r.i.p. no more

resting in pieces, indeed.
that's what we seem to have been doing lately..
i'm one to speak, considering i haven't bothered picking up the pieces here for a really long time.
until now that is.
and the song seems to be pretty ominous of that very fact.
been caught up with a lot of things for a long time to think of Life @ BIT.

but it's time once again.
time to get back to THiNKing, which was lying dormant for quite sometime now.
time to get back to being a BITian.
time to get back to those halls.
and miss those classes whiling away time in the canteen
as the lioness was saying a minute ago,
only time will tell.
----------------
Now playing:
Pink Floyd - Coming Back To Life

myDilemma

We often pride ourselves on the struggles that we've faced, and hurdles which we've passed with great difficulty.. They remind us of some of our greatest triumphs and make us feel good..
It actually feeds the desire to feel good about ourselves.. always.. a constant yearning to see ourselves as a hero or an achiever..
And often, this desire leads us to take up every small difficulty that we face as a big challenge - as if there won't be a tomorrow if we fail..
True, consistent failure is never good, but then such overt exaggeration of every adverse situation, however small, has it's penalties.. most of which scar us for life..

Of late, I have faced with a dilemma.. Am I one of those unfortunate souls who takes everything as a Win-Lose situation?
My closest friend once remarked-You see cake in everything.. Very true.. I hate losing.. Everything I do, reeks of a competitive outlook - I have to win.. I can't lose..
And that has created a lot of strife in my life..

Every dealing that have with another person, I seem to be intent on taking advantage of the other person - for fear of being taken advantage of...
Have lost a lot of friends that way..
Every moment that I spend with people, I have to prove myself to be the best..
I don't care if it makes me seem immature, but the innate feeling has to be sated..

Long ago.. I'd read somewhere-Life wasn't meant to be fair..
And it hasn't been exactly the fairest.. There have been situations which I still feel should have gone my way.. And I keep dwelling on them.. Depressed..
Am I right in doing so?

There have been several opportunities that I've missed, and they've hurt me..
But then it's been those opportunities, which according to me have been snatched away from me, that hurt the most..
I still feel that I could have grabbed them, if only I'd had some time..
And I still plod on the path to snatching back that opportunity.. Is it delusion?
I don't know.. And contrary to many close people's views - I do care..

Am I right in pursuing my life in the field of computers ? - I sometimes wonder..
After all, I'm a mechanical engineer (on paper, though)..
And then again, I remember Google and those interviews.. Every moment of it is etched in my mind.. It infuses a new energy in me.. to strive for that pinnacle in the silicon world, which I've always dreamt of..

Am I right in fighting for such things?
Am I right in still hoping to repair certain damages that I've inflicted on people, even though deep down I know that the damage is irreparable?
Am I naive in believing in the old age adage of "Time heals all wounds" ?
Is it not folly to be continually hoping for my lost love to come back to me?

And am I going mad?
-ONE
...every war has it's casualties,
every victory it's price...

mLife1.3@infosys.com

WHOA!

As I "graduated" from college life to corporate life, life did a complete about-face...

My mother summed it up in 1 sentence - "What I couldn't achieve in 5 years, Infy's done it in less than 5 days"

She was referring to my habit of waking through the nights, sleeping only when the wee hours of morning had approached (She doesn't know this, but most of my college life, my average sleeping time was 8 am)... And now: I wake up at 6 am!

And there's more surprise in store... When do I sleep? 10 pm... Aargh! During the initial weeks I used to feel as if ALL my freedom's been bound by this monster called "corporate" life... I was almost mouthing to myself every time I adhered to this "insane" timetable - They better pay me well for it...

As the first month of my employment draws to a close, I wonder HOW on Earth I could follow the college lifestyle...

Staying up past midnight is a nightmare - Apart from being late for work the next day, my (frail) body would have succumbed to the day's tiring schedule...
And it is beginning to feel good..
We just got a mock projet to work on, and frankly, it's pretty exciting seeing that i'm the only one in class who's accomplishing loads.. Most of the folks can't even figure out what they're supposed to do in their module... hahaha!

