Sleep job

It is known that people can do weird things while sleeping. Some talk, some walk, some snore(for that matter) and some sleep peacefully.

I remember many instances of my parents telling me about wild tales which I narrate in my sleep. The last such incident dates back to my tenth class. Parents were amused by what I had ranted to them in my sleep. I also remember that each such uncanny occurrence embarrassed me deeply.

Another thing I have noticed is the way people react to certain situations immediately after waking up. The reactions can be amazingly funny and at times totally preposterous. My earlier roommate was one with an extremely weird reaction. Actually he didn't react at all for the first ten minutes. I can say that because I have a lot of experience of waking him up. Another friend of mine can't help feeling groggy for about 15 minutes. While some of them become very attentive with eyes wide open others tend to be scared if you get a little aggressive.

My own reactions are varied and depend upon how much I have slept. At times I am very attentive and tend to stare hard at the person. My behaviour at that moment is a function of the how sleepy I felt while falling asleep and how badly I need to sleep at that moment. I can remember shrieking at some time as well as laughing or behaving quite normally at other times. But this is just one side of the coin. I must say there have been instances which suggest a different story.

In the last semester a neighbour dropped in to return me a book. I was shocked. I asked him that how he got that book because I didn't remember giving him the book. He said that he had come the previous night and I had been asleep. I had opened the door and given him the book. More shock. I gaped at him and it seemed incredibly stupid to believe such a thing. I tried to recap the events of the night before and this just didn't fit in!

This has happened with me more than a couple of times. May be I am in some different state of consciousness. In that I can only respond to such external stimuli and can't be aware of any other detail. Sometimes it makes me feel weird.

Living by Proxy in the city of Djinns

The decision by authorities to provide every student with a proxy of about 200MB/week has been welcomed by one and all. And why not? Who wants to waste minutes without successfully opening even Google? The last three semesters have been tough for me in the hostel. Being an avid Wikipedia aficionado, the curtailing of basic surfing rights pinched me very hard. After all the authorities boasted about providing the students with Internet and LAN facility, though the former had no utility whatsoever. Only if you were a Computer Science Engineering student, did you get a paltry 100MB per week.

I just completed City of Djinns. It was very heartening to know so much about Delhi, considering that I've spent half of my life here. I realised how ignorant I have been about the city which has such a beautiful and justifiably the most tumultuous history. There are only a handful books which have captivated me by the first page itself. In this the author meets a Pir(a Sufi saint) who tells him about the djinns of Delhi. When the author asks whether he can see them or not, the Pir replies that of course we can say them . But the only reason we don't see them is that we would run away in fear and disgust.

I haven't been able to read any book lately. Apart from The IITians by Sandipan Deb, and another visit to Eloor there has't been much work in this direction. The best part of going to Eloor is that I take a meal at one of the outlets, be it McDonalds, Bengali Sweet Corner or Barista. I generally prefer going to Eloor with a friend. The opinion of two people makes it better suited to select the books(of course two is company, but here three is not a crowd).

But sometimes it pinches me when they are reluctant to eat out. We hardly ever venture out of the campus. At those occasions also, they don't feeling have anything because it costs. Why do people have to be so frugal? There are times when it completely pisses me of. What I don't understand is that people consider eating good food as waste of money. There is not enough sense in them to differentiate between proper and improper use of money. It is good to be careful while spending but it's equally awful to be stinkingly(pardon me but I'm venting my anger) stingy. They rather wait for others to pay for them even for a small meal and the worse thing is that they don't have any sense of returning the favours later.

Criticism apart, I've discovered many new eating joints during the past two years. Though I may crib but more often than not I enjoy hanging and eating out with friends(where ever we may go). There is considerable excitement when going out with friends and the nonsensical discussions we have really set the tone of the outing. Also you tend to devour more food if you are sitting with friends. I've noted that I'm capable of eating only 3 naans but with friends, at times, I can have upto 5 naans! Naturally, with more naans one needs more sabzis and daals. So you can well imagine the gluttony I indulge in.

Before the Devil Knows, You're Dead turned to be a dud of a movie. The director couldn't focus on any particular theme or character. At times the plot lost focus and the movie became a drag with its slow sequences which failed to convey the spirit of the plot.

