I am Write!

Blog Moved

2008-04-28T13:08:00.001+05:30

The blog's been moved (finally!) to

http://vishnoi.lukkhas.com/blog

also checkout:

http://vishnoi.lukkhas.com - my webpage!

http://vishnoi.lukkhas.com/photoblog

:)

Sea Ahoy

2008-04-15T13:43:00.002+05:30

10 days back, I made my way across the kaala-paani to the place where no one was to be seen regulary in the 40s - mumbai offshore.. off the west coast of india. Have been here for the past week and a half and have been moved from one platform to another, in a bid to understand, and learn about the place :)

So far so good, the bomb dropped last thursday, when an unexpected trainee (read me) moved over to the rig to just be a silent observor to a campaign, I was made the night supervisor - a display of dis-belief, nervousness, and dunno what showing up on my face at that moment. 5 nights post, I must say, it's been fun, though pretty tough, considering that you dont have much to do if nothing's happening. And slowly one needs to kill his time through those 12 hours... waiting, dozing, snoozing the dozing, taking the readings, and not to forget, eating at all the possible hours, that one'd eat at, just 12 hours of lag wrt indian time zone.

So much for my job et al. Going to be in delhi this weekend, and for the next few days to come after that. Hopefully will live after 14 days of offshore. Not a girl in sight. Well, almost. There's a woman on the rig. Highly unimportant. Now, I wonder if IIT was better! :P

Why this post at 1.50 PM? Well, just had a safety drill, and the sleep was mercilessly murdered, and now it will not come, come what may. So, life that it is, is sad for the moment. Just for the moment I must say.

Paani Puri

2008-01-13T00:27:00.000+05:30

Well, not really paani-puri I speak of. Lately, I was told of a concept - vodka paani-puri. Yes, basically, paani puri with the water having vodka - vol ratio of a small peg. I thought it was a one-off situation, considering that the concept was told to me by a born and lived in delhi woman... and we all know delhites! :P

but then, a few days ago, I was just going to some shop in galleria, and I over heard 3 conversations (and this ain't exaggeration!) that had the same content - rejecting the conventional paani-puri coz the "customer" wanted vodka paani puri! boss!

too much for me!

i just moved ahead, and had my regular paani-puri with the paani made from mineral water - enough high class achieved! ;)

4 kinds of movies

2007-12-12T18:30:00.000+05:30

with so much work to do in my office (that stands opposite Subway Powai), I today had a realization: there are 4 kinds of movies:

1. movies that are Friday night movies - one can watch after a boring sick week at office, and enjoy - e.g. Om Shanti Om, Jab we met, etc.
2. movies that are Sunday afternoon movies - ones that are good quality stuff, and are aimed at "a niche audience" - e.g. Khoya Khoya Chand, No Smoking, etc.
3. movies that one would always enjoy - like Sholay :)
4. movies that one'd never enjoy - like Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag ;) (saw this coming eh?) :)

So much for gyaan, and keeping this blog alive :)

4 in a row

2007-10-28T20:24:00.000+05:30

Long time no hear! well, that's could be because of many reasons, I could be very busy at office, may not have an internet connection at home, or may be I didnt have enthu to blog. Well, it was a mixture of all the 3. But, now, after a 2 week induction at UK, a side trip to Munich and to the Oktober Fest, I am back in India, and am doing good time at office. Work / Life balance is crap, and have been working long hours on some good work otherwise :)

Other than that, this week I watched 4 movies, on 4 days :) A thing that I hadn't done since a long time!
Thu: Jhonny Gaddar, a flick that I felt was Ok, and nothing too great, considering the reviews I had got. Simple expected twists in what was supposed to be a thriller.
Fri: Jab We Met, a regular commercial cinema movie, but it did manage to get quite a few giggles from me after a 9-9 in office!
Sat: Shoot Em Up, a flick that was full of so much action, and the hero getting everything right, it felt like a video game, 3rd person, and all cheat codes in our favour!! Just about that! :D
Sun: No Smoking, a flick that was so much into symbolism, that it probably left few takers for it. A little too much of thinking, such that it was not digestable by most critics, but a movie that I'd like to watch atleast 3 times more, but now on a DVD :)

So much for now, I go and hog :D

The world of Lukkhas!

2007-09-14T11:40:00.000+05:30

we have a domain.

Lukkhas.com

I have a home page now ;) vishnoi.lukkhas.com

also, this blog's moved there. which u can also notice :P

vishnoi.lukkhas.com/blog

Bang-a-lore

2007-07-15T13:21:00.000+05:30

In Bangalore for the past 7 days. Have had a blast so far. Lotsa fun with batchies, a few juniors, and some seniors. Food, party, and sleep is what I've been upto. Other than that, was in Pondicherry for the last couple of days, drove a bike around the place. Ate French food, swam in the sea, and enjoyed the sun, after a cool-ish, wettish bangalore. This summer's been good to me. Saw North India, and now got a flavour of south. Lovely :)

Photos of the Backpacking Trip

2007-07-02T16:48:00.000+05:30

hey people!

well, finally, after a week I landed back at my place, I have managed to scan through all my pics, and finally uploaded them :) the (many)links are below :)

thanks ;)

cya!

-aashish

Amritsar

Mcleodganj Dharamsala

Dalhousie Khajjiar

jammu

Srinagar

On road to Leh

Leh

On Road To Manali

Manali

Shimla

Dehradun

Uttarkashi

Gangotri

On road to Rishikesh

Rishikesh

Early morning back to delhi

2 amazing flicks

2007-06-30T18:24:00.000+05:30

Sivaji-The Boss fans: Renu, Iyengar, Anuj, I

Aap Ka Surroor The moviee - The real luv story. fans: Reetu, Anuj. mega fans: Shaggy, I

Seen both. Enjoyed both. Had a blast.

This completes 5 movies in 7 days. Awesome :D

Movies

2007-06-29T13:45:00.000+05:30

Back from my trip, I tried catching up with the movies that I've missed out so long. Saw Ocean's 13, and Shrek III back to back on Monday. Then saw Sivaji-The Boss on wednesday with a followup dinner and a out of place birthday celebration of Renu at TGIF Priya. The long party there delayed my return by 1 hour, and that grounded me for the next two days. I hope to catch Cheeni Kum and Aap Kaa Surroor (The Moviee - The Real Luv Story) over the weekend. Let's see :)

The Trip

2007-06-27T12:58:00.000+05:30

27 days. On the road. Amritsar-Himachal-JnK-Himachal-Uttaranchal.

Highlights - photography, interesting food, cheap acco, weird company for travel, punctures, military convoy lifts, learnings on sex at an overnight tea stall, cold deserts, sand storms in cold deserts, falling rocks, friend falling off a cliff (almost), treks, 2nd highest motorable road, highest motorable road, Leh-Ladakh, Kashmir valley, rafting, holy dips in ganges - 6 times :P, hot women to see, none to date :(, and a memorable trip.

Enjoyed it :)

Shootout at Lokhandwala...

2007-05-25T21:23:00.000+05:30

...based on true rumors.

May be their box office success will also be based on true rumors. God pray for the soul of the team that made the movie. A high starrer, will again not be a high grosser. Or so I feel. My 1st day 1st show - a sad movie I got to see. No regrets, I did get to meet up with my school chums - Anuj and Pratiroop. Movie done, the camera people were right outside the theater (PVR Rivoli) and Anuj did make a comment - Sad, sorry movie, piece of crap, holy shit. Well, a little strong, but if it comes on camera what the hell! :)

Other than that, nothing much on in life, trip finalized, well, almost :P And, I am now feeling nervous, a fattu that I am ;) Learning, trying to see what not to miss out. Praying. :)

No Title

2007-05-22T10:03:00.000+05:30

More than a week gone by, I don't seem to be doing much preparation of my trip that I plan to do alone. All I do is eat out at places, make sure my tummy gains an inch or two, I sleep like a log, and watch movies on screen, or on the computer. Life. Aah. Nice.

Saw Life in a... Metro. Everyone bangs everyone - as put by Shaggy's friend Rustugi. The reason why I actually watched the flick, with Priya @ Priya :). At the end of the movie, all I felt was yes - everyone does screw everyone, and that's about it :) Life in a metro - all screwed up :)

I came from one metro to another. Life is screwed up :) Now I go and gobble something, coz my stomach craves for more home-cooked food :)

Other than that, I managed to use my camera on sunday, when I met Akriti over lunch @ Rajdhani, CP. I did some photography while in the auto. Will post some stuff on my photoblog as and when I manage to download some stuff.

Week

2007-05-13T13:03:00.000+05:30

A week that's been loaded with R. All over it.

Monday: Cafe Mondegar - Colaba - SD, Ghaza, Honda, Karthik and I. Visited by Reddy, Avate and Sarmistha.
Tue: Train to Delhi
Wed: Dinner at home
Thu: Day out at market. Shopping with the ladies sucks big time. It was my sister this time round. Dinner at Hookah, Priya complex, Vasant Vihar
Fri: Day at CP. Gathering info, and doing some booking for my trip. Lunch at Subway. Movie at Rivoli. PVRs made it look real nice :) Dinner at home.
Sat: Out at IIT with friends. Subway, Barista, and finally IIT Nescafe. Dinner at home.
Sun: Like God, today I rest :)

Kar-Na-La

2007-05-11T20:39:00.000+05:30

Well, this post comes 5 days late, after the 2nd and hopefully last trek in the Sahaydris. Well, this happened after lots of mails among about 15 people, and 9 finally showing up on the eventful morning.

The morning - I wait for the woman

Just like any other morning, Sarmistha woke up when given calls at 5.30AM, the time we had hoped for leaving the campus, for the much needed maddu stopover. Having picked her up, we made it to maddu where the rest of the gang - 7 people - SD, SD Jr., Karthik, Jose - the old man, Sandhya, Nivedita, and Bachha were already getting some food packed for the journey. Vadas and a few idlis done, we got to Panvel thanks to the Mumbai local trains.

Train journey

At Panvel, Bachha cut us a deal with the autos, 9 people in 2 autos, for Rs. 150 per vehicle. A 20 min drive, and we were right infront of the starting point at as early as 7.30 AM. A princely sum of Rs. 20 ph, and all of us trodded right over the saying that I always had upheld so far "Vishnoi Doesn't Trek". A few hundred meters up, we saw the map of the complete place. A 3km trail to the fort, or a 6+km trail that showed us some birds (hopefully) and a long walk to go. With three non-trekking people, we chose the "stroll in the park" was what we had hoped for, what it turned out was not bad either. With too much exposing of the newly wed Ash - our trail had burnt leaves on both sides - we had a pleasurable route while we had expected a hot sunny day. Clouds were what did come to our rescue :)

The entry into the bird sanctuary

The map we read

SD at his antics :)

Karthik at his antics :)

Sarmistha and I at the Drinks Break ;)

An anthill on the way :)

At around 9.30, we were atop the fort, and encountered nice views, had some food, while SD and Sandhya tried their hands at some rock climbing. Lots of Sriram over the place made us crack loads of Emani jokes, and a happy affair done, we started to walk down the trail we had walked up. Then did the slipping of people, and the injuring of ankles happen, with quite a few slips and a couple or so sprains.

The fort on the top

And we are over that :)

SD - Desperate little kid on the top of the fort :)

The "erection" that SD and Sandhya tried to mount :P

All this happens while we eat :)

And SD poses on the rocks ;)

The Srirams all over the rock

A peacock in the cage

Done with all this, at around 12 noon did we arrive at the start point of the Karnala Bird Sanctuary, with no birds sighted but in the cages - a peacock, and a couple of parrots. Then came the tough decision for the group minus Karthik, Sarmistha and I - who had decided to head back to IIT with a stopover at Karthik's place. The choice of proceeding to Alibag, or to Karthik's place where we'd order pizzas and his mom's hand cooked food? All chose the latter, and to Karthik's place we headed. 1.30 PM in there, we all gathered up in his library, some washed, some not, and the pizzas in front of us. Dosas also were made soon, and all gobbled up, one by one we all fell down like a house of cards ;)

Some 2 hours later, we all managed to get up, and snacks down the stomach, and a bus ride to IIT home sweet home we were by 7 PM. I made a dash to hostel, picked up the money that'd been lying in my suitcase for long, and to Dadar I went to buy my latest prized collection - Canon 350D. :) Yes yes, I own it now :)

Done

2007-04-27T01:40:00.000+05:30

well, almost with life here. Just a few more days to go. Today, I went and met the dean for the n^th time for the film society. He said that the registrar had managed to form some ad hoc committee, which would look into the closing of the affairs of the film society. And, this letter had gone to the director for approval. I just out of curiosity checked the Director's office, to realise that they hadn't received any communication actually! I reconfirmed with the dean, and he shouted on the PA to the Registrar, with the registrar actually absconding for a meeting in Mantralaya!

Other than that, I had today plans of South Bombay, with Karthik and Sarmistha, which I ditched coz of a headache, and some useless talk by people. Trying to sleep, I didn't get any, and I convinced Doodhi to come with me to Cafe Churchill after his job. Job reminds me, that I need to go for a full medical checkup at Lilavati Hospital tomorrow morning at 8.30! All this for my job requirements. Coming back to the food, we drove on Anchal's khatara Pulsar, and got there in record 1 hr! :P Had pasta and lasagne, followed by cheese cake and mango tart at Theobroma's. Then a customary stop at the marine drive, and back drive to IIT in 45 straight minutes. Fun outing. A change of mind. Good for me :)

Enlightenment

2007-04-21T00:51:00.000+05:30

Before I came to college, I was in school (Duh!). There, I did have a similar sense of humour, but not the fundaes. So, I'd hang out with studs, and then gain them. Then I scraped through JEE and entered IIT. Still a fool, I did maintain my sense of humour, till came sophomore year. I gained the right to give fundaes, to the bechara freshies. When in the wing, I gained enlightenment, much like our very own ~~Rahul~~ Sid - Lord Buddha - gained under a tree. Only difference being, that I gained in a room, filled with more-than-half-naked gults. Something, that I didn't realise in the scene was the nakedness.

Come a few years down the line, I am known for my fundae-giving-skills, which are not adhered to (I wear a t-shirt, and jeans mostly). Now, here's the problem, as pointed out by a Delhi woman, today (DCs may be bekaar, but are brainy too :P). All the enlightened ones - Lord Buddha, Gandhi and my wing seniors gave fundaes in more than half-nakedness. The 1st 2 in loin cloths, and the last of all in undies - the latest in thing. I was the fool to give in full clothes. So, now, I wondered what'd happen, IF I gave started dressing up in a lungi, for 2 reasons - 1. the heat is getting to me. 2. it adds to the effect, when I give fundaes. I'd walk into the class, and then like a tam, lift my lungi to knee length, and then give the tips of a life time. Exciting huh? :P

(Show over, fart session closed. Please close browser)

situation change

2007-04-19T00:02:00.000+05:30

i have a stalker no more :(

Lunch

2007-04-18T16:53:00.000+05:30

@ maddu - sai, sarmistha, and karthik. sleep after that. that's all i do. and its fun :D

job update: will join sometime in 3rd week.

before that, will embark on my trip, even if its all alone. :) and also go to banglore between the 7th and 16th of july. 10 days for lukkha :) good :D

Down

2007-04-16T16:14:00.000+05:30

1. to go: 4.

April 15, 2007. Promise made. They are made to be broken :P

Film society not going anywhere :( nor am i :P

Ole Ole

2007-04-13T16:05:00.000+05:30

Valfis over. Relax now :)
Submission postponed. Better :)
Lukkha for sometime. Even better :)
Had malai icecream with fresh mango pieces. (courtesy Sarmistha Pal and naturals :P). Heaven!

Now thinking of sleeping. Bliss! :)

Situation

2007-04-07T21:00:00.001+05:30

Ego: Hurt
Trust: broken
feelings: played with

wtf, life's sad.

valfi time. no booze. life's real sad.

whoever u are, come back please.

Fat

2007-04-07T14:09:00.000+05:30

I walk into Subway with a junior. Start ordering a sub. See Nangi - H6 senior. He's also ordering veg. Weird, i think. I ask - are u veggie? He says: haan, why, can't I be?
Amazed, I say, interesting... you don't look like one - big bulky man. How can u be a veggie. Then the examples - whale, elephant, and all the prehistoric huge dinosaurs are/were veggies :) Veggies are huge :)
So, much for people saying ki indians are thin, lean coz they are majority veggies!

Good Morning

2007-03-30T19:26:00.000+05:30

was the name of the PAF that hostels 4, 7, and 12 presented this year. For a change, H7 managed to present a PAF that was "putch"less, and with amazing execution. The position that we got - 4th. For some reason, this year's PAFs were far below the regular standards, and they were a huge disappointment, after last year's top 2 PAFs. But then, even after a "disaster" of a PAF, I didn't feel sad, mainly because, I was happy with the experimental script that we had :)
Other than that, I met the Dean yesterday and today regarding the film soc. No progress :| Damn! Dean said to come and meet him on Monday. Let's see. Its valfi time again :) Hostel 8 today. Next 12 days will be good :)

Summer Plans?

2007-03-21T17:22:00.000+05:30

Even though this blog has minimum readers, I still post this here.. incase that I get some company :D

Hello!

Well, I have had this plan for quite some time in my head - backpack touring north India from Amritsar to Nainital over a span of 30 odd days, spending meagerly on accomodation and travel, and covering as much as possible on a shoe string budget (my upper end approximation is Rs. 10k) with the trip being a feast for the eye, camera and the diary alike.

The "itinerary" that I have planned as of now is somewhat as follows

delhi-amritsar train
amritsar-wagah - 2 days
amritsar-dharamsala-dalhousie-3 days
dalhousie-jammu-srinagar 3 days
srinagar-sonmarg-amarnath-dras-kargil-leh-ladhak 7 days
ladhak-manali -3 days
manali-simla - 3 days
simla-dehradun-haridwar-gangotri-nainital 8 days

to decide: nainital-kathmandu-gangtok-bhutan-assam ???

Well, since the plans are not concrete, and all the traveling decisions are to be taken right on the spot where we are, plans are open to discussion :) The only "decision" is to start from Amritsar and Wagah, because of my want to see the Wagah border. From there on, local state buses/ general train tickets, cheap hotels, govt. rest houses are the plan of the day, unless you wish to sponsor the goodies :). And we can always include / exclude somethings here and there for a "better" trip :) I have the following things in my head that I want to see - Wagah, Ladhak, Leh, Gangotri. All others are open to discussion :)

Plans to start off on the trip is around May 25th, because the Ladhak area is not open before the 10th of June (or so I am told :) )

If u are interested, please do mail back soon. If u are not, still mail back, and I shall try to convince you :) . Also, If u are interested in a part of the trip, that shall also do, because I may end up moving with loads of different groups across the "huge" trip :) coz I am in desperate need for some good company :)

-aAshish

Ahem Ahem!

2007-03-18T14:08:00.001+05:30

I have a stalker!

Life's on a high! :D

Dear Liar among others

2007-03-12T02:11:00.000+05:30

Dear Liar is a play where the husband-wife duo of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak-Shah read out letters, that recreate the intriguing relationship of last century English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell and the famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw over the years. Written by Jerome Kilty and directed by Satyadev Dubey, this play was screened over the weekend at the Experimental Theater, NCPA. Ghaza, a senior from H2 did tell us about this some time 3 weeks ago, and Karthik, OD, SRR, Parasvil, and Anjor other than Ghaza and I did manage to get there for the 1st screening of the weekend, yesterday at 6.30 PM. A 2+ hour play, I was enchanted by the acting of the couple, especially Ratna Pathak. Being a fan of Naseeruddin Shah was the reason why I did agree on the trip, but being pleased to see his wife perform and outshine him was what I left the ~300 capacity hall with :) Another thing that I did resolve to do is that go to south Bombay sometime this week, and become a member of NCPA, and for that matter Prithvi too ;)
The play followed the 3 che duals - Karthik, OD and SRR run back to IIT to mug for their endsem today, while the remaining 4 of us moved to MamaMia's to hog some pizzas and pasta :) A train back to Kanjur - the 11.24 Thane local, was what got us home, and then some PAF work followed.

Today seemed to be a lot more hectic - get up at 11, lunch, work on PAF prod design/ backdrops design with srivathsan till 5, sit with ankit for scripting ideas till 6, attend a bloody soap box for the GS Cult candidates, and then go to meet A², Doodhi and Anchal where the jobbing junta - A² and Doodhi convinced us to drive to the Bandra Mocha, which we didn't enter, and then moved to Bandstand because Doodhi expressed the demand to have something chatpata and then Anchal the chaah for something cold and meetha. So, chaat followed by sherbat was what we had. Then a long chat/gossip on what's on with whom while we sat near the seaface, and then my need to have a coffee - Barista it had to be :) Some chillad-giri for the bill settlement later, we finally did manage to get on the bikes, and come back to IIT by 12.45. And then some more PAF kaam, and finally time to sleep :) Got classes tomorrow :| Sad life :P

sms

2007-03-01T01:46:00.000+05:30

Mujhse koi baat nahi karta :|
mujhse bhi koi nahi baat karta :|
chut aur _ mein thoda sa hi antar hota hai. fill in from omkara please!
bevakoof aur chutiye mein ek dhaage bhar ka antar hota hai
aage?
dhaage ke iss taraf chutiya, aur uss taraf bevakoof
avoid consciously flirting with me.. coz i don't know when u are pulling my leg and when u are not
i am not. i am just being good to u :)

life? interesting.

