Architecture @ Nvidia?

They pay a shit load of money for a fresher out of college although it has to be a college of outstanding repute. My manager tells me she hand picked for her team after going through 50 resumes of all the NCGs (New College Graduates). The food is great as they say. We have free lunch and breakfast. A break room always stacked with cornflakes, biscuits, tropicana juices, bread, butter, chakkalis, cool drinks and hot beverages, fresh fruits and recently, they also added pastries to the break room. Did I forget to add additional snacks in the evening on alternate days, also for free. And Non veg for lunch atleast twice a week.

My mom says, they are looking after you better than me, you better work sincerely. Meanwhile I have such a light workload that I am leaving early on half the days for salsa, and come late on the other half because I go for a swim in the morning. And if that doesn't suffice, I also have the option of doing Yoga on mondays, wednesdays and fridays since we get an in-house instructor. And while the back-end teams are slogging their asses off staying late nights, being in the architecture team, I have to beg my manager for work.

Some people call this heaven... maybe I am a workaholic...

Attention to detail

Warning: Long Piece Disclaimer

We were all in Satya's house. It was one of those weekend nights that we had decided to camp out at his place. The 'maal' was there and we all smoked up. Just before coming to Satya's place, Rohit and me had stopped over at Rohit's place, and I picked up a small book of jokes knowing that it would prove to be useful after our 'session'. And I was very right. It did not crack us up with laughter as I had intended but it did pave the way to one of the most immersing intellectual discussions that we as a group have ever had.

We had settled down in Satya's living room after a round of p*t. And I picked up the joke book to read some stupid jokes that would have us all rolling on the floor in incontrollable laughter. Kitty kept on chiding me for the level of planning I had shown by coming armed with a joke book just so we could laugh our asses off after the 'session'. As it were, the jokes were not of the standard that I had expected, and I lost interest in the book after reciting aloud a couple of jokes for the benefit of the audience. I put the book down and Kitty picked it up to see if he could spot an interesting one.

Listen to this, said Kitty:
" In 5th Century B. C., a barber asks his customer, 'How would you like to have your hair cut?' And the customer replies , 'In silence.' "
What a ridiculous joke.

Satya: Yeah I agree. But why in God's name did he have to add the opening phrase 'In 5th Century B. C.'. In what way, did that contribute to the joke or have anything to do with the joke at all?

Me: That, my dear Satya is what they call 'attention to detail'.

Satya: Balls. That was totally unnecessary information. I don't call that attention to detail.

Me: Well, it still is, even if it was unnecessary to the essence of the joke. The joke could have actually happened in 5th Century B.C., I'm not saying it did, but it could have; and the author knowing this fact chose to add it in his narration, in spite of knowing very well that it would not have any effect on the joke itself. Paying attention to the minutiae, is what I call attention to detail.

Satya: I'm not convinced...

Kitty (who was incidentally the only member of the group not under influence):
Let me clarify... In our company we had a session on hospitality as part of our training. During that session, we were told, 'Imagine delegates from Schneider, France were coming to Bangalore for a couple of days. How would you show them around the city and make sure that they had a good time?'
All the groups came up similar stuff and nobody did a bad job. Everyone said they would give some small gifts which they could take back as souvenirs to France. but only my team went one step further and said that we would give them an ivory idol of the Lord Ganesha. And the instructor commended us for our attention to detail.

Me: Now that's a good example. Everybody thought about giving a gift, but Kitty's team actually put their heads together and decided on a specific gift. They paid attention to specifics. That in my opinion is attention to detail. Say you were to take them out for lunch. Thats a given. But if you went ahead and thought of the specific restaurant, decided what you would order for them in advance during the planning stage; that's attention to detail.

Kitty: The fact that we thought of a contextual present, An Ivory Hindu Idol, and not some parker pen shows that we paid attention to the context. We realized that we had to give them something that would remind them of India, not just some gift.

Nikhil: Yeah I hadn't thought of it that way, but your explanation is a greater degree of attention to detail.

Vijay: In a way, I like to think that attention to detail is something that goes to various degrees. The deeper you go, the better the level of detail...

Nikhil: The most important part is the appreciation. When you see attention being paid to detail, you will appreciate it.

Satya: There is nothing to appreciate about attention to detail. If its there, you just notice it and its there, but nothing to be happy about.

