1_o.jpg 3371w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118613_f4e797fb0f_h.jpg 1600w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118613_5b845c1854_c.jpg 800w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893118613_5b845c1854.jpg 500w" alt="Types of carbonated water" />
<figcaption>Sometimes variety is not a good thing</figcaption>
</figure>
<h4 id="prost">Prost!</h4>
<p><em>Prost</em> is the German version of “cheers” (side note: it’s kinda sad that Hindi
does not have its own version of “cheers” – whenever a bunch of people from
different countries gather for drinks, everyone talks about how they say
“cheers” in their language and when it’s my turn I have to sheepishly explain
that the only one I know from India is the regular run-of-the-mill “cheers”).
It’s what you say when everyone gets their drinks but here’s the twist – it is
common to clink glasses/bottles <em>individually</em> with every person present, which
is quite a feat. Another rule is to look the other person in their eyes while
doing so – forgetting to do this comes with the curse of seven years of bad
sex – a rather disproportionate retaliation if you think about it.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893947517_1d8ac77673_o.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893947517_1d8ac77673_o.jpg 905w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893947517_785b68432b_c.jpg 640w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50893947517_785b68432b.jpg 400w" alt="Prost" />
<figcaption>So many people in one place!</figcaption>
</figure>
<h4 id="different-greetings">Different greetings</h4>
<p>Greetings are different in different regions of Germany.</p>
<p>In Hamburg and the North, “moin” is the way to go, or “moin moin” if you want
to self-identify as not being from the region. The linguist in me absolutely
loves these regional variations, although apparently not enough to remember any
of the other ones. I found a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mS0EV3laEk">good overview of the greetings in different
dialects on YouTube</a>.</p>
<p>PS: DW has a series called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NevrOLOCu8&list=PLT6yxVwBEbi2oB8Oa7gRDCNfcvdubm9nC">“Meet the Germans” on YouTube</a>, which has some
entertaining insights into German culture from the eyes of a non-German.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meRe-2021-01-01T13:05:27+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/re-<p>Retreat<br />
Recover<br />
Reset</p>
<p>Revisit<br />
Relive<br />
Reveal</p>
<p>Rebuild<br />
Remember<br />
Rewrite?</p>
<p>Remain</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWandering / Road2020-12-27T11:25:40+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/wandering-road<p>I recently discovered Johnny Flynn’s music and I’ve been listening to it on
regular repeat ever since. His songs have a folksy/indie vibe with a vocal
melody that I always fail to predict (although that may well be down to my lack
of a musical ear!). The lyrics are often surprisingly poetic with lots of
imagery – for instance, here’s the first verse of <em>Hard Road</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The sea came in and washed me out<br />
The way was carved in ice<br />
The tokens of a buried past<br />
The shavings of a heavy life<br />
The wind blows each and every way<br />
It’s not for me, my heart, to steer<br />
I cast up what I have each day<br />
The river flows the whole long year</p>
</blockquote>
<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0ix1er7mPfCwsEIKcd3VF6" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>
<p>Someone commented on one of his YouTube videos that they always come back to
his music in the autumn, which I’ve found is also quite fitting for
Hamburg’s soggy winters. Another favourite of mine is <em>Wandering Aengus</em>,
purportedly about getting in touch with nature (a theme that I can always get
behind!):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Walking in my mourning in the morning<br />
Let me tell you of the ashes of the great<br />
Sun is ris’n for dawning, let the dawn in<br />
Let me lift my heart and free my song from pain</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>I’m the kind of person that watches very few TV shows, but when I find one I
like, I re-watch the heck out of it. One such has been <em>Lovesick</em> on Netflix. I
love the characters and their acting, and the premise is ridiculous when you
think about it, but makes for good comic relief. The timeline alternates
between present day and flashbacks and manages to include some meaningful
insights into the characters. Johnny Flynn plays the lead role – that’s
actually how I found out about his music (thanks, YouTube algorithm! It almost
makes up for the aggravating increase in ads in all the videos nowadays!)</p>
<hr />
<p>Spotify recently reminded everyone of the impending end of the year with their
“2020 Wrapped” showcase. Mine told me that I listened to 381 genres this year
(I didn’t know there were so many!) and also that my top podcasts are all in
German (which is curious, because not only do I only rarely listen to podcasts,
but I also never listen to any on Spotify!). They do seem to have gotten my top
artists down correctly, though I was probably expecting either Tool, Animals as
Leaders, or Plini to be in there as well:</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766329122_6afffa4892_o.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766329122_6afffa4892_o.jpg 827w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766329122_23bc100bd6_c.jpg 514w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766329122_23bc100bd6.jpg 321w" alt="My Spotify 2020 Top Artists" />
<figcaption>We need a Top 10 instead of Top 5!</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr />
<p>I’m also <a href="https://www.last.fm/user/spinningarrow_/">back on Last.fm</a> now (does anyone remember it?!). It
integrates a lot better with Spotify now, which comes in quite handy since
Spotify makes it really hard to find one’s listening history.</p>
<p>Time to listen to more music! 🎶</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meJitter juice2020-09-03T16:41:32+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/jitter-juice<p>It was not too long ago that I had pretty much never tasted coffee, especially
not in its black variety. I remember sipping a suspicious mouthful and nearly
gagging: <em>ugh, it’s so bitter! How can you like it?</em> (“Pair it with
cheesecake!” was the reply, which I grudgingly acknowledged to be a rather good
idea).</p>
<p>That changed one fateful morning when someone – on noticing my yawn during a
meeting – kindly remarked that perhaps I was in need of a cup of coffee. I
suspiciously decided to give the suggestion a shot. Its effect was revelatory:
I feel like I haven’t yawned since.</p>
<p>Thus began my voyage of coffee consumption. I decided that I would learn to not
discern (ever since I <a href="/posts/from-amazon-to-singapore/">bought nicer headphones</a> I’ve been <a href="/posts/magic/">trapped</a> <a href="/posts/more-magic/">in</a>
<a href="/posts/how-to-buy-a-record-player/">a</a> world of audiophilia – <em>it won’t happen again!</em> I told myself). I drank
all kinds of coffee – from the machine at work, instant powder, from Starbucks
(in a cup with my name misspelt, of course!), sometimes even drinks that were
more sugar than coffee. I tried Singapore’s local favourites
<a href="https://kopi.guide/">Kopi-O</a> and its brethren, although those didn’t really stick.</p>
<p>Then I moved to Hamburg, Europe’s number one destination for coffee shipments
from all over the world. Despite the city’s obvious love for coffee, evidenced
by <a href="https://www.hamburg.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/4288136/speicherstadt-kaffeeroesterei/">entire warehouses</a> devoted to it and the <a href="https://www.hermeticcoffee.com/">many</a>
<a href="https://surfshoproastery.com/">many</a> <a href="https://tornqvistcoffee.com/">wonderful</a> <a href="https://www.publiccoffeeroasters.com/en/">cafes</a>, I remained
steadfast in maintaining my lack of coffee-consciousness.</p>
<p>But then the largest ever work from home experiment happened and suddenly my
daily drowsiness-defusing dose disappeared. Sleep proved elusive but
work did not – it was time for a Home Coffee Plan.</p>
<p>I weighed my options: there was the tried, tested, and tasteless instant coffee
powder, the filter coffee machine that came and went with my previous
apartment, the venerable French Press, the convenient but ecologically-hostile
Nespresso machine, the moka pot…</p>
<p>Then I remembered a conversation with a colleague from years ago when I had
just started at ThoughtWorks – there was a product he’d mentioned whose name
had stuck in my head. That sounded like exactly what I needed! So after a few
clicks and a couple of days, yours truly became the happy owner of a beautiful
little <a href="https://aeropress.com/">AeroPress</a>:</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50302271802_e12e5f75fa_h.jpg" srcset="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50302271802_96fc09255a_o.jpg
2429w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50302271802_e12e5f75fa_h.jpg
1200w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50302271802_24175714b9_c.jpg
600w, https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50302271802_24175714b9.jpg
375w" alt="My all-new AeroPress" />
<figcaption>AeroPress, ahoy!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly a hundred cups later I can say I’m very pleased with it, for many
reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>It’s easy to use: throw in coffee, add water, and press. From beginning to
end it takes about 5-7 minutes to brew a tasty cup.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The build is sturdy and light – it feels like it will last forever. Since
it’s completely manually operated, there are no fragile tiny pieces and the
only “moving part” is the plunger that is moved manually.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Easy to clean: run it under the tap and you’re done.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cheap! At under 30 bucks I should be able to replace it quite easily if
something were to happen to it</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Well known: there are tons of videos on YouTube about it, even a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AeroPress/">Reddit
community</a>!</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Things are different now since the arrival of the AeroPress. I spend more time
thinking about coffee. My YouTube home page is filled with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ">videos</a> of a guy
with great hair and a calming voice who uses words like “body” and “blend”. I
had a lengthy conversation with a barista in which I tried to explain my
brewing style so that she could grind the beans to the right size. I researched
home coffee grinders and nearly threw away my laptop in horror (<em>two hundred
and forty euros just so I can grind by hand?!</em>).</p>
<p>It seems I’ve come a long way from the days when I wrinkled my nose at this
suspicions dark liquid. What will tomorrow bring? Not coffee withdrawal, I
hope!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meDreaming2019-06-27T20:28:05+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/dreaming<p>Remember that dream of places and faces<br />
Leaves that moved with the breeze<br />
A word that went unheard<br />
Sparks from a fire that rose higher<br />
And the stream of icy cold water that washed it all away?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFor those of you who didn't know… (Part III)2018-11-10T18:34:21+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/for-those-of-you-who-didnt-know-part-iii<p><em>You have arrived at Helsinki airport</em>.</p>
<p>I feel a familiar sense of excitement. There is something about this place.
The characteristic smell of coffee that permeates everything. The crisp autumn
air outside. Clear blue skies. Slanting rays of light climbing over the
horizon. The quiet energy of people walking by.</p>
<hr />
<p>Things have a way of snowballing before a big event. I used to put this down to
my chronic procrastination – always scrambling to get everything done at the
last minute. Didn’t I start early this time though? Moving day arrived with
only two weeks notice, but other preparations had begun months before.</p>
<p>At least the era came to an enjoyable end. Or did it?</p>
<hr />
<p>Suddenly Singapore is far away, and I’m looking at autumn leaves in
Hamburg. When I stop and think about it, it still feels a little unreal. But
who has the time to stop and think?</p>
<p><em>Round every corner there may wait<br />
A new road or a secret gate<br />
I must explore them all today<br />
Or will I pass again this way?<br />
Time for the eager paths that run<br />
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.<br /></em></p>
<p>I am back in my favourite corner of the world.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHow to buy a record player2018-04-14T10:45:33+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/how-to-buy-a-record-player<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4783/40890833522_b444dfacc3_h.jpg" srcset="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4783/40890833522_2003bdf701_o.jpg
4032w, https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4783/40890833522_b444dfacc3_h.jpg
1600w, https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4783/40890833522_fea0de2367_c.jpg
800w, https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4783/40890833522_fea0de2367.jpg
500w" alt="My turntable and records" />
<figcaption>Beautiful, beautiful music</figcaption>
</figure>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Fall in love with your grandfather’s customised record player and wonderful
speakers when you listen to his records as a young kid.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Accidentally walk into The Adelphi in your first few weeks in Singapore
and ogle at all the fancy audio equipment. More than half the shops there
look like living rooms – replete with comfy sofas to sit back in and enjoy
the music. One of them even has guitars hanging on the walls!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Do a bit of research into the cost of said audio equipment. Step back from
your computer screen in horror for the next lifetime or so.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Don’t let that stop you from looking at all record players making
appearances all over Singapore – even <a href="https://www.robinsons.com.sg/">Robinson’s</a> has them!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make the final payment of your student loan just before Christmas.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>’Tis the season to be jolly! Maybe I should celebrate by gifting myself
something. How about a … record player?!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Look at reviews, visit some record stores, and talk to old uncles in the
basement of The Adelphi. Look at more reviews while visiting stores. Compare
prices on Amazon and be surprised. Visit more stores and keep teetering on
making a decision because no one else you know can provide advice on this
esoteric hobby.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Finally buy <a href="https://www.whathifi.com/rega/planar-1/review">a beautiful one</a> and bring it home.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Don’t forget to buy some records too! It’s okay if the record store guy
convinces you to buy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_%28Ed_Sheeran_album%29">an album that you’d never normally listen to</a> because
“it sounds so good!”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Agonise over the poor wiring in your house causing your new equipment to
sound noisy.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Try many different ways of debugging and fixing it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Give up and make peace with it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.discogs.com/user/spinningarrow/collection">Buy some more records</a>. Admire the beautiful artwork. Play
them. That’s what it’s all about anyway!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Sit back. Close your eyes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Listen. <em>Listen!</em></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s worth mentioning that steps 8, 13, and 15 are really the most crucial
ones. In fact I could go so far as to say that all the other steps can be
safely ignored. Most importantly, enjoy the music!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meShell Scripting in ClojureScript with Planck2018-03-31T13:38:45+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/shell-scripting-in-clojurescript-with-planck<p>I’ve been doing a fair bit of shell-scripting recently, mostly of the data
munging variety for some of my <a href="https://github.com/spinningarrow/vinylwhere">side</a> <a href="https://github.com/spinningarrow/twsg-clinics-map">projects</a>. I
quite enjoy working with command line tools, but dealing with structured data
(JSON) isn’t too pleasant. <a href="https://stedolan.github.io/jq/">jq</a> is nice but it defines a DSL that I’ve never
found intuitive except for simple tasks.</p>
<p>In looking for opportunities to use Clojure for Real Stuff™, I thought –
why not try it out for those shell scripts? It has a fantastic standard library
specifically for transforming data. The only downside is the interpreter’s
notoriously prohibitive startup time (I’m trying to replace shell scripts after
all). Then I remembered that I have <a href="http://planck-repl.org/">Planck</a> (a ClojureScript REPL)
installed, which is super snappy in comparison, so I decided to give that a
shot.</p>
<p>As it turns out, Planck has great support for shell scripting. I’ve been so
happy with it that I thought I’d share some of the features that make it really
useful. Here goes:</p>
<h4 id="invoking-external-shell-commands-with-sh">Invoking external shell commands with sh</h4>
<p>Planck can easily execute other shell tools and return the results using the
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">sh</code> function.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">require</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">'</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">planck.shell</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:refer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">sh</span><span class="p">]])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">sh</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"echo"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"hello"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>It returns a map containing the exit code and the results of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">stdout</code> and
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">stderr</code>.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:exit</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="no">:out</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"hello\n"</span><span class="n">,</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="no">:err</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">""</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>Remember to separate the command name from its arguments (i.e. <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">(sh "ls"
"-al")</code> instead of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">(sh "ls -al")</code>); otherwise a cryptic “launch path is not
accessible” error is shown.</p>
<h4 id="passing-arguments-to-the-script">Passing arguments to the script</h4>
<p>If you invoke your script with arguments, all the arguments are stored in
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">*command-line-args*</code>.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">pr</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">*command-line-args*</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>When saved and run as <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">planck script.cljs time for an argument</code>, this will
print <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">("time" "for" "an" "argument")</code>.</p>
<h4 id="reading-files">Reading files</h4>
<p>ClojureScript – unlike Clojure – doesn’t have the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">slurp</code> builtin since it
mainly targets browser JavaScript. Planck helpfully includes this in the
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">planck.core</code> namespace, which can be used like so:</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">require</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">'</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">planck.core</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:refer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="p">]])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"path/to/myfile"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<h4 id="fetching-web-pages-with-slurp">Fetching web pages with slurp</h4>
<p>A nice bonus feature of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">slurp</code> is its support for URLs – just give it a URL
and it’ll return the response body as a string.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"https://myresourc.es/data.json"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<h4 id="reading-from-standard-input">Reading from standard input</h4>
<p>In my scripts, I try to read from standard input and write to standard output
as far as possible. This makes it easy to compose multiple shell scripts.
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">slurp</code>ing <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">*in*</code> does the trick:</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">require</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">'</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">planck.core</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:refer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">*in*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="p">]])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">pr</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">str</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"Planck says: "</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">*in*</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"!"</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>Saving this as <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">script.cljs</code> and running</p>
<div class="language-shell highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">echo</span> <span class="nt">-n</span> whoa | planck script.cljs
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>will print <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Planck says: whoa!</code> on the terminal.</p>
<h4 id="json-parsing-and-serialisation">JSON parsing and serialisation</h4>
<p>This is where Planck being a Clojure<em>Script</em> REPL helps a lot – you
don’t need an external dependency to parse and serialise JSON! Good old
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">JSON.parse</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">JSON.stringify</code> from JS-land are available directly.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">.parse</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">js/JSON</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"[1, 2, 3, 4]"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => #js [1 2 3 4]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">.stringify</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">js/JSON</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">#</span><span class="n">js</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => "[1,2,3,4]"</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>Note that while <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">(.parse js/JSON "[]")</code> is the better syntax for JS interop,
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">(JSON.parse "[]")</code> also works with the caveat that it doesn’t warn you if
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">JSON</code> has been overridden in your code somewhere. I often find myself using
the latter though since it is more succinct.</p>
<h4 id="converting-js-objects-to-clojure-data-structures">Converting JS objects to Clojure data structures</h4>
<p>You may have noticed the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">#js</code>-tagged results in the previous example. We don’t
want to deal with those! We want to be able to use all of the lovely Clojure
vector and map manipulation functions in our scripts. Luckily, ClojureScript
comes with two aptly-named helpers for just that.</p>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">js->clj</code> converts JS objects to equivalent Clojure ones:</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">#</span><span class="n">js</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => [1 2 3 4]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">#</span><span class="n">js</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:x</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="n">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:y</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">})</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => {"x" 1, "y" 2}</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; keywordizing map keys is super useful</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">#</span><span class="n">js</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:x</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="n">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:y</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:keywordize-keys</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">true</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => {:x 1, :y 2}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">clj->js</code> works similarly, but in the opposite direction:</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">clj->js</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; => #js [1, 2, 3, 4]</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<h4 id="using-the-threading-macro">Using the threading macro</h4>
<p>The Clojure threading macro inverts nested function calls to “flatten” them
out. I do most of my manipulations this way.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="c1">;; instead of</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">select-keys</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">JSON.parse</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"data.json"</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="no">:keywordize-keys</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">true</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">:x</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:y</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">;; try the more Unix-y</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">-></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"data.json"</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">JSON.parse</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:keywordize-keys</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">true</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">select-keys</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">:x</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:y</span><span class="p">]))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>It reads a lot better, making it much easier to visualise the data
transformations. It’s also more consistent with how you’d use pipes on the
command line when manipulating input with various Unix tools.</p>
<h4 id="putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</h4>
<p>Here’s a script that reads in a JSON string, parses it, and returns the sum of
the values of the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">"x"</code> key from every object in the list.</p>
<div class="language-clojure highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="o">#</span><span class="n">!/usr/bin/env</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">planck</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">require</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">'</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">planck.core</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:refer</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">*in*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="p">]])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">in</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">-></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">*in*</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">slurp</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">JSON.parse</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">js->clj</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:keywordize-keys</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">true</span><span class="p">)))</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">->></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">in</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">map</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:x</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">apply</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">pr</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div></div>
<p>Save this as <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">script.cljs</code> and make it executable using <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">chmod +x script.cljs</code>.
Running the following command</p>
<div class="language-shell highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">echo</span> <span class="s1">'[{"x": 1, "y": 2}, {"x": 3, "y": 4}]'</span> | ./script.cljs
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>should print <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">4</code> on the terminal.</p>
<p>That’s it! Besides what I’ve described here, Planck has many more nifty
features – check them out on the <a href="http://planck-repl.org/guide.html">Planck User Guide</a> and take it for a spin!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTravelling light2018-03-17T00:30:34+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/travelling-light<p>I just got back from a two week vacation, and this is the luggage I took:</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4772/40747156121_c0f8e3f3dc_o.jpg" srcset="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4772/40747156121_c0f8e3f3dc_o.jpg
1080w, https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4772/40747156121_e38f52d6ab_c.jpg
718w, https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4772/40747156121_e38f52d6ab.jpg
449w" alt="Backpack and items inside it" />
<figcaption>Some clothes, toiletries, a camera, and a computer – that's
basically it</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>(Not pictured is <a href="https://matadorup.com/collections/matador-products/products/matador-freerain24-backpack">my packable day bag</a>. I usually take it empty and then put
things in it like my camera, extra jacket, snacks, and water when I go out
exploring for the day.)</p>
<p>I clearly remember the day I arrived in Norway with two large suitcases, a
duffel bag, and an extra jacket that didn’t fit anywhere. It was minus 10
degrees, there was snow and ice everywhere, and I had to climb up a hill to get
the keys to my apartment. Trying to lug everything behind me, I watched in
horror as one of my suitcases slipped out of my freezing grasp, snagged my
jacket and then proceeded to roll over it on its way down the slope.</p>
<p>I swore to myself that I would never <em>ever</em> carry that much luggage with me
again.</p>
<p>Inspired by <a href="https://zenhabits.net/lightly/">some posts</a> <a href="https://zenhabits.net/mintravel/">on zenhabits</a> and
<a href="http://www.ankurb.info/2011/12/25/the-backpack/">Ankur’s blog</a>, I decided to try it out on my next trip (it
helped that the airline charged even for carry on suitcases, and I was a poor
student back then) and was immensely pleased by the results. I’ve been
travelling like that nearly everywhere since 2013 and I can’t tell you how
freeing and amazing it has been!</p>
<p>It means not having to worry about checked-in bags being lost, being able to
get out from the airport quickly, not being forced to take the elevator every
time you’re at a train station because there are too many bags to lug up the
stairs, and being able to check out in the morning but still spend the day
walking around because your luggage is so easy to manage. Carrying less also
makes for easier repacking without accidentally leaving things behind.</p>
<p>There are three keys to packing light — pack things that are versatile, do some
laundry while travelling, and a principle borrowed from the programming world
called You Ain’t Gonna Need it (or YAGNI for short). Do you really need to
carry 20 pairs of socks for a five day trip? Or your laptop, iPad, Kindle,
phone, <em>and</em> paperback? Just because an airline allows checking in two 23-kg
suitcases doesn’t mean that you must.</p>
<p>I try to be practical about the things I carry — if it’s unlikely that I’ll
need a particular item, I don’t take it. If I find I completely misjudged it
and the thing I forgot to take isn’t too expensive, I might buy it at my
destination. But I’ve rarely needed to do that.</p>
<p>For my recent trips I’ve been lucky enough to stay with people that had washing
machines and driers. On other trips, I take some laundry detergent and wash my
t-shirts and other things while showering or in the basin.</p>
<p>To sum up: try travelling light the next time you go somewhere, and it may just
completely change how you travel!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOne day in Vilnius2018-03-10T02:28:05+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/one-day-in-vilnius<p>It’s been nearly five years since my visit, yet I remember the day I spent in
Vilnius as clearly as if it had been only five weeks ago. Though Vilnius was
not originally on my Places to See in Europe list (mostly because I didn’t know
about it), when I saw the price of the flights there from Trondheim (60 NOK!)
and found out that Lithuanian is one of the oldest living languages, the
linguist in me could not resist.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4796/40709526371_ead1effcdd_h.jpg" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4796/40709526371_ead1effcdd_h.jpg
1600w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4796/40709526371_76ce7302b5_c.jpg
800w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4796/40709526371_76ce7302b5.jpg
500w" alt="Vilnius Full of Space" />
</figure>
<hr />
<p>I passed by a playground on the way to my hostel. It was a bright sunny day and
a horde of kids were happily running around. I suddenly realised how long it
had been since I’d seen something like that – all the playgrounds in Singapore
always seemed to be empty.</p>
<p>I continued on to my hostel, which turned out to be a cozy little place. The
owner gave me a quick tour of my room and a colourful map of all the places of
interest, and I was out in the streets, camera at the ready. The first leg of
my Europe trip had begun!</p>
<p>It was only a few hours earlier that I’d woken up with a start, taken a
panic-stricken look at my alarm clock, and hurriedly gotten into a cab to the
airport. Thanks to oversleeping by <em>three</em> hours, I’d missed the train and had
to pay ten times as much as the plane I was still hoping to catch. Damn the
Norwegian summer with so much light that it’s impossible to keep track of time!
Just kidding, I <em>love</em> the Norwegian summer. <em>And</em> the winter.</p>
<p>Vilnius, as it turned out, was a very walkable city. I went to the Vilnius
Cathedral and square, up a hill to Gediminas Castle, and just happily strolled
down streets lined with people singing, dancing, painting, and having a good
time.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4776/40709528481_4fabf4b085_h.jpg" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4776/40709528481_4fabf4b085_h.jpg
1600w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4776/40709528481_de92daae17_c.jpg
800w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4776/40709528481_de92daae17.jpg
500w" alt="Vilnius Cathedral" />
<figcaption>The Belfry at Vilnius Cathedral</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The evening found me at the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre. An hour before
every show they sell tickets to students for seventy per cent off the usual
price and I managed to get orchestra seats to Tchaikovsky’s <em>Swan Lake</em>. It was
my first time watching a ballet and I was entranced – it remains one of my
favourite performances (of anything) to date.</p>
<p>The next morning was spent exploring some more beautiful churches followed by a
tour of the “Republic” of Užupis – the artist’s district of Vilnius. It’s a
lovely area where a lot of local artists live, work and showcase their art.
It’s modelled as its own “country” with a constitution displayed on the walls
in about twenty different languages. There’s even a place where you can get
your passport stamped with the kind of stamp you get at immigration!</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4785/40709530561_89137e2685_o.jpg" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4785/40709530561_89137e2685_o.jpg
1354w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4785/40709530561_f075d42963_c.jpg
800w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4785/40709530561_f075d42963.jpg
500w" alt="Apple Republic signs inside Užupis" />
<figcaption>Some signs inside Užupis -- welcome to the Apple Republic!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All too soon though, it was time to move on. The trip fittingly ended much in
the same way as it had begun – this time I almost missed the bus to Riga. I’d
misread the map and ended up at the train station instead of the bus station
(these were the good old days before I had a smartphone guiding me every step
of the way). Thanks to a kind lady who walked me all the way to the bus
station, I once again made it in the nick of time.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meInfinite Dreams2018-01-31T09:00:55+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/infinite-dreams<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/zCjQqKCLkis?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s got to be just more to it than this<br />
Or tell me why do we exist?</p>
</blockquote>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe coldest place on Earth2018-01-13T10:44:43+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/the-coldest-place-on-earth<p>I shiver, instinctively wrapping my arms around around myself. <em>Where’s the
tissue?</em></p>
<p>I look around. Everyone else is covered in thick jackets. The couple sitting
behind me is buried in a blanket with only their eyes peeking out. They seem
all right.</p>
<p>I fish some tissues out of my pocket and wipe my nose. Pulling my jacket
tighter, I try to not let myself be distracted by the cold.</p>
<p>It doesn’t work. Tendrils of cold have somehow found their way through my shoes
and socks into my toes. Despite many layers of clothing, my face is still
exposed. I’m convinced that the tips of my ears are beginning to freeze.</p>
<p>I rub my hands to keep them warm. I can see the others shivering, but they look
ahead. They’ve given in to the cold years ago; it no longer surprises them.</p>
<p>Another blast of cold air assails me from behind. I have nothing more to cover
myself with! I ball myself up in a futile attempt to limit how much of my body
is exposed.</p>
<p>Two hours later, I step out of the movie theatre into another humid Singapore
evening.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.mePlaying with the Particle Photon2017-12-26T13:22:41+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/playing-with-the-particle-photon<p><em>Note: I wrote a version of this for a company blog last year but I’m
publishing it here too, both for posterity as well as to reference in some
future posts I’ve planned.</em></p>
<p>At JSConf 2015 I received a little device called the <a href="https://store.particle.io/">Particle Photon</a>, a
“tiny WiFi development kit”. I’d messed around with Arduinos before (which
this seemed similar to), but I didn’t have any IoT related ideas at the time so
I stashed it in a drawer and promptly forgot all about it.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4647/38646242784_094ed37527_o.png" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4647/38646242784_094ed37527_o.png
1282w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4647/38646242784_783dd6b110_c.jpg
776w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4647/38646242784_783dd6b110.jpg
485w" alt="Particle Photon box" />
<figcaption>The Particle Photon box</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One morning a few days ago, as I was rushing back home for the umpteenth time
to make sure that I had turned off the water heater (or geyser as we call it in
India), I remembered the Photon sitting in my drawer. Perhaps I could use it to
alert me when I left the geyser on for too long!</p>
<p>My geyser has a switch that lights up when it’s turned on, so I planned to
mount the Photon on top of it and use a photoresistor to detect when the geyser
was on (i.e. when the light on the switch would be on). Besides that, I’d also
need a way for the Photon to communicate to me how long the geyser had been on
for, which is where its WiFi capabilities would come in use.</p>
<p>I opened the box to take a look at what was in the kit. The Photon was mounted
on a tiny breadboard, and conveniently sandwiched between the device and the
board was a sheet of paper with a colourful schematic diagram describing
a simple circuit. In the box there were also some resistors, jumper wires, a
photoresistor, and an LED – everything that was needed to create the circuit
shown. Coincidentally, it was also exactly what I needed for my geyser
monitor. A few minutes of plugging in components later, the circuit was done!</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4641/39353811641_e38a31e21c_o.png" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4641/39353811641_e38a31e21c_o.png
970w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4641/39353811641_03144346cc_c.jpg
559w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4641/39353811641_03144346cc.jpg
349w" alt="Particle Photon sample circuit schematic" />
<figcaption>The schematic diagram showing a sample circuit on the Photon</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Setting up the Photon to connect to the internet was just as easy. Particle
provides a phone app called <a href="https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/tinker/core/">Tinker</a>, which allows you to control the pins on
the device by wirelessly reading from and writing to them. Install the app,
pair the device, and in all of fifteen minutes, you’re communicating with it
over the internet.</p>
<p>Reading and writing to the pins is okay for playing around, but I needed
something more friendly that would automatically alert me when the geyser was
on too long. In the Particle docs, I found a <a href="https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/examples/core/#read-your-photoresistor-function-and-variable">tutorial for reading values from
a photoresistor via an HTTP API</a>. Getting the code examples
running was a piece of cake, thanks to the <a href="https://build.particle.io/">online code editor</a> they provide
to deploy changes over-the-air. Now all I needed was to imbibe the device with
some information-dispersing capabilities so I’d know when the geyser had been
on too long. Particle conveniently includes an API to publish events, which
works better than polling an HTTP endpoint for my use case. This is
accomplished by exactly one line of code:</p>
<div class="language-c highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="n">Spark</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">publish</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"heaterStatus"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"on"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">60</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">PRIVATE</span><span class="p">);</span>
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>At this point I was pretty much done with the Photon side of things. The next
step was to find a way to listen for these events and notify me when the geyser
had been on for too long. I was getting ready to learn a little Swift to create
an app for sending me push notifications by listening to the Photon when
something else caught my eye: <a href="https://docs.particle.io/guide/tools-and-features/ifttt/">Particle has IFTTT integration</a>!</p>
<p>This pretty much eliminated the need to do any app development – I downloaded
the IFTTT iOS app, created a recipe that would send me a notification whenever
the Photon publishes an event, and voilà, I was done!</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4680/39324570442_fdb1a08bab_o.png" srcset="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4680/39324570442_dd8a35c137_z.jpg
640w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4680/39324570442_dd8a35c137_n.jpg
320w, https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4680/39324570442_fdb1a08bab_o.png
970w" alt="Particle Photon box" />
<figcaption>We're all done!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All in all, it was extremely enjoyable experimenting with this device. It took
way lesser time than I originally thought it would (which is rather rare, as
estimations go), and in the days since has already proven to be super useful.
