By the grace of Kukulkaan!

Robin, had been driving me crazy, all morning, with these allusions to "the great god Kukulkaan". Now as we raced across the platform bridge at the station, my heart was in my mouth, and I was seriously hoping that we would not find poor Rumana, waiting there for us. As we ran, weaving through the sea of people, like a couple of C.I.A agents on a crowded ' D.C street, he turned back to me, in his flashy Ray-Bans and said, "Fear not o' little brother, for the great lord Kukulkaan is with us." By now I was furious, and had given up replying to these stupid Kukulkaan statements of his.

We reached the platform, racing, and out of breath. And like clockwork, just as we ran onto the platform, Rumana's train was pulling up, and I heaved a sigh of relief. She did not have to wait for us! Then Robin, again turned to me and said, "See? The might of the great lord Kukulkaan." Relieved and bemused, I laughed, and hollered back to him "You're crazy!"

Rumana stepped daintily out of the train carriage, looking pretty as ever, and fresh as a daisy. Robin, whooped with joy and lifted her up in a giant bear hug. I still panting, but relieved, and bemused by this whole Kukulkaan episode, chuckled to my self, "He is always, bang on time, and never lets her down. So this thing works, indeed! By the grace of the great god Kukulkaan!"

Gavin Harrison contd.

Just discovered this magical thing Gavin has done: listen to Porcupine Tree's song "Futile" from their album, with the same name. Check out the insane drum filling he starts from the 5:30 point of the song. It is "sick", or so to say, in Petrucci-forum lingo, and is going on a 15 beat pattern, complete with full on fast double bass triplets, china trashes, heavy cymbal work, and fast tom rolls. But thats not the magic! Now listen to the song "Way out of here" from their latest album, Fear of the Blank Planet (2007) . Carefully hear the drumming fill he does from the 4:47 point.

Magic isn't it? He, indeed, is a genius! I wonder how he does it. Two songs, two completely different timing patterns, two completely different tunes ... hats off, to my biggest inspiration. Fear of the Blank Planet is a brilliant album; well worth listening and trying to relate to.

Gavin Harrison

Gavin Harrison is not just a pro, but a pastmaster ; a wizard, and a master craftsman who weaves his grooves and brilliance around Porcupine Tree. His niche and style are simply unique and unreal ... as if, from a different plane altogether.

Completed!

"When the young Dawn with fingertips of rose
made heaven bright, the Trojan people massed
about Prince Hector's ritual fire.
All being gathered and assembled, first
they quenched the smoking pyre with tawny wine
where ever flames had licked their way, then friends
and brothers picked his white bones from the char
in sorrow, while the tears rolled down their cheeks.
In a golden urn they put the bones,
shrouding the urn with veiling of soft purple.
Then in a grave dug deep they placed it
and heaped it with great stones. The men were quick
to raise the death-mound, while in every quarter
look-outs were posted to ensure against
an Achaean surprise attack. When they had finished
raising the barrow, they returned to Illium,
where all sat down to banquet his honour
in the hall of Priam king.

So they performed
the funeral rite of Hector, tamer of horses."

And with this, I finish the Illiad ... it has been tough.

PS: Just got this wonderful sms from some random person (most prolly, it was one of you homies trying to play your immature, kid-tricks on me), claiming to be a girl, who wanted to get to know me:
"Always make your absence felt, in such a way that somebody misses you, but let not your absence be so long that somebody starts learning to live without you."

And now ...

Sorry I forgot to append ... and now I shall hit the sack, on those two goshawesome couches, right here, behind my desk!

A novel way to kill time

Hey people. Agreed, most of you all already know how vella and absolutely creative I am, when it comes to doing utterly unproductive things, but I just had to share this new discovery with you all. I discovered it last night, when I was listening to some music on my lappie. Doc was busy watching TV, and I was neither too inspired to read, nor too sleepy to sleep, so I just tried out this random thing, and to my delight, found that I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's quite a nifty way to kill time: What you have to do is listen to a song and try typing out the lyrics, while listening to it, as it progresses. Quite difficult to do, I accede, but nonetheless and very nice way to kill time, when you have absolutely nothing to do. A note of caution though, you have to be as mental AND vella enough as me, to be able to pull this off. For almost 99% of you, it will be a pain in the butt!!!
Right now, I'm at my desk, in office. The homies have, as expected found something better to do, which is playing pool (I really don't get the deal with indoor games?), and all I have here for company is Mr. Gagandeep Singh, who, in his customary style, is glued to the monitor with multiple Orkut and Gaim tabs open. I'm totally vella, so I figured, what better to do, than give you folks a live demo of my newly discovered pastime:
(The song I'm playing is my favourite MLTR number, called "Complicated Heart". Here we go ...)

