Regarding zombies

Yes, I do realize it has been approximately 16 months since my last post, and by all reasonable estimates this blog ought to be long dead. However I realize this blog will not quietly fade away. Thus the heading pertaining to zombies (this and one other reason which will be revealed later). The thought that I am ‘persevering’ has somehow finagled itself into my skull and so I find myself, at the start of another year, ready to type some more drivel.

To settle certain matters at first, regardless of who you are dear reader, season’s greetings and a happy new year, may it prove to be prosperous and pleasant for you. If you are wondering as to why I didn’t write anything for 16 months there were several pertinent reasons.

1. As conveyed in my last two posts, I actually worked in the year 2010, for around 7 months, since I couldn’t pursue a doctorate immediately after my masters. The details of this period were too boring to merit any sort of entry here since they concern ‘werk’ in a ‘professional corporate environment’. Bleaargh. So for a short while I had sauntered off to the dark side. In short I worked three months in Ahmedabad (the most contemptible city of vegetarians), managed to get transferred to Delhi (a city without a rival as I have maintained since birth), and around May I quit, in order to reapply for a PhD. I got admitted to the University of Maryland, a rather smashing place.
2. The period between quitting my job, and starting my classes abroad were spent in the fruitful pursuit of learning French from l’Alliance Française de Delhi, a most excellent organization, about which I might write in detail some other day.
3. My first semester of the doctorate was most busy. Amidst classes I was taking and the class I was teaching, there was little time for leisure, and I got a severe case of writer’s block (I believe the sleep deprivation or the starvation may have contributed). Teaching as a TA was certainly a first in my life, and apparently I had been assigned one of the hardest undergraduate courses over there to lead discussions in, leading to a lot of headache and heartache. Only now, that the semester has ended, and rather brilliantly if I may say so, that I can think clearly about several unattended tasks, the blog being one of them.

Today’s post is going to be about a subject rather close to my heart for many years now, quizzing (or trivia, or trivia quizzing). As all those who will read this hopefully remember,  about four/five years ago in the naive days of my undergrad, I was responsible for creating a quizzing society in my college with the utterly demented idea that it would survive. It had barely lasted a year and a half thanks to certain unmentionables. Everyone was oh so very sad, and many of the people reading this took the opportunity to remind me ‘I told you so’ with the subtlety of a battle-axe, and spouted their wisdom while quite cheerfully kicking a downed man. Well we all thought that it was the end, and that the days of glory are long past and that quizzing will not survive in bvcoe. We moved on, me to academic pursuits, many others to heavy bouts of drinking (which had nothing to do with sorrow, I just happen to associate with reprobates)

Turns out we all were wrong.

Turns out there were people in the old madhouse in the batches three/four years my junior who were intelligent, competent, had a common cause in quizzing, but most importantly weren’t utter gits. These people had the fortitude to band together and use modern technology (by which I mean Facebook) to quiz and organize. I will confess, discovering this has been the single most happiest incident in the past six months. After two years I came back into regular quizzing, if only online. I got involved, and boy did it feel great to be back. The amount of enthusiasm present there would make Thomas Hobbes cringe in despair. I was right about humanity all along, eh he he he.

Thus, my faith in the everlasting permanence of decency and immortality of ideas got restored and I saw my dream fulfilled by those younger than me. I felt vindicated. I felt epic.

Quizzers are zombies. We adore a healthy diet of brain and simply refuse to not exist.

What exactly is so much beautiful about quizzing you ask? (rhetorically I hope). In short, it is the only mental sport/game/exercise which values the sum total of human knowledge. To quiz is to keep learning. There is no game more humanistic than quizzing because to strive to know everything is to strive to reach perfection as a human. Naturally, everyone cannot know everything there is to know, but us quizzers reach out for that unattainable ideal. There is so much to learn, from old movies to modern history, from pure science to arcane literature, from languages to the Solvay Conference to music to sports to memes to manga to the fact that the cinematography techniques of Akira Kurosawa were sheer brilliance, that knowing it all is an almost unthinkably grand ideal. A quizzer is a person who realizes what connects the falling angel with the rising ape (sorry couldn’t resist). It is beautiful, almost poetic. Quizzers with their relentless urge to know minutiae and trivia about every single thing ever, never getting there and yet knowing the ‘there’ exists somewhere, in nebulous mists of our confined sapience. Forever striving, never quitting. Utter determinators every single one of them. Basically, zombies.