At first sight, I thought the Photon was no more than an Arduino with a WiFi
shield (which is technically true) but Particle has gone to great lengths in
making it super simple to use. The kit comes with useful components, the docs
have lots of useful examples, you can publish events, integrate with IFTTT – it
almost felt as if they’d read my mind regarding what I wanted to build!</p>
<p>PS: <a href="https://github.com/spinningarrow/water-heater-monitor">The code I wrote is open sourced on GitHub</a>. It’s a
surprisingly small amount of C/C++, and is quite readable even if you’re not
familiar with the language.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meIt's the job that's never started that takes longest to finish2017-08-19T15:39:20+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/job-never-started<blockquote>
<p>It’s the job that’s never started that takes longest to finish.</p>
<p><cite>J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings</cite></p>
</blockquote>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWriting about myself is hard (so here's a tag!)2017-08-12T11:50:41+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/writing-about-myself-is-hard-(so-here's-a-tag!)<p>Updating <a href="//sahil.me">my homepage</a> the other day made me realise once again how
terrible I really am at writing about myself, at least in the direct manner
that an ‘about me’ feature generally demands. I eventually managed to put some
words together but that got me thinking – I’ve never done a tag on this blog
before. Yes, <em>never</em>. I avoided that boat entirely in blogging’s heyday, and of
course things are lot different now. After a lot of googling (sadly, the word
“tag” is kinda overloaded), I found one that seemed like a good one to begin
with. Here goes:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Are you named after anyone?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think so. But I <em>was</em> slightly excited when a friend from
Azerbaijan told me that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahil,_Azerbaijan">they have a place with the same name</a> there!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When was the last time you cried?</p>
<p>Hmm, I can’t really remember so it’s been a while! Sometimes I feel really
moved by music, but rarely to the point of tearing up.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Do you use sarcasm a lot?</p>
<p>I try to be sarcastic as often as possible, but usually only
after I’ve gotten comfortable with the receiver.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>What’s the first thing you notice about people?</p>
<p>Their eyes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Scary movie or happy endings?</p>
<p>Scary movie with a happy ending? I’m actually not a huge fan of either – I
prefer interesting movies that end on a goodish note but leave one thinking
about what exactly transpired after the movie.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Favourite smells?</p>
<p>Trees! And wet grass. Oh and onions as they fry!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Where were you born?</p>
<p>I was born in a city called Secunderabad. Thanks to India’s obsession with
renaming and redividing places, the state Secunderabad belongs to has
changed since my birth. Confusion ensues when it’s time to produce my birth
certificate for verification.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Do you have any pets?</p>
<p>No. I like animals but I’m not big on pets. Semi-relatedly, I really do not
like zoos.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Do you have any siblings?</p>
<p>Yes! I have an elder sister (I say “elder”, but really the difference is
only 1.5 years – does that count?)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Who was your first best friend?</p>
<p>The first person I designated as my “best friend” was probably this guy who
joined nursery school on the same day as I did. We’ve since fallen out of
touch, though we’re still friends on social media!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>How many countries have you visited?</p>
<p>I should know this, having had to fill this on numerous occasions for all
the pesky visa forms. Let’s see – Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, and China. And Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden,
Belgium, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and maybe a few
more? And India of course.</p>
<p>I hope to visit more places, though I daresay the exact number of countries
really doesn’t matter.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>What was your favorite/worst subject in high school?</p>
<p>I had two favourites: English and Computers (I can’t recall if the subject
was literally called “computers” or not – it’s a bit of a strange name if it
was!).</p>
<p>My least favourite was… probably something that involved a bunch of rote
learning. I vaguely remember having to learn the exact temperature and amount
of water that was suitable for growing fields of rice – for Geography
class I think.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Favorite memory from childhood?</p>
<p>This one’s difficult; I don’t really keep track of something like this! Off
the top of my head, I’ve always enjoyed all the times I’ve visited my
grandparents and relatives who stay in a little village high up in the lower
Himalayas.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>What phone do you have? (iOS or Android?)</p>
<p>I have an iPhone 6S. I switched to an iPhone a couple of years after using
a Xiaomi Redmi for a bit (which was my first foray into smartphones) and
literally could not be happier with that choice.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>What sports do you play?</p>
<p>Nowadays, I mostly play table tennis with some occasional cycling and
indoor climbing thrown in.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>And that’s a wrap. This would be the moment where I’d pick other people to do
this tag, but there are so few active non-topical bloggers in my list now that
I don’t know if that would go anywhere. How about this – if you’re reading
this and still blog, do this tag! And then tell me about it and we can talk
about how blogging is still alive!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSimple web services and Java2017-05-07T18:17:55+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/simple-web-services-and-java<p>Monday night a few weeks ago found me mashing my keyboard in frustration. I had
spent most of the day trying to figure out how to build a dead simple web
service in Java. I knew how to do it <a href="https://expressjs.com/">in Node.js</a>, <a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/">in Python</a>,
<a href="http://www.sinatrarb.com/">in Ruby</a>, <a href="https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#example_ServeMux_Handle">in Go</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/ring-clojure/ring">in Clojure</a>. I even knew how to
write a complex API using gRPC and Protocol buffers in Java. A simple web API,
however, was proving to be a different story altogether.</p>
<p>I wanted something similar to the libraries in the aforementioned languages –
the ability to define an API of simple routes and their corresponding handlers,
no extraneous framework-y fluff.</p>
<p>The following recounts how it went.</p>
<hr />
<p>An initial Google search leads me to <a href="https://jersey.java.net/">Jersey</a>. I vaguely remember it from my
last job as something the backend devs kept saying they were in the middle of
migrating; nevertheless, I click through to the home page, and open up a few
tutorials alongside for good measure.</p>
<p>The <em>Getting Started</em> guide mentions a whole bunch of things: “maven
archetypes” (I’m using Gradle, so I’m not sure what that maps to), a “Grizzly
container”… okay, looks like I need to write some classes and annotate them. A
little verbose, but it could work. Let me check on StackOverflow on how to set
this up with Gradle. Ah, so that’s the dependency I need! Now how do I fire up
the server? Oh, I need a config file. Wait, XML to configure the server?!
Nope. Nuh-uh.</p>
<p>The next thing that catches my eye is <a href="https://projects.spring.io/spring-boot/">Spring Boot</a>, having heard it
mentioned by nearly every Java developer I know. Their home page tells me that
it is “designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible”. Sounds good.
Their “quick start” clearly mentions the dependency need for Gradle. The
example looks too much like the one from Jersey though, and the bad taste left
in my mouth by that still lingers. I’ll pass for now.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dropwizard.io/">DropWizard</a> is another name that comes by; let’s see what that feels like.
The home page describes itself as a “stable, light-weight package that lets you
focus on getting things done.” I do, indeed, have things that need getting
done, so let’s take a look!</p>
<p>The guide declaims their love for all things Maven. It’s not too hard to
convert a single Maven-style dependency into a Gradle one, so I plough on. I
need a “configuration class” it appears. Once again, annotations abound. Then I
also need an “application class”. And a “representation class”. And a “resource
class”, which is the “meat and potatoes” of the application, you say?</p>
<p>Arghhh.</p>
<p>I’m this close to giving up. Is it really that difficult to elegantly expose
one single endpoint in Java without wanting to kill myself?</p>
<p>Almost at the end of my patience, I decide to Google just that. Lo and behold,
<a href="https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-write-a-small-Java-REST-API-without-killing-myself">there’s a Quora question with that exact sentiment</a> (probably not
that surprising in retrospect). Normally I avoid Quora as much as possible
because of their dark UX habits but the title sums up my state of mind with
such precision that I can’t resist.</p>
<p>All the usual suspects are present. I skim past them. Somewhere near the bottom
is a link without a description – <a href="http://sparkjava.com/">Spark Framework</a>. Hoping that it has
nothing to do with <a href="http://spark.apache.org/">the data processing engine</a> (since I don’t
think that can solve the problem at hand), I click through.</p>
<p>There is a nice big example right on top:</p>
<div class="language-java highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">static</span> <span class="n">spark</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Spark</span><span class="o">.*;</span>
<span class="kd">public</span> <span class="kd">class</span> <span class="nc">HelloWorld</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="kd">public</span> <span class="kd">static</span> <span class="kt">void</span> <span class="nf">main</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">String</span><span class="o">[]</span> <span class="n">args</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="n">get</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"/hello"</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="o">(</span><span class="n">req</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">res</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">-></span> <span class="s">"Hello World"</span><span class="o">);</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>It’s five lines, has a simple handler without annotations, and even uses Java 8
lambda-style functions! I think I’m going to cry tears of joy!</p>
<p>Less than five minutes later, I have my simple web service up and running.</p>
<hr />
<p>And <em>that</em> sums up my adventures with writing a web service in Java.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meA full year2017-01-01T13:39:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/a-full-year<p>2016 started in Kyoto, Japan. I rarely celebrate New Year at all so a cozy
home-made Japanese dinner with our AirBnB host who tried to get us to sample
all the alcohol she owned from various parts of the country despite our
half-hearted protests (“we have a train to catch early in the morning!”) was a
perfect way to celebrate. The entire trip was great; a full post about it is in
order.</p>
<p>In March, I left Autodesk where I’d been working since my graduation. The
environment was relaxed and I miss some of the people there (and all the table
tennis I haven’t played since I left) but I’m glad I made the change. I’m at
ThoughtWorks now where I get to work on more interesting projects with some
pretty smart people, and I feel like I’ve already learned more than I did at
Autodesk.</p>
<p>Talking about work, I also tried my hand at teaching – from August to October,
I taught a <a href="https://generalassemb.ly/education/front-end-web-development">part-time web development course at General Assembly</a>. I’ve
never formally taught before and I enjoyed figuring out how to explain all
these things I’ve gotten so used to over fifteen years into ten lessons for
people who are trying them out for the first time. It was super tiring, made me
appreciate my schoolteachers more, and was lots of fun!</p>
<p>Also for the first time, I travelled to Bangalore for work <del>twice</del> thrice.
Thought it doesn’t feature on my Terribly Exciting Places to Visit list, the
combination of good weather, bad traffic, we-close-at-eleven nightlife, and
meetings with a friend made it rather enjoyable. One of the trips collided with
the aforementioned teaching job, leading to an <del>exhausting</del> interesting time
when I came back to Singapore on the morning of a class, flew to Bangalore the
next day, and then returned on the following weekend in time for the next
class. <em>Whee–ouch</em>.</p>
<p>The recreational travel front wasn’t as bright as the year before though. We
went to Cameron Highlands in August after postponing the trip twice (a hill
station at last!). The place, unlike the bus ride to it, was comfortable and
convenient. In September, we did a <a href="/posts/peachy-on-the-beach/">short trip to Batam</a>, which I can
thoroughly recommend for a weekend getaway. I also went back home for Diwali
because I’d forgotten about the life-threatening smoke, but we were at my
grandparents’ in Shangarh for most of the time so it was all good – great, in
fact.</p>
<p>Mid-year also witnessed a change in my living scenery. G and I elected to find
a place together and our hunt for a place “somewhere central” brought us to
Chinatown (thanks, <a href="https://www.99.co/">99.co</a>!). Living in the middle of the city is fantastic –
everything is a stone’s throw away. I can walk to work! Record stores and nice
cafés are just round the corner! FoodPanda actually told me that they had “too
many restaurants nearby” and suggested I filter them! Braddell with its tall
trees and adequately-spaced buildings is being missed, but did I mention how
nearby everything is now and that I walk to work?!</p>
<p>That brings us to the tail end of the year. It was shaping up to be quite
uneventful (I’m in Singapore, which has has happened only once before despite
my living here for six years) so I compensated by discarding many <del>many many</del>
plastic pieces of paper from my wallet in lieu of a new <a href="/posts/christmas-day/">record
player</a>, the beginnings of a record collection, a new set of
speakers (I’ll miss you, <a href="/posts/more-magic/">beautiful Swans</a>!) – the works, essentially.
Can’t say I regret it at all, to be honest!</p>
<p>Here’s wishing you a happy new year too!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meChristmas Day2016-12-25T15:59:46+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/christmas-day<p>Christmas, it seems, is a time for rearranging furniture, buying new furniture,
and enjoying music whilst sitting on said furniture.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bJFDJK918feDuDTs6BTH-LQi5J6pd0qHlhEuClA_U7KlM3JH2Y8jGDJHzFnYCYFzqOoHHS_FywvXU_OT8Li7GSHLQV26UyCLtOb9ZeiI9RcJatS4g_9TWEzKZ0wd-t8JRH247_4lj-AY7sQlno8Y2TMoPeV1fGXVO4JYaP9VOZBlD9pCUeQm2PoZOlwHrSDrMwhlv-_9DUMgAUt-D8IO1STSvceEzTFaLw6JnnG5ti3OA0kbaPdDI02o8RqEAtO0_VyZSliX2sI_R0NfvKhl40rk6FUNsSWDTfJwFXBdmFw2w6iXTc1wUQeUmJyHztsbOCvu6X5A05bbwyDVOBvxcNGYADZ-NNNtyu8YAe8HNFXnH1zQo9HGynurZAF6kwD-GIX_bewsuGTL9B-_Nr7c1dy557nwBHA14HRXut-Dm6cypbqhlki3f7SkQ9J0PYze4olXs-RkAd5WBriGTEwsEsSigpeEAq-w2U2uVKDcM4WG44dNTQOLS0hT8pMmzp16mCCymURhukih64xsOLaphuu357EKXDkjg62P5allyTrpp-j8CLN2aWQsw0FvRRW6ULkAJ15DxgtFO_GwUCqQOvZjY2RFKR2HVIrIgHf1gBQ-gRxE9AGu=w700-h467-no" alt="Rega Planar 1 playing Iron Maiden's The Number of
the Beast" />
</figure>
<p>Hope you had a merry one!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.mePeachy on the Beach2016-09-12T17:48:32+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/peachy-on-the-beach<p>Batam was <em>supposed</em> to be Cambodia. Or Laos. Or even Vietnam. But if you plan
to travel during a public holiday in Singapore, you can’t leave such decisions
to the last minute – or even a month before the last minute. So Batam it was.</p>
<p>We stayed at KTM Resort which is a five-minute drive from the Sekupang ferry
terminal. The staff were nice, the room cozy, and the hot water in the shower
woefully limited. The food at the hotel’s restaurant was quite decent albeit
starvation-inducingly slow to appear. There was also a bar that’s open in the
evenings and plays good music (I heard what is purportedly the new Coldplay; it
seems like they make club music now), from where you can order food and eat by
the poolside despite a sign that clearly prohibits the consumption of food and
drinks by the pool.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Zy5JDs7EQybufHy0hTM6CBq_AzP0pj9JuqIPsHnR11_HCDu1sX4u19T0iOe0LH5bUOJElv19jdNCQt7hmLn_miiuQPgnKrQ9QTOmZPLSDwOJ0goMDvC-iyhGhUb8lpwOnIbBEC7Yc7HvjdMSay9HPQysSk_Vv1qVopKvS8iIOjxYetH2It1YI9caJv9OpjbycSd7LmhUd5bsI5JHhzWsZYQxne9e0iQGmdZWHgAmEuHjZL-c-P2U8w_ucdKJwFKTAe0H5jg8YDUOVQQqkZlgHznUVlY5ty2ImF8VoZKjKfyPV7xn7AgDW7O9JHfbT4mB3d8cm4iFSEbXTryMaeJnuYzAUh409ZhSBH3wKiaWuczfJ_Bjlsq5g1aASJQrI9iReraZT3tNeXzx3PyGn-TPmh5O-CZ8wJ7GmwSOgctR6Y5DPBm9LN_yEOc9kvnyQZ5KYEPe_1vA5jL_87qjY7Az7ehwkZXqxBzL8w3qDze95HVvORLfmrv4k_VhHEbyaMSsBiL79a8bNd7ppiMNe8V_bSGWSyuRZJ-KNblkHDHDVu5Jr-VS9cZzOvCCryMfpGB9uCXERHcAE7ozZm7TfhK8fFA3gJj3lP3COGGRlWNGGMUS9Vd1=s1310-no" />
<figcaption>We stayed in one of these "seaside" villas. FYI, that water
body is not the sea.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first afternoon found us signing up for massages, which turned out to be
pleasant enough that we booked them again the second morning. It was quite
peaceful – lying in a cottage listening to the waves gently crash along the
walls, an Indonesian lady deftly cracking my toe joints while simultaneously
failing to avoid coughing on me. So it goes.</p>
<p>Being by the sea and all, the resort had a bunch of not-cheap water sporting
activities. Since we had nothing to do on the second day, we quickly signed up
for all the ones that didn’t depend on one’s swimming skills (which I still
lack). First up was something called “hammerhead” – a round floating bed-like
device roped to a motorboat. You (and friends) grab on to a couple of handholds
and hang on for dear life while the boatman tries his level best to throw you
into the ocean. Thumbs up, would recommend it be tried at least once.</p>
<p>Next we tried paddling. This was pretty fun, and quite an exercise in balancing
on a board floating on its merry way in the sea. You are given a piece of
glorified wood to provide an illusion of control over the board’s destiny but
worry not, for it will do as it pleases including crashing into the wooden
beams on which your resort’s restaurant stands. Also quite fun.</p>
<p>The last activity was easily the best though – jet skiing! Unsurprisingly it is
not as easy as it looks since the sea attempts to unseat you with every wave,
but it’s oh so fun! Going really fast with the wind whistling in your ears and
the water spraying in your face and being launched into mid-air whenever
there’s a medium-sized wave – I have to say it’s quite exciting.</p>
<p>And that’s about it for yet another long weekend gone by!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe non-rules of table tennis2016-05-24T15:51:54+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/the-non-rules-of-table-tennis<p>One thing I miss about working at Autodesk (yeah, that happened) is playing
table tennis regularly. I used to play a fair bit when I was in school but
almost entirely stopped during the four years of university. I’ve been trying
to join some table tennis meetups recently (<a href="http://www.meetup.com">Meetup</a> is awesome in that
regard), but it has been pretty sporadic so far.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aoUbbJa1M_I/V0RL9zeMY7I/AAAAAAAACHg/dv6n00MXIfgy8IX6CC1xbpyGEuvTpBWSwCCo/s1600/table%2Btennis.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>When I started playing again, I was a little surprised to learn that the rules
had changed somewhat. After a bit of research spurred on by an office
tournament that I took part in, I realised that all of the “rules” below
were made up! Here’s the list (the explanations are thanks to some Googling and
the <a href="http://www.ittf.com/ittf_handbook/hb.asp?s_Chapter=&s_Description=&s_last_update=&s_number=2&Formhb2004_Page=1#hb2004">official ITTF handbook</a>):</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Deciding who will serve by playing a rally</p>
<p>This one felt wrong even when we were doing it all those years ago.
Basically, deciding which player will serve is done by a toss (or something
similar). Choosing by playing a single point doesn’t really make much
sense, especially when you think about all the <em>other</em> silly rules tacked
on top of it, e.g. you can’t smash in this ‘deciding’ rally.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Allowing re-serves up to a maximum of three times</p>
<p>If the ball touches the net when serving, the player serves again. Turns
out there’s no limit to the number of times this can consecutively occur. I
suppose the limit of three came from lawn tennis or something.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Losing the point by banging the racket on the table</p>
<p>Sometimes when returning an especially short low ball, the racket can
accidentally end up hitting the table. This is perfectly fine, unless it
causes the table to move in which case it is perfectly not-fine.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Losing a point by accidentally hitting the ball with your hand instead of
the racket</p>
<p>This I suppose is only partly true – it’s fine insofar as the part that
touches the ball is below the wrist.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Catching the ball after tossing it when serving</p>
<p>I’ve seen variations on this one – some folks consider it a ‘let’ if the
server’s racket moved but didn’t hit the ball, others allow the server to
catch the ball after tossing it up as long as they didn’t move their
racket. Both are illegal serves.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Returning a shot that goes out/volleying</p>
<p>As long as it happens outside the playing surface (i.e. the table), this is
okay.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Interestingly, these so-called rules weren’t local to just my group of friends
in school – coworkers I recently played with followed some of them too. I even
found folks from some other countries following them, which makes me wonder if
perhaps they <em>used</em> to be rules but no longer are.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWriting anxiety2016-05-15T14:50:15+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/writing-anxiety<p>The longer I go without <del>writing</del> posting on my blog, the more
uncomfortable I begin to feel. Perhaps it’s all the <a href="http://jessicaabel.com/2016/01/27/idea-debt/">idea debt</a> in my head,
or it’s something more. I don’t know.</p>
<p>Interesting things happen, I make a mental note of writing about them, and then
I just watch them pass by. Then more interesting things happen based on those
that already happened, but I can’t write about them I didn’t write about the
ones that originally happened. You know what I mean?</p>
<p>I feel like I’ve written about this before. Or was it just another idea in my
head?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meReading spree2016-02-02T16:40:38+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/reading-spree<p>It was with great purpose that I packed my suitcases when I left Delhi last
summer. They were heavy not with food as is customary, but with a collection of
books that would have long been gathering dust (had they not been kept inside a
closed bookshelf). University life, you see, had not been at all kind to the
first “official” pastime I ever had.</p>
<p>Soon after I procured a room in Singapore, I found myself also procuring a
membership from the National Library. And if that weren’t enough proclamation
of my campaign for renewed prosaic consumption, I also ended up being gifted a
lovely Kindle for my birthday (from the even lovelier G).</p>
<p>Thus armed, I embarked on a journey of recovering my voracious appetite for the
chapter-chopped chronicle. Here’s how I’ve fared so far:</p>
<ol>
<li><em>Crime and Punishment</em>, Fyodor Dostoevsky</li>
<li><em>The Tell-Tale Heart</em>, Edgar Allan Poe</li>
<li><em>The Catcher in the Rye</em>, J D Salinger</li>
<li><em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em>, Harper Lee</li>
<li><em>Slaughterhouse Five</em>, Kurt Vonnegut</li>
<li><em>Kane and Abel</em>, Jeffrey Archer</li>
<li><em>The Secret Crown</em>, Chris Kuzneski</li>
<li><em>The Girl Who Played With Fire</em>, Stieg Larsson</li>
<li><em>The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest</em>, Stieg Larsson</li>
<li><em>Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit</em>, P G Wodehouse</li>
<li><em>Chronicle of a Death Foretold</em>, Gabriel Garcia Marquez</li>
<li><em>Kafka on the Shore</em>, Haruki Murakami</li>
<li><em>And Then There Were None</em>, Agatha Christie</li>
<li><em>Crooked House</em>, Agatha Christie</li>
<li><em>Dune</em>, Frank Herbert</li>
<li><em>Ender’s Game</em>, Orson Scott Card</li>
<li><em>Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop
Culture</em>, David Kushner</li>
<li><em>The Last Lecture</em>, Rany Pauch</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s not terrible, but still a distant cry from the yours truly of yore who
used to finish several books a week (a particularly memorable one-day reading
of <em>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince</em> comes to mind).</p>
<p>What’s interesting is that the list of books that I began reading but couldn’t
keep up with is also nearly as long, which is a telling sign of the changing
times (I’ve almost never <em>not</em> finished a book in the past). Some of them are
non-fiction ones though – can I pretend that they don’t count?</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UScCmyeIqro/VrDeUJWCvUI/AAAAAAAACEI/yQ2YoJugxnU/s1600-Ic42/books%252520on%252520bed.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Oh well. Time for Susan Sontag’s <em>On Photography</em>!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meA year of movies2015-12-20T08:49:49+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/a-year-of-movies<p>Thanks to the infectious film-buffiness of G, I have probably watched more
movies in the cinema in the last year (including an unplanned viewing of
<em>Fantastic Four</em> in Taipei thanks to a raging typhoon outside) than in the last
decade. I now know which cinema chain in Singapore has the best hotdogs
(Cathay), the longest advertisements (Golden Village at <em>twenty five minutes of
pre-movie ads</em>), and the easiest online booking experience.</p>
<p>I even <a href="https://letterboxd.com/spinningarrow/films/diary/">attempted to keep a film diary</a> – it’s mostly accurate but
there really should be a way to completely automate these things. Here are some
of the more notable movies:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Black Mass</strong></p>
<p>With a grim but intense story, this film had some great performances
(finally featuring Johnny Depp as a character who actually looks like a regular
human). Also, I was amazed to find out yesterday that the female lead is the
same person as in <em>50 Shades of Gray</em> – talk about versatility!).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Big Hero 6</strong></p>
<p>I was expecting this to be so-so (I’d never heard of the comic, and the
name sounded a little silly) but it turned out to be one of the most
entertaining animated movies I’ve seen in a very long time.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The Hundred Foot Journey</strong></p>
<p>It turns out that I quite enjoy movies centred around food. This one had an
interesting mix of characters (though I think I have a tendency to always be a
little surprised when I see Indian actors in an English movie), some pleasant
locations and a nice storyline.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Kingsman</strong></p>
<p>A self-aware take on typical spy movies, made quite enjoyable thanks to
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G_siVTTJO4">certain action sequences</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1jf2hOkec4">visual
effects</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Interstellar</strong></p>
<p>I find it pretty cool that the visual designers had to write new software
based on the consultant physicist’s equations, and also that this resulted in
the publication of two scientific papers.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Bridge of Spies</strong></p>
<p><em>Spoiler alert!</em> I kept expecting the main character to die, and even
though he didn’t I found that I ended up liking Tom Hanks’ role and the story.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Focus</strong></p>
<p>Will Smith! I hadn’t seen him in a movie in aeons and this one was
continuously entertaining with some unexpected twists.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: I rarely do these end-of-the-year posts but thanks to almost no
blogging this year, I thought I’d give it a try. What say?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meI've forgotten how to write2015-10-29T15:51:07+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/ive-forgotten-how-to-write<p>What are words?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSkinny Love2015-07-05T11:33:58+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/skinny-love<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ssdgFoHLwnk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="">
</iframe>
<p>I heard the <a href="https://youtu.be/aNzCDt2eidg">Birdy version of this song</a> the other day and thought it was
quite nice. Then when I was re-watching a bit of Chuck, I realised hers was a
cover of this one by Bon Iver.</p>
<p>I like this original version more – it has a sense of <em>urgency</em> that Birdy’s
lacks.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meDilemmatic design2014-11-16T11:48:39+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/dilemmatic-design<p>Back in the <a href="http://www.exunclan.com/">Exun</a> days, I went for my first web designing competition with DJ. It was a Saturday morning and we had to design a promo page for Windows Vista. I fired up Photoshop (this surprises some people, perhaps because ‘web design’ has very little to do with the words ‘photo’ and ‘shopping’), did some funky things to a sample image they gave us, created some glass-styled elements (I had just learnt how to – they were all the rage those days), whipped up some HTML, and we were done. An hour or so later, we were enjoying the sweet taste of victory.</p>
<p>Yet despite having been designing in some form ever since, I’ve never thought of myself as a designer (I’m a programmer, I tell you!). I enjoy reading about design and playing <a href="http://www.ironicsans.com/helvarialquiz/">typography</a> <a href="http://type.method.ac/">games</a>. Heck, one of my favourite documentaries is about Helvetica (hush, the fact that I haven’t watched many has nothing to do with that!). I did a fair bit of design work for Exun, for Red Cross as the Publicity and IT Officer, for other societies and side projects, and for Roam7 (using GIMP, no less) while interning there. During my gap year after school, I even did a tiny bit of spec work on <a href="99designs.com">99designs</a>, which was a waste of time and led nowhere.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, design always comes with difficulty to me – I’ve often thought this might be because I lack any formal study. When I mentioned in the <a href="/posts/under-a-rock/">previous post</a> that there was a reason behind my lack of writing here, this was one (there were actually two reasons – this was the lesser of them). I had once again found myself unhappy with the design of my blog. It sounds silly but I didn’t feel like writing because then I’d have to look at a design that I no longer liked.</p>
<p>Seriously, brain, time to grow up.</p>
<p>So I embarked on the redesigning journey for the umpteenth time.