Michael Learns to Rock - Complicated Heart

Don't know what to say now
I don't know where to stop
I don't know how to handle
A complicated heart
You tell me you are leaving
But I just have to say
Before you throw it all away

Even if you want to go alone
I will be waiting when you're coming home
If you need someone to ease the pain
You can lean on me
My love will still remain

Don't know what you're thinking
To me it seems quite tough
Tool of conversation
When words are not enough
So this is your decision
And there's nothing I can do
I can only say to you

Even if you want to go alone
I will be waiting when you're coming home
If you need someone to ease the pain
You can lean on me
My love will still remain

If this is your decision
And there is nothing I can do
I can only say to you

Even if you want to go alone
I will be waiting when you're coming home
If you need someone to ease the pain
You can lean on me
My love will still remain

Even if you want to go alone
I will still love you when tomorrow comes
When you need someone to ease the pain
You can lean on me
My love will still remain

Nailed it! Bang on! Didn't even have to replay the song at any stage; just went with the flow! Going at this rate, I shall reach Doc levels of typing speed and comprehension, in no time (God only forbid that I start talking like him too, lolz!) . But this song was easy to do, and I still have quite a long way to go, to improve my skills in this crazy department (I am yet to figure out why I am doing all this!) . For those of you who think you're up to it, I'll give you a challenge: do this with sliPknoT's "Spit it out", from their Iowa album. Or maybe MuDvAyNe's "Dig", from their L.D 50 album. You'll see stars!!!

PS: Today also marks a memorable day in my life, in that I got a successful bargain for the very first time. Normally I meekly agree to the shopkeeper's rates, like a sucker, but today, I was on a roll! Got myself a pair of Vic Firth 5As for just 450/- (starting quote 600/-) where you normally get them in Onstage Dehli for 650/-, flat rate !!! Call that a deal or what?!

Quotable quotes from last semster.

Here are some memorable quotes from last semester. A little about the last semester (6th semester of college) ... it was,in many ways, the MOST defining period of time, for all our lives. Most of us have sobered down, come of age and realized our true selves, the last semester. Boys became men. Here's how!
[CAUTION: If you are a girl, then PLEASE don't read this; I humbly beg of you ... please don't read this ... this is just between us guys ... please, please ... the language and thoughts here are pretty fouled up.]

Attachee: "You are a gem of a c******."
(To Talwar, when he claimed to be such a gem of a person.)

Attachee: "Kher ... everything pales in comparison to him!"
(To me, when he and Talwar were discussing what big c******s they were, and suddenly realized that I was in their midst.)

Moti: "Khol, b**** k* l***."
(To Attachee, when Attachee offered to give him a lift in his car, but then had to delay opening the door, because he had an incoming phone call.)

Talwar: "Kar le ..."
(To Attachee, when he asked Attachee whether he used to go to the gym, and Attachee, his ego slightly inflated, at the self-inferred [and absolutely incorrect] assumption that Talwar was admiring his physique, replied in the negative.)

Khullar:"Yahan par kitne bade, frustu losers hongey."
(Upon opening the "I'm single and loving it!" community on Orkut, which Attachee was a member of.)

Doc: "Join."
(Hypothesizing, Khullar's next move, following the previous quote.)

Me: "Tu stud hai, c******!"
(To Attachee, when he proclaimed himself to be the world's biggest c******, and I was trying to raise his spirits.)

Attachee: "Oh haan! Matlab, Shashwat totally talli ho kar, waiter banne ki fite maar raha tha!"
(To Khullar, Talwar and me, when we were discussing one of Moti's drunken exploits, and Attachee joined us halfway through the conversation, and made his own interpretation of what we were talking about, without having even the slightest iota of knowledge as to what we were actually talking about.)

Attachee: "Babes? Or the lack, thereof?"
(To Talwar, when Talwar wanted to talk about his experiences with "babes".)

Me: "Mein duniya ka sabse bada c****** hoon."
Talwar: "Mujhe to pata hai, ki mein world ka sabse bada stud hoon."
Attachee: "Aur mujhe pata hai, ki tum dono world ke sabse bade c****** ho."
(One of our usual conversations at nescafe.)

