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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Logos - What makes them tick!

Airtel spend over Rs. 300 crore for its rebranding exercise. Majorly, it involved the adoption of the new logo for the group. Made me think what makes a logo tick!
Much ado about nothing?

Monday, December 13, 2010

An empty train compartment

An empty train compartment on a long train journey is probably the best thing that can happen to you. Especially if you don't have a book to keep you company and all you have to spend those 32 long hours is a laptop and a mobile which plays good music. Both of these, however, have limited power backup.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Remember, remember twenty sixth of november...

...gunpowder, treason, plot and all of that!

Two years ago, I was studying for the last of my 3rd semester end examinations. One of my friends barges in the room and says, "Mumbai mein firing ho rahi hai. News channels par aa raha hai."

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Right to Bodily Autonomy

Saw the movie "My Sister's Keeper" yesterday. Spoiler alert for those who haven't seen it yet. The movie is based on a novel by the same name. Though I haven't read the novel, I would like to believe that this is one of the rare cases where the movie deals with the subject better than the novel does. What follows is not a review of the film, but a moral debate pertaining the right to bodily autonomy.

"I wouldn't be alive if Kate wasn't sick I'm a designer baby. I was made in a dish to be spare parts for Kate".

Monday, November 1, 2010

Newspapers and the Ad Revolution

Even with the advent of social networking and online news portals, newspapers still have an indispensable aura around them. Though you can read the most important news right off your tabloid or your smartphone, the traditional print paper is not to be subdued. Recently, I attended the Pre-Placement talk of a company and the presenter talked about how he feels that in the London tubes, newspapers are slowly becoming rare and digitally accessing news is the buzz word. Probably in London. Not yet in India.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

101 Not Out

We all know that the build up to the Games was not very pleasant. As soon as there was evidence of corruption, national media made it a point to showcase Kalmadi and Co. in bad light. But what they also did was put India in bad light in front of the international media which reacted in their own Indophobic ways.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cat o' Nine Tails

And it went head-on with the rotating blades. The poor moth had hurt its wings and was fidgeting on the ground in hope of being able to fly again. I was an innocent observer to the whole situation. I felt guilty. Had the door not been left open, the moth would not have come in. Had the moth not come in, it would not have collided with the fan.

"Meow!"

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Who's who

A little inside joke for my close friends! (Others may please ignore)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

You know you are in Kolkata when...

  • You feel all sticky and moist on the skin all the time
  • Some rickshaws are still pulled by hand
  • Bus conductors call out the bus route at every stop
  • Buses race with one another and overtake from the left

Thursday, June 3, 2010

The First Rain!

Disclaimer: If you looking for humour or controversy - don't read further!
When those first drops splashed onto my glasses, everything suddenly felt right. It was an inexplicable feeling of joy and I felt like a child who just got his first lollipop. It was the first rain of the season and I was eagerly looking forward to it. And to have happened when there was total blackout – pure bliss.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Redemption

The latest judgement on Kasab - a pawn in the whole 26/11 massacre and the recent stories in the news got me thinking:

Whether life-term really was a better option? Whether the 150-300 seconds of pain on the rope enough for the brutality leashed out by him on innocent people and too with an unforgettable satisfied idiosyncrasy. Or the lead up to execution is what makes it a more fitting punishment. Have we forgotten his sick sense of humour in courtrooms and the calm with which he was reading Tipu Sultan in his prison before Judgement Day? Come on, they have seen it coming already.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Year it was!

This post has been edited on popular demand to include more details:

Third Year concludes. Wow! What an year! My best yet. So much happened. Most of it great. Some bad.