I will not blather more, I have quizzing to do, my next semester to think of, and books to stuff my head with. Since the blog is back in business expect some more hopefully interesting drivel speedily. Good fortune to all of you, and happy trolling to those with that particular avocation.

Multiple lines of thought

There are times, when the doldrums set in and for months on end one can’t be bothered to write anything despite there being ample material or inspirations. And then there are days like these

Currently, it is 0238, and like I maintain, the best conversations occur at late night. So, dear intelligent reader, let us indulge in those little stories of mice and mortal men (or immortal fair folks if you wish to) which make life ‘interesting’. Now generally ‘interesting’ is scary. I prefer boredom. But sometimes, just once in a few sordid months, manna decides to grace us, or rather splatter us, just like a car in Delhi often decides to splatter you on a rainy day (and for some utterly bizarre reason, you smile instead of your usual profanity). So apparently I have been smiling a lot (yes it has been pointed out as distinctly OOC).

For starters, my gf decided to buy me a present. The rest of my thoughts on this subject cannot be translated to coherent english sentences.

Secondly, I met Varun (our resident galactic overlord and possibly the one other person who appreciates command and conquer as much as I do), Decay (or DK or the guy who made that map or the-guy-with-’animal-magnetism’-who-is-still-single-despite-being-the-subject-of-several-witnessed-glompings) and Alagappa (see Harish, I can actually spell your surname correctly, ha!) today. Aside from the fact these are capital fellows, travelling around in the metro is a joy of its own. And they had opened the new south Delhi line. And I have discovered much to my horror that I have started making stealth puns. And talking in pirate speak to myself or to inanimate objects. You don’t get to know these things unless you go out and meet people. Who are more mental than you are.

Lately, I have been able to indulge myself in listening for hours on end to the genres of music I like. Has anyone discovered the music released under Immediate Music, or their band Globus? It can be best described as, ‘take Wagner, subtract the ham, multiply the awesome, with choir and chanting to boot’. It is so rousing, so elegant, so much undiluted EPIC (their live albums have apt names like EPICON, EPIC LIVE!)… arggggggghhh (bsod).

Just listen to one of the many

Seriously people, anything of quality with ominous Latin chanting (or any ominous chanting for that matter) in it, with orchestral elements and so much intelligence, makes certain other types of ‘music’ sound like guttural orcish mating screams.

ALso, ever heard of Spaceballs? (don’t ask, just click the link and watch) And in case you have problems with parodies, I’m not the guilty party, someone introduced me to this piece of insanity. Before you watch the entire movie, this one scene is a definite CMOA

To end this post, I would recommend reading the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I claimed today before someone, that it lies in the same league as the Foundation series. A tall claim perhaps, but in hindsight, I really do think it is that good. Especially Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games are the sort of unappreciated jewels which makes SF the genre which can always surprise or inspire a devoted bibliophile.

‘Ere we go!

Greetings! It has been eight months. And so many events did come to pass that all writing was temporarily shelved. As you can probably calculate from earlier posts, intelligent reader, that my MS is over.

First please read this post in my friend Dinesh Kapur’s blog. It is quite brilliant.

Also these are the two published papers of mine archived on the internet [1] and [2]

They are linked to my Master’s project, read them if you are a little interested in cognitive science.

Before we continue to the main post (which will be short and completely random) there are a few important things I wish to inform, summarizing the last eight months (a poor excuse for eight posts, I know).

1. In January I did realize (too late) that 18 credits was insane.  I don’t know how I survived advanced compilers in spring, from thinking I would flunk in the beginning to getting an A at the end, events were completely not in my control. Regardless I got to code some hardcore C and also I became acquainted with the Linux environment. My machine learning project was quite sleep depriving as well. Let us not even get into what or how the MS project was.

2. My father passed away. In May end. Although I’m certain I have managed to inform most of you guys, this is for any friend left out of the loop. He was young and  it was completely unexpected and a bad shock. I was in India for five days in June first week, and I was in India for a month from June end to July end, after having taken care of all my degree requirements. If for some reason I haven’t been able to inform anyone in my immediate circle, my sincere apologies, stuff was quite chaotic at that time.

