The Sultan of Samarkand

Travel checklist for 2010/11

2010-09-26T21:49:00.004+05:30

Three months left in 2010. Here's my checklist -

1. Pondicherry - hopefully on the new year.
2. Amritsar and Wagah - in November, if Doll agrees to accompany. If she doesn't, I'll still go.

Don't have many vacations left in '10. Here's my plan for 2011.

1. Rajasthan - probably a 15-day long holiday. I plan to cover Shekhawati, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Mt. Abu, Udaipur and Jaipur. Must do before March, 2010.
2. Gangtok, Darjeeling and other parts of Sikkim
3. Kerala.

I don't think I have much time left - two, three, a maximum of four years. After that travel is going to be very difficult.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

b0r3d

2010-09-26T21:37:00.005+05:30

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam in the actual sea
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit dinner with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Water-skiied
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game - India vs Australia, Hyderabad, 2009
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa/Qutub Minar
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables - Tomatoes
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a sixer that won the game - Hit a four that won the game. Yes, it counts.
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer.
40. Can name all 27 states.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk. Gazzilions of times
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales - dolphins to be precise.
45. Stolen a sign/damaged public property
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Kashmir.
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love.
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Tried to make a buffalo move when it sat down in front of your cycle.
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero. Yep, i walked around in my underwear with a towel serving for a cape :D
58. Played ‘Antakshari’ in a public place and sung really loudly without caring about the onlookers.
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played gully cricket
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites - Depends. If ancient means 500 years old, then yes.
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played a video game for more than 6 hours straight - CONTRA!!! FTW!!!111
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie.
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made chapatis from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. White water rafted
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to all states in India
86. Recorded your own music. Oh yea. I wrote the song myself.
87. Eaten shark and preferred roadside ‘bandi’ food
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in the National Day Parade in New Delhi/your city
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Howrah bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car – with the windows open – and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 10 kgs
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart.
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone. Haha. Yes.
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Spent the night at a railway station. When you have to board the 6AM train, you camp on at the station at night.
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Spent the better part of your life outside India
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper.
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried ice cream
134. Read ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’
135. Selected one ‘important’ author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language. I own a Google project, though I didn't write it from scratch.
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life. If pulling Rishabh Mukherjee out of a truck's way counts, then yes.

I'm gonna revisit this in another ten years and I hope I find myself striking out another 50 items on the list.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Back up on my feet

2010-05-19T13:09:00.004+05:30

I met with an accident in the wee hours of 25th April, 2010. I was shattered, literally - three broken bones, torn ligaments and all. But a kind soul picked me up, nursed me and got me back on my feet. All I've realized is that life's too short and I have to make it worth living; if not for me, for people I love.

'Tis a new life.

Drive safely,
Sultan

Tag Tag

2010-02-25T01:31:00.006+05:30

1. My uncle once: took me for a hike in a State National Park and we fell in a pseudo quick-sand ditch. Scared the shit out of me.

2. Never in my life: have I done something which I am proud of

3. When I was five: I used to climb up a stairwell to get to my classroom and I always wondered what's the point of building multi-storied structures.

4. High school was: sad.

5. I will never forget: resisting this really strong feeling of leaning in and kissing her.

6. I once met: a rickshaw puller who had a PhD in sociology.

7. There's this girl I know who: No, I don't interact with item females.

8. Once, at a bar: This gult guy, who was high, started throwing things around and abusing the waiters, and then he whipped out a tuchha-sa knife and started doing a Rajnikanth.

9. By noon, I'm usually: at work - couple of cups of coffee down and wondering what the hell did I do yesterday.

10. Last night: I got pissed at my product manager and then realized she was just doing her job :(

11. If only I had: more sense, discipline and well - money, charm etc- you know the works.

12. Next time I go to the temple: I'll try not to do everything mechanically and marvel at God's creations for starters.

13. Rakhi Sawant: I love you, man!

14. What worries me most: The world (or my world) coming to an end with me still left with stuff to finish, things to say and promises to keep

15. When I turn my head left, I see: suitcases, a speaker and a laundry bag.

16. When I turn my head right, I see: books, allout, medicines and a pair of old jeans

17. You know I'm lying when: you can't figure this one out. I'm one hell of a great liar.

18. What I miss most about the ninetees: Indipop - whatever happened to Indipop?

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I'd be: Julius Caesar.

20. By this time, next year: Remember Groundhog Day?

21. A better name for me would me: Vikramjeet Singh Rathod. No, I'm not brave. I just like multi-syllablic kingly names

22. I have a hard time understanding: females. Duh!

23. If I ever go back to school: I'd make sure I submit all my homeworks in time and not get detained/beaten-up/humiliated.

24. You know I like you: if talk to you all the time and then ignore/fight with you, or, I feel like taking care of you all the bloody while and then vest all my faith in your abilities and let you on your own

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I'd thank would be: me mum and then all those people who were there in times of trouble (yes, you, fair-weather friends - you don't matter)

26. Sachin Tendulkar, Mozart, Sonia Gandhi and Ronaldo: You shouldn't be likening apples to oranges but I guess these people rule (yes, Ms. Gandhi. you rule. Manmohan is your puppet)

27. Take my advice, never: settle your differences with someone as if you're planning a project. lol

28. My ideal breakfast is: eggs, coffee and people who love eggs ;)

29. A song I love, but do not own is: Made in India

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest: Tunde's Kebabs. Heaven on earth!

31. Tulips, character flaws, microchips, & track stars - what? realities of life? figments of imagination? Star trek?

32. Why won't people: shut the f*** up?

33. If you spend the night at my house: you'd be pleasantly surprised in the morning. I'm gonna take good care of you. muhahahaha

34. I'd stop my wedding for: Absolutely nothing. The show (yes, that's what Hindu marriages are) must go on.

35. The one thing you could do without: people. For the love of God, stop procreating. Aren't there enough of us already?

36. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: write a 40 page document describing something which cannot be built and is a hoax.

37. My favorite blond is: Drew Barrymore

38. Paper clips are more useful than: staples. I hate removing them. Aaargh!

39. If I do anything well, it's: with someone else's help. I'm no superman.

40. And by the way: I'm on a writer's block. I hate blogging and I want to delete my blog. I love Kurt Cobain though. Haha

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

O sanam!

2010-02-08T12:09:00.001+05:30

No words. Just a video this time.

The guy called me

2010-01-21T12:25:00.002+05:30

Why do I have to screw things up? I am now convinced that civilized society does not have a place for me. I think I'm better off alone, with clearly defined contracts with things/people whom I interface with coz the moment these boundaries become hazy - guess what? I screw up.

I'm a frickin computer system.

Khuda hafiz,
Sultan.

PS- On an unrelated note, has anyone committed suicide out of boredom?

Another year goes by

2010-01-18T08:24:00.004+05:30

I turn 24 today - twelve thousand kilometers away from the place I was born. There was no cake, there was no birthday bumps, there was no bakar - but there were a couple of sweet friends at the stroke of midnight, there was scrambled eggs for breakfast, Indian food for lunch and a long walk home from a picturesque part of the city.

Year #24 was special - met great people, figured I couldn't fit in with everybody, tuned up the guitar yet again, worked my butt off for the first half of the year and then slacked off completely, cooked up a list of stuff that I would want to do/see before I die, and well, fell for the wrong girl (for reasons beyond my control), yet again!

The next year would probably see going me going somewhere with work and personal life - everything seems to be taking shape well. Life is ephemeral, people come and go and I need to be able to cope with this, and not go all whiny as I was in all of October and November, 2009.

I hope my next b'day would find me in another interesting land with me trying to sample yet another culture of this super awesome world.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan

Long time

2009-12-10T20:31:00.002+05:30

Just realized that it has been around 6 years since I lived a normal life. And that when I started out I hardly had any sense in me - not that I'm the wise sage now, but still. It's scary to even imagine myself living out the rest of my days like this, doing what I'm doing now.

-Sultan.

Setting sun

2009-10-26T00:34:00.002+05:30

A dark layer of burnt caramel. A burly helping of tangerine colored marmalade. Razor thin slices of butter cake. And to top it all, an infinite expanse of blue typhoon Hawaiian punch.

That's how it looks from 37,000 feet.

-Sultan

PS- Need to cut down on food!

Into the wild

2009-09-13T23:03:00.003+05:30

Best movie I've ever seen. Pure emotion, passion, being stupid without caring for anyone's judgments, doing what your heart says, reaching out to the basest of the elements, living the rest of your days - into the wild.

R.I.P Alexander Supertramp.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Railroad dreams

2009-07-30T22:30:00.002+05:30

Dream's over cowboy. Get back to reality. Which, of course, is full of shit.

Sultan.