Sometimes I am faced with the question - Has my life taken a turn for the better or worse?
Well... true, I don't have those buddies with whom you could spend endless hours atop the hostel terrace, doing all sorts of things...
Nor do I have the luxury of bunking a couple of classes just because I feel like resting my limbs a bit more.. or play a couple more CS rounds...
But then, I'm getting paid (grin).... and that too for doing what I LOVE doing...
And then, this lifestyle has taught me discipline....
yeah you read right.. I concede defeat... ONE does need discipline in one's life sometime or the other...
and of course, you feel smarter, and feel like belonging to the elite.. heh heh.. I know it's just up in the head, but it's a good feeling nevertheless...

So long...
CS beckons.. I gotta go...
Ohh.. I forgot to tell you.. we're allowed to play CS here too... :P

-ONE
Winning isn't everything.
It's the only thing :P

Ride through BIT Mesra

Nostalgic to say the least- especially on the road to Outer Canteen. This video comes up 3rd on youtube when searching for BIT Mesra.

Movie Mania (Again)

Hullo ppl...
I just spent three absolutely freaking days (and nights) on campus...
No work, no respite from the rain, as well as the insects...
So, I sat down with a TROLL to watch a few movies... thought I might share my views...

Let's tackle the summer releases (sequels - all) first:
Spiderman 3
There's nothing in this movie except some spectacular stunts...
No story.. No drama.. fultoo timepass for those who have pickled their brains in a jar...

Shrek 3
I closed Windows Media Player before the 20th minute... And this, from a hardcore Shrek fan...
Somehow, no sequel should've been made after shrek 2... though those flying donk-dragons did make for a delightful sight...

Pirates of the Carribean - At World's end
WHOA!!!
Caought me by a storm.. Keira Knightly behaves every bit of her babe-without-brains part with elan.. though where exactly she looked like a babe, is a complete mystery...
And she looks to lay every second guy she meets, at least she does make a move on James Norrington, a stupid git of a Brit (come to think of it, most Brits ARE gits), Captain Jack Sparrow (this guy, having learnt his lesson, firmly pulls back and says,'Please.. Once was enough..') and strikes gold with her equally retarded mate-Orlando Bloom...
The movie is so full of double crosses, that you lose track of when which character is double crossing whom and for what reason...
sometimes you're left wondering-What the HELL is going on?
And in the end, all you remember is how Johny Depp carried off the entire movie on his own...
Truly, without him, this probably would've been worse off than Spiderman 3..
Peanuts strung all over his hair.. licking his own brain.. the Black Pearl teming with scores of Jack Sparrow(s).. trying to turn over the ship.. fainting at the sight of a crab.. phoow
The list of his antics just go on..
He's the life of the movie..
If you ain't watched this movie.. you're missing something...

The Sentinel
Another Michael Douglas flick.. typical CIA, SIS, SSA stuff.. He's framed and he comes clean at the end.. End of story.
But the movie's been shot well, drama's good, action's not overdone.. all-in-all a good experience..

Perfume-The Story of a Murderer
This one was strange..
Some poor orphan, who could detect any kind of smell, except his own... and his ambition was to create that one smell which could make the world fall at it's feet...
Apparently, every perfume is composed of 12 chords(smells).. and when a rare 13th chord is added to it, it's smell gives you a glimpse of paradise n bliss.. now, perfume makers have got those 12 chords, it's the 13th chord that's missing.. and he finally gets it right...
Very unusual story, a bit darkish, gross in parts..
Was a good watch though..

K-Pax
Another WHOA!!
This time, it's the master-Kevin Spacey-who's from outer space, travels at a speed of 6c (yeah.. that c=3,00,000 km/s).. and the whole story revolves around him.. There isn't much happening in ter,ms of a plot/storyline etc.. but the movie was a treat to watch.. simply bcoz the master was at work..