Sanjam: "Tujhe pata hai? Suar ka orgasm ek ghante ke liye hota hai!"
(When someone called him a pig.)

Moti: "Kash meri bandi single hoti."
(Moti, on his "bandi".)

Gagan: "Mujhe samajh mein nahin aaya. Meri bandi hogi, to woh single hi hogi."
(Upon reading the previous quote.)

I hope this gives you a fair idea, of the amazing intellectual level we operate at! Please excuse the foul language; it is an inevitable part of the IIT lingo.

Remember ...

"A man's got to be understanding, and put his wife before himself."
-Aunt May, from Spiderman 3.

I'll remember this ...

Uncle Skunk!

Uncle Skunk came to me, last night, in my dreams. I had been a wreck till then: tired, sleep-deprived, sad, depressed, out-of-luck, gloomy, philosophical, regretful and what not! I had almost reached breaking point. But then, he came along, in my dreams, while I was sleeping a troubled sleep, and he told me, in his usual, casual, relaxed panache, "Peace out my friend! Live your life happy and without regrets. Just be grateful for what you already have , and just wait and hope for the best in the future." And with that, he vanished!

I woke up from my sleep and went to the bathroom to splash my face with water. After that, I sat down and dwelled upon what he had said. And then bingo! It became all so clear to me. Uncle Skunk had been so damned right! I wiped the slate clean, washed off the muck and FINALLY got a peaceful night's sleep, after such a long time.

Thank you Uncle Skunk! I owe you big time; I've made my peace ...

To Sir, with love.

Hi Sir,
You don't know me, and I don't think you'll remember me, even when you see me. I was just one of those anonymous faces you see in your lectures everyday, and I really don't mind being that. I had just asked for your forgiveness, for an incident so trivial and irrelevant, that I doubted that you would remember to penalize me, in the first place. But you did. Very small and petty of you. It would have cost you nothing, to have just cleaned the slate, and removed the penalty. But no. You had to penalize me. I agree, it was my fault in the first place; I shouldn't have been doing what I had done, but its not like I didn't repent what I did. I tried to make up for it, and in the end asked for you to just simply forgive me. What would it have cost you?
And do you know what it has done to me? It has cost me a grade. No, I'm not going to bitch about grades or anything like that. But I had a plan, a dream ... I had worked it out meticulously, and all I needed for my whole life to shape out the way I had planned, was for you to just for you to just forgive me and give me that grade. Now, I'm more or less sunk. Its not like I'll not get a job or something like that, but now I guess I can bid BCG and McKenzie a bittersweet goodbye.
And no Sir, I'm not mad or bitter at you. I just pity that things are the way they are. And you know what? I have now found something, which means MUCH more to me than BCG or McKenzie or grades or anything in this world. So Sir, this is just to let you know, that I forgave you for what you've done, the day you did it, itself. No bad blood left, only pity. I pity you and your kind and I'm sad it has to be the way it is. I wish things could have been better for you.

Sincerest regards,
Shamir.
Entry No: 2004CS101087

What a mess!

JUST turned the WHOLE goddamn house upside down, to look for the two recovery DVDs for my lappie ... WHAT a wondrous mess I've made, I just can't describe it ... DAMN! CAN'T wait for mom to get back, her hysterics are gonna be KILLER!

*evil laugh mwuhahahahaha ...

PS: Now playing: Guthrie Govan - Ner ner

End of chapter

Never do the wrong thing ... it will not work ... it will kill your soul and screw up your peace of mind ... at least, if you are a person of some morals and ethics. NEVER freeload on anyone, and NEVER take anyone for granted; take it from the horse's mouth. And with this, I end this brief chapter and rather torturous chapter of my life; I thought that, like some other folks, I could do it and get away with it. You can get away with it all right, but then losing friends, having a heavy conciense and not getting any sleep from it, is just not worth it.

... NEVER again. Forgive me my friend.

Third semester memories ...