The middle class dream

2009-07-12T00:31:00.004+05:30

There's this guy at work who just left for a week long euro-trip with his wife - London, Paris and Switzerland - you know, the places they show in Bollywood movies where scantily clad white chicks foolishly indulge in random calisthenics along with our actors.

Just when he was leaving he said to someone, 'I want to fulfill all my middle-class dreams', and when inquired why he didn't want to save up for his kids, he exclaimed, 'If kids had to depend on their parents for their survival, what's the point in even having them?'

My respect for him just increased twenty-fold.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

OOAD: Encapsulation

2009-06-20T00:52:00.004+05:30

You would say that encapsulation and data hiding are almost essential while designing complex systems. You must hide your data and internal implementation. You must not let anyone know how dirty your laundry is.

But when you make this concept your guiding principal, you tend to write code which enforces strict client behavior. Invariably, you end up writing components that are almost unusable with changing requirements. When you get hell bent on using the component, either

1. you modify existing code breaking the very first principal of object oriented programming - entities must be closed to modification but open to extension. As one guy in my team puts it, your SVN revision must only have 'A's and almost zero 'M's.

2. or write infinitely complex super-generic code which is a nightmare to maintain and is uber-hard to understand

Here's a concrete example. Assume you need to maintain a list of animals. Your clients hold another animal. They need to check if the animal is dangerous or not. Religiously following the concept of encapsulation, you might come up with -


public enum Animal {
 TIGER    (Category.DANGEROUS);
 LEOPARD  (Category.DANGEROUS);
 DOG      (Category.FUN);
 CAT      (Category.DISGUSTING);
 GODZILLA (Category.OH_MY_GOD);

 private Category category;
 public Animal (Category category) {
    this.category = category;
 }

 // I will not allow people to see what category assignments
 // I've made. It might offend them!
 private Category getCategory() {
    return this.category;
 }

 public static boolean isAnimalOfCategory(Category category) { 
    for (Animal a : EnumSet.allOf(Animal) {
        if (a.getCategory().equals(category))  return true;
    }
    return false;
 }
}

Clearly, this models the present but not the future. Another implementation could be -


public enum Animal {
 TIGER    (Category.DANGEROUS);
 LEOPARD  (Category.DANGEROUS);
 DOG      (Category.FUN);
 CAT      (Category.DISGUSTING);
 GODZILLA (Category.OH_MY_GOD);

 private Category category;
 public Animal (Category category) {
    this.category = category;
 }

 // But I'll let them know what all I have for a
 // particular type and let them do whatever they want with it.
 public static List<Animal> getAllDangerousOnes() {
    return Arrays.asList(Animal.TIGER, Animal.LEOPARD);
 }
}

I might also write a fancy method which given a Category would return a List of all animals I have for that category, but I'll pass. The second method enforces a logical grouping of all animals in the sample space which is also one of the objectives of the entity. The second class breaks encapsulation but lets you answer the following easily-

1. Is animal of category X?
2. Give me all animals of category Y.
3. Give me all animals but not of category Z.

A quirky tidbit but I it liked so much that I wanted to put it up here. Leave a comment if you think there are better solutions.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Kailash Kher: Joban chalke

2009-06-18T23:06:00.005+05:30

Literally, 'overwhelming youth', this is one of the best Rajasthani folk songs I've heard in a while. I didn't find accurate lyrics on the tubez, so here's my take on it.

ban than ke gora kahan chali...

[ bara mare aise jor
moonh ki khavein sab chor
bijli see kadke ghanghor
bhitar bhitar bale bor
kaise, chalun main to tikhad tikhad ke

o, joban chalke, joban chale
o, joban chalke, joban chale ] x 2

ae banthan wali mana kiye ke le ri jholi main
ke le ri jholi main

bhari bhari achraj paas pados kare itrane mein
bhari bhari achraj paas pados kare itrane mein
are court kachehri band pad gaye, buggi pad gayi thane mein
court kachehri band pad gaye, buggi pad gayi thane mein

upar upar ka hai shor
bhittar bhittar hain sab chor
sare ke sare moonh jor
baaton ka koi oar na chhor
ji main,
[undecipherable]

o joban chalke, joban chalke
o joban chalke, joban chalke

ae banthan wali mana kiye ke le ri jholi main
ke le ri jholi main

****

chandan raat mein pisad baithi kid-kid daant bajaoon jo
chandan raat mein pisad baithi kid-kid daant bajaoon jo
nas-nas meri kas-kas jaave par bas kar dar jaoon jo
nas-nas meri kas-kas jaave par bas kar dar jaoon jo

kaise mare wo kilkor
mast hai saavan ki dor
joban hai pavan chitchor
dhak dhak ji mein uthe hilor
sabka, dil jave pighad pighad ke

o, joban chalke, joban chalke
o, joban chalke, joban chalke

ae banthan wali mana kiye ke le ri jholi main
ke le ri jholi main

ban than ke gora kahan chali...

**** the piece here is simply amazing. I suspect it's an acoustic piece. Watch out for it.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Of books and desperation

2009-04-06T02:53:00.003+05:30

I didn't have anything to read on me yesterday. I randomly decided to visit Ranjai's place and found Turbo's copy of 'The 3 mistakes of my life'. You'd be a moron if you couldn't guess the author's name from the super cheesy title. Anyway, since desperate times call for desperate-r measures, the prude in me gave way and the lame-ass took over.

It was the worst book I had ever read. Even Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruv's graphic comics were better when it came to plot(s) and characters. I get that Chetan Bhagat is not the best Indian author and expecting spectacular stuff would be akin to hoping India wins the next soccer world cup. I also get that he writes for the "masses", encouraging people to read more and gives them something which they can relate to. But 'The 3 mistakes of my life' was shockingly ridiculous. Characters yelled 'stereotype' in every act, (real-life) sensitive issues were grossly misportrayed and the author didn't even have the backbone to call out wrongdoers by their names. 'Five point someone' was much better than this one mate!

This minor reading disaster in my life was followed by a visit to Crosswords. Under the influence of a couple of pegs of this and that the store manager was just about to throw me out for overstaying, I hurriedly bought a copy of 'Sign of the Cross' by a little know Chris Kuzneski. Kuzneski is in Dan Brown's league. That'll tell you all. But I wanted something to read and I like Dan Brown's stuff. My favorite author (and genre) still remains Dickens but I admit - I like Dan Brown's writing. Go ahead and call me lame!

So, a review, rather a comparison (with DB), is going to ensue. Till then,

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan

Footnote- This is turning out to be pretty difficult.

Luurve ...

2009-03-23T21:30:00.002+05:30

...sounds so cheesy but when you're absolutely mad about someone, it all makes sense. We met around 7 years ago. She was walking her dog. I was arguing about some random tidbit of modern Indian history with someone. We exchanged phone numbers after a cricket match and a shattered window glass. I went out with her for some time. Then we parted ways.

She writes books for college students now. Last seen, she hasn't changed one bit in all these years.

May God be her guardian.

Sultan.

PS- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuda_Hafiz

Sometimes ...

2009-02-24T15:39:00.004+05:30

... you wish you could just run away. Leave everything behind - family, friends, acquaintances. Move to an unknown place. Go to work and come back, without even your neighbors getting the slightest hint of your existence. Spend nights alone. Spend weekends with things you love. Things that never judge you. Undemanding things that love you back with the same constancy and faith.

Sometime you wish you could start afresh.

-Sultan

The Sombrero Verses

2009-02-12T17:12:00.005+05:30

The following people are credited with for composing these verses-
- Supreeth Achar (The official poet laureate of the revolution)
- TS Prasanna (The official conductor of the revolutionary orchestra), and
- Yours truly (The official leader of the revolution)

The crappy verses are mine. The best ones are Smiley and Billu's

A distant cry..

Oh grand exalted glorious leader!
Show us the way so we may follow!
Lead us forth from burning sorrow
Deliver us to the shade of the sombrero.

The leader answered thus..

Tune the flamenco, buckle up,
Fret not, be it fear or sorrow.
From this day henceforth, thy saviour
Shall be the Sombrero!

And the crescendo rose..

The song of our revolution beckons.
Hark, Listen comrade, he summons us.
Tis the short man under the sombrero,
Dance to his strumming bolero

Watch us men of the Sombrero as we ride,
For we are the kings of cool.
When we pass, you will swallow your pride,
And eat our dhool.

Watch the horses with the wonders bestride,
The moon watching as well, at high tide.
We never let one moment go untilled,
Chewing on cigars, we strum away fulfilled.

Till a rat sold us away..

I know ye two faced scums,
Ye hath no allegiance, devotion or duty.
Blood of the revolutionaries shalt never go in vain.
Hark o' renegade, the Sombreros shall ride again.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Tango Alpha Golf

2009-01-25T20:49:00.005+05:30

Via Lord.