3. My PhD application got rejected. This happened in June mid. I had an inkling that this might happen due to the lack of significant work exp, and yet was completely unprepared emotionally. Naturally this coupled with the earlier thing left me practically nonfunctional for weeks, so I recovered my wits and have been looking for jobs since a month. The plan is to reapply for PhD some time in the future with loads of relevant work exp. Since my profile now is exponentially better with three published papers (not to say a 4.0 GPA from Gatech) I expect this time things ought to go correctly. I returned to Atlanta in August first week.

4. It seems May to August spelt doom for not only me but my gf. Due to circumstances beyond her control, she ended up in Infy of all places. Well it gave me a reason to visit Mysore for a week. The place seriously needs to get better autowallas (and an airport).

5. My graduation ceremony in August 6 was brilliant and sad. Brilliant because it was a Georgia Tech commencement (what else can you expect), sad because I missed my gf, my few friends and my mother a lot.

6. A lot of other stuff happened, especially in spring. I can write essays about the MS project but all that seems somewhat shallow now. A few other incidents happened which are best left alone. In short I had an interesting life the past eight months.

That takes care of the standard flashbacks. Moving on to a completely random topic

I got majorly acquainted with Warhammer 40k this year. Before ’09 I was a complete stranger to the game, but accidentally got into it, and thus got another random insanity into my hobby list. I’m quite addicted now, the fluff is addictive, thinking of buying and painting my own Tau army. The game is too big to describe here… You’ll just have to take my word that it defines awesome. The tvtropes page for warhammer 40k is just the place to introduce yourself to the franchise. After that wiki it for the details.

Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

In short the ‘good guys’ in WH40k are a race which will commit genocide or orbital bombardment if you don’t choose to join them, the others will just commit genocide without bothering to ask, eat you up, sterilize the surface of all life, or kill you for the fun of it. And the humans are for a change neither omnipotent, nor good, but as bad as the others. Then there are the SPESS MEHREENS Interested? find out more yourself. WH40k makes the Empire of Star Wars look weak.

It is the kind of universe where these guys are the comic relief

And I really do hope you all know what tvtropes is right?? That site is at times better than Wikipedia.

That is all folks, for now. I know this post was not up to scratch. Lot of things are happening, I’ll also get employed soon and there will be loads of interesting things to write about. Wishing you all pleasant times.

She got placed :D

So many things happened in the last 20 days, the Crowning Moment of Awesome was when my girlfriend got placed.

Interlaced with hilarious moments (Mom: “Gift nai dega use? Kanjoos! Mera stole hi le ja na..”) and the epic (10 seconds before the interview  “Jaldi bata 4G and 3G me farak kya hai…”) and the wonderful santra (I have never been more grateful to the plant citrus sinenis) , the whole thing contributed a lot to keeping the two of us grnning like a pair of mental cases for the time, and I suspect that she was as glad as I was after TCS, regardless of the fact she has absolutely no intentions of taking the job…

Anyway I’m glad the way all this happened, the reading egyptian stories bit, the condensed 10 minute lecture on ‘shorthand descriptions of modern philosophy’ given after eating tandoori chicken, the ‘get to know japanese history in two minutes’  etc etc

Bechare Sun Tzu ji ki to… The good old strategist has been responsible, yet again, for another victory!! I can only attempt to imagine the interviewer’s face, no one would have seen that coming. That was definitive, though. After hearing that, it was decided what would happen, the next day was a mere formality.

also ‘kosha mangsho’ is incredible to eat at times

Remember, Sun Tzu, Akhenaten, Khufu, Minamoto Yoritomo.. kabhi mat bhulna in sab uncles ko! (and Nefertiti ko to ekdum nai)

Thoughts on the new year

I wanted to experience the first day of 2010, before settling my thoughts for the last one and forming a list for this one. And yes, a happy new year to those I haven’t wished personally.