Aha!

2007-02-25T00:49:00.000+05:30

The other side of south Bombay - the not so frequented one by IITians, is what I walked through today. Photographing through Mahalaxmi - race course.. fell in love with the horses, once again ;) - Worli sea face - Haji Ali - Warden Road - Green Lawns High School (sigh!) - Pedder Road - cab to Marine Drive - Mama Mia's - Bachelors - walk to VT (!!!) - a huge glass of sugarcane juice - and the 11.03 local to thane.
Life's simple. life's good.. or so I should hope. A thought lingered in my head all the time I was at warden road, and it magnified when I passed by Green Lawns... something that I have been struggling to work out for the past 4 days now. let's see how life turns!

Day 3

2007-02-24T11:15:00.000+05:30

For the last couple of days, I've been making long 45 min train journeys to south Bombay, to kill time, take time of the regular rut of work in life, and some important pending decisions. And what better way to do so than with an D-SLR around the neck, a 2GB card in that, and loads of time to shoot!
Day 1 was from VT to flora fountain, a detour to BSE, the naval docks, Kalaghoda, NGMA crossing, stopover at McDonalds Colaba, Gateway, Colaba Causeway, coffee at Barista and dinner at Cafe Churchill :)
Day 2 started from VT, to RBI, naval docks, Kalaghoda, NGMA crossing, cuffparade road, all the way down to WTC, then a bus ride to VT, walk to nariman point - Air India Building, walk to Gateway, colaba causeway again, and a dinner stop once again at Churchills! A coffee at Barista to clear my headache, and back home!
Today I need to decide what to shoot, so, let's see :) Life's good, so far. Photos will be up soon, editing and conversion from RAW format needs to be done :)

a friend to a friend

2007-02-21T19:50:00.000+05:30

...i can try describing it.. relation with u started with timepass chat sessions..which i dont know why, but i always looked forward to.. but somewhere it grew into something much more important n gradually became a part of me.. i remember wonderin how it was possible that u wanted to talk to me as much as i wanted to .. because one thing i had invariably seen in mine n others interactions was that one person always seemed to be more inclined to talk than the other.. it was wonderful how this was absent here.. so u were my best buddy, my daily diary, source for enthu in life, and my addiction, someone who made me feel real important, hurt me sometimes too, but tried to make up for them more than reqd...

i wonder what does one call it?

Weekend

2007-02-14T01:14:00.000+05:30

was good :) Friday: Black Friday. Saturday: Parzania. Sunday: Kalaghoda Arts Festival. Had fun. Life was on a high. Then came classes on Monday, and Tuesday. A few PAF meetings, and no date for14th of this month. Life is on a low :P Bah! who cares :)

Round of Distributors

2007-02-06T21:12:00.000+05:30

Today, GPD, Honda and I took the much needed trip to the distributors of Bollywood flicks, almost all of whom have offices in Naaz Cinema - a C-grade movie theater at Lamington Road. On our way to the place, we took the regular route - auto to Kanjur, train to Grant road, and a walk :) The time between getting down from the auto at Kanjur to getting a ticket for the train was interesting. IDC, IIT Bombay has having a Design Local "fest" kind of thing, for the designing schools of India, for which loads of students (and hot chicks) are thronging the campus. We bump into a similar hot female, and here's how the conversation follows..

She: Hey, can you tell me how to get to IIT Powai?
I: Yeah, sure. Take an auto from here, and say IIT Powai.
S: That's it? :O
I: Haan!
S: (all shocked, and amazed at my brainy head :P) aha!

Now, once at Naaz Cinema, we start walking floor by floor, meeting distributor by distributor. Acting as stupid sales persons, we saw posters of really weird movies, C/D/ and probably E grade movies, and had a ball of a time talking to distributors of the same! At the end of the ordeal that lasted 7 floors, and 3.5 hours, GPD and I realized that we must pay enough respect to the sales persons who show up :) The only reprise was Honda and his camera, for which he had decided to accompany us.. for taking pictures for some photography competition in the institute. After the time spent at this great place, we decided to cancel the trip to Eros Cinema where Hollywood distributors sit, and ate paani-puri, got screwed with the spicy water, drank a litre of water among the 3 of us, caught a train to Church gate, walked to VT, and then back a train to Kanjur. So, after all this, we in short, have moved one more step towards setting up the film soc. :) Good. Now, 2 days I have 2 quizzes. Sad, but true :) Mugging time :D

Addendum

2007-02-04T23:04:00.000+05:30

The latest update on the still non-functional film society is that the Dean has gotten the bureaucracy of IIT to churn out the accounts by a fixed date - 26th of Feb. So, that is one step forward. Talking about steps, a step back is what 2 of us decided, because we chatted/smsed/spoke on the phone a bit too much. So, step back is what we decided, step back is not what we have achieved so far :)
And finally, I was working on an assignment myself, after a very long time. Felt strange, and definitely felt it a pain to do the assignment. Decided that I will not ever repeat such an ordeal again, will prefer to copy as and when possible, and gheez when not :)
Other than that, Sarmistha and I went to the Kalaghoda Mumbai Festival yesterday. We saw the Constant Gardner at the Max Mueller Bhavan. A small audi they have, made me feel that we were esteemed guests of Mumbai to get a screening :) The strange thing is that, even with ToI and Mumbai Mirror running all great articles on being a Mumbaikar after the local train blasts in July, the small turnout it gets considering that the population of the city is equivalent to that of Australia!
So much for life that people have missed :) Ahoy!

Once Again

2007-01-18T23:24:00.000+05:30

We enter a new year. 2007. Everyone blogs on what the new year may be like/past year was like/what they plan/what they did. I wonder the same, and also wonder whether to blog all that :)

Another sem started, my last at IIT (probably :P) A friend, Sagu, and I have had to taste the brunt of what Indian sarkari officers of the institute. Since September 2006, we have been trying to get the collapsed IITB-Film Society to move under the banner of the Student Gymkhana and the name of Student Film Soc (SFS), so that the students could take charge of a society that has so far been handled by the staff and the faculty with not great progress after its closure sometime in August 2003. All that Sagu, I and lately another batchmate - GPD, have faced is a merry-go-round on the behest of the staff, with ZERO progress made. Finally we managed to complain to the Dean SA through the GS Cult, and there should be a meeting soon :) Lets see :)

Other than that nothing much is on. Its the PAF time now, and the teams within the hostels are being decided. Also, the institute poltus shall be out of their hibernation soon, with the insti-elections not so far now :) The eventful sem is back! YooHoo!! :)

Lost

2006-12-30T02:58:00.000+05:30

is my mobile. Dropped it somewhere between the Mumbai Airport and my hostel in the auto that I took. This happened during the night of Saturday (or the morning of Sunday). A new Nokia 6030 bought. Another SIM from MTNL taken. A new existence of mine: +91 99694 19764. As for my life in Mumbai so far, I have had hardly anytime to be in my room. Sunday/Monday: Spent at the Pan IIT meet, for which I was organizing a session in a segment. The event went of peacefully. Networked with quite a few people. Tuesday-Friday: Mood I. Came 3rd in Treasure Hunt.. a hunt that was more of an obstacle race than a treasure hunt. But who's complaining :) The team members are the proud (???) owners of Segam color phones with loads of balance to waste: courtesy Hutch. New years in 2 days, no plans made. Life at a standstill... as usual :)

Big Chill

2006-12-15T16:06:00.001+05:30

is where I had lunch today. Khan Market, Delhi. A small place by most of Indian restaurant standards, it was supposed to be one of the bigger places in Khan Market! An Italian joint, was filled with foreigners, and the few Indians who were there had international standards, or so it seemed. The waiters took the order by serial number, and not by the dish. Another strange thing that I did notice, even though it was Italian, and flooded with foreigners, this place had no liquor license. So much for my pasta + wine enthu! The food was good, a little too much for 2 people, one of which doesnt eat anything, and the other has to finish off two main-courses!

Other than that, had a coffee at Barista. Here we had sofas, for a change, and then it seems that Barista has started taking orders off the tables - no self service. I somehow liked the self-service concept. Nice waitress though. Looked cute :) Now nothing to do, will watch cricket on TV. long time no see - TV :P

dilli mein

2006-12-14T20:16:00.000+05:30

I haven't really taken the time to update the web about my life. So, before this year ends, I'd post a few things so that this blog remains active... or just about it.
I have a Job :) British Gas took the pains to employ me, placing me right outside the campus of IITB - Hiranandani - a place that I call IITB-Extension. :) Now comes the tough question: Do I just hang around in my wing a year longer, to save that extra buck, and finally buy my camera? or do I "save" like every other mortal and try to buy that camera? :P
Other than that I fell in love, and rose again, unscathed. Presently, I am in Delhi, using my sister's laptop to blog. My PC has crashed, my dad wont allow me to use his, and my sister has been kind enough, after lots of pains, to allow me to use hers. Thanks to her, and kudos to my convincing skills :)
So, nothing more to blog - u can see how good I am at summing up my useless life, for people in Delhi - do call - 098699 22303 and meet me soon :D

Fundaes

2006-11-23T01:27:00.000+05:30

Somehow, sometime, I got the tag of being the "fundae" man :P don't know when, where, how or why! but somehow :) "People" say I have an explanation for everything :) Well, lets see :)

Oh.. and some updates: I broke my back (more of injured :P) when I fell from a horse a month or so back. Nothing serious, but yeah, its a pain :( Companies are coming from the 1st of Dec., and I haven't been shortlisted in even one as yet. : Let's see :)

haal kaisa hai janaab ka?

2006-09-30T11:37:00.000+05:30

making resume,
living life,
spending heavily,
earnings next to zero,
not going home on diwali,
making loadsa new frnds,
meeting even more old chums (courtsey orkut :P),
kicking sai's (read gult) ass to get some work done,
doing nothing my self,
being treated to kaju katli from the most unexpected corner of the world,
chatting with frnds heavily,
no girl in life,
loads of boys (sigh! i ain't bi :( )
going horse riding,
got a sore ass and a pain in my back,
shall go again tomorrow,
what else? isn't this enough for the next 20 days?

What to do?

2006-09-09T03:01:00.000+05:30

Havent met guide since 2 weeks: what to do?
Got exam in 6 hrs, haven't studied: what to do?
haven't blogged since ages: what to do?
can't go home: what to do?
blah blah... and the list goes on.

i am going to learn to horse ride :) : something for which i shall say: i know 'what to do' for :P

Movie No-one?

2006-08-21T02:00:00.000+05:30

Well, since I have landed in India, I have hardly read blogs, and even rarely (read never) wrote my own blog. So much for the "free" and yet "busy" life I had back in Germany. Well, convocation has happenned, my batchmates came, fed me free good food, and then as usual, I continued my routine to watch a movie every weekend, with the good-old company of SaGu. But what happenned to day was something totally out of the league.

One might have experienced once atleast, not getting movie tickets for a show he/she wanted to watch desperately, with a House Full board at the Box-office. And then you get back in your car/ on your bike, and probably head off towards home, or if more adventurous go to the next cinema showing that movie, and try your luck there.

Well, something similar is what Machi and I did today, at Huma Adlabs. Trying to watch Ahista Ahista we reached Huma at 10.30 PM, with the hope of there being one more show, but the last show for this flick was at 10 PM. With neither of us having seen the movie, we decided 30 min was too much to miss, and so decided to try our luck at the PVR @ Nirmal Lifestyles, Mulud. Reaching there at 10.50 PM, I saw a show that was slated to start at 10.40 PM. Happy enough, I promptly went to the counter and this is what happenned:

I : Can I have two tickets for Ahista Ahista, the 10.40 show?
Ticket Counter : Sorry Sir...
I : Its sold out? :O
TC : No sir, its actually that you are the first person to ask for this movie, this show.
I : Are you serious? :O So, are u running the show or not? /:)
TC : Sorry Sir, but we need 10 people to run the show. And since you are 2, its not going to be possible :( You could try Just my Luck, Click or The Man.
I : No thanks, I have seen them already.

And now, Machi and I come back dejected, not being able to aquire a ticket, not for the fact of the movie being house full, but for the reason that the min. number of viewers wasn't reached! :( Sad, depressed, as I was in full enthu to watch Soha Ali Khan! I shall have my day, I'll watch it tomorrow :)

done!

2006-07-19T02:57:00.000+05:30

Presentation made, and presented. Guide asks few questions, points out a mistake. Others ask a few questions, and then I am done :) Report almost finished, so not much work remains now :) Life mein peace :) Waiting for Paris, and then back to IIT I go!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-18T05:14:00.000+05:30

Even though this title is a off my style of using the keyboard : using a button excessively to express an emotion (lately have seen this a lot in girls I have been chatting too) I write this ~~article~~ high, on 1.5 L of beer that Sumedh, his guide Malte and I had each at the only beer garten in Magdeburg. We were there from 9.15 to 11.30, and chatted on all things from engineering, to arts, to american history to austrlaian rughby, american football to bollywood, german lingo to dutch shit, and scandinavian chicks to cape of good hope. Not to forget chinese claim to exploring the deep seas before Columbus and Vas-co-dagama, and what not. Have to make my presentatiooon that I am supposed to present tomorrow afternoon to my complete group, amd done with 4 slides, have 10 more to go, and till thek i dont know if i shall last. Like gyanam, i writee this post, drunk, and unkown to wether the spell check shall work in this case, that i am working on suse 8.2 :) i dont care, and i shall not invoke it :)

1 AM

2006-07-14T04:47:00.000+05:30

Just got up. Hungry. Slept at 7 in the evening. No dinner prepared. Nothing to eat in the kitchen. Nothing to go with the bread either. Damn! Presently in office, doing nothing. Need food, don't know from where though. Have experiments to do tomorrow. And meet guide, incase he's well enough to show up in office. Write a boring report. Prepare for my presentation. That's life. Useless. Sigh!

no one

2006-07-06T00:22:00.002+05:30

blogs upto 3 hours before a world cup match is to start. This is what I have seen for the past 3 match-days now :)

All football enthu I see :P

Robbed

2006-07-04T14:38:00.000+05:30

I have not much enthu to write in detail what happenned on the wee hours of monday morning, but here's a mail that i sent to some friends ..

I was robbed of my bag today.. in the most pseud and secure trains of germany. I was asleep in the train, as it halted at Frankfurt station. Train left the station at 5.15, and at 5.20 i get up to get tickets checked, and i see my bag's missing. My camera, ipod, tripod, clothes, and 2 keys each worth upto 500 eur lost. I might end up paying fines for the keys, and so am badly undone. Screwed. Don't know what to say :(

Reported the missing bag at the next railway stn police station. Took me abt 1.5 hrs to communicate with a police officer who spoke little English. We both used dictionaries English-German and reverse to get my complaint registered. Was a helluva task at that time. Hoping ki kuch toh mile. Let's see.

Late night Talk

2006-06-26T05:28:00.000+05:30

while I still work on my report, I had this orkut scrappy conversation with a senior from H7, Aditya Bhakta (suppandi is my alias for the time-bieng :D ):

Aditya: Hey there... How are you? By the look of it, you are one person (I know) whoze globetrotting like anything! . Sahi hain. Howz it going waise?
And, Suppandi is great. Reminds me of childhood days, when he appeared in Tinkle

Suppandi: masti hai sir! having a ball of a time here in germany... with football world cup and all thodi lucky rahe hum.. ek saal ki chutti mili and luck ne favor kiya
suppandi is fun sab logon ko kuch na kuch yaad toh dilata hai
aap sunao.. kahan ho?

Aditya: Great, nice to hear tht you're having fun. And ya, I totally believe in LUCK re... It makes you or breaks you. Hain naa!
Philhaal to main Pune mein hoon. Just quit my job, may join a startup...

Suppandi: well luck could be seen in todays netherlands vs portugal game! holland was surely unlucky today
what's with startups? i see most of iitians going into joining startups. aisa kyon?

Aditya: Well my take on it is this... The nature of a job in a big name is well defined so to say. Now what this 'being well defined' does is that you need to work while remaining within those frameworks. There are set rules and way of conduct etc. which for a business is a normal routine. Most often these conditions are not what an IITian wants. Therez no creativity to explore oneself. Within a limit, for a business the individual benifits are OKAY; but not if those are to digress from its main goal - which undoubtedly is PROFIT.
In short, WE require a more challenging work.

Suppandi: hmm... always thought the same. never felt that the well-settled industry could ever cater to the needs of an iitian when it came to creativity. there are "procedures" for everythings, and sometime sooner or later i guess this gets to an iitian for being too much of paper work, and no real work. what say?

Aditya: Yeah, almost there... But those who do carry on, I believe, more often than not - suppress this creativity 'keeda' of theirs for whateva reason. Lets see how far this keeda takes me. Its more paying and comfy to do a managerial kinda job, which btw is more creative than most entry level positions that a undergrad frm IIT gets, and such positions are reached with a long work ex. MBA is a shorter route to it. Most of the IITians are therefore going for it, I think. Also a CSE or EE undergrad frm IIT has more job-satisfaction. Rest branches maaro haath, idhar udhar. I think MONEY rules the roost!

Suppandi: fuck! u seriously underlined the main thoughts that i was fighting for in a discussion with a punter here. I was trying to explain a german the main concept of iitians not necessarly working in core jobs, and why we would run away to do MBAs to get more money
and yeah, i agree, a CSE or an EE grad gets more satisfaction, coz their core jobs are well paid, and also creative at the same time. for us, as fresh grads, either its well paid, or creative. we somehow dont get the balance between the 2. and the only way we see is out is the managerial post, achievable easily thu the MBA thing.

Aditya: Yup. And the main thing is that, the attitude that we have out here in India. Therez more of peer and social pressure. Therez more of a comparison between ppl around you- subconsciously for most. IIT makes a huge effort to take us away frm this line of thinking (thats why IIT's are great according to me), but even then it does not change. Give a thought to this: If the same guy with whom you stayed for 4 yrs, earns more than you do (with the same effort as you did - comparing across depts. is difficult though) you are bound to run behing MONEY. The things are not as flexible as out there in Europe/US etc. They have a different mentality. More of risk taking and follow-the-dream kinda thing. I can realise tht the German u're trying to talk it out with, may not be able to understand this.

Suppandi: oh my god! sahi! i put the mentality of indians and the effect of peer and social groups around us as a major reason, and many indians too opposed this idea! cool man! i just got a supporter for my ideas
i guess its just that when in school we are told, "iit mein ho jaye, life peace ho jayegi" and then once out of iit, we don't really get that 'peace'. that's a major setback. and then when the 100 rank above u, EE punter lives a life full of money and satisfaction, one does wonder where has he gone wrong and the EE person right. And out here, there are people willing to have startups in chemical engg, and all, and back in india, one would not think of it. also, the core jobs here are a little more challenging, atleast as per what i am told by the experiences of MS students whom i work with.

Aditya: Yeah. Wavelengths matched --> Resonance observed.
Well, its better not to remain in that negative frame of mind. I believe there are no shortcuts to life. Luck no doubt is the major player in life (I think you too believe that - your 'about me:' says so... I truly loved that sentence!), but Fortune favours the brave. You need to work!

Suppandi: fortune sure does favor the brave! no shortcuts in life... tell me that. I have to submit my 1st draft of report tomorrow morning, and am still working on my lit survey i am surely working

BeNeLux minus Lux plus Hamburg equals BeNeHam

2006-06-22T02:48:00.000+05:30

Before I write anything, here's a mail excerpt of my conversation with my guide yesterday:

Dear Aashish,

>> I am back from the match at Hamburg. Nice game :)
>>
>> Back to work, I was wondering when could we give in the samples for the
>> **********? We had planned 3 readings, 2 of the m*********ion with
>> washing procedures, and one m*********ion with no s***, just w****r. I
>> came to your office today quite a few times, but it seems that you are out.

Sorry that I am so busy. I will be out of town until Friday.
*** is out of order right now. So, please continue to work on your written
report. I will get in touch with you next Monday, maybe you can show me
your small report at that point.

Places have been ****ed because they reveal things about my setup, which I may not be allowed.

I guess the above mail explains what is pissing me off. Report writing sucks. Qutub and his 2nd year roomie, Rai face the same task, I see. But I have to also blog my experiences of BeNeHam (BeNeLux = Belgium + Netherlands + Luxembourg, I went to BeNe + Hamburg, so BeNeHam). So here it goes.