I am - an arrogant, stupid, know-it-all asshole.
I think - seldom, leap a lot, then clean up all the shit I got all over me.
I know - a lot of things. Most of 'em are good for nothing.
I want - to move out of this place.
I have - an interesting life. Not ordinary yet not extravagant.
I wish - that it rain all the time in Hyderabad.
I hate - cats.
I miss - a lot of things, but right now, my doctor!
I fear - that I won't be able to do anything perfectly well.
I feel - nothing. Void. Empty. Devoid of all emotion. I'm like meh.
I hear - a cat wailing in the backdrop. I hate cats.
I smell - dust. Earth. Dry earth.
I crave - for chocolate.
I search - in people I meet everyday. I search for a certain emotion, a particular expression.
I wonder - why the hell am I doing this tag?
I regret - nothing. Absolutely nothing. I am an asshole.
I love - a lot of people and things. Writing them down here won't make much of a difference anyway.
I ache - for losing time.
I care - This is getting really pointless and mushy!
I always - make sure that I'm the superior asshole.
I am not - what I look like. Muhahaha!
I believe - in destiny. And in Paul Coelho. Go ahead and call me lame.
I dance - only when there is a gun to my face.
I sing - only when my instrument is in tune.
I cry - Meh.
I don't always - honor stupid tags such as these. WTF?
I fight - for no reason. I like fighting with people. I'm evil.
I write - Utter BS.
I win - sometimes.
I lose - a lot of the other times.
I never - go into the water. Makes me dizzy.
I confuse - myself during a conversation.
I listen - to Led Zeppelin.
I can usually be found - sprawled on my bed, staring at the ceiling.
I am scared - that.. Let's leave that unanswered. Scary thoughts not welcome.
I need - a tranquilizer.
I am happy about - people who have a respectable profession, like masons and painters and chocolate factory workers. They make people happy.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan

Bandipur national park

2009-01-04T00:12:00.003+05:30

Clicked in Dec, 2008 at Bandipur National Park. Must visit - just 900 odd Kms from Hyderabad - it's perhaps the country's best preserved national parks. And please be responsible tourists!

Oh, and happy new year to you all!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Interrogative expletives

2008-11-23T17:05:00.009+05:30

Ever wondered how many phrases fit the regexp '* the fuck'? A short inquiry into the world's greatest database, would tell you that the phrases which make sense, are only of the interrogative type. I'll just let the results speak.

9 results for whose, 5 for whence and 4 for whither. Feel free to post your conclusions in the comments section.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote - A tribute to the greatest internet webcomic of our times.

When will India declare?

2008-10-19T23:00:00.005+05:30

Third day of the test match, post-tea session to go, Australia trailing by 200 odd runs, bowlers in top form - M.S. Dhoni decides to not enforce the follow on.

Let's talk about this last bit before we ponder about the exact number of overs that should be given to the Australians for their 4th innings. Well, it's a shame that in spite of the deficit, we decided not to enforce the follow on. A team which is following on is under the added pressure of removing the deficit before setting a total for the other team to chase. For the moment, assume that follow on was enforced. In the best case (for Australia), they would have gotten rid of the deficit in less than two sessions, and would have taken around 3 sessions to set India a total of 300-350 in about 70 overs. That's considering an average of around 4 an over - sure, if our bowlers smoked weed all day and let them score freely. The match would have ended in a tame draw. But, if, and this ain't that big an if I'm talking about, they were bowled out for 400-450 in 4 sessions, you have a target of 250 in three. Consider for a moment-

the Australian batting line up. Ponting, Hussey and Watson have clicked till now, the rest have struggled.
the Indian bowling lineup - Ishant and Amit Mishra.

Under these conditions, Australia scoring 550 runs is out of the picture. A 400-450 is more likely, and expected, from the dangerous Kangaroos. The cons for India-

dealing with tired bowlers in session 3, day 3.
a batting collapse on a day 5 pitch.

The pitch has held pretty nicely and well, and if your bowlers can't take the pitch for two days on the trot, then you can forget about winning a test match. The weather's been decent in Mohali (oh, I miss those winters) and it's not as if your bowlers are carrying injuries.

Now that they've decided to bat, when must India declare? The highest successful chase in the fourth innings, ever, is 418. They already have 300 on board. Another session and 20 overs should be enough for a total for 500-530. That gives the Indian bowlers around 4 sessions and 10 nervous overs for Australia before tea. If there happens to be an Indian batting collapse, Aussie will have around 5 sessions to chase down around 380-400 runs - Doable.

There won't be any dew at Mohali at this time of the year, but the sweaty wicket and the reverse swing in the later part of the day will bother the Indian batting. Had they enforced the follow on, they would had the evening session on the 3rd day (i.e. today), whatever little purchase from the track in the morning and the reverse in the latter part of the fourth day.

It ultimately boils down to this, are you looking to first make sure that you don't lose the match, or you want to challenge the opposition to save the match if they can? I miss Dada's captaincy the most, at times like these.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

You know you're a geek ...

2008-10-11T21:47:00.007+05:30

... when you ask what color a ruby is, and they say, 'Oh, it's the color of KMnO₄ just before the end point of a titration between KMnO₄ and H₂O₂'. And when they want you to get them a necklace locket which has six precious stones/diamonds arranged along the corners of a hexagon, something like -

(image for illustrative purposes wonly. There is no way in hell I'm buying this)

they say, 'Oh, get me a pendent ala the benzene ring, with diamonds on ortho and para positions and the rubies on the meta positions'.

I wonder what is next?

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Main zindagi ka saath..

2008-09-28T21:59:00.003+05:30

Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya
Har Fikar Ko Dhuen Mein Udata Chala Gaya

Barbadiyon Ka Shok Manana Fizul Tha
Barbadiyon Ka Jashan Manata Chala Gaya
Har Fikar Ko Dhuen Mein Uda…

Jo Mil Gaya Usi Ko Muqaddar Samajh Liya
Jo Kho Gaya Maein Usko Bhulata Chala Gaya
Har Fikar Ko Dhuen Mein Uda…

Gham Aur Khushi Mein Farq Na Mehsoos Ho Jahan
Main Dil Ko Us Muqaam Pe Laata Chala Gaya
Har Fikar Ko Dhuen Mein Uda…

Seems so right.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

iDoad Day

2008-09-19T19:44:00.005+05:30

Orkut.com is a sheer waste of time. It's such a dreary, depressing place that you feel like drowning yourself in a sea of color #D9E6F7. But no, it ain't gonna be quick. Just so that you 'Stay beautiful', they'll bid you farewell by sticking a donut up your behind - the same donut which was snatched from your very hands moments ago. And oh, it does not know how to count. So the number of suicide attempts in your profile would still read zero, even after you've killed yourself.

51.28% of the users on Orkut.com are from Brazil. Foda-se idiotas! And no, friend requests from half-naked Brazilian chicks does not make it a better place. I mean, Brazil is a developing nation, right? 73.46% of their youth is wasting precious time on the Internet barfing on Orkut.com. Shouldn't they be doing something more productive? Umm, like reading this and this. Even surfing for pr0n would qualify as a productive activity (remember this?). However, sending friend requests to the sex-starved population of another developing nation, does not! If you're a totally hot drop-dead gorgeous Brazilian chick, please stop sending friend requests to us. If I come across another one of those 'Eu quero ser seu amigo' messages anywhere, I'm going to file a public interest litigation in the International Court of Justice accusing you guys of conspiring against our youth. I know. Netagiri. Totally rocks!

Of course, there is the flip side. You stay in touch with your long lost friends, bakar around on random forums and browse through hot wumans' albums, write kilobyte long testimonials to your friends, add people to your hawt-list and crush-list (super-awesome), and in general keep refreshing your scrapbook every n seconds (n α 1/orkut_addiction_index).

Since Chuck Norris is too busy counting to infinity for the second time, I, keeping the interests of both parties in mind, declare 19th September, 2008 as the International Deprecate your Orkut Account Day. Please make a note of it and stop using the darned thing.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

PS- No offense meant to Brazilian folks. The Amazon rainforest is totally awesome.

Smash 'em termites

2008-09-11T10:27:00.008+05:30

On 9th September, 1946, a Mr. Burke coined the term 'bug'. They are our most vicious adversaries. They elude the best of developers. Quashing them is no mean feat. Our brethren earn their living by tracking them down and forcing us to arrange a dual.

Here's to software developers and bug-free code!

This picture was clicked in Apr '08, somewhere in Himachal Pradesh. I now realize that the macro mode is meant exactly for such situations. *Sigh*. Noobdom of photography.

