Happ'y'ness - Part 2

Here I'm again.
The post is based on this quote I read a long while ago "You either think or be happy". I laughed at this quote when I read it, and thought, heh! nonsense that is so not true.
But yesterday as it happened so, I was at FOSS.IN attending the closing ceremony, where Raghu Dixit was performing an awesome concert. I was standing in the roaring crowd, jumping with joy, nearly bringing the roof down [

Bringing the roof down == jumping up? the roof comes down relative to you right?

] perplexed and slightly dissatisfied and a little dejected, pondering over several things that I had planned for and how things turned out totally opposite to it.
 

Then it hit me.

 Why am I low in the middle of this blithe and boisterous gathering thinking about totally unrelated and useless jibber jabber, refusing to participate with the mirthful proceedings? It was then, that moment, I decided, there are times, where its simply not worth thinking about things, times when you just have to forget what is on your mind and be a part of the merry crowd.
There are times where it doesn't really matter if you are thinking about something, it doesn't matter if you rant about it, it doesn't matter if you achieved something or lost something. Times when all you need to do is forget about everything and be happy. 


Now, think about it, the times you were in a gleeful crowd feeling totally out of place, was it really worth missing out on all the fun? Was it really worth thinking, "I wish I could be alone or talking about the issue to someone" and responding "nothing" to someone asking if anything is disturbing you?


My two cents: It actually is good to forget about things that din't go the way you want, the next time you think about them, they won't seem so bad after all.[But, never forget to learn your lesson though].


Don't worry be happy! :-)


P.S. You might want to try listening to Raghu Dixit, some songs are really nice.

Title? Nonsense (contd.. )

As, I had expected, my exam was #fail. I blame it on all ye folks out there who din't wish me enough luck :-| But, hota hai if it just had to happen it sure did. And, whatever nonsense, I don't really care much, just wanted an excuse to blame you :P yes, you are the culprit!

So, where was I?

Ah, yes, a post on the lot of things that happened in the July 8 - NOW! ( Heard songs from the band? Some of them are quite nice)

So, as I see it, I'd returned from GC Islands (almost lost my baggage in the process, another long story), completed my GSoC, celebrated my Birthday, Friendship Day, Sem began, treats came, Quiz I came, Shaastra were there, Diwali came, Quiz II came, then some little peace came, then FOSS.IN call for proposals came,.,*sigh* so many things to post about.

But hey! (as you most probably would've already have guessed) I've another exam tomorrow :(

Yes yes, I know I should kill myself for doing this post-only-before-exam stint. I promise, I'll get to some real blogging sometime in the future. Sometime, someday, somehow.. ( Oh these remind me of the song Someday by Nickelback, its a nice song listen to it ) until then,. I'll keep up with the flurry of silly pre-exam posts.. have fun,. see you at end-sems.

And, don't forget to wish me luck for tomorrow :)

Title? Nonsense!

As, it always happens, I get this urge to write a blog post just before a very painful exam in a few hours. Thought it takes away some of my precious nite-out-mug-fight-time these are the times when one should decide what is really important and do the exact opposite thing.

So, Heylos!

Long time no c, c++, java, fortran,...

Again my usual apologies for my disappearance from the blogosphere for a long time. I've been busy with a lot of things, think I'll reserve this post for citing those reasons :)

So... where was I?

hmm..

Lemme look at my archive..

Ah, yes, July 8 it was, seems like I'd posted about a dinner, long long ago from a far far place... Lovely, so there is a lot of catching up to be done here and I don't think I'll do justice to any of the activities I'd been involved in if I put them up in a single post..

So tell you what?

I'll go try and read for the exam now, and get back tomorrow with more posts (I know, you must be going D'oh! now).

But before you leave, wish me luck!

I need it, I need it badly (Truly, madly, deeply is more like it I guess :P )

P.S.
Before you even ask, yes, all I needed was luck before my exam, this post is posted just for that :D

P.P.S.
I'm going for a round of coffee now, so I might, just might get back soon (if I don't follow my own advice on what not to do that is ) with a crazy post, so for your own good, pray it doesn't happen! Thats a deal right?

P.P.P.S.
Want to hear a crazy PJ?

" A man and his wife go on a winter vacation and they take their dog along in their car. Suddenly, the car stops somewhere in the middle of nowhere and the man realizes he's forgotten to fill up the fuel tank! Poor chap, there are no buildings or gas stations close by.. But the man was pretty intelligent, he took his dog out and.....
(wait for it)
....rolls it on the road, and this aids him to continue his journey. Then the man and his wife had a nice vacation and lived happily ever since."

