This one dont deserve a title

This post is a "tribute" to my wingmates. Though not deserving a mention here, they get here precisely because there is nothin else for me to write about :(. Havent done anythn worth mentioning in the last few days so thought i might as well trash my wingmates!!

Lemme start out with Bulb. Comp stud. Thats about all that he is stud in. He doesnt know when to believe us, when we are making a fool of him. He doesn even know who is paining him when there are 4 guys in a room. You tell him all this and he'll say you are fooling him rite now!! Even yesterday, after havin a sip or 2 of beer our man tries to pain bondy. The more he tried acting sloshed the more ridiculous he looked. But try tellin that to him. Right now he's dreaming of being rich when GS will pay him some dough and of course his HTTA next year. A comp and broadband is all he needs. He probably has one of the highest up times in insti. He's nowhere near the innocent dumb chap he was in 1st year. These days he can manipulate insti's network and servers from right within!! You are not allowed to wear footwear into his room but one look will tell you that you'll get a disease named after you if you do. His room aint been cleaned for 1.5 years now!! and im thinking of started a "clean bulbs room" fund for you to contribute to!!
Torso. Overstating everything. When he was appointed volley cap'n we all wished he would be non-playin cap'n. But no, looks like this year too we'll be treated to a display of the strange stuff he does in the name of volley. Last time he had balls land on his head coz he couldnt finger them!! Theres no point of trying to explain his farting abilities here!! This guy is phenomenal. He can say about 15 different things to people in the same meeting and still get away with it. These days he shaves away furiously tryin to see if he can get some hair growing on his face but looks like the problem is further south ;)
Bondy. Fat B*****d. This guy can ooze with senti. Donno how he manages that. One of those navarch dual guys with no enthu in anythn. Of course he puts fight for footer and he is quite an amusing sight when in full flow!! He is infamous for being gay in all the wrong places in Chennai. Hope Reeba doesnt hear of it too soon!! He is planning to become "Main Core" of Shaastra next year, even thought you wont here him say it explicitly!! Between him and torso they can do 24 hr shifts of painin junta in the wing. He wont hesitate to throw you out of his room though, if you manage to pain him!! No one in the wing can stand up to him, primarily coz of his bulk. But he'll tell you its all muscle!! And yeah, Linux comps cup just at the sight of him!! (Ask bulb)
STD. Hope he's got his priorities right!! OR stud. CAT enthu. Nano-mechanics BTP.ISI intern. Auditing a math course. Wants to be Manager of Arsenal. The list goes on. One can only hope he manages to decide which ones he wants more than the others. He's got posters of the most gorgeous babes but put it on the wrong side of his room!! Has more exp in reinstalling windows than anyone else i know!! He is one of the babes of the wing and is also called azhagu!!
Sassy. This quiet guy beats std easily to be no. 1 babe of the wing. He wouldnt have trouble gettn laid at all if he wants to ;). This meta stud put nearly 2 papers w/o treating us. Right now he is jobless n reading wodehouse and learning tam!! He is also trying to be the next PM of India after attending some leadership summit in the US. Hope he didnt have to pay to be there!! S'posedly cashed during his intern in b'ore tho he doesnt quite talk about it. Lets hope he gets to MIT coz that means thadaal big treat are there :)
Thomas. Enigma. No one knows what he's thinking. Right now employed as my swimming instructor!! He wants to intern in airbus next year. Stops right in his tracks of he hears a plane going!! He's quite attached to insti and wans to do an MS after BTech. Stud piano player and stud in acads too. He's explored all the shady areas in insti. He should be asset in treasure hunt!! Got a lil bit preaching enthu sometime last year but now realises that it all falls on deaf ears. He does a load of other weird things and his being a bit meticulous gets to you sometime. Poor guy had the misfortune of being named "koodhi" thomas by the great PD himself in first year!!
Nana. The invisible man!! I nearly forgot to mention him. Donno where he is right now. There are guys in the wing who have never heard of him!! Elec stud and parks in Alak for most of the time i guess. He is a great cribber and it gets funny listenin to him go on :). Our man is blessed coz torso actually returned his 100 bucks in full after 1.5 years!! More about him if i manage to see him sometime soon!!
Approx. This chap aint in our wing (or even our hostel!!) but definitely spends more time here than Nana!! He'll be here during quiz time putting niteouts and starts to mug only around midnite when he cant put it off anymore!! Missed one quiz this time around coz he wasnt crashing in my room!! Finally got his comp after some maajar mishaps that he was really pissed about. Last I heard he's into Pearl Jam. Bought a 4.1 creative sound system and spends most of his time with it these days. Insti aquatics is raping him now. This guy put a bc in 1st year without even trying!! He is one guy bulb has decided definitely not to trust coz he cant make out when he's foolin him!! Sports enthu and unfortunately acads no enthu. Our man had to change his lifestyle after people outside the campus started commenting about his trips to the "far side of the wing"!!