Three Day Trip to BeNeHam

Aashish Vishnoi
(aashish@iitb.ac.in)

Under the Guidance of Er. Nitin Gupta
B.Tech, CSE, and one time experience in Amsterdam (as he claims)

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Max Plank Institute, Magdeburg, for the necessary funds to take upon this journey, Sumedh Risbud, and Onkar Dalal, for the instant monetary help, Nitin Ashok for acco at Leiden (not more than 30 min by train from Amsterdam), Jhadha Kannad and Neha Singh, for camera help in Madame Tussads, Nitin Gupta and Sarmistha Pal for time pass, and Nitin Gupta for reading maps, and showing us the way around Brussels and Amsterdam.

Abstract

Today, after about 2 years the movie Eurotrip rocked the famous IITs of India, almost all IITians have had a differnt perspective to foreign internships, specially when it comes to interning in Europe. This report speaks about a 3 day trip of a less known individual Aashish Vishnoi, who was in the land known for chocolates, sex, and sex. Yes, that would be Brussels, best chocolates ever; Sex, Amsterdam is the sex capital of the world (Cooper Harris, Eurotrip, 2004) and Hamburg, the second capital of sex, after Amsterdam (Bhut Bharat Kumar, the gujju who sits behind me, Max Plank Institute, Magdeburg, 2006).

Chapter 1
Introduction

With just 5 hours from Brussels, 7 from Amsterdam, and 3 from Hamburg, these places were sureshot visiting locales for a person working in a small town called Magdeburg, Germany.

1.1 Motivation

After seeing the fun experienced by Scott Thomas, Cooper Harris, Jenny and Jaime on the much acclaimed Eurotrip that was undertaken by Scott to successfully get a girlfriend Mieke a german hot blonde, whom Scott mistakes to be a dumbwitted man, one was very much interested to see and experience the same. Also, with first hand experiences from 3rd yearites like Akhil, Nitin Ashok, Er. Nitin Gupta, and pressure from lots of seniors, and friends to visit the place, I embarked on the decision to just do it. Ham came into picture with Akhil, Jassi and I being successful in getting tickets for the Ukraine vs. Saudi World cup football league match. Details can be read in my previous post, here (I am Write! Aashish Vishnoi, 2006).

1.2 About the places

1.2.1 Brussels

Known as the un-official capital of the European Union, or EU, it is also famous for the chocolates, and the Manneken Pis.

1.2.2 Amsterdam

As if the flag of the city doesn't say it all (Figure 1.1) Amsterdam is the capital of Netherlands, and also SEX. It has been a must visit place for most people for the red light district, and for the window shopping that happens at night.

Figure 1.1 : Flag of Amsterdam (Wikipedia.org, 2006)

1.2.3 Hamburg

With nothing in common in the flag with Amsterdam, but the red, Hamburg plays it safe when it comes to the sex part. But don't be fooled, because this is just an illusion. Hamburg, a port city of erstwhile West Germany, is second only to the leader, Amsterdam, when it comes to sex (Bhut Bharat Kumar, the gujju punter who sits behind me, Max Plank Institute, Magdeburg, 2006). It is known as the porn capital of Germany, and lots more.

Chapter 2
The Setup

With I having decided to go to BeNeLux minus Lux since a long time, and with the weekend decided, I asked Kannad, Onkar, Sumedh, Pursha and Sarmistha if they would be interested in joining forces. Kannad and Sarmistha agreed without much asay. Grateful to them. Nitin Gupta (NG, from now on) buzzed a day or two before the trip that he may "surprise" us at the Brussels Midi station! Not much of a surprise I guess, since we were waiting for him there :) Neha joined in coz NG doesn't really go without her. :P

I got a reservation for a night train to Brussels from Wolfsburg, that went through Bielefeld, Kannad's place of residence, so that we two could go together.

I had also fixed up with Nitin Ashok on acco for the 5 of us at his place, Leiden, not more than 30 minutes by train from Amsterdam.

Chapter 3
The Brussels Day

3.1 The Stations

Both aboard, the train delivered us safely and soundly to Brussels Midi (or Zuid as it's called) at 7.09, and we went around the station looking at what to do for the next 2 hours. We looked at the arrival boards, and were amazed to see that the trains system in BeNeLux doesn't refer by train numbers, but by 3 tags: Station of start, Time of Departure, Type of train. What I had noted down was the time of arrival, and the train numbers. It was sorted out, luckily with the train numbers including what train type it was. The 2 hours that we waited, we took in a sandwich apiece, and a cup of soup, for 3.70 €.

With NG, Neha and Sam located, loaded with 4 maps of the place, we caught a train to Brussels Centraal (around which all the sightseeing is to be done).

3.2 The Town Square

Once out of the station, we walked to the town square. I guess that's all to see out there. A place surrounded by old-age buildings from all sides, the square was filled with lavender plants (Figure 3.1), and a bunch of people were ~~making~~ distilling lavender oil (Figure 3.2) from the plant for people to have a look at. I don't really know what they were selling though, the oil or the plant. We did go and have a check at the place, on as to what was going on.

Figure 3.1 : City Square filled with lavender plants

Figure 3.2 : Distillation process in action

3.3 Mannekan Pis and Chocolates

Constant thing that was on was window shopping by the girls, and hogging of chocolates to taste by the boys :) Kannad and I spotted some interesting purses for the ladies (Figure 3.3). Neha and Sam insisted on the seeing of Mannekan Pis, so we, guided by our supervisor for this trip NG, embarked on the route. The lane (or the road) from the square to the statue (or fountain) was loaded with chocolate shops, and this slowed our walk due to obvious reasons. We managed to find a shop owned by chinkis who sold chocolates cheap (or as we thought), and also the ~~statue~~ fountain of Mannekan Pis (Figure 3.4).

Figure 3.3 : Some design of purses I guess.

Figure 3.4 : Mannekan Pis

Figure 3.5 : The Organ Instrument at the Cathedral (Photo Courtsey Sarmistha Pal).

3.4 Cathedral and more Chocolates

NG was hell bent on taking us to a cathedral and even though most of us relented, we did end up going where the guide took us. A look around the cathedral showed us a huge organ instrument (Figure 3.5) which played, and nothing more. After a few shots, here and there, we were to be told by Neha that there stood a shop, by the name of Marcolini, at 39 Place du Grand Sablon. Arguably the best belgian chocolates (Wikitravel.org, 2006). Reaching the place, we were kind of shocked at the prices of the chocolates. At the end of the day, Sam and I bought a 4 € bar of 85% chocolate for ourselves, and one for Onkar too.

Fianlly, we came back to the chinki shop to buy chocolates, ended up buying some worth 27 €! Sam bought chocolates worth 37.5 €!!!

3.5 Conclusion

A run to the train at 4.30 PM, we boarded the IC to Amsterdam. Kannad, Sam and I took the detour to Leiden to dump our bags, while NG and Neha went ahead to Amsterdam.

Chapter 4
Amsterdam

4.1 The Detour

Taking a detour from our journey to Amsterdam, we got down at Den Haag HS to catch a 10 min connection to Leiden, the town where resides Nitin Ashok. Due to a missed digit in a telephone number that Nitin gave me (orkut.com, 2006) we walked the 30 min walk in over 70 minutes, with constant interruptions to ask the few pedestrians if we were correct. Finally reaching the place at 9.30 PM we dumped our bags, and Nitin gave us a few apples to munch on while he walked us to the station. We caught the 10.30 connection to Amsterdam, and at 11, we met up with our guide for the trip NG.

4.2 Red Light District

NG who had already bought a 2 € map and two 6.5 € 24 hour tram passes guided us to do the same. Loaded with expensive passes, that Kannad, Sam and I didn't use for more than 4 times, we took a tram (Figure 4.1) to Dam Square. Once there, NG took us through a scary back alley, and then to the Red Light District. Exactly what we were there for. We looked for a place called Bulldogs (Akhil Ravi, 3rd Year, ChE, IITB, 2006) from where we could lay our hands on Hash Brownies (Eurotrip, 2004). With a brownie in the stomach of each of Neha, NG, Kannad and I, we decided to walk the path that most do. None of us though took the leisure to look for Wandersexxx or a camera shop (Eurotrip, 2004) but all sure did have a look here and there. We did a little window shopping, of good looking prostitutes. A look here and a peep there, that's all what we did for the next couple of hours. Most of us were tired in 2 hours, and while we made plans to go back for the night, Kannad wished if he could see a peep show. So I accompanied him to one, and for a small amount of money he got a peep for a small time.

Figure 4.1 : The expensive tram pass was for...(Photo Courtsey NG).

4.3 The Painful Dutch Railways

Finally 3 of us left for the train station, waiting for some 20 minutes at a tram stop, hoping that a night bus might come by. But little did we realise that the road directly led to the station, not more than 200m far. We caught a train that was 30 min late, and it took us in the opposite direction to Utrech. An announcement in the train told us to take a connecting train to our respective places. At Utrech came a disaster blow, my one way ticket from Amsterdam to Leiden would not be valid, because Utrech was in the opposite direction. This problem stood with quite a few passangers and though most bought a new ticket, a lady who has missed the train fought out her way for a travel on the same ticket. I stuck on with her, and gave her company in the fight (she spoke Dutch, and so did most of the talking) we caught the train at 4 AM to get us to Leiden at 5. A 10 € cab ride to Nitin's place, we woke him up at 5.30, so that Sam could sleep in his bed, and the 3 boys downstairs at his friend's place.

4.4 Madame Tussades

At 10, Sam came down waking us all up, and we had some Rice and Daal that was supposed to have been our dinner :) We reached Amsterdam at around 12.30, and with about 4 hours at hand before Sam took her train home. Hurrying onto Madame Tussades, we took a 15.25 € pp ticket to enter. An hour and half, the place was worth the experience (Figures 4.2, 4.3, 4.4). Next came the bombshell that 200 and 500 € notes are not widely accepted in Amsterdam. So I was kind of pennyless. Luckily we came to a canal boat ride place, where we could get them to accept the note for 3 rides at 7.5 € each. An hour ride, and 90 min for Sam's train to leave. :|

Figure 4.2 : At Madame Tussades(Photo Courtsey Neha).

Figure 4.3 : Another shot (Photo Courtsey Neha).

Figure 4.4 : Julia Roberts (Photo Courtsey Neha).

4.5 Canal Ride

We ran our way to the start point, from where the boat left 10 min late. A ride along the canals, it was a wonderful experience! (Figures 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8) At precise 4.30 PM we were brought at the start point, and we took a tram back to the centraal station. Sam and Kannad left on the same train, and NG, Neha and I looked around the city to buy a few souvenirs.

Figure 4.4 : The boat (Photo Courtsey Sarmistha Pal).

Figure 4.4 : A view of the more than 1000 canals of Amsterdam (Photo Courtsey Sarmistha Pal).

Figure 4.4 : The 7 canals in a row (a special sight) (Photo Courtsey Sarmistha Pal).

Figure 4.4 : A cruise that we passed under (Photo Courtsey Sarmistha Pal).

4.6 Conclusion

I left the couple at around 8, caught my train to Leiden. Got down and walked the way back to the house. Nitin had made some rice-potato pulao, so it wasn't a bad night. He offerred me his bed, and with a 5 AM alarm, we went to sleep at around 12. At 5, I got up, took a bath (!!!) and walked the way to the station to catch my train to Hamburg. I did see quite a few horses in the morning, that are worth a mention. (Figure 4.9).

Figure 4.9 : The Horses

Chapter 5
Hamburg

5.1 A train Lesson

A lesson from my train ride from Amsterdam to Hamburg: If one sleeps soundly enough in the train, the ticket checker ditches you, and you can travel for free :) I had EURail, and had already written the date, so I really didn't save anything, but my ticket wasn't stamped till I boarded my train to Wittenburg from Hamburg at 9.12 in the night!

5.2 Meeting and Entry

Now, I reached Hamburg at 12.12, and took information on how to get to the stadium. Next I waited on the platform to pick up Akhil who was to come at 12.35. Met up with him, and we waited for around 15 minutes at our meeting place, platform 1, for Jassi. The man who has no mobile, travels cheap, and is mostly not locateable. I did keep a back up plan, of meeting at the closest Mac D to the station, with the one inside (if any) as the 1st preference. Akhil and I walked to the Mac D to find a person with his back to us, constantly playing with his hair. He was sure to be Jassi! :P A few burgers inside, we left for the stadium, taking the S21. At the station, we walked for more than 1600 m before we met some officials, and asked them where to collect the ticket. Collecting tickets that were specially made for us (it had our names!) we entered the stadium. The steward questioned the chocolates (for Onkar) and I said they were for my kid brother, and the chocolates came from Belgium. He said throw them, and I said please, and with a little senti, the matter was resolved! No pain for the water or the deo! Strange.

5.3 Freebies

Into the stadium, we looked for the fan shop, and when we were led to them, we ran into T-Mobile stalls. A free "small football" and a gay-pink-bean-pouch was what was free, and as Jassi put it, it has been given to us by a cute female, and it's free! A few games of Fifa-2006 WC on the gameboy, and a couple of games of fussball against some Swedes who beat Jassi and me clean, we got photos with Kahn, Podolski and Schweinsteiger. Next came the free face painting, and the 3 of us got both the flags done, one on each cheek. A free foto with this too :) A look at the fan shop told us not to try buying anything :)

5.4 Seats Taken

Finally, we entered the stadium at 4.45, and were amazed to see ourselves so close to the pitch! A quick look at what the "kioske" had to offer, 3 € for .5L water, 3.5 € for .5L colddrink, and 4 € for .4L beer + 1 € for the deposit to return the glass! I bought Akhil and myself a beer, with Jassi buying himself one. We entered the stadium, and with a quick look around, we realised that the 105 € seats were worth the money. Sitting right above the Saudi box, and on the left of the media enclosure, we had one of the best views of the pitch. At around 5.15 came the teams to practise, and up went the roar of the crowd.

5.5 The Kick Off

At 5.45, both the teams were on the field, with the national anthems played, and the toss done (Figure 5.1), the teams took to their huddles (Figures 5.2, 5.3), and their formations soon after (Figure 5.4). At sharp 6 PM, the rain gods opened their pouches for water to fall into the stadium, and even though the audience seating was covered, we could feel the strenght of the water. The whistle blew, and the game was off (Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.1 : The Toss, and the Customary Handshake

Figure 5.2 : Ukraine Huddle

Figure 5.3 : Saudi Huddle

Figure 5.4 : The formations

Figure 5.5 : The game is off

5.6 The Match

Since all know what conspired here after, I shall not go into the details. But a 4 minute goal by Ukraine, lots of corners (Figure 5.6), a 2-0 Half time score, a few bookings, and a Shevchenko goal. That is what all we saw. A 4-0 match, and we were happy to have spent 105 € usefully.

Figure 5.6 : A corner kick taken

5.7 Return

With the match over at close to 8 PM, we took some final shots of the stadium and us, and then left by the nearest exit. I had to catch a 9.12 train and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. An 1800m walk, and a huge crowd to get to the S-bahn station, we slowly made our way to the place in quick time, reaching the Hbf at about 8.40. A connection check at the counter, and Jassi and Akhil realised they had ample time to spend in the city. I left for platform, and was quick to realise the Mumbai local feel in Germany.

5.8 Trains Back

I took an ICE back, and even though it's supposed to be mostly an empty train, because of it's cost, this one was full to the neck, like a Mumbai local, with people sitting on every piece of floor, even next to the loos. I had an option to get down at Berlin, and take a 21.90 € ticket back to Magdeburg next morning, or get down at Wittenburg, take an RB to Stendal, and after a 4 hour night at the waiting room, take a 9.10 € ticket back home. I chose the cheaper option, thinking it shouldn't be that bad.

5.9 Stendal Sleep

Bad it was, because the station had waiting rooms closed, it was cold, and there were fields and the highway on both sides of the platforms. This meant that I was going to sleep on one of the platform waiting chairs, and one look, and I couldn't strech myself on these. Sad but true, I spent 3 hours, with 30 min bursts of sleep, and 15 min in between them. Finally, the train arrived at 3.30 AM, and I took a seat asap. At 4.01 I was off to home. A jab in the ribs is what I remember next, not from the cleaner, but from the ticket checker. I asked her for a ticket to Magdeburg, and she gave me an 11.1 € ticket, 2 € for the fee of buying on the train. (I was hoping if I slept soundly I wouldn't be woken, but alas, I was!).

5.10 Conclusion

At 4.45, I was in Magdeburg, at 5.15 at MPI, and at 5.45 in my bed, with an alarm for 11.30!

Chapter 6
Conclusions

From the mentioned learnings, it is clear that Brussels is a must visit for not more than 5 hours, Amsterdam for a night and a day or two. Also, what has not been mentioned is that Den Haag is a place worth visiting. As told by Akhil and Jassi later. A thing that can be covered in further such attempts to relive experiences by Scott, Cooper et al., Eurotrip, 2004. Finally, with the money well spent, and another weekend to look out to, I take leave to start writing my report, to show my guide on Monday.

Refrences

Scott Thomas, Cooper Harris, Jenny and Jamie, Eurotrip, 2004

Bhut Bharat Kumar, the gujju who sits behind me, Max Plank Institute, Magdeburg, 2006

I am Write! Aashish Vishnoi, 2006

http://www.Wikipedia.org, 2006

http://www.Wikitravel.org, 2006

http://www.orkut.com, 2006

Akhil Ravi, 3rd Year, ChE, IITB, 2006

Motivation

2006-06-17T18:53:00.000+05:30

Yeah. That's what I am done with in my report. I now for sure know why my guide (not me!) was motivated to a project on this subject. A subject I hardly understand, and even lesser, care about :P But then he pays for my trips across Europe, and so its good enough :)

Last night, I sat in office for a little more than 3 hours, from 10 to 1. Working on the motivation and the introduction of my report. Done with the motivation, I have scrapped the intro part 3 times in a row now. I write 3-4 paras, and then delete is what I press. Not impressed with what I have been writing. Will start work again soon.

Other than that, I washed clothes today. And as almost all men, I mixed my colors and my whites. Result? I have a gradient of red in my inner wear, and hankerchiefs. (Yes yes.. read it Pink, and light red :( ) Now I shall have to bleach them when I get back to India. And till then, keep them inside my pants. No showing around what I wear. Bloody hell. Why GOD Why?? Why me???

Source

2006-06-16T02:28:00.000+05:30

For all that Onkar, Sumedh and I discuss on the lunch table, dinner table, the corridors of MPI, the streets of Magdeburg, on the phone, and in the lift has had just one source : CNN. With all channels in german, but for the good ol' CNN, we are found watching the news for most part of our stay in the room. And then we discuss: did u see this? did u see that? That news reader is kinda hot. OOOOh!!! What time is she on? 8 AM. naah! Too early for me. What also at 2 in the night? Kwel! I'll check her out. And then back to what's happenning in Sudan, or the US playing with Iraq. No mention of Cricket, be it CNN World, or CNN Asia that we watch. CNN Europe is filled with useless news, other than that football hightlights.

A few months back I found it kinda shady when the "rich and pompus" talked about world(y) issues like Iraq, the US president, the Indian Markets, the Australian beaches, all this sitting in an English house, over some Brazillian coffee. And while they discussed such important topics, they didn't see their families breaking into pieces, their company's future doomed, and they turing into paupers in a few years down the line. But now that I do the same, I guess its not about "not thinking about personal stuff" but with too much time at hand, one does kinda start "worrying" about the world eh? :)

Some small time news

2006-06-15T13:02:00.000+05:30

Last weekend I was in Munich. I went there with a 40 € ticket, and 4 € in my pocket. Pursha was supposed to meet me at the station, and we were supposed to go to a fairytale castle, meet with Sarmistha, and then back to Munich for football fever and night life. Pursha didn't show up, I roamed the city alone, till about 2 in the afti, calling Pursha and Sarmistha simultaneously. Sam picked all of my calls, Pursha none. Finally Sam bailed me out of my peril, and met up with me at Füssen. We came back to Munich, and went to the Olympiazentrum to catch the Argentina match on the big screen. Slept at the station, with just one plan in mind : to visit Dachau, the Nazi Concentration Camp on Sunday.

Once there, on an empty stomach, at 9 in the morning, we realised how much a gloomy cloudy day would change the impact of this place, with torn down grey buildings, barren land, and meticulously planted trees. I was glad it was a day with a bright sun, and no cloud in sight. After entereing every small establishment in the camp, I'd come out happily to take the sun shining on me. It was a nice feeling :) 2 hours in that place, and we were looking for food at almost every corner of the town.

Back from Dachau, still hungry, we 2 headed off to the BMW museum at the Olympic Park. A 30 min gujju shoot, taking pics of all cars, reading info of only a few, we were back at the Munich station. In between, I was made to gulp down more than 500 ml of beer, with in a few minutes, coz Sarmistha wanted a 1 L beer mug, and she had already given 5.6 € for the beer in it, and 2 € as a deposit. With a beer mug in hand and a few burgers, Sarmistha took the 2.36 connection to her place, while I took the last possible 2.44 PM connection to Magdeburg. Reached home after 12 midnight. Slept, overslept. Woke up at 11 AM. Forgot to put the alarm on. Was to meet guide at 9. Met him in the corridor at 2, he said we should meet on Tuesday at 10.30. No mention of the missed meeting. He added that he came late to office coz his car broke down. Lovely, i thought! :P

Have done some work over the past 2 days. A few X-Ray Diffraction readings, and a few samples prepared for centrifugation. Now I am a master in preparing micro-emulsions too. But I shall not talk of work out here. I dont talk of work anywhere :)

Yesterday, Akhil gave me a surpirse scrap.