Nikhil: No, you will definitely apprecaite it as the observer. I'm talking from the observer's point of view. You are talking from the doer's point of view. A person who is setting up the environment say, in a movie, will pay meticulous attention to detail, not because he expects any appreciation for it, but just because he wants to pay attention to detail.

Me: Yes... Say I'm making a movie that chronicles your life, Satya. When I come to the scene where I show your living room, I would take the pains to make sure every book that you now have in your bookshelf are also in the set that I reproduce; and I also take pains to see that the books are even arranged in exactly the same way that you see them now. Any Tom, Dick or Harry who sees the documentary would not care less for the books in the shelf. But if you were to see the documentary, you would notice the books and appreciate it. Why? I had no need to go into all that trouble to set up the minutiae, knowing it would not make a difference to a majority of the viewers except you, but I still went ahead and did it anyway. Thats attention to detail.

Nikhil: As you can see, both the doer and the observer have to be there and know the details individually for attention to detail to have any meaning.

Me: I would disagree. Take Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He creates such elaborate sets in his movies. Thats because he is a perfectionist. But thats who he is. And as an audience, you appreciate his sets. But Sanjay would have done it anyway. Not for the audience but for himself. And he would have done it even if the set 's details did not in anyway enhance the story telling. i continue to stress the point that attention to detail does not have to be contextual. It can just be there. Its just attention to detail.

Nikhil: Hmm... Its amazing how we all had so many different points of view about 'attention to detail'. And its difficult to contest anybody's point of view here. Everybodys explanation makes perfect sense if you think about it carefully.

Rohit: Yeah, wow this was a great conversation. And to think it all started from the phrase 'In 5th century B.C.' ...

Kitty: Imagine... If the author had actually imagined a group of people like us would spot this tiny attention to detail and had intentionally put it there, so that he could spark this discussion among us.

Footnote: I don't know how many people will appreciate this piece, but the guys who were there will definitely smile when they come across this piece. And guys, I hope I have done justice to the conversation and given attention to detail for your benefit... ;)

Trip to Honnemardu

The blue sky at Honnemardu

Breathtaking Sunrise! If you observe closely, the two pictures are exactly of the same scene taken just a few minutes apart, during sunrise and after. There were no photoshop touch ups applied on any of the photographs.

After a gap of almost four months, I was finally able to make a two day junket (if thats the right word) to Honnemardu ( Linganamakki reservoir ) and Jog falls in Shimoga district. Went with a amateur albiet enthusiatic team of NCGs (New College Graduates) from Nvidia. Kudos to the Adventurers club for running and maintaining the place.

The weather was extremely pleasant and though we had to spend the night in tents at the island under pouring conditions, it was nevertheless fun. The highlight of the trip was having to coracle back to mainland from the island after night fall in order to get dinner for everyone. The peace and quiet and the dark blue water all around you is one of the best chance you can get to connect with nature. A truly uplifting experience. Another highlight was to just lie spread eagled on your back in the reservoir (we had on life jackets) right in the middle of the lake and close your eyes. You just lose all the cares in the world and its probably one of the most relaxing things that I have ever done (even more so after you have just trekked for ten plus kilometres and swam for atleast a kilometre).

Jog was a disappointment in the sense that there wa hardly any water at the falls. But the height of the waterfall still takes your breath away, especially when you look down the sheer cliff from where the water falls off.

I'm too lazy to post a detailed log, but here are a few pics for everyone's viewing pleasure.

A view of the mainland from the island

Jog in all its splendor

Cheers!!!

The 'green stuff' cycle

I knew about this thing called Mutual Funds that existed all along, but I didn't know what exactly what it was. My friend introduced me to it and I have to say that it did impress me quite a bit. By collecting and managing the funds of a large number of people and investing the funds in the growing Indian stock market, they provide very good returns on your money. Although, you are never assured of the returns, assuming that you do some research and invest in the top performing fund houses, you can more than triple your money invested in about three years time. But it of course entails having to put away your money for three years time.

And what happens when you get the money three years later? The temptation is very great to invest this money once again and triple that three years from then. And you are caught in the vicious cycle of making more money and seeing it multiply forever. While it is prudent to save for the rainy day, don't make it a habit of going like a rabid dog with your salivating tongue hanging down behind the green stuff.