Just stumbled across this (relatively) true story I wrote in my third semester of college. Ah! The good ol' days, when I was a fool, blissfully frittering my time away in the hostel, totally oblivious to the bigger issues in life. I really enjoyed those days, and look back upon them with fondness, though I now regret having been such a wastrel then. What I've written makes for VERY interesting reading, and even I found myself chuckling at certain parts of it. Here it is:


It had all started the previous night. Had I looked up and seen the gloomy grey skies above me, metaphorically speaking that is, I would have at least skipped all the lectures the next day to postpone the impending doom (or plethora of dooms, should I say?) to some other (maybe more sunny) day. But the previous night I had been under the irresistible spell of AOE. And when you are under the irresistible spell of AOE, not even the mightiest tempest nor the most thunderous earthquake can root you from the hotseat in front of the computer (all you AOE players will understand me, and those who don't, had better try out AOE, to get what I mean). And when you are blissfully immersed in building and defending your empire against your competitors
(in AOE I mean!) , all the forthcoming disasters of the world seem to be very very far off and absurd.Even if Satan himself were screaming in your ears, that the sword of Damocles was hanging above your head, you wouldn't acknowledge it until, maybe, one of those pikemen very politely pointed it out to you.And so there I was, battling it out, with my pals Moti and Doc, for supremacy, in a random land map (as I said you'd better be brushing up your AOE knowledge!) completely oblivious to the disasters waiting to happen the next day.


A very normal AOE multiplayer game in an IIT hostel lasts at least two hours (if the players are good enough, and not intending to boast, I'm pretty okay too!) , and a very normal time for it to start is at around one o'clock in the morning.This AOE game so happened to be a very normal AOE game.So it was almost dawn when I went to sleep, blissfully dreaming of pikemen and
Persian war elephants ...


... I woke up at nine thirty the next morning, sorry, the same morning, when Doc nearly broke my room's door down, banging and kicking it, hollering for me to wake up and take the bad news from the horse's mouth please?


Before I proceed with my narrative on the first piece of bad news, destined to reach my ears, I would like to mention one very important ability of Doc's: his (seemingly impossible!) ability to spend the whole night up, awake, and then attend all the lectures, even the torturous A and C slot ones at eight, the next, sorry (again, I forget!) the same morning! Well even if he doesn't spend the ENTIRE night awake, he doesn't sleep for more than a token two to three hours as opposed to the regular eight advised by the doctor. There have been certain mornings when I have happened to attend the morning lectures, and very rare though they may be, they have given me the opportunity to see him attend these lectures. If the lecture is at eight, he will get up at seven thirty in the morning. Since he has slept only a few hours, his sleep deprived body has virtually been raped to the core and he gropes around the place sleepily, like my friend Dhakkan very aptly describes, a "zombie". He seems to be dazed and confused and all his actions seems to be very mechanical. He'll sleepily brush up and sleepily get into his clothes, and then proceed for the lecture. No bath, no toilet, no shave, no nothing ... Its as though some chip has been implanted in his brain giving him one and only one instruction: "must attend class,must attend class,must attend ... "!


Now don't let this soldier like dedication impress you! Because there is only one thing that Doc does in the lectures ... sleep! Yes, he attends lectures to sleep. You show me one lecture where he is not sleeping, and I'll eat my hat! Oh, yes, he also attends lectures to mark our "proxies".


By mid morning however, Doc manages to recover from his dazed and sleepy stupor. That's when you should see him in action: the quality of spontaneous jokes and sarcastic remarks, that he comes out with, are really remarkable, and worth listening to. This of course is accompanied by the usual paroxysms of rage emanating from the unfortunate victim of his ridicule,which is usually Moti or Dhakkan. Well I guess I'm straying from the topic ...


The aforementioned "proxies" lead me to the first of the disasters that happened that day. As I said, I was rudely awakened by Doc, with this horrible news. He had, as usual like a zombie, attended the eight o'clock lecture, marked our proxies and then, in his customary style, gone off to sleep. But it so happened that the prof. had finished evaluating our minor papers and distributed them at the end of the class. He then chose this, of all the godforsaken days, to pull out the usual trump card trick that professors have, to catch proxies: he tallied the students who collected the papers with the attendance sheet, and so caught all the proxies. Now this Prof was one tough, mean character to deal with, and he promised all of us, proxiers, an attendance "F" and boy, when he said attendance "F", he really MEANT an attendance "F", no arguments , no excuses! So there I was, I had slept through the first "F" grade of my degree! Please take note of the fact that I have carefully sidelined the issue of how I had done in that minor. Well, it only adds to the agony...