Even the city of Djinns hasn't been enchanting enough to sustain interest after 100 pages. I bought this book from Eloor. I've been hearing stories about it since quite some time. There was a book exhibition during Literati -Board of Student Welfare annual fest this year. This book was part of that but money constraint did me in.

What a morale booster this book has been. Here is the book(much much better than the Five Point Someone balderdash) which is a must for the underdogs at IIT(me too). I have found a much needed solace in this book. I wish I'd known about it being so good.

The book truthfully describes the discreet charms of being an IITian. And yes I've spent five lacklustre semesters doing just that without any avail. It will definitely take me the next three as well in doing just the same. I hope I've the last laugh.

It was very hearting to know that an IITian is not made in just the classroom. It takes four years of nourishment to produce this unique species. Author has gone to the lengths of taking even the incorrigibly egregious Mess food into account, that it is a part of a long-term strategy to make us invincible world-beaters.

So I know that it is not bad to waste time at IIT after all. It depends on how you waste it. Perhaps it is better to waste time than sleep in the lecture theatres. Besides, this diversity is the reason that IITians have taken every field they have touched upon by storm. I was astonished to hear that Jagmohan Mundhra-the director of Provoked, is a pass out from IIT Bombay graduate. He went on to pursue the MBA programme at Michigan State University. He stayed on to do his M.A. in Advertising and a Ph.D in Marketing from the same University. Finally, in 1973, he wrote his doctoral thesis on “Marketing of Motion Pictures”. Well, that has given me another option to think about after I pass-out.

The fun lies in reading the chapter you think is important. Instead of following the conventional approach, I decided to hop and that has been fruitful.

Probability is...

Of late I have developed a habit of reading first three-four pages of a book before I decide whether I'll continue with it or not. Not that this method does not help. The only bone of contention is the time I spend in choosing the next book to be read. After much ado(about nothing) I chose this book called Chances Are...:Adventures in Probability by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan. One of my friend got this book from USA and since then it has become some sort of a rage in the hostel. It is always like that. For instance, some time back A Train to Pakistan became a hit just like a Hollywood blockbuster. More recently The Satanic Verses developed a cult status and could be found circulating from room to room.

One of my friend got so inspired by the probability book that he got it photocopied and has been advising others to read it.

Over the years the study of probability and stochastic processes has gained a lot of momentum. Since the foray of Investment Banks and Consultancies in the placement scenario at our campus, the demand for the courses dealing with these topics has seen a steep rise. People these days are more busy in formulating business plans. There is a mad rush for management and finance related courses.

I did a course dealing with probability this semester and just avoided flunking it. All along I knew that I can score easily in this course. But somehow that notion didn't translate into concrete results. Descartes was not right in his idea of 'I think, therefore I am' over here.

But I must say that I have some interest in economics. I like the way government and RBI deal with the market and sometimes it becomes very challenging to analyze the prevailing bullish/bearish trends. Moreover, every small change can have immediate global-level consequences which can leave you gawking sometimes.

No movies for me until Jan 2. No compulsion or anything like that. It's just that I'm at home and would like to maintain the decorum. Otherwise, in hostel I have the bad habit of starting with the second as soon as the first is over. I can't do that here. So when I saw The Wizard of Oz recently it left me pining for more. But he good news is that soon I'll be going to watch Taare Zameen Par which undoubtedly attracted unwanted attention in Gujarat. Yes, yes the same Narmada dam controversy which hit Fanaa last year, though it seems that situation is not that serious.

This reminds me of the the following song.

First step, your last breath
everything's been planned
there's questions, and answers
you'll never understand
I hold on, but let go
I give you room to breath
Remember, the best things
will never mind to change
starting at the ending
It won't break, while your bending
been there, and back again
and when the music ends..
-Ashley Parker Angel

Kahan Raja Bhoj, kahan Gangu teli

I recently read this book called The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Dame Agatha Christie. It is touted to be the best Agatha Christie book due to its unconventional techniques like unreliable narrator, twist-ending and the controversies it fell into upon its publication.

This is the first(and probably the last) Agatha Christie book I've ever read. Having read the complete Sherlock Holmes series, I found this book extremely pitiable.