And for those of you with a little bit of patriotism left in you, remember that India will prosper as an economy only when the purchasing power of its citizens increases or if we buy more with our money. So don't just grow a money plant in your compound, enjoy its fruits too before the plant finally withers and dies.

Ten Random Things About me that you SHOULD know

1. When I was still about five months old, my sister apparently got jealous that I was getting all the attention in the house. All the guests were all clucking their tongues and making all the cooing sounds at the crib to make me smile. One day, she walked up to my crib and and bit my nose! And from that day onwards, I have to live with a big nose. So if don't bag a nice girl in the future, you all know who's responsible.

2. I was state level athlete/ sprinter in school. I was highly respected in school for this feat. But little do the people know about the level of dedication that went into this. My mother claims that I started running when I was all of seven months old. In fact I didn't know how to walk at that time yet but I could run! No wonder then that I went to become a sprinter huh!

3. I was part of the gang in high school that planned the 'acid spilling incident'. We were bugged to death with all the nonsense 'educational' videos that were shown to us in the audio/visual room in school. So we decided to destroy the TV by pouring concentrated Sulphuric acid on it out of fun! Although I was not part of the execution committee , I witnessed the incident. However, I managed to get out without any trouble while my friends faced a week of suspension. The school also bought itself a brand new LG TV out of the money shelled as fine from my poor friends' parents' pockets.

4. I once went to athletic practice without wearing my athletic shorts. I had on my track pants but had totally forgotten my shorts as I was in a hurry. After warm up, our coach asked us to put on spikes as we had time trials. Without thinking, I donned my spikes and then pulled down my track pants as usual. And to my horror, I had on no shorts. To make things worse, my senior (a girl) sitting next to me was putting on her spikes at the very moment. She was just speechless. I pulled up my pants in a flash and walked away embarrassed. I had to do all my workout with tracks on that day.

5. My first job offer came to me when I was still in Tenth. After I broke the national 100 metres sprint record at the All India National ICSE and ISC meet at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, the team manager of the Bihar team walked up to me and offered me a salary of 12000 p.m. to run for the Bihar team. I declined. After that, our team manager started fussing all over me and offering me all sorts of things like juice, food and stuff. Till then, our manager had totally ignored us guys and concentrated all his efforts on impressing the girl members of the contingent.

6. When i was still in the third grade, a friend of mine came to my house. He challenged me to a game of boxing. Being the man that I was, I stood up to the challenge. His first shot went towards my face and hit my spectacles (yes, I started wearing glasses from first grade itself). They crashed to the floor and broke in two. My friend disappeared in a flash and was missing for two weeks there afterwards.

7. That brings me to the story of how I got glasses at a very young age. When I was a kid of about three, I used to get so fascinated about the TV that I used to go stand six inches from it. My mom got so exasperated that she once tied me up to the chair with rope so that I wouldn't get any closer to the TV! Looks like she was a bit too late, I screwed up my eyesight anyways.

8. I very rarely show any aggression with anyone because I am strong believer in the principle of non-violence. My elder sister has been known to use this to her advantage as she knows that I invariably give in to have peace. Once I wanted to get hold of the TV remote to watch something on TV. My sister had the remote and refused to give it to me in spite of the fact that she had been watching TV for the better part of the day. I got so furious that I walked up to her and dragged her off the sofa. She fell on the floor with a plop. She was so shocked, she handed me the remote without any further comment. So guys, better not mess with me taking me for a docile guy!

9. (With inputs from Mojosrising) When I was in 9th grade, fuelled up with hormones and testosterone, I had a crush on a senior girl in tenth grade...mojosrising alleges that I proposed to her, but I did not. Sadly the girl committed suicide two years later (again speculations are rife that the incident took place after she found out about this fact.) May her soul rest in peace!

10. Once I got sooo high after a session of g#$!% that I actually (assumed that I could think faster than the speed of light says mojosrising) begin to think faster than the speed of light. So much so that even with my eyes closed, I predicted that the tubelight was going to be switched and lo and behold, split milliseconds later, the light was actually switched on by Tango. Can you believe that, you better!

More to come...

I tag Mojorsrising to declare to the public ten random facts about himself for the pleasure of his readers.

