Rivalry

Professional rivalry has many advantages. Entertainment for the followers ofcourse. It seems to impart certain individuals with supernatural powers. Performances tend to be turned up a notch. Some of the contest between arch rivals are quite a treat to watch. The hype build-up in such cases feels justified. India-pak matches used to be so exciting. I guess too much cricket kind of diluted the whole thing. It was supposed to be that way. Too much to handle, i guess.

So, finally, it looks like PCG is going to see some bitter rivalry. I was kind of hoping this was going to happen. I , being meek myself, can't handle rivalry nor do i have the professional capabiities to beat the crap out of anyone. On the other hand, there is always an outside chance of my rival turning up an extra notch in performance. That spells danger for me and a permanent place in the record books. Recent events at PCG, however, have given me a glimmer of hope. I hear of fired up incidents between various players and i can't help but rub my hands in glee. The role of media is to provide a nurturing environment for the rivalry. Hee hee hee. Anyway, hopefully, we will be able to fuel this rivalry to generate some action. Not that PCG lacks any action.

First Impressions

Nothing better than hanging out with a few friends after a hard day's work!. HP, charan, shiva and i were sitting outside and talking. We will be moving out of our apartment sooner than we expected. In the middle of general discussion about logisitcs, HP said,"Let's play that game of What-u-thought-of-me-when-you-saw-me-first?". I told her i did'nt think much of her :). HP was re-accounting what she thought of each of us. The lady said she thought i was a gentleman; i guess i have rectified the notion since. However, she didnt seem to recollect how she met shiva. Personally, i think that it was a great insult. i think it implied that you are not even good enuf to register any kind of impression.

I wonder if your behavior with a person is more or less determined by the first impression they create on you. Good impressions tend to fade away more quickly, i guess. On many occasions, i meet someone and i go,"Yeah.He/she is pretty cool" and soon enough after a few interactions, i am plotting escape routes. The other way, however, has happened less frequently. Very rarely did i meet someone and thought they were jerks of n-th-order and even more rarely did things happen which corrected my view. The thing is if you think someone is a jerk, you tend to look at whatever they do to justify your opinion about them. On the other hand, if you think someone is cool and does something prohibitively stupid , you might consider it as a mistake.

Bollywood has interesting takes on setting up this chance first encounters.
* The first time he saw her, she had answered the door with a bucket of cold water
* The next time, she answers with a broom stick!
* The first time he met him, he shot him with 0.45
* The first time he caught her, dropping from mid air because he knocked her from the ladder
* DCH scene of aamir meeting preity and ending up with a black eye

Phony confession

He was cheating on her. Part of me wanted to tell her how that shameless ass was not only cheating her, he would also boast about it to his "trusted" friend (that's me). If only, i could tell her. I know she would never take my word for me. She is too innocent and he is too good an actor.

One day, i was talking to him on the phone. Two minutes into the conversation, he started ranting about his conquests. In a moment of clarity, it struck me. I silently called my voice box. At the end of it, i had about 2 minutes of confession from his own filthy mouth. Sufficient.

Awesome

Just a few good links, nice reads ( an understatement)
Opinionista
Waiter rant
Quick tales

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Thanks to Astudentforlifefor the pic.
The blogsphere is like several isolated bubbles floating in the cyberspace. Two bubbles sometimes interact and eventually coalesce to form a larger bubble. Sometimes, bubbles break to form smaller ones.

Primal fear

Its no big deal. No matter how hard he tried, he could'nt shake the feeling off. He knew it could happen to anyone, anytime. But what if. Trying to stave off the sinking feeling of despair, he tried to focus. His pulse fastened and he found himself running. His attempts to focus left him bleary and his speed left his vision blurry. He landed on his right leg, even as the sound of impact reached his ears. His eyes shot upwards as he saw the ball sail over the ropes. His heart went numb.

Cold touch

His hand slowly wiped her face. Drenched in sweat, she was gasping for air. He slowly moved the hair from her face. She could see him clearly. He had a smile on his face. Mischievous, victorious. It reminded her of the first time they met. The same grin, now, looks so different. Slowly, she sank to ground clutching her stomach shaking, sobbing. The last thing she saw was the melting knife.

Disclaimer: This is just a story

Shehanshah Tuglak.