Nice story right?

Oh, it doesn't make sense to you?

( Well here's a hint: Dogs are pets )

- Courtesy Prof. TTN
( who doesn't say "where" - so that people won't think he is being possessive of me!)

Take care, see you soon.

Wishing good luck to my fellow comrades, for now signing off.

Dinner?

Hola!
Bienvenido a mi blog .. Derecho desde hace mucho tiempo ..

Oh, here I go again, since I'm writing this from Spain I kinda get konfused between Spanish and ingles. Grr.. I mean English :)

( BTW, the initial text, which you and I are sure is of no importance means:"Hello, welcome to my blog,. been long right?"
Okay, now you might think maybe it was a little important, so again:
Hi [:)] )

Pardon me for my really really long disappearance from blogosphere, I'd been a bit busy with my vacation from "Vetti Club" so I'm not quite the president at the moment. And well, my tech blog has been filling up with random entries for a change. And if you by any remotely-vague (or vaguely-remote or both or whichever is worse) chance want to read it, its here.

Well then, let me now begin to start telling you what I actually wanted to say. ( Oh, maybe I din't want to say anything specific and just wanted to ramble a bit.. but then, be nice and think I'm actually writing something [which probably is of course complete (non)sense] and force yourself to continue, I promise you a few nice pics(no no not mine, don't get scared and close the window ) if not anything else.

So, here now, we begin (yes in the middle) from the beginning.

And oh, before we get started, I should give you a little info on the circumstances under which I'm writing the blog, so that you won't kill me in the end if the dinner goes horribly wrong [:D]
Yeah, so because a lot of people thought I should attend a conference I'm right now in Gran Canary Islands, an island (D'oh) off Spain. And this place is one with a reputation for being an almost pure non-vegetarian cuisine. And since I happen to be a Vegetarian, I'm currently forced to cook at the moment for my survival in the islands. { Yeah I know I can live on the ice-creams here, but then they are too heavy for my leeetle pocket, and well I personally don't like heavy stuff due to my build as well (though ice-cream is certainly a good thing for it [:P] ) }

Cooking really has been fun and I've been enjoying it, and surprising my mom, as well.. er... um... She has to spoonfeed me at home, and out here I'm actually cooking!

But then I thought I could manage with these things :


And it turned out those things got over in a couple of days, so I had to actually cook a complete meal, with rice and vegetables and all that jazz.. And I was pretty lucky to survive my cooking and sane enough to write this post(Oh! din't I just contradict myself?)

Now, presenting, my recipe for a well if you insist on giving it a name, call it vegetable-rice.
Made with Rice, Potato, Onion, Tomato and Peas.
(Warning, this recipe takes about 2 days due to one ingredient, which will be explained a little late, so take care ;) )
So, now take the vegetables and cut them ( The Tomato has to be cut separately, preferably in a clean place/bowl ) Make sure, they look something like this:





The peas, are really peace things to have, the ones I used were already boiled :)



Now for the ingredient which takes two days, Boil rice two days prior to the dinner time and well keep them in the fridge, preferably at subzero temperatures. And then keep it out about 30 minutes before you start out on the endeavor so that it defreezes well.



And, here is one really really important ingredient, which decides whether someone eats the recipe or not, and behold...it is :



If you still don't get what it is, here's a hint [ Its NaCl + I2 + traces of a few minerals ]

Ready to cook now?
Start off with butter( if oil is not available that is) on the frying pan, and add the Potato + Onion mixture to it, and fry them till you think they look really similar ;)



After this, add the tomatoes, and mix well for a while,. This will take sometime, tomatoes have a lot of water content.



Now, go for the nice, defrozen rice.



Time for peas!



And now, after you've mixed things enough, add the salt!!

Finally,mix things well, and you end up with something like this:



It atleast looks palatable right? It sure was, and to my great surprise was actually good :D

I used to laugh and make fun of those tv shows which showed you how to cook and stuff, but here I'm blogging about it!

Well then, I'll keep you updated on more stuff, as I intend to blog a bit more often now on, take care, and until the next post, signing off :) [ And do try the the recipe! this unlike the previous post does not fall under the category of "Don't do this!" :P ]

P.S. As I'd mentioned way back, in the beginning of the post, I'm not responsble for anything bad that might happen as a result of following the instructions in this post and all of the cribs will be sent to /dev/null.
On the other hand, if you had a really nice experience with this, all I can say is "You're one heck of a lucky person [:D]"

Saludos!

Don't do this !