To start with, the plot was pretty dumb and cliched; a tragic love affair in which the woman kills the man she loves who is then murdered by another dumbo. This is just her fourth book and Hercule Poirot has already considered retirement. He does a great favour to the family of the deceased(who was a friend of his) and makes an entry into the case like a hero in some Bollywood movie. It reminded me of Dashrath Singh's entry in Bunty aur Babli. He acts smart and collects some evidences which are quite visible to even an untrained eye. In between he displays his prowess in French and throws in stupid one-liners or ambiguous phrases. I was most surprised to find the detective eyeing girls and thus concluded that this book is some sort of a potboiler and nothing else.

And the way the mystery is solved is much more of a comedy than a thriller. He starts with a particular person and then shifts focus from that person to the next and until the last person is left(who is actually the murderer). Even a five year old child could do that. If you don't know anything, it's the best way. No brains required. Not like Sherlock Holmes or for that matter Mma Ramotswe who use much more deductive logic and skills to reach the solution. This is the biggest difference between the two.

Sherlock Holmes is really a great detective. His mannerisms are immaculate. The way he carries his proceedings, without jumping to stupid conclusions(which he considers to be a detective's greatest shortcomings and he is quite right in thinking so) and always solving the mystery in a sweeping fashion. His, is the final word on the whole story. At least he never said after every case that it was his last and suddenly in the next case he announces his return. Almost each of his case has been carved out in near perfect manner which keeps one engrossed till the very end.

Now I shall decide which book to read tomorrow. The IITians by Sandeepan Deb is definitely a big contender. So is The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

Books and coffee... What better way than this to spend 30 blissful days?

The holidays that separated two semesters

My internet connection has been quite stubborn lately. I have wanted to write so much all these days. Now, I forget what all was there to share through this opaque medium.

I have read a few books in the last couple of weeks. Currently, I'm reading a book called The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I was in Eloor a few days back and I saw this book(by sheer chance) lying in some obscure corner. I sometimes feel that I have an eye of catching not-so-common things. But this notion is immediately subverted by the conscience.

The Great Gatsby is a good read. I finished it recently and found myself liking the style of the author. A lot can be said about Jay Gatsby but then the debate becomes redundant with same old cliched jargon comprising of materialism, loss of humanism, hypocrisy and other middle-class traits. This has been a subject of much consternation in one of my lecture classes this semester. The professor was unable to accept the stark reality of diminishing class strength, loss of respect for lectures and the importance given to exams and grades.

I saw Jab We Met. And if you have seen Ahista Ahista then the 2hr. and 22 minutes you spend on the former are a complete waste of precious(due to majors) time. Well, the latter one was a little worth watching. Inspired by White Nights(yes yes the same one which inspired Saawariya)- a story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, it was a slow paced romance. Once again the songs proved to be the big bone of contention. This is the biggest problem with Bollywood movies. The songs completely slacken a movie's flow. But the way songs have been handled in No Smoking, I was very impressed by the approach. The songs were used to highlight certain thematic elements of the movie and in fact didn't seem to break the momentum which had been gathered.

In Ahista Ahista a boy(Abhay Deol) loves a girl(Soha Ali Khan), who has earlier eloped but is then betrayed by her boy-friend(Shayan Munshi(that if you know who he is!), and by the time he proposes her ex-boyfriend appears out of the blue and feeds her a thrilling story which she believes in and ditches the new guy in her life. Jab We Met goes one step further(kahaani mein twist) and the girl, now replaced by Kareena Kapoor, goes back to her new lover(here played by Shahid Kapoor).

So nothing new in fact.

Just to remind the reader, my major exams are going on. We are supposed to study for them. The reason being that the two hours per course which you are supposed to spend writing exam, are completely wasted. I am not denying that you need to sit through the whole exam, or sit at all. But just in case you are unfortunate... So it is better to study a little and then spew a lot. Thus wish me lots of best of luck and bid me farewell for now...

Analyze this...

For some time now, I have been thinking of sharing this link.

http://brokensandglass.googlepages.com/home

The anonymous person has beautifully expressed his feelings. I have no idea how often he updates these pages but only recently he added this page 'Wings of Butterfly'. The site also provides links to some bizarre sites that deal with The Metamorphois by Franz Kafka which can be rightly called 'King of the bizarre'.