To my handful of viewers, announcing the premiere of 'Ten random facts about myself that you should know!', shortly releasing for Ganesh Chaturti! Watch out for all the action this holiday season.

A scratch a week on my Swift keeps my dad on his toes!

That's the mantra that I have been following for the past three weeks. It is said that only fifty percent of the accidents are due to a fault of your own. And, so far the statistics have matched it up. Two scratches (more like gashes) were due to the fact that I misjudged the width of the car and tried to push the car into a space where it didn't fit. In both cases though, I managed to escape only with the scratches and no hassles with the other party since these minor accidents involved parked cars whose drivers were thankfully not in the driver's seats when the incidents happened.

The other two incidents were purely due to the over ambitious steering circuses of two wheelers. I agree with Mojosrising on this one completely; but asking everyone to drive/get a car is a bit far fetched. In fact going by the adage, 'If you can't beat them, join them.', I too plan to get a decent bike once the monsoons are over 'and' my dad feels he can no longer salvage his beloved car if he lets me take the car to office.

In any case, I have made up my mind to try and limit the number of scratches in the near future. Driving in the MG Road traffic can really get on anyone's nerves, esp. if it is everyday in rush hour traffic and you are tired out already after a long day of work at the office. Luckily, the Sony Xplod stereo rigged in the car helps to alleviate the tensions and make the driving a little less irritable. Its surprising how much you are dying to drive a car when its forbidden and when its finally allowed, it loses its sheen and you realise that owning a car is just over rated. The only good thing about it is that you don't need to wear a helmet which kind of atleast slows down your hair fall/ balding rate and that of course is a big boon for guys like me and Mojosrisng! Now I know why people get Mercs adn Skodas and then let their drivers drive the car. The pressure of trying to keep your car scratch free nullifies the pleasures of driving altogether.

Signing off with a toast to the Bangalore roads five years from now; and hope I'm not on it!

What Kind are you!

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

The Eagleton Experience

It was on the occasion of employees day that we went to Eagleton golf resort sans the golf facilities. The first thing that struck me was the huge acreage which they had managed to buy. And this was excluding the golf course greens. I was of course wondering why anyone would bother driving thirty odd kilometers out of the city in order to get to this place. Thats when I saw that along with Nvidia, there were five other companies celebrating some occasion or just giving a breather to their stressed out employees by taking them out to the reaort.

The facilities were pretty impressive too especially for a sports enthusiast like me. Billiards, Squash courts, table tennis and badminton, Foozball, multi level swimming Pool, and of course Golf. They even have rooms if you plan to stay the night at the resort. So its quite a tempting experience for the sports junkies. Personally, I felt that the time we had there was not enough to explore all the facilities. I could only use the squash, swimming pool and the foozball. Squash was really a great experience, probably the game I have enjoyed the most after tennis. I'm really looking forward to playing it again sometime soon.

The new thing I tried was flying a kite. There were two experience kite flyers there namely Harpreet and Sahil and they managed to get the kite so hgh up that it became merely a speck in the sky! What was even more exciting was to see that the kite was even higher than the bird which was flying right up there. I never imagined that flying kites could be so good. And evening there was a DJ and we did some good old dancing on the dance floor. Although there were a little too many punjabi songs on the playlist, I had a good time. By the end of the day, I was thoroughly exhausted and now that i think of it, I would definitely like to go there again.

Oh and by the way, this was the first Nvidia party that had drinks on the house.

What kind are you?

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (44%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (56%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

The Good Manager

Well I joined Nvidia and so far its been great. Probably because they haven't given me any work yet! But, anyway within a month of joining, I've already had four, five star lunches, two movies and Eagleton Golf resorts coming up next week. Well if working is really this fun , I really have no complaints!

Anyway, the purpose of this article is not that. I do go to office by car, which happens to be my dad's car, but he doesn't mind my using it , I've already scratched his baby twice, poor guy , so he's given up. Anyway, there was this evening that I left the company a little early in the evening. There were still a lot of cars left in the parking lot. As a consequence, it was a daunting task to back my car out of the cramped space. While I was still struggling, one of the managers, a one Mr. P (whose name I shall not divulge due to confidentiality reasons), walked into the parking lot. Seeing me backing out of the car, he broke into a sprint and was at my side in a jiffy. Then he started assisting me with the backing up of the car. I was pretty surprised, shocked even to see such a senior guy going out of his way to help me, a fresher he didn't even know. As I waved a thank you, he walked across and got into his Honda Accord, I think , which was parked next to my former slot. And then it dawned upon me, he feared for his car! He didn't want his baby to get scratched which explained the sprint. I broke into a broad grin and was laughing all the way home.

