If my situation gets out of control,
I could run down to Banga-lore!
If I need a place to do some layin' low,
I could run down to Banga-lore!
Sun is never in the sky,
Bands are always hoppin'.
You can shake it all you want,
Never feel like stoppin'.
Think I'll give my mind a rest and save my soul,
I will run down to Banga-lore!
If you don't have anywhere left to go,
You could run down to Banga-lore!
If you found the answer but you still don't know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!
You don't need to buy your friends,
They're just glad to meet ya.
Maybe even meet yourself,
A friendly senorita!
If you never try it you will never know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!
Take me a vacation from the killing bore,
Gonna run down to Banga-lore!
Should have left a long, long time ago,
Gonna run down to Banga-lore!
Sun is never in the sky,
Bands are always hoppin'.
You can shake it all you want,
Till you feel like stoppin'.
If you never try it you will never know,
You could run down to Banga-lore!
Original Track - Run down to Mexico by Racer X.
Great Song! Fits to Chennai/B'lore Situation, with just a few modifications :)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Why 3 Idiots?
3 Idiots - the movie has made much news over the last month, breaking revenue records, creating controversies over the insufficient credit to Chetan Bhagat, the author of 5.some1, and for bringing out the flaws in the education system of our country. When I first heard that 3 Idiots is releasing and it is inspired from 5.some1, I thought "Great! Now there is going to be a movie on IIT life. As if the novel 5.some1 had not masalafied it enough and presented it to the public". Personally, I was shocked and angry about the book 5.some1, because it felt like a violation of an unwritten code of conduct, prohibiting you to divulge any secrets about the IIT life. Moreover, the author decided to add some masala to the story so that it sells some copies. As a result of which, people now know about things that we wouldn't want to be public, and they also have misconceptions - things that they think happen, but in fact they don't. I didn't know what was more hurting - the truth or the misconceptions, but I knew one thing - that I wouldn't watch a movie, which twists the truth and presents it on a gold platter to the public.
As I have weak willpower, I ended up watching the movie, that too twice. Well, all my friends including many from IIT gave a thumbs up to the movie, and I wondered if there was something wrong with me for I was thinking the other way. So, I decided to get rid of the prejudice and give it a shot. And I did, and had mixed reactions, well more negative reactions than positive. I didn't like the movie because I saw what I feared I'd see in the movie. A student stealing a question paper - okay, its possible, but unlikely. A hot pataka babe in campus - thankfully they stuck to the novel in this case, made her a professor's daughter and not a student(which is known to be impossible). Fresher making a quad-rotor helicopter with wi-fi'd cam on it, with all the overworked 1st yr schedule - really far fetched, but it is still possible. A student impersonating another guy for the whole BTech course - that's right in between highly improbable and impossible. But a guy making an inverter, using it to supply power to make a suction pump, made from a vaccum cleaner, to deliver a baby - haha, that as close as you can possibly get to impossible. Surely they could have done without the delivery scene in the movie. As for the character - Prof Virus - Now, there are some hard-ass profs in all colleges, but someone like Virus at IIT? I don't think so. I thank god that I didn't have any encounter with such a professor. But, some of my friends and seniors did. And from their experience and from the tales heard from seniors or alumni of professors who would not let you pass a course easily, of times when it was surprising if students completed the degrees without failing any subject, I can say that there hasn't been any prof till now in IIT like Virus. But even if I am wrong, even if such a prof existed, the system ensures that what happens to a student is not in the hands of one professor alone, but in the hands of a group of professors. Surely, the group cannot be comprised of all Virus-like profs.
Well, that's all what bothered me throughout the movie. But, after the movie I did feel happy, elated and uplifted for some reason, and I thought maybe it's the preaching about learning for excellence, or the hostel life, or the study sessions, or the fight for final year project and similar stuff that made me connect to the movie. So, despite all the negatives, I recommended the movie to another friend - Reshma, and surprisingly the response was negative. And I wondered, why I even liked the movie at first place? Looking back, I didn't agree with the ragging session - nobody ever asked us to strip at IIT. I didn't agree with the bathing problems - bunking 1st hour classes was very common, so bathroom clash wasn't a frequent thing and even if it did happen, I'd go to classes without a bath, who cares. I didn't agree about the drinking at rooftops either, because when we ever made a booze plan, we would call the whole wing for it, not some 3 guys. I wouldn't agree with study sessions too, as it was again a group study session and not an individual studying; and the idea of distracting others with porn was a really lame one, I can think of better ideas in 30 seconds. How is this - since class notes of muggo students are sought after, one muggoo can make notes with wrong equations or fundaes and give it to others for copying. I did have problems with the final year project, but the professors had been more than helpful in my case, and I guess this is why I couldn't digest the Virus character at all. Only thing left was the study for excellence attitude thingy.Well, I completed my degree with study for success attitude and hence it should sadden me and not make me happy.