This past year in bullets: (:P)
  • Treats, Lunches and Dinners:
With: Bangalore Junta, Wingies and Radiance team
Where: Gullu, Laxmi, Utsav, Poptates, Urban Tadka, Rajdhani, Subway, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, 5 Spices, Kinn Kohn, Wild Dining, Copper Chimney
When: All year round!
  • Marketing Manager, Radiance - High expectations but zero experience. Anxieties. Happy at the same time! Looking back, no regrets whatsoever.
  • TUM, Germany - Finally, i had an intern! Product Engineering Division at TUM - Could not have been better. Euro Trip! DAAD application et al. Fingers crossed.
  • DELF A1 - 77% - not bad for starters, eh. Je parles francais!
  • Joined InsIghT - Had wanted to do that since freshie year. Recent stints at writing encouraged me.
  • Horrible Semester - Prabhu (pun intended) ki kripa - so much work for a 30 credit sem!
  • 8.5: Barely made it. Right on the mark. But that was just the spi. Needed to work harder.
  • Pankhudi: Winter Intern was fun and rewarding. Designing / compiling activity sheets and exercises et al. Met some very awesome people including the kids.
  • Radiance work: Amidst all this, frantic contacting continued with little success. Had not quite found the right nerve to be tapped :-/
  • Home, Sweet Home - catching up with family. Awesome time. News!
  • New Sem - Fight for an extra credit course to reduce load later - Ended up with an audit!
  • Radiance - Breakthrough: Finally - Won't forget the awesome 10 days. One after another!
  • DAAD results - yay!! Should I or should not I. TINA factor. Fight for accommodation and the extra stipend!
  • Career Choices: Confusion hi confusion hai..solution ka pata nahi...
  • Midsems: In midst of all this hullabaloo, midsems appeared as if out of thin air! Abysmal
  • Radiance: More breakthroughs. Woohooo!
  • Di's Bday: Surprise visit home! Cakes and more cakes. Yummy!
  • Internships: People crack interns left and right \m/
  • Insti Elections: 'nuff said!
  • More people crack!
  • Radiance!! - What a fulfilling experience! _0_ \m/
  • Dept Elections - To be or not to be GSec. From Department GSec to MEA GSec to a bonafide law abiding dep-izen. All in two weeks! Polt! Results - Yay!
  • Morgan Stanley - Pleasant surprise. Bumps (almost :P) Infi congos :)
  • DAAD ditch - German prof not so happy. Drama!
  • Student Mentor - Feels good.
  • Valfis - some very funny profiles and senti and not-so-awesome food. Infi icecreams!
  • Arti Rush: InsIghT - MEME - InsIghT - MEME - InsIghT - in that order - all in a month. :D
  • Endsems - Screw Ups - Re-exam - More Screw Ups
  • Summer in Bombay - :-?
  • ....
Feel a totally different person than what I was at the end of my second year!

Ready for an awesome summer and an eventful last year at IIT Bombay. More responsibilities and lot more important things to come soon. Will win some and will lose some. Can't wait for it.

Cheers!

Friday, March 26, 2010

MIT Alum's note to Freshmen

I was just going through this note by an MIT alumnus (supposedly) to the freshers on someone's Facebook Profile. A checklist of sorts. Its so awesome that I wanted to preserve it. So, here it goes.

1. Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
2. Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.
3. In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make a mix cd, mp3 folder, whatever – just make sure you keep copies of these songs. Ten years out, they’ll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.
4. Take naps in the middle of the afternoon with reckless abandon.
5. Adjust your schedule around when you are most productive and creative. If you’re nocturnal and do your best work late at night, embrace that. It may be the only time in your life when you can.
6. If you write your best papers the night before they are due, don’t let people tell you that you “should be more organized” or that you “should plan better.” Different things work for different people. Personally, I worked best under pressure – so I always procrastinated… and always kicked ass (which annoyed my friends to no end). ;-) Use the freedom that comes with not having grades first semester to experiment and see what works best for you.
7. At least a few times in your college career, do something fun and irresponsible when you should be studying. The night before my freshman year psych final, my roommate somehow scored front row seats to the Indigo Girls at a venue 2 hours away. I didn’t do so well on the final, but I haven’t thought about psych since 1993. I’ve thought about the experience of going to that show (with the guy who is now my son’s godfather) at least once a month ever since.
8. Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too – in fact, that’s part of the reason they chose to be professors.
9. Carve out an hour every single day to be alone. (Sleeping doesn’t count.)
10. Go on dates. Don’t feel like every date has to turn into a relationship.
11. Don’t date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with.
12. When your friends’ parents visit, include them. You’ll get free food, etc., and you’ll help them to feel like they’re cool, hangin’ with the hip college kids.
13. In the first month of college, send a hand-written letter to someone who made college possible for you and describe your adventures thus far. It will mean a lot to him/her now, and it will mean a lot to you in ten years when he/she shows it to you.
14. Embrace the differences between you and your classmates. Always be asking yourself, “what can I learn from this person?” More of your education will come from this than from any classroom.
15. All-nighters are entirely overrated.
16. For those of you who have come to college in a long-distance relationship with someone from high school: despite what many will tell you, it can work. The key is to not let your relationship interfere with your college experience. If you don’t want to date anyone else, that’s totally fine! What’s not fine, however, is missing out on a lot of defining experiences because you’re on the phone with your boyfriend/girlfriend for three hours every day.
17. Working things out between friends is best done in person, not over email. (IM does not count as “in person.”) Often someone’s facial expressions will tell you more than his/her words.
18. Take risks.
19. Don’t be afraid of (or excited by) the co-ed bathrooms. The thrill is over in about 2 seconds.
20. Wednesday is the middle of the week; therefore on wednesday night the week is more than half over. You should celebrate accordingly. (It makes thursday and friday a lot more fun.)
21. Welcome failure into your lives. It’s how we grow. What matters is not that you failed, but that you recovered.
22. Take some classes that have nothing to do with your major(s), purely for the fun of it.
23. It’s important to think about the future, but it’s more important to be present in the now. You won’t get the most out of college if you think of it as a stepping stone.
24. When you’re living on a college campus with 400 things going on every second of every day, watching TV is pretty much a waste of your time and a waste of your parents’ money. If you’re going to watch, watch with friends so at least you can call it a “valuable social experience.”
25. Don’t be afraid to fall in love. When it happens, don’t take it for granted. Celebrate it, but don’t let it define your college experience.
26. Much of the time you once had for pleasure reading is going to disappear. Keep a list of the books you would have read had you had the time, so that you can start reading them when you graduate.
27. Things that seem like the end of the world really do become funny with a little time and distance. Knowing this, forget the embarassment and skip to the good part.
28. Every once in awhile, there will come an especially powerful moment when you can actually feel that an experience has changed who you are. Embrace these, even if they are painful.
29. No matter what your political or religious beliefs, be open-minded. You’re going to be challenged over the next four years in ways you can’t imagine, across all fronts. You can’t learn if you’re closed off.
30. If you need to get a job, find something that you actually enjoy. Just because it’s work doesn’t mean it has to suck.
31. Don’t always lead. It’s good to follow sometimes.
32. Take a lot of pictures. One of my major regrets in life is that I didn’t take more pictures in college. My excuse was the cost of film and processing. Digital cameras are cheap and you have plenty of hard drive space, so you have no excuse.
33. Your health and safety are more important than anything.
34. Ask for help. Often.
35. Half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at any given moment. Way more than half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at some point in the next four years. Get used to it.
36. In ten years very few of you will look as good as you do right now, so secretly revel in how hot you are before it’s too late.
37. In the long run, where you go to college doesn’t matter as much as what you do with the opportunities you’re given there. The MIT name on your resume won’t mean much if that’s the only thing on your resume. As a student here, you will have access to a variety of unique opportunities that no one else will ever have – don’t waste them.
38. On the flip side, don’t try to do everything. Balance = well-being.
39. Make perspective a priority. If you’re too close to something to have good perspective, rely on your friends to help you.
40. Eat badly sometimes. It’s the last time in your life when you can do this without feeling guilty about it.
41. Make a complete ass of yourself at least once, preferably more. It builds character.
42. Wash your sheets more than once a year. Trust me on this one.
43. If you are in a relationship and none of your friends want to hang out with you and your significant other, pay attention. They usually know better than you do.
44. Don’t be afraid of the weird pizza topping combinations that your new friend from across the country loves. Some of the truly awful ones actually taste pretty good. Expand your horizons.
45. Explore the campus thoroughly. Don’t get caught.
46. Life is too short to stick with a course of study that you’re no longer excited about. Switch, even if it complicates things.
47. Tattoos are permanent. Be very certain.
48. Don’t make fun of prefrosh. That was you like 2 hours ago.
49. Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass.
50. This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Idiotic?

Recently, a professor gave us an assignment to build working models of Gears, Crankshafts, etc. using mount board. Quite practical right? But almost everyone was cursing the prof on the grounds that it was a pretty lame thing to do and why do we need to make things like this when we know how they work and all. Moreover, when in the class, we realized (although wrongly, but that's not the point) that these working models will not be graded and need not even be submitted, the first reaction was why did we do it then?

This and the 3 Idiots slamming the education system have made me think whether we do things only for grades? And if this tendency led to the fact that things were made compulsory at schools and colleges or is it that because the system is faulty, we have become accustomed to work only for grades. Looks like a vicious circle to me.