They say it’s much harder to design for yourself, and it’s true. I usually start by thinking about how I want the design to “feel”, accompanied by looking at other places for inspiration. Minimal designs have always appealed to me, and I stumbled across <a href="http://rauchg.com/2014/7-principles-of-rich-web-applications/">one I liked quite a bit</a> (also, that article has a lot of useful information for web developers).</p>
<p>I started putting things together in <a href="http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/">Sketch</a> (I switched from Photoshop to Pixelmator two years ago, but I haven’t used either in a long time). Sketch is great, but I ended up throwing away everything I made there – all I can remember is that I was using a screenshot of Rich Hickey’s <a href="http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hickey">“Are We There Yet?”</a> talk as an image placeholder (watch that talk too, if you’re any kind of developer). I thought Sketch would help by getting me away from the actual blog, but making styling changes in it after you’ve come up with a basic layout is too much effort.</p>
<p>I moved to the Jekyll code, simplifying the blog’s existing HTML. After many iterations (mostly typographic), I came up with a layout that I was quite satisfied with.</p>
<figure>
<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WA6l0Xd07og/VGiRXaFE6NI/AAAAAAAABmU/ML_zkRbgN-w/s1600/spinningarrow%2520-%2520discarded%2520design.png">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WA6l0Xd07og/VGiRXaFE6NI/AAAAAAAABmU/ML_zkRbgN-w/s1600/spinningarrow%2520-%2520discarded%2520design.png" />
</a>
<figcaption>Good – but not good enough</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I let it mature for a bit – by now I’ve realised I end up disliking my stuff more often than not. The same fate befell that design within a few days – it went from <em>“hmm, it’s not bad”</em> to <em>“…”</em> to <em>“gah I don’t like it, and I don’t like Gentium for the post body!”</em>. It felt as if it were going somewhere, but wasn’t quite there yet.</p>
<p>Then, in another spurt of messing around, I suddenly saw something that just ‘clicked’. This was it! A few tweaks here and there – and the current layout was done!</p>
<figure>
<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DAfv3vvBp9c/VGiRXW2IECI/AAAAAAAABmQ/CxHTfbDp9uU/s1600/spinningarrow%2520-%2520almost%2520there.png">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DAfv3vvBp9c/VGiRXW2IECI/AAAAAAAABmQ/CxHTfbDp9uU/s1600/spinningarrow%2520-%2520almost%2520there.png" />
</a>
<figcaption>Almost there…</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the whole, I’m pretty happy with the current design. Note the use of monospace fonts – until now I’ve shied away from any tech influences on this blog, but this may actually be a whiff of other changes to come.</p>
<p>By the way, one of the things that really speeded work up this time was using <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/workspaces">Chrome DevTools’ workspaces</a> feature – I often edit the CSS directly in the browser (instant feedback is really helpful) and this way I didn’t have to manually copy all the styles back to the source file.</p>
<figure>
<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-trxYK7ZzIqM/VGiYxFvU0sI/AAAAAAAABmk/0VmPuhvnWpM/s720/devtools%2520workspaces.png">
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-trxYK7ZzIqM/VGiYxFvU0sI/AAAAAAAABmk/0VmPuhvnWpM/s720/devtools%2520workspaces.png" />
</a>
<figcaption>DevTools is brilliant</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I may never be a designer, but I still love design.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meUnder a rock2014-11-15T15:04:39+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/under-a-rock<p>No, I absolutely insist that I haven’t been living under a rock. What’s that? Why haven’t I written anything in the last six months, you ask? Why, the very suggestion is preposterous! Of <em>course</em> I’ve written things! I wrote messages, and emails … oh all <em>right</em>. I’m just nitpicking as usual – you should know by now!</p>
<p>What’s been up? You <em>do</em> know that that’s a distinctly different question from why I haven’t been writing, don’t you? Which one should I answer? All right, I’ll make it easy – let’s talk about the former (don’t look at me like that – the latter needs a bit more thought and probably a post of its own, that’s why!).</p>
<p><strong>I graduated</strong>. There was a moment (or two) in my last semester when I earnestly doubted this happening. NTU (thankfully for my pockets, if not my pride) thought otherwise so there I was, tossing my graduation hat in the air, mixed feelings and all.</p>
<p><strong>I moved out of NTU</strong>. This was a direct result of the aforementioned incident. Hopping out of the comforts (or occasional lack thereof) of NTU’s halls of residence has been a mix of resuming my intermittent kitchen experiments (which have gone off quite well) and walking uphill with perpetually smouldering pockets (thank you, rent in the most expensive city in the world). On the bright side (literally), my room is all sunshine and warm yellow lighting (goodbye, depression-inducing tubelights!). Plus, the house is right on top of a breezy hill. Even the street has ‘hill’ in its name, in case you ever forget the climb.</p>
<p>We famously got a wifi connection before any furniture, and in the intervening months we’ve gotten a second internet connection. On the other hand, the sole decoration in the living room is a run-down coffee table. Priorities, you know.</p>
<p><strong>I started work</strong>. Mornings now find yours truly bleary-eyed (owlish tendencies are harder to get rid of than you may imagine) and typing away at a keyboard, surrounded by pseudo-cubicles of numerous other not-so-bleary-eyed folks also typing away (and occasionally requesting help with their Git repositories). Full-time programmer in a big company, indeed. And no, it’s the latest web technologies – I even get to go to <a href="http://jsconf.asia/">JSConf</a> next week! Who would have thought?</p>
<p>Incidentally, programmers are probably some of the slowest typists I’ve ever met. I mandate that a typing test be a part of the interview process (resulting in our collective speeding-up).</p>
<hr />
<p>And that sums it just about up. I also traveled to Bali and Krabi with the significant other (both are wonderful, as is she). I see a pattern emerging – I should discreetly suggest a destination with a name ending in a high front unrounded vowel for the next adventure.</p>
<p>Oh, and I also changed my name (at Starbucks’ behest). Say hello to Jahim, everyone!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzMlDF1CUAA9g5y.jpg:large"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzMlDF1CUAA9g5y.jpg:large" alt="Yours truly, Jahim!" /></a>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHiatus The Second2014-07-22T00:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/hiatus-the-second<p>Please hold on while I conduct an experiment.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meI miss you2014-05-23T18:15:26+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/i-miss-you<p>Ten days isn’t a terribly long time, but this feels like an eternity. You see, I’m not used to being away from you. Other than that period not too long ago, we’ve seen each other nearly every day since we first met!</p>
<p>That seems to have been ages ago, doesn’t it? Was it <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/love-at-first-sight/">love at first sight</a>? Is there even such a thing? I can’t say. You certainly caught my eye, that I do remember clearly. As I got to know you better, I knew this could be the start of something both beautiful and exigent. I pondered a lot – would my inexperience be a hindrance? Was I biting off more than I could chew? Time — did I have enough of it? What if I doesn’t work out? Ah, but what if it does?</p>
<p>Sometimes I still don’t know what I’m doing. Play it by the ear, they say. Well I might be a little tone deaf, despite Benjamin Zander’s claims to the contrary.</p>
<p>Sometimes I just want to hold you, to slowly caress you, to listen quietly as I ask you to sing.</p>
<p>Oh well. I don’t know what this will lead to. What I do know is that there are just a few more days before I see you again, my beloved guitar!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Vusu1WB_m_k/U3-RfFPSOrI/AAAAAAAAA5o/iL5UQQc-ras/s1600/guitar-i-miss-you.jpg">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Vusu1WB_m_k/U3-RfFPSOrI/AAAAAAAAA5o/iL5UQQc-ras/s1600/guitar-i-miss-you.jpg" alt="Guitar (I miss you)" />
</a>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meAcronym day2014-04-23T13:46:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/acronym-day<p>The other day, I woke up in my <abbr class="acronym" title="Nanyang Tehcnological University">NTU</abbr> room in sunny <abbr class="acronym" title="Singapore">SG</abbr>, all ready for an interview later that afternoon. Taking the <abbr class="acronym" title="Campus Rider - Red line">CR-R</abbr> bus past <abbr class="acronym" title="National Institute of Education">NIE</abbr> to the <abbr class="acronym" title="Lee Wee Nam">LWN</abbr> bus stop made me realise it was a little <em>too</em> sunny though, a fact underscored by my progressively soaking shirt. I had originally planned to travel by the <abbr class="acronym" title="Mass Rapid Transit">MRT</abbr>, but while sitting in <abbr class="acronym" title="Singapore Bus Service">SBS</abbr> Transit’s bus 179 and passing by the <abbr class="acronym" title="School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering">SCBE</abbr>, <abbr class="acronym" title="Research Techno Plaza">RTP</abbr>, <abbr class="acronym" title="Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information">WKWSCI</abbr>, <abbr class="acronym" title="Humanities and Social Sciences">HSS</abbr> and other buildings, I decided instead to head to <abbr class="acronym" title="Jurong Point">JP</abbr>. Reaching there, I made a beeline for <abbr class="acronym" title="G2000">G2K</abbr> and bought another shirt (or two, actually, thanks to a sale and my dearth of fitted shirts).</p>
<p>I quickly hailed a cab. I can’t remember if we took the <abbr class="acronym" title="Pan-Island Expressway">PIE</abbr> or <abbr class="acronym" title="Ayer Rajah Expressway">AYE</abbr>, but unlike most cab drivers, at least this one didn’t ask me which route to take. Driving past a lot of <abbr class="acronym" title="Housing and Development Board">HDB</abbr> neighbourhoods, we soon reached the location. It was quite close to <abbr class="acronym" title="Institute for Infocomm Research">I2R</abbr> – the place I’d been working with for my <abbr class="acronym" title="Final Year Project">FYP</abbr> (which thanks to <abbr class="acronym" title="School of Computer Engineering">SCE</abbr>’s mismanagement, turned out to be wildly different from the original one I’d applied for).</p>
<p>After the interview, I had some coffee and cake at Starbucks (so <abbr title="expensive">ex</abbr>!). I joined some friends and we all went for S’s birthday to Boat Quay (which houses a lot of nice restaurants, bars, and cafés in the <abbr class="acronym" title="Central Business District">CBD</abbr>). A bit of unwinding at <abbr class="acronym" title="Clarke Quay">CQ</abbr> followed, and soon it was time to sleep.</p>
<p>P.S. This is just the tip of Singapore’s acronym iceberg.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meBonjour! Bonjour?2014-03-30T18:00:01+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/bonjour-bonjour<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_uq7vfhLSj4/UzhlETcKcuI/AAAAAAAAA4k/4XFLdDQv4Tw/s1600/gates_of_versailles.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_uq7vfhLSj4/UzhlETcKcuI/AAAAAAAAA4k/4XFLdDQv4Tw/s1600/gates_of_versailles.jpg" alt="The gate of the Palace of Versailles" />
</a>
<figcaption>The <em>Château de Versailles</em> is beautiful</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I step inside the sleepy ticket office at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loz%C3%A8re_(Paris_RER)">Lozère</a> and look hopefully at the man sitting across the counter. It’s ten in the morning, the ticket machines aren’t working, and I have a whole day of Paris-visiting planned ahead.</p>
<p>“<em>Bonjour! Parlez-vous anglais?</em>” I say, in bright trepidation, exhausting my entire repertoire of French in one fell swoop.</p>
<p>“<em>Bonjour!</em>” he replies, and – with a much-dreaded shake of his head – a string of unintelligible words escapes his smiling teeth.</p>
<p>I pause, then bravely decide to plough on with the next part of the plan. With a flourish (there’s something about France that makes flourishes appear quite naturally), I sweep open the RER/Métro map I have in my hand and jab at one of the stations. “Ticket?” I ask.</p>
<p>The head moves vigorously, the smile becoming more pronounced. “<em>Non non, je te flouppe Fli! Me lah peeh! Oh, de fouffe!</em>” it says.</p>
<p>Catching on to these visual cues, I doubtfully enquire, “Uh… no ticket?” Not requiring a ticket to go from the outskirts of Paris to the city centre is at exact odds with everything I’ve read about Paris’ train system (or any train system, for that matter) and I certainly don’t want to be caught by the army of RATP agents that <a href="http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Paris#Fares">Wikivoyage warned about</a>. I put on my best confused face; the effect is unfortunately lost on said ticket man, who has evidently overestimated my French language abilities.</p>
<p>I valiantly try again. “So… How… I just… go?” I ask in my best broken English, waving the map in his face for added effect.</p>
<p>“<em>Oui, oui,</em> just go!” he grins.</p>
<p>Now I’m not sure if he actually meant me to get on the train or just get out of his face. Either way, I found myself sitting on the next train that hesitantly came by – was it just me or was it emptier than it should be? Perhaps there was some problem with the ticket machines today and they were letting everyone go without a ticket.</p>
<hr />
<p>Three quarters of an hour later (some of which was spent surreptitiously staring at the girl sitting opposite wearing safety pins for earrings), I reach the fully-functioning firmly-closed ticket barriers at the city centre. Now what? Perhaps I should try my luck at another station. Twenty minutes later, I watch as a lady tails the person in front of her and exits without a ticket at Fontaine Michalon. These exits seem less hostile, but I’m not sure if it’s worth taking the chance on a solo trip in a foreign continent.</p>
<p>That’s it then: time to go all the way back to square one. Another twenty minutes find me back in sunny Lozére. Lo and behold – the ticket machines are working, and Monsieur Just-Go is nowhere to be seen! I shake my head, quickly purchase as many tickets as I think I’ll possibly need over the next couple of days, and jump on to the next train.</p>
<hr />
<p>Nearly three hours after I originally started, I finally reach the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es">Champs-Élysées</a>. Well, at least my French accent for the station names on the way to the city is now close to perfect.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me“And I felt I was in a trance, and my spirit was lifted from me”2014-02-21T17:35:05+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/i-felt-i-was-in-a-trance-and-my-spirit-was-lifted-from-me<p>Three years and a week ago (it’s been <em>three</em> years?!), I saw <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden">one of my favourite bands</a> live. I had started listening to them when I was fifteen (thanks to a newspaper supplement and a friend on a bus), but I only dreamt of ever seeing them for real. Then the impossible happened – they came to India, <em>twice</em>. And I <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.sg/2007/03/beast-over-bangalore.html">missed</a> <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.sg/2007/09/now-way-no-fair.html">both</a> those times, thanks to that period of tedious rote learning and furious scribbling otherwise known as exams.</p>
<p>Imagine my delight when, <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/week-12-is-starting-on-monday-seriously/">one November day</a> in the NTU library, Iron Maiden announced their first ever tour to Singapore! The night my friends and I booked those crazy expensive tickets (which we very nearly bought twice the number of), we couldn’t stop yelling with excitement wherever we went.</p>
<p>February 15, 2011 was a long time ago, but there are some images that will remain imprinted in my mind forever:</p>
<p><em>“SISTIC sucks, SISTIC sucks!”</em></p>
<p>Waiting outside in the pouring rain for the doors to open. Trying to change into the Iron Maiden t-shirt I’d just bought for an exorbitant sum (a feat complicated by the absence of money in my wallet and a lack of OCBC ATMs at the Stadium MRT). Craning my neck over people’s shoulders at hopeful shouts of “there’s Bruce Dickinson!”. Joining the Polish chap next to me in deriding the ticketing company for their frightful crowd management.</p>
<p><em>“Olé, olé olé olé; Maiden, Maiden!”</em></p>
<p>Finally rushing into the cool, dark stadium, everyone trying to get in first (yours truly got held up for a few minutes – I had stuffed my t-shirt into my jeans causing a suspiciously large bulge, which didn’t go unnoticed by security). Running full tilt across the dark stadium to get close to the stage (half the standing area was already occupied!).</p>
<p>Inching forwards during the opening act (that’s Bruce’s son!) to reach the second row. Calling for the band to come and take the stage. Collectively gasping as the back curtain opened, revealing Nicko’s drum kit and Satellite 15’s backdrop of twinkling stars.</p>
<p><em>“And I danced, and I pranced, and I sang with them!”</em></p>
<p>Chanting – no, yelling – the lyrics to <em>The Trooper</em> and <em>2 Minutes to Midnight</em>. Jumping to the melodic mastery of <em>Dance of Death</em>. Headbanging wildly to <em>The Evil That Men Do</em>. Singing, several thousand strong, the entirety of <em>Fear of the Dark</em>, waving lit cellphones in the air. Watching, spellbound, as <em>When the Wild Wind Blows</em> came to life.</p>
<p><em>“And as I lay there gazing at the sky, my body’s numb and my throat is dry.”</em></p>
<p>Being squeezed, pushed from all sides, nearly turned to a pulp. Signalling the security guards in front for water. Helping members of the crowd to be lifted over because they had fainted. Hoping that I wouldn’t be one of them. Trying to rest my arms after waving them for an hour, but finding not an inch of space to do so. Looking for the CDs a group of Sri Lankans had handed me to promote their band.</p>
<p><em>“What did I see? Could I believe that what I saw that night was real and not just fantasy?”</em></p>
<p>Extraterrestrial Eddie taking the stage with a guitar. Bruce Dickinson, jumping up and throwing off his cap, the sweat of two hours of vocal virtuosity dripping from it. Janick Gers, playing guitar solos behind his head. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, running across the stage as melodies melted their guitars. Nicko McBrain, thundering along with his signature single bass pedal. And Steve Harris, galloping furiously, the soul of the band alive in his eyes.</p>
<p>Pausing. Staring. Wondering if it was all real.</p>
<p>Believing.</p>
<p><em>“Face of contentment around in the air.”</em></p>
<p>Overwhelmed. Walking out, dazed, as the concert ended. Collapsing on the pavement with everyone else, musical magnificence ringing in our ears.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9Nw0H0mB6KA/UOBG7jU8ejI/AAAAAAAAAdA/ouHpkbbHBuQ/s1600/Ticket%2520-%2520Iron%2520Maiden%2520Final%2520Frontier%2520World%2520Tour%2520Singapore.jpg">
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9Nw0H0mB6KA/UOBG7jU8ejI/AAAAAAAAAdA/ouHpkbbHBuQ/s1600/Ticket%2520-%2520Iron%2520Maiden%2520Final%2520Frontier%2520World%2520Tour%2520Singapore.jpg" alt="Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier World Tour 2011 Concert Ticket Pen A" />
</a>
<figcaption>The concert ticket, post-concert.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Some people were actually <em>sitting</em> in the stands.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMore magic2014-02-10T11:03:50+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/more-magic<p>Strange, <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/magic/">more beautiful</a> music. Headphones are nice, but speakers are just something else.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9vZOLz2ZGeg/Uvi5A0rEIeI/AAAAAAAAA2o/QpdZ3vAB2dg/s1600/swans-m10-sub-magic.jpg">
<img src="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9vZOLz2ZGeg/Uvi5A0rEIeI/AAAAAAAAA2o/QpdZ3vAB2dg/s1600/swans-m10-sub-magic.jpg" alt="The subwoofer of the Swans HiVi M10 speakers" />
</a>
<figcaption>The subwoofer of the Swans HiVi M10 speakers</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr />
<p>When I went on exchange last year, I knew getting a place on campus once I return would be difficult (thanks to NTU’s awfully convoluted and prejudicial hall points system). Little did I know that I would have to wait more than a semester – I was expecting a few weeks at most.</p>
<p>The conventionally wise would say that since I have only a couple of months left to graduate, I shouldn’t <del>waste</del> spend much time setting up my new room, but I just couldn’t resist. I blame the dopamine and my newfound realisation of personal space.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gxyXnqYOlbI/Uvi5DBlMf_I/AAAAAAAAA2w/Dp_URfUl5nY/s1600/hall15-room.jpg">
<img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gxyXnqYOlbI/Uvi5DBlMf_I/AAAAAAAAA2w/Dp_URfUl5nY/s1600/hall15-room.jpg" alt="My new room in Hall 15" />
</a>
<figcaption>Clockwise from top left: the bed, desk, and Edward the Great</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, I can’t believe Baze and Adi put up with me for nearly <em>six</em> months – kudos to them!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFrom Amazon to Singapore2014-02-03T17:27:30+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/from-amazon-to-singapore<p><a href="http://www.koss.com/en/products/headphones/on-ear-headphones/PortaPro__Porta_Pro_On_Ear_Headphone">Koss Porta Pro</a> headphones – that was the combined result of a quest for sonic satisfaction, a pair of rather shallow pockets, and the lack of my own room to play loud music in. These headphones are usually described as both inexpensive and far exceeding the value of the rectangular sheets of paper they’re often exchanged for. Unfortunately, Singapore’s habitual marking up of electronic goods all but struck off <em>inexpensive</em> from the description, and the realisation that I prefer room-filling speakers as opposed to head-filling earphones made me refrain from buying them when I first heard of them a few years ago.</p>
<p>Surprised delight was the order of the night that I discovered that the Porta Pros were at a 50% discount on Amazon. Trouble is, there’s no Amazon in Singapore (I have no clue why; there’s no Flipkart-like alternative here either), though they recently did start shipping internationally to this little island. I would’ve bought them on the spot had it not been for Baze’s pithy “dude, all online purchases after 2 a.m. turn into regrets” remark shot from across the room.</p>
<p>This made sense: I had never heard the cans for myself, and there was also the small matter of what would happen when they reached customs (as it subsequently transpired, nothing – though if the price of the goods you’re buying is above S$400, <a href="www.customs.gov.sg/leftNav/trad/cle/Internet+PurchasesPostal+Parcels.htm">GST will apply</a>). Hearing them in real life became my new mission. I found that <a href="http://www.jaben.net">Jaben</a> has a pair (incidentally, that’s a great store to visit if you want to listen to assorted headphones) and duly directed my feet to The Adelphi (which is <em>the</em> mall in Singapore for those on a quest for aural bliss and/or LP records). The headphones were green-flagged for online purchase, not least because they cost close to S$90 at the store, versus the S$45 I was getting them from Amazon (<em>including</em> shipping, might I add).</p>
<p>I finally consigned forty five electronic digits to Amazon’s coffers, and was assured of approximately twenty one thumb-twiddling days in mine. To my surprise, it took only four days for the package to leave the US and reach Singapore. After five more days, I was informed that the customs clearance process had been initiated. Not expecting anything for at least a week, I was pleasantly excited by the appearance of a pink note under my room door after four days, announcing the arrival of a package at the hall office. The headphones were no longer just a series of images on the world wide web!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-s9rGdWaduhk/Uu_Ayha3BvI/AAAAAAAAA1k/_hfAzudbYNk/s1600/Koss%2520PortaPro.jpg">
<img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-s9rGdWaduhk/Uu_Ayha3BvI/AAAAAAAAA1k/_hfAzudbYNk/s1600/Koss%2520PortaPro.jpg" alt="Koss Porta Pro headphones" />
</a>
<figcaption>Koss Porta Pro headphones! Yes, they look nothing like other headphones, unless you're from the 1980s.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Incidentally, it took the shipping company (i-parcel) another two weeks to actually update the Amazon tracking page with the fact that the package had been delivered.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zI3_n5P-414/Uu_AJo9nLYI/AAAAAAAAA1c/HkoYydIETY4/s1600/amazon-singapore-tracking-details.png">
<img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zI3_n5P-414/Uu_AJo9nLYI/AAAAAAAAA1c/HkoYydIETY4/s1600/amazon-singapore-tracking-details.png" alt="Amazon tracking page for Singapore delivery by i-parcel" />
</a>
<figcaption>Amazon tracking page for the delivery to Singapore</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>PPS</strong>: For those wondering about how good the headphones are, all my inexpert ears can tell you is that I hear things I never noticed before, and that I find it rather difficult to stand my old Sony earphones now. Ah well.</p>
<p><strong>PPPS</strong>: The Koss Porta Pros seem to be especially popular in Scandinavia (or at least, Norway and Sweden) if empirical evidence is of any significance. Ten points to whoever can tell me why!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meAnd whither then, I cannot say2014-01-02T05:19:03+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/and-whither-then-i-cannot-say<blockquote>
<p>The Road goes ever on and on<br />
Down from the door where it began.<br />
Now far ahead the Road has gone,<br />
And I must follow, if I can,<br />
Pursuing it with weary feet,<br />
Until it joins some larger way<br />
Where many paths and errands meet.<br />
And whither then? I cannot say.<br />
—<em>J R R Tolkien</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I don’t do new year posts, but here’s wishing you a happy one!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFar over the misty mountains cold2013-12-28T08:18:23+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/far-over-the-misty-mountains-cold<p>Out of breath and time, Alessio and I sprinted towards the bus on the other
side of the road. That is to say that I, with what can only be a rather Indian
obliviousness to zebra crossings, cut across the middle of the road, while
Alessio patiently waited for vehicles to pass by.</p>
<p>A hurried transaction of two tickets followed at the steps of the bus (they
didn’t accept cards, contrary to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger">Stavanger</a> Tourist Information guide’s
confident insistence from the day before). Fortunately, we had just enough
crowns (what a lovely name for a currency!) between us and we hurried in.</p>
<p>There were about thirty people seated inside – ranging from slightly to
significantly older than the two of us. I noticed a group of Chinese people to
one side, containing a coat-adorned man who looked like his business trip had
been changed to a hiking one at the last minute.</p>
<p>As the bus started, I found myself wondering how he planned to climb <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjerag">Kjerag</a>
in those patent leathers.</p>
<hr />
<p>“Once we reach Øygardsstøl,” the bus driver’s voice declared over the PA
system, “I will give you more details about the hike.”</p>
<p>I looked out of the window at the snow (wasn’t it nearly the end of June?!). We
should be pretty close to our destination; it had been nearly three hours since
we started.</p>
<p>As I looked up from my watch, I paused. Everything had suddenly gone white. I
could barely see the side of the road; how were we still driving? But the
driver said nothing. He probably has the road memorised, I convinced myself.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i427tVPWGa0/Vr2a3VXUlHI/AAAAAAAACEk/WvzkRlUKCLY/s1600-Ic42/fog-on-the-way-to-kjeragbolten.jpg" alt="The bus on the way to Kjerag surrounded by fog." />
<figcaption>The bus was literally plunged into thick fog.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bus rolled on with the fog for a little longer, then suddenly came to a
halt. The speakers crackled back to life. “We have reached the drop-off point.
I will be back here at four forty-five to pick you up, if you are here. As you
can see, the weather is quite bad and I will not recommend the climb today as
it can be quite dangerous. But I will let you decide. The weather <em>may</em> get
better soon – sometimes in Norway, we experience all four seasons on the same
day.”</p>
<p>The mountain side, whatever little we could see of it in the fog, loomed ahead
of us.</p>
<p>It didn’t look all that dangerous.</p>
<hr />
<p>We had climbed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preikestolen">Preikestolen</a> the day before, partly in preparation for the
much harder Kjerag hike. Preikestolen (which is a far more popular tourist
destination – you can tell by the large amount of people and the fact that
there is a bus every hour, whereas Kjerag only has the sound of your own
breathing for company and a solitary bus) is fairly straightforward to climb.
It is a little steep in places, but they have steps hewn out of the rock for
the most part.</p>
<p>Kjerag, on the other hand, is known to be a lot steeper and harder (though the
hike isn’t much longer).</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-NK22Tr7jZbo/Ur6B-pL1OhI/AAAAAAAAA0c/OoUQxaRa74E/s1600/kjerag_trail.jpg" alt="Kjerag trail map." />
<figcaption>The Kjerag/Kjeragbolten trail. There are three peaks followed by a walk across mostly flat rock till you reach Kjeragbolten.</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr />
<p>Thanks to the exorbitant sum we’d paid for the bus ride, Alessio and I decided
to give it a shot, fog be damned. However, we were soon quite alone: some
people were using the toilet (does anyone know <em>what</em> WC stands for?), others
debating whether or not to go, while the daring ones had stridden off without a
look back.</p>
<p>Remember that part about Kjerag being steep? We had barely started when a flat
rock adorned with chains confronted us. I heroically tried to not use the
chains at first (this is actually possible in certain areas), but the damp
ground, and my last few dregs of self-preservation soon put an end to that.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-geUxU7UgHyU/Vr2bAp8_fhI/AAAAAAAACEo/xa5ayPVorQ0/s1600-Ic42/chains-of-kjerag-i.jpg" alt="Chains on the sides of Kjerag." />
<figcaption>Kjerag is steep – these chains are a common sight along the trail.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a marked trail, which means you have to look around for a red ‘T’ that
indicates the right track. Thanks to the fog, we found ourselves hunting in
patches of mud for footprints instead.</p>
<p>We gathered up a Polish lady on the way – she had a bright red jacket and
seeemd to know where she was going. We also came across some Norwegian kids and
their father. The kids literally stormed down the mountainside and up the next
in the entire time it took us to cross a stream. I marvelled at this feat to
their father who showed us where on the trail we were, and later apologised
because he’d gotten it wrong.</p>
<hr />
<p>The sun! All of a sudden, it was out! I exulted in a manner reminiscent of
James Hetfield in <em>The Unforgiven II</em>, though for starkly dissimilar reasons.