P.S. I'm writing this post in the middle of my mugging session, rather the beginning of it, or no wait a minute, its about something that never existed, or something that will never exist,, er,, well you get the point, or no maybe you don't... Whatever!

Ah, did I just start with a Post-script ?
Yes I did!

I thought post script is the script that initiates the post, and went ahead to modify the .post_scriptrc file!!! ( warning, too much of time with the linux users can lead you to crazy thoughts like this!)

Or maybe its just my Hangover from 3 and a half cups of really strong coffee [:P]

Well anyway getting to what I had wanted to post, I've decided (not really decided its more like painfully concluded) that there are somethings that you shouldn't do before an exam.

(i) Even more so if you have not mugged well for it.

{
" You've not mugged for it, ergo you dont have the enthu to mug for it, ergo you dont like it, ergo you do not care about the exam but you are still concerned, ergo all you care for is grades.."

FAQ's

Q: Well who doesn't ?
A:I don't!

Q:You are lying aren't you ?
A:Yes, I'm a complete liar!
( But hey,, hold on, did I just be truthful by speaking truth? Or did I just lie when I actually am a Truther? I’m confused [:P] )

}

(ii) Oddly more so if you are planning to put a nite-out and mug. ( Nite-out plus Mug ?? Seems like an anomaly here)

(iii) Rationally so if you have thoughts of doing well in it. ( I strongly recommend, you discard there temporary files that recursively write themselves into your RAM and get automatically corrupted just before the exam, almost always leading to a kernel panic)

(iv) Irrationally so if you are a desperate to do well. (It happens so that I’m in this state, irrational as always [:D] )

BTW, the (i)'s used above are purely intended to say 'i' , all in the heights of self-obsession

Yeah so, here it goes :
1. Do not start mugging after midnight on the day of the exam.

2. If you don’t follow step one, you’ll end up feeling sleepy very soon and plan to take coffee

3. Okay, that natural, but hey, you are desperate to do well so what do you do ? Take a cup of strong coffee,, and then another,, and then another,,finally a half cup,, ( Warning: This step contains information regarding screwing your mindset and squashing its functionality, do not try this, no Don’t even think about it)

4. If you are able to retain sanctity after step 3,
a. You are strong [:)] ( Yeah its a compliment)
b. Please don’t try step 6 [ its 5 actually, but after step 2 it hardly matters, wait.., gee isn’t it 3?]

6. Don’t try speaking to anyone, not even messaging or chatting, no not even to your mirror image ( you won’t realise its you when you look into the mirror though, but just in case you do..)

7. Don’t attempt to sleep after this, thats reserved for you just as soon as the exam begins!

8. Don’t blog!

9. Don’t do any of the above 7.


Ah, now I realise the probability of a person reading this article who has proceeded till step 4 or 5 is quite low, so I guess I’ll have to explain why.

1. It never works

2. Please sleep and wake up the next day, don’t ever attempt a night out for an exam, your mind simply shuts down. ( Ah, but go ahead and do it if you are doing a course with me and its RG)

3. This makes you awake, more awake than you can ever be, much more awake than what you want to be, its worse than being asleep and not studying , you get into this “Monkey” mode. You’ll start jumping, limping, jogging, juggling(quite unsuccessfully), and worst of all dancing!

4. Now in the aftermath of 3, you slightly begin to realise,” oopsie I’ve to mug now!” But hey, this fellow is online why not ask him what he has done.

In rare cases when you are mugging BT, you might end you proving that you've almost all the brain disorders
thatit could possibly suggest. I felt like a 3rd stage Alzhimer and a second stage Parkinson's patient. Yes I had vague recollections of diagnosing myself with Conduction Aphasia also!

5. I so totally can’t predict what happens in this part, either the guy signs off psyched, or he yells at you, or he comes to your room and strangles you until you stop laughing and begin coughing instead.

6. Its too embarrassing to admit what happens in this stage, it turns out just awful, plain simple awful, man Hallucinations, what can get worse? [:(]

7. You can try it out, it doesn’t happen (Not even if you are reading about the Mylenic Shin that covers the neurons and prevents damping of signals. All due to temporary Mylenic sclerosis. The sleep signal simply can’t travel in your axons and builds up pressure like an inversion layer formation in laser, the moment you enter the exam hall, the threshold is crossed...it just shoots an intense wave )

8. You might regret putting it up later, but while you are writing it, it sure as hell is fun! (You never know, well its like this Schrodinger’s cat )

9. For those who have tried these out, I’m looking for alternative ways to end this post. Help me out no...

10. Despite all my attempts to restrain myself, I’ll say this, this feeling now the awakeness is AWESOME

P.S. As I was writing this post, I’m slightly beginning to gain sense, so I decided to stop fooling with myself and start mugging

P.P.S. All the Best! To myself and the other deplorable souls writing BT101

Finally, I know I’ve made a total mess of myself, but you are still my friend right? Whatsay we give a virtual hug to each other and put all my messes behind you and promise never to look back?