On a related note, the following line was seen on a T-shirt-

I kill bugs for a living.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote- The author of this post loves bugs and termites. No creatures, living or dead, were harmed in any way whatsoever, in composing the artwork in this post. A bunch of electrons were severely inconvenienced. As of publishing this post, they are picketing in front of my desk asking for compensation.

All you who sleep tonight

2008-09-03T23:14:00.003+05:30

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

From the 'Meditations of the Heart, All you who sleep tonight'

House hunting in Hyderabad

2008-08-30T00:25:00.005+05:30

This post documents learnings from the author's travails, in looking for an apartment for rent in this dreary city. It might also be of help to people who attempt to do the same in the near future. It is assumed that you are a software professional, your office is in the vicinity of HiTec city or Gachibowli; that you're single and are going to put up with a bunch of friends. Does not leave much scope for generality, but IIIT folks do fit the bill.

* You must start looking for places early. Start as early as April/May. A lot, and I mean truckloads, of people join the industry in June/July/August. The law of price elasticity of demand applies and you might have to shell out a couple of grand more in case you're late.

* Ideal places for bachelors are Gachibowli, Kondapur, Miyapur, Madhapur, Kukatpally, Srinagar Colony, Ameerpet and Begumpet (if your office is nearby) and parts of Jubilee/Banjara hills.

* Jubilee/Banjara hills, Srinagar Colony, parts of Kondapur and Madhapur are a tad costlier. Gated communities cost more. If you want a swimming pool, gym within the community, be prepared to shell out more money. The places mentioned above must be the epicenter of your search. You should look for houses within a 2 Km radius around these places.

* Start with these websites

These are the most comprehensive ones of the lot. There are a couple of caveats with online house hunting. These ads are put up by brokers/agents and they quote less than what the owner expects. When you go to them, they just make a sorry face and say, 'Oh, the owner wants Rs. (n+2000). But, we will help you negotiate with her'. Also, many of the ads boast of superior amenities, parking etc., which turn out to be a bummer. Check out every place before placing it in your filtered list.

* Be clear on what you want - an apartment, an independent house, or co-existence with the landlord. Each has its own pros and cons. While an independent house allows you to do almost whatever you want, an apartment building gives you slightly better security. Co-existence might restrict movement but gives you a slightly better deal.

* Contact brokers. Scores of brokers. Ask your seniors, colleagues, friends for phone numbers of people who deal in real estate. Be on the lookout for such information on fliers, wall posters, graffiti. Broker dudes show you around, help you negotiate with the owner.

Brokers charge brokerage, which usually amounts to 50% of one month's rent from your side and 50% from the owner's side. Note that bargaining is not in the broker's favor, so you must talk to the owner yourself and settle on an amount. I've met brokers who wanted one month's rent in advance. If someone insists, just say 50% is the norm and that is the maximum you can offer him in return of his services.

* If you don't want to get in touch with brokers, check out each target locality for TOLET signs. This is very time consuming, tiring and frustrating. Your friends might be able to help you out, but the broker way is faster.

* Now that you have places to check out, this is more or less what you should be looking at -

Is the house/apartment secure? This is irrelevant in case of a gated community.
Uninterrupted power supply. Power backup. Power thefts in the area.
Water? Borwell water/municipal supply/filtered water?
Is the place well connected? What's the traffic like during peak hours?
Are there places to eat, where you can eat daily without pooping in your pants, nearby? This is important if you don't plan to cook/hire a cook
Can you get house keeping? I do it myself. So should you, unless you're really lazy.
Are there departmental stores, utility shops etc. in the vicinity?
Internet service providers in the area.

I missed out on point #5 above and I have a hard time arranging dinner, almost everyday.

* Strike a balance between the rent and the time that you're going to spend in the house. There is no point in shelling out 18K for a 2BHK, if you plan to come back only to sleep. Likewise, there is no point in getting a shabby place if you're doing night shifts or whatever.

* Never tell which organization you work for. People start guessing your budget and you might end up leaving the landlord/broker salivating and not open to negotiations. Just say, you work for an IT company/services company.

* Once you're done negotiating, you are supposed to pay the token amount. Please don't say no to this even if you're moving into the new place after two months. It's like a tradition. Spit and shake hands types!

* Make sure your paperwork is solid. There is something known as a lease document. This must be crystal clear in case 2/3 of you are sharing. Each one of you should appear on that document as joint leasers. It should mention how much each person is contributing towards the total rent. Be on the lookout for 'small-fonts'. It's a legal document after all. Don't throw away the receipts, you'll need them for IT returns

* Oh, and please respect others right to peaceful existence (I just created one!), which means no loud music in the dead of the night, no boozing in the courtyard and definitely no chicita business - can't help it. People hate this!

* And lastly, there is no substitute for field work!

A big thank you to everyone who helped us out with all this - IV, Devansh, Gunjan, Sugandh, Jitu, Ap0c, Jimmy. Really appreciate it!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Status update

2008-08-22T01:48:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer - This is a personal post. Please be kind enough to bugger off if you were looking for something else.

Dear (nonexistent) readers,

I'm alive and kicking. I've been rather busy of late. To be honest, the last two months or so have been demanding, frustrating, tiring, depressing, at times embarrassing, and most importantly, one hell of a learning experience - not only on the technical front, but on the people front as well.

I believe phases such as these give you a lot of scope for kaizen. They eventually become your driving force, urging you to go on and deliver, and meet your own expectations. They also reveal the ugly side of most people you thought were by your side. Those who did are probably the ones whom you should hang on to, to the end of your days. It's all for the good, I tell you.

Anyhoo. So, I happened to visit Crosswords the other day and picked up Chowringhee and The Dubliners. I'm almost half way through Chowringhee. It's a gem of a novel. Set in post-colonial Calcutta, the story revolves around a hotel and souls associated with it. The protagonist is the stereotypical educated Bengali babu, supported by an enigmatic hotel receptionist, a doctor who ends up in the colonies by a cruel twist of fate, a street smart private eye and a easy woman who always manages to give Mr. Bond the slip. Romanticism at its best!

Will post a detailed review soon.

Let's see. What else? I've had an idea for a pet project of mine for quite some time now. I need to start working on it. Even if I eventually end up building a prototype, releasing it would be a pain, with all the legal hassles and paperwork. More details soon.

I've heard there is a major blogging revolution going on, back at college. I guess this post would qualify as a 'behti Ganga mein haath dhone' types post, trying to get some readership moolah (Yes, we all want it!). IMO, there is more quantity than quality on the IIIT blogroll. Most of the blogs are restricted to a particular genre - random/arbit/BC/life - and this is what makes them boring. I'm not saying - 'Hey, read my blog! This is how and what you should write. I rawk!' - but then, (quoting William Cowper- no! not the one who named the glands) variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor. Read on, write more! Pwn the blogsphere.

I guess it is back to the scrum board for me. Until we meet again, I have the honor to remain,

Yours truly,

Sultan of Samarkand.

OSE, Knight of the Crescent Table

Quirkiness of the Quark - Tag

2008-07-18T21:03:00.009+05:30

Another tag makes its way over here via @nks. I really don't know how to react when someone pushes a tag over. One part of me goes, 'OMG, I HAZ TAG. AWESUM. WOW!!!. STHNG 2 FINLLY R8 ABT'; and the other, 'Another tag. More crap on my blog. This has to be a new creative low. What a waste!' - all the while realizing that I have to honor this age old meme.

The rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you - already done.
2. Mention the rules on your blog - Go to rule #1. Ha!
3. Tell us about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours - Here you go.

Unspectacular quirk #1 - I love old things. The older the better! Please note that all references to age apply exclusively to material objects. I categorically deny any allegations that might appear in the comments section of this post. The other day, I found a ten year old picture of my school friends, taken during the annual NCC camp, with everyone in their fancy Air Force uniforms and badges and cravats. I think I'm going to order a high dpi framed print and put it in my bedroom.

Unspectacular quirk #2- I absolutely adore pizzas. I once ate pizzas and only pizzas for seven days straight. Do not try this, especially at home. You'll end up hogging the restroom for the next two days.

Unspectacular quirk #3- I love watching random, idiotic TV shows such as Splitsvilla, Laughter Challenge, Big Brother, paanchi paas etc., much to the chagrin of my flatmates who prefer grown up stuff such as F1, music concerts and History Channel. Guys, seriously!

Unspectacular quirk #4- ~~I love running nekkid in the house~~. No, wait. That's what Britney Spears did/does. Eww! Seriously, at home, I sometimes break into a frenzy of laundering my clothes. This is a more recent oddity that I've acquired.