Akhil: WE´re GOIN TO THE WORLD CUP
atch #32: Saudi Arabia - Ukraine, Hamburg, 19.06.2006
WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..........Its the time to party

Akhil: F@$"!ing shit Man .......

Yeah, yeah. One can get the essence. We are going to see a world cup match live in the stadium, with the most expensive seats in town. a whopping 105 € a place. Now don't start giving fundaes, on what stupid match is this. We got a ticket after a wait of more than 2 months in the wait list. For a person like us, all matches are great. Its the atmosphere that is worth being in. :)

When I told my guide that I would like to have monday off, coz I have a World Cup ticket, he was "Bloody hell! You have a world cup ticket :O:O:O Congratulations." And then the person across the table shook my hand too. Guide says, you have a valid reason to take the monday off. A WC ticket is good enough for a holiday in all of the world. :)

For today and tomorrow, my complete research group has gone to some other Max Plank, where my group head gives a lecture, in German. Also, the MPI there has prepared some laser tech, that only MPI junta can see. My guide's gone too, so I have been asked to do a few experiments, and work on my report :P haah!

of cold swissland, nice beach, and F1

2006-06-02T03:38:00.000+05:30

aaaaaah! well, now that the next weekend arrives, I should jot down what I did over the past weekend :) A long weekend, starting Thursday, most people bunked Friday making it a 4 day no show. I decided to bunk Monday too, but then work on Thursday, keeping it a 4 day weekend. What I was to take in later was that my supervisor left for a 12 day family holiday on Thursday, and so I had no motivation to work on a day that had attendance lower than a regular weekend Saturday.

Not working, chatting, orkutting, mailing, and making pasta was how I spent my Thursday. I washed clothes for 2 €, and dried them for another 1 €. Finally, I packed my bags, and went to the train station to catch my 19.42 connection to Wolfsburg, where I would get my City Night Line for Basel SBB, Switzerland. The wait at Wolfsburg station, 2 straight hours in the cold, weren't great, but that was to be done to save some 10 odd euros, which were very much required, as I am being paid an amount that would be given to a beggar who'd not be doing anything but sitting idle throughout the day. Well, that's Germany for you.

Aboard on the train, I had my ticket checked at around 12, and then off to sleep. Was woken by Swiss customs officers some 30 minutes before we reached Basel, to check my passport. As usual, the passport snap was desperately compared to my face, and the amount of missing hair was much pondered on. But then that's something I have to bear for another 5 years, before my passport expires :) Into Basel, I changed over to a train for Bien, and then onto a train to Geneve (Geneva for non-Europeans) Scheduled Arrival: 10.47 AM. NG was supposed to be waiting for me at the platform. It so happenned that I dozed of at around 10, and then got up with a start while the train was at some station. A conversation between a woman behind me and me went like this:

I: where are we?
She: Geneve.
I: Geneve?
She: Yes
(I pull my bag, my jacket, and make a run for it)
She: (calls back)It's not Geneve Airport.
I: (a desperate reply, so that I can hurry getting down from the train) I was supposed to get down here :P

She looks stunned, but then who cares ;)

Down the train, I meet NG, who was desperately searching for me from one end of the train to the other :P He would have borded the train incase I wouldn't have gotten down :D Into Geneve, we ran into a group of 3rd yearites interning at EPFL. NG and I had just 10 SCF in his pocket, other than loads of Euros, decided to borrow some of this pack. 10 SCF on, we headed off to the tourist information office. Strange but true, the [i] is not near the station, but somewhere in the city, to where NG knew the way. (thankfully!)

Taking a map, and some instructions later, we went to see the Highest water fountain in the world. The water goes up some 140 metres! A few pics of the fountain, a few of the ducks that swam the lake Geneve, and then NG kept wondering where the flowerclock was. We looked, and looked, and looked. Then we gave up and went ahead towards the old city. I was keen to have a look at the cathedral (it sure was a letdown) and the rulers of the Reformation that are set in stone, not far from the cathedral. NG disclosed that he had half a bottle of red wine (or was that white?) and we both took in a few sips on an empty stomach, right in front of the The rulers of the Reformation :) A few pics here and there, we walked (read trecked the steep slopes) our way to the other side of the lake, to where stood the Red Cross Museum and the United Nations building. Somehow NG knew all the ways in this city, and that was kind of good. Some more pics, and we decide NOT to enter the museums in each of these buildings. Some 10 SCF and 5 SCF each. We took a break at the lawns of the Red Cross Hospital, and then went all the way back to the station, so that NG could find some possible connection to Paris from Monaco/Nice for the race day.

The Geneve Fountain. A 140 m high burst!

And the ducks that swam Lake Geneve

The Cathedral was a let down

The rulers of the Reformation

United Nations

Red Cross Hospital

At the station, after more than 40 minutes of trying with the person at the counter, NG finally found a train that would get him to Paris in the morning of the Monday that followed, and not in the night, as previously scheduled. He was extremely relieved getting back to office on time :)

We caughtup with Sarmistha at the Geneve station, and the 3 of us boarded the 16.21 train to Lyon Part Dieu. In Lyon, with about 30 minutes to spare, we ran around the station trying to jugaado something to eat, and drink. NG confidently said he'll get something, and ran up somewhere. While Sarmistha and I looked for him, we bought a huge loaf of sweet bread, 3 €, and then found NG with a packet in hand. Few chocolates, marshmellows, and some nutties. 2 € :P:P Lovely buy. Pondering whether we should buy a bottle of wine (prettz cheap: just 5 € a bottle) or not, we took a bottle of juice, and 2 of water. Hurrying onto the platform with some 3 minutes to go, we climbed on the wrong one, then came hurrying down, and get onto the right platform. No, we didn't miss the train. We caught it with more than a minute to spare :)

Onto the train, we ate the food, drank the drinks, and tried to decide where to alight: Antibes (the staion near which stays Chinmay), or Nice, as planned. Then came up another option: Cannes, and with the film festival, it was the best bet. At around 11 in the night we got down, found a map from somewhere, a train timetable for getting to Nice, and some directions as to where was the beach, and where was the film festival. Both in the same direction. I somehow always had the idea that such places have casinos, and they are the best bet for dumping luggage. We did this quite often when in Sydney :) And as expected, this city did have a casino, next to the blue carpet. We entered the casino, dumped our bags, and had a look around the slot machine room. NG and I wanted to try our hands at cards, and as we moved towards the cards room, we were "shooed" away with the gatekeeper saying something in French. We tried again, and we shooed once more, only to learn that sport shoes weren't allowed inside the room. Some fundaes for sure!

Dejected, and hungry, We looked for some place to eat, and as expected, NG found an Ice-Cream Parlour! We saw this board that said:
1 scoop: 2.0 €
2 scoop: 2.5 €
3 scoop: 3.0 €
And I was happy that the 3 of us would have a scoop each in a personalised cone for just 3 EUR. But to my utter dismay, it was 3 scoops in one cone/ cup :) We ordered 3, one of each person's liking: kiwi, mango, and green apple. The woman at the counter asked us where were we from, and we said "India" :) She claimed to have been in India, and named places that even we haven't visited as yet. Then she showed us the cup with 3 scoops, a biscuit and a spoon. Asks: Is this good? Or one more spoon? We say 3 :) She smiles, and then offers us a plate too to keep the cup on ;) Soon we were joined by a huge group of college-goers, and everyone ordered a 3 scoop cone. Sure we had fun sitting there and the 3 of us gheezing into one cup :)

We left that place, went up the road, and found a small store open. Entering it, NG was happy to see the wine bottles, and then as usual, we bought a packet of slice cake, and a big bottle of juice :) The cake sucked! And the juice was cold. So was the places where we sat to rest :|

We went towards the blue carpet, saw some European actress, lots of Ferraris with V8 engines going vroom vroom on the road, and then slowly walked towards the beach. An hour on the beach, the chilly air started getting to us, and so did the cold sand. We decided to get our bags back (the casino closed at 4) and then grab some sleep. With bags in our hands, we tried to get some sleep on the benches near the film festival area. 40 min down, I was woken up, someone was feeling cold. So, we decided to head up to the station, and try getting a place like we had in Vienna. Unfortunately, the station was closed, and after a closer inspection, we realised it didn't open till 5! Sarmistha made us sit down in the middle of the road, and with cold winds blowing from both sides, it sure wasn't the best place to sit. Then we decided to move in towards a wall, so that we could be protected from one side atleast. An hour of sleep, and some drunk moron comes shouting at us, and we get up. Lucky enough to see that a cafe open infront of us :) We entered it, drank large coffees, and nibbled onto some bread. And then sat there for the next hour or so, regaining the lost heat :|

At around 7, we headed to the beach, to take some morning shots. Saw a couple of oldies fishing by the tier. The did catch something small. But nothing useful. Took in some shots of the place. Finally, we headed towards the station, bought a tickets for Nice. Freshened up for 0.50 € at the station restrooms, changed clothes, and then waited for Pursha and Chinmay at the meeting point.

The old man and his fishing rods

Boats on which were held the night long parties

Early morning. Look at the clouds close to the mountain tops

From here on, Chinmay's blog is being Ctrl-C - Ctrl-V-ed, coz he's done exactly what I would have done! Written a blog post on Nice beaches, and F1 @ Monaco :)

I'm not a big Formula 1 fan. I don't watch F1, I hardly follow it on the net, and I definitely don't get into heated debates about how Schumacher is now a shadow of his old self (or alternatively, how he still kicks butt). But I know enough about the game. And having missed the Monaco Grand Prix last year, I jumped at the opportunity, when Purshya, NG, Vishnoi and Sam made plans to come down here. I have uploaded the album on my homepage, as well as a page I created on the INRIA server, which might be faster to access.

After Purshya arrived by a characteristically late italian train, our first stop on a beatiful day was obviously, the Nice beach. The sight was so alluring that Nitin decided to hop in for some swimming, with zot knowledge of flotation, forget about swimming. Being an artificial beach, the depth suddenly increases couple of meters into the water. Long story short, our adventurous Mr. Nitin Gupta almost drowned 10 feet away from the shore =))

Everybody knows that Formula 1 is all about money. But we had realised just how much money FIA is rolling in, when we bought tickets for Secteur Rocher, the general admission area. For 62 Euros (all other tickets being > 250 E), we got admitted to what looked like an abandoned park.! Forget about seating, it wasn't even a lawn, the kind we see in Australian cricket grounds. It was an extremely inconvenient place, with trees blocking the view almost everywhere, the ground was sloping and positively treacherous to walk on. We finally found a place with decent view of the circuit and the nearest screen, and most importanly, having FLAT surface.! We've pledged.. Next time we watch a Grand Prix, we'll have the bank balance (actual word in the pledge was `aukat' :-P) to afford the Hairpin bend stand (the best place to watch the race from apart from the pit lane :-)) It's another matter that Nitin is the only one likely to actually earn so much money. :-P

A little about Monaco: Lavish.. That's how I'll describe it, if I really have to say `little' about it. This country, which is probably of the size of IIT Bombay campus, is an extreme spike of land value amongst mountains surrounding it. It is EXPENSIVE, in capital letters, even by French Riviera standards. One thing's for sure.. It provides a magnificent backdrop for a race. I mean, Monaco is THE Grand Prix to watch. As a not-so-big fan of F1, I think it wouldn't be half as much fun to watch a race in a circuit specially made for racing, far away for a city.

Why is watching a race in person such a big deal? I mean clearly, you can't see the whole of the track, you have to endure the afternoon heat (or alternatively, rains) and pay insane amount of money for it.! As a reply, I would say the single biggest factor is the sound of roaring V8 engines.! It might sound crazy, but the adrenaline rush one gets just listening to the thunderous sound is beyond description. When we landed in Monaco, we had hardly stepped out of the Monte Carlo station (which by the way, is spectacular) when we heard the cars speeding for the qualifying session. The sound coming from more than 200 metres away and past rows of buildings was almost causing tremors.!

The night-out : Since Secteur Rocher was a general admission area, it was imperative that we stay overnight in order to maintain `ownership' of one of the rare spots with a good view. As the dusk fell, temperatures dropped at steady rate and the breeze coming over the harbour wasn't helping either.. The night-life of Monaco came alive, and the view was dazzling, but as the night wore on, we were hardly in the spirits to marvel at the view. It was coooold.! Enough to remind me of the night on Brussels station last year.. But we had a helping hand this time.. Ricard's Pastis de Marseillies :-P This was our the algorithm for the night..

Try to catch some sleep.
Get up because well, it's freezing, we are sleeping on wood!
Curse the weather, curse the disco nearby playing loud music, curse one's own lack of foresight in not bringing sleeping bags.
Have small dose of Pastis..
Try to fall asleep before the effect of Pastis wears off.
If successful go back to step 2 after a gap of two hours, else go back to step 5.

You get the point.. In any case, all of us survived :-P At some point during the night, I was on step 4, when a policeman approached me. He face contorted into an alarming expression at the sight of the bottle of Pastis in my hand. I thought he was going to make me throw it away, because our ticket did have a symbol of a bottle with a red cross on it. Instead he said in terrible french accent, "You drink that weeth water..!" =)) Go figure... (Well one usually does dilute Pastis with water, cause it is REALLY concentrated. But something strong was exactly what we needed..)

A bit about the race: I wouldn't write much here, everybody knows what happened. It was an exciting race. Alonso drove wisely, Schumacher drove brilliantly. Hadn't Webber's car blown up and the safety car come out (which nullified Schumacher's one stop advantage), he would've given Alonso a run for his money.

To close, I can positively say, that all the inconvenience, the long and cold night-out and most importantly THE 62 Euros, the trip was worth all of it. :-)

It's raining here..! Rain in Riviera! What's wrong with this world?
So long.!

Aah! Now that the F1 part is over, I can come to what happenned after that. NG hurried onto his train, Chinmay for his. Sarmistha and I left for our respective trains at 18.00, leaving Pursha to catch his train to Venice at 21.30. I boarded my on-time Italian train to Voghera. Was supposed to arrive at the place at some 22.06, but then just like what happenned on the Bien-Geneve train, I dozed off. And I Didn't get up this time :( With infinite nbd on my face, I asked the people sitting near me as to what to do. So far Italian/ French speakers spoke to me in English, and helped me out. Adviced me to go to Milan and work out a connection. That was the best way out, they said. At 22.51 we arrived at Milan. One step onto the station, and I realised this was a look alike of upna desi Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus at Bombay! Designed same way, it was equally dirty, the floor on which I wouldn't prefer sitting. Similar attitude of the police wallas, and the hustle and jostle at even 11 in the night.

A look at the arrival/departure board, and I realised the best bet to be a train to Verona, dep 00.25, arr 02.24 and spend a night out there. Taking this train, I slept on it through out the journey, and was lucky enough to get up precisely when we were to reach the station! Luck me. I got off the train, felt the chilling cold, and ran to the nearest waiting room. The room sure was inviting, but had a monster of a man sleeping. I went to the waiting room next to this one, and it had 2 females, and a man. Surely better company :) Slept there till some 7.30 in the morning. With prior knowledge that the next train to München at 9.01 from Verona, I knew that I had enough time to kill. Not to forget the time I was going to spend through out the day. I went to the ticket counter to get a reservation for the train, and was shocked to see the bill at 65 €. I repeated : "Only reseravation, no ticket, no fahkarte, only reservision" trying my had on all the German and French I could remember. All this to an Italian :P Finally, I showed him my EURail, and he accepted defeat in not selling me a ticket, but just a reservation for 5 €. Aboard the train, I rested the complete 6 hour journey :)

Finally, into know territory, Germany ahoy! I ran to the ticket machine to take a printout of my iternary upto Magdeburg, then to the FC Bayern München fan store at the station, to pick up a whopping 65 € jersey for Gullu. A jersey for which he still hasn't paid me! Next stop at Burger king, for a veggie burger, nope 2. Finally, I managed all this in 10 min, and had 5 minutes to board my next connection to Naumburg. And from there, its all history :) I landed in Magdeburg at 20.56, reached MPI at 21.15, and had dinner already prepared by Sumedh :) And then a good night's sleep :)

cold

2006-06-01T19:39:00.000+05:30

that's what is rite now. we went for lunch @ mensa without jackets. this was only coz onkar and I saw that the sun was out (or was it in? confusing :( ). but a few seconds told us that we were wrong. and we froze almost :|

also worth mentioning: we were caught "empty" handed by tram ticket checkers. we had earlier decided to buy a 0.80 euro ticket and not use it. taht way, when we bumped into a checker, we'd tell taht "we don't know wht to do. new people. no german" and they'd let us go. now, we were in a section of the city, where the 0.80 ticket didn't work. we were supposed to buy a 1.50 eur one :P but then, the "no german" "new here" "don't know system" bailed us out when we showed the unused 0.80 ticket :P lucky sumedh and I :)

somehow

2006-06-01T13:35:00.000+05:30

everyone blogs on the days i have work planned.. and then i get delayed on the work.. as i sit and read everything under-the-sun :(

Donau & Cafe Leopold

2006-05-25T15:47:00.000+05:30

Its high time that I put up the pics, now that I have already been to another trip :P

Though a few days late, this post is basically about the experiences that we (Sumedh, Onkar, I from Magdeburg, Pursha from Italy, and Sarmistha from Weinheim, Germany) had on our trip to Austria.

The group was supposed to meet at Innsbruck Hbf, at 9.20, the time that our train was supposed to arrive. But due to some delays, when our train was left without an engine for more than 70 minutes at the border of Germany and Austria, we met at 10.30.

Some time pass shots that I took while we waited those 70 minutes :)

Pursha and Sarmistha had already met at 9.15, and were just about moving in circles between platform 7 and burger king (our backup meeting point). After the initial hi's and hello's, we decided to grab a bite, and then head of to the 3 major things that the city had to offer.

1. Golden Dachl
2. A Cathedral (that we didn't go to)
3. Swarovski Crystal Factory

We walked our way from the Hbf to the golden dachl, (not more than 30 min) and first ran into a fountain where the oddesy of taking photographs began. Next came the weekend morning street market, that showcased rare books and records, at throw away prices, and also some Indian fake jwellery that one can buy at exhorbent prices. Finally on reaching the dachl, as pursha put it, it wasn't very interesting, and on reading about it in the Lonely Planet, we were to be informed that the roof is actually made of copper plates coated with gold! bah!! Cheating. Sarmistha Pursha and I bought a few postcards to remind us and our freinds about how we were cheated at the dachl, Pursha being cheated twice!! (he came here last year too)

That's the golden dachl in the background. It's the only one I could find :P

A stop over at McDonanlds, where Pursha wrote his sentiments on the 3 postcards, for Varun, Shweta, Gireeja. Next we took a trip to the Inn river, which was white. Just white is what I can say for that.

Pursha pens down the postcards

The Inn River. White.

After gazing and gasping at the flow, we made way to the bus stop to take a bus (€ 8.5 return) to Swarovski Kristallwelten, the crystal factory of Swarosvski. After another € 8.0 for the entrance ticket, we were happy to see the 'face' on which many bollywood actors and actresses have danced, and pleased each other, and their fans :). Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to ride the head, but sure did enough of gujju giri to take snaps with the face.

The famous face, for which we paid the 16.5€ :P

After looking around the place, and not being really sure if it was worth it, Sumedh gave us the shock of our lives. He claimed to have lost his passport and Eurail pass. An event that Onkar and I were discussing in the morning! Just about as to what to do, incase such an incident happens. And when Pursha, Sarmistha and I were contemplating about the trip being ruined, and us going to Vienna asap, and then checking out how to get an interim passport for the time being, Sumedh ran a thorough check of his bag, and of his jacket (where he had kept the 2 things). Onkar and Sarmistha, then traced the way we went around the factory, and were lucky enough to find the eurail, the reservations of our seats, and the passport, all fallen on different steps of a particular staircase. Now came the decision of "should we, or shouldn't we" tell Sumedh the news :P Finally, because the passport was involved, we did tell Sumedh, and he agreed to get us drunk when we reached Vienna.

After a burger at Burger King, we boarded at 17.50 train to Wien (german for Vienna) and then decided to spend the night on the streets and the pubs of this majestic and historic city. As soon as we got down from the train and headed towards the loacal network, we ran into an Indian(???) who asked us if we need a room and that incase we do, or we know of someone who does, we should contact him. And then he hurried off, without giving his contact! At the station, taking a 24hr rail pass (€ 5.0) released us of all further expenditure in this city. A train to Voltzplatz, and then around the place, while Pursha looked for the red bences for us to sleep on. We rain into an open air fashion show, but gave up the idea of sitting there for long, and then after going around a lot, we finally found our way to it.

