Dear 1:34 am

Nice weather we are having, aren't we?
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Ah well, I knew that that pathetic effort at a nonchalant hi-how-are-you-yeah-i-haven't-asked-of-you-for-a-lifetime would fall flat/splat on its face/space. You know, I am actually trying to write this using html tags. You should at least give me some credit for tha...all right, all right, no need to throw things now, is there? See? Me? Here? On my knees? Saying sorry? See? See?

Right! Let me straighten my bow tie a bit now. And no, bow ties are cool. The latest from Gallifrey, it is. Even StartThis says so. Nope, I'm keeping me bow tie.

First of all, Science Day is over! Well, if you didn't know of this that can hardly be constituted as my fault, can it? It was all over the web. Science Day @ IMSc 2011! On 27 Feb! From 8 am! We even had our own web page --> Science Day @ IMSc! So what in azure blazed were you cribbing about, eh?

Yeah, we had a blast. We had a blast last year as well. This time one of the coolest things (apart from my bow tie, of course) was our Elephant Toothpaste experiment! Wait up, I'll put up pics of that on the site soon enough. And, I also invite you to the program next year: believe me, it is a blast (or did I use that word before)!

I was talking to RA this afternoon at tea about engineering, clerkship and science. Rancho would understand: it was he who said that it is rather stupid to learn the marvelous aspects of engineering for four years and then throw it all away to do an MBA and then become a banker. Of course, he did not quite work it out that the banker in question is also the "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history (TM)". The world moves on. Before Independence (or something like that), Indian boys had star-struck ideas of being clerks in British offices, and a clerk-babu was a superstar. Funny how history repeats itself.

Have to be honest: I had quite forgotten (damn, I just lost The Game, sorry SP) about you. And would you please not throw any more cultlery, they tend to be sharp. And yes, cultlery should have been sick (sic), but who in Gallifrey cares anyway. I think you need to give your sincerest thanks to someone who belongs to none, and you need to do this at least two hundred and four times, and maximum nBones-2 times.

Righto then, I reckon I've spent enough time with you for the time being. Back to Nicole's adventures then! Seeya later, 1:34 am.

Of Insanity and the World

August 6, 2009.

September 9, 2010.

That is a long time.

That is about to change.

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Two things that caught my eye in the past few days. Well, two themes, actually.

1) Of madness, insanity and the society of the modern homo sapiens sapiens:

I am currently reading, outside of my academic work, two novels that are connected in more ways than one. One of them is Catch-22, the other is Foucault's Pendulum. Granted, it is perhaps not such a bright idea to take on both these giants together, but somehow it feels right. It will take me some time to get through them, and I hope to have a blog post afterwards about them, but for now, let me just quote one passage from Catch-22 which captures the meaning of the title, and the purpose, of the book pretty well:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

'That's some catch, that Catch-22,' he observed.

'It's the best there is,' Doc Daneeka agreed.

2) Of the Environment, Consumerism, Capitalism and Anti-capitalism:

This video by former Greenpeace activist Annie Leonard was referred to me by Madhushree. I found that there is a series of four videos by Youtube user Lee Doren debunking, or at least trying to, the Story of Stuff video. Here are the links: 1, 2, 3, 4.

I think it is worthwhile to hear both sides of the story, and then if you have the time or the inclination, to look up some of the facts and counter-facts that these people are citing. Personally, I think it is true that we, as a species, are becoming more homo sapiens consumeris every day. I also agree with Leonard's argument about the non-sustenability of a linear chain with one source and one sink, none of which are ideal reservoirs (by reservoir I mean a system with infinite resources). On this point, I think Doren's argument that the resources of the Earth are not finite because the Earth is so big a bit naive. True, the Earth is big. And it has a lot of resources. But are those resources actually extractable? Do we have the technology to be able to do that? Also, if we take, for the sake of argument, that the Earth is an Ideal Source, is it also an Ideal Sink? How much can we exploit it anyway, before it reaches the breaking point? I also do not agree with Doren's hypothesis (I say so, because that is what it is) that price rise will automatically ensure that resources will be rationed. Right! But something else also increases with price, and that is the Cost of Living Index. We can afford to buy petrol nowadays at something like Rs 50/- per litre, while it only cost about half as much twenty years back (not sure about the stats), because our salaries have also increased over the past twenty years, in tandem with the rise of prices. It is a vicious circle: the rise of prices of everyday goods (or is it consumables nowadays) prompts a raise --> a raise implies that we buy more --> the feedback mechanism is activated, and the prices rise because (a) we can afford it and (b) there is greater demand and the same level of supply.

