Today my stomach is full, really full.Anybody who has eaten hostel food can understand how it feels to have a full meal.Because most of the time hostel food and prison food is same.Somtimes I think it is worse.Speaking of myself,like many people I love eating and moreover does not understand the fuss people make about consuming exactly 2500 calories per day-not one more,not one less.They are not doing anyone any good by fretting.
But I disgress.Today one of my friends came up and said that he knew a place where one could get chicken very cheap.The place was located in a muslim area and the people had just broken their Ramzan fast.So all the eateries in the area were crowded.Muslims break their fasts in a grand manner-i had read in a recent newspaper article and so when I reached our destination I was not surprisd by what I saw.Huge chicken legs were rotating on spits over a charcoal brazier while pieces of chicken stuffed inside parathas was deep fried.The assault on my olfactory senses was awesome.After tucking in as much as I could when I glanced at the bill it was ridiculously low.At my regular haunts,I would have had to pay twice or thrice the amont.And on top of that they fob you off with a service tax to pay for the paper on which the bill is printed and the printed ink.Daylight robbery!!!
Meanwhile as I write this diwali,the old festival of lights but the modern festival of sounds is upon us.For anyone unaccustomed to festivals of India,he would be forgiven if he thought he was in a war zone.God protect my eardrums
30 Oct 2005
29 Oct 2005
Exam thoughts and cellular misadventure
Back after a long sabbatical of nearly 10 days.The reason for such a long absence is that I no longer have my internet connection in my hostel room due to exams which will be breathing down our necks after a fortnight.And then only god can help us.Crazy hours of study where you
sleep for only 2 hours and go rubbing your eyes and yawning to sit for the exam.This strategy never paid much dividend for me.This cramming before the exams is common to almost all students-whether they are from professional or general stream..Another thing which is common all over the country is cheating -though degree and methods vary which has reacheD endemic proportions.Tell you what,to solve all these problesms abo;lish exams.We would save lots of time and money in the process and use them to design a better means to achieve the same ends as exams does.Forget what others say,listen from ground zero,from a examinee.Sorry if I slipped up on putting an before e instead of a.I'm not sure and nobody cares where your is ur and for is 4.
On a different vein I was fiddling about with my mobile and came across language settings. I did'nt know what got into me but I changed my deault language to arabic or urdu.And boy,wasn't it awful when you could not read anything on the screen.I was so bloody crossed that I could have kicked myself.I did not know anybody who knew these languages.I could go to a madrassa or puzzle out of the dilema I landed myself into.I was letting myself into a navigational nightmare.Many hits and misses followed before I got bck to where I started from and good ol' English was back.Thank god I did not choose Turkish.No more crazy experiments for me.
P.S While writing this both the power supply and the ups gave up their collective ghosts.Thankfully I was now in the habit of saving my drafts before final publishing.From bitter experience I have learnt to do so when some of my earlier unsaved posts were lost due to power cuts.So use this nifty utility as much as you want to.
sleep for only 2 hours and go rubbing your eyes and yawning to sit for the exam.This strategy never paid much dividend for me.This cramming before the exams is common to almost all students-whether they are from professional or general stream..Another thing which is common all over the country is cheating -though degree and methods vary which has reacheD endemic proportions.Tell you what,to solve all these problesms abo;lish exams.We would save lots of time and money in the process and use them to design a better means to achieve the same ends as exams does.Forget what others say,listen from ground zero,from a examinee.Sorry if I slipped up on putting an before e instead of a.I'm not sure and nobody cares where your is ur and for is 4.
On a different vein I was fiddling about with my mobile and came across language settings. I did'nt know what got into me but I changed my deault language to arabic or urdu.And boy,wasn't it awful when you could not read anything on the screen.I was so bloody crossed that I could have kicked myself.I did not know anybody who knew these languages.I could go to a madrassa or puzzle out of the dilema I landed myself into.I was letting myself into a navigational nightmare.Many hits and misses followed before I got bck to where I started from and good ol' English was back.Thank god I did not choose Turkish.No more crazy experiments for me.