Anyway, Mr. P, all said and done, you are still great. I hope that one day when I am in such a big position, I still remain as humble and down to earth as you.

The Green Paradox

Have you ever wondered about this. Its always the guys who have the most money who have no idea what to do with it or in the worse case have no time to do anything with it. And it the guys who have the grandest plans to blow away all their moolah who are strapped for cash.

It is lucky guy who can make money and blow it easily too. Maybe engineering isn't the thing for me. I've realised after only a week of work at nVidia that maybe I am not cut out for all the programming. Its too early for me to say which end of the spectrum I'll be but, I hope that I can get the balance of the two extremes in my life.

On an aside, its still a little difficult for me to believe that all those processors and graphics cards were actually conceived and designed by man. Even more incredible is the fact that I will now be part of that process. Kudos to the amazing level of evolution that man has been able to achieve!

Going Hi Tech

After almost 3 to 4 years of having to put up with outdated technology, I am finally getting a new computer which I could declare as almost state of the art. Well it does cost close to 50k and has all the works. Hope that I make good use of the hardware. The truth is that you only need to constantly upgrade only if you want to play the latest games and devour all those eye candy graphics. I haven't played games in a long time on account of the fact that my previous laptop wasn't sufficiently equipped for the task. So I'm looking forward to the new gaming experience which I should be, given that I'm in the business of designing high end graphics cards now at Nvidia! Hopefully, my enthusisam won't fizzle out soon.

Romancing The Rain

Everything associated with rain is so romantic. The cool breeze and the swaying of trees just seconds before the downpour starts, the kiss of the first raindrop on your cheek, the earthly smell rising up with the first showers to embrace the falling droplets, the sight of a peacock with all its plume arrayed in a wondrous display, a girl dancing in the rain with her arms spread eagle and chin pointing heavenwards with those lustrous locks plastered to her face... oh so beautiful!

In fact everything is so rosy and heavenly that I feel it is my duty to shatter this myth. For all of you who didn't know, rain also brings to the dense forests and slopes of the Western Ghats wait for it... Leeches. And if you think we didn't learn this the hard way, check out these pictures captured on our 6 Megapixel Digital cameras en route to Brahmagiri.







Those are actually the poda of our very friend Bhattiem who daringly or rather foolishly (although we strongly suspect its the later) decided to venture into the forests of the Western Ghats in floaters smack bang in the middle of the south-west monsoon. I kid you not, these are real photos. If you are daring enough, click on the photos to view the leeches in all their glory.

Another group of trekkers consisting more of the fairer sex were outfitted in thick jeans, thick soled calf length boots, and double and triple packed woolen socks to avoid our sucker friends in stark contrast with our shorts and ankle length cotton socks. This incident was reported by eyewitnesses-

One girl whispering to another girl after seeing our revealing outfits: Are they crazy! Don't they know there are leeches here? Why are they in half pants?
Us to one another smugly: Duh!!!

Who said anything about rain being always romantic.

Disclaimer: No harm was imparted to the leeches in the shooting of these photographs. However, they were salted, tobacco-ed, bleached and ground to a fine pulp with a vengeance until every last drop of sucked blood was gleefully forced out of its slimy body after the shoot was over. And although Bhattiem probably fed an entire kingdom of leeches, we also bravely did our part by accepting some bites ourselves even though we don't get a Blood Donation certificate and free Tees from Rotaract Club for our benevolence.

Credits: We would like to thank all the leeches for patiently clinging on to Bhattiem's smelly legs and sucking his toxic blood for hours and posing for the photographs. We could not have done this without you.

Star Power

Just came back after watching the movie Shivaji, The Boss. And for the life of me, I couldn't remeber why I had assented to accompany my friends to see that movie in the first place. They just seem to reach a new level of stupidity in the name of performing 'stunts' and 'comedy' and 'style'. I have to say that Shriya Saran's exquisitely crafted body and the suggestive sway of her hips in the dance sequences were the only things that kept me from pulling out my hair from my head. After a while, even that got monotonous. Just because Rajni 'sir' is the hero doesn't mean they can get away with showing anything on the screen. And yet going by the collections, they seem to have achieved just that. It goes to show that a vast majority of the Indian Population are just dumb or have insipid tastes. My guess is that they haven't seen anything better.