As this shocking news was sinking into me, I got about getting ready to attend the next lecture (it's really amazing how guilt psychology works: this shocking information, had pricked me enough to attend the next lecture, one in which I was yet to see the professor's face!). A small consolation was the fact that Moti was in the same boat as me (having shattered my peaceful morning sleep, Doc had now proceeded to shatter Moti's too with the news of the proxy incident!). To add to my frustrations, there was no water in the bathrooms. That's one disadvantage of staying one floor below the freshers, because the freshers, in all their earnestness to attend classes, have their baths and wash their clothes early in the morning (the whole lot of them) so that by the time we "early birds" get up, there's no water left in the overhead tanks. So I had to attend the next lecture without having a bath. I couldn't even wash my face or brush my teeth, for crying out loud! And believe me, you can't feel more sick with yourself when you have to attend a mid-morning lecture on a hot summer's day, without so much as even washing your face, and with the thought that you've have failed a course, hanging heavy on your head!


But there was more to come ...


The prof of this next lecture had also finished correcting the minor papers. Boy! When these minor results are out, they all seem to attack you at once, as though there is some conspiracy
to give you all the bad news (the marks I mean) in one fell swoop. Now before that minor, I had had a bet with my chum Nanga that I would fare better than him in this subject. Now, Nanga and I are constantly at loggerheads, as to who is the dumber of the two of us: him of me? I am still of the opinion that Nanga doesn't even deserve to be in an IIT! Unfortunately, Nanga fared better than me in this minor. Just how this happened don't ask me but now, I owed him fifty of the best bucks from my pocket.To add to my misery, I had scored a measly two out of thirty in this minor, severely eroding the foundations of my confidence, in my ability to get through minors without studying. The look that the prof had cast at me, when handing out my answer sheet, had been one of murder ...


After having finished my lunch (Man! It was one slow, long and mean lunch, what with all the "great news" I had received thus far!) I suddenly remembered, with a sinking feeling, that today was a Monday. And on Mondays I had my lab in the afternoon. And I had not completed my practical record ... Not started it ... Not even given it a thought! I hadn't even bought the goddamned file! I rushed to the nearest stationary shop and bought myself a file. I returned to my room , grabbed my pal, Atthi's lab rec, and hurriedly copied his experiment. Every word of it was copied straight off. No changes, just a pure, unadulterated carbon copy of whatever he had written.


Well, now it's easy for you to guess what happened next. Yes, the prof. very diligently corrected the prac files, and caught me for copying the experiment, word for word, from Atthi's file. Two grades down for me in that course, straight off!No arguments, no explanations, no nothing (I don't know, but I seem to have used this expression somewhere else too?!).


That lab was a torturous one! We had to design an electrical circuit which was supposed to do ... I don't know what! The fool that I was, I had chosen Nayyar (a much less responsible person than me, which is not saying much!) , as my lab partner. Nayyar was an expert at getting through this lab. All he had to do was come one hour late, tell the prof that he was not feeling well, and leave immediately, leaving me with the dog's work of cutting and fitting wires onto the circuit (You see, unlike Nayyar I am a goofbag when it comes to making excuses to sham work! It always ends up messily with me). And believe me, four hours of cutting and fitting wires onto a breadboard really saps you. It kills your senses, saturates your brain, and turns you into a zapped corpse; your hands don't move, your brain doesn't function, your lungs don't breathe and you really begin to wonder if everything is real or not. And to top it all, after all the hard work that you've put in ... the circuit invariably doesn't work! When THAT happens, you just feel like jumping out of the window of the lab (which is on the third floor, by the way!).


That evening, dejected, traumatised, scarred, bruised, frustrated, and what not, I returned to my room. I started playing the song which seemed to have summed up my feelings at that point of time : "People=shit" by Slipknot, on full volume. And then ... I saw Doc, Moti, Dhakkan, Rav and the gang returning from class with their own woes. And then I thought of my pals, my lovely hostel, the lovely campus around me, our lovely MS and departmental blocks and the state of the art facilities I was getting here. Did I deserve to be here? And then there was only one thing that came to my mind after that:

MAN, AM I LUCKY TO BE IN IITD DELHI OR WHAT????!!!!

Not bad for a third semester nicomcoop to be writing this, aye? I hope you people enjoyed it? I dunno, I certainly loved reliving the old days, reading this article. Note though, this story provides a unique insight into the mind and mental process of a typical, decent performing IITD student ... always bitching about grades, living the wasteful hostel life of AOE and nightouts, being very close to a tight circle of friends, using stupid sounding nicknames ... lol! Ah! What a fool I was back then ...

... time flies and people change!