The photos will be good after all, I thought, watching the vain mist disappear.</p>
<hr />
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjeragbolten">Kjeragbolten</a>.</p>
<figure>
<img data-action="zoom" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fBpqK9-_Lps/Vr2bFrQdxUI/AAAAAAAACEs/84eiVnM5kQw/s1600-Ic42/the-kjeragbolten.jpg" alt="Kjeragbolten." />
<figcaption>Kjeragbolten, Norway</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Innocently suspended between two crevasses, just like in all the brochures, there it was. It was another matter that I couldn’t figure out how to get to it (I’d left Alessio and the Polish lady behind in my excitement). I was atop a ridge with the boulder to my right. A strip of snow that disappeared under the rock separated me from the people sitting on the side from where they could climb onto it. Shouting out to them ascertained that the wind was strong enough to carry sound in the wrong direction. Displaying an inclination towards leaping across the ridge further ascertained that this would be a very bad idea, judging by the shocked looks on everyone’s faces. I didn’t really fancy sliding into the fjord just yet, so I set about finding the right way.</p>
<hr />
<p>Grabbing on to a little nail stuck in the stone, I inched towards the boulder
that was fascinatingly stuck between two mountains. I stepped over the ledge
and onto the slightly round surface.</p>
<p>When I planned this trip sitting in my room far away in Trondheim, pictures of
people standing on a rock suspended nearly a thousand metres above the sea had
made my legs feel funny. I tried not to look down.</p>
<p>Standing on the rock just once wasn’t enough though, and I ended up doing it
five or six more times (the photos!). After the first time (when my legs
reacted to thoughts of exactly how not-huge the rock was), it was actually
pretty fun. I tried very hard to drag Alessio onto it, but to no avail.</p>
<p>We had taken almost exactly two and a half hours to get there, which meant that
if we wanted to catch that dratted bus at four forty-five, we’d have to leave
soon. I ate some chocolate, took a few photos (I fancy that I gave some people
minor heart attacks by stepping extremely close to the edge of the mountain)
and went off on our way back.</p>
<hr />
<p>A couple of hours later, yours truly was back at the parking lot, delightedly
declaiming to the very stoic bus driver that we had indeed made it.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: When I was initially planning this trip, I wanted to find out exactly
how demanding the Kjeragbolten hike was – I’m not even remotely close to a
seasoned hiker, and used to have asthma until a few years ago to boot. It’s
actually not that hard, though if you go to Preikestolen and find that very
difficult, Kjerag might be a bit too much. Also, be prepared for post-trip body
aches!</p>
<p><strong>PPS</strong>: Shoutout to Alessio, without whom I couldn’t have made this trip!</p>
<p><strong>PPPS</strong>: This post took way too long to write.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHit the Floor2013-12-18T17:54:52+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/hit-the-floor<p>Linkin Park’s <em>Hybrid Theory</em> and <em>Meteora</em> are <em>so</em> good. They bring back many memories – the first audio CD I owned, the start of discovering the heavier side of music, arguing whether <em>In the End</em> was better than <em>Somewhere I Belong</em> way back in class six, the first time I obsessively read liner notes and lyrics (hah iTunes, there are some things you can never match!), drawing the LP logo during the Computers class in school…</p>
<p>Good times.</p>
<p>Linkin Park was probably the first band that I ever became a fan of, too. This eventually waned though, thanks in large part to Iron Maiden and <em>Minutes to Midnight</em>.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: I love it when one of my friends turns out to be a Linkin Park fan and we start singing/rapping stuff like <em>A Place for My Head</em> out of the blue.</p>
<p><strong>PPS</strong>: Rainy days were made for listening to music.</p>
<p><strong>PPPS</strong>: It rains too much in Singapore.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTypist’s block?2013-07-29T23:55:54+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/typists-block<p>The words… they refuse to appear!</p>
<p>I stare blankly at the screen. The screen’s brightness is off – I can literally see my face on it. <em>That</em> must be it!</p>
<p>I fumble, hoping to catch at least one of the words from a few moments ago. Nope, the night is as luckless as it is wordless.</p>
<p>I look down at the keyboard. I look up at the fan. My mind wanders around the barren room.</p>
<p><em>Why</em> can’t I write a single creative word when I’m at a computer? Everyone else can! Why do I <em>have</em> to draft everything using a pencil and a piece of paper?</p>
<p>Several minutes pass. The air conditioner valiantly rumbles on, oblivious to the standstill inside my head.</p>
<p>I give up.</p>
<p>Graphite beats silicon yet again.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XCGZYwvkK_Q/Ufb_DnckbRI/AAAAAAAAAts/hkV9tYWEQFQ/s1600/keyboard_and_pencil.jpg">
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XCGZYwvkK_Q/Ufb_DnckbRI/AAAAAAAAAts/hkV9tYWEQFQ/s1600/keyboard_and_pencil.jpg" alt="MacBook Pro – 0, Staedtler – 1" />
</a>
<figcaption>MacBook Pro – 0, Staedtler – 1</figcaption>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOpposites and Oddities2013-07-19T21:55:10+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/opposites-and-oddities<p>Baffling or plain peculiar things observed over six months in a different continent (in no particular order):</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Reversed switches, doorknobs and locks</strong></p>
<p>Switches in Norway turn on when they are pressed on the top half (contrary to those I’ve seen in India, Singapore, and elsewhere). This confused me to no end on my first day in my apartment: I ended up gazing around the place for quite a while, thinking there was no electricity. Additionally, many locks on doors and some doorknobs open when turned counter-clockwise (when said lock or knob is located on the left side of the door), which to me was completely counter-intuitive.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Right-side driving</strong></p>
<p>Since India and Singapore both have left-side driving, this reversal inadvertently had me looking in the wrong direction when crossing the road, causing unexpected distress to vehicular brakes. It also led to too much thought being put into which side of the road the bus will stop at.</p>
<p>On a mostly unrelated note: some of the signs for pedestrian crossings feature a chap wearing a hat, while some do not. Eternal glory shall go to the one who can remove this item from my Unsolved Mysteries list.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p6InemQm0YQ/Ueqb52qZsKI/AAAAAAAAAs0/XFhmQK0VqtI/s1600/zebra_crossing_hat_guy.jpg">
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p6InemQm0YQ/Ueqb52qZsKI/AAAAAAAAAs0/XFhmQK0VqtI/s1600/zebra_crossing_hat_guy.jpg" alt="Sometimes he wears a hat, sometimes he doesn't." />
</a>
<figcaption>Sometimes he wears a hat, sometimes he doesn't.</figcaption>
</figure>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Interchanged commas and periods in numbers</strong></p>
<p>This one is quite common all over Europe. I knew about it beforehand, but that didn’t stop it from making me look twice at all pricetags I saw especially because several shops still used the decimal point for its intended purpose.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>European keyboards</strong></p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qWN7KedazZk/UeqbvxsWIDI/AAAAAAAAAsE/Xt3kEzPF1-A/s1600/keyboard_norwegian_german_czech.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qWN7KedazZk/UeqbvxsWIDI/AAAAAAAAAsE/Xt3kEzPF1-A/s1600/keyboard_norwegian_german_czech.jpg" alt="From left to right: Keyboards in Norway, Austria, and Czech Republic." />
</a>
<figcaption>From left to right: Keyboards in Norway, Austria, and Czech Republic.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was probably my number one annoyance (especially in the last month when I was travelling in different countries), causing me to stare for a good five minutes at every keyboard I would use, no doubt to the amusement of any onlooker. The most confounding part was that the keyboards are different in literally <em>every</em> country. And by that I don’t just mean that in Norway where they have <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ø</code>, in Germany they might have <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ü</code> – even common symbols like <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">@</code> are in wildly different locations. In Norway, you get it by pressing <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Alt Gr + 2</code>, in Germany by pressing <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Alt Gr + Q</code> (which as one of my German friends ruefully recounted is the worst key combination if you’re using an Apple keyboard), and in Czech Republic by the utterly bizarre <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Ctrl + Alt + V</code>. Some keyboards even have the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Y</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Z</code> keys interchanged. I mean, what the heck?!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-bvyl8hPIDQ0/Ueqg1DGZo5I/AAAAAAAAAtI/5zGQILr16HY/s1600/european_keyboard_conversation.png">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-bvyl8hPIDQ0/Ueqg1DGZo5I/AAAAAAAAAtI/5zGQILr16HY/s1600/european_keyboard_conversation.png" alt="Giving up on trying to figure out said exotic keyboard can lead to rather confusing conversations." />
</a>
<figcaption>Giving up on trying to figure out said exotic keyboard can lead to rather confusing conversations.</figcaption>
</figure>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>More sun, please! No, I take that back – less sun, please!</strong></p>
<p>Trondheim isn’t north enough to experience the midnight sun, but the sunlight hours are still quite perplexing. When I reached in January there would be light by about nine thirty in the morning and darkness by about half past three. In the summer however, there’s no “night” to speak of – only a twilight sort of thing from eleven thirty at night till around three. This, by the way, is extremely detrimental to the productivity of someone who has gotten too used to working only once it’s dark.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QtKWDQDDnB8/Ueqb4fU_NpI/AAAAAAAAAss/6Y8qZ_I0hmU/s1600/trondheim_winter_sunset.jpg">
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QtKWDQDDnB8/Ueqb4fU_NpI/AAAAAAAAAss/6Y8qZ_I0hmU/s1600/trondheim_winter_sunset.jpg" alt="Sunset at 4:30 pm in February in Trondheim." />
</a>
<figcaption>Sunset at 4:30 pm in February in Trondheim.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a1P0OdAYvDo/Ueqb2UR7cdI/AAAAAAAAAsk/tDCcd2l0xI0/s1600/trondheim_summer_light_midnight.jpg">
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a1P0OdAYvDo/Ueqb2UR7cdI/AAAAAAAAAsk/tDCcd2l0xI0/s1600/trondheim_summer_light_midnight.jpg" alt="...And it's still not dark past midnight in the summer in Trondheim." />
</a>
<figcaption>...And it's still not dark past midnight in the summer in Trondheim.</figcaption>
</figure>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Salty chocolates</strong></p>
<p><em>And</em> salty liquorice. Reminds me of how strange I found the abundance of sweet popcorn in Singapore.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Most houses have only one bathroom</strong></p>
<p>This seems to be quite common in all the places I visited in Europe in general, unless you live in some fancy-pants big home.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>19°C is a ‘heat wave’ in Trondheim</strong></p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gaJTW9lkUEE/Ueqbxoo33KI/AAAAAAAAAsM/MQ-ki-4vIPQ/s1600/trondheim_heat_wave.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gaJTW9lkUEE/Ueqbxoo33KI/AAAAAAAAAsM/MQ-ki-4vIPQ/s1600/trondheim_heat_wave.jpg" alt="Announcing... the Trondheim Heat Wave!" />
</a>
<figcaption>Announcing... the Trondheim Heat Wave!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And a rare sunny day is everyone’s cue to roam around in a swimsuit.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Dm8okGyVpFc/Ueqb0ucc1zI/AAAAAAAAAsc/CqffpTEGICY/s1600/trondheim_nidaros_summer.jpg">
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Dm8okGyVpFc/Ueqb0ucc1zI/AAAAAAAAAsc/CqffpTEGICY/s1600/trondheim_nidaros_summer.jpg" alt="That being said, summer in Trondheim is beautiful. This is a photo of the Nidaros Cathedral taken near Samfundet." />
</a>
<figcaption>That being said, summer in Trondheim is beautiful. This is a photo of the Nidaros Cathedral taken near Samfundet.</figcaption>
</figure>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Counting the week of the year</strong></p>
<p>They do this a lot - my roommates even came up with a needlessly complicated cleaning schedule based on the week of the year (conversely, at my university in Singapore they count the week of the semester, and in India they don’t seem to care about it at all).</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fr-y89Ca_OY/UeqbywEgg7I/AAAAAAAAAsU/ReoSZOu-s2A/s1600/steinan_cleaning_schedule.jpg">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fr-y89Ca_OY/UeqbywEgg7I/AAAAAAAAAsU/ReoSZOu-s2A/s1600/steinan_cleaning_schedule.jpg" alt="The cleaning schedule in my apartment. If the number of the current week is divisible by three, then the week is <em>3n</em>, and so on." />
</a>
<figcaption>The cleaning schedule in my apartment. If the number of the current week is divisible by three, then the week is <em>3n</em>, and so on.</figcaption>
</figure>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Pub quizzes</strong></p>
<p>A quiz… in a pub? These actually happen frequently.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: If you go for an Android workshop at NTNU, there is a fair chance that you might all walk out with a free Android tablet.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meA Fire in the Sky2013-04-04T19:54:15+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/a-fire-in-the-sky<p>A dreary evening.</p>
<p>A surprising message. When was it sent? More than twenty minutes ago!</p>
<p>A hasty scramble for all manner of warm clothing. A clatter of shoes leaping down four flights of stairs. A well-lit night. Feet eagerly walking up and down, and down and up. A head gazing upwards.</p>
<p>A look of disappointment, and a slow walk up the stairs.</p>
<p>A discussion on Facebook: a time and a place – an adventure! Quick – a hurried dinner.</p>
<p>A group of shuffling feet. A pair of cameras, a flask of peppermint tea, a bottle of water. Excited footprints.</p>
<p>A hike into darkness.</p>
<p>A slope, a hill. A sheet of ice, a mass of snow. A moon, a star. A line of craned necks.</p>
<p>A glimmer. And a gasp.</p>
<p>A flash of green! A hint of pink. A flicker, a glow, a movement, a glitter! A wave of brightness!</p>
<p>An awe.</p>
<p>A silence.</p>
<p>And a fire in the sky.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/6322_424920897600485_1376327586_n.jpg">
<img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/6322_424920897600485_1376327586_n.jpg" alt="Northern Lights in Trondheim, Norway. Photograph by <a href='https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=424920897600485&set=a.424920894267152.1073741835.157145004378077&type=1&theater'>Øyvind Schei</a>" />
</a>
<figcaption>Northern Lights in Trondheim, Norway. Photograph by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=424920897600485&set=a.424920894267152.1073741835.157145004378077&type=1&theater">Øyvind Schei</a></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: It turns out that I own a compass that actually doesn’t point North. The <em>irony</em>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFor those of you who didn't know... (Part II)2013-03-12T03:24:51+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/for-those-of-you-who-didnt-know-part-ii<p>…I’m in Norway.</p>
<p>I’m here on exchange at the <a href="http://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> (NTNU for short, which is a little bit like NTU with an extra N). I wanted to write all about going on exchange before I left, but somehow things <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/for-those-of-you-who-didnt-know/">always end up snowballing</a> when I decide to do so before I leave: I had to cancel my tickets because of a delayed visa and then sit on packed suitcases endlessly waiting for someone from NTNU, the Danish embassy in Singapore, the Norwegian embassy in Delhi, Norway’s immigration authority, and/or Cox & Kings to tell me what was going on. One fine Friday finally found me procuring my passport, seizing my suitcases and jumble of jackets, and suddenly being seated in front of a rather advanced in-flight entertainment system with a remote control that doubled as a <em>phone</em>. This was soon followed by my saying things like “Well actually, it isn’t all that cold here” and then promptly catching the flu.</p>
<p>Oh, well. <em>The Road goes ever on and on.</em></p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6UxNcZcUrwU/UT6nRbCcjXI/AAAAAAAAAeg/plXoc9BlV1c/s1200/2007-02-06%252021.57.17.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6UxNcZcUrwU/UT6nRbCcjXI/AAAAAAAAAeg/plXoc9BlV1c/s1200/2007-02-06%252021.57.17.jpg" alt="The view from my room's window. Snow <em>and</em> red houses!" />
</a>
<figcaption>The view from my room's window. Snow <em>and</em> red houses!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Why does time fly so fast?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meXXII2012-12-30T05:55:49+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/xxii<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XyiH0ic-_Ho/UOC6THJx4zI/AAAAAAAAAdY/3zVBC2bFhmU/s1000/21st%2520Birthday%2520Cake.jpeg">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XyiH0ic-_Ho/UOC6THJx4zI/AAAAAAAAAdY/3zVBC2bFhmU/s1000/21st%2520Birthday%2520Cake.jpeg" alt="Cake!" />
</a>
<figcaption>Cake!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s two memorable birthdays in a row. Many thanks to everyone who
made them so!</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: <cite>Life of Pi</cite> is a rather well-made movie. Go watch it in a theatre
while it’s there!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMoving Day2012-12-19T22:14:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/moving-day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've been saying this <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.in/2012/08/on-my-mind.html">for</a> <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.in/2010/03/moving-to-antarctica-sounds-like.html">terribly</a> <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.in/2012/06/hang-on-dont-i-have-psp.html">long</a>, so without further ado, I'd like to announce that I have succeeded in moving this blog to a new home! *cue drumroll* The new address is:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog.sahil.me/"><span style="font-size: 2em;">blog.sahil.me</span></a></div><br />For the feed junkies, you don't need to update the URL (thanks to FeedBurner) but it probably wouldn't hurt to check that it's all working (I fear you might see old posts reappearing as unread posts, my apologies for that). For the others, update your bookmarks!<br /><br /><b>PS</b>: The new home is still a little rough around the edges, give it some time. Though if anything looks too strange, let me know.<br /><br /><b>UPDATE</b>: I've imported all posts from 2008 and later to the new blog. For posts from 2007 and 2006, please see the archives.</div>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOmelettes and Trees2012-12-19T21:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/omelettes-and-trees<p>As it turns out, a whole year <em>is</em> a tad too long to be away from home <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection">for</a>. I landed in Delhi last night (<em>“Twenty two degrees on a winter night?!”</em> and <em>“Immigration officials in India are <em>mean</em> to foreigners”</em>), made my way out of the airport without any incident (quite unlike last year, when I was asked for a bribe by the customs official at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs#Red_and_Green_channels">Green Channel</a> while he dipped his moustache in tea), found my sister and dad at the gate and talked non-stop to them on the way home (between mouthfulls of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadbury_Dairy_Milk">Dairy Milk</a>, that is), hugged my mom at the door (who thankfully forgot to ask who brought the luggage up the four flights of stairs), and proceeded to peer around the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing_room">drawing room</a> to see if anything had changed (“Where’s the TV gone?!”).</p>
<p>I then spent a good bit of time pottering around the house examining everything from coffee tables to Christmas cards, opening all the cupboards in my room (“Where did <em>those</em> books come from?”), lamenting the lack of speakers (I’ve grown quite used to <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/magic/">listening to loud music every day</a>, which is a marked difference from my first year in college when I listened to practically no music for a whole semester), hunting for a Singapore-to-India plug adapter, weighing arbitrary household items with my sister’s travel luggage weighing scale (if only I had that before leaving I wouldn’t have had to hand my things over to a certain someone at the airport) till I could bear it no longer and picked up both my guitars making a prolonged arrival announcement to my neighbours by ‘testing’ my guitar amp (there’s nothing quite like the sound of a real amp), never mind the late hour. My overexcitedness refused to let me spend enough time <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPvABrN7sA">tuning my guitar</a> though, instead peppering me with dilemmas of the “What should I do now?” sort: Unpack? Read a book? Call someone? Watch television? Plan what to do over the next two weeks? Eat? Sing at the top of my voice?</p>
<p>I ended up compensating for my indecision by reading the preface of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46761.Summer_Lightning"><em>Summer Lightning</em></a> (yes, I literally read books from cover to cover — no, that’s <em>not</em> the <a href="http://readers-block.urbanup.com/3955587">reason</a> it took me a year to finish <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19063.The_Book_Thief"><em>The Book Thief</em></a>) and turning in for the night, to be awoken to <a href="http://www.flipkart.com/">Flipkart</a>’s delivering <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9307674-the-last-guardian"><em>Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian</em></a> at noon.</p>
<p>It’s <em>great</em> to be back home.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: If you’re trying to watch Youtube videos on a 512 kbps connection shared between three people, you’re gonna have a bad time.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOn my mind2012-08-04T21:20:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/on-my-mind<ol>
<li>All the people I want to, no need to talk to. Some conversations are way overdue.</li>
<li>Red Cross AGM report.</li>
<li>Stupid <a href="http://sce.ntu.edu.sg/CurrentStudents/Undergraduate/Pages/IndustrialAttachment.aspx">IA</a> log book. (We have to write a log book?! It’s like being in school, sheesh)</li>
<li>CSC301 Programming Languages past-year paper solution, which I so wisely gave my name for solving.</li>
<li>All the open tabs on my browser that I want to read.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_Fowl:_The_Last_Guardian">new Artemis Fowl</a>! Why are books so expensive abroad?</li>
<li>New blog. Well technically, new home for this blog. And bye bye, Blogger.</li>
<li>Work.</li>
<li>Weekends are too short.</li>
<li>Regularity is simultaneously helpful and mundane. And tiring.</li>
<li>A lot of pending blog posts.</li>
<li>Worrying about sleeping on time is rather depressing.</li>
<li>#1 is actually on my mind quite a bit, I realize.</li>
<li>So is all the Red Cross related stuff.</li>
<li>Gah!</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Dreary days make me want to listen to music and go off somewhere. Preferably both.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHang on... don't I have a PSP?2012-06-18T20:17:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/hang-on-dont-i-have-psp<p>I’m not much of a gamer (unless you count occasional bouts of Quake III, Portal or Counter Strike), but I do own one of those oldfangled handheld consoles, i.e., the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_portable#PSP-3000">PlayStation Portable</a>. It was my eternal seventh-grade dream to own a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gba#Game_Boy_Advance_SP">GameBoy Advance</a>; I finally realized it three years ago by buying a PSP instead and promptly spent the subsequent three years not purchasing a single game for the platform.</p>
<p>Today, I salvaged it from the drawer it had been kept hidden in, discovered a depressing growth of mould on the analog stick, charged it thanks to a certain someone, and finally decided to take the plunge and try to install custom firmware on it (if you have no idea what that means, I suppose it’s something like jailbreaking an iPhone). In the days of yore, one had to do all kinds of complicated things involving things with names like “Pandora battery” and feverishly crossed fingers so it’s not too surprising that that – combined with the fact that my cutting-edge PSP couldn’t even <em>be</em> modded in the first place – prevented me from blemishing its internal pristinity.</p>
<p>Then yesterday I decided to take a look at How Things Stood in the mire of modded PSPs and, lo and behold! it can now be accomplished in the astronomical number of three short steps which took me all of half a minute to complete.</p>
<p>The result, you ask? Witness my <em>magnum opus</em> (for the day, that is):</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUwyEwBs3MM/T99L44fzfGI/AAAAAAAAAZU/YUIVBAb2DKo/s1600/psp-gba.png">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUwyEwBs3MM/T99L44fzfGI/AAAAAAAAAZU/YUIVBAb2DKo/s1600/psp-gba.png" alt="<a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_(series)'>Kirby</a>, <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter'>Street Fighter</a>, and <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario'>Mario</a>. Of the <em>GameBoy Advance</em> variety." />
</a>
<figcaption><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_(series)">Kirby</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter">Street Fighter</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario">Mario</a>. Of the <em>GameBoy Advance</em> variety.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The GameBoy obsessions of my younger self are purely coincidental, but yes, I spent my day playing old Nintendo GBA games on a not-so-old Sony PSP. The mind, it <em>boggles</em>.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Does anyone know how to incinerate mould so I may never again have to groan in irked displeasure every time I see something of mine that I haven’t used in a while?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meBricks in the wall2012-06-17T18:13:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/bricks-in-wall<p>Back! I shall be! No, I <em>am</em>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meYou must be out of your mind2011-11-01T20:44:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/you-must-be-out-of-your-mind<p>Scene: G-Max Reverse Bungee at Clarke Quay.<br />
Yours truly and two friends securely strapped in, equal parts excited and nervous.</p>
<p>Guy In Charge: <em>(grinning wickedly)</em> Okay you want countdown or surprise?<br />
Me: <em>(gleefully)</em> Surprise! Surprise!<br />
Somewhat Scared Friend: Countdown!<br />
Guy In Charge: Okay ah, I give you countdown. Ready?!</p>
<p>And suddenly, without warning (countdown, my foot), we were shooting straight up into the air at 200 kmph, our breaths snatched by the whistling wind and the glittering Singapore night.</p>
<p>What. A. Feeling. (Though it was marred slightly by light rain and the fact that I had to take off my spectacles to prevent them from flying off into the Singapore River.)</p>
<p>While we were still being secured in the harness, the guy had asked us if we’d come there to let out the “stressfulness of college life”. I don’t know what to say, except that with a score of quizzes (most of which didn’t go off well), lab submissions (which I still have to start and complete), assignments and reports, and two weeks of finals starting in two weeks, it’s definitely been the hardest semester so far. Add to that all the meetings, events, endless emails and scattered outings, and I don’t think I need to ask myself why I fall asleep every time I take my hands off the keyboard.</p>
<p>I don’t quite know where to start. Should I talk about the three quizzes I had to <del>give</del> take yesterday? The freshmen orientation camp I helped organize when the semester hadn’t even started? Or the Red Cross elections that happened soon after? How about last Wednesday night which was as good as it was unlike any Diwali ever?</p>
<p>It’s been a strange semester.</p>
<p>It all started the morning I reached campus. There I was, trying to figure out how in the world I was to lug over forty kilos of baggage (yes, forty; don’t ask) up two levels to my new room after the cab driver unceremoniously dropped me off at the wrong spot (well, it was my fault but hey, it was a Chrysler and I’m a student with no money) when, as is Singapore’s wont, it began to rain. Strictly speaking, it didn’t so much rain as try to convince me that I was surrounded by a gigantic waterfall.</p>
<p>After three trips, a sopping yours truly finally entered his room to spend the next couple of days scrubbing the insides of the wardrobes (among other things) with some strange cleaning spray provided by <a href="http://www.fairprice.com.sg/">FairPrice</a>.</p>
<p>Then just as I was trying to catch my breath, along came <a href="http://ntumilaap.com/">Milaap</a>, closely followed by the first week of classes, a crazy few weeks during which every hapless international student had to run around for elections (I got lucky again), along with an atmosphere of tense gloom settling over campus life.</p>
<p>Recess Week showed up for a few moments, but it didn’t attract much attention except towards the end from a group of college kids celebrating Dandiya Night in Woodlands.</p>
<p>I went for the <a href="http://www.singaporegp.sg/">Singapore Grand Prix</a> – for free! I signed up as a First Aid volunteer, which meant that I actually didn’t see much of the race, but just being in the middle of all the Australian acrobats, Singapore artists, famous acts like Rick Astley and Shaggy (neither of whom I could care much about), women on stilts dancing to records played by a guy who looked strangely like Jimi Hendrix (!), and the noise of engines roaring past every few seconds (after a while, earplugs began to look like a natural part of everybody’s heads) was quite an experience. I did lose my phone on my way back after the second day, though.</p>
<p>More quizzes, a tottering pile of academic work that could easily substitute most skyscrapers, signing up for a part time work-study thing, giving my name for the <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/post-production/">Hall 13 Production</a> again (they’re doing a musical and I can’t sing to save your life, so I wonder how I got pulled in at all), and what do you know – this semester is nearly over.</p>
<p>Exams are in <em>two weeks</em>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMagic2011-09-03T17:55:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/magic<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BabbkSFiG70/TmJpf28qo8I/AAAAAAAAAWk/BcG5QwbhhHw/s1600/speakers_mac.jpg">
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BabbkSFiG70/TmJpf28qo8I/AAAAAAAAAWk/BcG5QwbhhHw/s1600/speakers_mac.jpg" alt="<em>“Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here.”</em> — Albus Dumbledore" />
</a>
<figcaption><em>“Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here.”</em> — Albus Dumbledore</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By far the best part about staying in a single room. Strange, beautiful music.</p>
<p>I’m beginning to realize how much I truly love it.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meI'm off!2011-06-19T11:35:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/im-off<p>For ten days! Via a fourteen-hour bus journey. Yes, your eyes are not in fact deceiving you.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T1UCr2T8SJk/Tf3e5KvnhvI/AAAAAAAAASo/Wsx__iNT07k/s1600/DSC04356.JPG">
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T1UCr2T8SJk/Tf3e5KvnhvI/AAAAAAAAASo/Wsx__iNT07k/s1600/DSC04356.JPG" alt="No laptop! \m/" />
</a>
<figcaption>No laptop! \m/</figcaption>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTo Skype2011-06-03T21:57:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/to-skype<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3E7r36TUTec/TekM9Unvn3I/AAAAAAAAAR4/nciEQfZ-cBg/s1600/Skype-5-Mac.jpg">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3E7r36TUTec/TekM9Unvn3I/AAAAAAAAAR4/nciEQfZ-cBg/s1600/Skype-5-Mac.jpg" alt="So many people, so many countries, and one Skype window." />
</a>
<figcaption>So many people, so many countries, and one Skype window.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I spent most of yesterday (and some of today) Skyping. It’s funny how I actually Skype a lot more at home (almost everyday!) than at college. It’s the hectic schedule, I tell you! This also explains why I’ve done next to nothing in the last two days.</p>
<p>I still remember the first Skype conversation I ever had - it was some two years ago; I was using Skype from my PSP (my PC didn’t have a mic) and I spoke to one of my friends in the US in what was probably a very unnecessarily excited voice.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Go watch Kung Fu Panda 2 now!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meLove at first sight2011-05-29T20:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/love-at-first-sight<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m-KdSuB-_N8/TeLCMsM-oSI/AAAAAAAAARw/79SgG_gnF8k/s1600/guitar.jpg">
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m-KdSuB-_N8/TeLCMsM-oSI/AAAAAAAAARw/79SgG_gnF8k/s1600/guitar.jpg" alt="\m/" />
</a>
<figcaption>\m/</figcaption>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meInfinite Loop2011-05-01T18:58:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/infinite-loop<p>What do we have here? Exams around the corner + a bored yours truly who doesn’t want to study, of course.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_X5GjQsnf1w/Tb2rtbF_zfI/AAAAAAAAARs/HbwvEOjc8sQ/s1600/Infinite+Loop+2.png">
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_X5GjQsnf1w/Tb2rtbF_zfI/AAAAAAAAARs/HbwvEOjc8sQ/s1600/Infinite+Loop+2.png" alt="This is what you get when, in a remote login session to another computer, you try remote logging in back to your own." />
</a>
<figcaption>This is what you get when, in a remote login session to another computer, you try remote logging in back to your own.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Et <em>voilà</em>!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.mePost Production2011-04-13T23:31:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/post-production<p><a href="http://hall13.net/">Hall 13</a> Production!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UNeGS-c8VCM/TaYtxD5jMGI/AAAAAAAAARk/OhMdzuClcN4/s1600/photo-1.jpeg">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UNeGS-c8VCM/TaYtxD5jMGI/AAAAAAAAARk/OhMdzuClcN4/s1600/photo-1.jpeg" alt="We did an adaptation of Tennessee William's <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_hot_tin_roof'>Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</a>, at Alliance Francaise de Singapour." />
</a>
<figcaption>We did an adaptation of Tennessee William's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_hot_tin_roof">Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</a>, at Alliance Francaise de Singapour.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To cut a somewhat long story short, I acted in a proper play for the first time in my life, and was it fun or was it fun? Not only did the actual play go down pretty well (the audience definitely laughed at moments we never considered funny [this, we decided, was a good thing]) but the whole experience was also quite fantastic. Long daily rehearsals (especially in the last ten days leading to the play) where we’d randomly burst out laughing in the middle of a sombre scene (I wish we’d taken bloopers videos), ordering extra packets of chilli sauce from McDonald’s so much so that the lady taking my order said she’d need to get it cleared by her manager, practicing voice warm-ups that would’ve made any eavesdropper suspect of a lack of mental faculties on the other side of the door, the crazy I-will-never-forget-it car ride with the cast, director and writer the night before the play which I’m sure puts a large number of roller-coasters to shame (don’t worry Maggie, I enjoyed every minute of it, contrary to all the seemingly-terrified yells you might have heard from the back seat), being forced to get make-up put on my face (I swear the girls got a tonne of sadistic pleasure from putting heavy make-up on all the guys), the tired-but-happy journey back from Alliance Francaise at 2 a.m. after the play (by lorry, no less) – all I can say is, thank goodness I decided to turn up for auditions and decided to stick with it despite the time in the middle when I was feeling rather unenthusiastic about It All.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iLrAVBu--pY/TaYtxZTUk2I/AAAAAAAAARo/fqX9pXU24ZY/s1600/photo.jpeg">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iLrAVBu--pY/TaYtxZTUk2I/AAAAAAAAARo/fqX9pXU24ZY/s1600/photo.jpeg" alt="The main set for the play. Props to the props guys!" />
</a>
<figcaption>The main set for the play. Props to the props guys!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But now that the radiance of the hall production has been dulled by its culmination, I once again find myself taking a look at how gloriously devoid of work my life isn’t. I really have to commend this semester for smoothly succeeding in putting <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/week-12-is-starting-on-monday-seriously/">the previous one</a> well and truly to shame. This time around, I’ve barely been in touch with even my family and close friends, leave alone anyone else.</p>
<p>Take a look at all the work I had/have to complete this week:</p>
<ol>
<li>Red Cross website - Monday</li>
<li>Red Cross Subcomm Appreciation Night video - Tuesday</li>
<li>CSC105 Lab 7 assignment - Thursday</li>
<li>CSC104 Lab 5 logbook - Thursday</li>
<li>Group Marketing Plan + Presentation - Friday</li>
<li>CSC110 Test B (final exam!) - Friday</li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the fact that none of those items have been struck through isn’t because it slipped my mind.</p>
<p>And did I mention I have exams coming up in May? Four papers on three consecutive days – fantastic, don’t you think?</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: How in the world am I to fit all my stuff under a 20 kg luggage limit when I go back home for the summer?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe illusion of control2011-03-01T20:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/illusion-of-control<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CKCQnoiYujg/TW1Ocfz_VlI/AAAAAAAAAQg/qdhP_oPvfSs/s1600/kung_fu_panda_peach_tree.jpg">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CKCQnoiYujg/TW1Ocfz_VlI/AAAAAAAAAQg/qdhP_oPvfSs/s1600/kung_fu_panda_peach_tree.jpg" alt="You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach." />
</a>
<figcaption>You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Oogway</strong>: … until you let go of the illusion of control.</p>
<p><strong>Shifu</strong>: Illusion?</p>
<p><strong>Oogway</strong>: Yes.