Bollywood and its sister woods (tam, gult and mallu) tend to their ape their cousin from abroad. On one hand, the films are getting slick,trendy with ultra cool looks. On the other hand, people are experimenting with a wide array of subjects. Sadly, this is not the case in gult land. And, on yet another hand, people are churning out classics. Atleast, they are aiming for something that could become a classic. Starting Lagaan, followed by Rising, a blast from the past is kind of promising. SRK did Asoka sometime back. Although, the movie was'nt a a big hit, i think it was a bold attempt. Hrithik is targetting Akbar's role. And, the most ambitious project looks to be the Mahabharata project. Rumors have been floating around about this mega-project. If it comes out, that's all!!

I like to mix up things. Add history, comedy and lot of masala and see what happens. One of the most comical kings of his time was Tuglak. This guy has done it all. Changing capitals at his whim. Waging wars just for the heck of it. I doubt if he ever attended his court. Most of the times, he used to just freek out with dancers and whatever was considered fun at that time. Rest of the time, he used to play golf and go hunting.Yep, not many people know that he was the originator of golf. My movie will be on Tuglak's life. I will trace his life from when he was a child. The funny and silly young tuglak. He was the father of stand-up comedy. His rare court-room apperances were like sit-coms. Dramatic entrance styles (like cosmo kramer). Fine exits (like george costanza). At one point of time, due to peer pressure he almost wills to change his lifestyle. Bury his silly attitude under taj mahal and change for better. I need to think about how to pull the movie from the dangers of such impending boredom of reforming one for better. Perhaps another whimsical tuglak idea will save me.

Language borders

Yesterday evening, we went out to Meyer's icecream. It is a small place down somewhere. My geography sucks so i have little inkling as to which direction we went.I would guess somewhere south, towards Boalsburg. Anyways, 6 Tams, 4 gults. 2 overlapping. I always enjoy a good conversation. Most of the conversation types i have seen are just light bantering type. If you were to sit and think, you will see nothing of any real value would have been discussed. As one of my friends would say,"Minimal information exchange". No to mention tedious lenghty jokes. On top of it, if you understand the language just above bare minimum, the frustration is barely bearable. Tams are one of the most boisterous crowds i have seen. When roaming alone, they are calm, quiet and a picture of serenity. Put a couple of them together. It is like an explosion. I have witnessed this phenomenon quite a few times.

December of 2003, Shiva and i had gone to california. Muthu joined in from seattle and Don from Austin. That's all. Though, muthu and shiva are quite exuberant seperately but bring them together and they will tear down any place with jokes and laughter.In LV, we were taking a cab to the Strip and the driver was trying to make a conversation. As soon as the guy said something, these two will come up with some joke and start laughing like crazy. If you don't know Tam, you would think the joke was on the driver.

Some conversations can be so boring, you can feel the knot of boredom gripping you round the neck, suffocating. And, then there are others where you wish you were not a part of it. You wish you were somewhere else doing something worthwhile. Even watching TV is fine. I like conversations at PCG, though. We discuss so many topics. Advisors, girls, movies, sports,politics(:p)). The group is a mixed kind and no one just speaks in tam or gult. Language helps in binding people together. But, i guess, if you are not careful you might end up creating undesired borders.

Celeb Euphoria

Is there anyway you can behave "normally" around a celebrity or a sports star. Normalcy gets undefined when you are around a celeb, i guess. Some people go into fits ( signs of hero worship) and go, "Oh my god! Oh my god! is it him? is it totti?". Some people put on a cool demeanor. A little too cool. A look of total disdain. A look as if it happens routinely. A look as if they meet this person on a regular basis. Once at iit, the indian cricket team had come to play at Chemplast. Ofcoursee junta landed up to watch them. And then there was Sachin!!!! i think that was the only occassion i was being stupid. I did'nt get his autograph, though he was right there.I don't know why i didnt get his autograph :(. I repent and resent that attitude of mine. Many of my friends had intersting celeb experience. There was this guy who was a gult hero fan. He went to watch that hero's movie and guess who was sitting next to him. The actor with his family. Not that the actor was some big shot or anything but still. Yesterday, i went to a potluck party and there was this dude who had shared a lunch booth with Agassi and Steffi Graf!!

The Gifted one!

