Two of my favourite poems by vikram seth-

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -

Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years

-Vikram seth

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After a long and wretched flight

That stretched from daylight into night,

Where babies wept and tempers shattered

And the plane lurched and whiskey splattered

Over my plastic food, I came

To claim my bags from Baggage Claim

Around, the carousel went around

The anxious travelers sought and found

Their bags, intact or gently battered,

But to my foolish eyes what mattered

Was a brave suitcase, red and small,

That circled round, not mine at all.

I knew that bag. It must be hers.

We hadnt met in seven years!

And as the metal plates squealed and clattered

My happy memories chimed and chattered.

An old man pulled it of the Claim.

My bags appeared: I did the same

-vikram seth

This happened in the freshers party of one of the branches in my campus
the host was talking about all the achievements of the seniors."we have seniors who have done amazing projects and are doing their internship in top companies like Mercedes etc.One of our seniors had done a project which won him a award, but he passed away"...



well actually the guy who won a award for his project is still very much alive..he has'nt passed away ..he just passed "out" of college...
the host got confused between two words....lol

L="I" times "ALPHA"

http://xkcd.com/

A webcomic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

lolest request!

i just had to share this one.RC,my friend had got his maths marks , like most of us had decided to apply for rechecking and most of us had no increase in marks .When i saw his request for recheck i burst out laughing .I just loved it.He had described to the prof the question where he expected a increase .The funny thing is at the bottom of the page he had written
"Respected sir ,please consider this request for recheck with kindness because i need 3 more marks to get the next grade"
What i have written above is not verbatim,but it more or less conveys the feeling.
I wish i had done that too ,missed a A grade by 4 marks :(

badha or is it badiya?

My friend anil is rather weak in hindi.One day he was walking with his group of friend's to his hostel when he was preparing for his entrance exams in vizag.He spotted a pig near by.He thought carefully for few seconds and then said"Yaar,PIG badiya hai!"
Lol !
he actually meant to say "Yaar,pig badha hai "!
ps-Anil is now my neighbour in bits and still does attempt to talk in hindi some times.
but the language he understand's best is "physics" :)

one of my idiosyncrasies

This post is about one of my many idiosyncrasies.one that has stayed with me a lesser or a greater degree right from my childhood.It all started with a TV tower and a traffic jam on the road along side that tower ,then i was 4 years old.I had solemnly sworn that when i would grow up i would be a superman and clear the traffic jams whenever and where ever they would happened in the world.As i grew my fantasies became less cinematic ,in my 6 Th class,the year i shocked my parents who had tried everything they could to make me sit and study by getting first rank in unit-test1.The memory of the moment when i received an applause from my classmates while i staggered to the stage o receive the prestigious 6Th class UT-1 report card still cuts across my mind like a knife.It was then i had decided that i would be a software engineer(was a big thing back then ).By the time i came to my 8th class i wanted to be a IAS officer."AH!what power and dignity IAS officer's enjoy"my grandpa would say.I would again solemnly swear to myself (only to break it later)that i would change the planet for the better and that becoming an IAS officer was the only way to do it.By the time i reached my 10 th standard i knew 3 things-
1)i would not want to be an IAS officer
2)i could not comprehend the difference between hindi and maths.i mugged up both.
3)i was good in biology.
So i in the later half of so called"the make or break "year of my life i decided i wanted to be a neurologist.I would dream at length myself in the doctor's white coat,with a badge on the left side with words"DR.M.V.HARSHA VARDHAN"engraved on it in italics.This dream was further nurtured by my friend santosh who too wanted to be a doc , a children's specialist.But after lot research and discussion with peers and family , i had decided that i would want to settle down before i lose all my hair due to excessive studying needed to become a neurologist.A month later i found myself and my friend ,santosh in a coaching center preparing for the entrance.I knew even then that i had made a slight compromise ,opting to be a engineer .So perhaps to satisfy myself a little i decided that i would do my engineering in only the top institutes .In hindsight i realized that it was the 2nd best decision i had made in my life.The pressure of having to understand the logic behind the solutions which i had conveniently ghotted in my school life was crushing,but for the first time in my life i persisted .I knew i had no other option.for the period i prepared for my exams it was if i knew right from my birth that i was to be an engineer.nothing else came to my mind.
after having made it to bits,i stared contemplating again on what i should be .When ever i would watch Geetanjali,mani-ratnam's classic movie, i would say to myself "YES! i want to be a film maker.i will make movies like this.".Whenever i would read a book that swayed me i would say "YES!i will be an author and then make movies out of my books.it will be so very exciting"
audacious dreams i would think to myself.When i first read about bits,bytes,op-codes,machine level language,assembly language and was blown away by it's beauty i would think "HMMM.research is not a bad option after all."
when i would see "YOUNG-TURKS" on CNBC TV 18 i would without any remorse change my ambition to "
TOP B-SCHOOL grad+entrepreneur.or maybe TOP B-SCHOOL grad+job in lehman brothers"
.Finally one day in the holidays ,after one year in bits i sat down and thought.IN a moment it was clear to me .I just understood the one thing i really wanted to do in my life.Out of the other options i had it did not" absolutely" matter which one i chose.It would of course matter if i would work for a bus like "satyam" or say Lehman brothers or BGC.but it wouldn't matter "absolutely".I knew i would just get along fine with it as long as i pursued the thing that mattered the most ,without letting the practicality of things tamper my audacity.That one thing is to be of use ,to do service,to reach out :)

above average

One of the best books i have read.It is about a middle-class delhi guy with a aptitude for maths,science.The book has parts with iit-d,mayur vihar in delhi,and usa as its backdrop.
The book reflects on the fact that most people do what is considered to be safe and good rather than doing the things that they love the most.I couldnt stop reading the book.i read it while i was lying lazily on my bed,i read it while i was travelling in the car all through the afternoon till dusk ensued and ensured that i could read no more.The characters in the book kept reeling in my head for some time .In my mind's eye i could see them all-arindam,neeraj,aparna,chanda,shieku and many more.