The red benches near Leopold museum. Worth a place to spend the night :)

On the way to the "place with the red benches", Onkar stopped at an information centre. And wasn't that a blessing in disguise! There stood a young bloke, 23-24 yrs at max., with two cycles, and he kept staring at us. Finally, he took the courage of asking us if we were Indians. As the talks flowed, he was joined by his girlfriend, and then came the ultimate shocker! He had been to India on exchange to IIT Madras!!! On learning that we were from IIT B, he showed us the way to an awesome pub called the Donau. His directions for us to get there: Go straight, up-up-up the steps, down-down-down the steps, take the left. Keep going straigt, even when the road curves, and then on the left, you'll see a cynical greenish blue door. That is not a great entrance to the place, but the place is fantastic, with DJ et al.

After chilling out for about an hour on the red benches (they were near Leopold Museum, and were pretty comfortable to sleep out a night!) we went ahead to explore Donau. After having checked out the street, all we could come up with was a gate, next to which stood a hulk of a man, with a cigarette in hand. Dressed in a black jacket, and black jeans, he sure didn't look like one whom we'ed like to piss off. Nearing the gate, as our heartbeats went high, we approached the man slowly. As we stood in front of the door, confused if we should open it or not, the man looked at us, and I dared to ask "Bar??". He smiled and nodded, and in we went! An amazing place, a place where we took no pictures, but just beer and cocktails! We all did take some mental pictures, that Pursha claims to be doing on this complete eurotrip of his :)

At the end of 4 merry hours, Pursha was drunk, I was high, Sumedh was sober (he was paying :D), and Onkar sleepy. Sarmistha was trying to handle Pursha :P . Leaving the place, we decided to head off to the Wien WestBahnHoft, our back-up plan incase someone got lost :) Once again, we ran into Alex, the chap who showed us the way to Donau, who was having fun with a few friends, and Pursha, drunk as he was, shouted to him, thanking him for what a great place he showed us! Alex asked if we were interested in more drinks, and parties, and for Pursha's sake (he was constantly asking for more booze) we said yes. He took us to Cafe-Leopold, where Pursha drank more, got drunk to the extreme, and dozed off! A hell-of-a-place, with music and lots of dancing! Alex and Sumedh exchanged emails, and we headed off to the back-up plan, while Alex and troupe to another party! Amazing life I presume!

We went to the station to doze off. Pursha, Onkar and Sumedh slept immediately, and Sarmistha, and I went around looking for water. We bumped into a bus full of artists, who were going to perform in live porn. :P I did get a pic with one artist (if I may call them so :P) while Sarmistha was too scared to go near one :P We bought some juice and some bread for our hungry stomachs, and we had the pleasure of feeding Pursha, who was sleeping with his mouth wide open :D

The Artist and I :D

Pursha asleep!!!

Sarmishta feeding juice in the open mouth of Pursha :)

Soon after this we dozed off, and finally got up at around 10. We headed off to the nearest McD, where we freshened up for free, changed tee-shirts, and then without even taking a burger, scurried off the Voltzplatz again, to see Vienna by the day. :) With a kebab down the stomach, we went around some of the huge buildings , but none as such interested us. We entered none :P.

Some time pass photography :)
Sarmistha doing some old hindi movie poses ;)

Going around the city, I was looking for a samll souvenir and then found a nice way to have sunday lunch. Lots of stalls, near a church, and all serving good cheap food, and a band playing jazz and pop music. All this with no rain, not much of sun, and a cool breeze. Lovely!

The band that played :)

We left this place with some wine and food in my stomach, and headed to see some contemprary art at gallery but finally, lay on the red benches, to relax. We took a quick decision to go to the palace, and then found our way to the ground of the palace within 30 minutes. Daring to lie on the grass of one such lawn, that was decorated with a fountain, we didn't see the "don't walk on grass" sign.

The palace behind. Pursha didn't jump :|

The lawn with the don't walk on grass sign ;)

Finally, after lazing around for another hour or so, we saw the imperial gardens, and then made our way back to the Westbahnhof, to get to Stephanplatz to see a quartet play Mozart for 90 min (€ 25 each for students) which actually ran for precisely 60 min. But then it was worth the money :) But before we saw the quartet, we got a group caricature for the 5 of us, for (€ 20) which was surely a point of humor for most of the people around.

The Mozart Concert

Caricature time :)

Caricature :)

I have no more enthu to elaborate that Sumedh and I and Onkar blundered on the timing of our arrival at the Hannover station by 30 minutes, and it so happenned that among the three of us, one (Onkar) gets up almost on time but is unaware of the timings, one (Sumedh) is woken up and has registered wrong timings in head confidentlly, one (me) knows the timings correctly but doesn't get up on time, and is not woken up. So we reached Hamburg and came back, around 300 kms extra, now I see how eurail helps :P. And the Sumedh and I directly went to the safety meating which started an hour before we reached.

Bayern! Bayern!!

2006-05-15T14:37:00.000+05:30

Videos up! Click here, for a complete list, or scroll down to find videos at respective locations

The trip to Munich started with plans to go around Germany over a weekend, when we saw IC (intercity trains) taking mere 5 hrs to get from Magdeburg to Munich, and similar times on other routes. A detailed look in disclosed that happy weekend passes aren't valid on IC/ICE but on slow IRE, REs (interegio express, regional express) running at a crawling speed and taking more than 9 hours to get us to Munich or München, as it's called in these parts.

After boarding the 23:11 train to Leipzig, with plans to change onto a 3:35 train to Zwickau, to Hof, to Regensburg, and finally to München, we didn't know about the football frenzy we were entering into. Into Leipzig, we had dinner in MacDonalds, which doesnt serve anything veg. Sitting there, we heard a loud noice of cheering at about 2:30 in the night, and investigating it went Onkar and I. We saw about 30-35 football fans dressed in Blue. Later on we were to realise that they belonged to Lokomotive Leipzig. Drunk, loud, and happy were the only words that could describe this lot. Later on into the journey, we were joined by Yellow Dortmund Fans, and the rivarly began to show. With small fights over seats and using the WC, to loud cheering and thumping of chests to show their might. All this was accompanied with beer, more beer, and even more beer :) The Leipzig fans deserted us at Hof Hbf, taking a train to Nürnbürg, probably a match over there. As we closed in on München, we were to be joined by red FC Bayern München fans.

On having a 'friendly' chat with a hulk of a FC Bayern München fan, we were to be informed that the last match of the Bundes Liga, or German League was to take place in Munich Football stadium between Borussia Dortmund and home team FC Bayern München. Sumedh Onkar and I decided to hurry to the stadium to get a chance to see the match, and viola!!! Weren't we taken aback by the scenes we saw. It was a party time all along the route from Marienplatz, to the stadium station (we took U6 to get there) and then the short 1 km walk from the train platform to the Allianz Football Stadium.

The Allianz Football Stadium

Us at the The Allianz Football Stadium

The crowd filling into the station

The fans partying outside the stadium

A well dressed fan for the match. (Click on the photo, and tryreading the scrafs he has tucked in) :)

Running to the ticket centre, we realised what football meant to these people here. It IS RELIGION. People from the age of 6 to 60 were there doing exactly the same thing! Nothing gets so many Germans on a common platform as football does. Barbeques, dancing, open air bands, and what not! And then the people putting up boards saying "Süche karten", or "Süche ticket" meaning "do u have a ticket?".

Süche Ticket

A run to the ticket office, made us realise that getting tickets wont be an easy task. After a lot of getting pushed, and pushing, we got 3 standing tickets for 20€. Once into the stadium, we were taken aback by the grandness. Alas! We had to check in our bags, and we by mistake checked in our cameras too :((

The match started with all the hip and happy crowd singing the team anthems, and then the teams marching out. Goals from Makaay, Bastian, Ballack and from 3 Dortmund players made sure the game was amazing! At 1:1 half time break, we learnt that FC Bayern München had already won the BundesLiga, and would be arriving at the Marienplatz square for a victory speech, and a party there after! As soon as the match got over (end score 3:3) we rushed to the station, to catch the next tube back to Marienplatz! The huge square, in front of the New TownHall was filled with red and white, with people chanting the Bayern München anthem, and what not, but in German :P We were to be see people drinking beer off 1 L beer-mugs (Onkar and I, picked 2 as souvenirs :D:D).

A group of fans with beer and songs on their lips!

Look at those beer mugs!! :O:O

Video with Beer Mug in hand!

With a wait from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, the team was to arrive at 7, we saw, listened and joined the singing and merry fans in the chanting of "wir sind die meister, die meister, die meister von bundes liga, viva la Bavaria" (we are the champions, the champions, the champions of the Bundes Liga) :) At about 8 PM the team finally arrived, and they had the trophy and a feet tall beer glass in each hand. The team manager then annonched loads of things, but all we gathered was that there was going to be a party soon after, with 7000 Litres of FREE BEER. WOW!! is all that the three of us gasped! Not having had anything since morning, we just joined the crowd moving towards a place, and soon joined the team and the fans in the party at Marienplatz. Dancing, chanting, and meeting Germans who knew no english was all that we did!! The party beginning at 9 went on till 3 in the night, when the beer ran out! At about 4 everyone, drunk how much ever, began to fill the streets, still shouting out slogans, like "We are the champions" and making fun of everyone who was in yellow or blue or what not! It sure did help us with me putting on the German WC jersey, as they considered us as one of their own! :):P

To confirm the story, here are loads of videos...

Us @ Marienplatz with the fans around us!

Fans 1 Fans 2
Fans 3 Fans 4
Fans 5 Fans 6 Fans 7

Bayern Munich Team 1 Bayern Munich Team 2
Bayern Munich Team 3 Bayern Munich Team 4

We made it to the Hbf (main station) at about 6, and slept till 10. Then we did what every tourist does, go through the town and take pictures of churches and museums. All we did were rush through 2 churches, see a wedding, and then decide that we need to come back to this happenning place once more in this 10 week internship :) So, München, we shall come again!!

The wedding couple :)

Wedding Video 1
Wedding Video 2
Wedding Video 3

The 3 Churches we saw...

We caught the 2.45 PM train to Leipzig. On the train, another Indian (a punjabi... as he told us later) joined in. It was for us to later realise, that actually he was interested in Sumedh, for he called Sumedh near him, and then on a pretext that the female behind Sumedh was feeling uncomfortable because of Sumedh's body odour, the punju touched Sumedh's belly, made him wear a deo, that Onkar and I pledge was feminish!!! ;);) People in Europe dread of getting hit upon by a European or worse, a Niger gay, our own Sumedh Randi was hit by a Indian Gay in Europe :)):))

We ran and changed a bogie, and for the rest of the journey were safe and sound that no one was there to trouble us :)

--------------------------
Videos Listing

Us @ Marienplatz with the fans around us!

Fans 1 Fans 2
Fans 3 Fans 4
Fans 5 Fans 6 Fans 7

Bayern Munich Team 1 Bayern Munich Team 2
Bayern Munich Team 3 Bayern Munich Team 4

Video with Beer Mug in hand!

Wedding Video 1
Wedding Video 2
Wedding Video 3

Better off

2006-04-28T04:02:00.000+05:30

Coming into IIT I was faced with a question:

What is better?

Only acads, like what I did from 9th to 12th, or
a little of acads, and loads of extra-currics

Ofcourse most of the people who read this (if any that is) would argue that a "proper balance" of academics and extra-curriculars is the best, I would retort "I am a simple human. I would chose from the initial options, and wouldn't be able to maintain a proper balance."

During my 18 years of life @ home I had done enough academics, specially with loads of coaxing from my parents on the "life shall be easy after this period" speech. I presume almost everyone gets to hear once or more that life is easy after class X, life is easy after class XII, life is easy after JEE, ... CPI of 7.5, ... CAT and what not! Well, as soon as I got out of the hands of my parents, I rebelled to this basic chant, and decided to take up things that interested me.

Clearing JEE, I got free advice from almost all the corners of the world. But what I remember and what actually mattered were the fundaes from ex-IITians, just passouts, and people atleast a generation older than me, on "why IIT and not a University College?". It's undoubtedly the hostel life, and the exposure that one gains by taking part in the host of activities (cult, sports, tech and organisation) that are available and waiting to be participated in.

Once in IIT, what refleted on me was the fact that (almost) everyone in IIT would get placed, and those who didn't were because they didn't sit for placements (higher studies, or an MBA). So, what mattered to one was how-much did one take from this place, that the world considers as one of the best. Taking all this into consideration, my 18-year old head decided to chance the extra-currics, and kind of side-track the basics of IIT : acads. I took the risk, and tried my hand at dramatics, finearts, sports, and finally lots of organisational stuff in and around the institute. While doing all this, my academics suffered miserably, and soon I found myself talking about what's better??? with almost everyone and anyone who came across.

That much for me.

Today, with the image of an all-round person being the one who has acads, and extra-currics in his resume, I always thought that the best companies picked people of such talent. Next came the ones with a litlle less academics, but who used the potential of this 550 acre odd land to improve on his personality, his talents, and if I may say so, his contact base. A person who would've just done academics would've excelled in almost every institute across this country, with facilities like the ones here being kept for no use. These were my thoughts.

But some-how, the companies don't see it like this. All that the companies see is the acads of the candidate, and so, it's tough to get through a shortlist with what the students of IIT would generally call a stud resume. At the end of the day, one would need that 8.5 CPI to get through the final list of an A1 company. But again, is that the right criteria to select people? Over the years, I have come to know people who don't interact at all, who don't work as a team, who don't get into healthy discussions, but due to a good CPI are not only shortlisted, but finally selected into lucrative, managerial posts in top-notch MNCs. And then the chap who learnt all this right at this place is shown the door for a lesser grade-card. What I don't get is how would a total academician be helpful in a job that has to only interact with people, and do nothing much more than that. A core tech job for such people would surely be the right choice, but a Sales and Management job would surely be a wrong choice for both the student and the company.

I guess I am getting off the point. What I wan't to ask is at the end of his time at IIT, who leaves this place better off? A complete academician, or a total extra-curric freak? Who has gained more from this land, who has grown from what he entered those 4/5 years back. Who has learnt the ways of life? Who would fare better in the future? Who?

Eat and Drink

2006-04-16T06:24:00.000+05:30

That is how I spent my past few hours. Was mugging all through the night for an endsem tomorrow. At 4.30 AM NG, a 4thie calls me for Maddu. I agree prompty. After having had a huge meal at Maddu (an average bill for 2 is approx Rs. 50, we cooked up a bill of Rs. 98) I was back in my room at 5.45 AM, when I noticed a Y! IM from Kau, another 4thie. Wondering that it was another message for Maddu, I reply to him, and he asks me for tea @ Mahendra : a small establishment outside IIT Main-Gate. Thinking of it being a change, I say yes. And when I was supposed to be in bed by 6 AM, I was sipping tea till 6.30, and now I have something to write about in this blog :)

Profile @ Valfi

2006-04-07T03:28:00.000+05:30

Aashish Vishnoi
aka Vishnoi, Bushy, Popovi, Papa Tuck

On paper, as they say, he is a dude DC from DPS-R K Puram. But if you were looking for the person who fit the description, you would hardly think of this figure, with the balding hairline, bulging paunch, and a goofy smile that reeks of poltu.

A little about pre-IIT Bushy. Once upon a time, his Dad caught him red handed, literally. Daddyji then proceeded to give him a long lecture which ended with “Beta, yeh sab dekhna buri baat nahin hai, par chhup chhup ke mat dekha karo!” His escapades started out prematurely with an older girl in school, at a very young age, on a steamy, rainy night. The less we say about coming out of the bushes the better. If only MMS was around when he was there, we are fairly certain that we would have heard/seen Bushy long before he came - to IIT Bombay!

We believe Bushy’s confused DC self got even more confused when he came to IIT and discovered the greenest possible pastures for poltu. One year before Bushy came to IIT, Hostel 7 presented a forgettable PAF scene, more popularly known as the Pope Scene. People thought that it couldn’t get any worse than the Pope Scene, but boy were they wrong! Bushy, the Thespian with his famous role as Papa Tuck, blurred the lines between a Ghost Charmer and the Pope, with panache. We are of course grateful, for one of the most entertaining performances ever.

After his failed attempt at dram, he decided to become a F-art boy, primarily because of the pretty girls in Rang, but he insists otherwise. Seedhe lakeer toh kheechnee nahin aati, artist bane phirte hain. His legendary skills are precisely that, a legend. Of course, he has been an integral part of Rang, and has contributed to its growth into a major force on the Insti Cult Scene.

When Bushy came to the wing (Vampires) he was frankly, a disappointment. We thought we finally had a dude DC among a wing full of half naked Gultis. But it wasn’t to be. We soon came around to the sad realization that Bushy was just another half naked IITian DC. Bushy was no doubt trying to prove himself to us. When told that his former wing always had two secy’s in the sophie batch, Bushy took it up as a challenge. Mind you Bushy was the only sophie in the wing, so this was going to be a problem. We will only say that, it was the last time that one person held 2 secy posts in the hostel. And for a reason. During his tenure as Maint Secy, his own wing’s toilets were the only ones that did not work properly in the entire hostel. There were water problems. We did not have tables in our rooms. Meanwhile, he was also Compy Secy, and would randomly make statements involving "command line", "linux", "server" all the while, having no idea what they really meant, and getting fundaes from Bansi, Bolli and NKD. But we must say this post was more useful to him. He is known to have got his netmon ID blocked during this time for certain nefarious activities, only to use MLC fundaes to get his ID working again. Jokes apart, kudos to him, for having taken up and delivered on multiple responsibilites, in a hostel with only 17 sophies!

Back to his politics. In third year, he became e-Cell manager and Hostel Affairs Secretary, at the same time, not learning from his previous mistake. How he became Insti Secy is also interesting. He very proudly narrated how his post was at risk because someone was contesting for the post. But he made the fellow withdraw his nomination, taaki election ke baad quitely yeh khud nominate ho. We should say that he was one of the best ISHAs, not in the least because, 1 - nobody knows about the post; 2 - he got nominated and 3 - nobody does too much with the post anyway, as did Bushy.

His fledgling political career was just beginning to take off, when he decided to become an outlaw - a DACoit. Taking cue from his Papa Tuck days, Bushy tried to be a scary senior. A few mishappenings later, he found himself free for the next 12 months, to pursue his varied interests. (We think this is a cruel approximation of his life, but we should say that we are all proud of the spirit with which Bushy approached this very difficult time in his life). What surprised us what that, this 6 point someone, suddenly decided to take up an academic internship in Aussieland. While in Australia, he also bought a camera, and for the next three months, he used to hide in the bushes by the beaches and take objectionable pictures of women, wearing few or no clothes. We don’t know what Bushy did to get paid to live in Australia, but we believe he played around with some semi-permeable membranes. We also gather that there are not too many men in Australia, or they are all playing cricket. Because some (and haan, ek se zyaada) women fell for Bushy. Not only did he go out with cute Russian "chicks", but also got one lucky lady to go aboroginal with the bushes in Melbourne. She apparently still calls him, only for him to spurn the advances. Kuch vishvasaneeya sutron se pata chala hai ki, she paid for him on their many dates, she took him around Australia, and he quite literally had a whale of a time Down Under. But being gentleman that we are, we have decided to keep this secret to oursleves.

Apne aap ko don samajhne wale is DC ko, yeh lagta hai, ki yeh Insti mein kuch bhi kar sakte hain. When Insti Elections are going on. He is usually seen walking with a bag and phone, like a typical poltu person. But when you actually listen to his conversation, yeh chamak jaata hai ki yeh logon se generally baat kar raha hai, yaa phir SP se khaana mangwa raha hai. Bas poltu mein ek cheez yeh bakhoobi nibhate hain. Logon ko senti kar dena. Jab Tyagi aur inke beech khit-pit ho gayi, toh use poora poora senti maar diye. Filmi style. "Tyagi yaar, chaar saal ki dosti, tujhse yeh ummeed nahin thhi!". Tyagi senti hoke chala gaya. Jaise hi uski peethh mudi, harami Bushy hasne lagte hain! Kaam khatam! He is known to have spent a whopping Rs 1800 worth ka talktime in 3 days, in the last election. Saala, har bande ko phone karke pain mara hoga!

Inki poltu ne toh tab hadd kar di jab ek dost ne inse poocha ki kya yeh Dilli mein ek bandi ka mail ID jugad sakte hain - Bushy, phone pe kisi DC dost ka number ghumate hue, total Don style mein, "Abey, sun ek bandi ka ID pata karke bata - (apne shocked dost se) kaunsi bandi bola be? - (phir phone mein) abey, kuch kaam se chahiye, tu pata kar de bas!" Aisi hi harkaton ke karan Hamein poora yakeen hai ki, yeh DC Income Tax Officer ka beta life mein zaroor gul khilayega. He still continues his photography, although, his subjects are now rated U. His problems with the fairer sex continue. To avoid a certain female lab partner, his now has messenger status messages like "104 ka fever", "gone trekking", etc. Of course, agli baar iska figure dekhne par sab clear ho jaata hai.

Having spent his last summer, rocking on sandy Aussie beaches, he is now all set to intern in Germany this summer, and gheez his way to the World Cup. Saala hamesha crack marta rahega! We wish Bushy a great future, in his poltu, in his firang flings, in his education and more than anything else, his life, with the millions of fans and friends like us!