Unspectacular quirk #5- I am sometimes fiercely independant. Give me a decent apartment/room in a place like this and this, an adequate supply of food and an internet connection, and I'll spend the rest of my days in peace. Saurabh would swear to every word in that statement :D

Unspectacular quirk #6- There is no unspectacular quirk #6. Aren't you bored already? Oh, wait! You were already bored and hence decided to chance upon this blog. Psst!

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.

I tag Apoc, Harry (about time you started blawging), Halley (always been a fan of your utterly ridiculous posts!), Aniket, Shark, Sashidhar.

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged - Too much work. But what the hell.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

I IZ IN UR SCREEN EATIN UR PIXLS!

2008-07-04T18:01:00.008+05:30

I BE WANT EVERY1 TO PURR IN LOLSPEAK. LOLSPEAK IZ TOTALLY AWESUM. I BE CHATZ WID 2 OTHER FRNDS. I IZ POSTING CONVERSAYSHUN. U READ AND ROFL.

SULTAN: HAI
CAT1: HAI
SULTAN: I R GETS BRD
CAT1: I R GOEZ HOME
SULTAN: O SWEET. WHEN IZ U COMEZ BAK?
CAT1: I R NOT GOEZ YET. I R GOEZ 2NITE. I R CUMZ 3-4 WEEEKS
SULTAN: AWESUM. CAN HAS LONG VACASHUN
CAT1: NOT ASKS JAW. JAW BE FAR I BE GOEZ
SULTAN: JAWS NOT UR CEILING CAT. U GO DO WAT U LIKZ.
CAT1: I GOEZ WERE I GOEZ. I EETZ WAT I EETZ
SULTAN: BUT JAW GETZ ANGRY AND HE PURRS. I DOESNT LIKES
CAT1: JAW BE FAR I NO HEAR
SULTAN: GTTAGO. KTHXBYE
CAT1: CUL8RALIG8R. KTHXBYE

SULTAN: HAI
CAT2: OH HAI
SULTAN: HOW IZ U?
CAT2: I IZ BETTER. WOT BE UNTHINKABUL?
SULTAN: STUDENTS GETZ HAX0D
CAT2: HAX0D? HOW THIS HAPPENS?
SULTAN: I DOEZNT KNOWS. I BE SLEEPING. HAX0R CATS LOLED R SERVER
CAT2: HAX0R CATS R LOLING AT YOUS
SULTAN: I R BUZY NOW
CAT2: OH NOES!
SULTAN: TTYL8R
CAT2: I DISTURB
SULTAN: KTHXBYE
CAT2: KTHXBYE

SULTAN: HAI
CAT2: OH HAI
SULTAN: HOW BE YOU?
CAT2: HOWS YOU DOING?
SULTAN: I R GOOD
CAT2: IZ GOOD. WHAT THIS ABOUT BLOG TOPIC?
SULTAN: IZ WNAT TO POST. NEED TOPIC. BASEMENT CAT STOLE ALL IDEAS
CAT2: HALP NEEDED?
SULTAN: AWESUM
CAT2: THIS IZ GTALK-CHAT
SULTAN: I NOES
CAT2: YOU WANT IDEAZ? PUT LAZRS ON SCREEN. TELL PEEPULS TO GO "PEW,PEW,PEW"
SULTAN: LAZRS ON SCREEN GO KILL MICE. I BE LAZY AND NOT KILL. I R GET BRD.
CAT2: U PUTZ ALL US LOLSPEAK ON BLOG. I BE AWESUM. CAT1 ALSO PURRS GOOD.
SULTAN: AWESUM. I BE WANTING TO PUT THIS AS WEL. BLOGGING RAWKS
SULTAN: KTHXBYE
CAT2: KTHXBYE

KTHXBYE,
SULTAN OF SAMARKAND

FOOTNOTE- THIS BE LOLSPEAK. DIZ B CAT1 AND DIZ BE CAT2. AWESUM. KTHX!!!11

Laila!

2008-07-02T00:04:00.003+05:30

What'll you do when you get lonely
And nobody's waiting by your side?
You've been running and hiding much too long.
You know it's just your foolish pride.

Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.

Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.

Layla - Eric Clapton

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Ek jaam pila de saaqi!

2008-06-21T13:54:00.005+05:30

Zindagi mein jo dikhey har baat sach hoti nahin,
Shaakh se patta girey wo khezaan zaroori nahin.

Aahat kaan mein mere aksar goonjti
Aks har dam saath unka, woh magar hoti nahin.

Dooriyan hain hum-mein un-mein, par gila ab kuch nahin,
Kuch to usne socha hoga, varna woh jate nahin.

Har shab tanhayi meri mujhe yehi poochti,
Hai agar Ishq tujhko, kyun phir jatate nahin.

Kal khwaab mein aa ke mile woh humse kuch is tarha,
Seher mein rim-rim ho jaise, chain phir bhi aaye nahin.

Ruh hai betaab saaqi aur tasswur mein woh hi,
Aaj tere jaam mein baat wo saaqi nahin.

Hai to gham unko bhi tanwar humse judaai ka bahaut,
Warna labon pe tabassum is kadar hoti nahin.

-Tanwar Dehlavi

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Of Quarter-life Crisis and Sikandar Comics

2008-06-19T20:05:00.007+05:30

Recently, our resident expert and chief navigator of the Wikipedia, rummaged out a rather depressing entry. This! I have reason to believe that everyone of us folks in their twenties is undergoing the quarter-life crisis.

If you are working in the industry and you are unhappy with your job or at least about some aspects of it, if you have just graduated and you feel a longing for your university, if you have no idea about your future plans, or if you belong to the unfortunate majority who haven't had the pleasure of female company in quite some time, rest assured mon ami, you are going through it! It is out there. It has become a thing. There are conflicts of interest, vicious circles which eventually transform into a downward pointing spiral and problems which do not have a realistic solution.

I'm freaked!

On another note, the Don is back with an update post. These days, he is gay for the Shaitan of Sialkot, which he thinks is me, little realising the greatness of the Shaitan (loser!); and for ASCII strings such as 'haha' and 'pappu' and what not. I doubt I'll see any activity on his blog. Apparently, he has better things to do than write a lame blogpost like this. *wink, wink*

On yet another note, yours truly has come up with the first set of B-grade story books for children. Please note that the rating here, has nothing to do with the rating criteria of masala Hindi movies. The story books will go a long way in redefining B-grade stuff. They are aimed at children with a crooked sense of humour, similar to that of Kyle and Eric Cartman of the Southpark fame. The settings will be exotic, and wierd, of course! Wierd will be the situations and wierd will be the name of our hero- Sikandar Singh Ghodalal. Here are the titles of the first bunch of story books-

Sikandar aur kaale kabootar ka aatank.
Sikandar and the revenge of the three-legged butterfly.
Sikandar aur daku rani.

Fasten your seatbelts balakon aur balikaoon. You're in for the ride of a lifetime.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Footnote- In all probability, these stories won't make it to this blog. They won't even make it to the writer's subconscious mind.

For whom the bell tolls!

2008-06-14T19:19:00.015+05:30

I stumbled upon this Roman catholic cathedral in the Gunfoundry area, last weekend. It's a 19th century building and conforms mostly to the neo-Gothic architectural style, which was the one prevalent in colonial India. It's not really like those grand Portuguese churches in Goa but it's a pretty decent place for shutterbugs. The overcast conditions were icing on the cake - no wonder I came across a bunch of photography majors from JNU.

How do you get there?

If you're coming from Nampally and going towards Abids, get down at one stop before the main bus stop. Locate Chermas - it's a pretty neat department store (you know, good selection and all). Just before the store, a lane cuts left and slopes downwards. Take that street and a few paces ahead you'll find this beauty nested atop a hillock on your left.

The bells on the left were imported from Italy, and they say that you can actually sync them with a lot of hymns. I guess they are good only for summoning the masses to the church for the daily service. They've renovated the interiors and IMHO, that somehow belittles its post-renaissance charm. As I mentioned, the cathedral is at a little elevation and you can actually see the entire Abids and Nampally area from up there. Looks quite neat if you ask me.

More pictures at my Flickr PhotoStream.

If you are visiting Hyderabad (or living here and sitting on your lazy bum - yes, that means all you IIIT folks), and have nothing better to do on a Sunday, go attend the evening mass at the St. Joseph's Cathedral. It's surreal!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Summer showers

2008-06-09T13:56:00.006+05:30

This was taken a couple of days back in my new apartment. Man, I just love this weather!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote- If you blog and have a tag pending, please tag me :frustoo samurai:

Creativity and Intelligence

2008-05-29T18:44:00.008+05:30

Warning- This post might not make any sense to you. Please don't kill me if it doesn't. Leave a comment if it does.