P.S While writing this both the power supply and the ups gave up their collective ghosts.Thankfully I was now in the habit of saving my drafts before final publishing.From bitter experience I have learnt to do so when some of my earlier unsaved posts were lost due to power cuts.So use this nifty utility as much as you want to.
17 Oct 2005
A life cut short
Something very tragic has happened in our college. A second year, student, Manoj Kumar has died of malaria. But the doctors are not themselves sure on this. For about 10 days or so doctors were treating him for cerebral malaria. It was only when his platelet count dropped rapidly that the doctors started a course for dengue fever. But by then it was too late and he breathed his last.
Now some very serious questions are involved in this case.The first is the unenthusiastic, rather apathetic of the administration towards student grievances. The complaints of the students, especially hostelites are genuine and reasonable. The campus is huge and grasses and all sorts of vegetation grow on the fallow ground. On paper there is a provision for a contractor who cuts grasses after the rainy season. .But to maximize profits there are delays in cutting operations. By this time the campus is buzzing with mosquitos and there is a mini epidemic of malaria and related diseases. And this goes on year after year, with the authorities turning a blind eye. Given the sorry state of affairs, it has been very lucky there is only one fatality. Will the state of affairs improve or will it take more deaths of students who have come from far to drive home the point. And since this post would not be effective if I do not provide some details, our college is the National Institute of Techonology,Surat which claims to be the best institute for engineering studies in this part of India along with IIT Bombay and a few others. And yes folks, I’m a hostelite and frankly speaking, I’m scared of malaria.
Now some very serious questions are involved in this case.The first is the unenthusiastic, rather apathetic of the administration towards student grievances. The complaints of the students, especially hostelites are genuine and reasonable. The campus is huge and grasses and all sorts of vegetation grow on the fallow ground. On paper there is a provision for a contractor who cuts grasses after the rainy season. .But to maximize profits there are delays in cutting operations. By this time the campus is buzzing with mosquitos and there is a mini epidemic of malaria and related diseases. And this goes on year after year, with the authorities turning a blind eye. Given the sorry state of affairs, it has been very lucky there is only one fatality. Will the state of affairs improve or will it take more deaths of students who have come from far to drive home the point. And since this post would not be effective if I do not provide some details, our college is the National Institute of Techonology,Surat which claims to be the best institute for engineering studies in this part of India along with IIT Bombay and a few others. And yes folks, I’m a hostelite and frankly speaking, I’m scared of malaria.
12 Oct 2005
Stop playing with nature
Did you notice something about the year 2005.This year has seen more than its fair share of natural disasters vis-a-vis other years.I mean just look back to a few years and you will see what I mean.The year started with a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean which affected millions.A fairly exhaustive account can be found here . Many are still picking up pieces of their former lives which would never be the same again.
Cut to August 2005. A hurricane named Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico which began from a category -4 to category-5 hurricane ripped through the US Gulf coast and caused extensive damages to New Orleans.Even though the event is pretty recent,this exhaustive article would refresh our memories,which nowadays are getting sadly short termed .Just when the whole world was getting ready to aid US in relief and rescue operations,a even more extensive and stronger hurricane RIta was brewing up.Its affects were not as extensive as the previous one because the whole machinery was probably more prepared. But even then the ordeal was far from over.A tropical hurricane named Stan struck Central American.Even though it was a Category -1 hurricane it caused widespread deaths and property losses.For example a mudslide caused by heavy rains wiped out an entire village in Guatemala and killed at least 1000 people.And now a monsoon cyclone in the Bay Of Bengal Pyaar has struck Andhra Pradesh in India.
Coming to the topic of earthquakes this year has been a scene of unusual seismic activity most massive one was the undersea temblor that caused the tsunami.Its magnitude was about 9.3 on the Richter scale,making it a Rare Great Earthquake.This was followed by numerous others across the world.Take the recent quake in South East Asia which killed upwards of 40,000.And the toll is still rising.Till now there were 10 major earthquakes alone this year whose magnitudes measured above 7 0n the Richter scale.