Elektra
Now, I'm not sure what EXACTLY the movie was about.. but there's loads of fighting, myth/legend.. and the babe's DAMN hot.. that makes it a must watch ;)

Stargate
Remember Klits? of the Girl-Next-Door fame?
Well.. he's our hero.. Kurt Russel's just a sidekick..
Apparently some alien landed on earth somewhere around 8000 BC, looking for a life form that could sustain it's soul, and finds the Egyptian kids to be perfect.. and leaves behind a StarGate - a pathway through which intergalactic transfers of children could be made..
So, it is the job of these Secret Service/Military (The movie never makes it clear who they are) people send a recon mission to take back any humans from the 'other' galaxy.. the movie's complete science fiction.. too far-fetched.. and there are no subtitles for the foreign language (ancient Egyptian)..
So, there you go..
If you got absolutely nothing to go with your afternoon meal, you could consider eating alone rather than watching this movie..

Catch ya guys later...
-ONE
Hold on to your dreams
Do not let them die
We are helpless without them
Birds that cannot fly

mLife 1.1

Having been on campus for the last week and half..
I have been introspecting hard and long, given the enormous amounts of leisure time at hand, about what I have achieved so far in my existence..
Starting as a kid, I was innocent to a fault..
And for a surprisingly long time, till my adolescence, I remained absolutely naive about worldly matters.. believing that every human was fair, just and malice was unknown to me..

Then started the pangs of teenage, and during all of 7 years, I went through all the trials and tribulations that every teenager goes through..
Had my fair share of crushes, betrayal, rough dealings with thuggish peers, lying through your teeth..
Was academically good though.. mind you..
Two board exams with more than decent marks, and I was feeling on top of the world when I was preparing for my Engineering Entrance exams..
IIT JEE was a nightmare..
AIEEE provided some respite..
And I landed up in BIT, Mesra.

That is when it all started.
Completely carefree, this was when and where my life took a sea change..
My own funda of doing my own thing, no matter what the cost was, led to several ups and downs - some of which still continue to haunt me..
It was the present moment that mattered most to me - If I felt like doing something, I HAD to do it..
I'd not give a thought about what the consequences would be.. Was ready to accept responsibility for my own actions.
Easier said than done.
Never before had I known how tough it is to face your own actions..
Conscience was always needling you with doubts whether the path I'd chosen was good or not..
But temptation led me on my path, and I gave in to it.. completely..
The first victim were my grades.. from ok-types to absolutely average, my grades steadily declined.. but the lure of AOE and the absolute freedom of night-life kept me hooked..
By the time I'd reached 3rd year, all my principles went down down the drain...
Except for some macabre bundle of ethics that I possessed and took pride in (Which was the major factor in endearing me to a great many people, despite my eccentric and sometimes foolish behaviour) I had NOTHING left that I could take pride in as a human being.


Meantime, I re-discovered my passion for programing, and endless hours were spent in front of the computer. Armed with the conviction that talent NEVER goes unrewarded when the right amount of hard work is put in, I was foolish enough to NOT apply the same funda to my acads.
Day-by-day my grades went down, as my coding skills improved.
Home front was deteriorating, and i was getting increasingly estranged from my folks..
Entering the final year, my life looked in a mess.. and the coming placements seemed the only way to give some purpose and direction to my life.
Given my current lifestyle, I had just ONE question-"Can I do it?"

More of this later..
-ONE
Every man has but one destiny. I don't know mine :(

LOSLI : 1

I believe that the most important thing in life is the journey. The one that begins at our birth and ends with our death. I believe that what we do in this small, irrelevant (only in the cosmic scheme of things way) amount of time is something that matters a lot. In totality. In every sense. To us. To our Existence.

What I'm talking about here is this: The small amount of time we spend on this planet is limited. We are born not knowing anything, with a little time to change things here & there. My point is, is it worth spending this lifetime we get, in pursuit of rather narrow, limited, conceited, self-centered goals that we fix early on in life with neither the knowledge to make the decisions nor the foresight to think about it.

Here I am right now, sitting on a bench on the railway station, for seven odd hours, stuck between changing trains. And I wonder about many things. Like the five or so hours that remains. About the aspects of life one see from the sidelines. About a sweetheart friend who has finally finished her engineering and with whom i won't be spending sinful moments gulping hot delicacies from the roadside stalls in Ranchi.