People who know me would vouch for it. Five-Ten years down the line, i am bound to get either a Nobel or an Oscar or a pulitzer or something of that sort.God does not gift one particular individual with so many talents for no apparent reason. Now that i am in PhD, i will probably make a few significant contributions to the scientific community before moving on. Dropping out of PhD is not an option. Though certain individuals with satanic traits tend to comment so!. I guess by then i would have definately got a couple of nobel (may be one in physics and other in Bio). I will then move onto movie industry. Take it to the next level. My grand vision is to set up a film studio near Adilabad. Make it famous. Put it on the world map. I will shoot Pyar Wars in this studio. Given the strong script of my film, and some stunning performances by the cast, extra-terrestrial graphics and fight sequences surely i will rake up a dozen oscars. Parallely, i will write a book on Pyar Wars and send it to the Pulitzer guys. The only things left would be an olympics medal for India. Hmmm...! This is one area i am not sure of. I need to figure out some loop hole. Anyway, that's the agenda.

Heights of Ignorance: Ignorance of Heights?

"Okie, da! I need to go sleep now. I have a morning 8:00 appointment for my learner's health check up!". I retired to bed early. The previous day, i slept like a dog for 12:00 hours.Sleep evaded me for the entire night. I got up at morning 4:00 and called up UHS(University Health Services) and left a message that i will not be able to make the appointment. I hoped to get a few hours sleep before a meeting with my professor. Nice try, nope! just kept turning and tossing. I decided to give in, got dressed and took the 7 AM bus along with subbu.

I landed up at UHS at 7:50 types. "I called in earlier to cancel my appointment.I thought i couldnt make it.Can you cancel my cancellation?". I got a No Problem from the lady. And, went ahead with my physical checkup. The nurse took my vital signs.
"Your pulse rate is good. It is kind of relaxed, sleepy". For a moment, i was staring at her. Did i walk in my sleep here? No, that can't be. I looked around. She smiled.

I feel tired and sleepy too! Monday Morning effect. I could'nt get to say that i put night out for no apparent reason. She asked me,"Karthik.Thats easy to say.How tall are you?". Er...5' 11'' ? no..that can't be ..i decided to be modest and said 5' 9'' . We went to the scaling machine and checked my height. Freaking 5-6!!!! Another smile! Would'nt be too incorrect if i said my ego was hurt. My inner LEO roared with laughter as i shook my mane. I need to call up my mom and tell her my real height. I don't know how many prospective brides she has turned down thinking that they were too short! And probably looking for someone who is taller than me!

Then, the doctor did some tests, asked me if i work out.I told her i play cricket. Everyday! Finally, she stamped the forms and i was out of UHS by 8:20. Piece of cake. Except for the lil misunderstanding over height issue!!

A few words

I came to N-1 around nine months ago. Things have changed from time to time.The first thing i noticed about N-1 was its pathetic state of cleanliness. These guys obviously don't believe in clean and healthy environment. Anyways, a bunch of indians mostly from the southern region. The past few months have been calm enough, normal as one would expect. Occasional outbursts here and there. Overall, nothing dramatic. Most of the evenings, i spend with this guys. Telling them different storis. I have a surprising number of stories to tell. Lots of jokes too! Some sense of humor these guys have. Funny part is i have begun to tell jokes in their native tongue. Must have picked it over the course of the stay. What surprises me is their capability of listening to the same jokes over and over again. Take totti for example, i would have told him jokes about this six friends like a thousand times. He keeps laughing at all of them. Sometimes, i see him mouth words with me!!! Get a life! Then, there are Tams. GOD! Like a zillion times, i would have told them the same jokes! and yet they laugh like they have heard it for the first time in their lives. Overall, life at N-1 has been enriching to say the least. Part of learning new languages, new jokes, new cultures is kind of fun.

The Dark side of the story : Making of the ring

Most of us have seen lord of the rings. And, we know that the dark lord is supposedly a cruel hearted, power-seeking maniac. I felt that there are two sides of coin, six sides to dice etc... Here is the story from the dark lord's perspective. The story will try to show that he is a simple, kind fellow who just caught up in emotions too strong for him to control. Okie.