We should ask ourselves what has caused this state of affairs.Granted that we cannot prevent nor predict earthquakes can only minimize their impact.But three major back to back hurricanes and that too approximately in the same region.Surely there is much more than a mere coincidence.I have a little theory of my own not have complete facts but maybe the excessive burning of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect has caused the natural balance in the atmosphere to go haywire.Katrina,Rita and the tsunami are only examples of nature's awesome power and man's helplessness.If we continue to act without sparing a thought for the future,the human race will be snuffed in a few hundred years from now.
Cut to August 2005. A hurricane named Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico which began from a category -4 to category-5 hurricane ripped through the US Gulf coast and caused extensive damages to New Orleans.Even though the event is pretty recent,this exhaustive article would refresh our memories,which nowadays are getting sadly short termed .Just when the whole world was getting ready to aid US in relief and rescue operations,a even more extensive and stronger hurricane RIta was brewing up.Its affects were not as extensive as the previous one because the whole machinery was probably more prepared. But even then the ordeal was far from over.A tropical hurricane named Stan struck Central American.Even though it was a Category -1 hurricane it caused widespread deaths and property losses.For example a mudslide caused by heavy rains wiped out an entire village in Guatemala and killed at least 1000 people.And now a monsoon cyclone in the Bay Of Bengal Pyaar has struck Andhra Pradesh in India.
Coming to the topic of earthquakes this year has been a scene of unusual seismic activity most massive one was the undersea temblor that caused the tsunami.Its magnitude was about 9.3 on the Richter scale,making it a Rare Great Earthquake.This was followed by numerous others across the world.Take the recent quake in South East Asia which killed upwards of 40,000.And the toll is still rising.Till now there were 10 major earthquakes alone this year whose magnitudes measured above 7 0n the Richter scale.
We should ask ourselves what has caused this state of affairs.Granted that we cannot prevent nor predict earthquakes can only minimize their impact.But three major back to back hurricanes and that too approximately in the same region.Surely there is much more than a mere coincidence.I have a little theory of my own not have complete facts but maybe the excessive burning of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect has caused the natural balance in the atmosphere to go haywire.Katrina,Rita and the tsunami are only examples of nature's awesome power and man's helplessness.If we continue to act without sparing a thought for the future,the human race will be snuffed in a few hundred years from now.
10 Oct 2005
Invasion of the Arthropods
You know what? For the last few days I have been feeling pretty suffocated. I seriously don’t want to bore all of you who will eventually take the trouble to read this but
it seems that my troubles started when my room became a hotbed of insects ranging from moths to grasshoppers that I bet Even a taxonomist would be hard put to name them in English, let alone in Latin..Infact it seems that a veritable regiment of grasshoppers have pitched their camp right outside my room and have been raiding it every night.Unlike most of my mates, the sight of a member of phylum arthropoda does not give me jump out of my skins;probably because from where I come,insects are very familiar.But lately even a veteran like me feel jumpy when I go to bed.This feeling of jumpiness increased when one morning just as I was about to get up a lizard missed its footing on the ceiling above me and fell with a loud plop on my pillow. Only two inches from my face. If it had missed by two inches-yuuuck! The very thought makes me feel squeamish which has led to some troubled nights. One day was the limit when a bat flew in and fluttered for about ten minutes before getting out. The ceiling fan was on and I was afraid that the bat might fly up and get hurt. All these events coupled with a bloggers version of authors block makes me feel that I am living in a boiler room
All these days that I was out of circulation, I had been doing some philosophizing. All of us have that little voice inside our minds which tells us to stop doing it if we are doing something wrong but in my case-I don’t know abbot yours-it does not tell you how to do the good think. And it seems pretty difficult not to follow the guy with tails and the pitchfork. So what I have been doing is that is that I quell the debate by slapping my cheek. And it seems to be working.