Fight

2006-03-21T03:28:00.000+05:30

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary states the definition of fight as:

Main Entry: ¹fight
Pronunciation: 'fIt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): fought /'fot/; fight·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English feohtan; akin to Old High German fehtan to fight and perhaps to Latin pectere to comb -- more at PECTINATE

intransitive senses

1 a : to contend in battle or physical combat; especially : to strive to overcome a person by blows or weapons b : to engage in boxing

2 : to put forth a determined effort
transitive senses

1 a (1) : to contend against in or as if in battle or physical combat (2) : to box against in the ring b (1) : to attempt to prevent the success or effectiveness of fought the takeover attempt> (2) : to oppose the passage or development of <fight a bill in Congress>

2 a : WAGE, CARRY ON <fight a battle> b : to take part in (as a boxing match)

3 : to struggle to endure or surmount <fight a cold>

4 a : to gain by struggle <fights his way through> b : to resolve by struggle <fought out their differences in court>

5 a : to manage (a ship) in a battle or storm b : to cause to struggle or contend c : to manage in an unnecessarily rough or awkward manner

- fight shy of : to avoid facing or meeting

How and IITian would define the word fight would be "trying extremely hard to succeed against all odds". The standard definitions of fight just don't fit into what and how and IITian thinks. What we all end up doing at this 'premier institute of the country' is fight for grades, CPI, grades, internships, grades, lucrative jobs, grades, PhD. offers, grades, MBA calls, and finally grades. :) Well, that's all that most of our time is supposed to go away in.

And then there is another kind of fight. Fighting for the hostel to win the sports GC (General Championship), the Cultural GC, the Tech GC and finally, Performing Arts Festival or PAF. Hostel 4 PAF is just round the corner, with just about a week to go. One PAF already over, the atmo in the institute has a sting in the air, with most students found sleeping in classes (if not in rooms) coz they've been working their ass out in the hostel through out the night before.

Through out the past 3 1/2 years that I have been in IIT, all that I have realised is that IIT teaches one is the fighting spirit and gives us people who shall fight by our side, on the same frontline as we are. And those people who stand by us are going to be our friends for life. But cutting the senti stuff short, this post is to mention that I did have a Merriam-Webster fight with a very-very close friend of mine, and now that he has stopped talking to me, I don't know what to do. Well that was last week. The latest to that is that I just got over with another fight with Qutub, a 5th-yearite in my wing. He does get pissed at the smallest of jokes that we crack. Well that's 'coz most of them are on him :P But I guess we really got him angry this time. So, I guess my stars aren't at the right place. Don't know what to do.

Guess I'll just go to sleep and hope that all this is just a bad dream, and when I wake up, everything is fine as it was before.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

2006-03-03T10:12:00.000+05:30

Long time no post. So thought will update on my life first. New year, new semester, extra work load, and the regular running around for clsses and labs, making to each place before time, not studying for quizzes, mugging late night for the midsems... all the normal life things. Well, midsems got over last week, and Manish, Madho and I went for a trek cum trip to Dadra and Nagar Haveli, a union territory on the boundary of Maharashtra and Gujrat.

The plan for this trip was so sudden, at 2 in the night of friday, that we had no time to inform anyone about our plan, and so only a select few could make the trip. We took the Gujrat Express from Dadar, that leaves Bombay Central at 5.45 AM and leaves Dadar at 5.57 AM. At Rs 50 a ticket, its a 3 hour journey to Vapi, a small city in Gujrat, that is the closest railway connection to DNH, and the famous for cheap alcohol - Daman. Out of the East end of the station, we take a rick on a Rs. 15 per head sharing basis to Dadra, which is our first stop over. Asking around, we make our way to Dadra Resort, a place equipped with a pool, but surely not on our list to check it out. We ask the manager as to where all to look around when in DNH, and the chap, without doing any marketing for his resort makes us draw a map of the place, with all the important locales drawn!

Another auto at Rs. 20 per head (p/h) gets us to Silvassa, the capital of DNH. Little before the chaar rasta - or the four ways, the central point of the city, is the Sai Restaurant, serving some delicious gujju food at just Rs. 40 a person.

Next we make it to the Tourist Reception Centre, on the corner of the chaar rasta. Taking some information about the travel across DNH and accomodation fundaes, we move on to the first place to look out in our list: Tribal Cultural Museum. The museum gives you a feel of what the territory would have been like a few years ago. Apart from its history, the museum also showcases maskes hunting tools, fishing gadgets, musical instruments and life sized statues of the tribes of this UT. Also possible to buy are the picture postcards and bamboo handicrafts at reasonable rates.

The entrance to the museum

The next trip we made was to the Madhuban Dam, a place some 12km of the mainroad. We take a turn at Vasona, travelling in an auto (Rs 15 p/h, shared auto), he drops us some 3km off the main gate to enter the dam permises. Walking on the road ain't our way, so we cross through some green looking fields, but when on the land, we realise how barren it is, with cracks visible from quite a distance if someone wants to notice. It seems strange for a place that is so close to a huge dam. Walking ahead, we see the dam, and are taken a-back by its hugeness and grandness. Climbing to the top of the dam, we walk the top - a 1.75km strech ( as told to us by the security) we are finished with our water supplies, and I almost shout out at Manish for finishing off the water, but then we filled more at the dam, to replenish our supplies :) After an hour long swim in the cold waters of the dam, and watching locals play cricket near the water, we walk back the lonely road to a place we could get an auto to take us to the lion safari.

Manish on the dam

Cricketers in Action

At Rs. 10 p/h we take a ric to the lion safari, and while Madho gets the tickets (Rs. 25 each) Manish and I gulp 2 glasses of sugarcane juice down our throat. In the well fenced jeep, we start our tour of the safari, which the driver promises wont last more than 20 minutes, and true to his word, its precisely 13 minutes (Madho's timing :D) when we locate the lion and his mistress, taking their afternoon stroll in the sun. It sure felt like being cheated, being shown around for less than 15 min for a Rs. 25 ticket.

The king and his mistress

We move on to the deer park at Samaliya, a 20 minute and Rs. 13 (5+7) p/h a ride from the safari. The sad part is that the Lion Safari ain't a place well serviced with transport, and one might have to wait quite long to get an auto, if not going to Chaar Rasta. From Chaar Rasta one takes a ride ahead to the safari at Rs. 7 p/h, and hence the break up of the Rs. 13 mentioned above. The deer park turns to be a very big let down, specially after we enter it (entry cost: free). At the main gate some 9 animals are spotted, a combination of Cheetal and Chausingha, but after more than a km walk into the 60 acre campus, we dodn't manage to see any, and Madho and I decide to doze off at the resting hut, while Manish prefers to run up and down the place, camera in hand, trying to locate some unseen and shy animal :) He has some luck, and definitely more than that of a family in a Sonata, that come asking us whether we managed to spot any animals! Dude! If you are gonna be in a car, you'll miss most of the animals!!!

Few of the animals we got to see at the Deer Park

That's me sleeping on the right, and Madho on the left

To finish off the day we have to make a choice between Silvassa and Khanvel - a small town, some 20 km ahead of Silvassa on the Vapi-Silvassa road. We pick Khanvel, hoping that we might get a chance to put up at some village near by, and gain an excellent experience of life at a tribal village. Getting off the auto (it cost us Rs. 15 p/h) we have our first and only fight with the driver coz he charged us an extra Rs. 5 for no extra travel. That made us, and mostly Manish decifer "all auto-drivers think that this country is bustling with crore-patis" while ofcourse the very-modest Madho said "nahin... aisa nahin... the chap is asking for his right" !!!

A small video on the trip from the Deer Park to Khanvel (need windows media player)

To our bad luck, we are told at most resorts and dhabhas that entering such a place is full of risks and could be a very bad time. So, we end taking a place at a small guest house at Chauda Khanvel, for just Rs. 300 a night. Dinner, and a little of TV later, we doze off, closing the chapter for day 1.

The second day seems to be a much more exciting one, now that I sit to write the description of the trip. With nothing much to do, we make our way to Dhudhni, a place some 17 km away from Khanvel, and Rs. 10 p/h by the state bus. The alternative is a special auto that cost our pocket a modest Rs. 150. We took the latter option on Madho's behest. Some nice and mostly dry trees and wet views of the land is the major thought to remember of the climb up the hills. The interesting design is the peninsular intrusions of lands, quite often jutting out into the water. At Dhudhni, we bought some drinks at the Govt. Rest House and Restaurant, and then head off into the dam waters on a boat. The boatwallas manage to trick us in not allowing us to take the boat we want with some fundaes about boat-numbers, that doesn't seem to work once we are on the boat.

A scenic view during the journey from Kahnvel to Dhudhni

And there are the peninsular jetting out things i was talking abt.

It takes Rs. 100 for a trip from Dhudhni to a Garden Resort on the opposite bank. We decide to make the trip, and while on the water, the boat walla informs us that the water was more than 70 ft deep, and also that the water levels fell during the rains (FUNDA :D:D - chocolates to the people who guess why!!!). Also, we enjoy the drinks while on the boat, and after reaching ashore, we walk into the garden/resort to reailse what a sorry state it was in. Talking to a caretaker on campus, we are informed that the only season when this place is bustling with activity is just after the rains, when its very green, and not really muddy.

A hut at the Garden REsort

While on the return trip, we ask the boat walla to take us to his village, and he happily agrees. Kauncha, a village, only accessible by water from Dhudhni, is a small place of not more than 200 people. All tribals, they seemed very happy to see some strangers in their land, and while we took in some of the life out there, I managed to take some shots. None turned out so nice though :( Manish's mom always suggested him to have Tadi a drink made from the extract of some trees, which when fermented is very intoxicating. We managed to find a Tadi shop in the village, and for a mere Rs. 10 we were offered a complete litre of the drink. I drank a couple of glasses, while Manish took in gulps directly from the measuing jug!! An hour spent at this place, the boat wala started to get pesky about returning and all, so we went back to Dhudhni. Once at Dhudhni, we took the state bus to Ghodabari (Rs. 5 p/h) a small village, 3 km from Dhudhni, in the lookout of some dance troupe that would do the famous dhol dance that the DNH tribes are famous for. Bad luck, we didn't find the troupe for the dance, and had to come back disheartened.

Kids at the village

Manish and I enjoy Tadi

The final stop was at Luhari, a small village some 7 km off the chaar rasta, but to get to the highlight of this place : the Luhari Garden, we had to shell-out Rs. 100 (to and fro) for a special auto, coz no one generally treaded this unknown path. Not the best garden, we had a nice time killing the afternoon there, and then back in the same auto to chaar rasta, we took another to Vapi.

At the station, we bought a ticket for Ferozepur Junta Express (Rs. 62 p/h) and boarded the train at 6.30 PM, to reach Bombay at 9.30. A dinner at Laxmi - a place outside the main-gate, we were back in our rooms at a little after 11, with enough time to recover for the classes the next day.

Phew!!! That's it!!

This post took me a little over a week to complete, so one can guess how busy I am with other things that I don't get to keep this place active. Hope I'll do better soon!

-aashish

Maddu Mata!!!

2005-12-18T06:39:00.000+05:30

Just came back from a night out, and a trip down the Maddu Mess. Working for the PAF at Mood Indigo 2005 has made me visit this place so often that the workers their recognise me so well, that I am served with my regulars without asking. And with Malladi Vishwakant, a gulti from H5, it's all the more fun to visit this shabby establishment.

Well coming to the posting, I saw one of the most crowded mornings at the small shack outside the IIT Market Gate, that has always promised to serve hot dosas, idlis and vadas, with piping hot sambhar, and the spicy coconut chutney. And with we managing a seat at the only table for one to eat, 7 of us, went on a marathon eating schedule, so as to pain everyone standing outside for a seat to have an early morning bite, before they too sleep off the day :) Here's a pic of the Maddu Aunti making a few dosas:

And here's a video of the people who all crowded this establishment as early as 5 AM :O

Maddu.mov : Maddu Mess crowd (need Quicktime to play it)

So much for the day, I'll go to sleep now :)

adios

-aashish

Huh?!? Who Me!?!

2005-09-14T03:13:00.000+05:30

This is what happenned some days back, when my Mass Transfer Prof. Madhu Vinjamur asked me a question (or just his doubt?) in the tutorial lecture, that was voluntary to sit through. I guess, I made the mistake of sitting through, to be caught chatting away with a pal! And my answer was pretty flat, Sir, I wasn't following you. Now can someone get straighter than that? And then comes the answer from behind me, in a hushed tone, prompting me to answer, but then, I had already blurted the hard truth of the moment. That I wasn't following what was going on in the class. So? So what? Who cares? :)

Midsems are round the corner, and I have not mugged much for them either. Haven't been taking pics either. Just too much of rain for me to do so. Don't want to risk my camera. Other than that, US-Open, the clash of Agassi and Federer, Sania and Maria, and what not. So much to follow, so less time :P And after a long time, a not-so-expected result in cricket: ENGLAND beat AUSTRALIA in ASHES 2005!!! Kudos to the yound English team to beat the team of the convits :) Love ya! Learnt a small trivia of test matches hosted in England: All but 3 test matches have begun on Thursdays :O Now that's a staggerring fact!

Life is fun otherwise. Now that I have written this already, what else is on in my life? No idea. I'll find out and blog that too. Till then,

tchao!

aah! I remember, I have begun taking French classes, hopefully shall be able to speak some within a month's time :)

-aashish

Life at a loss?

2005-08-27T06:58:00.000+05:30

Haven't slept for more than 4 hours in the last 60 hrs. Not because I had any gr8 work load, just that, had a small test on Mass Transfer Operations I, and I thought I'll study for that. Didn't do that, but ended up in the canteen three times in less than 1 1/2 hrs. This was the ~~yesterday~~ day before yesterday. Strange as it may seem, I don't get a feeling of the change of day untill I sleep. It's like as if the day changes not by sunrise/set but me getting up and going to bed. But, then I have heard similar thoughts from many others too. So, I guess this is just a standard human notion of how a day clock works.

Have been listening to some hindi music for the last 6 hours now. 6 hrs other than the 40 minutes that I spent in the Maddu Mess to eat my early morning snack of a few dosais, a few idlis and a couple of vadas. This during the un-earthly (???) hour of 4.45 and 5.45 am. Yes, that's right. For those whos don't know, Maddu Mess is a shabby establishment outside the college gate, that caters to students and people alike, who don't have cash and still sport a huge appetite :).

Other than that, nothing much happening, yesterday was Gokulashtami, but didn't take any snaps, coz I was more busy watching Iqbal at Huma Adlabs. A descent adlabs near IIT, but surely not worth the Rs. 110/- that I had to shell out for the movie. But before I say anymore, I saw another flick No Entry, in the same adlabs :P Seems that I don't know how to get a hang of the fact that I am bankrupt :P

This post has been open on my comp for the past 2 days now, and I guess I should now post it :P Hope it ain't too late for it to be posted.

Am I Dead?

2005-08-24T00:11:00.000+05:30

Well, some time back pc mentioned that people ask u many times, as to what happened? Long time no blog? Et al. Don’t know about others, but most of the time I don't have much to write about. Or when I reach the terminal I forget what I was thinking of when I was desperate to get to the keyboard :( And now that I look at this well forgotten blog, this post shall be a month off my last one. So much for timing the posts well off :)

For the past few weeks nothing much has been going on. Lectures, not making to them on time, sleeping over some of them, sleeping through them in class, attending labs, but not worrying about the journals coz of the great lab mates that I have, and then copying most of the assignments without thinking what is written on them. That is, in short, the normal-slow-steady IIT/college life.

Today went to Crossword Powai, with pc, Pritam and Iyengar. Not to buy books but just read through some of them :P Picked up the book suggested by Prachi Maximum City. And to my wonder, found things that I had felt during my trip to Sydney. Things like one doesn't find a person who speaks road-side mumbaiiya Hindi, one with whom you can say Bahen Chod, not meaning Sister Fucker, naah... that's too crude... but just a simple exclamation like damn, or shit!. Now I shall be going there more often to finish the book. Other than that, I walked all the way back from Hiranandani, to just go there back again within an hour, and this time too walking :(( But then, I guess that's life without too many bikes in campus. :(

Over the past 4 days have been eating out.
Saturday: Dinner at ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton, 5 star deluxe hotel.
Sunday: Booze at Aura Restro Bar, Dinner at Chakra Restaurant.
Monday: Desserts at Mocha Powai.
Tuesday: Dinner at Shaolin, Powai.

Looking at the above list, all that one would say is tere baap ke paas bahut paisa hai re!!! And then I would say, na re, I am already bankrupt for the sem!!! (Now, after a few minutes, my Dad shall call me, and ask me: are you out of cash? do I put some into your account? :P:P) Now, how do I make him understand that this is normal? I'll ask when I am in need. Have no idea. Any tips? :)

Other than that, life is tuck. I am posting pics from my Delhi-Jaipur trip, haven't got a chance to use my camera as yet. Still am in need for some batteries for camera, and an extension lens. Lets see when do I have the cash, and the time to buy that :P

till then, lemme mug.

-aashish

back in IIT!!!

2005-07-21T01:20:00.000+05:30

Those who have me on their Yahoo! messenger friend list would be ready to kill me coz i have had this status message for the past week now. :)
Well, I guess, the title pretty much rounds it up. I had to forfeight the idea of going home before coming to IIT, to pay my academic fee for the coming semester. Just to enter/re-enter an indian system can some-times be such a pain in the neck, you never know when you'll snap. Paying the fees was the easiest part. but then, as I expected, the room allotment, was a pain in the ass. Took me a full week to get the hall manager of the requred hostel to give me a room in the upper floors (the ground floor is always avoided, coz of the mosquitoes, and other similar and many different reasons). He kept on saying that there weren't any rooms free. But, after a little of personal snooping around, and a little pressurisation of the general secretary, and some other influential people of the hostel, I finally did manage to get what I was looking for! A room on the 2nd floor.

So much done, today, ECell planned to send some ex-ecell and present ecell members for an M-TV shoot of the show Kya Baat Hai!. The issue for discussion was vauge, as in neither the production team, nor the host were sure of what to do. A show that would take no more than 2 hours to shoot, took a huge 4hr30m to finish, and that left my ever hungry stomach to cry for a good lunch. A lunch with the crew and cast of the show, and discussing about what else goes on in each other's lives was a nice way to kill time, and get out of the now-so-normal IIT paper work way of time-waste.
After that, the 4 of us went on to Haji Ali, to have a nice place to while off some time, and take in some fresh air.

Finally by 7 when i make it back to IIT, (that is after a full hour in the trains), and I call a friend of mine, to ask for his co-ordinates, I am pleasingly informed that he and another chap are leaving for V.T./C.S.T., which would have been just a stone throw distance from Haji Ali! :(( And then, to my own amazement, I decided to join them on the trip, with the idea of a good dinner always in prospect . had some at a parsi place, that B Vinod is a fan of, and finally after B and Shrini got enough time to take the pics for their blogs, we trodded our way back to IIT, slow and unsteady :)

And then, I get back to this computer of my friend, chatting away, checking mails for the first time in more than 12hrs, a long time since the flgiht from Sydney to Mumbai. Tomorrow, hopefully, I shall be shifting to my new room, looking for my belongings in so many rooms, don't know how shall I be finding all of the crap. Lets see!

Lots of things

2005-06-29T08:47:00.000+05:30

Last night saw Madagascar, and Batman Begins. Back to back, on the big screen. Had loads of fun, and at the end of the movie, had pang of hunger striking my belly. Hitesh and I rushed back to our homes, only to realise that there was an England vs. Australia ODI on TV. Now, being an ardent cricket fan that every Indian is supposed to be, be what-ever cast/creed/religion he follows, I sat infront of the tele for the next 3 to 3 1/2 hours, to watch Australia make 261 for the loss of 9 wickets. But the highlight of the innings wasn't the knock by Symonds, or the partnership that he had with Hussey, it was the confrontation between Simon Jones, an English fast bowler, new on the ODI circuit, and the bulky Matthew Hayden. Here's a snapshot of what happened, courtsey www.crickinfo.com.

Well this pic shows the aftermath between Paul Collingwood and Hayden, but this was just a small part of the huge tiff off :) Awesome fun :P:P
But like all cricket matches, this one too was boring so I kept switching to watch Wimbledon. First the match between Sharapova and Petrova, then between Mary Pierce and Venus Williams, and finally between Davenport and Kuznetsova, all were pretty keenly fought, and they provided me enough support to get through an innings of cricket, in the dead of the night. Nice stuff, and good to watch.

But wait a sec, why am I talking about this? Oh yes, thats b'coz I have to submit my report in a few days time, and have nothing done as yet, and have zero enthusiasm to pursue it. :P So am leaving for the city, to look and snoop around.

-aashish

Minesweeper

2005-06-24T11:17:00.000+05:30

I just finished a game of Expert level of Minesweeper in 213 seconds! Am now eyeing a sub 200s mark! Previous best was 235s.