Anyway, too much talk on my behalf. I might say more later, but please do feel free to comment. And the reason I clubbed my discussion on the Story of Stuff with that of the two books is that, in my opinion (and which is not entirely formed yet), they have the same underlying cause/theme.

P.S. Let me clarify that I have not seen all the four parts of Doren's videos yet, but hope to do so soon.

Hail Zoya!

Just watched "Luck by Chance".

When the pre-release promos for this movie came out, I thought this is a movie I should watch. Reasons:
a) The plot sounded interesting...thoda hatke.
b) Farhan akhtar..."Rock On!" showed that this guy is a multi-talent. Singer, director and now actor. And he can act.
c) Of course, Konkona. I have been a fan of this lady's mother Aparna for as long as I can remember. But boy, she is better. Not a heroine...an actress. And a fantastic one at that.

I got negative reviews from friends who had seen this movie. Slow hai, booring hai yaar. So I refrained from watching it. Until tonight.

Adhering to my motto (KISS, in case you didn't know), I can say that I liked the film. Nay, I loved it. Amazing movie. Amazing screenplay. Amazing camera-work. And amazing acting. Hope to write a more coherent review later, along with my other pending reviews of The Dark Knight and Harry Potter 6.

Here's hoping for the best and...a toast to the Akhtars! You guys rock! :)

Extreme contrast at Matscience

A contrast of the reigning hair-styles at Matscience. I should have taken this picture a few days ago, right after Prem returned from Tirupati. But his shadowy pate still contrasts well with Rajeev's nine-month-long labour, pun unintended.

Rain

kokhon kobe kothaye kishe
pother dhare matiye mishe
rongin paare jhilik kete
ramdhonura bejaye sheje
shobdo tule moshmoshiye
megho-dadu bojrobeshe
tapur-tupur mishti henshe
bishti-didi nupur bajiye
aashen shobe jhomjhomiye
ei sraboner deshe

Something I wrote while jobless and very sleepy some time back. Thought I would put it up here and be embarassed. The "poem", if you can call it that, is in Bangla. It tells how the rains and the clouds and the rainbows come to visit us during the rainy season. This stems from my own love for the rainy season, of which I hope to write about in these pages soon.

SINGGHHH IS KINGGG ... MAMATA WINS JANATA

When we were kids, we used to randomly shout "Statue" at random people (of our size, obviously). The hapless person would then have to stay unmoving (unblinking, if possible) until someone would say "Move". I was rather amused when the same thing happened to one of our esteemed political leaders this time around...rather appropriately too, one might gather.
I had reckoned that it would be a close fight. While I don't follow politics very closely (and I rarely switch on the telly nowadays) I had kept an occasional eye on the papers which, coupled with the exit polls, led me to believe that there could be a hung parliament this time around. However, it seemed the exit poll pundits were destined to join the Astrologers and Weather Forecasters' club. India voted for stability. The blue turban will once again lead this country.
I was a bit worried about the statement i made in the previous paragraph, the "India voted for stability" part. It seems weird how local groups of people having different loyalties would be able to spontaneously synchronize themselves in such a manner. Maybe this point needs careful analysis.
Thanks to Nandigram and Singur, I expected the Left vote-share to decrease somewhat. I expected Mamata Banerjee to at least reach double figures after the debacle last time. What I did not expect (and what I guess most people did not) was the Left getting steamrolled in this fashion---both in Kerala and West Bengal. Does this mean we shall see change in the Writers' post-2011, or is it simply a setback for the Red Brigade; one which will be dealt with the next time around---with classic Left efficiency? That my friend, is a 24-karat question.

The Museum of Bad Art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Bad_Art

This is priceless! :D

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