( Yes, good things are not the only things that come to an end, but sadly they too end )

Snipes from my rambling mind

I had a long conversation with an old friend of mine, and I realised things and people do change, and at times they can be for the worse.

After the call, I was pondering on several things that have been disturbing me and I felt its better I share this bit of sense that ran inside my mind. ( Yeah finally a post about the "sense" part :D )

The friend I had mentioned earlier is a (rather was a) peculiarly sincere fellow, used to surprise even teachers with the level of sincerity that he had. But now, for most part of the talk he seemed disinterested in everything, and had this "why do I care ?" attitude,,, this startled me, and as I was trying to figure out on what must have come over him, I realised this he wasn't devoid of company, many people I happen to know have come over some kind of a situation like this.

I do agree that everyone has limits, but we never know them till put all our skills to test. There is no sense in saying "This is all that I can do", unless you've tried doing with full effort.

It is not that we had the potential and enthusiasm then and lost it now, those things are still lurking underneath the thick fabric of our new mentality that we've somehow acquired.
Something which I'll shortly refer to as the "So what ?" attitude.

Most of us aren't afraid to try or do things, we just aren't bothered. We say things like, " So what, I know I'm good, why should I prove things now, why should I use my potentials now ?" This a question which can't be answered, atleast not by me.
But I can reply in kind, imagine what will happen if everyone starts asking such questions, what if your instructor says "So what, you are not going to learn anyway" or your garbage collector says "So what? your corridor will be dirty anyway"
Does this kind of questioning make any sense? What will you answer in these situations?

Its not a question of justifying what you are doing, it is about what you can do. The thing that's worse than quitting or losing is being complacent, believing that you are weak and that's all you are capable of. No one can help you in such a situation, not even the skills that you have mastered. The beginning of everything is believing in yourself, only then you can even expect others to believe in you. Start to care, even if no one else does care for you. You must be the last person to give up on yourself.

Okay, now this part is done, now you begin to believe in yourself, then another problem arises, finding our destination. It is easy to some, they are just born with an ambition. But there are many of us who find the path as we go by life's winding streets. Whichever the class we belong to, a goal is always important. Sticking to goals is vital, but knowing when to change them requires humility and wisdom. There are times that pass by, when we have to choose between what we want to do and what we can/should do. The realisation that our path has to change is definitely not something easy to accept, it takes a lot of courage to change something that we have pursued for ages, again here, questions like why should I change pop up, to which I have no answer. But remember the first part of the post, trying new things is not going to hurt, this is time we get rid of our stubbornness and pre-conceived notions.
But again there should be a balance, we should never be in the extremes, you need to set your priorities right. Learning to say no is also very vital. Everyone has individual ideas of what's important and what's not, its not necessary that we should live by them, but keep in mind you do give a little thought into them so that you don't end up with selfish ideals. It is you who has to decide, what you can change for the right reason and what it is that you should defend with everything that you have.

Finally have this in mind, time is something that you can never afford to lose. Don't gulp off the ticking clock in the name of enjoyment or spending time with others. They are very essential I agree but at the same time, that cannot be an excuse to waste time. Just think, whom are you trying to convince when you are trying to explain why you haven't been doing something that you were supposed to do. Looking back and regretting is never going to help. All of us have done this at some point or the other, why don't we learn from it and not repeat it ?
[ Seriously I'm tired to trying to convince myself as to why am not mugging for ID and writing this post :P ;) ]
So I'm signing off for now, do let me know what you feel about the issues I've tried to make sense of, have fun and keep smiling :).

Back from( without a) BANG(alore)

Before moving on to the post, I request thee to pardon me for a long period(about two months!) of absence from the world of blogosphere, one of which is attributed to my laziness and the other month is being described below :-)

As I lay awake at 6:00 am today, feeling the heat of Chennai in the train returning from Bangalore, I'm reminded of Bangalore, and my month long stay there.