What did 2009 mean to me? It might be said that the last year was the most important one in the insignificant existence of this one. 2009 saw me graduating from bachelors. It saw me preparing to leave my country (and my beloved and hated city) for the first time in my life. 2009 saw me reaffirming certain plans with the woman who has been with me every inch of the long and weary way. The year saw me saying my very sad au revoir to her, and feeling as if the world is better off dead. 2009 saw me arrive at Georgia Tech, which is to be my home for some time, before I can return for good… 2009 saw me working my ass off, after taking overloaded subjects. It saw me planning to finish of the MS in one year to save money. It saw father being ill, and being in the intensive care… It saw me weak, not knowing what to do. It saw me only knowing how to work, the only thing I could do to make things right. 2009 saw me on long international calls, every day, and being online chatting every second not working. It saw my girl telling me that no matter what, things will go as we planned… Bantering at times with Manika and Avnish.. The year saw me learning insane amounts… It saw me, for the first time in my life, learning what I wanted to learn, being among the kind of people, who are a bit like me… It saw my heroics in the kitchen.. My transformation into a cook as good as my mother (or so I would like to think ). 2009 saw me getting a 4.0 gpa even with those ridiculously hard five subjects (and burning with envy at those who took just three)… 2009 saw me doing research, sprouting ideas like some mutated fern multiplying, coding away like crazy like I had never coded in my life, thinking for hours about AI, even while walking, and consequently bumping into things… It saw me recognizing my love for science is something still defining a large part of my being, my inability to do anything with my life but research… It saw me getting a project, getting funded as a GRA… 2009 saw me making plans for PhD.

And finally the year saw me returning. If for a few days, I don’t know what I would have done with myself if I hadn’t been able to come back. I guess I hate changes. Four and a half months were torture enough. These 20 days will help me survive the next six months. She is okay, fighting her own battles, winning and waiting. There isn’t a woman like her in the planet. Father is doing fine, and mother still somehow manages to ignore the scariness of the world.

2009 saw a really funny thing happen to my home while I wasn’t there. See, all my friends know the insane amount of locks we put in our house (more as a habit, we are poor, and I always felt 5 locks as overkill).. I leave for the US, and some idiotic burglar, who DID NOT DO RESEARCH, attempts his hand at our house. He was at it for 3 hours apparently, when father returned from the hospital one fine day. He tried to escape, but a mob of neighbours caught him, beat him to a pulp before handing him to the police. Poor fellow, 3 hours of effort, and all he did was get through 3 locks. Incompetent. And now we have put 7.

If you want to steal a few thousand rupees, please come again. Have a speed contest or something. So yeah, 2009 was interesting.

2010, will be very hard. 6 subjects next sem. Work. Longing. Hoping for the PhD application to get selected, every second. Writing loads of papers. Making certain, all friends are doing fine. Thinking about her, and parents, and home, all the time. Writing, and reading loads. Thinking through a few ideas about AI. Working on those ideas… I will become an MS in July , and hopefully start off on another journey… PhD will be something really worth writing about.

In defiance of objectivism, season’s greetings!

To start of I am a utilitarian. Politically, I favour extreme direct democracy, and till date I have no reason to doubt that honor demands (in this world of wants) that the Greater Good is kept paramount. I am not only a political utilitarian, but also an ethical utilitarian.

That said, my last four years (in undergrad college) witnessed the rapid affection (or affectation) our so-called ‘intellectual youth’ (I’m trying to be sarcastic here, people who aspire for MBA’s lose all right to the word intellectual) has displayed for extreme versions of libertarianism, namely they idolize Ayn Rand, and proclaim themselves ‘objectivist’. ‘Individualism’ (without even trying to understand the whole debate) is the new in thing in Indian colleges. Half baked, and mostly not understood, the ‘left’ is equated with poverty and idleness. Perhaps it is irritating, to see many people proclaiming themselves the nova messiah of the talented few against the lazy many. Just as it was irritating hearing the daily tirade of the laborous many against the bloodsucker few.

Hence, do not read further if you fit the description us rabble have of the ilk of ‘humans’ who worship Ayn Rand. I, and We, do not respect you.

My doubt, purely of an unscientific nature, many years ago, arose from hubris. Perhaps there was something to be said for ‘talent’ and ‘hard work’. Perhaps the successful are successful, by the dint of their own labour, there was a time in my life, when I too felt that I can leave the ‘trash’ behind. And seemingly, did so. And realized how deluded the normal college going student, drunk on the lies of Randian sophistry is, as soon as I tried something better. The only trash exists in your psyche. People need help. Period.

You see, I did ‘make it’. I’m currently pursuing my MS, to be followed by my PhD (if everything goes ok). I’m enjoying my life, working rather hard, and living my dream. In a place where everyone is my equal and most my betters. In a place where cooperation always yields golden results (even with people you can never agree with). The legendary clash of wills, supposed to be omnipresent among servitors of science, is either a myth, or a sad thing only to be taken in good humour.