Look at this tree, Shifu: I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time.</p>
<p><strong>Shifu</strong>: But there are things we <em>can</em> control: I can control when the fruit will fall, I can control where to plant the seed: that is no illusion, Master!</p>
<p><strong>Oogway</strong>: Ah, yes. But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.</p>
<p>— <a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2261620224/tt0441773"><em>Kung Fu Panda</em></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Need</em> to get things back in order.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>. A blog post on <a href="http://www.ironmaiden.com/press-cuttings.html">The Concert</a> is long overdue.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMeh to you, Air India!2011-02-01T21:19:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/meh-to-you-air-india<p>And I’m back in <del>sunny</del> oh-my-god-it’s-like-living-in-a-waterfall rainy Singapore with more than a week of college shamelessly waving me goodbye. What with college starting, the helplessly annoying course registration procedure, a Sumo wrestler-load of Red Cross work, casting calls for Hall 13’s Production, being stranded in a remote industrial area of Singapore, the dramatic first batch outing of the new year, and all those small but add-to-the-list-of-things-you-ended-up-thinking-about things, it’s a flaming miracle that my head is still intact. Thankfully, a couple of holidays for the Chinese New Year (rabbits!) are coming up, but nowadays even holidays think that it’s their prerogative to be not devoid of work.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TUh3RfSWlBI/AAAAAAAAAQE/z1Px3d2So5k/s1600/Daily_Life_by_Ennokni.jpg">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TUh3RfSWlBI/AAAAAAAAAQE/z1Px3d2So5k/s1600/Daily_Life_by_Ennokni.jpg" alt="Round and round, here we go again." />
</a>
<figcaption>Round and round, here we go again.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Incidentally, my flight back via Air India – quite unlike Jet Airways’ – was remarkable in what I wouldn’t look back on and call a “good way”. The air hostess(es) decided that it’s quite the idea to turn up the air-conditioner because there weren’t enough blankets (honestly, did they not know they were flying out of Delhi in mid-winter?), the cabin crew religiously ignored the summoning light thing above my seat as they walked past it several times, the in-flight entertainment made me double check if I was in the correct decade (and I have only Jet Airways’ to compare it to), and one air hostess’s hinting at my being too young to drink (I don’t blame her, but I don’t like her) made me resort to one of my infamous eyerolls.</p>
<p>Oh, and I also managed to drop my guitar at the security check at the airport (I was annoyed at myself for forgetting that scissors are indeed sharp) and later found that it had cracked. It still sounds fine, thankfully. By the way, while we’re on the subject of guitars, <em>guess</em> what someone bought in his winter holidays?!</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TUh2n9sLGII/AAAAAAAAAQA/VnWHHEU46JE/s1600/IMG_0034.JPG">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TUh2n9sLGII/AAAAAAAAAQA/VnWHHEU46JE/s1600/IMG_0034.JPG" alt="Oh yes, I did." />
</a>
<figcaption>Oh yes, I did.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The guitar-buying, though, happens to be the only thing that crossed itself off my very short list of holiday plans, so saying that I was satisfied with that three-week break would be like calling Mount Everest rather short.</p>
<p>Ah well, a jam-packed semester sadistically beckons, so with your leave I think I must … <em>having writ, move on</em>.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Next time remind me to take extra watch batteries.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWeek 12 is starting on Monday, seriously?!2010-11-20T17:32:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/week-12-is-starting-on-monday-seriously<p>Whoa there. You’re kidding right? Of course you are! Because if Week 12 is starting (the entire semester here is divided into numbered weeks), it means I’ve been in Singapore for more than 13 weeks, and 13 weeks is a little over 3 months and 3 months is … well, <em>impossible</em>. I mean, okay, I know I’ve been here at least a month, but come on, <em>three</em>? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>Let me tell you a bit of what I’ve been up to since I got here. You’ll realize it can’t have been that long!</p>
<p>So on 27 August, I left Delhi by Jet Airways (which, by the way, happens to be my favourite airline right now because they reserved a seat on the plane just for my guitar – <em>for free</em>, might I add), finally reached this “fine” city sometime in the evening, got a taste of Singapore’s exorbitant prices at the airport store, asked for a regular taxi that turned out to be a Mercedes, checked in to the hotel, went walking around looking for dinner (and found some at a place called “Queen’s Tandoor”), and badly missed having my camera.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOb5MQLAPQI/AAAAAAAAAPA/YQyWM_MreRc/s1600/Photo+0015.jpg">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOb5MQLAPQI/AAAAAAAAAPA/YQyWM_MreRc/s1600/Photo+0015.jpg" alt="The view from the plane. Just like any view from a plane, really." />
</a>
<figcaption>The view from the plane. Just like any view from a plane, really.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two days later, I checked into my room on campus – I was assigned to one of the halls that were renovated for the <a href="http://www.singapore2010.sg/public/sg2010/en.html">Youth Olympic Games</a> (which is clearly good) but were only vacated the previous day and were consequently not cleaned properly (which is bad; I still find the occasional spider lurking in a corner sometimes).</p>
<p>That was the week before Week 1.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOb_ns9BHgI/AAAAAAAAAPE/orVbZVNuo4A/s1600/IMGP0097.JPG">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOb_ns9BHgI/AAAAAAAAAPE/orVbZVNuo4A/s1600/IMGP0097.JPG" alt="Hall 13 and 14. Or well, my block in Hall 13 and some block of Hall 14." />
</a>
<figcaption>Hall 13 and 14. Or well, my block in Hall 13 and some block of Hall 14.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Week 1</strong> started with the standard “Hello, welcome to this huge university in which you are going to be lost quite often, literally and figuratively” ceremonies, ended with an Indian Freshmen Orientation “Camp” and was greeted with great delight and excitement in the middle by my <em>finally</em> purchasing a Mac (well, MacBook Pro, but that’s irrelevant). YES I FINALLY GOT A MAC AFTER WANTING ONE EVER SINCE I SAW IT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN CLASS <strong>SEVEN</strong> WHICH HAPPENS TO BE WAY TOO LONG AGO!</p>
<p>That led to <strong>Weeks 2</strong> and <strong>3</strong>, which basically consisted of the commencement of classes (i.e., the time to religiously attend all lectures and make other soon-to-be-broken similar resolutions), the ECA fair (where I signed up for some <a href="http://clubs.ntu.edu.sg/aikido">very</a> <a href="http://clubs.ntu.edu.sg/ff/">random</a> clubs, most of which I didn’t end up joining), and my desperate wanting of a camera, which I did not end up buying.</p>
<p><strong>Week 4</strong> brings back memories of the time when I heard <a href="http://www.singaporegp.sg/">the F1 race</a> while standing outside the City Hall MRT station (that was such a fail moment), after which I was accosted by the guard standing outside the City Hall MRT station, both of which kind of temporarily dampened the beauty of my just-purchased camera from the mall near the City Hall MRT station.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf_dNXalyI/AAAAAAAAAPY/g6Ccrg-EodY/s1600/PA030069.jpg">
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf_dNXalyI/AAAAAAAAAPY/g6Ccrg-EodY/s1600/PA030069.jpg" alt="Pentax Optio H90. Taken with an Olympus." />
</a>
<figcaption>Pentax Optio H90. Taken with an Olympus.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then <strong>Week 6</strong> ended with a trip to Sentosa (I say “trip” because we left at 6.30 in the morning and returned at 9 at night) for Red Cross Subcommittee Orientation. More on Red Cross later, but suffice to say, it was a <em>lot</em> of fun.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOcBLO75J3I/AAAAAAAAAPI/0rYtvOYEhys/s1600/IMGP0237.JPG">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOcBLO75J3I/AAAAAAAAAPI/0rYtvOYEhys/s1600/IMGP0237.JPG" alt="“Follow the Footsteps”; one of the games I was in-charge of and cleverly used trees to complicate." />
</a>
<figcaption>“Follow the Footsteps”; one of the games I was in-charge of and cleverly used trees to complicate.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then came <strong>Week 7</strong> (the Thursday of which was interesting) followed by <strong>Recess Week</strong> (which ended sooner than it began) in which I attended a fun Dandiya Night, went all the way to Marina Bay Sands to see the <a href="http://www.marinabaysands.com/SandsSkypark/Sands_Sky_Park.aspx">Skypark</a> but reached too late, and then camped for a night in East Coast Park. Okay, so I guess it wasn’t camping because we had no tents or sleeping bags or campfires and didn’t even actually sleep, but it was a hell lot of fun, despite my being dunked into the ocean some three times.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf1t-xJMAI/AAAAAAAAAPM/fZG8VsKxxGo/s1600/IMGP0481_edited.jpg">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf1t-xJMAI/AAAAAAAAAPM/fZG8VsKxxGo/s1600/IMGP0481_edited.jpg" alt="As we waited for the sunrise (which we didn't actually see thanks to <a href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11606711'>The Haze</a>)." />
</a>
<figcaption>As we waited for the sunrise (which we didn't actually see thanks to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11606711">The Haze</a>).</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>November 3, incidentally, happens to be the day I came to know that <a href="http://www.ironmaiden.com/index.php?categoryid=8&p2_articleid=1272"><strong>Iron Maiden is coming to Singapore</strong></a>. If you don’t know why this was worth mentioning, may I direct your attention <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.com/2007/09/now-way-no-fair.html">somewhere</a> <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.com/2007/03/beast-over-bangalore.html">else</a>.</p>
<p>The tickets were kinda expensive (especially if you consider the price they were in India) but what the heck, I have to make use of the money relatives give me sometime, don’t I? Booking opened at 12 a.m. on 9 November and three of my friends and I kept refreshing the booking page in excitement, nearly booked eight tickets instead of four, and began yelling madly when we saw the “Booking Confirmation” page. Iron Maiden, oh <em>yes</em>.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf4DFvLyNI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/TPvuJOVwatQ/s1600/IMGP0558.JPG">
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf4DFvLyNI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/TPvuJOVwatQ/s1600/IMGP0558.JPG" alt="Up the Irons! <em>Finally.</em>" />
</a>
<figcaption>Up the Irons! <em>Finally.</em></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now 9 November happens to fall in <strong>Week 10</strong>, if my calendar is to be believed. Continuing along the same believe-the-calendar line of thought, the Harry Potter 7 outing yesterday (in which nearly 80 tickets for the show were booked) was the close of <strong>Week 11</strong>.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf6NChpd9I/AAAAAAAAAPU/u_bFxdrF_JM/s1600/IMGP0560.JPG">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/TOf6NChpd9I/AAAAAAAAAPU/u_bFxdrF_JM/s1600/IMGP0560.JPG" alt="11 tickets. Of 80, yes." />
</a>
<figcaption>11 tickets. Of 80, yes.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oh damn. It <em>has</em> been more than 3 months.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: By the way, I do think that HP7 was better than all the previous ones. Which isn’t saying much, but still. Though what I found strange was how so many scenes were actually a lot more dramatic and better represented in the book. Ah well, I know I can never actually be a fan of the movies.</p>
<p><strong>PPS</strong>: There was (obviously) a lot more happening, but I’ll leave that for another time. Suffice to say, college is damn hectic.</p>
<p><strong>PPPS</strong>: Long post, whew. I’ve been trying to write almost every day since I got here, but somehow or the other it never quite happens.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFor those of you who didn't know ...2010-09-22T20:20:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/for-those-of-you-who-didnt-know<p>…I’m in Singapore.</p>
<p>And <em>damn</em>, is college life hectic!</p>
<hr />
<blockquote>
<p>The Road goes ever on and on<br />
Down from the door where it began.<br />
Now far ahead the Road has gone,<br />
And I must follow, if I can,<br />
Pursuing it with eager feet,<br />
Until it joins some larger way<br />
Where many paths and errands meet.<br />
And whither then? I cannot say.<br />
— <em>The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: Yes, I was going to do a <em>much</em> better farewell post before I went, but things kind of snowballed towards the end and it got left behind. Extensive posts are in the pipeline, though.</p>
<p><strong>PPS</strong>: Yes, I know that just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean you haven’t; I’m going to get back around to commenting pretty soon.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meStanding Still2010-08-09T22:30:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/standing-still<p>There you stand, eyes closed, completely still. A bright morning sun shines on you from behind. A hint of a breeze tickles the tips of your ears. The smell of pine needles and grass. The soft sound of water running over pebbles.</p>
<p>You open your eyes. Twigs crackle softly as you turn around, looking. There’s a small stream just a few steps ahead, stretching endlessly in either direction. The water sparkles in the sunlight. You have to cross the stream, reach the other side. It is narrow enough to just step over. You know you want to. But still you stand, watching the water flow past.</p>
<p>Your eyes blink. The blades of grass rustle as you walk forwards – they’re much longer now. The stream looks bigger, and further away. For some reason, that doesn’t seem strange at all – it’s almost as though you were expecting it. You walk towards it. You’re going to leap over to the other side, of course you are. You know you ought to. But still you stand, watching the water running by.</p>
<p>You give yourself a shake; how long have you been standing? It’s growing dark. The trees make creaking noises as the wind shakes their boughs. The dark water has the silent sound of a river. You can wade across, surely. You know you have to. But still you stand, watching the water surge ahead.</p>
<p>Now wait a second – where did the opposite bank go? There, far ahead in the distance – you can barely see it. The water’s moving much faster now. Little waves dash against the rocks. It smells saline. Perhaps you can row across. You know you need to. But still you stand, watching the water splash over stones.</p>
<p>The wind is whistling through your ears. You’re running towards that huge water body, many fathoms away. The far bank is but a memory. As you reach closer, you can’t remember if you ever learnt to swim. But that’s not important right now. The other side is. That opposite bank – it had it! That thing you’ve always wanted.</p>
<p>As you dive in, water filling your ears and your eyes, your weight taking you to its depths, the suffocating silence seems to ask: <em>did you stand too long</em>?</p>
<hr />
<p>A bright morning sun shines on two children playing near a rivulet. Shading his eyes against the light, one of them looks towards the water and suddenly exclaims, “Oh look! Someone’s recently been on this side of the stream! Now that’s something that hasn’t happened in a very long time…”</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe Summer 2010 Movie List2010-07-20T18:30:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/summer-2010-movie-list<p>I have a strong strange feeling that this list should be somewhat longer, but oh well, this will have to do.</p>
<p>I dislike writing reviews on account of redundancy so …</p>
<ol>
<li><em>Dead Poets Society</em>: No.</li>
<li><em>Seven Pounds</em>: Not really. Well, maybe.</li>
<li><em>Slumdog Millionaire</em>: Probably.</li>
<li><em>(500) days of Summer</em>: Yeah, kinda.</li>
<li><em>Across the Universe</em>: Perhaps until I know the Beatles better.</li>
<li><em>The Fast and the Furious</em>: No!</li>
<li><em>Fast & Furious</em>: No!</li>
<li><em>Pan’s Labyrinth</em>: No. Yes. (Maybe not sometime soon?)</li>
<li><em>Six Degrees of Separation</em>: Probably.</li>
<li><em>The Dark Knight</em>: A little.</li>
<li><em>The Matrix Reloaded</em>: No!</li>
<li><em>The Matrix Revolutions</em>: No!</li>
<li><em>How to Train a Dragon</em>: A little?</li>
<li><em>Iron Man 2</em>: Nah.</li>
<li><em>Prince of Persia</em>: Yeah.</li>
<li><em>Shutter Island</em>: I think so.</li>
<li><em>Knight and Day</em>: No. (Well, not really)</li>
<li><em>Inception</em>: No! (Not. At. All!)</li>
</ol>
<p>… this answers whether or not I’d be reluctant to watch these again. (A better expression of a movie’s worth, if you ask me. <em>I wonder why no one does ask me…</em>)</p>
<p>PS. My <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/it-all-started-when-internet-stopped/">cellphone woes</a> are <em>still</em> not over, can you believe that?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meIt all started when the internet stopped working2010-07-01T20:10:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/it-all-started-when-internet-stopped<p>Sometime last week, my internet stopped working in the middle of the night. Apparently the phone was dead. You know why? Because someone, in a stroke of genius, decided that it would be a rather neat idea to walk off with MTNL’s telephone cables. Yes, seriously, <em>telephone cables</em> which – of all things – I have no idea why anyone would bother to steal. Maybe it was to prove that telephones cannot in fact work without them. We knew that already, thank you very much.</p>
<p>Shortly after that, my cellphone stopped working. But it didn’t just stop working, you see. First its balance went into the negative (this was probably because I was using it to check my email as a consequence of the aforementioned catastrophe). Then my free SMSes finished. When I finally got it recharged and realized that the GPRS wasn’t working, I tried to restart it. I got as far as switching it off, but that’s when it refused to switch on again.</p>
<p>I mean, what the heck? It was working perfectly, and I’ve never done anything to it (well, barring <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/when-guitar-meets-cellphone/">cracking its screen</a> by letting my guitar fall on it) and now it’s reduced to the state of a fancy paperweight? Gadgets these days, I tell you.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my internet started working at the rather strange cost of my other landline. This was promptly followed by my drawing room AC and computer room AC loudly proclaiming that it was indeed a little too hot. They protested by conking off (for all intents and purposes) in rapid succession and my bedroom AC tried to join in by making the strangest noises ever, accompanied by very suspicious odours from its stabilizer.</p>
<p><em>Then</em> my landline started working while I discovered that the old mobile phone I was using in place of my comatose one had a talktime of practically 20 minutes, which basically removed any meaning of the word “mobile” from it.</p>
<p>Oh, and I also found that my house is infested with termites. Enchanting. Especially since they seem to like my room a whole lot. The trouble is, I do too and I’d really rather not have my cupboard door coming off in my hands the next time I open it.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lSkiR8I0oWk/SpNg5o3LqTI/AAAAAAAAG90/XzJ63nkE4Yk/s1600/PARAABdloweTermite.jpg">
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lSkiR8I0oWk/SpNg5o3LqTI/AAAAAAAAG90/XzJ63nkE4Yk/s1600/PARAABdloweTermite.jpg" alt="Well, this does explain why I sense a larger number of earthquakes than my friends. (Image from <a href='http://www.paraabnormalthecomic.com/'>Para Abnormal</a>)" />
</a>
<figcaption>Well, this does explain why I sense a larger number of earthquakes than my friends. (Image from <a href="http://www.paraabnormalthecomic.com/">Para Abnormal</a>)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oh and <em>then</em> (you didn’t think this was over, did you?) – the other night at 4 am, as I was searching for the realms of Sleep, I was suddenly made to (very very hastily) exit my room. My AC, in its attempt to one-up the others, decided it would try to make the stabilizer catch fire. The orange glow under my desk and a freakish number of huge orange sparks was quite a good attempt in my opinion.</p>
<p><del>And that, is all.</del> Who knows what the future may behold?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meBah, humbug2010-05-27T19:45:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/bah-humbug<p>It’s just one of Those Days, you know?</p>
<p><strong>PS:</strong> I’ve finally gotten around to updating my blogroll. I’m still at it, though.</p>
<p><strong>PPS:</strong> <em>Is</em> one supposed to thank those people who like one’s photos and statuses on Facebook?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhy you should not enter a mall from an unfamiliar entrance2010-05-20T14:45:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/why-you-should-not-enter-mall-from<p>Last week (or the week before, or perhaps the week before that) I decided to go to one of the malls near my house, because (a) I hadn’t been there for some time (the fact that I’ve <em>never</em> been to the mall right beside this one is irrelevant), and (b) I wanted to buy something.</p>
<p>Now this mall — like most others I suppose — has multiple entrances, plus since it’s still rather new, new ones seem to keep opening up every time I visit. So my dad, sister and I reached the mall and found ourselves outside a new entrance. Dad was all <em>“Noooo, let’s enter from the other side, I’ll get all disoriented this way!”</em> while I rolled my eyes and walked in.</p>
<p>The first sign that something wasn’t quite right was the absence of <a href="http://www.ombooks.com/">Om Book Shop</a> from the first floor (this was actually the second sign, the first being the lack of stalls on the ground floor, but I didn’t attribute that to anything fishy). I mean, come on, a bookstore can’t just vanish! More disconcertingly, I realized that couldn’t even pinpoint exactly where on the first floor it had been. All I remembered were the big glass doors with “<a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/yuiop/">Upto 90% SALE!</a>” written on them.</p>
<p>After circuiting the floor twice, I finally realized that the bookstore wasn’t going to just appear from nowhere, so I directed myself to the second floor.</p>
<p>And there it was, inexplicably right in front of me, big glass doors and all! Granted, it was much smaller and the bookshelves were of a better quality of wood, but that hardly seems to explain how it got there.</p>
<p>I shrugged and went in.</p>
<p>And found myself once again wishing that bookstores had some kind of advanced book-locating technology. You know, the kind where you <del>type the name of the book in a computer</del> think of a book and the corresponding shelf lights up. It can’t be that hard, can it? Anyway, I had to satisfy myself by turning my neck sideways and peering at names of books till I could find none of the ones I wanted to buy, and all the ones I wanted to read (<em>edit</em>: the <em>first</em> is obviously a subset of the <em>second</em>). I finally went to the dude at the counter and rattled off about ten titles (<em>you</em> try telling him to look for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godel,_Escher,_Bach">Gödel, Escher, Bach</a>). <em>All</em> the books I mentioned were out of stock. I mean, seriously.</p>
<p>Then I spotted some Tintins. I reached towards them and—</p>
<p>—saw that they were in Hindi.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_jai-hind-says-tintin_1369625">When</a> did this even happen? Though now I vaguely remember one of my friends telling me that Snowy’s name is <em>Natkhat</em> in the Hindi version. Yeeah, <em>Natkhat</em>.</p>
<p>There wasn’t much to it after that. After the bookshop debacle, I was subsequently betrayed by two music stores, as well as <a href="http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/index.aspx">Subway</a>’s Sub of the Day.</p>
<p>I suppose I shouldn’t have rolled my eyes like that in the beginning.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTears of the Dragon2010-05-07T12:30:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/tears-of-dragon<blockquote>
<p>For too long now,<br />
There were secrets in my mind<br />
For too long now,<br />
There were things I should have said;<br />
In the darkness,<br />
I was stumbling for the door<br />
To find a reason,<br />
To find the time, the place, the hour</p>
<p>Waiting for the winter sun<br />
And the cold light of day<br />
The misty ghosts of childhood fears,<br />
The pressure is building<br />
And I can’t stay away;</p>
<p><em>I throw myself into the sea<br />
Release the wave,<br />
Let it wash over me<br />
To face the fear<br />
I once believed<br />
The tears of the dragon<br />
For you and for me</em></p>
<p>Where I was,<br />
I had wings that couldn’t fly<br />
Where I was,<br />
I had tears I couldn’t cry<br />
My emotions<br />
Frozen in an icy lake<br />
I couldn’t feel them,<br />
Until the ice began to break</p>
<p>I have no power over this<br />
You know I’m afraid;<br />
The walls I built are crumbling<br />
The water is moving<br />
I’m slipping away</em></p>
<p><em>I throw myself into the sea<br />
Release the wave,<br />
Let it wash over me<br />
To face the fear<br />
I once believed<br />
The tears of the dragon<br />
For you and for me</em></p>
<p>Slowly I awake,<br />
Slowly I rise,<br />
The walls I built are crumbling<br />
The water is moving<br />
I’m slipping away</em></p>
<p><em>I throw myself into the sea<br />
Release the wave,<br />
Let it wash over me<br />
To face the fear<br />
I once believed<br />
The tears of the dragon<br />
For you and for me.</em></p>
<p>—Bruce Dickinson, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_Of_The_Dragon"><cite>Tears of the Dragon</cite></a></p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3581/3451997181_fbb684f475.jpg">
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3581/3451997181_fbb684f475.jpg" alt="Love of black sand by <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriel/'>Andri Elfarsson</a>" />
</a>
<figcaption>Love of black sand by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriel/">Andri Elfarsson</a></figcaption>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meBlrghh2010-04-26T20:34:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/blrghh<p>I really really really <em>really</em> don’t like being sick.</p>
<p><em>Especially</em> colds. They’re so … annoying. Because you feel way worse than you really are (I mean, no fever, for heaven’s sake!)</p>
<p>Pshht.</p>
<p>Stuff has been happening. Or rather, not happening even though it needs too. Now if only it could happen on its own …</p>
<p>[No, there’s no need to scratch your heads, even I know I’m not making sense].</p>
<p>Don’t you find <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=text-killer&defid=4005945">text-killers</a> so <em>annoying</em>?</p>
<p>Later!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMoving to Antarctica sounds like a fabulous plan right about now2010-03-24T11:24:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/moving-to-antarctica-sounds-like<p>It’s 39 degrees.<br />
In March.<br />
<em>Thirty nine</em> degrees. In <em>March</em>.<br />
What is happening?!</p>
<p>And more importantly, if it’s <em>already</em> thirty nine degrees, what’ll happen in May?</p>
<p>And apparently, it was snowing in Dallas the other day.</p>
<p>I’m melting.</p>
<hr />
<p>Do you watch <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_idol_season_9">American Idol</a>? This is actually the first time I’m following it (in a manner of speaking) and yesterday I saw this amazing performance of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_it_black">Paint It Black</a> by Siobhan Magnus. You just have to watch it. Trust me.</p>
<iframe width="600" height="450" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VV6dDHaawtk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<hr />
<p>Printers, you see, are <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers">generally quite annoying</a>. My printer (so far, at least) has been quite well-behaved, considering it’s several years old. So of course, I just <em>had</em> to do something that would put a black mark against it, and last week presented me with the perfect opportunity.</p>
<p>You know how annoying it is when you try to cancel a print job in Windows? It almost never works, and then you can’t even print anything else until you log off and log on again. So I thought I’d found the perfect solution when I saw <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5495818/cancel-a-print-job-without-waiting-years">this Lifehacker article</a>. Just download the batch code, run it and — <em>et voila!</em> — print jobs cancelled! Great, right?</p>
<p>WRONG.</p>
<p>I downloaded the script to my desktop, ran it, figured something was fishy in it’s delete confirmation message and hence chose “No” and what do I get? Some random files from my desktop simply vanished before my eyes! [Yes, I blinked, just in case. Didn’t help.] None of the recovery programs I tried worked. Thank you <em>so</em> very much.</p>
<p>[NOTE: Lifehacker has since updated that post - there was an error in the script - so you can safely download it and it might (gasp) actually work]</p>
<hr />
<p>I’ve started working! As a web developer for a company. True, the work isn’t much and it’s mostly from home, but it’s fun nevertheless. Apparently, someone’s going to be buying an electric guitar very soon.</p>
<p>Which reminds me, it’s been just over 2 years since I first got my guitar. And although I can play fairly well technique-wise, I know precious few songs. Hmm. Must … do … something … about … that.</p>
<hr />
<p>Blogger is annoying. It turns out that the embedded comment form doesn’t work in many mobile browsers. And it’s templating system is too restrictive. And all the changes they bring out are so late. I mean, they rolled out the Pages feature <em>now</em>. Wordpress has had it for aeons. I want my own hosted Wordpress.</p>
<p>Pfft.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meJava (no, not the coffee)2010-03-05T22:29:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/java-no-not-coffee<p>Remember those <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)">Java</a> classes I took <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/systemoutprintln/">once upon a time</a>? Of course you do(n’t).</p>
<p>Although it didn’t seem like it at that time, they were actually moving towards some tangible goal – the <a href="http://www.sun.com/training/catalog/courses/CX-310-065.xml">SCJP</a> exam. Which, incidentally, I found myself preparing for a couple of weeks ago despite it being several months since the classes had come to their inconsequential end. Ah well, better late than never as <a href="http://they.urbanup.com/1224096">they</a> say.</p>
<p>Despite my distinct lack of love for the language (object-oriented obsession, anyone?), the nature of the exam (I am <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14810/taking-the-scjp-exam/16042#16042"><em>not</em> a compiler</a>), and its questionable use from my point of view (there’s better stuff out there!) Feb 16 found me duly surveying the locked door to a Prometric testing center.</p>
<p>In the spirit of organization, I had already asked the in-charge what I’d need to bring for identity verification. Of course, the universe delights in snatching opportunities (imagined or otherwise) that enable people to pat themselves on their backs, and so I was told that I would need to get my passport <em>photocopied</em>.</p>
<p>Which I did, and consequently found myself in front of the Prometric center’s door once again.</p>
<p>Then I was told to get my now-famous <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/if-u-r-driving-in-wrong-direction-god/">learner’s license</a> photocopied.</p>
<p>Which I did, and once again found myself surveying the now all-too-familiar Door (which by now had been elevated to capital-letter status).</p>
<p><em>Then</em> I was made to go to my teacher and get my (nonexistent) ID from him. My teacher, by the way, who hadn’t seen or heard of me for six months and had also pointedly ignored all my electronic pleas for advice on the exam, greeted me like he totally knew who I was.</p>
<p>So this time I breezed into the Prometric room, giving the Door quite a cold shoulder. I was made to sign in a dozen different places (I compromised by making subtly different variations of my signature). They even took my thumbprint (do I <em>really</em> <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/if-u-r-driving-in-wrong-direction-god/#terrorist">look like a terrorist</a>?)</p>
<p>Then I was led through a hitherto unseen door into a room lined with terminals guarded by a black and white camera. All was silent as I shifted the monitor, keyboard, mouse and my chair by a few arbitrary millimeters, stared at my watch and examined the sheet I was to use for rough work.</p>
<p>Then I turned to the screen and began reading the first question.</p>
<p>Which was when the in-charge sitting outside began getting ever so many phone calls (including one from someone with my name - I spent several consequent minutes wondering if I was being spoken to) and I realized exactly how sound-proof the exam room wasn’t.</p>
<p>Oh, and three hours later, I found that I had passed.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: If you ever get the feeling that the monitor in a Prometric center is a tad too close to your face, whatever you do, DO NOT PUSH IT BACKWARDS!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhen a guitar meets a cellphone2010-02-19T19:35:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/when-guitar-meets-cellphone<p>Pretty things do <em>not</em> happen.</p>
<p>[The guitar wins, by the way, in case you were wondering.]</p>
<p>On another note, I’ve been updating the design a little bit. If the fancy dates aren’t working (they’re not if they don’t look fancy), you really <a href="http://getfirefox.com/">need</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">a</a> <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">better</a> <a href="http://www.opera.com/">browser</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Apparently, short posts are <a href="http://ishmeet.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/derivatives/">quite</a> <a href="http://vpande.wordpress.com/">famous</a> as of now. Though this isn’t my first one of course (unless <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/to-succinctly-restate-obvious/">hiatus-informing</a> ones aren’t included, and really, why shouldn’t they be?)</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFists of Steel2010-01-27T22:11:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/fists-of-steel<p>He stood motionless, staring at the blank wall.</p>
<p>What was that thing in Eragon? Those metal studs embedded in the knuckles of a dwarf? Oh yes. <em>Ascûdgamln</em>. The punch-through-anything fists of steel.</p>
<p>He looked down at his own hand. At the steel studs protruding from his balled fist. He looked up at the wall. So … unblemished. Raised his hand and—</p>
<p>—watched as the little pieces of plaster fell from where his fist had punched a hole through the cement. He jerked his hand free, dislodging more pieces which made little pattering sounds as they fell on the wooden floor.</p>
<p>There. That felt better. It didn’t change anything though. It never did.</p>
<p>He stood motionless, staring at the blank wall. Smooth and undamaged once again.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me“Elementary, my dear Watson – it's Hollywood!”2010-01-15T20:59:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/elementary-my-dear-watson-its-hollywood<p>With that — and my love for the <em>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</em> — put out of the way, I have to (no, really) say that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/">Sherlock Holmes</a> turned out to be a pretty great movie. It’s true that they pretty much reinvented every character — heck they have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Adler">Irene Adler</a> in it, as a <em>femme fatale</em> and Holmes’ <em>love interest</em> (Sherlock Holmes in <em>love</em>?) — but it still has more than its fair share of ‘Oooh’s and ‘Aaah’s.</p>
<p>I <del>arrived late</del> arrived quite early but entered the cinema hall late (gallantry should be outlawed) consequently missing a whole minute of cinematography, but considerably lesser of significance (or so I tell myself). The good thing about the story is that the main plot has been completely pulled out of thin air — and it’s pretty good. Thankfully, they didn’t try to adapt one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, which would’ve been disastrous given all the reinventions, to say the least.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dg7rR6YXzNI/UT9xY-z6dDI/AAAAAAAAAew/LFzhHSP62AM/s1600/holmesadler.jpg">
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dg7rR6YXzNI/UT9xY-z6dDI/AAAAAAAAAew/LFzhHSP62AM/s1600/holmesadler.jpg" alt="Ah, yes. <em>The</em> woman." />
</a>
<figcaption>Ah, yes. <em>The</em> woman.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oh just by the way, I did <em>not</em> like whoever plays Mary Morstan. Don’t ask me why.</p>
<p>And Robert Downey Jr’s fingers are way too think for any kind of violin playing. The violin on the score was a nice touch, though.</p>
<p>Basically, if you haven’t already, then go watch it! And leave that copy of Ballantine’s <em>Sherlock Holmes</em> behind.</p>