The first thing I realised as I stepped onto Bangalore was it was cool!!! Phew, finally a month of relief from Chennai's scorching summer :-)

As things moved on, I settled with the "Bangalorian" life style in a couple of days.
BTW, if you are new to Bangalore, things to carry in mind :

1. The roads will be deserted in the night( night as in 9 PM on)
   
2. No shops after 10 PM

these are the things that I first noticed as I did practically nothing other than sleeping and eating in the first two days. ( This might seem normal to you, but to the author, who is accustomed to hunger attacks late in the night, and is used to eating at nearly midnight times in Chennai)

But, hey life is not just bound by grubbing places and road traffic, you can always get over the grubbing issue by stocking up with finger chips and Haldiram's Bhel Puri . These are some other interesting things :

Auto-Rickshaws in Bangalore use meters to charge, If you are from Chennai and bulbing over "meter", I wont blame you, its a long forgotten instrument here, auto-wala's use them these days as something with an antique value! and needless to say, the auto fare comes out to be half of what you would normally pay in Chennai!!

There is something called a Daily pass (for 30 rupees) which you can get in the bus and travel in any bus for da whole day, I remember one particular day when travelled for about 60-70 bucks, and paid only 30 ! Ah, and thus saved money from my project budget.(Here the author wishes to mention that, he has aptly taken care of these savings by carefully utilising them for Grubbing purposes :D )

If you are suffering for back aches and if you are frustrated over poor roads in Chennai, Bangalore is the place for you to drive your bike, though the roads keep varying in slope, they are smooth.( Man, Why am I not 18 yet? I could've gone for a cool ride with my mom's colleague's bike othewise)

The author apologises for spamming his blog with description of roads and buses and autos, but as most of his time there was spent on travelling, he hopes you would understand

As to the shopping front, take a stroll in Malleshwaram area or near the railway station or in the avenue road, you get "original"( Yeah I mean original The special emphasis is meant for a particular person, if you find it inappropriate kindly ignore ) stuff for amazingly cheap prices, being a branded user myself, I can vouch for their originality, just pick stuff from the right shop. [For instance, the author brags about this Adidas raincoat, which he got for 100 bucks.] And what more, you don't have to put up with a crazy crowd, no, not even half of whats there in Chennai!

Needless to say, Bangalore is one of the cheapest places to buy novels, I bought only about 8 books :P (In the moment of happiness, the author shows his tongue to the e-books, which can never match the hard copies)

And thanks to the Bangalore trip, the author has gotten into linux once again, and a special note thanks to two of his friends (one had helped without her knowledge, for which a treat is pending :P, and the other is the main source of the author's inspiration, need I mention who?) the author has started developing kstars :)

Perfect as it seems till now , I couldn't help but notice several disturbing things, here is a small list :

What follows is the author's personal views, continue reading with caution, the author is not responsible for any arguments or bickering that might arise

No offence meant
But Dustbins, where are they???
NO dustbins in roadside, NO dustbin for about a km in the Railway station, NO common bins in the streets, what are people supposed to do with chocolate wrappers and kur-kure covers ? especially responsible citizens like me,( who never put waste outside the bins)...
I ended up carrying the wrappers in my bag and dumping them in my room(Where garbage was overflowing out of two bins)!!!

Fine, no bins all right, but Pollution control board , Where art thou ?
You don't have to do a emission check with the machines, just look at the nozzle of the autos and trucks a thick white(or black in the latter case) smoke comes out, and the roads look misty! (I've been in Delhi when the temperature was about 3 Degrees, and those roads looked fairly clear compared to the Bangalore counterparts)

All right, Now moving on to the buses, ah the boards in the buses are written beautifully in a language that shares its script from the second most spoken language in India(its Telugu for those of you bulbing), but I've a small problem with that, how is a person from Tamil Nadu or Kerala or wherever supposed to comprehend whats written? (Thankfully, we had Ramya on our team to decipher the fuzzy mess of characters :P oopsie I had forgotten to mention the fact that I was a part of the team of 4 , doing a project over there)

And most importantly, the author felt really sad for missing the 4.2 speaker system which he had to unwillingly leave at home

Okay, am tired of bleating :P ( The author realises that if he goes on with his list of cribs, he might be regarded as glummy, bewailing and clamorous especially by Ramya who regarded him as querulous )

See as I had mentioned before, the disturbing things are quite small, they'll never superseed the amount of fun that I had under the name of our "project"( which went very well btw :D )

( The only thing the author, regrets is not being able to submit his *solved* google code jam's qualification problems, on account of the browsing centre that closed early and the power-cut that followed)

P.S. This can't even be called as a short summary of what had happened, but right now what I need is sleep, so I'll include the other interesting facts later on :)