Book Mania

IF someone would have called me a ‘bookworm’ few weeks back, I probably would have laughed it out. I never used to get along well this books and novels. But with time, my hatred towards books slowly vaporized. Today, you can find me fishing around in landmark or Higginbotham’s searching for novels.

Can’t actually trace from when I did I develop this allergic reaction towards books. Probably it all started during my high school days, when I was like forced to huge voluminous books for my board exams. Before this, I used to visit the library regularly, and was a huge fan of Enid Blyton. Have read almost all her books including the ‘Famous Five’ and ‘Secret Seven’ series.

From then on, I just couldn’t stand novels. Usually used to find it very boring and used to make me feel sleepy. Between times, I did catch hold of a few, tried hard to improve my reading habit, but without any success.

Then one fine day, I paid a visit to the book shop. They had a huge collection ranging from classics to fiction, mystery to current affairs. After frantic exploring through the shop, I ended up buying a John Grisham novel ‘The Partner’. I found the book quite interesting. It revolved about a most wanted man who with his experience with law practices, somehow manages to get rid of all the charges which was imposed on him. With it arose my new passion for reading.

Since then, I have been quite regular to landmark and end up buying at least couple of books per month. Have a collection of books at home, which I am yet to read. ‘Catch 22’, ‘Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy’, ‘The Fountainhead’, Coupled with books by John Grisham and Michael Crichton.

The main cause for me sudden passion towards books would be the rigorous work I do in office. People tend to relax after a long days work. Reading novels gives a soothing feeling at the end of day. Am happy to develop this habit and make sure it never perishes.

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Trivia:
Some people love reading books. Likewise, some like writing blogs. What pleasure does one get by writing blogs? An answer which i myself have been searching for.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006

Caught in a Web!

Ever felt depressed beyond reprieve?! Ever felt disgusted that nothing is going your way? Have you had the feeling that the last hope left is fading slowly away from you?

The feelings just like when a fly gets trapped in the web of entanglement, and is hopelessly lost. It’s trapped in the middle flapping its wings trying desperately, but in vain to escape from the grasp of the sticky web. It has realized the terrible painstaking truth that in no time it would be engulfed by the jaws of terror, and be its meal. It looks down and senses the hollowness of the future which lies ahead.

Clinging on to the strands, the fly sees a whole vast universe it would have loved to explore. There are other flies and insects which are rambling about searching for fun. It observes how happy they are, who seem so content with their lives. They are hovering around the sweets scattered all along the floor. But are they even thinking of trying to save the poor soul from the jaws of death? Nope, they seem to be busy with the sweets and the sugar. The terrible truths dawns that it’s no longer needed by others. Perhaps it’s not so real to them after all?!!

The case of a trapped fly is no different from the hapless victim who is pouring out this depressing thoughts and feelings. He is stuck right in the middle facing nothing but an empty insensate world out there. He has realized that life is never going to turn out the way you want it to be. It’s already been formulated.

And if you're taking a walk through the garden of life
What do you think you'd expect you would see?
Just like a mirror reflecting the moves of your life
And in the river reflections of me

There are time when I feel I'm afraid for the world
There are times I'm ashamed of us all
When you're floating on all the emotion you feel
And reflecting the good and the bad

Will we ever know what the answer to life really is?
Can you really tell me what life is?
Maybe all the things that you know that are precious to you
Could be swept away by fate's own hand

- Harris (Blood Brothers, Iron Maiden)

Proud Mumbaiite! Proud Indian

I couldn't' stop making this comparison..

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..

oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN

p.s: received it thru mail. couldnt resist posting it.
a nice blog to revive my dry blogpage :)

Changing Lanes

well.. it has been a long hard month for me now. The transition from a lazy bum in college to a (to-be) hard worker in my new company wasnt easy as i had expected. new mates.. new location.. climate is somethin i find difficult to cope up with. but i guess.. i m now well settled.

to all those... who are new visitors to mah blog.. lemme introduce myself. hehe. well.. i have been assigned a post of software engineer.. unaware of what i m supposed to do in his new adventure. someone said.. i have to play around with numbers.. which supposedly aint an easy job. my boss seems to be a cool guy.. and fellow workers in the company are interactive too. (bare a few.. who sometimes give me a cold stare.. when tryin to start a conversation). anyway, the company looks better than wht i had imagined. its got a healty work environment... buzzin with activity (ya.. even during night ;)

the day i joined my company.. they put me into rigurous trainin. 15 hard days i had to endure.. from morning 8 to evening 7. (well.. tht shld explain the reason for me not bloggin for soo long). i was over the moon.. when i realised i escaped unscathed.. in short..I survived :) but it was short lived. another training schedule was planned which was somethin related to wht i m goin to work on. damn. why do they put so much burden on a newbie like me.