One has to commend the Director's efforts for once again trying to expose the fallacies of corruption and trying to inspire people to give up corruption. But time and again, one gets the feeling that beating up guys and seducing hot actresses is the main fare in the movie and tackling corruption just the side dish. I have to admit that I did not expect much from the movie and tagged along just to quench my curiosity.

Anyway for those of you who read this post and are open to trying out a good movie, how about 'The Big Lebowski' for starters and 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' for main course. And if you are still hungry for more, try 'The Pursuit of Happiness' for dessert.

Nostalgia Part 2

A tribute to the four most wonderful years of my life 'studying' engineering at the hallowed portal NITK Surathkal...

Its not so much about the college but the great friends I made there, the crazy times we had there, the beautiful places we went to, everything was just so. Like enjoying a well done steak, the taste lingers for a long time. It saddens me deeply that this phase of my life is over and I have to become an adult with responsibilities. That totally sucks. Oh well, on a more philosphical note, all things good in life have to come to an end...

Remembering shenoy's spoonerisms and mispronunciations, his stupid smile and the shine in his eyes when he tells a white lie that it's practically a no-brainer to catch him at it, Sundi's goofy smile and his undying enthusiasm to reach the top of a a peak, to give Kandu hero poses for the camera so that he can show them off on orkut, Mabhi's shady dialogues and his blanket, his premature love for PZ, Bhattiem and his bhatru stomach, his gangster behaviour when he gets drunk, Raghav's fishy smile, his craze for all things that smell and look and feel Led Zep, Tanay with his oh so beautiful music and his Ibanez, his temper tantrums, Vyas with his craze for changing girlfriends, his sweet smile with which he escapes from his crimes, vada seller slap receiver, Nikhil and his sleep and F1 and his affinity for the 'high spirits' and 'smashing attitude', Su and his worsht jokes but amazing creativity, Sri ram and his always Im bored and the most popular guy on campus, Vikram and his jive moves, Brat and his literary genius, Bacat and his graphics eye candy and his all nighters, Rishi and his pranks, his mango face, his assumptions, lets pitch the tent on top of Chembra, Rasho and tongue sticking out photos, Russell Peters' and his 'Doggy Style'...

Me and my bathroom escapades, my long hair in the second hair from which lethal mistake I lost half my hair, getting shit scared on Chembra due to the wind, the early morning by the kabini reservoir by the tent with all the mist rising from the river, my first time getting sloshed at a placement party, getting smashed and being able to 'see' the music, all the headbanging at the concerts, the sun kissed sands of Gokarna, experiencing heaven at Munnar, discovering Floyd and Porcupine Tree and A Perfect Circle and Knopfler, the excruciating train rides to Calicut in the general compartment, trying to build a robot unsuccessfully, trying to coax music from my guitar...

And to all the laughter, all the worldly wisdom acquired, to all the pychedaelic moments, to all those brilliant times I played tennis with Sundi and Rasho, and discussed cuisines with Kulin, and his mom's delicious chocolate balls, falling in love with Salsa, to those lip-smacking steaks at Diesels, to the beautiful beach and light house in front of our campus, to digital logic and design which hopefully I won't tire out of within the next year, teaching electronics to Mechanical peers, Goa with Macy and Modi and Mithun and Nikhil, Lep zepplica with fish at IITM...

To Prison Break and Lost and Desu noto and 24, to The Blairwitch Project and Pulp Fiction and Fight Club and The Shawshank Redemption and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and all the mind blowing entertainment the LAN had to offer...

And to all those pains and sufferings - omnipresent water shortage, power failures and hence sleepless nights during the exams, the tepid mess 'food' in all its diabolical glory, the pain of being betrayed by people you trusted, the joy of rediscovering yourself and kicking back harder, the ligament tear and its aftermath, the heat and all the sweating, PSB announcing his voluntary retirement from service, getting our asses kicked for not paying enough attention to our final year project...

To all those moments that I hope I can remember for a very long time...