<p><strong>PS</strong>: DT’s intermissions are OMG-the-movie-is-back-get-your-stupid-cappuccino-and-Diet-Coke-<em>quick</em>! too short.</p>
<p><em>Yes, I’m back. This is my new abrupt style of not giving pointless explanations for blog negligence.</em></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me“If u r driving in the wrong direction, God will provide ‘U’ turns”2009-09-24T14:09:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/if-u-r-driving-in-wrong-direction-god<p>So I finally, finally, <em>finally</em> went and got my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learner's_permit">Learner’s License</a>. (From the Vasant Vihar RTO. Which says it’s open on weekdays till 1 pm, except not really.) You have to go to this counter-thingy inside the gate which has “Learner’s License” written above it in large, not-so-friendly letters (although that could just be my imagination and their rain-washed character). There’s a guy sitting there eating biscuits and drinking tea, on finishing which, he’ll say that there are only ten minutes before the counter closes. You simultaneously stare at your watch and all the people <del>in the queue</del> in front of you (tricky, btw) while wondering whether the guy sniffling and coughing behind you has <a href="http://xkcd.com/574/">swine flu</a> or not. If you eventually reach the counter, the guy will glance through your form, circle a few things (which can be disconcerting for those who aren’t used to Physics teachers circling lab experiment readings), ask you to sign in a dozen places, and also casually mention that those sweet <em>biskuts</em> get stuck in his teeth. Incidentally, mentioning that he may have cavities is rather futile. Oh and for the residence proof, though the passport is — in His own (translated) words — “the quintessential age and residence proof”, take it only if you want to field requests for taking him along on your next trip abroad.</p>
<p>Anyway, after that you have to go inside the main building. The room is pretty huge with counters along the walls and seats in the middle. They have ACs too, although it isn’t really cold because (as usual) the doors are open. You basically whizz from one counter to the other, paying 30 bucks (car only; another 30 for two-wheelers) at one, being insisted upon taking a license for two-wheelers at another (and just when you’ve decided to <del>give in</del> agree, they’ll tell you that it’s too much hassle because they’ve already made the receipt). Then you go to the next counter, the “Biom<em>a</em>trics” one. This is where they take your fingerprint, a miserable excuse for a digital signature and go out of their way to take the most horrifying photograph possible (which’ll make your mom say that you look like a <a name="terrorist">terrorist</a>, even as you half-heartedly deny such preposterous allegations).</p>
<p>After that you go get your photo taken again at another counter (don’t ask why) and they’ll give you a <em>huuuge</em> chart with road signs on one side and loads of stuff on the other (which you might not get time to read fully, because you didn’t know it was there). Then you have to sit at a computer and answer 20 questions in 20 minutes. The questions are multiple-choice ones with at least two choices being right in almost every question; sadly, you get to choose only one. (I could tell you some of the questions, except it would be useless since I don’t know the answers). You get to know if you passed soon after you finish the test. Then, if you pass, they give you the learner’s license (basically an A4 sheet with said horrible photo on it).</p>
<p>[Oh btw, all the stuff on that huge chart can be found at the Transport Dept website <a href="http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_transport/Transport/Home/Traffic+Rules+And+Regulations/">here</a>. They even have the <a href="http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_transport/Transport/Home/Downloads/Driving+License/">required forms available for download</a>. I’m impressed — I actually managed to find stuff on a government website without wanting to throw my mousepad at their marquee text.]</p>
<p><strong>N.B.</strong> If you’re wondering about the post title, you won’t once you go inside the main room and read what’s on those signs pasted everywhere.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meLight travels faster than sound2009-09-05T12:20:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/light-travels-faster-than-sound<p>I know that. In all probability, so do you. But <em>surely</em> that can’t be the reason why I’ve started noticing this time lag between sight and sound while watching just about any video? First it was reserved to YouTube videos mostly, but now I notice it with TV shows too.</p>
<p>So is my brain unable to process two things simultaneously, or is it not just me? :P</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSystem.out.println2009-08-19T18:46:45+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/systemoutprintln<p>So I’m taking these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Platform,_Standard_Edition">Java</a> classes.</p>
<p>They start at 1:30. The other students usually reach before me. They sit in silence, with the door closed and all the lights and ACs off. Everyone stares at the door till the teacher comes. The zips of my bag make very loud sounds as I open them. Our teacher looks at me and grins every time he uses the keyboard shortcut I pointed out to him. I make a feeble attempt at a chuckle.</p>
<p>Exaggeration <em>is</em> an infinite times worse than understatement.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meShrewsbury Summer2009-08-04T18:48:08+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/blog-post<p>I went to Pune! For a <em>holiday</em>. I mean, okay, Switzerland would’ve been much better, but still. And it’s funny how I always write <em>Pune</em> but read it in my head as <em>Poona</em>.</p>
<p>The weather was <em>awesome</em>. The day temperature was 26 degrees. <em>Day temperature!</em></p>
<p>The SpiceJet cabin crew did a very good job of pretending I was invisible. The air hostess also thought that <a href="http://partingthesilk.blogspot.com/">my sister’s</a> name was Govind. The air craft had <del>funny</del> odd instructions all over. Since I was sleep-deprived, I took photos of them. We also read all the jokes in the May <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader%27s_digest">Reader’s Digest</a> and kept randomly laughing.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-roAupVu9AUc/Ufqvutg5pUI/AAAAAAAAAuU/3RX64lR_C80/s628/DSC07445%2520SpiceJet%2520Door%2520Label.jpg">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-roAupVu9AUc/Ufqvutg5pUI/AAAAAAAAAuU/3RX64lR_C80/s628/DSC07445%2520SpiceJet%2520Door%2520Label.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OIAzQkzFPQ0/UfqvuoOlE6I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/YLC1gA3i4lA/s648/DSC07450-SpiceJet-Safety-Manual.jpg">
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OIAzQkzFPQ0/UfqvuoOlE6I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/YLC1gA3i4lA/s648/DSC07450-SpiceJet-Safety-Manual.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GB04mCdR8FY/Ufqvvcf8y6I/AAAAAAAAAug/ni0tAt8kTfk/s648/DSC07657-Spice-Jet-Flotation.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GB04mCdR8FY/Ufqvvcf8y6I/AAAAAAAAAug/ni0tAt8kTfk/s648/DSC07657-Spice-Jet-Flotation.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<p>You should visit the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_Palace">Aga Khan Palace</a>. Preferably when it’s drizzling. The automan will ask for 60 bucks from Pune Central to the Palace — a 7-minute ride. Even though your eyes will almost fall out you’ll give it to him, knowing it’s much cheaper than the Poona Darshan, which is useless anyway and for which, had you gone the following day, you would’ve got stuck in amongst the cats and dogs falling from the sky.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-guNWSFjLTYQ/UfqvvKc9nEI/AAAAAAAAAuo/axwWuK1S7vg/s648/DSC07519-Aga-Khan-Palace-Hedge.jpg">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-guNWSFjLTYQ/UfqvvKc9nEI/AAAAAAAAAuo/axwWuK1S7vg/s648/DSC07519-Aga-Khan-Palace-Hedge.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<p>We also saw <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/">The Hangover</a>. It was hilarious. Dunno why <a href="http://sancharib.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/jimmy-choo-stilettoes-anyone/">some people</a> didn’t like it.</p>
<p>Oh and, you <em>have</em> to buy Shrewsbury Biscuits. From Kayani Bakery. They’re heaven. You might as well not come back if you haven’t.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3131/2846142958_8ea6128baf.jpg">
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3131/2846142958_8ea6128baf.jpg" alt="Photo by <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/saanjay/'>saanjaybhatia</a>" />
</a>
<figcaption>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saanjay/">saanjaybhatia</a></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And I found Iron Maiden’s <em>Powerslave</em>. Completely by accident. I went to this Planet M for something and got to flipping through the Maiden discs and <em>boom</em> — there it was. I’ve been looking for three years. Epic win, yeah! <strong>\m/</strong>.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gVaXO5v3XGk/UfqvvwOtMuI/AAAAAAAAAus/B2w0tqvMCKo/s648/DSC07681%2520Iron%2520Maiden%2520-%2520Powerslave.jpg">
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gVaXO5v3XGk/UfqvvwOtMuI/AAAAAAAAAus/B2w0tqvMCKo/s648/DSC07681%2520Iron%2520Maiden%2520-%2520Powerslave.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<p><strong>N.B.</strong> The “new” domestic airport is pretty nice. They even have KFC! They also have “a new delhi everyday” printed on all the glass doors. I still don’t know what it means.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meIf no one buys a ticket to a movie, do they still show it?2009-06-25T18:47:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/if-no-one-buys-ticket-to-movie-do-they<p>You can credit that three-week drought to my general laziness and a lack of any Grand Blogging Ideas. Incidentally, there seems to be a real drought waiting to happen, thanks to the monsoon’s complete refusal to making its presence felt. Perhaps somebody should get hold of that Rain God chap from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy">Hitchhiker’s</a>. Heat, of course, means power cuts, and power cuts mean heat, which in turn exponentially increases my inertia of rest. We got a new inverter recently since the old one was on its deathbed. Unfortunately, the new one is more like a power-crazy megalomaniac — it seizes every opportunity to switch itself on and pretends it can’t tell the difference between the electricity fluctuating and actually going away. Or at least, it <em>did</em>, until the repairguy came, gave it a look that probably turned the acid in its batteries to water and then walked off. It’s been most well-behaved since then.</p>
<hr />
<p>Have you ever had an embarrassing conversation on the phone? Like the other day, one of my relatives called up and said ‘Hi Sahil’ in <em>exactly</em> the same way as one of my teacher’s (I’d been expecting that teacher’s call) and I began blabbering to him and he just pretended and didn’t even correct me! Or this time when I called <a href="http://freak-uency.blogspot.com/">Shayeri</a> in the middle of her medical exams and we spoke for like <em>five minutes</em> before I slowly realised that something was wrong (she thought I was somebody else, which made <em>me</em> wonder if I’d actually dialed the right number and if I should just slam the receiver down and pretend nothing happened and what the heck was going on?!) Caller ID, I ask you.</p>
<hr />
<p>I <em>finally</em> got my Tata Sky repaired. It’s been giving trouble for a <a href="http://sahilb.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-rains-and-tata-skies.html">very</a> <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/illimit/">long</a> <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/its-like-dream-come-true-nadal-lost/">time</a> — I even had to watch the French Open final in a friend’s house (Federer WON, zomgwoohoo!). Anyway, it’s working <em>loads</em> better than it did even the day it was fixed so yay! And it took <em>this</em> repairguy also only about 4 minutes to fix it! (Incidentally, resetting the DigiComp thing is the Most Complicated Resetting-thing ever; it requires at least 4 hands. They also don’t tell you beforehand that it’s not actually going to make any difference, other than conveniently erasing all your Favourites). Anyway, it’s interesting how there always used to be interesting programs on all the channels that didn’t work, but now that rarely seems to happen. So I’ve been watching all these movies — <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443706/">Zodiac</a> (pretty cool detective thriller), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454824/">Flyboys</a> (I wanna learn how to fly!), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455538/">How to Lose Friends and Alienate People</a> (lame, really), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/">Wall-E</a> (kind of cute, although the day robots begin to emote, I’ll probably run as fast as I can), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/">X-Men Origins: Wolverine</a> (another good one worth watching, even though I’m not much of an X-Men fan) and … <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1361558/">Flight 666</a>! (like <em>finally</em>, after the stupid PVR fiasco). It’s quite awesome too, although I doubt non-metalheads will dig.</p>
<hr />
<p>Michael Jackson just died today. OMG. I’ve never been a fan, but still. He was only 50, too. MTV and Vh1 seem to be doing a marathon tribute. (<em>English</em> music on MTV?!)</p>
<hr />
<p>As for the title, do they? I suppose it never really happens in the big cinemas?</p>
<p><strong>P.S.</strong> Don’t eat McDonald’s new Chicken McNuggets. They’re yuck.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://www.imagesfood.com/Images/newsimage/mcdonald-nuggets.jpg">
<img src="http://www.imagesfood.com/Images/newsimage/mcdonald-nuggets.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWait for Sleep2009-06-05T17:52:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/wait-for-sleep<p>Last night I finally went for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden_(band)">Iron Maiden</a> concert. I didn’t enjoy it that much actually: for some reason, the audience was made to sit on chairs (there were chairs!) and the crowd was <em>quite</em> unenthusiastic — no one was singing and only a few of them picked up after I started …</p>
<p>When I got back home (I suppose it must’ve been quite late), I was somewhat unsettled to find my elder [cousin] brother messing around on my computer (how did he know the password?!). Apparently, he was trying to copy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_2007">Office 2007</a> from my portable hard drive to his. I suppose he needed it on his computer back home.</p>
<hr />
<p>Do you often dream when you’re asleep? Are your dreams very vivid and detailed, or do they have a prevailing sense of unreality so that you know that you’re dreaming? Do you dream in colour? When I was small(er), I though everyone did, but it turns out that some people dream in black and white. Do you think that dreams are fairly random, or that they are portents of fate?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWill he? Or won't he?2009-06-01T20:18:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/its-like-dream-come-true-nadal-lost<p>It’s like a dream come true - NADAL <em>lost</em>. On <em>clay</em>. In the <em>French Open</em>. In the <em>fourth round</em>. <em>Nadal</em> lost, did I mention? Yes, <em>Nadal</em>. It’s like so ZOMGWOW! =D If Federer <em>still</em> somehow manages to make a hames of it when Nadal has been ever so nice to have handed him the keys, then as one of my friends said, he probably doesn’t deserve it anyway :P. He hasn’t been playing all that well and nearly gave us a scare in his five-setter today. Oh! that reminds me, check out this <em>awesome</em> video of Federer playing air guitar (well, kind of).</p>
<iframe class="iframe-video" width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/e7MRL30UK2Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Which reminds me of this (largely) unrelated advertisement of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I">Intel’s Rockstars</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>I can’t see tennis on my TV though! It is <em>so</em> annoying. I have this Tata Sky and most of the channels can’t be seen on it due to some crappy reception problem … all I get is noise and fuzz. I watched the match (or part thereof) today on the <a href="http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html">official Roland Garros website</a>, with the Live Radio thing turned on. It was quite fun actually, except the radio and scoreboard were out of sync <em>eyeroll</em>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meZoozoos and Zuckerbergs2009-05-18T14:54:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/zoozoos-and-zuckerbergs<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/ShEqRyYFiFI/AAAAAAAAAG4/GKwC_8iI7xY/s1600-h/cellphone.jpg">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/ShEqRyYFiFI/AAAAAAAAAG4/GKwC_8iI7xY/s1600-h/cellphone.jpg" alt="Say Cheese!" />
</a>
<figcaption>Say Cheese!</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Exactly why I never had a cellphone that I could call entirely my own is something that would defy the average person’s comprehension. In fact, I’m not very sure of the reason myself. Nevertheless,I finally decided to board the Vodafone Express, never you mind the detractors. <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><digression></code> At first I thought I’d give Virgin Mobile a spin — 50 paise calls and free SMSes (Conditions Apply, I know :])! — but the guy at the outlet obviously didn’t want me to<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"></digression></code>. I had this Vodafone SIM which came free with Dad’s Nokia phone. Once I realized that it couldn’t possibly activate itself, it was duly transported to a Vodafone Store. Three days later, the world remained just as bleak. Mr Vodafone Store-Guy conceded defeat and I had to walk away with a new number (the kind that looks as if it’s been generated by a contorted <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">random()</code> function). Still, I was prepared to forgive Vodafone; I hadn’t, of course, banked on its complete refusal to let me do so. By next morning, it had somehow managed to activate a T2TVOICE pack (the existence of which Customer Service refused to acknowledge), Vodafone CRBT, CallerTunes (which by the way, I didn’t want, and even if I did, <em>definitely</em> not some weirdo Hindi song), as well as inquire about my experience of talking to Abhishek Kumar (<em>no</em> idea who that is). And now, despite having registered at the DND thing, it still keeps wanting to send me on train journeys(!) as well as make friends with ‘Anjali, Sonia, Kavita and a thousand others’ :S — seriously:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Har Gehre rishtey ki shuruwaat hoti hai dosti. To kya aap Anjali, Sonia, Kavita jaise hazaron doston main shaamil nahi hona chahenge? Dial 5512121@Rs2/min</p>
</blockquote>
<p>LOL, really I mean, wth?!</p>
<hr />
<p>Oh, and Facebook Chat seems to be continuing with its agenda of trying its level best to prevent people from actually being able to use it. They recently updated it with this new feature of being able hide yourself from certain Friend Lists (I dunno how it works with people featuring in multiple friend lists), but they just ended up making it even more unstable. Now, alongwith its ability to spontaneously diconnect people and make browsers weep every time there’s a new IM, it also does odd things when I try to appear online … or well, use it really.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/ShFQuOSTb4I/AAAAAAAAAHI/3zwAAlUZuks/s1600-h/fbchat.jpg">
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/ShFQuOSTb4I/AAAAAAAAAHI/3zwAAlUZuks/s1600-h/fbchat.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<p><strong>N.B.</strong> Turning off all the Friend Lists brings back a tiny amount of sanity.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me“Impatience is the new life”2009-05-06T19:35:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/impatience-is-new-life<p>Blogger has been <em>very</em> annoying lately. It dislikes my commenting on other people’s blogs, it dislikes my trying to complete my template - it even tries to stop me from posting! First I thought it was because of the internet - which had been acting up (surprise!) - but that got okay. It’s still astonishingly slow though. <em>Why</em> can’t there be broadband which is fast, reliable and inexpensive (simultaneously)?</p>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><geek></code>My computer refuses to recognise my external hard drive when I connect it to the front USB ports. My (Intel) mobo manual says the front ones are also USB 2.0. Wth?<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"></geek></code></p>
<p>I went to school yesterday! It was fun, meeting all my teachers and friends - though it felt a <em>little</em> odd too, if you know what I mean :D.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meAaand ... *drumroll*2009-04-29T12:57:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/aaand-drumroll<p>In yet another unexpected (or largely so, I’m sure) turn of events, I’m back! It feels really odd to be writing a blog post after <em>so</em> long - my last post was more than (zomg!) <em>nine</em> months ago! As surprising as it might not be, a lot of stuff has happened since <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/you-s-microsoft/">that fateful day</a>. However, unlike previous times, I’m not going to make any promises of some day being able to write all about it :P.</p>
<p>School finished with a bit of a bang (or anti-bang, if to you ‘bang’ evokes positive imagery). I had board exams for a month (the actual exams, not the everlasting run-up to them), right after which sis had college exams for a month (!) and now hers have finished, I have another exam this weekend. Sheesh. It just never seems to finish.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>PS. Yes, I know the design is unsurprisingly incomplete.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meTo succinctly restate the obvious…2008-12-21T07:28:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/to-succinctly-restate-obvious<p>…I’m on a hiatus. An extended one. But not forever.</p>
<p>:D</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThis is what happens when you regularly update Windows2008-07-23T15:11:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/you-s-microsoft<p>I’m not, [UPDATE: Oops … I meant to say ‘unlike’ and not ‘like’. Silly me.] <del>like</del> unlike many people I know, some kind of anti-Microsoft person (in general). But stuff like this (almost) makes me flip over to the Other Side.</p>
<p>So for six days - six <em>whole</em> flaming days, I was cut off from the internet. Millions of tantrums and endless tries at MTNL’s 1504 service (which, let me tell you, does <em>not</em> work) later; after being given all kinds of (untrue) reasons why the net wasn’t working, finally managing to get through to an SDO (who was of no use whatsoever), buggering Dad to no end, tearing my hair out and generally feeling totally ticked off, I finally managed to hit the problem on its abominable head.</p>
<p>Yesterday, while wallowing in despair (this was after my talk with the aforementioned SDO) I, on a whim, decided to turn my firewall off. And guess what? Oh joy, the net worked! [That moment in time, by the way, now ranks at the top of my Most Irritating Moments That Make Me Feel Like Frying My Brain list. The fact that that’s partly because nothing else comes to mind right now is, of course, another story.]</p>
<p>Anyway, this was - from one point of view - an extremely relieving thing, but on the other hand (for those who know what a firewall is) it was way off the wall. I mean, what the heck, a firewall is supposed to protect your computer from being attacked - it’s not supposed to get over-excited and <em>prevent</em> you from accessing the net at all! Doubtfully wondering if my firewall had indeed gone bonkers (I’ve had ZoneAlarm Firewall for quite some time now and it’s not like I’d changed any settings recently) I did a quick Google search. I found out (from <a href="http://forums.zonealarm.org/zonelabs/">ZoneAlarm’s website</a>) that those <em>eejits</em> who designed my OS were Behind It All. Apparently, Microsoft recently released an update for Windows XP (I naturally update my Windows regularly) which prevented people using ZoneAlarm from accessing the net … ! Flaming weirdos.</p>
<p>The miscreant in question is Microsoft Update KB951748. If you’re facing the same problem, you’ll need to disable your firewall and <a href="http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html">download the latest version of ZoneAlarm</a>. On the other hand, if your net really isn’t working, I’m not sure you’ll be reading this at all :).</p>
<p>More soon. Right now I have to go and read the “1000+” unread items sitting in <a href="http://google.com/reader">my feed reader</a>. Ciao for now (wow, that rhymes).</p>
<p>UPDATE: Just to clarify, I was <em>not</em> using the built-in Windows firewall - I was using ZoneAlarm Firewall. The Windows Firewall is a miserable excuse for a software program.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meIrked2008-07-01T13:34:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/irked<ol>
<li>
<p>I have exams - in approximately 14 hours. And I’ve realised that no matter how much time I get to prepare, I <em>always</em> end up studying till the last minute. Sheesh.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>My internet has suddenly become <em>considerably</em> slower. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/illimit/">with this</a>. And Firefox has been acting weirdly too. It won’t let me open my <a href="http://google.com/reader">Google Reader</a>, won’t let me watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> videos and it starts loading websites, then forgets all about it in the middle. It’s probably ‘cause of the baggage its been carrying from previous installations.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Some incredibly <em>stupid</em> birds have succeeded in building a nest on top of my AC. This would have been quite alright, since I don’t mind birds as such, except that they make an insane amount of noise throughout the day (and night). And I’m <em>supposed</em> to be studying *eyeroll*.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’ve realised that I can’t listen to music during exams, for the simple reason that if I do, then whenever I’m studying, these songs start roaming around in my head. You try learning Chemistry equations with Metallica’s <em>The Unforgiven</em> playing in the jukebox section of your brain :P.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It’s irritating that I have to study a whole lot of stuff that I’ll never need to know. They should have a system in which we’re allowed to choose exactly the subjects we want and learn stuff that we’ll actually need in our future careers, rather than messing around with a pile of tosh.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I hope Federer wins. It’ll be incredibly irksome if he doesn’t.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/why-hello/">finally</a> managed to get a new string and a couple of picks for my guitar. It doesn’t help that I’m not much closer to becoming good at it, though.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, and watch the Federer Rolex ad - it’s pretty cool:</p>
<iframe width="600" height="450" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gVxdsCbj5gA&hl=en" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWanna help set a Guinness World Record?2008-06-14T13:06:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/wanna-help-set-guinness-world-record<p>How would you like to be a part of setting a Guinness World Record? It isn’t even difficult - you don’t even need to get off this chair you’re sitting on :). All you have to do is download Firefox 3 on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 and help set the record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 hours.</p>
<p>So far, 1.2 million people have made their pledges, with 21,000 of them from India. To make your pledge head over to the <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/">Spread Firefox</a> page.</p>
<p>So what’s new in Firefox 3? <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0rc3/releasenotes/#whatsnew">Among others things</a>, there’s a new and improved address bar, which has a <em>much</em> better auto-complete feature - you can now type in the name of the site to view results from tags, history and bookmarks. The bookmark manager also supports tagging your bookmarks for easier organisation (kinda like the Labels on blog posts). The download manager can now resume downloads even after Firefox is restarted.</p>
<p>Here’s an overview of Firefox 3’s features: <a href="http://people.mozilla.com/~beltzner/overview-of-firefox3.swf">http://people.mozilla.com/~beltzner/overview-of-firefox3.swf</a></p>
<p>Friday the 13th, by the way, was completely uneventful. Aside from the fact that when I woke up, I thought it was Thursday and consequently lost a whole day of life, that is.</p>
<p><em>UPDATE June 18, 8.04 PM: Download Day is still on! It ends officially at 1815 UTC today (11:45 pm IST). Nearly 7 million downloads so far. Help India reach the 100-500,000 range (it’s currently in the 50-100K one)!</em></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meYuiop2008-06-11T13:31:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/yuiop<p>Federer lost. Old news, I know, and already blogger about by most people, but I just couldn’t help saying it. It’s not as if I didn’t expect it, seeing Nadal’s superior form throughout the French Open, but 6-0? And the match wasn’t even <em>fun</em>.</p>
<hr />
<p>I went to Om Book Shop with my sis yesterday. I haven’t been there too often since I’m rather partial to Mid Land (constant 20% discount!) but the poster “10-90% SALE” caught my eye (I’m not much of a shopper, but I like the word ‘SALE’, in fact, almost as much as ‘FREE’). There was a minimum 10% discount on all books, and some books had higher ones (upto 90% supposedly, although I only saw a 75). Unfortunately, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law">Murphy’s Law</a> has a bad habit of seeking attention, and <em>none</em> of the books I might possibly have bought had any good deals. Actually, none of the books I wanted were even there. There was this rather nice guitar tutorial book and I <em>almost</em> bought it before I remembered that <a href="http://blog.sahil.me/posts/why-hello/">my axe was broken</a> (yes, I read that a guitar is fondly known as an ‘axe’).</p>
<p>One thing I didn’t like about the bookshop was that there is very little walking space, owing to the fact that books are also kept <em>on the floor</em> (by the way, this is where most of the good deals lie). Oh, and they put these absolutely <em>humongous</em> stickers on the high-discount books, totally disfiguring the front covers. Weird, if you ask me. And wicked.</p>
<p>So in the end I returned home, empty-handed. No wait, I was carrying some of sister dear’s stuff. ;)</p>
<hr />
<p><em>By the way, my sister’s learnt this really annoying new word, “bleh”. <a href="http://theinimitablenidhi.blogspot.com/2008/06/bleh.html">I wonder where she got it from</a>. She’s been using it virtually all the time (in fact, nearly every second word she says) and it’s fairly driving my up the wall.</em></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meIllimité!2008-06-02T13:50:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/illimit<p>Woot! I finally, finally, <em>finally</em> have unlimited internet! :D After nearly 3 years of having to labour under the strain of a 400 MB connection, this feels pretty amazing. Granted, the new plan is somewhat slower, but I do think I can bear it :). Now I don’t have to keep worrying every time I click a download link and I won’t need to scratch my head in puzzlement when Dad shows me the previous month’s phone bill.</p>
<p>As some of you <a href="http://partingthesilk.blogspot.com/2008/05/german-french-and-short-short-short.html">might be knowing</a>, I went on a short getaway-holiday to a hill-station called Lansdowne. We stayed in this quaint place called the Fairydale Resort, which was unbelievably hard to find (or maybe that was because we were searching at 1.30 at night). It was quite enjoyable and wayy better than hill stations like say, Nainital even though we had yet another insect crisis.</p>
<p>On another note, the French Open’s going on (<em>Federer, Federer!!</em>) and Tata Sky has been kind enough to sneakily remove all the sports channels from my TV. To top it all off, their representatives seem to be avoiding my calls >:(</p>
<p><em>Oh drat! That reminds me that I’m supposed to check out if their site can be of any help.</em></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhy, hello!2008-05-17T16:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/why-hello<p>Okay, nearly four-and-a-half-months later, I’m back! :D And you shake your collective heads and think, “Ha, this guy isn’t going to last a <em>week</em>.” Honestly, I don’t think I’ve <em>ever</em> gone so long without posting on my blog (a month seems to be the previous record - now broken by a hopefully insurmountably wide margin). I was still in class 11 when I last posted … then so many things happened, almost at the same time and I got so busy that I thought I’d post everything together … later. And yes, that’s an excuse :). But seriously, it’s a vicious cycle - a whole lot of stuff happens because of which I think I’ll post all about everything later, but later more things happen, so later gets even later and later (or umm … <em>even later</em>?) I realize that there are so many things to post that I kind of white-out and don’t feel like posting anything and then later after that I decide I should but then I don’t, and then - and then … well, you get the picture.</p>
<p>So. I have holidays! Not to mention that this is the first set of holidays we’re getting after the winter break, which, incidentally happened to be a loooong time ago. I mean, it’s not fair - when <a href="http://partingthesilk.blogspot.com/">sister dear</a> finishes her year of college, she gets a whole <em><a href="http://partingthesilk.blogspot.com/2008/04/smells-like-freedom.html">two-and-a-half months</a></em> while us poor eleventhies get a whopping grand total of two <em>days</em>! Sheesh.</p>
<p>Well, anyway, I plan to make the most of the holidays (‘plan to’ being the operative clause). I have, by the way, been learning to play <del>with</del> the guitar, although since I’ve broken the same string twice already, I’m not sure how much I’m progressing.</p>
<p>Oh we also had our Investiture Ceremony recently. I had to give a speech in <em>Hindi</em> which isn’t something I’ve ever done before. Marching practice was fun though, largely because of the instructor. At least in the beginning. Later, almost everyone began to figure out how it’s really done and it got positively boring in the end.</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-PSx9PUY_ICc/Uvc2GO-QAKI/AAAAAAAAA10/ctgXNbbmSCM/s1600/dps%2520rkp%2520investiture%2520ceremony.jpg">
<img src="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-PSx9PUY_ICc/Uvc2GO-QAKI/AAAAAAAAA10/ctgXNbbmSCM/s1600/dps%2520rkp%2520investiture%2520ceremony.jpg" alt="DPS RKP Investiture Ceremony 2008" />
</a>
<figcaption>(Photo not by me)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well, that’s it for now. (Mustn’t bore you all with an information overload).</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhy doesn't my alarm clock work?2008-01-08T18:30:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/why-doesnt-my-alarm-clock-work<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-RU8FQKCafGI/Uvc3ZV-VV0I/AAAAAAAAA2A/8qju_P996TA/s1600/digital%2520alarm%2520clock.JPG">
<img src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-RU8FQKCafGI/Uvc3ZV-VV0I/AAAAAAAAA2A/8qju_P996TA/s1600/digital%2520alarm%2520clock.JPG" alt="My alarm clock" />
</a>
</figure>
<p>I’ve got a strange feeling that it actually does, and it’s really my ears that don’t … nah, that <em>can’t</em> be possible.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, alarm clocks for me have never – ever – succeeded in fulfilling their purpose. I guess you could say that I sleep deeply (and I mean, <em>really</em> deeply) because nowadays, I just sleep right through the alarm’s ringing, and when I wake up (a good 2-3 hours later), I gaze suspiciously at the clock’s innocent face and groggily wonder, <em>Wha-! … but, but, but … How? … uhh …</em></p>
<p>Then, sometimes I surprisingly <em>do</em> hear the alarm ringing, but it’s <em>such</em> an irritating noise that – in my head – I will it to shut up. I don’t know if that works, because I just fall asleep before it stops.</p>
<p>Earlier, when I used to have these analog clocks whose alarms keep ringing for a good half hour, it used to be even weirder. The ringing noise would inevitably feature in one of my convoluted dreams as some device which can’t be switched off. Then suddenly, I’d wake up, realize it’s a dream, switch off my alarm and fall back to sleep, only to start dreaming about something else.</p>
<p>*eye roll*<br />
I give up.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHappy New Year!2008-01-02T18:01:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/happy-new-year<p>First of all, here’s wishing all of you a <em>very</em> happy New Year! May this year bring you joy, success, health, happiness and basically everything you want it to :).</p>
<hr />
<p>Sometimes I think that the “New Year” is just a little bit too hyped. After all, it didn’t “feel” any different (except perhaps that it was colder). Sometimes, I think that the hype is actually a good thing. It gets you to think about all you’ve been up to the previous year (or, in many cases, all you’ve <em>not</em> been up to) and <del>make resolutions</del> think about the future. (Of course, it also gives you a reason to celebrate).</p>