the weekends were supposedly the only days .. i was free to lither around. but i found myself busy searchin for a new flat.. which took me a month. finally, everythin is now resolved.. and i m moving in today. i guess for now.. i can say 'i have settled in'. but lot of complications are due to arrive for sure, enuf to keep me busy. i promise thou.. i wont stop bloggin.

someone said "changing lanes aint easy". to be honest.. he was right.
so long folks. enjoy ur day.

Homeopathy: Does it work?

when we feel sick, we invariably go to the hospital to receive treatment. but its not the case with all the people. some of them prefer a treatment, also known as homeopathy!. i m sure many wouldnt have even heard of it. it comes from the family of pathys(treatments) originating from the asian region. as far as i know, there are lot of pathy's used to treat a patient. the treatment in hospital is known as alopathy. some of them have even originated from religious and superstitious beliefs. my grand ma still follows it.

in homeopathy, patients are given small round tablets which is usually sugar coated. the most funny part is tht these sugar coated tablets are classified into some 2000 varieties. and to top it off, more than 100 varieties can be used for the treatment of same disease. my dad once bought a huge encyclopedia on homeopathy and i couldnt help noticing the kind of treatment. apparently, a particular sugar coated medicine can be used to cure large number of disease without any side effects. note: all these tablets look similar, and i still havent been able to figure out the diff between any two.

a homeopathic doctor consults the patient abt the symptoms of the disease, goes thru the encyclopedia, and then chooses the medicine from a variety of them listed in it. not only does he say he can cure common symptoms like cold, fever & headache, but also symptoms ranging like bad dreams, increase in memory power, some wound in your elbow etc. now this is utter ridiculous.

even thou, it may sound funny to me, many people do follow this treatment. cant believe that even in this modern world of science, people stick with old tradional ways of treatment. probably cause ther are no side effects. these doctors earn lots of money selling this sugar coated tablets attaching a strange name along with it. thou they say it can cure anythin, i dont think it can cure the IWC syndrome which i m suffering from. haha. you will shortly figure what this syndrome is, and will realise that you might also suffer from this.

p.s: i have noticed that most of the bloggers and other readers prefer reading only the latest blog, and just ignore the other blogs. this makes life difficult for someone who is on a bloggin roll, and suffers constantly from I-Want-Comments syndrome. i know one of my friend who stopped blogging, cause no one visited his blog or commented on it, even if they read it. now, i fear the same situation may arise with me. if homeopathy says that it has got a cure for it, i will blindly take it now.

An Author's Artistry

after 4 years of torrid life in college, i hoped to enjoy my time at home. but the timing couldnt have been more worse. my sisters exams had started and i was crippled down to recline in the bed with out any TV or computer for a long time. dying of boredom, i borrowed some novel from my friend. DAN BROWN.. heard of him? no i m not talking abt 'The Da Vinci Code'. i got hold of his other two books 'The Digital Fortress' and 'Angels & Demons'.

Dan Brown's artistry in bringing up the whole controversy thru a book was really fascinating. it became a best seller instantaneously. the way he collected details abt somethin called 'the priory of sion, twisted a part of the real story, put some drama in between to make it one of the most thrilling stories ever. was expecting the same kind of language and drama in his novel 'the digital fortress'. it didnt disprove my expections. the novel was tantalizing, a heart-racing thriller which was cleverly brought up.

Kept me wondering whether all authors bring abt the same kind of writing in all their novels. Looking at various novels written by robert ludlum, robin cook, sidney sheldon and dan brown, my postulate didnt seem entirely false. each book tells somethin abt the author, his way of writing. in all, his books charaterizes himself different from others.
for eg. dan brown brings up well-detailed facts before he brings up his imagination, or lets say fiction. the facts brought up are such that it makes the reader believe its for real. slowly and steadily, he involves the reader into the story. his drama usually includes a lot of characters, and it different locations, which he consequently brings abt in alternate chapters to make the reader aware of the happenings. his language is simple, doesnt include complicated words and twisted meanings, making it easier for a layman to understand. but he plots the story brilliantly till the end. keeps me wondering whether its all instinctive thoughts in authors mind or was it a well planned story.