Another dreary day at the top of the tower, looking for the stupid ring of mine. I have learnt my lesson this time. Never again will I put too much enthu into my “brilliant” ideas. I wonder if any one else thought of pouring all their powers into an object. I remember reading somewhere that some powerful magician had put all his powers in some parrot and left it at some place seven seas and mountains beyond. It looked like a fool proof plan. Did’nt read the rest of the story, though. Anyway, I got an even better idea and decided to put all my powers into a ring. My orcs tell me that I am obsessed with jewelry. Even that sissy nazguls were making fun of me. I don’t give a damn. I am the dark lord, after all. Anyway, I thought it was better to put my powers into some non-living thing: something which also looks good and bright. I decided to go for a ring. Thadaal fight, I had to put. A couple of night outs at Mt.Doom and I had the ring ready. I also wrote down a cool punch line, I picked up from some one’s shirt. It went like “One ring to rape them all” or something like that. Sounded cool, though. In retrospect, I see many faults with the plan. One day, I was sitting on the porch and admiring the beauty of my ring when those idiotic nazguls came down with their weird friend gumbal. A bunch of elves and dwarves. I tried to maintain my distance from these guys. Arbit people with lofty ideals about humanity and other crap. Anyways, as I sat their appreciating my hardwork, these guys happened to glance at it too! And before, I could say “How is it going”, they were all ga-ga over the ring. One of them was a babe. I think she was called Galadriel. She asked me where I bought this. For the first time in my life, I felt proud of what I had done. I told her that I made it on my own. I knew the look on her face. She was awed. I was so caught up in the flow. I told her that I could make one for her, too! The sparkle in her eyes made my heart skip a beat. The next few words made me skip a dozen. These words were spoken, by the other idiots who had obviously over heard us. You see, I was in a fix. How do I say yes only to her? I put a brave, smiling face and said, “Fine. No cool punch lines though!’ One of the best days of my life, I think. The smile on her face still is vivid in my eye. I spent a few freaking days and nights at the lab and finally made some twenty of them. Nine for the men, Seven for the dwarves, two for the other elves and two for her. I felt like we were starting some cult kind of thing. I never knew my ring would start such a fuss over nothing at all. Who cares! I just wish I could meet her again and ask if she needed anything else made. May be some bangles this time?

I Know what I did last summer

It has been about a year now since i have been blogging.Previously, a blogger on rediff i switched a few months back to Blogspot.I like the shift. I was going through my ex-blog and found some stuff i had written down on my blogs. The two most striking things that happened during the last summer.Good and Bad.

* PCG was christened by Point 5 on May 25,2004
* Summer mornings were spent slogging at lab, the evenings at PCG and the nights watching movies. This has'nt altered a lot but the amount of slogging has varied (both in lab and PCG). This summer would see me graduating with my masters though! Kick Ass!
* My first venture into Bio field ended in a disastrous D. At the start of the course:

What if Cellulose was soluble in water?

I am taking a Bio course this summer. It is on proteins and stuff like that. I think i mentioned that before.The prof we have is really funny.Knows hazaar things. Its like pondy mohan's class except the Pondy stuff. So, back to the question he asked in class, what if Cellulose was soluble in water?

Firstly, all trees would be gone if it rains! Consider what will happen to your pants when you go out in rain.There were many other interesting suggestions on this.

* Relay for Life cancer walk at night. I think it was from night 12:00 till morning 5:00 or something like that. It was a very good experience. Shiva prasad won six flags tickets at the walk and then we all went to six flags the following weekend.

* Material possessions of my friends increased too.Pinky bought a ridiciulously expensive camera and even more ridiciulously expensive lens to shoot some squirrels :p. Susu, shymala, maya bought cars. Satie,Chappathi got jobs. Bulla got GAtech

* I have to compliment myself on my infinite laziness.Everyone around me were getting their licenses but shameless me i still don't have one!

* The summer of Rapes too! Susu and Satie were conned big time. Classic susu statement. When he got the fake email, he just sat there for sometime looking dead serious. He saw shiva and starting shaking his head."Why does it keep happening to me?". We don't know SuS.may be because you have us for room-mates.

I was just happy to see the whole memories stacked up like that.I had never intended it to be.It just turned out.People coming in and out of my life.Countless souls whose lives i have touched and enlightened.Sorry.I take that back. Okie.Now let me go do some work.bye

Alien Love - First take

Down the line, when i am bored with this academic life i might become a movie director. So, i have been thinking up plots and novel storylines. Not to sound too much like conventional bollywood directors: I have a story in mind which will show love from a completely new angle :p

I prefer telling the story in a highly non-linear fashion. Too non-linear and people would be confused. Movies which don't have any apparent correlation in consequent sequences are examples of highly non-linear narration style (pardon my grad language). Anyways, this would be story of how love is all pervading,conquering blah..blah..probably will copy a few lines from some obscure poet's works. Flashbacks would be narrated backwards in black and white.

The story is about this simple guy falling in love with a girl. He finds this girl in the debris of an airline crash. Ofcourse, it has to be love at first sight (for most guys it it is.Girls however need to be persuaded). "She is beautiful. Jaroor kise aur jahan se aayi hoon tum". He rescues her and may be put in some action scene her.She will be hanging from some cliff edge lying on some branch. Or may be not.