The question still remained, why was I happy after watching the movie when I hated it so much. I stopped trying to answer this question, as the answer seemed out of reach, and went on with the work life. Next day, Prasanna, a colleague of mine, who had seen he movie and was really thrilled about the movie said that the whole tea-gang (Gang of 5 guys who go out every evening for a cup of tea) of ours should go and watch 3 Idiots, as it is a brilliant movie. I could not say that I wasn't happy after watching the movie, and it was too tough to say no to the excited, enthusiastic Prasanna, plus we keep making plans of watching some movie and never go. So, I agreed to go for the movie. I am happy that this time we did go for the movie, as I found the answer to the question. It felt like a "Communications" Noise filtering experiment - Once I knew what the noise (hated parts of the movie) was, I was able to filter it out from the signal(movie) to a good extent. And this time all I saw was - the 3 idiots. I could see why I liked the movie, I could relate to the unbreakable bond between the 3 idiots. The movie doesn't remind me of IIT at all, but it does of the friends I had made at IIT. It does make me realize that out of the many brilliant things that the great institute had to offer, I might have opted for mediocre stuff in most fields, but I have made the best set of friends possible. I guess that's why I visit B'lore so frequently, and thanks to the movie, that's where I'll be next weekend.
As I have weak willpower, I ended up watching the movie, that too twice. Well, all my friends including many from IIT gave a thumbs up to the movie, and I wondered if there was something wrong with me for I was thinking the other way. So, I decided to get rid of the prejudice and give it a shot. And I did, and had mixed reactions, well more negative reactions than positive. I didn't like the movie because I saw what I feared I'd see in the movie. A student stealing a question paper - okay, its possible, but unlikely. A hot pataka babe in campus - thankfully they stuck to the novel in this case, made her a professor's daughter and not a student(which is known to be impossible). Fresher making a quad-rotor helicopter with wi-fi'd cam on it, with all the overworked 1st yr schedule - really far fetched, but it is still possible. A student impersonating another guy for the whole BTech course - that's right in between highly improbable and impossible. But a guy making an inverter, using it to supply power to make a suction pump, made from a vaccum cleaner, to deliver a baby - haha, that as close as you can possibly get to impossible. Surely they could have done without the delivery scene in the movie. As for the character - Prof Virus - Now, there are some hard-ass profs in all colleges, but someone like Virus at IIT? I don't think so. I thank god that I didn't have any encounter with such a professor. But, some of my friends and seniors did. And from their experience and from the tales heard from seniors or alumni of professors who would not let you pass a course easily, of times when it was surprising if students completed the degrees without failing any subject, I can say that there hasn't been any prof till now in IIT like Virus. But even if I am wrong, even if such a prof existed, the system ensures that what happens to a student is not in the hands of one professor alone, but in the hands of a group of professors. Surely, the group cannot be comprised of all Virus-like profs.
Well, that's all what bothered me throughout the movie. But, after the movie I did feel happy, elated and uplifted for some reason, and I thought maybe it's the preaching about learning for excellence, or the hostel life, or the study sessions, or the fight for final year project and similar stuff that made me connect to the movie. So, despite all the negatives, I recommended the movie to another friend - Reshma, and surprisingly the response was negative. And I wondered, why I even liked the movie at first place? Looking back, I didn't agree with the ragging session - nobody ever asked us to strip at IIT. I didn't agree with the bathing problems - bunking 1st hour classes was very common, so bathroom clash wasn't a frequent thing and even if it did happen, I'd go to classes without a bath, who cares. I didn't agree about the drinking at rooftops either, because when we ever made a booze plan, we would call the whole wing for it, not some 3 guys. I wouldn't agree with study sessions too, as it was again a group study session and not an individual studying; and the idea of distracting others with porn was a really lame one, I can think of better ideas in 30 seconds. How is this - since class notes of muggo students are sought after, one muggoo can make notes with wrong equations or fundaes and give it to others for copying. I did have problems with the final year project, but the professors had been more than helpful in my case, and I guess this is why I couldn't digest the Virus character at all. Only thing left was the study for excellence attitude thingy.Well, I completed my degree with study for success attitude and hence it should sadden me and not make me happy.