but like most authors, dan brown does reveal some of his identity in his novels. most of his plots involve around a female, and he brings up some kind of love story which according to me, spoils the whole situation. and the novel 'The Digital Fortress' revolves around some cryptographers love for another. 'the Da Vinci Code' too had one similar to this. but the intensity of the fiction carried me away from tht part. will be deeply engrossed in his other book 'Angels & Demons' in a few days time, and i know wht lies ahead in the story.

this is not just the case with dan brown. even sidney sheldon uses this as a part of his play. their books may never touch the artistry of some of the classic authors. but it does prove that every author have their own style of expressing their thoughts. sometimes i feel, this distinction in style is necessary in order to bring abt variety. and this is good, as the reader gets an option to choose his type of novels. take my example.
i m halfway through ayn rand's 'the Fountainhead' , and now i feel exhausted. wonder whether i will ever be able to complete such a voluminous book. combined with non sensical philosophy, it just drives me crazy. same with paulo coelho 'the Alchemist'. althou most of the things he is trying to explain has a deep meaning in it, but talking abt the sun and the wind talking and compromising on a deal, is somethin which sounds really funny to me.

there are many bloggers.. who i know are aspiring to write a book. thou they havent started writing yet, i already know the style of writing they will incorporate in their novel. its a part of their identity.. and i feel it will never completely change.
p.s: i have decided not to write any book as of now, and spare all the readers, the trouble of goin thru the worst novel ever.

7 Point Struggler (Part II)

hopes of a branch change had vaporised into thin air. kept wondering if it was worth slogging for rest of my life. second sem came and went like a whoosh. the only thing i can possible remember is me having a stupid argument with a friend of mine over a rock band cassette, and fellow wingmates giving bumps to every other guy in the wing for fun.

after a two month long vacation break, came one of the most imp. semesters, third. 7 courses and 2 labs. had second thoughts of coming back into vicious study circle. spent a lot of time in the institute library pondering over 1000 page huge chemical engg books. but the effect of the course and the AC in the library, always made me doze of midway thru my chapter. so decided to issue the books and give it a try in hostel. but my fellow wingmates never let me settle into a proper study routine. ended up with another dissapointing 7 point somethin.

by now, i had almost given up hope to putting a fightback. i was dropped back to rank 12 in my branch. soon, computers started arriving in my wing, and the game fever started. well, it all started with 2d games like mortar, and then gradually shifted to 3d games like 'age of empires' and 'quake'. coupled with a newly installed LAN facility in the wing, the game fever never faded and spent most of my next three semesters in front of my computer. rivetted back to copying assignments and lab reports. slowly, i started to involve myself in lot of hostel activities, especially in sports. spent most of my time playing football or volley. during this tenure, my addiction to musik had sprouted. started listening to rock and heavy metal (thankfully for my wingmates, i didnt have a woofer. or just imagine the torture they would have faced. they still hadnt grown enough to move from the backstreet gays genre).

i had become a seasonal 7 pointer by now. like most of other fellow 7 pointers, i started blaming the system, the iit course curriculum. last minute brushing thru books before exams, copying assignments from websites and classmates had become my regular schedule.the final year was no less different. with the arrival of internet to hostel rooms, i almost stopped attending classes. spent most of my time chatting with twits :P it had just become another task for me as to how to survive the day.

after managin just a string of 7 pointers throughout my life at IIT, i realised my future was in grave danger. so sat down one day pondering over my future. i didnt want to end my life in a chemical industry for sure, wearing masks and funny looking jacket. thought of becoming a rock star, but realised i never actually touched a guitar. footballer, hmm.. for a guy who tires out running 400m on a trot, didnt feel like a good option. writer?.. haha, you can figure out by my style of writing. so had to go for the only option left, a software engineer. i finally made it to some local company somehow, even thou my crap grades were an obstacle. (i didnt bribe the interviewer thou, hope i dont make him regret his decision of selecting me)

well.. my life in IIT was similar to the one put down by the author of the book '5 point someone'. thou i shld say, i never had an accidental meeting with a girl driving a car nor did i ever try to attempt suicide from the insti terrace (as mentioned in the book). my life may not be worth portraying in a movie but sure was a tough ride. i enjoyed everybit of it, and shld thank my friends for making my stay in the institute a pleasant one.

p.s: seems like fubu has started writing personal blogs (which he never does and loathes writing one). he surely needs to go to a psychiatrist to have a check up.