Well people This is my f**ked up wing. If anyone has any dirt on any of the above miscreants feel free to comment :).

Travels In Hyper-reality: Search for the absolute fake - Umberto Eco

Well people, This is about the last book that I read. I actually read the last 100 pages yesterday when i was supposed to have been muggin for op. man. exam, but what the heck!! This book is incredibly difficult to keep at because of the kind of content. I took 2 months to read the first 200 pages :). Its a collection of essays on varied themes. The major ones i'll discuss here.

A bit about the author. He is an Italian professor of semiotics (study of signs and symbols and how they affect mankind) whose most famous book is a novel called il noma della rosa (the name of the rose) which is all about medieval political and abbey life with a lot of murders and a smart detective thrown in. It was written around 1980. It can be called the mother of all books that define the da vinci code genre. It is probably one of the few modern mystery books which can be called literature.

But, In "travels in hyper-reality" he studies the world (1970s) as understood by its symbols. Lets see what we have here.

He starts off this section at an exhibition in the US about holographs "... holography could prosper only in America, a country obsessed with realism, where, if a reconstruction is to be credible, it must be absolutely iconic, a perfect likeness, a "real" copy of the reality being represented ...."

He talks about the escapism of the superhero culture inherent to America and exported elsewhere. He talks of an America where full-scale reproductions of anything are produced to the point of exacerbation. There are more wax museums in America than all the world put together. Las Vegas is obsessed with reproduced architecture trying to be real. Even Coca-Cola is "the real thing"!! Disneyland is one huge mass of fairytale fakes. At one point he says there are 7 wax versions of the Last Supper just from San Francisco and Los Angeles!! There is the Castle of Billionairre W R Hearst which is filled with "authentic" fakes of artifacts, called so because they have been made and bought in the same Italian village as the original works of medieval art were. The insane abundance (not my words!) of such artifacts makes the place unlivable. Even some of the stones in a path were plucked out of an ancient roadway just to create an authentic feel!!

This is what he says about the animatronic reproductions of wild animals in disneyland: "... Disneyland not only produces illusion, it also stimulates the desire for it: A real crocodile can be found in the zoo, and as a rule it is hiding or sleeping, but disneyland tells us that faked nature corresponds much more to our daydream demands. ... Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can. ..."

Now this book was published in the 1980s. Has the world changed? Yes, it has changed for the worse. Today we have no reservations in calling on-camera simulations - "reality shows". It is ironic that there is nothing farther from reality than a "reality show". Our appetite for the authentic real has not dimmed. Things like coffee or even pizzas - we want it "original" even if its Italian pizza made by a chef who is a palghat iyer!! We call it Italian coz may be the garnish is bought from Italy, who knows? If anything this predominant American culture of the "fake" is now exported to all the wide world, of course, with a "Made In Taiwan" label!!

There are essays on other things like impacts of communications, the return of the medieval ages and the nature of power and so on. There is also an interesting section about "spectator sports" like football which was quite funny to read. But I think ill stop here coz my head aches from all the thinking :)

Dont You Wish!!

A New JEE And Possibly A New Saarang - To Be Or Not To Be

Lathi charges in Delhi! Burnt effigies in Patna! Coaching lobbies instigating strikes! School kids losing sleep!
The new JEE has certainly aroused a lot of passions. Who is really affected? Did anyone really read the press release? Lets get the basics right. No changes in syllabus. That is a major relief right there. The Special Task Force chairman has said there doesnt have to be a change in the way people study. As for the no third attempt clause, I must say it was long overdue. A guy making a third attempt has prepared for no less than 5 years and honestly he can go waste his time somewhere else. I was astounded last year to talk to freshie who was older than me, that too when I was in 3rd year!! The only people who have a problem with this rule are the coaching institutes who lose out on a sizeable number of "not-up-to-the-mark- but-still-paying-the-moon" type of students. Honestly not being in IIT aint gonna kill anyone.
Finally the paper is going to be framed in such a way that if you are good enough you can crack it. You dont really have to slog for those years and get through JEE at an age when you should be getting married and probably be having kids!!
And to those school kids losing sleep - guys you never had it so peaceful, just an objective exam to write and dont worry, whats new for you is new for everyone!!
So honestly the IITs or the Govt. shouldnt succumb to the ABVP or the SFI who barely know what education is all about and just go ahead full steam.
So much for the JEE.
Lets move on to the only thing that can make gorgeous gals come to insti - Saarang. Profs (and a lot of students) think Saarang has become a sponsors and professional artists paradise. But I hope they dont forget we conduct close to 50 events apart from pro-shows and for a lot of people its not about the money or the pseudness. Its about having fun and winning something. I have seen people (friends, parents et al) who come all the way to this jungle just to see someone they know perform!!
And now Saarang itself is in jeopardy. Since im not making the decision on whether its gonna happen this time or not, I can afford to speculate!! A renaissance is already into operation, trying to reform the organisation of Saarang. The elections where held independently for both the cul-secs. The core selection wasnt left to the cul-secs and there was a "transparent" process in place. The coords were actually interviewed before being selected!! There are gonna be quite a few changes in Saarang if its gonna be held at all. So be in for a surprise!!
Lots of people have justifiable reason for thinking that lotsa shady stuff happens in IITM hostels. And ostensibly, reforming Saarang is somehow being connected to reforming hostel culture!! Though the opposite has been occuring in the last few months. Saarang structure is trying to become transparent while hostel culture has worsened!! Guess we gotta wait for another month before we can get to know if we can organise "the biggest cul-fest" in India this time around!!
Lets hope we have a reason to get those gals here in campus ;) After all its my final year and I gotta have some fun!!