<p>By the way, I don’t think I’m going to make any resolutions this year. I don’t see any point in making resolutions that I can’t keep, and consequently, in making resolutions at all. The only thing I will <em>try</em> to do is to post more frequently (though that’s something I’ve been saying for a long time now).</p>
<hr />
<p>I also celebrated my birthday a few days back. I didn’t exactly mean to mention it, but I am now because: (a) I celebrated it after two years, and consequently enjoyed it a lot; and (b) I just can’t <em>not</em> tell you that if (by any chance) you decide to celebrate your birthday in Pizza Hut, unless you’re some big attention-seeking person, <em>do not</em> let them know it’s your birthday! Trust me, it <em>isn’t</em> worth the one spoon of ice-cream they give you in return.</p>
<hr />
<p>Oh, and some time or the other, I also redesigned <a href="http://partingthesilk.blogspot.com/">my sister’s blog</a> (after endless pestering, of course).</p>
<figure>
<a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WU6ug6duoZA/Uvc3jY8p_3I/AAAAAAAAA2I/kWFdfslQfVw/s1600/reflections.jpg">
<img src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WU6ug6duoZA/Uvc3jY8p_3I/AAAAAAAAA2I/kWFdfslQfVw/s1600/reflections.jpg" alt="Reflections - Redesigned" />
</a>
</figure>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe world is an evil place2007-12-28T16:17:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/world-is-evil-place<blockquote>I can't believe the news today<br />I can't close my eyes<br />And make it go away<br />How long...How long must we sing this song?<br /><br />And it's true we are immune<br />When fact is fiction and TV reality<br />And today the millions cry<br />We eat and drink while tomorrow they die<br />- <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunday Bloody Sunday</span>, U2</blockquote>
<blockquote>More pain and misery in the history of mankind<br />Sometimes it seems more like<br />The blind leading the blind<br />It brings upon us more of famine, death and war<br />You know religion has a lot to answer for<br /><br />And all because of it you’d think<br />That we would learn<br />But still the body count the city fires burn<br />Somewhere there's someone dying<br />In a foreign land<br />Meanwhile the world is crying stupidity of man<br />Tell me why, tell me why...<br />- <span style="font-style: italic;">For the Greater Good of God</span>, Iron Maiden<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote>Why can't we treat our fellow men<br />With more respect and a shake of their hands<br />But anger and loathing is rife<br />The death on all sides is<br />becoming a way of life<br /><br />But some are just not wanting peace<br />Their whole life is death and misery<br />The only thing that they know<br />Fight fire with fire life is cheap<br /><br />But if they do stop to think<br />That man is teetering right on the brink<br />But do you think that they care<br />They benefit from death and pain and despair<br />- <span style="font-style: italic;">The Legacy</span>, Iron Maiden<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote>The world is a dangerous place to live, not just because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.<br />- <span style="font-style:italic;">Albert Einstein</span></blockquote>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meA Piece of Hiker2007-12-09T15:27:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/from-readers-digest-every-year<p>From the Reader’s Digest:<br /></p>
<blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Every year, the organizers of the Bulwer-Lytton prize based at San Jose University, California, invite entrants from around the world to come up with terrible opening sentences to imaginary novels. Here are some of this year's best efforts</span>:<br /><br />Danny, the little Grizzly cub, frolicked in the tall grass on this sunny Spring morning, his mother keeping a watchful eye as she chewed on a piece of a hiker they had encountered the day before.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And this year's winner</span>: Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee.</blockquote>
<p><br />
I like the Reader’s Digest. Besides liberal doses of humour, it also had great articles - from people’s experiences to real-life dramas. The tagline pretty much sums it up - ‘Stories about life, Advice about living’. In fact, I’d recommend that you go and get it <span style="font-style: italic;">now</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/R1wJQ1YjVcI/AAAAAAAAACA/SwDG_ci70uE/s1600-h/rd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/R1wJQ1YjVcI/AAAAAAAAACA/SwDG_ci70uE/s320/rd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141995059362878914" border="0" /></a><br /><br />[To read the rest of the funnily terrible opening sentences, visit: <a href="http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2007.htm">http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2007.htm</a>]</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meQuicker than a Ray of Light2007-10-20T16:25:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/quicker-than-ray-of-light<p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/RxosR9VJHYI/AAAAAAAAABs/BF9CaqjbXvo/s200/Fire.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123456213119999362" border="0" /></p>
<p>I finally got my new computer! The second <span style="font-style: italic;">significant</span> one after <span style="font-style: italic;">seven</span> years.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meFriday the 14th2007-09-14T16:31:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/friday-14th<p>I <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> going to title this post something entirely different, but then, after Friday actually came in all its uneventfulness, I decided not to. It was, I can definitely say, one of the lousiest days of school ever. By lousy, I guess I just mean boring. Nothing happened. At all. We had only one teaching period, and while that is normally a <span style="font-style: italic;">good</span> thing, since I didn’t end up doing anything fun anyway, it wasn’t really.<br /><br />Then I was called for this Japanese trip thing, but I can’t go because my passport’s expired and I suppose it won’t be ready in time (the teacher wasn’t even prepared to accept anyone without a valid passport). I got pretty bugged because of this because I’ve really wanted to go to Japan for a long time.<br /><br />I also started reading <span style="font-style: italic;">iWoz</span>. Somehow, all the non-fiction books I read (and I really don’t read much non-fiction) always end up being tech-related … well, almost always. But this one is quite interesting and it’s definitely a welcome break from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Wheel of Time</span> series. Not that I don’t like WoT, but after 10 books and somewhere around 7,000 pages, there comes a point where you start looking for a change. For most people, the point comes a lot sooner though. Actually, most people get scared when they see the number of books in the series and the size of each. I mean, what I’ve read so far (and I haven’t finished the series, by the way) is 7 times <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lord of the Rings</span>! And people say <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> book is fat!<br /><br />:D<br />:(</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meNo way! No fair!2007-09-08T16:04:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/now-way-no-fair<p><a href="http://www.ironmaiden.com/index.php?categoryid=8&p2_articleid=664">Iron
Maiden’s coming to India AGAIN!</a> And they’re coming in February (or March)
AGAIN!</p>
<p>Why the hell can’t they come when we <span style="font-style: italic;">don’t</span> have exams?</p>
<p><img src="http://www.ironmaiden.com/images/homepage/hompage.jpg" /></p>
<p>The concert is titled “Somewhere Back In Time” because it’s a visit to the
past. They’ll be playing songs from the pre-90s (upto Seventh Son of a Seventh
Son), which is basically when most of the golden songs were made.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.ironmaiden.com/images/news/lineup.jpg" /></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meAnd I'm Back!2007-08-13T11:21:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/and-im-back<p>Well, it’s been another terribly loong time, something I seem to be getting quite good at. Sometimes I think I should announce a hiatus, but I end up thinking that I might as well write an all-out post - but I somehow never quite end up getting there.<br /><br />The problem with writing a post after such a long time is that I have absolutely NO idea where to start. I’ll simply compromise by posting parts of what I intended to earlier, and then some more.<br /><br />So anyway, I’ve made some small changes around here, such as, bringing the links back. They’re now updated and contain most of the blogs that I read. If, by any chance, I’ve forgotten to add yours truly, do tell me. And I’ve also added the links of photoblogs and comic blogs.<br /><br />Chalo then, more later (Now that I come to think of it, I had to say something about Harry Potter).<br /><br />By the way, here is an interestingly weird something I found:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/RsA-gUo7zsI/AAAAAAAAABI/rUJvRRVy5yY/s1600-h/Piracy+Global+Warming.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/RsA-gUo7zsI/AAAAAAAAABI/rUJvRRVy5yY/s400/Piracy+Global+Warming.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098143503200538306" border="0" /></a></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhat the !!!!2007-07-08T16:03:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/what<p>I hope the scoreboard’s lying. I really hope so.<br />I’m looking at it online and it says 0-4 for the 4th set.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">0-4</span>!!!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:200%;">0</span>-<span style="font-size:300%;">4</span>!!<br /><br />Federer let Nadal break him <span style="font-style: italic;">twice</span> in the fourth set!? Twice!!<br /><br /><br /><em>All hell breaks loose</em></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meLifehacker: Shortcut Screencast Contest2007-07-05T16:24:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/lifehacker-shortcut-screencast-contest<p>I know, another rather long hiatus, partly due to my Mumbai trip, and partly for no reason at all ;) . Another post describing my (very) (un)memorable trip is due, but here’s what just happened:</p>
<p>Most techies would have heard of the site <a href="http://www.lifehacker.com/">Lifehacker</a>. I began reading it some time back (it’s quite useful; you don’t really need to be a techy to read it - and it’s also one of my favourite sites as of now). Anyway, so they recently announced this <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/shortcut-screencast-contest/screencast-your-favorite-shortcut-for-a-signed-copy-of-lifehacker-272859.php">Shortcut screencast contest</a> where you send a screencast of a quick way you know of doing something on your computer, and if they like it, you get a prize (they had ten prizes to give away).</p>
<p>So I sent my entry a few days back - I thought it was quite good, but I didn’t have that much hope since it was my first ever screencast and it didn’t come out too well. Plus, the same day as I submitted my entry, someone else won. But - you know where this is going - I WON!!<br /><br />Here’s the screencast I sent:</p>
<p>Or you can check out the Lifehacker page <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/shortcut-screencast-contest/create-custom-windows-keyword-launchers-275073.php">here</a>.<br /><br />Anyway, I was left a bit confused when they didn’t ask me my address (how the hell would they send me the book?). So I wrote to them and got an answer in 20 minutes flat (talk about speed). I sent my address, and now I hope I get the book soon. Really soon.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHow long can a man customize cars ...2007-06-16T16:13:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/how-long-can-man-customize-cars<p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/RnQOhb7NhHI/AAAAAAAAAAw/AC74eY4Tjl4/s400/vlcsnap-28409.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076698647547970674" border="0" /></p>
<p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/RnQOhb7NhGI/AAAAAAAAAAo/37-4Y2ot48U/s400/vlcsnap-29774.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076698647547970658" border="0" /></p>
<p>Presenting <span style="font-weight: bold;">MAD MIKE</span>.</p>
<p>Hail Pimp My Ride! Yeah!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOf rains and Tata Skies2007-06-15T09:32:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/of-rains-and-tata-skies<p>So, I was watching TV, when all of a sudden, the channels start showing a lot
of disturbance. I wait a few seconds, because I think I know what’s going on
and, sure enough, a few seconds later my Tata Sky pops up with this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Set-Top-Box is unable to receive a signal. Press ‘select’ to view another
channel or ‘help’ to …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whatever. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s raining
outside and although that’s excellent, what the heck, I was watching something
on TV, wasn’t I? So I decide. Since I basically don’t have anything else to do
(our holidays just started!) I call up the Tech Sup guys – because I know some
people whose Tata Sky <span style="font-style:italic;">does</span> work in the
rain – and tell them to make the flaming thing work. The guy at the other end
makes me check some stuff and tell him what I see, which convinces him that, in
fact, the STB is <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> working. I tell
him it’s raining and this always happens when it rains, so could it be because
of that, but he says it’s possible, but it shouldn’t happen all the time. Then
he (very politely) asks me if I could go to my terrace and check the dish out.
I tell him no (duh, it’s raining. Plus, my dish is on this elevated part of the
terrace, to which I’m in no mood to drag my lazy feet).</p>
<p>Anyway, the TS guy’s pretty helpful and, instead of telling me he’ll send a
bunch of guys to fix it, he tells me how to do it on my own (thank god, those
guys charge a premium just to <span style="font-style:italic;">see</span> what
the matter is). So, hopefully, soon after I feel like checking the dish, it
should work. Yeah!</p>
<p>NOTE: While I was typing this, I was also checking my feeds and it turns out <a href="http://gudiblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/just-thought.html">G also has the
same problem</a>. Oh, well.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meNooo ... not AGAIN2007-06-10T18:21:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/nooo-not-again<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/fednad.jpg" /></p>
<p>It’s just too bad. I was soo hoping Federer would win. If only he hadn’t made a
gargantuan amount of unforced errors…</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhen Windows made an error2007-06-08T15:34:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/when-windows-made-error<p><b>Update: Sorry, guys, the images weren’t displaying - it’s fixed now.</b></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w1.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w2.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w3.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w4.jpg" /></p>
<p><img style="width: 517px; height: 190px;" src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w5.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w6.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/w7.jpg" /></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWhat's left for Part 7?2007-06-04T16:46:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/whats-left-for-part-7<p>When <span style="font-style: italic;">Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince</span> was to be released, there were loads of such rumours about the last two books floating about. Let’s see what’s come true so far, and what’s left to be known. [Stuff in <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">gray </span>is what’s already come true, stuff in <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">blue </span>is what I’d like to know, and stuff in <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">red </span>is what I think is unlikely. Stuff in black: no comments :) ]</p>
<ul style="line-height: 1.4em;">
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">We will learn a lot more about Voldemort in this book.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> will leave Privet Drive early again, for a "much pleasanter" reason than in book 5.</span> </li>
<li>The opening chapter of book 6 was originally planned for the early parts of book 1; perhaps we get a more in-depth story of what happened the night <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span>'s parents died. </li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Neither <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> nor Voldemort (including Tom Riddle) are the Half-Blood Prince.</li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Arthur Weasley will NOT be the new Minister of Magic.</li>
<li>By the ends of books 6 and 7 "you'll have all the back story you'll need", says JK Rowling, and a prequel will not be necessary.</li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">There will be a new Minister of Magic, no more Mr. Cornelius Oswald Fudge.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">We will find out what happened to Hagrid's half brother Grawp. He will be a bit more controllable in book 6.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> The Dursleys are in the next book, but <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span>'s stay with them will be the shortest yet. In book 5 he stayed for 4 weeks, so we know his stay will be less than 4 weeks.</li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Cho Chang will not be a romantic interest of <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> in Book 6; however there will be a "<span style="font-style: italic;">little</span> romance" for <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> says JK.</li>
<li>In books 6 and 7 we will find out exactly why JK killed off Sirius.</li>
<li> <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> becomes even more powerful in book 6.<br /></li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> In books 6 and 7 we will find out why Dumbledore trusts Snape.</span> </li>
<li>We will find out what happened to Wormtail aka Peter Pettigrew.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">More about the animosity between Snape and Sirius will be revealed in the last 2 books.</span> </li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> JK has said that giving away the form of Snape's boggart and patronus says too much.</span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">We'll definitely find out what Snape's worst fear is, and it'll be important.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hermione and Draco will NOT end up together in book 6 or 7.</li>
<li> We will find out what exactly Dudley saw when he looked at the dementors.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">The reason Voldemort and </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> both didn't die when Voldemort tried to kill </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">, will be revealed.</span> </li>
<li> We will see more of Draco's mother, Narcissa Malfoy, now that Lucius is busy. </li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">We'll learn more about </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">'s scar in the last 2 books.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Moaning Myrtle will make an appearance again, as will Tonks.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> More about Voldemort's birth will be revealed, thus helping us understand why he is so evil.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> Muggles begin to notice "more and more odd" occurrences in book 6, says JK.</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">The wizarding world is really at war in the sixth book.</span> </li>
<li> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"> will tell his dearest friends about the prophecy after it sinks in to him.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">We will learn more about <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span>'s relatives, including his grandparents (though JK says they aren't really important to the story).</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">We will find out what happened to Sirius's motorbike.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Book 6 will be shorter than the 5th book (or at least JK's 99% sure, but will not swear on her children's lives)(it is, at any rate, more expensive).</li>
<li><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">There will be no "new" nationalities of children at Hogwarts. Hogwarts is a British school, and JK says that adding foreigners for the sake of it is not in her plans.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">During an interview, when JKR was asked in which Hogwarts room she'd like to be for 1 hour, she said it would be a room in which <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> has been before, but doesn't know its importance. Yet. (This could have happened in book 5, but we're unsure).</li>
<li style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">It's very important in the plot that <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> has his mother's eyes, and that her wand was very good for charms.</li>
<li>During an interview for Kids BBC, Victor Greensteet (reporter) asked Rowling if <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> would have a dragon for a pet. This is what she replied: "You can't tame a dragon, no matter what Hagrid thinks. It's simply impossible. So no. He has more common sense. He MAY have a different pet in the future, but for now, I won't say anything else".<br /></li>
<li> In the same interview for Kids BBC, the reporter asked J. K. if <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> had ever used the internet, and this is what she had to say: "No. They (the Dursleys) won't let him go near Dudley's computer, and Dudley is the only one who has a computer. They hit him if he gets too near to the keyboard. So the answer would be No. I use it a lot, but <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span> doesn't. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Wizards don't really need to go on the web. They have an even better way to find out what's happening in the outside world, which I think is a lot more fun than the Internet, but I'm going to keep quiet on this one.</span>" </li>
<li style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">The choice between what's right and what's easy will be a pillar of the plot in <span id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span>'s last 2 years at Hogwarts.</li>
<li> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" id="st" name="st" class="st0">Harry</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">'s parents' profession will be a big part of the plot.</span> </li>
<li style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Something HUGE will be revealed about Lily Potter.</li>
</ul>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.mePunch air! Federer!2007-05-21T15:05:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/punch-air-federer<p><img src="http://sports.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=2063115" /></p>
<p>He won! He won! He won! He won! He won! He won! He won! He won! He won! He won!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Finally</span>.<br /><br />Need I say more? Let’s hope the French Open ends like this, too.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWuzzgoinon?!2007-05-20T11:27:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/wuzzgoinon<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update: </span>The comments got turned off somehow. Don’t ask me.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Another</span> really long, really abrupt pause (if I can use that here). The board exams came and went and in a few days, the results (yikes) will be coming out. Okay, so just checked the CBSE Results site and <span style="font-style: italic;">class 12 results are out on the <span style="font-weight: bold;">25th</span></span>! So ours couldn’t be more’n a couple of days away (relatively speaking, that is)!!!<br /><br />What else? Hmm, <span style="font-style: italic;">nm</span> as I would say if I were chatting right now. Which by the way, I’m not. I’ve somehow lost that oh-so-much interest that I used to have. That could, of course, be because I don’t have <a href="http://adiumx.com/">Adium</a>.<br /><br />Oh btw, I <span style="font-style: italic;">have</span> succeeded in relocating my blog (which you must’ve realised if you’re here). Hope the new URL is easier to remember…<br />And, for those of you who were subscribing to my feed, it’s (duh) changed. I’m also not using Blogger’s feed thingy anymore. So the new URL is: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/sahil">http://feeds.feedburner.com/sahil</a>. Syndicate now!<br /><br />Anyway.<br />So, hmm, I can’t remember what else I’ve been doing all this while, because it <span style="font-style: italic;">has</span> been sooo loong. I’ve realised that the only time I feel like writing a blog post, is when I’m <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> on the computer…<span style="font-style: italic;">weird</span>. Maybe I should get me a laptop.<br /><br />G2G.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meRelocating2007-05-09T13:33:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/relocating<p>More about everything later.</p>
<p>Right now, I’m relocating my blog. You see, this address is very long, and
difficult to remember. So the new address, from day after tomorrow is going to
be:</p>
<p>http://<span style="font-weight:bold;">sahilb</span>.blogspot.com</p>
<p>Ta!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meBeast over Bangalore2007-03-16T15:32:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/beast-over-bangalore<p>It’s been really long since I’ve known this - just never got around to posting about it (especially since it wasn’t exactly <span style="font-style: italic;">good</span> news from my point of view). Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, for those of you didn’t know, <span style="font-style: italic;">Eddie is coming to India!</span><br /><br />It was just recently that I was wondering - without much hope - how cool it would be if Iron Maiden came to India (without much hope because when you live here, you don’t dream that such things could actually <span style="font-style: italic;">happen</span>). And then, when I came to know that they were coming, I got all excited, but then I saw this:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.ironmaiden.com/images/uploads/india_poster.jpg" /></p>
<p>See what I mean? First of all, for some unbelievably stupid reason they’re playing in <span style="font-style: italic;">Bangalore</span> of all places, and secondly it’s smack-in-the-middle of our boards! Really sad … because it’s gonna be great - they’re air-freighting <span style="font-style: italic;">20 tonnes</span> of equipment for the concert, including a whole <span style="font-style: italic;">stage</span> (thus turning hopeless dreams into reality <span style="font-weight: bold;">:)</span> ).<br /><br />They <a href="http://www.ironmaiden.com/index.php?categoryid=8&p2_articleid=444">recently played in Dubai</a> - the highlight of which was that they brought a whole freakin’ <span style="font-style: italic;">tank</span> to the concert!</p>
<p><img style="width: 421px; height: 55px;" src="http://www.ironmaiden.com/images/adverts/horns.jpg" /></p>
<p>Anyway, I hope it comes on TV at least …</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meCaught in the Middle2007-03-16T15:27:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/caught-in-middle<p>Wheeew!</p>
<p>It’s already the middle of March and the boards are (finally) more than half-finished … only <span style="font-weight: bold;">three</span> more exams left (yay!)<br /><br />They’ve been okay so far … but mostly not <span style="font-style: italic;">quite </span>as good as I’d have wanted them to be … anyway … whatever …<br /><br />Signing off,<br />Sahil</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meCold. Cloudy. Rainy. Gloomy. Lovely.2007-02-11T10:44:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/perfect<p>Perfect.</p>
<p>The whole of yesterday it was raining and raining - nonstop. Well, almost.</p>
<p><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eJimuJOoqL4/Rc713AQGpkI/AAAAAAAAAAM/xUWkG216JwQ/s400/rain.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030228159128577602" border="0" /></p>
<p>By the way, some time back, I came across this blog - <a href="http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/">The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs</a>. It (obviously) isn’t really the secret diary of Steve Jobs, but most of the posts are real laughs.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSauce is heavier than mustard*2007-02-09T14:56:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/sauce-is-heavier-than-mustard<p>So, we (finally) had our Exun Farewell today in Nirulas (Chanakya). It was rather good - there were more people than last year (although that’s probably because we have more members now). Here’s a (random) list of much of what happened:<br /><br />1) Kartikeya and I were the only two (of around ten, officially) tenthies present<br />2) When we arrived (Karky and I) we found loads of people standing outside under the (wrong) impression that sir hadn’t arrived<br />3) Aditya Jain’s driver had him and many of the juniors gallavanting to god-knows-where till they finally succeeded in reaching [the correct branch of] Nirulas<br />4) Mohit sported a really cool haircut<br />5) Sid (one of the twelfthies, ie, one of the people for whom the farewell was being held) completely forgot about the farewell<br />6) We had pizza. Lots of it. Around 20 I think.<br />7) Karky got terrrorized by Gudi and Mohit<br />8) Sauce, mustard and chilli flakes got put into a total of <i>three</i> coke glasses (as opposed to one, last year)<br />9) The juniors actually said that it tasted <i>nice</i><br />10) We took photos (obviously!)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);"><strong>__</strong><strong>__</strong>__</span><br /><br />* Well, it might just be that sauce is miscible in Coke, whereas mustard isn’t, but who cares?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meJanuary2007-02-08T13:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/january<p>Wow, that was one helluva long time. And I was getting soo irritated by the ‘Merry Christmas’ smiling at me every time I arrived here. Well, then … it having been so long and all, I decided to write a post about most of what’s been happening (which isn’t much, by the way).<br /><br />2007 - the new year and everything - was kicked off in one of the most enchanting ways possible by [ahem] the <i>pre-board</i> exams†. Legend has it that these are actually tougher than the [shudder] boards, and I don’t think we’ll be disappointed, although <i>some</i> people still managed to do [really] well. To top it all off, I also missed two of my exams (English and Science), which was one of the prominent reasons that lead to the increased wastefulness of January. Even when the pre-boards finished, there wasn’t that much end-of-the-exams-let’s-party joy because the day after the following day, we had our Maths [shudder] Board Exam Practical. And the SSt Project Viva. And the Computer Board Exam Practical. And the Science one, too. (Obviously not all on the same day).<br /><br />But even <i>then</i> all this might have finished by the 24th. Except that on the 27th, we had this Aptitude Test in our school for selecting people for IIT (and Medical) coaching classes. And that wasn’t the end of it either. After that, I <i>still</i> had to give the pre-board papers I missed (<i>both</i> of them). And so it went on till <i>2nd February</i>, leaving exactly one month (or, as I like to think of it, 28 days) for the Boards.<br /><br />* Sigh *</p>
<hr />
<p>Technically, the New Year was kicked off by CAS being implemented in South Delhi. And - will you believe it - since then I’ve had only Free To Air channels coming on our TV, because the Cable Operator has run out of Set-Top-Boxes…<br />Maybe Tata Sky then…</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMerry Christmas2006-12-25T11:48:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/merry-christmas<p>Okay, first of all, here’s wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.</p>
<p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5501/1040/400/208465/seasonoflight_xthumb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></p>
<p>Now, second of all, there is really nothing to be really merry about, as far as I can see.</p>
<ol>
<li>We didn’t celebrate. Not that I really celebrate, but not even a simple Christmas tree or anything this time.</li>
<li>I haven’t celebrated for the past 2 years.</li>
<li>Our pre-boards are starting soon. Too soon.</li>
<li>Blogger is out of beta (That’s the good bit). It refuses to let me switch (that’s the bad bit).</li>
</ol>
<p>Anyway…</p>
<p>PS. I love Firefox’s SpellCheck feature</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meNitwit Blubber Oddment Tweak2006-12-23T17:08:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/nitwit-blubber-oddment-tweak<p>Okay, so that was one <span style="font-style: italic;">huge</span> hiatus.<br />So much has been happening, and I haven’t written for <span style="font-style: italic;">so</span> long, I feel rather bad about it.<br /><br />We had EXUN 2006 and then DPSMUN (well, there was a difference of a whole month, but what can I say), both of which deserve their own posts, which I’ll get around to doing sometime…<br /><br />And then, when I got into this mood of writing on my blog, I fell sick, which is becoming quite a feature of December, and - consequentially - something I’m getting terrifically bugged about. I’ve just about recovered and I’m doubly put off about that.<br /><br />Plus, our pre-boards are coming and I’m sunk worse than a hundred-tonne lead sphere tied to another hundred-tonne lead sphere tossed from somewhere high up into the Pacific. So you can count me as triply put-off.<br /><br />By the way, I saw this message when I opened my Blogger Dashboard today, which means I’m allowed to switch to Blogger Beta (at last), and I’ll be doing that soon, which also means this template will probably crash. You can expect it to have already happened, coz I’m gonna do it as soon as I press publish.</p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/switch2.JPG" /></p>
<p>Oh and I found a nice tool that automatically updates your iTunes Library without needing to manually add songs to it. Happy Days!</p>
<p><a href="http://itlu.ownz.ch"><img src="http://itlu.ownz.ch/itlugui.png" /></a></p>
<p>The electricity’s been going everyday for many everydays now. It’s really very bugging, you know coz it always goes when I’m gonna do something important.<br /><br />Oh, and I’m switching anon commenting off, because of some dumb comments that keep cropping up in my inbox. I might even turn word verification on if this keeps up…<br /><br />Chalo then, I’m quitting now. By the way <abbr title="J K Rowling">JKR</abbr>’s decided on the title of the 7th book, it’s - <span style="font-style: italic;">Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows</span> - sounds interesting, eh?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meEoin Annoyed2006-11-07T11:50:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/eoin-annoyed<p>Okay, so this isn’t quite everything I wanted to say about Artemis Fowl: The
Lost Colony - in all probability, I still am going to say a lot more about it
sometime soon. I just guessed that not quite everyone I knew who likes the
series had read the latest book.<br />Well, anyway, I bought the hardcover
version of the book which, when I bought it, was the only one that existed
here. It looks really nice with its silver cover and red-lettering. The back
cover doesn’t really tell you much - but what you <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> notice is that Eoin Colfer’s finally realised that no one
who doesn’t know him well can get his name right (and probably, many people who
do know him well can’t get it either). So the book’s cover mentions <span style="font-style: italic;">twice</span> that ‘Eoin’ is pronounced as ‘Owen’
with one of the mentions also carrying the comment ‘Not as difficult as it
looks, is it?’</p>
<hr />
<p>Anyway, today was another holiday - and tomorrow’s going to be a holiday too.
That makes a total of four surprise holidays. It’s getting a bit too much now,
especially with Exun and the German Exchange Assembly coming up.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSurprise Holiday2006-10-30T09:55:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/surprise-holiday<p>I really like surprise holidays. Simply because you get to know just a few
hours before that “school’s gonna be closed tomorrow”. And especially in this
case, the school actually sent us <span style="font-style:italic;">e-mails</span> to inform us about the holiday.
Sweet!</p>
<p>So, it’s a holiday today basically because of some trader’s <span style="font-style:italic;">bandh</span> due to which there are going to be
agitations/protests (in other words, the usual) and our school’s worried that
we might be caught in the fray. One of the few times the school’s actually
worried about our safety. The nice bit is that since it’s a 72 hour thing, even
tomorrow <span style="font-style:italic;">might</span> just be a holiday. But I
mustn’t get my hopes up.</p>
<p>Blogger’s really been acting up the past few days - I had quite a bit of
trouble republishing my blog. Also the comment counters on most blogs weren’t
updating themselves…sigh. You can read about the publishing prob <a href="http://status.blogger.com/">here</a>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meI really don't like wasps2006-10-27T11:20:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/i-really-dont-like-wasps<p>Excerpts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>October 24, 2006</p>
<p>Aah… how exciting. The electricity’s gone.