Back home it is festival time-Durga Puja.Been missing most of the festivals since I came out .Sometimes it feels sad. The number of school friends have dropped drastically because most of them, like me had gone to different corners of the country to study. Email is the only means of keeping in touch. You make newer friends in the bargain .These things always remain in a state of flux .Well, you have little choice.
it seems that my troubles started when my room became a hotbed of insects ranging from moths to grasshoppers that I bet Even a taxonomist would be hard put to name them in English, let alone in Latin..Infact it seems that a veritable regiment of grasshoppers have pitched their camp right outside my room and have been raiding it every night.Unlike most of my mates, the sight of a member of phylum arthropoda does not give me jump out of my skins;probably because from where I come,insects are very familiar.But lately even a veteran like me feel jumpy when I go to bed.This feeling of jumpiness increased when one morning just as I was about to get up a lizard missed its footing on the ceiling above me and fell with a loud plop on my pillow. Only two inches from my face. If it had missed by two inches-yuuuck! The very thought makes me feel squeamish which has led to some troubled nights. One day was the limit when a bat flew in and fluttered for about ten minutes before getting out. The ceiling fan was on and I was afraid that the bat might fly up and get hurt. All these events coupled with a bloggers version of authors block makes me feel that I am living in a boiler room
All these days that I was out of circulation, I had been doing some philosophizing. All of us have that little voice inside our minds which tells us to stop doing it if we are doing something wrong but in my case-I don’t know abbot yours-it does not tell you how to do the good think. And it seems pretty difficult not to follow the guy with tails and the pitchfork. So what I have been doing is that is that I quell the debate by slapping my cheek. And it seems to be working.
Back home it is festival time-Durga Puja.Been missing most of the festivals since I came out .Sometimes it feels sad. The number of school friends have dropped drastically because most of them, like me had gone to different corners of the country to study. Email is the only means of keeping in touch. You make newer friends in the bargain .These things always remain in a state of flux .Well, you have little choice.
4 Oct 2005
Kashish and ragging-then and now
We have had a long vacation, starting from Thursday when we had our elections till today. In between the cultural festival organized by the college officially welcoming the first yearites .Now the restrictions governing the interactions between the first year students and the students from the senior years. In other words the amount of ragging is bound to increase. But if I were to put myself in the shoes of a greenhorn I would have far less dread for this word. I believe serious ragging ended with our batch in our college. Compared to other NITs,Surat did not have much of a reputation as a place for serious ragging, unlike say Bhopal. Of course we were made to do a lot of silly things to do-for instance thoroughly knowing the CVs of your batchmates, wearing shoes and full sleeved shirts in the hot summer and carrying about a condom with you. But perhaps the most dreaded was when we received calls from seniors. There was no knowing what was going to happen to you. It was like a sheep going to a den of lions. I received most of my share of slaps in these calls. But these interactions helped me a lot. Looking back, the seniors who had ragged me the most were the ones whom I most clearly recall. Anyway after the ice was broken ragging sessions also became fun. Finally we had a party and were more or less accepted like all members-no restrictions.
During our second year, the college authorities put in more restrictions, restricting the interaction between us and the new first year batch. We made some attempts, but had to tread carefully because of the fear of getting caught. This trend has continued ever since then. And the net result is that juniors and seniors don’t know each other as well as they should. And this is sad indeed.
Now this cultural fest which we call “Kashish” lasted two days .Almost everybody had a great time rocking and rolling away. Since it is meant as a welcoming party most of the participants were the new students. Some participants were also from the senior year. Most performances included singing and dancing to the tunes of popular songs. And there is also a personality contest among them. Personally I enjoyed these two days. I’m an enthusiastic dancer and anything racy sets me dancing. I also met my new juniors though I suspect the chances of interaction is limited
During our second year, the college authorities put in more restrictions, restricting the interaction between us and the new first year batch. We made some attempts, but had to tread carefully because of the fear of getting caught. This trend has continued ever since then. And the net result is that juniors and seniors don’t know each other as well as they should. And this is sad indeed.
Now this cultural fest which we call “Kashish” lasted two days .Almost everybody had a great time rocking and rolling away. Since it is meant as a welcoming party most of the participants were the new students. Some participants were also from the senior year. Most performances included singing and dancing to the tunes of popular songs. And there is also a personality contest among them. Personally I enjoyed these two days. I’m an enthusiastic dancer and anything racy sets me dancing. I also met my new juniors though I suspect the chances of interaction is limited
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