Food

2005-06-24T10:04:00.000+05:30

Well just came back from lunch. Had a weird noodle dish called something like Laksa, with a little bit of a vegetarian touch to it. Hmmm.... Was nice, liked the baby corn, and the sprouts, and carrots, and the more than occasional noodles. :)

But this post is destined to mention about my escapades in Melbourne. Reaching Melbourne on the 17th of June had just one reason: to attend the Good Food and Wine Festival that was being held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Reaching Melbourne, or in short Melb, at 8.30 AM on the 17th of June was more tough a task than I imagined. Traveling to a place with a girl is one of the toughest jobs at hand. And if your flight/train leaves in the wee hours of the morning, assume that you shall be racing your ass out to make it to the airport/train station on time. I have seen this happen with my sister, my mother, and even lots of my friends. My case was no different. I decided to stay at Indrie's place overnight, so that she would not miss the flight. She had not slept properly for the past few days, because of a report submission! (And we at IIT would just put one nightout and be happy :D)
I did manage to getup at 4.30, a full 2h30m before the scheduled departure of the flight. I wake her up, and made the mistake of thinking that she would be ready in no time. Indrie takes a full 2 hours to get ready, and apply an infinite amount of makeup, not even realizing that when we get into the cab, there are just 30 minutes for the plane to depart, and none for boarding to close! :O I have been late for flights/trains, but never in my life have I been so late! The cabbie being a master of Sydney roads, took us to the airport in less than 10 minutes, a distance that I thought would take a little over 15 to cover! I hurried to get the boarding passes for both of us, and viola, the flight is 5 minutes delayed, and we are the last passengers on the flight! Whoa! Base one cleared!
So much for an eventful morning. I should have been writing so much for the complete day! Now coming back to the the food and wine festival. I suggest everyone to go to one such festival atleast. For a mere $15.5 or so, you can feast on almost everything you can think of in eating. Drinking though is limited to wine and beer only :( But I guess it's a good make do :P Well, to say the least, I ate and drank for the whole day, non-stop. Eating pies, and pasta, and pizza and loads of local produce, and then washing it down with red & white wine, and the occasional beer! An awesome day for my stomach ;)
But the icing of the cake was when Indrie managed to get hold of a $50 worth voucher of a Seafood Restaurant somewhere in the city. But then, we both being veggies, decided to give the restaurant a try, and their chefs a pain in the ass :D For the record, this was the first time I ate in a restraunt with a maitre d' and a head chef! We were offered the drinks menu. More of a classical photograph album, it took most of the place in front of me, and after more than 15 minutes into the pages, I still came up with no sure choice. So, we asked the much helpful waitress for a pick, and she suggested a local Aussie Shiraz, and we gleefully accepted :)
Ordering some starters, we made the going tough for the chef, when we disclosed that we won't be having any of their famous fish, but just something veg. Only ONE dish in the menu catered to us! So, the head chef made an entry out of the kitchen, and offered to cookup a pasta-fettachini something, and I found that tempting enough, mainly because of my lately acquired taste for pastas! But the pasta came out raw, and after sending it back, and another plate coming in front of me, the cooking didn't change.
Totally giving up on the much wanted pasta, we were going to wrap up, (the bill had already crossed $50), when the maitre d' offered his apologies, and a chance to have dessert and a hot drink on the house! ;) Now, now, now. As most of my batchmates/seniors/juniors would agree, that is onething that you should not do to an IITian. Offering free food suddenly opens up space in the much filled stomach. I ordered a granita, Indrie a choc Souffle, and then to top it all, 2 cups of hot chocolate. After dowsing all this into my already full stomach, from the days outing, and from the little food that I ate, we were just about to take out the voucher, when the ever-pleasing maitre d' offered us to let go the bill, because of all the trouble that we had encountered in the course of the meal. Aaah!! Now that is a feeling of satisfaction. Ain't it?

We both happily agreed, and I let Indrie use the voucher the next day, with a friend of hers she was supposed to be visiting. Indrie did mention that it was worth seeing the face of the maitre d' and the waitresses when she entered, but then there are always times that you miss out on the fun, ain't it? :((

The other two remaining days at Melb weren't as eventful as the first, and so I guess I can go without describing them. But yes, the dinner was awesome ;)

Blogging

2005-06-23T09:21:00.000+05:30

Damn!

Blogging seems to have got into me so hard, that I am unable to curtail myself from the screen. Even though I thought I'll take a break, it seems that I am drawn to write something. So this is just to inform those who read this... I'll be back soon :P

-aashish

Lost in Life

2005-06-20T09:43:00.000+05:30

Was away for the weekend to Melbourne. Thought the place was a crap. Don't even know why they call it a city. And there I lost another friend of mine. Guess I have learnt how Aussies live. People here are just friends over beer. And once the night's over, they aren't friends anymore. Not what I was taught in school though. I thought friends are for life. And just when I thought I had made one more, in an unknown country, it all turned around, in one trip. Just one trip. Lost a person, because I was being to be too good. Wow! And so much of learning that friends last for-ever.
I remember, I always used to fight with my dad on the issue of how should friends be treated. He said, that friends are just around till your success last, and other similar things, and I said they are for life. Till today, I thought I was right. Now I think my dads experience said it all. I am really depressed with what happenned in the past weekend. Hope that never happens again. It seems that life without friends would have been so much easier.
So, from this trip to Australia, I have learnt quite a lot of stuff. Chemical Engg. isn't meant for me. Australians are just friends over beer (more-or-less like a one night stand).
I thought I would be writing about the city of Melbourne, but it seems that life is in too much of a turmoil to write anything. But yes, Melbourne shall have a special place in my head (not heart). Here's where I lost a friend, I thought I had for life.
I have decided to take a rest from blogging for the next few weeks, till I get back to India, set up my comp and re-construct my life again.

Till then, adios.

-aashish

Have I lost it?

2005-06-15T12:49:00.000+05:30

The weekend was awesome. Slight rain, not too cold temperatures, a car in hand, and 3 friends to go around in the car with. And with no limits on exploring this country-continent we set out for a road trip, first in Sydney, and then in the nearby Blue Mountains.

The first thing that we did was pick-up our rental car, a white Hyundai Elantra. Then after picking up the remaining two fellows, Hitesh and I set off to see what the Royal National Park is famous for. Amazing views, and awesome roads, this park is only accessible to vehicles.

flat rock creek @ royal national park

360 view near flat rock creek

a view of the royal national park

boat house @ royal national park

Only pedestrians are not permitted into the park. After a little more than 5 hours in the park, we decided to head back to the city. The only reason being that a friend of mine was having a lunch party, and had invited me to it. And, I inturn had invited the other 3 :) Though I still haven't got the reason for the party, all I am concerned is that the rajma that we were treated to was awesome! Really hot, and spicy! Loved it! Next, we rested our really full stomachs and ran a few errands for ourselves, as Hitesh went to the airport to pick up his Prof. from IIT. Then late into the night, left for the Star City Casino. The most famous casino in Sydney, it was a great experience. And with a free $10 for first comers, it was fun playing :) I lost all the money in slot machines and Roulette. But then, who cares :D Returning at around 3, back at home, we thought we'd leave for the Blue Mountains by 5, but for some reason, everyone except me slept, and I was left stranded with 2 short blacks in my belly, and no sleep in my eyes.

Finally, everyone woke up by 6, and we headed off in short time. The highway was amazingly empty, and that gave Hitesh a chance to check out the limits of the car. Hitting 120 kmph was normal for the day.

lookout point for 3 sisters @ katoomba

skyline around the 3 sisters @ katoomba

fog near the 3 sisters @ katoomba

a ranch off the highway, on the way to the jenolan caves

a look at the blue mountains

a hilly ranch with cows grazing

Taking a stopover at Katoomba to checkout the 3 sisters, and then made progress to the main target of the day: Jenolan Caves. The road from the highway to the caves area, a good stretch of 45+ km, is a winding road around the hills, and has some really hairpin bends. With speed limits of just around 60 kmph, it sure would sound as a not so safe place to speed. But Hitesh made sure that everyone had their heart in their mouths as he turned one after the other at speeds of 80-100 kmph! Finally, when we made it to the caves, the view was breathtaking :) But the parking area wasn't. X(

We made our way from the car, to the ticket counter, only to realise that we had under-estimated the ticket cost of the tours. With each tour not less than $16, and the good-ones going upto $28.5, we were left scrambling for cash (this place didn't accept credit/debit cards). We just about scraped through the $28.5 walk, finally taking the river trail to explore. The walk was amazing, and we managed to see some really great chambers, created by an underground river, rain and limestone. Finishing off this took a little over 2 hours, and we finally made it out of the cave. On reaching land above sea-level, we realised that it had rained, and some more could be on its way. We ran all the way to the car, and then sped off, trying to cover as much distance before the rain slowed us down. The rain beat us to the highway, and we recieved a huge downpour throught out the drive on the hilly terrain. And with Hitesh not slowing down, the doom seemed closer. Finally, the car skid, and everyone started shouting at the driver to slow or get his ass kicked :) He preferred the second, and we all were happy :) Reaching the highway, we stopped at Katoomba, for dinner, and then I took the wheel, and tried to see what speeds I could achieve, now that the roads had dried. Hitting 140 was pretty easy, and we finally made it to Sydney by 10 PM.

Back at home, I went off to sleep, and with a dreamless night, I woke up at a little after 10, made a rush for lab, and got back to work. But the icing on the cake was when I was browsing through some free coupons on my desk last night. One of them stared out in my face. It read: One Free Admission to Jenolan Caves when the second is bought for equal or greater price. I felt so screwed :(

I started this entry, with the thought of something else, but it seems I just went on to describe the road-trip. Who cares :)

Blogging

2005-06-13T00:56:00.000+05:30

Blogging. Something that I feel I suck at. Actually, I guess, I suck at most writing activities. No wonder, I find it easier maintaining a photoblog which people say is much tougher, since you need fresh pics each and every day. Don't know why they say that. All one needs is to take a pic a day. And, I end up with atleast 10-20 a day, and then need to pick off them.
But coming to blogging. People mention lyrics, because they follow that. They mention poetry, because they write that. And then we have the pseud people like Bolli, G (don't know why, but G seems to be changing templates and blog name so frequently, I am unable to locate his blog at the 1st instant in my aggregator!), and Golaxxx, who write great pieces which are worthy of being read more than once. And then there are people like, me, who crib, and chill (???), and waste infinitesimal space in the infinitely large internet. And then, there are some people, who better left unmentioned, just blog some real crap stuff, cut-copy-paste material from sites, that is mostly nonsense to read.

Aah! Coming back to me. This blog is mine. So, I can write crap, and bull shit out here :) Well, I have no idea, why am I writing this. It's 5.37 in the morning. Am at a friend's place. He and another chap are sleeping next to the keyboard. Another is off to sweet slumber on the couch. And, with no space left to stretch my back, I am on this bad-for-spine-chair trying to make head and tail of some vague TOI columnist articles (Evolution or dilution?, What's up, Doc?, and A week in reverse gear), chat with a bunch of unknown people on my Yahoo! list, and read loads of blogs, and check out photoblogs. But then, I have been doing that for the past 2 hours now. And with two double short blacks down my gulp, I doubt if I have had this much of caffeine in me since JEE-mains in May 2002 (oops, the mention of the double short blacks was to say that sleep shall elude me for another 8-10 hours or so). Looks like, this is my first proper nightout in Sydney! Thank God! I haven't got out of this habit. And yes, before I forget, at this hour, I am definitely missing maddu. Man, maddu rocks. But oz land sucks, at 5 in the morning.
Now coming to one of the biggest regrests of the day. Actually 2 regrets. I screwed up with Indrie. And then didn't go to the Jazz festival at Darling Harbour. And yes, I am was not a Jazz fan. But heard some yesterday, and found it nice. So wanted to go today too :(. Fcuk! And then, ~~tomorrow~~ today we are to go to Blue Mountains, and I am a driver for one segment! Damn! Now how shall I manage that? Man! I am dead tired.

Get up, you suckers. You have slept enough. Now get behind the wheel, and lets get rolling!

-aashish

P.S.: learnt how to strike though in blogger :) if u don't know, here's how: < 's' > (minus the quotes and the spaces) tag b4 the text, and a < '/s' > tag after. That's pretty much basic HTML, but, then, I never used this before.

Lunch Talk

2005-06-11T07:46:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, while I was on my way to lunch, heard a construction worker talk on his radio:

Hey Mate, ask Pete to put 2 inches of peanut butter on my sandwich. Last time he put one inch of normal butter, and one of peanut, and it tasted awful, man! Make sure that he doesn't repeat that, else I'll kick some ASS!!! Over and Out!

Now! Isn't that the best way to use a radio? :D

Long Time

2005-06-09T06:38:00.000+05:30

Long time since the last post. A week I guess. A lot has happened in the last one week. So thought I'll mention all that conspired, in one go.
The weekend was the first time that I spent as a tourist in Sydney. With friends coming from NewCastle, I decided to see Sydney, the basic tourist way. Took out the Sydney City Guide, that I picked up from the airport, when I landed on the most odd day of the year. 1st of Jan. Now, no getting me on that.
We started of with the Taronga Zoo, spending more than 3 hours looking at animals, and that was surely the most boring part, for me atleast. Having seen atleast 3 other wildlife parks, this one was no different. So, nothing much to gain from the 33$ ticket (boo hoo!! :((( could have done so much with that much cash :(( ) Back from the zoo, we made our way to the Opera House, only to be told that both the main halls were showcasing performances, and hence wouldn't be shown on the tour that day. So, we made our way to grab some pizza, and then to the Sydney City Tower. The view from 250m above sealevel sure is gr8! ;) Have put up some panoramas. Worth seeing my guess.
Final trip of the tourist day out was at the Sydney Aquarium, famous for its shark enclosures, and the great barrier reef collection. But, having already seen the reef first hand, this was no comparision, and so the 18$ ticket was only good for the sharks :(( Late into the night, we trodded on the forbidden paths of Sydney: Kings Cross. Known for all that shit that all IITians love since day 1 of their stay in the campus ;), the first hand experience (my 2nd time in Sydney) was amazing :D:D A walk from the city, to the Kings X , just showed what Shrini and Machi have so far preached. Being in the bare essentials, is the best thing in life ;) A long night ahead of us, we cut our first deal. With 6 stags entering a night club, it was highly obvious that we were going to be charged an entry fee. But being shrewd and money minded baniyas that we all are, we sure managed to scrape through with minimum casualty to our pockets. And heaven it was what we entered. Atleast for most of us ;) One IITD chap, had the guts to doze off here, and later on said, all that he was doing was just taking small naps :O:O With such places all over the road, we made sure we check out a bunch of other places too. This is where Bansal got the time of his life. A real sick female, playing the role of a stripper (:O:O) in an attempt to give him a lap dance, took off his specs and gave it a nice-cool brush around her genitals ;):) And Bansal had the enthu to put them on again! Man! That was something =))
Getting up on day 2 of being the tourist in a city where you've lived for 5 months ain't the best thing. We decided to go for the Opera House Tour, and the plays playing there surely interested me. Am actually looking forward to seeing one soon. Aah! Coming back to the tour. Awesome construction. And the Main Performance Hall is the best. With an Organ instrument that took 10 years to make, 2 years to tune, and takes 3 weeks to tune everytime needed for a performance, its surely a masterpiece! Finally, with all 5 of us tired, we decided to call it the quits, and I left everyone to do their souvenir shopping at Paddy's Market, China Town. I was thinking of going for the Little Italy Food Festival, that was on, but decided against it. That can be seen with the fact that I landed on my bed at 6 PM and the next thing I know is checking my watch at 7 AM, Monday! I lost 13 hours! Damn!!!
Monday being un-eventful, Tuesday saw me watching 2 movies one after the other, for the price of one :) Tuesday is the student's day out. With tickets as low as $6.5 per movie, (as against a normal of $12) this is the best day to watch a flick. Hitesh, Mayank and I were at the Hoyts, Eastgardens Westfield, we saw The Longest Yard, and then sneaked into the theatre playing A Lot Like Love :D So much for sneaking into movies.

Guess that rounds up the events of the week. So, till something else crops up here, ciao

-aashish

P.S.: did anyone realise that in Australia there is a website for everything that is there to see around this place? Ain't that odd?

Evaluation

2005-06-02T13:08:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered how it must feel to be an evaluator of presentations being given by students? Students who are much more qualified than you are? :D:D

And how it feels from the student perspective to get judged by an undergrad, when he himself is finishing his masters, or even pursuing a PhD?

Well, to say the least, I did just that today, for 2 complete hours, and shall repeat the routine next Thursday :) Today was the evaluation time of assignment presentations of 8 students of the Membrane Sc. and Tech. research group course. This course is taken by loads of students from the Enviro. deptt. and the deptt. of Chemical Engg! And working in the membrane sc. research group gives the invitation to have a chance to grade the presentations of these students :)

So, today, I was very much glad with myself at evaluating work of seniors in the same field. But then, my know-how in the field, being zero (or very close to it), just let me check on their presentation skills, and other basic aspects. I hardly could check on the content and other stuff. But then, I guess its fine for a start :) So much for today!

-aashish

Friend and Mail

2005-06-01T05:32:00.000+05:30

Last night, I received a mail from my friend M. A friend whom I thought was close to me. But, today, I don't feel the same anymore. It makes me feel that our friendship was weaker than the bond between two people who need money to make conversation. And, I used to think that friends were above money issues. If I owe someone, he/she can always rely that I shall pay up. I expect the same and hence don't think of the money again, unless in dire straits for the same :)

Coming back to the the mail. M also wrote that M would be busy for the coming next months and wont have time to meet up. But does M even know where am I at this moment? Not in Bombay or Delhi, but in Sydney, a land far far away! But then I didn't even tell many people as to where I would be in the coming time. But again, isn't it odd that M didn't even enquire about my co-ordinates before such a mail?

The mail also had a mention of a very-very petty sum of money, that I had once given over to cover for meal that was supposed to be a treat from M. Now if M is so busy worrying about treat money, and that too not such a huge sum, then I am sorry for my choice of friends. I guess I made a big mistake. As I said earlier, money ain't an issue till I am in dire needs of some. But if poeple think that all thoughts revolve around money, then I am sorry. They've found the wrong person for that. In that case, you aren't a friend. Just something more than a stranger. A colleague, a batchmate, or just a person who can recognise me by name and face.

With no access to net all night, I thought I would blog a lot more of anti sentiments and feelings against M. But just like pranav, and pritam, I too tasted the agony of losing words, as soon as I sat before the computer. Though I think I did manage to pen down loads. hmmm.... I guess my friendship with M is over, or on the verge of falling down the cliff, unless M tries to cover the steps that M pursued to screw in the first place!

And then, in the IITian way, I guess I am willing to forget it over a nice meal :):D

-aashish

Sunday... the day it was

2005-05-31T05:28:00.000+05:30

For the past two days, and a night for that matter, I have been trying to fit the broken pieces in my head. The pieces of what I DID this Sunday. If I am not drunk, I have a reasonably good memory when it comes to numbers and how my day went. And for that matter, I wasn't drunk this sunday.
I don't know if it has happenned to anyone else, but on some days, I get these dreams. Dreams which mix with reality to create a pseudo-real world which is somewhat better, but very much similar to what we reside in. With the same people in there, playing very similar roles to what they play on the world stage. But relax. I have these dreams when I sleep :)
Hmm... so coming back to the point, I have only a little idea of how I spent my Sunday. I know I woke up at sometime in the afternoon, about 11.30-12 I guess. Then was on the computer for about 2 hours. Made lunch. Ate it. And then slept while reading some thing. And then it all goes into a dream-reality issue. Don't exactly know what happened. I do remember seeing a friend at night. For some reason. Not sure what was it. Guess will have to ask her the details. Duh! Now won't that be embarrasing?

So here's my online plea: Anyone who has any idea what-so-ever, of how my day went, please do notify me, 'coz till I don't figure it out, I doubt if I'll stop thinking about it!

-aashish

More Panoramas

2005-05-30T07:02:00.000+05:30

Have uploaded a few more panoramas on my Panorama Page. Check them out!

Chillax

2005-05-30T06:34:00.000+05:30

chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends

This word features 4th in the Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)!

A word, that as a student from Delhi, and the prestigious and now world renowned D.P.S., R.K. Puram, I got into using more than anything else! Something that is a part of me even though I use the IITian lingo and translation more often now: lukkha. Though I don't think chillax exactly translates to lukkha but still, chillax rocks! Well, thats just what I happen to do every weekend, be it before or after the exams! OR for that matter anytime of the year!
Other than 'chillax' I have no idea why I am typing this blog. My hands are freezing cold, fingers stiffer than anything rite now ;) and the lab temperatures are dipping below 15 degrees :( Can't even work on my rig. Need to wait till we have atleast 18-20 degrees. Then I can say 'room-temperature' is approximately achieved :D:D

So, ciao.

-aashish

Self Potrait

2005-05-27T07:12:00.000+05:30

Yours Truly has got his one week of fame on Self Potrait Day.