Humans, rise exponentially, with the assistance of other humans. And humans are not wolves. Surprisingly you can count on most people to be decent, if not unselfish (and I, being a misanthrope, have started loving my species for this). Rousseau and Locke were right (you idiots out there who don’t read Locke, well you should, our species was lucky he was born human). And I realized the utmost futility of the current glorification of ‘logical selfishness’ in the USA. And that is all there to it. Glorification. Ayn Rand was a bigger case of self-serving megalomania than Karl Marx (at least Marx was a sound if a bit boring economist). At least in science, ten heads are always better than one.The irony of the situation is quite funny. The most ardent of individualists, are so due to hero(ine) worship! And what an example to worship at that. Honestly, I’m a bit embarrassed, the drivel she writes, purely from a literary standpoint, and yet I read two whole books trying to play devil’s advocate. Harry Potter has better things to teach our species. The Godfather is way better. No, Chacha Chaudhry is less presumptuous and more interesting than the ‘Fount’.

It is not human to be selfish. It is human, to constantly strive to be better than whatever or real or perceived flaws are. Surprise yourself this new year. The few has nothing to fear from the many, only from the other few, who manipulate the many. By fear and hate and self aggrandization. That includes the wackos of the whole political spectrum. On the other hand the many is a potent force. A beautiful thing at times. Even the Delhi metro crowd has a life of its own…

Why am I so against what is at best, an ideology? (I mean isn’t fascism worse) The reason is simple. It drags the rest of us down. What objectivism tries, nay, what its raison d’être becomes, is the presumption, that all humans are asses. That to compete is to survive. Poor Darwin would be spinning in his grave at the perversions these idiots (by which I mean all social darwinists) made out of a biological phenomenon. Even Nietzsche wasn’t this bad, he honestly wanted us to rise above ourselves. Rand on the other hand, would have been quite happy, had the whole world imploded, just to prove her right. Well it isn’t happening.

Avnish, Anthem was your fault. Candles??

Humans will survive. And prosper. By star trek they shall. (How can I resist, ‘The needs of many outweighing the needs of the few’). And we shall build crystal spires, wear togas, and vote. And go to pluto . We will get over the current crises, and through the millenia, create and solve new ones. For we are like cancer. But we are decent cancerous cells. We like our fellow cells to be happy.  And lazy and symbiotic though we may be (not parasites), we rise to challenges, have legendary amount of obstinacy, and are real badasses at the end of the day.

My Gatech experience verified a lot of things for me. Atlas, I double dare you. Shrug, and make my day. The joyous mob is more than fit to take over!

JFK Airport, New York: A lesson in persistence

While returning from Atlanta to Delhi, the route I had planned was the NY one, namely fly with Delta to JFK and take the AI flight to Delhi. Naturally the hard-earned staff tickets were to be used in this travel, namely a ‘ZED’ ticket till NY and a normal AI staff ticket from there to Delhi. To inform the reader who doesn’t know me personally, by AI I mean Air India, and the story of the ticket is another tragedy best heard and not read.

Anyway the Delta flight can be compared to a DTC ride, the flight was already full, I was number 41 of the standby list (of 41 entries ) and yet they managed to get me in. Ironically the seat I got was an empty double seat (so the other empty seat can be called seat number 42), so I probably was the most comfortable passenger in the economy section. Lady luck was smiling dangerously and that usually portends the fact that soon you will be screwed.

I reached JFK terminal 4 at 1030, and the flight was at 1600. I whiled my time away by various means till 12 and then stood at the counter. I was told at 1210 that the flight is overloaded, and staff tickets will not be accepted till 1430 when they will have an idea.. at 1445 they didn’t have their idea, at 1500 they were giving up, at 1510 the crew marched in, with their ‘families and friends’, a number of seats were ‘jumped’, thus effectively cutting off my chances.

Well I was devastated for a while. ‘Stranded at New York’ was not a promising prospect without any money with a snowstorm brewing up. I planned to get on the Mumbai flight at 2130 that day, and so waited for a couple of hours. By this time the mind as well as the flesh were feeling the results of low temperature and starvation.