LOSLI : 0

On my way back home for the winter vacations, I managed to get myself stranded for seven straight hours on THE most enthralling of all places to be: New Delhi Railway Station, Platform 1, Bench 36. After an hour or so of cursing my luck, I finally settled down to writing. What resulted is here before you now. I give you

Life or Something Like It

:

An agony in 17 fits

In small, easily digestible servings, which shall be henceforth referred to as LOSLI.

Why THiNK………….

First think about your web-life. Has it not changed rapidly? You no longer mail friends…..you drop by scraps. Your photos are up for display to the world. You have suddenly started preferring random videos on YOUtube to chat shows with famous personalities. Where do you go looking for information, not Britannica but wikipedia. Firefox and Linux spreading like wildfire. And the biggest one of ‘em all……THE BLOG.

WHY?

Because, as Time magazine suggests, the spotlight has shifted to YOU. We don’t want to listen to the general on a news channel briefing us about the situation on the warfront when we have a soldier pouring his heart out on a blog.

We don’t want one professionally made movies anymore……some moron with a camera filming an average day in his dorm seems much more interesting.

We don’t want telephone calls or even e-mails when social networking rocks.

GLORIFYING MEDIOCRACY???

Are bloggers just a bunch of wannabe writers doling out crap about non-consequential things? Should a regular Joe be allowed to tamper with the baap of all information- the encyclopedia? What is so good about the amateurish video clips the world is going crazy about?

I SAY,NO

Because blogs, wikipedia, YOUtube and the gazillion social networks are not trampling upon the already existing ways of information interchange. They are carving a new space for themselves, an alternative. And like it or not everybody riding this wave( now officially called WEB 2.0….though nothing official about it!) is lovin’ it. We have lived linearly too long relying on a bunch of specialists to tell us what we know or do. Its time for a different perspective.

CHANGE

Maybe it’s time when the junta jumps up from the ‘ people’s poll’ corner of the newspaper and spreads to the pages.

BUT, WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

Because bitrip and now THiNK are both a part of this phenomenon. I might now recognize many of my fellow BITians on the road but I get a peek into what they think and do from their blogs. Calvin and Hobbes may tickle me a lot but it is an altogether different experience to read a comic strip about the life around me done by someone living in the adjacent hostel. A book on famous one-liners may be good but it cannot beat the nonsensicality of H4ism. News channels with hundreds of investigating teams blew up the death of a student here but Rhea’s simple observation and remembrance was closer to the truth.

So….START THiNKing but don’t forget to open the lid of your head when you do so that the world can peek in.

COME and be a part of the first THiNK forum/meeting/briefing/celebration on 24^th January……

BECAUSE it’s time ME AND YOU took over.

New Sem Begins.......................

It’s the middle of a very cold January and I am finally back at BIT. Coming so late, with the college already in full blow seems weird and makes me feel left out. So The Last few days I have been trying to catch up………

1. I say it again; it’s very very cold, especially if you decide to jog 6 in the morning. Made my feet go blue.
2. The LAN (intrahostel….yuk yuk) and the internet are finally working but the speed…it’s easier and faster to go to RND, save the pages you need and come back and read them than trying your luck with the internet.
3. BITOTSAV is already on people’s mind and is mentioned often in passing.
4. People are gearing up for spring fest, KGP.
5. Many BITians are off to Youth Fest, Chinnai to prove their metal.
6. ThiNK people are doing a lot of work and there is lot of material on its blog. I even attended one of the ‘meetings’ today.
7. Since this is no.7 and I can’t think of anything else of consequence I pray JKR finishes off the 7^th book fast (no hic hic…..I am in my senses)

BITOTSAV………anyone in 2k6 reading this…I’d say…. PARTICIPATE. It’s the closest you will come to having a good time in BIT. Form a team, hop from one event to the other, chill at the informal ground and dance and sing into the night. I say it again, no matter who you are or what you do in some form or other PARTICIPATE. Now since my brain is numb from reading 50 articles on ThiNK and I am repeating my sentences I better stop. I leave you with a pic of what happened to me last Core Night at BITOTSAV………