So, I have this friend. Lets call him Yappu, shall we? Yappu is infatuated with Lara Dutta. He spends the entire day surfing youtube for TV clippings and movie shots in which she is, wait for it, just talking! Only blabbering. Blabbering fully clothed. No, no, those slits in the evening gowns don't count. Yappu thinks her voice is classy, suave and urbane. He is also aware that she had the highest interview score ever at a miss universe pageant. So, that makes her intelligent and not some dumb bimbo!

Yappu is so in love with Lara Dutta that he discredits a reasonably good looking NID, Ahmedabad grad. It is evident that he prefers *intelligent* women over creative ones. Little does he realise that NID-A is quite a difficult place to graduate from! Your truly, preferring the other kind, tries to convince him that he is terribly mistaken.

Yappu thinks that he is the most intelligent creature in his realm - the realm being his lab. He says that he prefers someone on his wavelength (or, was it the same frequency?) and that creative people are dull and boring and morose - mainly because they don't know anything apart from art. On the other hand, intelligent people can learn stuff really quickly. It does not take an Einstein to figure out that he prefers native intelligence over native creativity - not only when it comes to women but also otherwise. I revert with the observation (from experience) that creativity is just a derivative of intelligence. You know, just as a derived class has everything there is in the base class (well, almost!), plus a little bit more. Yappu disagrees!

We then set out to define these two characteristics. Intelligence is-

capacity of thought and reason
possession of sound knowledge

Creation is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas and concepts or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. Generating new ideas has nothing to do with prior knowledge - that does away with point #2 above. Both of us agree till this point.

Yappu then goes on to say that intelligent people can be creative, as they know how to make *logical connections*, whereas creative people more often than not, are not intelligent. Sacrilege, I say! After all, writing down a math proof can be far simpler than coming up with something that appeals to the eye (for example).

A discussion involving Ozzy Osbourne and his weird ways, Shakira's IQ and a dyslexic Albert Einstein follows. Yappu does not relent and gives his final verdict - creative is a subset of intelligent.

Well, I beg to disagree! What do you guys think?

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

IndiaToday 2008 T-school rankings

2008-05-24T23:31:00.007+05:30

More often than not, I usually ignore such instances of gross misreporting, but this time round, IndiaToday has pulled a shocker. I mean holy cow! Who is conducting these surveys and what are they based on? They must have been on crack when they came up with something like this.

Here's what I think of the various placeholders.

VIT Vellore's admission process is shady. NIT Warangal is starving for funds. Their ELX students come to Hyderabad to buy motors and micro-controllers. NIT Trichy's IT departments (CS, EE, ELX, IT) are just ok. Surely, they don't deserve the 12th spot. DCE's curriculum is ancient and despite their mechanical engineering department being the best in Asia (can anyone confirm this?) , it needs a lot of ramping up, for it to figure in the top 15. Jadavpur university is actually good - perhaps better than VIT and NITW. Freshers at BITS, Ranchi are made to do the 'jugnu'. Talk about civilized gentry! RVCE Bangalore, does not figure in the top 25, though MS Ramaiah, which is crappier than RVCE, gets the 21st spot. Shockingly, BITS Pilani does not even get a mention. Would the survey team like to explain this universe-annihilating anomaly?

Frankly, the IITs are in a league of their own. Then, comes this pool of fairly good engineering colleges - IIITH, IIITA, NIT-T, BITS Pilani and Anna University - colleges that have good faculty and are seeing an influx of brilliant students because of their placements or grad school admits. These colleges are almost at par - at little plus and minus, here and there, does not matter much. The only caveat is that most of them are self-financed deemed universities, and hence a tad costly. The next bunch of engineering colleges is - NITW, NIT Calicut, NIT Rourkela, NIT Allahabad, NSIT Delhi, DAIICT and PEC Chandigarh. Again, I would place them on an even keel.

I do not distinguish between these two groups of T-schools. If you're a prospective engineering student in India, don't take it to mean pool #1 > pool #2. Believe me, all these are genuinely good colleges - all achieve 100% placement and their students get pretty decent grad admits. If you prefer less red-tape, exposure to research and tough competition, choose pool #1. As an engineering grad (or about to be grad!), my sincere advice to you, would be, to not consider such vanity magazines' rankings. Talk to people who have already gone through the process. Talk to people who are working in the industry or slogging in grad school.

I have enough experience when it comes to manager-speak [:D] but would anyone care to explain what an institute's perceptual rank is?

More reviews are here and here [RmShark].

[Edited In - 00:46 05/25/08] Most of the stuff is _not_ from the horse's mouth. Rather, it's from the alumni of various colleges.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Footnote- Posting for the last time from the IIIT-H network and it's about selecting an engineering college. I can now safely say that I've come a full circle!

Falaq ke paar!

2008-05-23T21:05:00.012+05:30

This is a pretty old video, from the Lead India campaign, which I personally consider hogwash. Agreed that the participants are true leaders and social entrepreneurs, but we don't need a handful of such people. We need millions! The video is worth watching nonetheless - yes, even if the youtube main server is blocked at your place and it takes eons for the media to stream.

For a detailed review, go to ProjectBee's post.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Manager-speak!

2008-05-21T23:41:00.004+05:30

It's a bright, sunny morning. Sultan(S) enters the air-conditioned chambers of SomeoneAcquireUs Inc. His manager(M) is there to greet him. A conversation ensues.

M: Welcome, S. Is this your first day at work?

S: Thank you. Yes, this is day #1.

M: Alright. Let me debrief you about the company and what our business model is.

S: Sure. Please go on. *feigns interest*

M: We at SomeoneAcquireUs Inc. derive revenue by leveraging all our assets and bandwidth towards providing business solutions to our customers. We serve enterprises and we build software which mitigates their risk and in turn guarantees more customers to us.

S: Uh, huh.

M: Our developer churn out out-of-the-box solutions on a pro-rata basis. The key is to remain proactive and with a open mind when working on new technologies since our software turns legacy-code in a couple of months. Cobwebs are just not acceptable.

S: *nods and wonders what his pro-rata salary could be?*

M: You need to see the big picture and be a team player who hits base every time.

S: *wonders where the TT/Foosball/Carrom tables are*

M: Of course, when you build large scale software solutions, you need robustified umbrella processes to make sure your bug profile does not spike. It is only in a perfect world that such a thing never happens. We try to blamestorm all issues and come up with leakproof solutions to them.

S: *(dreamy eyes) coding is going to be so much fun*

M: Going forward, you'll get to know more about what we do and what we are. I'm going to send you a perf cheatsheet. I need you to give me a heads-up on what you can start working on ASAP. After all, planning and documentation are paramount while building complex systems.

S: *Yeah, right. And there are donkeys in Paraguay*

M: Oh, and welcome to SomeoneAcquireUse Inc!

S: *water, free coffee, free soft drinks, free T-shirts, free pens...*

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote-Disclaimer added in the AboutMe section.

Moments!

2008-05-19T21:30:00.006+05:30

This was taken en route to the highest point in Shimla. Believe me, not even the best camera and the greatest photographer would have done justice to the moment. Such, is the intangibility of life!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

The Best of the Community

2008-05-15T23:03:00.002+05:30

Warning - Most of the content of this post, is in Hindi. Hindi-haters, you see that green/blue arrow at the top left? Press that. If you're still here, this post is a deviation from my regular postings - it's quite personal.

In the not so distant past, there used to exist an online community, on a pathetic excuse for a social networking website, called orkut.com. Most of the members of this community were my wing-mates. Needless to say, it was about 'The Wing - 199 to 188'. In its hay days, it saw a lot of activity.

There used to be trivial declarations on its forums, such as-

Bajpai-aaj main ne kapde dhone ka record [sic] bnanaya .. 17 clothes in a day... yahooo :P
Nishant- aaj maine realize kiya ki bajpai kitna bada ch**tiya hai :D
Turbo- abe vajpai mere bhi kapde dho de.... tere record aur solid ho jayega :D

Sankalp-
#1 bajpai ne maha-g** profile pic laga di
#2 maine pel ke kapde dhoye (47 including chaddi baniyan and rumaal!)

Sankalp-kal daaru pi. blenders pride. saath mein cigar. aur chocolate. majja aa gaya. jinhone kal vodka laai thi, unka kat gaya. aur majja aaya.

Sankalp-sabse badi khabar hai ki ranjai ne cat mein 100 percentile maarke sabki (haan bilkul sabki, without any exception) maar li. kesar baba ne bhi 99.75 pel ke hamari daaru pakki kar di. jai bolo naruto ki!

It had confessions. It was a perfect place to vent out your frustrations. Sample this-

Nishant- Aaj Sankalp Mulye ne maan liya ki 'langdi bhi chalegi'

Then, there were discussions inspired from the trivialities of life. I remember starting this after an MG4575 lecture.