As my brilliant fortune would have it, even the Mumbai flight was ‘overloaded’ with the free seats being ‘jumped’ on the crew’s request. Of course a poor staff ticket can’t compare with a captain’s priviledge…

Now the problem of how to pass the night at the airport (no alternative whatsoever) began to make itself visible to my already numbed brain. I ate some trash (it is not fast food) and well, slept (or tried sleeping) on cold, hard… (well you get the picture)

Naturally by this point, I was losing a little bit of my composure. The terminal was empty. I tried playing a few mental games I’m good at. I tried reflecting on the course of my life. I called up my gf a few times, remaining as phlegmatic as possible.

Morning arrived, now the wait was merely till midday. I ate some chocolates for trash wouldn’t have passed my throat again (McDonald’s should be banned and its owners and management board fed their stuff till they display remorse), by 12 I managed to meet the manager. By 1300 I heard a brilliant news that it was snowing a lot, I counted on it being a weekend, and the incoming flights being delayed to generate a few more free seats, which will not be ‘jumped’…

That is what happened, after one and a half day, I got my boarding pass… The flight itself was most interesting and deserves a post. Currently though I’m feeling too lazy, and I am in India till the 9th. Later then.

As the semster ends

I didn’t follow through my last post of restarting the blog. I am sorry, it was the old excuse to me of being too busy to write. Well, I was busy, no doubt, but the semester has ended, and the excuse has expired. So I will write. For now I can give a brief summary (in no chronological or otherwise order) of significant events that happened in my first semester at Georgia Tech

1. Did a fantastic project in storytelling AI. It was a group project and guess what, when it comes to SCIENCE I am capable of working with people I can’t agree with. Our group had one genius (the perfect coder type), me and one person who claims AI is bullshit, naturally sparks flew on all angles, regardless, in my opinion, we acquitted ourselves wonderfully, may even get a paper published.

2. Did another two fantastic projects with a most unique professor. Projects involved AI based medical diagnosis by analyzing stories of patients, and an interactive story system (see a pattern here.. )

3. Said professor has hired me as a GRA to do another exciting project nest semester (that doesn’t involve stories ).

4. This project will involve an AI analyzing simple drawings to decide whether the subject who drew them is fully competent mentally, thus a tool to the psychiatric profession. (So if I screw up you may be misdiagnosed as a mental case)

5. Hence got funded and saved parents a cartload of money.

6. Also, I had taken 15 credits on, due to interest in those subjects as well as monetary considerations (you pay for 12 max), I am proud to say my academic performance did not flag

7. In fact my gpa is 4.0

8. Taken 18 credits for the next semester, this is insane. however I am deliberately committing this insanity because

a. I want to finish me degree in an year

b. I like all those subjects

9. I realized on a large-scale how much I miss home and my gf. Indeed I am not a person who easily adapts to a change of surroundings. Stuff like the traffic in the wrong direction. The different smell of the water. The wierd weather. It all bothers me.

10. I realized how brilliant of a cook I am

11. In fact, I have informed my mother that in certain areas, I have surpassed her cooking. That is an achievement

12. My zeera fish curry has attained perfection

13. I am a decent housekeeper. My monthly expenses, including long calls to gf, didn’t exceed $100

14. I am not very clean, it was to be expected

15. I stopped writing, and doing poetry, that will be rectified

16. I love my gf and I love science, coming so far away reaffirmed all that. I even miss my parents. That was not expected. Hell I even miss Delhi and that was NOT expected.

17. I controlled my maggi addiction, seriously, just ate 15 packets of maggi in a semester.

18. I am applying for PhD, fall ’10. Hopefully that will be done by end of spring ’13.

19. I felt real proud doing all the tax work, related to my upcoming gra, myself. In fact I as thrown out of the social security administration office since I missed one document (the college screwed up not me) and even that was a unique experience. The first time in life being thrown out by a government official!

20. During my projects, I was forced to learn python, Prolog and lisp. I relearned large parts of MATLAB. In about two months. My KBAI project had 4 parts of c code, of 2500 lines. As I am not a good coder I had to struggle but managed. Which goes on to prove that humans often don’t realize how good they are till they come to this hell hole called georgia tech. Of course the rewards are commensurate with the efforts.

I will not write more today. Of course loads of other important events occured in the last four and a half months. From now on the blog is back in buisness.