p.s: The above post did become slisha serious types, but pls adjust and wait for the next one :)

Statutory Warning - Dont crash at the saloon!!

I needed a hair cut. Preferably short. Doesnt that sound like a simple consumer need. Well it sounded simple enough when i said this to the barber. It was sunday aftie and i was drowsy. So i crashed. Dozed would probably be the better word coz you cant really crash with the machine buzzing around your ear.

Big Mistake!! Out came the machine and by the time he was done, my hair looked as if it had been ploughed by a tractor!! - at least watever remained of it.
A couple of my wingmates had got their hair cut that week too. After they were done, one guy's head looked like a football and the other's like an egg. I thought there was no way i was gonna be worse than that but Moore's law kicked into operation and here I am, looking like a cross between a nigger (no offence) and an army recruit (albeit with a beard)!!
Well i jus gotta wait until it grows back. And bear the fact that arbit guys have started smiling vaguely while looking at me. The fact that i have as much hair on my face as on my head doesnt help matters either!!

Lessons learnt:

1. No machine cuts
2. No crashin at the saloon

Later then fellas!

Battle Royale - A Japanese Bloodbath

Well I never expected my first movie review to review a japanese movie. But then here goes.
This movie will deafeningly introduce you to the gore of the japanese psyche. Their culture of anime (4 fps cartoons) filled with shady theories of honour and death which mostly involve suicide and supposedly painless death, really shows in this movie. Now lets see if u could've come up with something like this.
Put a bunch of 9th graders in an uninhabited island, about 50 of them totally and ask themm to play a game. They have 3 days. The aim is to escape alive out of the island. If you've read catch22 you'll know there's a catch!! Well they let only 1 person out. If there are more people left after 3 days all of them are killed.
Now the funda is, this game isnt conducted by some renegade terrorist but institutionalized by an act of their parliament.
Very very violent. People get killed faster than the bots in quake. And they've gotta kill their friends and lovers and so on. There's also a guy who's signed up for the fun of it!! Most people will find the movie utterly revolting. Sure they claim to show the inner beauty of human character its strengths and its weaknesses - if there is such a thing. But then this is totally absurd.
The suicidal tendencies of the japanese also get prominent attention. Those who dont wanna kill their friends are only too happy to kill themselves!! Of course not without persuading a few of their friends also to kill themselves. And once they acquire a taste for killing they manage to get ingenuous.
One does wonder what is the purpose of such a psychopathic movie. I mean if there ever was violence without a reason; this is it!! The old cowboy westerns just pale in comparison.
Donno about you but i've never seen so many teenagers get killed so fast in one movie.
Needless to say the movie was a hit and spawned a sequel!! The survivor of this movie becomes a terrorist and the Government sends in another bunch of 9th graders to catch and kill him. The thing I dont understand is the film-makers' fetish about 9th graders!!
I for one am definitely not checking out the sequel. I've had enough gore from this one to last a lifetime.
Sayonara then!!

Swimming In The Rain!!

My college probably has the best swimming pool in this water-starved city of Chennai. Hey!! Dint I know that 3 years ago?! I actually did. I still cant explain why I went there only yesterday. Hell 400 bucks a sem is less than what I pay for drinking water!! But yeah the perpetual laziness that has come to shroud me, dint allow that to happen all these years.
But I finally went there and that is the triumph of human spirit. I did get laughed at by the 6 year old daughter of a bearded 1st year chem prof, but hey I survived. Yup it was in shallow (4ft) and yes my friend was my lifebuoy but I survived. Now another interesting thing is yesterday was my first time and it actually rained while I was out there!! Now how often does that happen in Chennai. First time in the pool and you have rain all over you.
Couldnt go today though coz of a thunderstorm and my instructor's (Thomas) absence. But dontyastart thinking im gonna let up. Im gonna cya there tomorrow.
Well i gotta rush coz my friend found a way to run MacOS-X in a windows comp!! ... Only Bulb could come up with that!!!
Later then my merry men :)

Hold On People!!

I thought my first post should be something big, sophisticated and refined with all the pseudness that can be crammed into one webpage. In other words an Entree Grande.
But looks like thats gonna have to wait coz i have a stupid assignment to do. So im havin a subdued premiere.
So hold on, I'll be back!!