Thakkar of .FL.A.V.O.U.R.S. and Harpreet of Tasveer have also been on this page. One can find them in the archives.

Do check it out, and join in too!!!

http://www.selfportraitday.com

-aashish

Malèna

2005-05-26T06:05:00.000+05:30

Yup! All you IIT-Bombay folk read it right! This is the same Malèna, that most of us in our freshie years saw it as a piece of porn, as an amazingly hot Italian female showing us her body, and a stupid teenager, who played a role like that in Ek Chhotisi Love Story. Till now all that one saw was the figure, and the body, and all that shit in the movie, coz the movie was in Italian, and not one of us knew what was being spoken. And with no subtitles, the movie was an amazing piece of porn!

Well, last night the channel SBS showed this movie, and thank heavens! it had sub-titles. I decided to miss the State of Origin Rugby match and watch this movie, with all the IITian instincts that I have, still alive!! :)

Though this movie started with all the vigor and sensation that it has always created in me, whenever I have watched it, last night was different. With me having a chance to understand the movie, and follow the story to the end, my taking to it completely changed.

Malèna is a beautiful and deeply touching film. It is a masterful combination of sites, sounds and colors. The two leading actors (Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro) are simply excellent at what they are supposed to convey in this movie. Apart from her truly majestic elegance, Monica Bellucci invests her character (Malèna) with an aura of tragedy, of some profound and unrelenting emotional trauma and pain which remains unspoken throughout the film and reaches its climax at the very end. Malèna's stunningly beautiful eyes remain constantly downcast, and her face -- tense and pierced through by psychic pain (she rarely raises her face, let alone speaks words). Renato (the teenage boy) plays his role to the lit by showing his incredibly pure and valiant love for Malena (this affection he carries in his heart for several years). She becomes his muse, his courage, his sense of honor, his whole rationale for confronting difficult and disruptive life of the war-torn Italy. The finish to the movie, with Renato (played by Giuseppe) saying his first and last words to Malèna (Monica Bellucci) which mean 'Good Luck, Segniro Malèna' is awesome! This single phrase just captivated my thoughts and the way I percieved this flick before last night happened!

Living in Sydney surely has changed my perspective to foreign films. Even though they are bolder and more livid than their Bollywood counterparts, they have so much more meaning that what one gets to see in the crappy hindi movies. Surely, they make better movies than us, even though the Indian movie scene is second only to Hollywood!

Dinner again!

2005-05-25T12:32:00.000+05:30

Well, for the past few days, I guess nothing much has been happening in my life in any aspect other than the dinner scene. Monday, was no different from the weekend, with Hitesh and I ending up in the city. I was in need of a new pair of shoes, and a cap, and Hitesh had bought a pair for a bargain the Saturday before. We went to the same shop, and viola! I had a new pair of shoes for $10!!! The best bargain I've got in Australia! I hope they last me the final 2 months in kangaroo-land! Other than that, I also got a cap, for a partly $6.95, which I would call a bargain too. Dinner, ofcourse was taken at the city, and so one more day gone without me cooking :)

Come Tuesday, and it all changed. Hitesh and I decided to cook a 'good' Indian meal, comprising of all the basics: Daal, Roti, Rice, a curry, and poppadums. And we managed that all, with some help from Indrie, a friend of mine. And after the almost 2 hour ordeal (I had expected it to not last more than an hour), the meal was awesome!! Loved it :D Other than that, nothing much is happening in this really slow paced life of mine, and I sure need something/one to boost the speed.

Any help?

-aashish

Dinner!

2005-05-22T07:20:00.000+05:30

This is strange. For the longest time that I haven't cooked my dinner has occurred this week. When I first landed at this place, I thought, like a true Indian, I shall cook my own meal, and save infi cash from the allowance that the uni. is giving me here. But then, coz of the laziness that has been in me since ages, (I guess its been in me since I was born!!!), I have always been an eater outside. But till this weekend, that would be limited to once a week. At the most, a couple a times a week. This week was different though. I didn't have much to do, and so was eating and trying out the different restaurants in and around cleaveland street. But all this happened on Friday.
before Friday cometh Thursday. And it all started when I got my paycheck for the last two weeks. he he:) that just cleared my bankcruptcy to some extent!! So, I went to Eastgarden Westfield, but first decided to do some really boring grocery shopping :( But then came the good part. Hitesh joined me and we went on to have two 12inch subs each from SUBWAYS!!! Generally I would be ordering a single 6 incher, but due to some reason that I don't recall, I agreed on two 12 inchers. :D:D After that, came the good old Friday. the end of the week :) And on an impromptu decision, Hitesh and I set out to taste and grade all the Indian restraunts on and around Cleaveland Street!!! Starting from Maya Da dhabha, to Sagar Sweets, Mehrey da Dhabha, Holy Cow (that is such a sick name for a restraunt!!) and finally finishing at Maya Sweets :D:D That was one awesome trip. But yes, our pockets were a lot lighter than what we started off with. (actually justmy pocket was lighter, Hitesh used his Credit card :D:D). Yesterday, I was in the city, with a group of friends, and had a large pizza off Pizza Hut! And in the night, went for the international dinner. So that aint any cooking either!

And then cometh today. Am sitting at a friend's place, using her laptop to write this blog while she cleans up her 'really really huge' room! (this room is 6-7 times my tiny IIT cublice :O;) ). And it ain't that dirty either. But, explaining that to girls isn't a good proposition!!! That's what I guess. Dinner may or may not be at a restraunt, but the latter is looking more hopeful rite now ;) Lets see what comes, as the night falls!!

aargh! orkut! damn!!!

2005-05-19T13:30:00.000+05:30

was just having a scrap book chat with sarvee. and after i posted 5 posts in his 'crap book, i get the following error!!!

we're sorry, but you must wait 2 more minute(s) before you can post another scrap to this scrapbook because you have posted other scraps too recently

and after it allowed me to post one scrap, this the message that i got!

we're sorry, but you must wait 19 more minute(s) before you can post another scrap to this scrapbook because you have posted other scraps too recently

19 minutes :O:O

Orkut rulz!!!

Sleep

2005-05-19T05:13:00.000+05:30

Haven't been keeping well for the past few days. The Sydeny weather has surely hit me hard. Cold winds, and rain. They just don't make me feel at home. :( Have a bad cold, sore throat, and a slight fever. Damn. This is no good. Just when I was thinking that I am enjoying life, I have been struck by the might of God. And complicating all this is the matress that I have. Being an Indian to the core, I enjoy sleeping on hard mattresses, and they are not to be found anywhere in Australia. That is bad. All they have are the springy mattresses, the Sleepwell kind on which I can't sleepwell :( Couldn't get a proper sleep last night, or the one before. Have been thinking all the time.

But before that, it was Bhavani's (Vaibhav Gupta) b'day this Tuesday. And Shaggy, who is doing an internship with him, didn't know about it :O But then I came into the picture. While chatting with Shaggy, I told him about this great historic moment, and viola, Bhavani got bumps from the complete office crew :))) Awesome!! IITians rule everywhere :))

Also, I realised that when I talk to my family, I have nothing to talk about. And then in a space of 5 minutes, my mom/dad would've asked me atleast half a dozen times, "so, how are you?". Now that freaks me out. :O Never know what to tell them. How to increase conversation. :( I guess I'll need inputs from everyone I know to improve my conversation building skills with my parents :) And then, I was talking to friend a few days back while having coffee. And she burnt her tounge to our dismay. And, I mentioned, that me burning tounge hasn't happened since a long long time. Then came the bombshell. Burnt my tounge last night :P:O Guess I must keep a control on what it blabs now :))

Other than that, I have no idea what-so-ever as to why am I writing this piece :) So, I shall get back to work, and hopefully should be able to get something out of the day!

-aashish

Panoramas

2005-05-18T12:54:00.000+05:30

I have created this page for all the panorama pictures that I take. I don't think they should be put on the photoblog, but still are gr8 to see. So here they are!

Panoramas by Aashish Vishnoi

-aashish

Thoughts

2005-05-18T05:40:00.000+05:30

For the past few weeks, I have been thinking of what am I doing. And what I plan to do. Man! This is so sick. I have ZERO interest in Chemical Engineering. Even though this is the first time in life that I am doing anything interesting to me, I doubt if I'll make a career in this field ever.

For a long time, I have preached that live life a step at a time, don't worry about the future (unless its exams!), and don't worry about what happened in the past. I did happen to follow this rule till quite some time in my life. But, till today I have been unknowingly worrying about a night that changed my perspective to life. And in a totally opposite case to my thinking, the result of the night still lingers in my head. But then, I guess it turned out to be good. :) As we all can see, I am in Australia, living life to its full, at the bachha age of 20 :D:D

But yes, coming back to what I'll be into 2-3 years from now, I have no idea. I hear from all my seniors that job interviews have questions like "where do you see yourself in 5 years time from now?", and I have no answer to that! All I know, I don't want to be a Chemical Engineer. That's off my slate. And then I have this queer habit. I analyze my day after it has passed. I think, if I had done that, that way, then the day would've been better. So, I presume the best thing for me would be some kind of analyst, with being a part of a committee that would analyze stuff and realize how to change things to improve the scenario. Hmm.. Now what does that mean? What am I supposed to be doing?

BTW, what is the job profile in a consultancy? I have no idea. And I guess half of IIT doesn't know either. But, all want a job in McKenzie, Capital One, BCG, and what not. Though I guess not many know what their job profile is. Its just the name, the money, and the fame. That's all that counts when one is in IIT. Who got what job, what uni. In US and/or whether he/she got through IIM. Even when one applies for a PhD. to the universities in States, not many look at what they want to do. Its more of in which field will they get a schol. That's all that matters. No thinking on as to whether you would actually be interested in putting 5-7 years of your 'prime' life into studying and committing yourself to something that you were never interested in the first place. Some know what I am speaking about. Others will say, that's just how life is. Man! That's the worst thing to be spoken ever.

If I ever learnt anything at IIT, its that you are the one who makes or breaks your life. And that is all this great institute teaches to the cream of the nation. When most students apply for a PhD., its more of the fact that they are scared of going into the 'real' world, and prefer staying a student for some more time. It's a way of buying time to mature, maybe not for all PhD. aspirers, but for most of the crowd. Its a way of saying that the next 5-7 years of your life are 'settled'. How many actually think of job prospects, or their future after the 7 years have gone by.

Surely, this internship has been a very learning experience for me. I realised that chemical engg. Isn't that bad, as I felt :) but it also made me sure that I wouldn't like to do a PhD. in this field. Atleast that's what I think right now. Don't know if 2 more years of courses, and another internship would change my mind, but as of now, I am looking for a career change from engineering.

Oh Damn! I left my membrane in the fume cupboard. Shit! Have to run... else the membrane will decompose :O

-aashish

Orkut <---> Gmail

2005-05-17T10:18:00.000+05:30

Today, while I was going through Orkut, scanning for coming b'days of friends, saw this message at the top.

Get Gmail account, with more than 2GB of mail space.

Well this link connects to an account for my name. I checked if aashish is still free. (Being a very common Indian name, it generally is very tough to get.) And ofcourse, it wasn't. But the options that Gmail offerred me are hilarious!

aashish is not available, but the following usernames are:

aashish.vishnoi
vishnoi.aashish
aashishenator
aashishorama

The 1st two are fine. But the last two? Dude!!! What the hell in this world is that? Couldn't help laughing!!!

-aashish

Lost :(

2005-05-16T12:31:00.000+05:30

I have lost access to my homepage. Due to some fool in IIT-Bombay, I am unable to upload/edit files to my account. So, for the remaining 2-3 months, I shall not be putting up any pictures onto my homepage. Shall update it as soon as I get back to IIT though. And that shall not be before the end of July. All those dying to see my albums, please wait :D
Other than that, had an eventful weekend. I finally saw a movie at the Spanish Film Festival! I saw The Weakness of the Boleshevik.

As the review on the site says, Luis Tosar turned in an amazing performance! And even though I don't speak Spanish (duh!), the subtitles were great. They were surely better than most of the ones on Indian flicks, where the meaning in Hindi and English is a lot different occasionally. (I can say that mainly because I was sitting next to a Latin-American chap, and he confirmed this fact :D). And of course, María Valverde looks sensational.
Sunday was when I was thinking of going around the city. But with no company, I changed minds right at the bus-stop, and went on the 4km walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. With strong cold winds, and an awesome view of the sea, I took the normally 1 1/2 hrs walk in 3 1/2 hours!!! And yes, took over a 100 pics. So, that was a revelation!
Today, was bad. Got up at 4 AM, so as to be on time to pick up Bansal. A batchmate from IIT, had to pick him up coz he was getting me some notes for my kind perusal on my behest :( . And after dropping him off to Central, went back home, got dressed, came to lab, checked mail, and left for the airport again!! This time to pickup Avnish, a buddy from E-Cell. He was getting some eatables for me :D:D. After getting my booty, I dropped him to Central, and avoiding the rain successfully I scrambled back to Uni., and slogged my arse out, to cover-up for the morning that I missed. :(

So much for the day.

-aashish

Self Quiz...

2005-05-15T08:52:00.000+05:30

I got onto this coz of Claudia. all those who read this, just leave a comment in the comment section so we can come see your answers.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. vishnoi
2. bushy
3. papa-tuk

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. aashish
2. aavishnoi
3. the_hot_and_sexy

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. eyes
2. nails
3. smile

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. my falling hair
2. waist line
3. inability to convey message when talking face to face with someone senior to you

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. cooking
2. yoga/meditation
3. all other stuff of Indianism!

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. heights
2. a person of the opposite sex ditching a date
3. failing a course

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. watch
2. mail check
3. photoblog

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. watch
2. tshirt
3. My favourite jeans

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. aman and ayan ali
2. Indian Ocean
3. Eminem

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS:
1. Vande Matram -AR Rahman
2. Yeh Lamhe - My brother, Nikhil
3. cant decide

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. love
2. sex
3. honesty/trust

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. eyes/smile
2. boobs !!
3. figure

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Blogging
2. Playing computer/video games
3. reading novels

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Go for a walk
2. eat pizza
3. sleep

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
1. Engineering - considering, and studying to become one
2. Law - Considering
3. Entrepreneur -Considered and still considering

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Europe
2. Kashmir
3. South India

THREE KIDS' NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Tanya
2. Samy
3. Jacquiline, Jacqui

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. See that my parent's are happy
2. Make loads of money
3. Find my true love

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. Can not talk to most women without looking down :/
2. Fart
3. Love for extreme sports

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. Gossip
2. Take time to dress-up
3. I cry when I watch extremly sad scenes :(

THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. Salma Hayek
2. Nicole Kidman
3. Sushmita Sen

THREE PEOPLE THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
1. You
2. Your Soulmate
3. Your Soulmate's Soulmate :D

...

2005-05-13T13:25:00.000+05:30

...well, I don't have anything to write. But, since I promised my self that I shall put an entry here atleast every two-three days, this is for the past 2 days. Nothing much is going on. I am running in a -ve cash flow. So, have nothing much planned for the weekend. But, I shall make a trip to the Spanish Film Festival, that I have been talking about for the past couple of weeks :). Hopefully that is!

Other than that, I had plans to go on a photoshoot in Sydney, but still haven't planned it. So, I doubt if I'll do it this weekend. My work a'int going great. Still out of membranes. No progress there.

So lifes boring. And monotonous.

cya, till my life has something to talk about :(

-aashish

Movie Time!

2005-05-11T11:55:00.000+05:30

In the past 3 nights, I have seen 4 movies. Two on the silver screen, and two on the computer screen. And with all this in my head, I have been doing little progress at my research project! Just when I was thinking of working and reading papers on sunday, a friend called to ask if I was free for a movie. Now that aint a question to ask someone who has devoted his time to acads! :)
OFCOURSE I AM FREE!!! We made it to the last show of Kingdom of Heaven (*ing Orlando Bloom). The movie was nice, but the same can't be said about the acting of Orlando. Not impressive :(

Next, over night of monday, I saw two back to back hindi flicks on Hitesh's comp. Don't even remember what the name of the movies were! Just saw them.

And fianlly, yesterday saw a 3D anim, Haunted Castle, at IMAX Cinemas. To be truthful, saw the movie coz we had free ticket coupons for the Cinema ;) No other reason. And then I got a great chance to take pictures of the darling harbour by the night! Shall put some pics on my photoblog soon.

Coming back to work, my membrane's over, and I have been told not to expect it to arrive for atleast another 5 weeks! So, I have no worries. My project is as good as over!!

BTW, if someone has extra cash, can you give me around AU$200? I want to skydive, but am short of cash! :((

-aashish

Aaarrrgh!!!!!

2005-05-09T13:09:00.000+05:30

This is bad. I wrote a really big blog entry on Chauffeur and all of that got erased, as I published the entry! So much for writing blogs. I ain't finishing that entry anymore.

and now I'm going for a swim!

-aashish

Chauffeur

2005-05-09T12:40:00.000+05:30

That's what I did for the complete part of the 1st day, and that too, without a car!

Two batchmates from IIT, came today, on internships in universities in Australia. One, in The University of Newcastle, and the other in

Winter

2005-05-08T09:46:00.000+05:30

:((

Winter. Thandi. Sardi. 冬天. Invierno. Hiver.Inverno.冬。겨울. Got this all with the help of the Google Translator.

Weekend winter. That's the worst that can happen. With temperatures only reaching a meagre 18 degrees, it might be summer for the English, but definitely not for the Indians. I could feel the chill in my spine, when I walked from the library back to my house, at 2 in the afternoon yesterday. And that was enough to call off my plans for the weekend. Have no mood to get into chilly weather so soon. Hopefully, will get adjusted to this over the week. And then shall go out. But, this meant that I won't be able to go to the Spanish Film Festival this weekend. But then, its on for the complete next week, and closes next Sunday. So still have a chance to make it!
Got a hand to this amazing software. Autostich. Read about it on Gary's blog. AutoStitch is a free program and there are no complicated things you need to do. All you need is some pictures that have some kind of common connection to one another to create a panorama. I had a set of pictures of the bookfair, that I made a panorama of, using MsPaint :)) (Don't have photoshop in a Chemical Engg. department... and I thought, I'll edit it when I get back to India). And then this software came along. And it set the pace.

Here is the output using MsPaint (took me a little over an hour to get to this):

And this is using AutoStich (took the tool a little under 3 minutes to get to this!):

Any soul can see the difference!

Other than that, I have been reading a lot this weekend, not books, but papers. As in doing some mindboggling literature survey. So, that is getting to my head. Lets see, what I finally pen-down in my report :)

-aashish

Life's No Good :(

2005-05-05T13:00:00.000+05:30

With nothing much happening in life, I have to get back to doing work. And then, when you are so pumped up to do some research, nothing goes your way. Today, my supervisor makes the best of all statements. Check the conductivity of the permeate for water-flux experiments! Now, if I am running pure distilled water, how in the world will there be conductivity?!? I, am LOST. This is so stupid.

And then, I am feeling homesick. 4 months here, and its getting to my head. Life's sick, and it plays really stupid games with you (or for me for that matter!). And then, I have begun reading this philosophical blog, Free Congnition, which just leaves me in a tinge. Don't know what to do. Other than that, I am still looking for company for the Spanish Film Festival. Anyone interested?

Guess, its enough. No more of stupid blogging :P

-aashish

Mercedes Australian Fashion Week (MAFW)

2005-05-03T14:37:00.000+05:30

Well, I had mailed the helpline, asking for permission to watch the show, and to my disbelief, they (or just she) replied :P:P

here's the complete mail transcript (minus the email-ids)

--------------

Subject: RE: Information Reqd.
From: "Fiona Chaloner"
Date: Tue, May 3, 2005 7:44 pm
To: "Aashish Vishnoi"

Hi Aashish

Thankyou for your interest in Mercedes Australian Fashion Week (MAFW).

Tertiary students studying fashion or a fashion related industry are eligible to attend MAFW Spring Summer 2005/06, and I would be happy to accomodate you, however we are asking all student groups to attend on Friday 6 May 2005. Please visit the Registration desk on the lower level of the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Due to the fact that MAFW is an industry only event, you will need ot provide some identification. This will provide you with unlimited access to The Source @ MAFW.

Kind regards
Fiona

-----Original Message-----
From: "Aashish Vishnoi"
Sent: Tuesday, 3 May 2005 5:55 pm
To: "MAFW HelpLine"
Subject: Information Reqd.

Hi,

Is there no way that normal students could attend the fashion week?

Regards,

Aashish

Literally Speaking

2005-05-03T14:19:00.000+05:30

What am I saying out here?
Read the article, and you'll understand :)

Apples are good for health. So, that is what I have begun to have for lunch. (why? Refer previous post)
Checked the Sydney Fashion Week site, non-professionals from the industry aren't allowed to see the show. So stupid!
Then checked out the site of the Spanish Film Festival. A host of amazing movies being played. Will hopefully watch a few. Other than that? Lifes sick. And monotonous. And boring. And nothing much is happenning. (did I need to write this?)

So, I am leaving to watch the Survivor, on TV.

adios!

-aashish