The question still remained, why was I happy after watching the movie when I hated it so much. I stopped trying to answer this question, as the answer seemed out of reach, and went on with the work life. Next day, Prasanna, a colleague of mine, who had seen he movie and was really thrilled about the movie said that the whole tea-gang (Gang of 5 guys who go out every evening for a cup of tea) of ours should go and watch 3 Idiots, as it is a brilliant movie. I could not say that I wasn't happy after watching the movie, and it was too tough to say no to the excited, enthusiastic Prasanna, plus we keep making plans of watching some movie and never go. So, I agreed to go for the movie. I am happy that this time we did go for the movie, as I found the answer to the question. It felt like a "Communications" Noise filtering experiment - Once I knew what the noise (hated parts of the movie) was, I was able to filter it out from the signal(movie) to a good extent. And this time all I saw was - the 3 idiots. I could see why I liked the movie, I could relate to the unbreakable bond between the 3 idiots. The movie doesn't remind me of IIT at all, but it does of the friends I had made at IIT. It does make me realize that out of the many brilliant things that the great institute had to offer, I might have opted for mediocre stuff in most fields, but I have made the best set of friends possible. I guess that's why I visit B'lore so frequently, and thanks to the movie, that's where I'll be next weekend.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Big Bang or Bang-Bang??
With the biggest, most expensive scientific experiment in the history of the world (atleast in human life): the Big-Bang experiment starting smoothly on Sept. 10th, and the critics pointing that this might well result in the end of the world.. one starts to wonder whom to trust?
Trust the scientists who have worked hard together from various countries, for decades to make this experiment a reality? or trust the critics and appeal against this experiment as it might lead to creation of mini-black holes which could swallow the earth! (another option is to somehow provoke shiv-sena against this and they would take care of stopping the experiment). There are these scientists claiming that the experiment is perfectly safe and that this would reveal the true nature of universe, that one would be able to see what the universe was composed of a-billionth second after it was born, that we would be able to study mysterious things like dark matter and dark energy for the first time and there are others who believe that the experiment could go wrong and simply destroy the entire planet in a fraction of second!
Maybe we should have faith (or confidence for the atheist) in the scientist who must know what they are doing! After all they are supposed to be the brilliant minds from all over the world! They should have taken all such things into account. But on the other hand all scientists know that you must go through failing experiments to reach the successful one, If the first experiment works, you might well be doing it wrong! So how can we be sure that this will go right? or more importantly this wont go mad and wreck havoc? Can they take precautions against the forces that they don't themselves understand yet?
It is very much like creating a fire, only in this case we don't know what all the fire can burn? But from another point of view they aren't re-creating Big-Bang they aren't trying to re-create the universe, they are simply trying to understand how it came to being! In simple terms: If Big Bang was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, then the scientists are simply trying to grow a tissue culture of its skin. Still Complicated? Okay! If Big Bang was tsunami, then scientists are trying to move the bottom side of a big pool to understand how large waves are created by such an event.
It seems there is no harm in doing it and I sincerely hope so too, because.... I don't want to be part of a science fiction story in which each time a universe is created, innumerable lifeforms are also created, of which there is one with great intellect, which conquers/eliminates all other lifeforms with the might of intelligence, and after doing so, searches for the meaning of life or existence, and tries to understand how it came to being. To achieve this, it recreates the conditions which resulted in such an event; which in turn leads to creation of the next universe.
Suitable title for such a sci-fi story: "The cycle of life" [Source: a gen discussion with Angadi]
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Intro
Most of the posts here are like a train of thought, writing stuff which is picked out of the top of my mind. I call them the plain texts. But, sometimes I do write about stuff close to me, and encrypt it, and they tend to be less than straight forward - the breakable codes, and hence the blog title.
As for the random-ish url the blog has - crypticxsjujoht, the truth is that I wanted to use crypticwritings as the blog url after the Megadeth album and the name was already taken. So, I used easiest of easiest cyphers - Caeser cypher. Although, that uses a shift of 3, I ,being lazy, used only a shift of 1.
And I lied when I said in the blog description that "You might find anything, except encryption or cyphers, here."
Cheers!
As for the random-ish url the blog has - crypticxsjujoht, the truth is that I wanted to use crypticwritings as the blog url after the Megadeth album and the name was already taken. So, I used easiest of easiest cyphers - Caeser cypher. Although, that uses a shift of 3, I ,being lazy, used only a shift of 1.
And I lied when I said in the blog description that "You might find anything, except encryption or cyphers, here."
Cheers!
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