Except what’s special this time about it’s going is that the lights are off
only where <span style="font-style: italic;">I’m</span> sitting. The
electricity’s there outside - all around - it’s even there in the living room
part of the suite! But, no, I mean, why would it be there where I’m sitting?</p>
<p>N.B. I’m writing all this in the dark, so don’t blame me for errors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oh, wait! Most of you guys don’t know where I was when I wrote this. See, we
had holidays (or what I call a well-deserved break) after the exams, so I’d
gone to spend a few days in a place called the <span style="font-style: italic;">Country Club</span>.</p>
<p>Anyway, needless to say, I didn’t actually make any real errors as such. And I
did have quite an enjoyable time, marred by the only fact that we didn’t spend
enough time there.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…Today I enjoyed quite a bit. Actually, now I come to think of it, I didn’t
really do anything much besides lazing around. The club’s also changed quite
a bit since the last time a came here (which was aeons ago, by the way).
There’s this nice house-made-of-wood which I rather like, for some reason. It
has three stories and <span style="font-style: italic;">telescopes</span>…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, actually, when I went there, there were only tripods for the telescopes.
The telescopes were fixed only at night, something which I didn’t come to know
of until it was day again and they were removed.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>..Well then, that’s that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oh, and I (finally) read and bought (in reverse order) <acronym title="Artemis Fowl 5">AF5</acronym>. But more about that later.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOne Month2006-10-19T11:50:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/one-month<p>Well, I seriously never expected that I’d not post for over a month! But, I
dunno, we had exams and all, and for some reason, although I <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> come on the computer, I neither felt
like chatting, nor posting on my blog for some reason.<br /><br />Anyway, the
exams were <span style="font-style: italic;">okay</span>, not by far the best
(or even close to it) that I’ve ever given, but who cares? I mean, it ain’t
even getting added anywhere. These exams were also the ones during which I
slept the latest (I sleep late at night rather than get up early in the
morning). And surprisingly, my maths exam went off quite well. Our teacher
corrected the papers even before the exams finished.</p>
<hr />
<p>We’ve got holidays now - although that didn’t quite stop our biology teacher
from giving us homework to be done <span style="font-style: italic;">now</span>, two weeks before the exams had started. I’m really not in
the mood of making stupid practical files.</p>
<hr />
<p>We also had this really pointless MCQ Exam. They called us to school <span style="font-style: italic;">two hours</span> before it started. ‘Most everyone
succeeded in solving the exam in round about half an hour, not that it really
mattered, ‘cause it didn’t stop them keeping us in school for another hour
after that. And of course, it wasn’t the world’s easiest exam, so I just chose
‘B’ where I didn’t know the answers.</p>
<p>Our Principal had this really awesome idea of calling us for an assembly before
our maths exam started. Then this rep from UNO came and then we took this
pledge to fight poverty; the pledge was really long, we had to repeat whatever
P said, and when it finished, as was wont to happen, all the sixthies started
repeating the next few lines, too.</p>
<hr />
<p>I’ve been sleeping a lot ever since the exams finished. I woke up at 12:30
today (not the latest I’ve ever woken up, by the way).</p>
<hr />
<p>Damn, I’m feeling so bored (and thus inflicting this boredom on you)…I’m also
using Firefox 2 (Release Candidate). It’s not that great, in fact I don’t like
the ‘improved’ tab-browsing…IE7 is also here…</p>
<p>Anyway, tschüs for now. When I get in the mood, I’ll post again (or maybe
update this one only). I’m pretty certain I’ve forgotten something.</p>
<p>And tell me how many of you have fonts from the Lucida family on your computer.
Especially people not running XP.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meSuh-weet!2006-09-13T14:08:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/suh-weet<p>So, not many people did not know that there was an Apple event on 12 September
where they were going to release some exciting new products, of which the iMac
Core 2 Duo was not a part.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I switched on my computer with some excitement, as I had no idea
what was to have been released. Only that when I went to the Apple site, I
realized that the event had not even taken place! (well, obviously India is in
a totally different and useless time zone).</p>
<p>Okay, so there are the updated version of the iPods which have been released - and they are really cool! I mean, all right, it ain’t the iPhone and it ain’t a touch-screen iPod, but hey the new iPods look really sweet! First of all, there’s the new iPod Shuffle which is about the size of half your palm (depending on how big your hand is) and at $79 for 1GB, it’s really good!</p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/shuffle.PNG" /></p>
<p>Next we come to the Nano. It replaced the Mini last year and was the iPod I wanted. Now it comes five different colours (black, silver, pink, green, blue), has a new 8 GB model and a new design (similar to the Mini’s, except it’s thinner).</p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/indexnanofrontside20060912.png" /></p>
<p>The 5G Video iPod has also been updated (well, obviously). It now has a whopping big <span style="font-style:italic;">80GB</span> model, which inicidentally is the same size as the old 60GB one.</p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/indextwirl20060912.png" /></p>
<p>The new iPods also have brighter displays, much better battery life (24 hrs for the Nano) and sync with the iTunes Store to download movies, and games too.<br /><br />There’s also iTunes 7. Well, they’ve changed the looks a bit and I don’t really like them, plus the logo’s got a blue musical note instead of a green one. Check all these things out at the Apple site.<br /><br />So long, and thanks for all the patience,<br />– Sahil :)</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meOne long German test2006-09-12T13:37:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/one-long-german-test<p>Well, in our school at any rate, German is supposed to be the easiest third-
and therefore, second-language that one can take. Me, I disagree. And so would
any other tenthy or ninthy. Honestly, if German can be said to be easy, it’s
only because the level of German in our school is really low – which means that
an eigthy knows about as much German as an eight-year old German. And anyway,
German was only scoring (<i style="">was </i>because it isn’t scoring any more)
because the syllabus wasn’t much, the paper wasn’t long and one didn’t study in
each and every German class.<br /><br />Now, German is exceedingly tough. As a
language, at any rate, it seems to me to be loads more complex (as I’ve already
mentioned before). And the papers no longer seem to be too short. See,
normally, a German test can be completed in <i style="">20 minutes</i> and an
exam in, say, around half an hour to 45 minutes. But on Monday (last Monday,
that is) we had this special German <i style="">test</i> which took a whopping
<i style="">one hour</i> to complete (which, in case you haven’t noticed, is
even more than the time taken to complete an exam). And, of course, the marks
we got were inversely proportional to the time taken to complete the paper. The
paper consisted of 3 essays and 2 comprehension passages. Questions in the
comprehension passage all had answers of 2 lines, and were all of 3-4 marks
each!</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me“I'm sorry, I can't do this...”2006-09-07T15:00:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/im-sorry-i-cant-do-this<p>So, we had this <span style="font-style: italic;">Poetry Recitation</span> competition in our school today, and I participated in it (albeit I hadn’t really any choice). It was, let me tell you, unbelievably <span style="font-style: italic;">stupid</span>. For one thing, the theme was “Seasons” (though that’s not the stupid bit) and rules like the time limit were told to us two periods before the competition (that’s not the stupid bit either). The stupid bit starts when I tell you that no one was allowed to take the paper with the poem written on it up onstage for some absurd reason that if you take the paper you’ll keep looking into it and so you won’t manage to have proper expressions.</p>
<p>So, here’s how it went:</p>
<p>Participant 1: <span style="font-style: italic;">The title of my poem is “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats.<br />[Starts off]<br />[1 minute later, gets stuck; looks down, realises there’s no paper to look down at]<br />….I’m sorry, I can’t do this……[walks off]</span><br /><br />Compere: <span style="font-style: italic;">Our next participant is [blah]</span><br /><br />P2: <span style="font-style: italic;">The title of my poem is [whatever-it-was].<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">[Starts off]<br />[1.5 minute later, gets stuck; looks down, realises there’s no paper to look down at]<br />….I’m sorry, I can’t do this……[walks off]<br /><br /></span>Compere: <span style="font-style: italic;">Our next participant is [blah]<br /><br /></span>P3: <span style="font-style: italic;">The title of my poem is “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats.<br />[Starts off]<br />[1/2 minute later, gets stuck; looks down, realises there’s no paper to look down at]<br />….I’m sorry, I can’t do this……[walks off]<br /><br /></span>Me: Wondering why nobody can remember their poems properly and why the judges didn’t allow them to take the papers with them (<span style="font-style: italic;">don’t</span> give me the expression crap) and why everyone is saying ‘Ode to Autumn’.<br /><br />Well, basically, there were about 5 more participants who recited the same Ode, all of whom could not remember it in its entirety, and out of the 24 participants, at least 17 walked off after saying they were sorry and could not do it.<br /><br />Me? My chance came right in the end. I didn’t quite forget my poem, but then I didn’t quite get a prize either (came 4th by 1 or 2 points).<br /><br />Ah well.</p>
<hr />
<p>So the iMac Core 2 Duos have been released which makes me wonder what momentous things they’re gonna show on September 12. New Mac Minis are also there, and I’d buy them if it were not for the graphics card.<br /><br />Oh, and I noticed this interesting thing in my feedreader:</p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/tech_feeds.png" /></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHey, this blog still ain't complete, remember?2006-08-19T11:04:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/hey-this-blog-still-aint-complete<p>Well, this is just to say that I’m working on it (again) after a <span style="font-style: italic;">long</span> break. So you might see some odd stuff
going on - try to ignore it for a while, okay?</p>
<p>And can anyone tell me about this - Abhishek pointed out that both the links to
the feed in the sidebar (Atom and RSS) take you to the same place, ie, the Atom
feed. If you hover over the link, you’ll see atom.xml as the destination in the
link to the RSS feed. But if you view the source, the same link says ‘rss.xml’.
What’s on?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meNice Visitors not using IE2006-08-16T10:15:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/nice-visitors-not-using-ie<p>I like this! See for the site statistics for this blog, I’m using <a href="http://google.com/analytics">Google Analytics</a> because I got an invitation from them (I applied for it). Anyway, so here’s what I see in the browsers being used by visitors to this site:</p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/browsers.png" /></p>
<p>Yay! All hail the Firefox users!</p>
<p>Soon, I’d like to see IE as instead of the second largest segment, at 0%.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/" title="Firefox">Download Firefox here (those who’re using Internet Explorer)</a>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me'Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest and a Bottle of Rum!'2006-08-14T18:41:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/fifteen-men-on-dead-mans-chest-and<p><span style="font-size:78%;">This is the second time I’m typing this whole thing out. Really, it’s too much. The electricity has gone for over 3 hours today. It goes each and every time when I have time to do something on the computer. And of course, the UPS can only show it’s total lack of being </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;">un</span><span style="font-size:78%;">interrupted…</span></p>
<p><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005JP0D.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" /></p>
<p>Well, okay, if you want to be really technical about it, not quite fifteen men and not quite just a single bottle of rum.<br /><br />So, finally, after long waiting, I saw the movie. And, to my surprise, I <span style="font-style: italic;">didn’t</span> get blown up, what with all the terrorists being around and all. <span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> we were sitting in the very second row from the front - not very nice. I had thought that since the movie’s been here for like a month, everyone should have seen it by now - obviously not.<br /><br />Anyway, so, on the whole, the movie was, I suppose, quite good. The acting, as always, (especially Johnny Depp’s) was superb. And, of course, the wisecracks were there, though I don’t think they were quite as many as in the first movie.<br /><br />Besides that, the story was OK - it seemed to be, at some points of time, a mixture of a load of other stories like <span style="font-style: italic;">Treasure Island</span> and all. And the creatures in Davy Jones’ army were a tad more grotesque than need be - actually they were quite repulsive and sick-looking. Oh, and, those who didn’t like the dirty teeth in the first movie get a load more sets of dirty teeth to not like. And you’re better off not thinking much about the euphemisms in the tribal island part.<br /><br />All in all, not a movie you’d watch while eating your dinner, for more reasons than one. But it was OK, except it ended on a rather abrupt note, and the ending was entirely spoilt by a) Sushant Tandon and b) a newspaper article which mentioned that Geoffrey Rush was part of the cast…whoops! (shouldn’t I have mentioned “spoiler warning”?).</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meCatching that elusive pirate2006-08-12T09:29:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/catching-that-elusive-pirate<p>No, it’s just too bad. You know, just a few days after I first saw Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, I got to know that a sequel was being made. And of course, I decided that time only that I <span style="font-style: italic;">must</span> see it.<br /><br />Then later I came to know that it was being released on July 5, except it came here only 2 weeks late. Well, anyway, ever since then I’ve been wanting to see it, and somehow or the other, I don’t seem to get the chance. Either dad’s to busy, or I have to go for a competition, or my sister’s got some work, or there’s no time…well, you get the gist.</p>
<p>Now, today I’m supposed to be going for it (in precisely half an hour), though with all the bad luck with me and this movie, I won’t be surprised if I get blown up half-way through.</p>
<p>The first movie, by the way, was superb. Johnny Depp’s acting, the wisecracks, the story and Johnny Depp’s acting really made it fun. I liked the wisecracks especially, coz they kept me grinning most of the time.<br /><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">Will is caught and Jack soon follows suit</span>]<br />Will: Jack! Where’s Elizabeth?<br />Jack: Elizabeth’s safe and sound, just as I promised. She’s all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised; and you’re going to have to die for her, just like <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> promised, so we’re all men of our words really…except Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman.<br /><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">Then, Jack and Barbossa are talking</span>]<br />B: Jack, I never thought you had it in you to do this.<br />J: You know me, I’m completely dishonest. You can always trust the dishonest people to be dishonest - honestly - it’s the honest ones you have to be careful of. You never know when they might do something incredibly <span style="font-style: italic;">stupid</span>.<br />[Following, which, Jack and Will start fighting B]</p>
<p>Oh well, I guess it doesn’t even sound half as funny as it did then.</p>
<p><a href="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/pirates_desk.jpg" title="Click to enlarge"><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/pirates_desk_preview.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>This, by the way, is just a temporary sort of desk, till I make a better one.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meNever use Flash when you need to make a site in 1 hour2006-08-09T13:27:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/never-use-flash-when-you-need-to-make<p>Argh!</p>
<p>Things have really reached an all-time low. Apart from being busy, I’m also getting really bored now. Reduced to make you read such a boring post, without any proper title as this one. You know, when I started this blog, it was basically because I had so many nice ideas about what to post about. Of course, once I <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> make it, all the ideas simply went on a long holiday.<br /><br />I don’t seem to be getting much time to sit down and write posts either, when it comes to that. Basically, I’m doing this right now coz today was a holiday. My sister(s) came and tied <span style="font-style: italic;">rakhis</span> following which they inisisted on ballooning my mouth with <span style="font-style: italic;">rasgullas</span>.</p>
<p>I also (finally) installed .NET 2.0, due to which I was able to use TuneSleeve,
which I must say, works really well, and is really useful.</p>
<p>The other day I went to Montfort for a competition. It was pretty normal
(compared to BVN at any rate). The gaming finals were quite enjoyable. They
had this XBOX on which the 2 finalists had to play Pro Evolution Soccer, and
man, what graphics! It was almost as good as watching real people play, albeit
in real life, you’d never get AC Milan playing against Argentina. Meanwhile,
(while we were watching that is) they gave us these manila folders, containing
the participation certificates (though we didn’t open the folders). After that
we had the prize distribution. After we all got our prizes (our school came
first overall by the way), we went back to our seats and opened the folders
containing the participation certificates, only to find that the certificates
for the individual prizes were also in there! I mean, we could have easily seen
that we’d come first in web-d and quizzing if we’d just opened that.</p>
<p>Ah well.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meHave I been busy or have I been busy?2006-07-30T10:21:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/have-i-been-busy-or-have-i-been-busy<p>And you thought this blog was already dead.</p>
<p>I’ve been soo busy the past week (and a few days) what with the <a href="http://dpsmun.net">DPS MUN website</a> and making a website for a competition and whatnot that I’ve not even been able to visit my blog much, leave alone posting about all the things I’ve wanted to (obviously, you must’ve noticed that bit).<br /><br />Recently I went to Tagore International for a competition (Digital Photography) and (very surprisingly) came <span style="font-style: italic;">first</span>. The topic was a very absurd one - “Happiness” or “Friendship” <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> we had to take the photographs in the rain. Yesterday, I went to BVN, and never have I been to a more disorganised place. Besides having me sauntering around most of their school (to find where the competition was) before somebody directed me to back where I’d started, they also made us wait in the heat for three hours before starting the competition, following which the electricity went as soon as I’d inserted my CD into the drive. Tomorrow, by the way, we have a German test, which (as I’ve already mentioned) is not something to grin about. So, I think I’d better wrap it up, read my 28 new emails and 283 new newsfeed items, do something about the 44 tabs which I have open (a mind-boggling occurrence) and then go off and study (ew, what a boring prospect!).</p>
<p>Chalo then, if I remember something I’ve forgotten (the latter more likely than
the former) I’ll post about it. For now, ‘tis time to be gone.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meउफ़!2006-07-17T15:51:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/uff<p>No, really! This is definitely the limit! For, let me see, four days now, I have been unable to visit <span style="font-style: italic;">any</span> blogspot.com blog! This has, you know, been highly irritating, ‘cause I can’t see my own blog and neither can I go to others - and even the feeds don’t work. Till today, I didn’t know why this was happening - I thought that maybe it was some problem with the blogspot servers or something…<br /><br />But the <span style="font-style: italic;">real</span> reason (or what seems to be the real reason) is dumb - just plain dumb. It seems that the Ministry of Communication of the Government of India has banned all these blogs, for some unknown reason. So, because of said unknown reason, all of us innocent people have to be denied the pleasure of visiting blogs! <img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/icon_mad.gif" class="smile" border="0" /></p>
<p>Hmph!</p>
<p>It’s absurd! People tell me that it’s been done because of other people posting about the Reservation thingy! What about the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression and all that? And anyway, just because some people have been posting about it doesn’t mean that each and every blog should be banned just like that! <img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/iRoll.gif" class="smile" border="0" /><br />I hope they’ll get over it soon.<br /><br />Anyway, while blogs have been inaccessible, I’ve been doing…well, nothing, actually. Though I did find some interesting sites recently, some time ago and I Stumbled Upon a few, too (this makes it sound as though I’ve found tons - but really, there are only around 5-6).</p>
<ol><li><a href="http://tunesleeve.googlepages.com/home">TuneSleeve</a>: This is a nice program for iTunes. What it does is, it searches Amazon.com for Album Art that is missing from your library and lets you choose among some nice images.</li><li><a href="http://songtapper.com">The Song Tapper</a>: I read about this one on a blog. Basically, you <span style="font-style: italic;">tap</span> a song using your keyboard and it searches its database and tells you which song you've tapped. I was pretty sceptical about it at first, but it actually works!</li><li><a href="http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal2.html">byokal</a>: This is a 'toy' made by this guy. Drag 'n' drop these images on to this image and you get to see a kaleidoscopic thing on the bigger image.
(Just try it out, I know I'm not making much sense)</li><li><a href="http://snipurl.com">Snipurl</a>: Trouble remembering URLs that are too long? Snip them! I saw this one in a magazine.</li></ol>
<p>Oh, and I downloaded the <span style="font-style: italic;">release candidate</span> of Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 - though I haven’t tried it out yet.<br /><br />And today was the first stayback for DPS MUN - and after a lot of debating, I didn’t stay back. I spent the whole of the last period thinking about it - that’s 40 minutes of pondering over two words (<span style="font-style: italic;">Yes</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">No</span>).Now I’m wondering if I should have stayed back after all. <span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> a blighter in my German class broke my glasses, so till seven o’clock I had to do without them. <img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/iRoll.gif" class="smile" border="0" /></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">N.B.</span> I completely forgot to mention - blogs <span style="font-style:italic;">can</span> be visited by going to <a href="http://pkblogs.com">pkblogs.com</a>. I’m also trying out a program called ‘Tor’ to accomplish the same thing, though I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet.<br />Oh, and the shoutbox seems to have gone on strike. I’m thinking of applying for a new one, what say you?</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meJune-July Desktop2006-07-14T18:45:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/june-july-desktop<p><a href="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/June-July.PNG" title="Click here to view enlarged screenshot"><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/June-July_thumb.png" /></a></p>
<p>Yep. Those’re Wolverine’s claws. <img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/grin.gif" class="smile" border="0" /></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meMars hugs Saturn2006-07-11T14:31:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/mars-hugs-saturn<p>Me, I don’t believe in astrology, no sir. Probably for the main reason that astrologers are hardly ever right, like in this example: An astrologer said that Brazil was going to win the World Cup, and, of course, when Brazil went for a six, he must’ve felt really <span style="font-style: italic;">stupid</span>. So here’s the pithy way in which he tries to defend himself, “Well, you know, my prediction that Brazil would win the Cup was made just for fun, it wasn’t based on any theory as such.” Really!<br />So, well, going by all this, you can’t really blame me when - weeks ago - Mars came close to Saturn for the first time in ever so many years, and astrologers said that the World Cup would have an unlikely winner. Slowly, of course, this began to come true as Brazil lost. But, even then, I couldn’t have imagined that <span style="font-style: italic;">Italy</span> would take away the cup. Sad…even till the final, I was rooting for France.<br />Then of course, Zizou <span style="font-style: italic;">had</span> to go and start headbutting people. I mean, he really shouldn’t have lost control like that - if he’d been there, France <span style="font-style: italic;">might just</span> have won the Cup (though there’s no saying about that - Buffon’s a good goal keeper). Still, Zidane did at least win the Golden Ball.</p>
<p><img src="http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/cp/sports/20060709/s070968a.jpg" /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-size:85%;">The Red Card</span><br /><br />Still, on a lighter and much (much much) better note, Federer, the King of Tennis beat Clay court champion Nadal 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3. Whew! The 6-0 match was really…<span style="font-style: italic;">cool</span>. Nadal was literally <span style="font-style: italic;">trembling</span> like hell. But Federer did, eventually beat Nadal even though it was only the second time out of eight. But this Nadal, he’s a big liar, don’t you know? He said that there was no way he was going to do well in the Wimbledon, he just hoped to improve himself on grass - and there he went soaring on to the final and even managed to take a set off Federer! Don’t get me wrong - Nadal <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> one of my favourites, but only when he isn’t playing Federer.</p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/b_13_federer_123_epa_g_penny.jpg" alt="Federer Kisses Trophy" border="0" height="389" width="398" /><br /></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meThe Lost Colony: 30 days left2006-07-07T11:32:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/lost-colony-30-days-left<p>Another ‘inhuman’ post, I guess.<br />Anyway, I subscribe to the Artemis Fowl newsletter, you know (or is that the Eoin Colfer newsletter?). So, it was said that the fifth Artemis Fowl is being released in September. Well, it seems that they’ve preponed it, so now it’s releasing on <span style="font-weight: bold;">August 3</span>. Which, by the way, is really very good.<br /><br />Check out the newsletter <a href="http://newsletters.penguin.co.uk/go.asp?/bPEN001/mUUKDK2/q3LBMK2/uCAQFF/x4PM432" title="Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony">here</a>.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me8-bit Games certainly are fun2006-07-06T13:20:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/8-bit-games-certainly-are-fun<p>Well, as <a href="http://digthepig.blogspot.com/2006/06/flashback-8-bit-games.html" title="Diggi: the 8-bit games">Diggi says</a>, 8-bit games <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span> fun. I mean, all right, forget the graphics, but there really is something catchy about them. I’m really not going to start harping on about 8-bit games, whatever you need to know can be found out <a href="http://digthepig.blogspot.com/2006/06/flashback-8-bit-games.html" title="Diggi: the 8-bit games">here</a>.<br />What I <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> want to say is that <a href="http://fivefoldfun.blogspot.com/2005/10/too-much-news.html">some time ago</a>, I found loads of these games on my computer. Their average size being no more than 250 KB (yes, kilobytes <span style="font-weight: bold;">:D</span> ), I’ve decided that if you want them, you’ve only got to ask. Here’s a complete list of all the ones I have:</p>
<p><img src="http://members.lycos.co.uk/sahil/nes_list.gif" alt="" height="445" width="268" /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(N.B. ‘Punch_0’ is same as Mike Tyson, and ‘ULTRBASE’ is in Japanese)<br /><br /></span>Of course, being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES" title="Wikipedia: NES">NES</a> games, you’ll need a NES emulator to play them. I suggest you head to <a href="http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/" title="Emulator Zone: NES Emulators">Emulator Zone’s NES Emulators</a> page and grab one. I’m using <a href="http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/fceultra.html" title="FCE Ultra; 292 KB">FCE Ultra</a> right now - it’s pretty decent, but if you use it, you’ll need to set the controls (the defaults don’t work properly and the controls for the turbo buttons aren’t set by default).<br /><br />Anyway, we still have one exam left (sad, I know). Fortunately, its German, unfortunately, German’s no longer the easiest subject that many people imagine it to be. I mean, all right, the level of learning German in our school is much lower than that of French, but as a language, it’s a lot more complex. This, is mainly due to <span style="font-style: italic;">cases</span> (nominative, accusative, dative, etc) or rather, the numerous ways a sentence has to be changed in order to make it agree with the case. The syllabus is also (very) misleading - it is, after all, three words. The unfortunate part starts when you realise that those three words are ‘everything’, ‘is’ and ‘coming’.<br />Right now, I’m feeling jealous of the people for whom the exams have already ended (in other words, those who are exempted from the last exam due to the JSTS interview - the lucky <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">pigs</span> people).<br /><br />So then,<br />Cheers,<br />– Sahil.</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meWLM 8.0 [updated]2006-06-20T11:08:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/wlm-80-updated<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">//Updated and edited</span></span><br /><br />Did you really think that I would waste my time writing “Windows Live Messenger” in the title? <span style="font-weight: bold;">:D</span><br />Well, so MSN Messenger 7.5’s replacement <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">has been released today.</span> And with a new name - Windows Live Messenger. “This is the same Messenger you know and love, only better,” says Microsoft. I wanted to try it out.<br />I knew that it was being released today, so I headed off to the download site to get it. And god! it was one heck of a download at <span style="font-style: italic;">14.6 MB</span>!! I mean, v7.5 was no more than 8 megs, but fourteen! Anyhow, with a not-so-very slow ADSL connection, it downloaded pretty fast, starting at this speed:<br /><br /><br />
<img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/dload.jpg" alt="" height="177" width="452" /></p>
<p>So, well then, I proceeded to install it. The first thing was that they had changed all the Messenger logos in the installer (you see, having never tried the beta version, everything was new to me). After that, you notice that all the systray icons have changed too, for glossy, somewhat better ones. The login page no longer sports the display picture <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(at least, not for me, it didn’t)</span>. The entire <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">blue look</span> of the old messenger (starting from v6 I think) has given way to a new, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">cleaner, streamlined</span> Vista-like feel - and I like it!<br /><br />
<img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/login8.jpg" alt="" /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">The Login Page</span><br /><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/wlm8.jpg" alt="" /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">The Main Window</span><br /><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/chat.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />There are many new features, too, like making phone calls (<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">think</span> Skype and Google talk)<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. But as far as I gathered, I have the non-US edition (at least that’s what the installer said) - I’m assuming phone calls ‘n’ stuff is only in the US. Then there’s</span> shared folders (share a folder with your contact), Offline chatting (not tried it yet :) ), and more. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can even search your contact list, and even change the color scheme of the main window, to suit your mood or visual style. Oh yeah, and it creates a new group called “Non Instant-Messaging Contacts”, which contains all your hotmail contacts.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://messenger.live.com" title="Download Windows Live Messenger 8.0; 14.6 MB">Get it now: Windows Live Messenger 8.0</a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Update: I tried out the offline chatting thing….it’s pretty nifty - contacts recieve the messages when they sign in; that’s pretty useful, especially if your connection gets disrupted or something. But I don’t know if it’s backward compatible.<br />Update: Soon, we’ll be able to chat with Yahoo users on Windows Live Messenger!</span><br /><br />– Sahil</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meArtemis Fowl - The Lost Colony2006-06-12T11:47:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/artemis-fowl-lost-colony_12<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">The fifth book in the series due to release in September!</span></p>
<p><img src="http://members.multimania.co.uk/sahil/af5.png" /><br /><br />Ten thousand years ago, humans and fairies fought a great battle for the magical island of Ireland. When it became clear to the fairy families that they could never win, they decided to move their civilisation underground and keep themselves hidden from the humans. All the fairy families agreed on this, except the eighth family, the demons.<br /><br />The demons planned to lift their small island out of time until they had regrouped and were ready to wage war on the humans once more. However, the time spell went wrong, and the island of Hybras was catapulted into Limbo, where it has remained for ten thousand years.<br /><br />Now, the tainted time spell is deteriorating and demons are being sucked back into the present space and time. The fairy Council are naturally concerned about this and are monitoring any materialisations. When the spell’s deterioration accelerates, the materialisations become unpredictable. Even the fairy scientists cannot figure out where the next demon will pop up.<br /><br />But someone can. Artemis Fowl, the teenage criminal mastermind, has solved temporal equations that no normal human should be intelligent enough to understand. But Artemis Fowl is no normal human.<br /><br />So when a confused and frightened demon pops up in a Sicilian theatre, Artemis Fowl is there to meet him. Unfortunately, he is not the only one. A second, mysterious party has also solved the temporal equations, and manages to abduct the demon before Artemis can secure him.<br /><br />This is a disaster for the fairy People, because this demon was no ordinary fairy. He was the last demon warlock, and as such held the key to the survival of the entire demon race.<br /><br />It is up to Artemis and his old comrade Captain Holly Short to track down the missing demon and rescue him before the time spell dissolves completely and the lost demon colony returns violently to Earth.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">//Update</span> - Check out all this and more about Eoin Colfer’s new book <span style="font-style: italic;">Half-Moon Investigations</span> at <a href="http://www.eoincolfer.com">http://www.eoincolfer.com</a></p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.meAha!2006-06-12T11:09:00+00:00http://blog.sahil.me//posts/aha<p>So, finally, I’ve succumbed to my wish of having a personal blog. I mean to say, I’m part of a <a href="http://fivefoldfun.blogspot.com">team blog</a> too, but, like you know, there are some things which one can’t go about writing on a blog like that. Well, for your information, this ain’t my first personal blog either, but it <span style="font-style: italic;">is </span>the one I intend to continue with (unlike the other ones I ditched <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">:D</span> ).<br />Normally, a person would put some stuff about himself in a first post, but I hate “About Me”s so I’m not gonna do it. I just can never think of something to say for a thing like that (see my profile to get what I mean <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">:)</span> ).<br /><br />So keep checking for updates - Subscribe to my feed (the link is in the sidebar too)<br />The design of this blog I’ve made myself, but it isn’t even near completion - I’m feeling a bit lazy as of now - I guess I’ll complete it sometime soon. The shoutbox needs to be done, the item page stuff needs to be changed, etc, etc……</p>
Sahil Bajajsahil.memail@sahil.me