Sankalp- aaj mujhe tension ho gai. ddbms kyon le liya maine? iska project to faadu hai saala
Nishant- Sankalp Mulye, fight! You are a fighter, like, you fight like a gladiator, you know, like in that movie which had Russel Crowe.
Sankalp-you know, like, this is really beginning to like, get to you know, my head. And like, I might you know end up like, you know, bashing you up, like even before, you know PkaP(like... *censored*).

with Smiley (may his orkut soul rest in peace!) ending the thread by-

Smiley-soooooooooooooooo!

For those of you who took this course, you know what I'm talking about, don't you? There was an almost unseen enthusiasm in its otherwise lazy members, when they had to declare really important stuff.

Nishant-

1. Aaj Harry aur Turbo BigJ se mil liye.
2. Aaj hum sab ne Rs. 15647 uda diye.
3. Ranjai ne ek *bond* tullu mail bheji.
4. Biscuit darling ki nayi hairstyle pasand nahin aayi!

Bajpai- hobit ka IIIT me moderator jivan khatam hua .. sabhi janta ko aram mili :P

Nishant- Aaj chauhan ke room mein akshar naachne lage. wow yaar!

|NameCensored|-"If I do not invite you to my wedding, assume that it has been an arranged marriage and I'm too ashamed to invite you guys"

Sankalp-
1. supreeth dancing on the chair
2. handa blowing kisses
3. pondy's helmet suicide
4. our ass shaking at the stage
5. the unique 'welcome' for miss infinite-flab
5. malik & kesar's fight with the bamboos
6. ug2k3!

And of course, there were fights.

Nishant- Sica dropped his pants in front of Supreeth and me today, in front of lord's room. Accha hai. sab *** ho jao. mere competitors kam honge!
Sankalp-hobbit apna fattu-pana chhupane ki koshish kar raha hai mujhe badnaam karke bas. isne kaha ki tu jo karega bas wahi main bhi karunga. aur jab maine kuchh sahi mein daring kiya to inki fat gai. agar aap maante hain ki hobbit sabse bada fattu hai, [sic] tu is thread pe "haan haan, hai hobbit fattu" post karein.

I've been looking for an apartment for rent in the city of late. Looks like it really is time to leave! Yet, when it comes to start packing up stuff, my limbs simply refuse to move, and I steal some time to write posts like these. I would have ended this with a group photograph, but then some things should better be locked away, only to look back at them when the transition is complete. The transition from a fairly level-headed, geeky student to a 'high-earning, tie wearing, techno-babble spouting, soon-to-be-living-in-the-fast-lane types ', who might 'hire belly-dancers' on special occasions [courtesy Apoc]. Yeah, right!

Anyhoo, this is how a depressed guy would end this,

Is this when the covenant falls apart?
Is this when we go our separate ways?
Is this, when we all say,
Farewell?
-Anonymous [elite community member-1]

And this is how an optimist would,

Fear not, fret not.
The day is nigh, when I get high,
And on this forum,
All my wingies reply.
-Anonymous [elite community member-2]

Surprisingly, elite community member-1 and elite community member-2 are the same person. Yours truly!

Here's to the wing that was!

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

The IPL - PG's Tag

2008-04-29T14:50:00.011+05:30

I must say, vacations at home, even if they were theoretically your last, are infinitely boring. For the first few days, you visit people, attend weddings, hang out with a couple of friends who are in town. And then, you -

stumble upon an interesting kangaroo video, inadvertently [not work safe]
look out for the latest in computing
reaffirm your belief, in humanity, computing and womankind.
google stalk Lekha Washington, at the same time wondering what the lovely Ms. Bedi is doing, not hosting Extra Innings. Last heard, she's MCing a stupid reality show on Star Plus. We want her back!
and of course, slog the IPL

which brings me to PG's tag.

On the IPL and its popularity

Yes, sure. IPL is the in-thing. Instead of wasting a full 7-hours on an ODI, you get ten times the excitement, thrill, emotion, whatever, in just ~3 hours. It's like a family outing - similar to going out for a movie.

Players from different backgrounds share the same dressing room. The domestic players and the U-19 players, also get an opportunity to prove their mettle. It does provides real good exposure to the youngsters.

Cheerleaders, Matthew Hayden, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, big money, swanky stadiums - the IPL's got 'em all.

In the long run though, this *bikini* version, is going to prove detrimental to the game. The batting is no more technically correct and elegant. All you have is hoiks and slog sweeps and cross-batted agricultural shots! The bowling concentrates more on containing runs than attacking the batsman. 'A dot ball is like gold', says Shane Warne. Someone ask him what he considers his best delivery to be - the Mike Gatting dismissal, the Jacques Kallis 'round-the-legs' dismissal or a delivery in the final overs of the 1996 WC which didn't go for any runs.

Forget elegance and the rant above. Steve Waugh, in his autobiography, says that he would rather have in his team, someone who has character, than who is technically correct and elegant. In case you belong to the same breed, do you think this format of the game is going to instill character and the famed 'cricketing spirit' in youngsters?

It is the longer version which does so. You open the innings for your team. Within half an hour, you make the slightest of mistakes, and off you go. You realize that you've let go of an excellent opportunity to bat on a fresh day-1 wicket. You realize that you are going to cool your heels for another three days in the dressing room/on the field, before you get another shot. That long walk to the pavilion, builds character! You open the innings for your team, on a bouncy track that has moisture enough to make clay-models out of the soil. You need to bat through the first session and make sure your middle order is not exposed. You get close-ups of the varnish on the ball every over. Those three hours, my friend, build character!

The other side of the story is that the BCCI is dishing out absolutely lifeless, flat wickets for these games. Perhaps the main reason why the T20 world cup was a success, was that the surfaces had life in them. The bowlers were not non-contributing members of the team. In the ongoing tournament, barring a few instances, it has not mattered much if you had somebody like Chaminda Vaas or someone like Napolean Einstein, in your ranks. High time, bowlers got their due on subcontinent LOI tracks!

My favorite

My money is on the Delhi Daredevils. Look at the top-three batsmen - Virendar Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan - all three in prime form. They are currently placed third, but a victory against the RoyalChallengers would take them to second place. Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals are forces to reckon with. CSK is by far the tightest outfit.

On Bhajji and Sreesanth

It happens. Things get ugly. You go overboard. I remember the first time I captained my club. No, no. Not because I used to play really well or anything - a whole bunch of lads, including the skipper, were unavailable. We lost three three-day games in succession against top notch Lucknow clubs. At the end of the third match, I broke down. If someone had tried taking the mickey out of me at that time, I would have murdered him.

What more, the news channels have made a complete mockery of the entire deal, with runs and re-runs of clippings showing a sobbing Sreesanth. Plain embarrassing, I tell you!

Funniest moment of the IPL

Sehwag, Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan tearing apart Hyderabad's bowling and Mpumelelo Mbangwa getting all excited, 'Shikar Duwaan goes ballistic. It's into the stands. Daredevils are flying high'.

Heights of stupidity

The goddamn presenters. Unaware of any adjectives other than 'cool' and 'fantastic', the lack of cricketing knowledge and with their idiotic expressions - they only make laughing stocks of themselves. Someone should tell them to go take a hike!

SET MAX's coverage is absolutely appalling. The advertisements start before the over finishes and sometimes appear in the middle of overs, when a third umpire decision is pending. Then there is that annoying Vodafone popup, which sounds as if two people are making out.

Enough said. Let's get back to live action.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand.

Footnote- Was I supposed to pick five things that caught my attention or rant about the five topics that were already there? Anyhoo, the post has more than five things that caught my attention!

The IPL

2008-04-22T20:41:00.009+05:30

The baap-of-all-entertainment is here. The IPL. The stadiums are neatly tucked up and the atmosphere is pretty lively. It's like a shiny new toy and boy, do people love playing with it. The cheerleader concept appears a bit dumb, though. But then, the crowd goes hyper on seeing them. Which brings me to the main point that most of us need to get ahem - and pretty quickly at that.

In case, you were wondering about the pointlessness of this post - let me quickly get to the main main point.

Who is that cute presenter girl, Lekha? Bloody Ajay Jadeja doesn't leave any opportunity to flirt with her go a-begging. Another Mandira Bedi in the making?

~~Photographer junta, we wants pictures!~~

Edited in 23rd April-

Apparently, Lekha Washington is an upcoming Tamil actress. Surprisingly, she also has a wiki entry.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote - A detailed post on the IPL sometime later.

From Tibet with Love

2008-04-17T18:35:00.008+05:30

The Olympic torch relay in New Delhi, has ended peacefully. Reports say that around 50 companies of the Delhi police, in addition to several cadres of the NSG commandos, were deployed to make sure the run was not disrupted. I'm kinda glad it wasn't.