Of aliens and odysseys

2001:A Space Odyssey is a beautiful book. It is the best science-fiction novel I have read. The name may divert your attention and will probably fill you with wonder about the antiquity of the book and its relevance in present context. But that is where the delusive charm of the book lies.

Written before the man had landed on Moon, the book breathtakingly answers some of the most poignant questions that have mystified mankind. The author makes several assumptions regarding the future and most of them seem to be correct to a large extent. For instance, Moon has been conquered by humans but with an exception. A self-sustaining colony is yet to be built. Moreover, there hasn't been any manned mission beyond Moon and won't likely be possible before the end of next decade. Another interesting innovation of that of a computer as capable as HAL900 is still lacking.

Wherever the author focuses on the progress made my mankind he is clever enough to leave a cautionary note. He doesn't want us to live in any fool's paradise and let the sense of complacency overwhelm our thoughts. After the monolith T.M.A.-1 is discovered and its unique scientific proportions noted by humans, it is some sort of a reminder of what to expect and what not to expect. He always pits the human race against the mysterious aliens who created the monolith millions of years ago, when we were still sub-human, lived in caves, were afraid of fire and foraged almost daily.

There is always an attempt to trivialize the efforts of humanity when he explains our actual relevance in the infintely large universe. What makes us think that we are the only living creatures and there is no from of any intelligent existence on any other planet, in any other galaxy? This is the result of our sheer narrow-mindedness which mars our thinking and doesn't allow us to think beyond certain perceptions and beliefs.

The author doesn't leave us over here. The end is as mind-boggling as David Bowman's journey through Star Gate. Bertrond explains Yaan about the impounding perils and urges him to exercise great caution and wisdom , which ultimately may change the course of the humans yet-to-come. This is the author's assessment of the problems concerning humanity. It was in those early deformed stages that some wrong path was chosen and it is here they we have landed today. He doesn't explicitly state that we are in some danger, but he is able to dive the point home that we are constantly in the danger of imperilling ourselves and the more we develop, the lesser the time we have to enjoy those developments.

It is these questions which haven't lost their significance in age of globalization and nuclear power. They still loom large over our heads, and in our constant endeavour of escaping them we are only endangering our positions. Be it 2001 or 3001, the author's vision still holds goods. It is our perception which ultimately matters and as he said "The truth is as always, far stranger than our perception".

Yipee! It's the Harry Potter month!

After two years of waiting all the Harry Potter fans will be finally rewarded on 21st July. The most awaited book in the world Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will roll out in a festival like opening ceremony. Being a great Harry Potter fan, only I know how is it to wait for a book. Each passing day, is making the wait all the more tougher.

As I have written before, there a few mysteries which J.K. Rowling has to unravel. For instance, in the third year Harry helped Peter Pettigrew, who then escaped Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Later Dumbeldore explained Harry that when a wizard helps another one, there is a certain bond which forms between them. So this bond is yet to be explained by the author. Another point is that whether there has been any chemistry between Severus Snape and Lily Potter. I am an avid Harry Potter fan. So I constantly keep in touch with sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Veritaserum. There I got to know that some rumours were strife about the two. I have been thinking about visiting this site called Mugglenet.com. It is supposed to be good.

And there are some trash websites too. Dumbledoreisnotdead.com is one such site. Even to think about Dumbledore not being dead is ridiculous. It is very well known that some authors go to any extent to revive ceratin important characters deemed dead long ago. But Dumbledore was killed using an Unforgivable Curse- Avada Kedavra. He clearly dies and is thrown down the Astronomy Tower. So such theories like he is not dead and then to support them by showing logical fallacies is balderdash.

Besides, the journey of Harry potter becomes most perilous. He may be accompanied by Ron and Hermione. But it requires high amount of mettle to threaten him, nevertheless. Snape has to definitely help him out. Otherwise, it is nearly impossible with all these dark curses surrounding Horcruxes. Oh! I am just holding my breath.

There is another surprise too. The fifth installment in Harry Potter movie series is realeasing world-wide on 13th of this month. Perhaps, due to double bonanza I have coined this month, The Harry Potter month. Anyway, never in the future a book and a movie are going to be released together. I will miss it so much. There will be a tiny void in my heart for this great legend. Through these years I have come to admire this hero so much that it is impossible to think about an existence without him.

I hope that history repeats itself, sometime in the future and there comes another great being as Harry Potter.