Emotional scenes will be few.That scene when she tells him that she is no ordinary person. He says he never thought she was.Her face irks at his apparent dumbness and "i am an alien humanoid.Based on Silicon-Ammonia chemistry!". Ofcourse, our guy bulbs .He denies. I don't care what your chemistry is.Its whats outside that matters to me.

And then the scene, when the alien girl is taken back by her father:The alien emperor. The hero by this time would believe after her repeated efforts of telling him who she was. He should have realised the first time he saw her.Her outlandish beauty should have hinted something.But love is blind and how often do you find damsels lying around in distress? Anyway, so this emperor has finally found his daughter on Earth and has come with his full fanfare to take her back.Meanwhile, earthlings mistake this for an alien invasion.

Need to work out the details of the war and the finale.Also, may be the title of the movie.I want the alien heroine funda to be a surprise. There was the suspense thriller involving split personality and it was supposed to be a surprise. They gave it away when they named the movie:MPD.Another lesson for budding directors.Don't name your movies generally.Think about it.

There will be a couple of songs too. One will be the adapted intergalactic courtship ritual (originally composed by David Schwimmer).

Lord of the Rings: Saturn

As a kid, i was terrified of the Shani god ( Saturn). I had heard a great deal of stories about how people suffered when they were under the baleful eye of the Lord Saturn. Pretty cool, scary stuff.Even as i type up this stuff, my hands are sweating. When i was around 13-14 years old, i was riding my bike to school. There is a temple of lord Shani (Saturn) in Adilabad (that's the pseud town i grew up). And this temple happens to be enroute. For some reason, the front handle turned and i got entangled and i fell (The fall of Totti). As i fell, i stretched out my hand to check the fall. It looked like a stupid idea afterwards, but then i was falling. I fell with my weight on my right hand. I never knew bones could do that. It was amazing and painful. Through wet eyes, i saw my hand bent and then this guy came running. He placed my bent arm on his knee and straightened it. Some people might take this as an excuse and chuck while bowling but not me :P. Anyways, through some coincidence or god knows what this happened right infront of the temple. Then on, saturdays used to be the day for shani worship. That reminds me of another coincidence. Shanivar in hindi is saturday. Shanivar means the day of shani. Saturday is the day of Saturn. I wonder if this is just a mere coincidence. Did the ancient indians know of the existence of a planet called saturn? Did they know of the rings?

The rings of saturn give it a special place in our solar system. Lots of interesting thing have come into light thanks to the cassinni-huygens telescope. Galileo was the first to one to observe saturn. Typical tam like attitude, he didnt want people to know about this till he investigated more. So, he secretly published with some anagram twist and all. Supposedly, formed from the debris of a crash with a kutty moon, this rings are extraoridnarily thin. Wafer thin.

Back to mythology, shani is the son of sun. I think he is the younger one, the elder being the great Yama, the dealer of death. Shani was cursed by the shadow of his mother. His original mother could not bear the brightness of Sun and had gone to himalayas to meditate. In her place, she left her shadow.The most famous temple of the shani lord is in a small village in Maharashtra. The place is kind of wealthy but none of the houses have doors nor locks. Mysterious things, supposedly, have happened to thieves.

Finally, once there was a king. One day, goddess Lakshmi (for wealth) and Lord Shani came to meet him together. They asked him,"Whom do you like the best?". Before he could say,"Both!", he saw their jaws set. He knew he could'nt get away with such silly answers and that the gods meant business. Luckily, he was smart.

Hello, Totti!

We were all sitting at some place, it was dark.I think it was some garden with a few tables spread around. I was on one of the tables, sitting and sipping. At the end of the day, she said " I want someone to take me out". Out of the corner of her eye, she was looking at the idiotic looking ass. I volunteered. She sighed and said, "Do you drink?". It looked like a no-no situation. I decided to be honest.I said,"No!!". She threw another sideways glance, sighed again and said,"Yeah, fine!".

"What's your name?"
"Three Roses!, and you are ?"
"Totti! you new here at penn state"
"I have been for the past n years"
"Er..okie where do we meet?"
"Pick me up at 8:00 at my house"
"How? i don't have a car"
She sighs again, deeply
A fleeting thought. Shameful. I don't even have learner's :p.

"Fine. I will take the 9:40 bus then"

She came by the 9:40 bus. She said lets hit the bars tonight. I said,"Alrighty, let me go get my passport"