Restarting the blog

Eight months have passed since I have written anything. These have been the most busy, wonderful, horrible, excruciatingly painful, stunningly glamorous… (I could go on and on)

A lot has happened. Yours truly almost didn’t get accepted in any  university and almost died of heartbreak (It was like getting rejected from IIT six times). At that time, I was at the nadir of my existence. Finally, after months of not wanting to wake up, I did get acceptances from Georgia Tech and North Carolina, so late that most people had already started their procedures. So I’ve been quite busy. And scared. Going to Gatech but it sure is expensive. The course is MSCS.

Made a second best friend. And was immediately caught up in a whirlwind of problems in her life which took some leaps of mental gymnastics sorting out. Like I say I don’t go courting trouble…

All exams went very well thankfully. Topped seventh sem and eighth was great too. I am an engineer now. Yayness. But is has been a very very long and wearisome road. I wouldn’t have liked it any other way though. Hell, I’ll miss my poor-excuse-of-a-mental-asylum-mistakenly-looking-like -a-college.

I never thought its possible to be this sentimental about things which haven’t contributed to a single atom of well being to your existence. But then, familiarity breeds needs I guess. Suffering from weird stomach aches whenever I think about the future.

I know what Liu Bei felt before leaving Xuzhou.

Last sem was horrible. Was taught by the most idiotic HOD the IT department ever had. Sinha sir will be missed. Good for him that he left the college. IJK has become even more of a psychopath.

Life was eventful and interesting. A most deplorable state of affairs. I hate it when life becomes interesting.

A lot of things will end now. College. The metro ride. ‘Acquaintances’ who never got to be friends. Plans never quite formulated. Standing at the c-block balcony and feeling the wind in my hair. The chronicles of Narina. Going to quizzes. Cursing IEEE bvp chapter (sidenote: my worst enemy got its cosmic retribution, they have Rahul Behl as their boss now)

I’ll also have regrets not finding out explanations of a few incidents in my life till now, when stuff happened without me figuring out the hows and whys. If I remember correctly this has happened three times. I do know I’ll probably never find out now, but I’ll always remember…

Also a final non conditional apology to all those, whom in my four years, I’ve wronged in act or speech. I’m well aware that its entirely possible that many regretted my existence, and likewise. I’ve tried leading a logical as well as unselfish existence, will try harder in the future.

And yes, for good or bad, I will never change. In a world where change is worshiped,  I wish to remain the only constant. Four years bowed before me, as will all time.

The blog has been officially restarted. It awaits the patronage of its former readers and others who deign to cast their eyes hither and their thoughts.

Star’s End

Its been ages now, and unlike DK I tend to be both irregular and prosiac…

Anyway, I’ve finally finished Agatha Christie. 70 novels are no mean feat and in the end even sordid murders had started to feel wearisome. I got tired of Poirot’s vanity and yet he is likeable. Miss Marple on the other hand was faintly repulsive from the very beginning.

One sentiment I thoroughly agree with AC, planned murders are idiotic. Even the cleverest murder is bound to be idiotic. A rational mind, if it fears, will find a way to safeguard itself, if it covets, will steal (its easy to steal legitimately) and if it hates, then life could be made much more painful than death. An impersonal killing, of course is even more pitiful, usually political, it is the mark of a failed cause.

Then I started on the Foundation trilogy by Asimov. I’ve also finished the side novels and the prequels. The series itself is excellent, but the sequels and the ‘Gaia’ bit… frankly Trevize was irritating and the timeline horribly patchy. It would have been quite simpler had Asimov kept Foundation a separate universe from the Robot series.

It was all very good, ho-humish, nothing of the LOTR scale though. Whenever there is the deux ex machina of too much telepathy going around I start getting wary (I adored the second foundation, it was Foundation’s Edge which started the whole new age Gaia mumbo jumbo).

Lastly, two books I’ve got to mention.

The most horrible book written by Agatha Christie (she went quite gaga after 70) would be ‘Passenger to Frankfurt’. Read it at your own peril if you want to get really bewildered after a bad day, you’ll start confusing hippies with skinheads and understand that the best solution to the worlds problems is spraying all the ‘violent young people’ with a magic gas that makes them ‘benevolent’.

The most interesting book she wrote would probably be ‘Death comes as the end’. Its a unique concept which hasn’t been copied too much…

That’s all. Future posts will attempt to be not this dry. Goodnight, or rather goodmorning.