Kingfisher gets it right again

Check out Kingfisher's smart reply to Jet Airways' Ad Campaign! Kingfisher's ad campaign have always got it right.

Courtesy: Creative criminal

Yup, Ladies that's me!

The Slow Dancer Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLD) Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer. Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive. Your exact male opposite: The Hornivore Random Brutal Sex Master While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships. ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe (DBLM) CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor (DGLM) or The Sonnet (DGLD) Link: The Online Dating Persona Test @ OkCupid - free online dating. My profile name: : slowsprinter

A humbling Police Encounter

By 'police encounter', I don't mean that some gun wielding policeman tried to finish me off instead of arresting me in order to avoid all the hassles and legalities of capturing me legit and trying me in a court of law. By Gawd, no! I am a God fearing, law abiding citizen. I had lost my driver's license and the RTO refused to issue me a duplicate without an acknowledgment from the police.

I dreaded going to the police station because I knew that they would try to fleece me off before they handed me the letter of acknowledgment. Maybe I would have to use up all my refunded caution deposit(all 6k of it) from college on these lathi wielding officers.

Anyway, I was accosted by a non liveried officer at the entrance of the station. Maybe he was just a clerk.

Me: Sir, I need to get a blah blah... and explained what I wanted
Officer/clerk: Where did you lose it?
Now I had really misplaced it at home itself. But even I knew that it would be a dumb thing to own up on the truth to this guy.

Me: I umm..., lost it in the Jayanagar swimming pool.
Gun wielding constable listening in on the conversation: You have to go to the Tilaknagar Police Station for that. The swimming pool is their jurisprudence. (Now of course, he wasn't using such fancy words, I'm only using them to impress my fellow readers about my vocabulary skills.)
Okay, they were at it now. Typical technique used to put you off. I was too lazy to go to Tilaknagar station you see, so I would be willing to bend some rules to get things done here itself. In short, give them money in exchange for getting it done here itself. I would be damned if I gave in to their play. And so was I damned.

Me: Sir, can't I get it done here itself somehow?
Officer/clerk: Nope. What are you doing by the way?
Me: I'm a student sir.
Officer/clerk: Besides, you need to get an affidavit to prove that you really lost the DL. That will cost you about a hundred bucks, so you might as well pay the amount here and rid yourself of the difficulties of making an affidavit.
So that was it took, a hundred bucks. I shouldn't stand upto all this corruption. I must fight it off. Give them a piece of my mind. Even if it means walking back home empty handed and facing the ire of my father. Or I could just pay him a hundred.

Me: Show me how it's done.
Officer: Right this way. I'll tell you what to write in the letter.
While we were sitting at his table and he dictated the letter to me: What are you studying?
Me: I just finished my Engineering sir, in Electronics.
Officer: Where?
Me: KREC sir, Surathkal.
Officer raises his eyebrows in admiration. Wow, this guy recognizes KREC. Boy, KREC rules. The college brand did bail me out on another occasion although I can't tell you that incident now.

Officer: So you looking for a job now?
Me: No sir, already got one.
Officer: How much they pay you?
Now, I'm going to get an obscene amount for a fresher at Nvidia, but I figured if he heard the amount, he would decide to fleece me more. So I played it safe.

Me: Oh, about three and a half to four lakhs.
Officer: Per month!!!
Me: Whoa, no way! Per annum sir.
Officer: You guys are well educated. Me, I'm just a tenth standard pass. Here, hand me the letter. You stay here while I get the signature from the Sub Inspector.
True to his word he gets the job done and hands over the letter to me. My hand goes to my back pocket to fish for the purse but he gives no signal for money. In fact he takes me to the Police Inspector and introduces me.

Officer: This here sir is THE software engineer.
The inspector grunts and goes back to what he is doing. Although I was offended for being labelled a Software Engineer(you see I am a Hardware Engineer), I took it in good stride. I thanked the officer/clerk for his help and left almost overwhelmed that I had accomplished the arduous task without spending a pie on bribery.

Maybe the police force was improving. Too early to tell. Anyway, I walked away with a spring in my step and hope in my heart.

My name is Red

Olive is the Murderer. Score! What a no brainer.
By the way, the book sucks. Orhan Pamuk, don't know how you won the Dublin IMPAC award for that. 3/10 would be my rating for the book. But who am I to decide...