From an outsiders' point of view, Tibet is the same old two-nation-one-suppressing-the-other problem, as Bosnia, as Kosovo, as Palestine and as Kashmir - except that, fortunately, the locals involved have not resorted to armed violence and there are no mercenary interests at play. During my recent visit to Manali, which is quite close to the hub of all the protest activities, Dharmshala, I found the Tibetan youth all psyched up. The town walls were splattered with posters and graffiti depicting human right atrocities being committed in Lhasa, and elsewhere. In the marketplace, whenever a news channel switched topics to the Olympics or the Dalai Lama, the atmosphere got charged up. The Tibetan handicrafts shops transformed into meeting joints in the evenings - from 12-year old lads to old men - it seemed as if the entire community was gearing up for a struggle.

For once, with the limelight on fareast Asia, they sense the opportunity of a lifetime, in the hope that the world will stand up and listen.

Here's expressing solidarity with the Tibetan folk, courtesy Tantra.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Food Train

2008-04-12T22:37:00.004+05:30

By far, the best food I've ever had, has been on train journeys. Take the AP Express for example. The route below gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

+ Hyderabad - Biryani
+ Kazipet - Aamras (dried and gelatinized mango pulp)
+ Balharshah - Idli, Vada
+ Nagpur - Oranges
+ Bhopal - Bhopali Paan (Haven't had that in quite some time)
+ Itarsi - Chhole Puri, Omelettes, Lassi,
+ Jhansi - Sutta :D
+ Agra - Angoori Pethe
+ Mathura - Pede
+ Delhi - Chhole Bhature

The above are, of course, my favorites. Drop in a comment if you find something missing. Meanwhile, all you flyers to Delhi, please take out 27 hours from your packed schedule and experience this journey, if you haven't already.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote - Disco deewane. Again! But this time, it's a walk in the park.
Current Book- The Autobiography of Malcolm X (must read)

Angst

2008-03-30T02:21:00.004+05:30

Time for some straight from the heart senti-apa. This tag makes its way over here courtesy Lord.

Things that I fear the most -

1. Not being able to express myself at the appropriate time - No guts, no glory. Simple as that.

2. Change - There is this entire philosophy of everything being transient but change. No señor. Not for me. I don't like the idea of new people, new surroundings and new protocols. It might seem antithetical to the very theme of this blog, but the truth is, I have always had trouble adjusting to new environs.

3. Things not going the way I predict them to - This has happened far too many times and I'm shit scared to the extent that I've stopped thinking about the future. Someone up there is not happy with me at all! But then, some say, you're algorithm has to be dynamic and not greedy!

And as always, I don't tag anyone. Jobless bloggers who stumble upon this post, and are frust enough to do this tag, can take it. Please leave a pingback.

This has been an utterly boring post and what's more important is - I didn't get to do any OA, as Billu puts it. Oh, OA is almost equivalent to hawabaazi/rangbaazi. That gives me an idea for my next post - Lucknow slang. It might be interesting to recall the vernacular of a most eccentric lot. Inputs are welcome.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote - Disco deewane!

To HCU and back

2008-03-22T02:12:00.015+05:30

Today's weather was simply magnificant, and to kill the rest of our time at IIIT-H, we decided to take a stroll towards the HCU. I'll just let the pictures talk.

Clouds, clouds and a long winding road.

And the scores of shrubs of Bougainvillea along the roadside.

I just wish I had an SLR. A digicam does not do enough justice to landscapes.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

The hut

2008-03-06T12:35:00.011+05:30

An ideal setting for Bollywood songs like 'atariya pe lotan kabootar re' or 'jora-jori chane ke khet main', we stumbled upon this thatched hut in the Ananthagiri hills (Eastern Ghats). An old villager (I'm assuming he was the owner of this hut) came up to me and muttered something in Telugu. By the time I was done clicking, he was nowhere to be seen. Whoosh! Vanished into thin air. Perhaps it was the mist. Perhaps it was too early in the morning for a sleepy-head like me. What do you guys think?

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Destination unparalleled

2008-02-22T02:14:00.002+05:30

I want to travel. I want to travel to the end of civilization. I want to travel to the remotest of locations, inhabited by people of almost the same genetic makeup, who took a different path when migrations and invasions were the order of the day, and were separated in history. I want to travel to the land of my forefathers. I want to travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

My grandfather left stories, images and visions of a time when our folks used to dwell in places like Lahore and Peshawar. These, of course, were passed down to him, from his grandfather. He used to boast of the untouched landscape, snow on the hill-tops, the famous Peshawari Chai, and the tough but soft-hearted Pathans- almost as if he were one of them.

I am not a Pathan. Genealogical records maintained by the community I belong to, establish that we migrated to the Indian subcontinent from an area near Kandahar, during Mughal times, and were absorbed in the Indian mainstream culture. I do not believe this, neither could I care less. What matters now is, what has become of those places. Stalwarts like Chomsky have already declared Pakistan a failed state. Afghanistan has been bombed by the West. There is religious intolerance. Our country is always at loggerheads with these two most beautiful neighbors (I speak from a traveler's perspective only). The future is, most definitely, bleak.

I might not be able to witness the pristine beauty of places like these. But what I have right now is, photographs and footage, courtesy the media, of towering mountains, passes, flat and barren plateaus, rivers along the shores of which one of the greatest civilizations of the world flourished, confluences of many a rivers, rapids and cascades, gorges and valleys, slippery ravines, trees growing on the mountain slopes and sinewy trade routes - stuff that dreams are made of.

But then, sometimes, dreams do turn into reality !

Food for the soul

2008-02-13T21:18:00.000+05:30

In the labyrinthine lanes of Aminabad, Lucknow, amidst ruins of minarets and domes, amidst a jungle of concrete which seems to have encroached upon one of the finest cultures of modern times, rests the last remnant of a culinary secret. A delicacy which has become synonymous with the city itself - the celebrated kebabs of Awadh.

For those unfortunate souls who have not yet got a chance to savour this heavenly delicacy, a kebab is minced meat, rolled into patties, smoked and cooked. Of course, the recipe ain't that straightforward. It is rumored that Haji Murad Ali, the shahi-khansama, in the courts of the Nawabs of Awadh, used close to 110 spices to prepare what he called galawat-ke-kebab. The Nawab liked it a lot and Haji sahab's fame grew. It grew as far as Arabia and parts of the Ottoman empire.

It's a family business, now into its fourth generation, and it enjoys patronage from Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the fiery Balasahab Thackeray. Lonely Planet and NY Post, two of the leading travel magazines of our time, have done specials on Tunday's. What more, the kebabs feature regularly in the Singapore food festival!

Travel Tip -

Tunday's is located in the heart of Aminabad, near one Naaz Cinema. However short your visit might be, do go and treat yourself to this absolutely mouthwatering delicacy. By the by, did you know that not all kebabs have meat in them? Now, all you vegetarians can also go and devour some 'haryali kebabs' or whatever they call them now. Make sure you get your hands on Awadhi Biryani - very different from the Hyderabadi Biryani - and Sheermal.

It is just heartening to see someone clinging on to the last straws of a city, which was once, one of the greatest between Constantinople and Calcutta*.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

* - quote borrowed from a gentleman at the Indian embassy, USA.

Footnote - Came across this brilliant article on the internet by Holly Shaffer called Nawabs and Kebabs. Must Read.

Indian Ocean live in concert

2008-02-09T01:44:00.000+05:30

Indian Ocean, the famous fusion band based in Faridabad performed at IIIT, Hyderabad on the 8th of Feb, 2008. They follow a brilliant improvisation of Hindustani classical and rock, with an amazing stage presence and an almost scholarly way of conducting the crowd. This is one band who is at its best when its live.

I usually have a very low opinion of fusion bands which have artists without a classical background. And this difference was made obvious today. The vocals were deep and pure and the sound had the boom in it. The rhythm guitar was in full flow, with Susmit Sen in charge, clinically leading the pack. The bass guitarist, Rahul Ram (pictured above), a rather entertaining gentleman, was totally in the mood for some fun. Asheem Chakravarty and Amit Kilam were with the percussion instruments (tabla/tarang/drums/gabgubi) and vocals.

They played a wide variety of tracks from the Sufi "Bande" to a soulful rendition of the Aramaic prayer "Kandisa". The most popular numbers were played towards the end of the concert. This is the case with almost all concerts I've attended. Whatever happened to "starting in style"? Anyhoo, here's a direct translation of the lyrics* of Kandisa-

Holy God, Holy strength
Invocation (3),
Truly, truly, truly (So be it)
Our father Joseph, at your holy altar,
Humbly i submit, may that be forever in memory (heart and mind).
Holy God, holy strength (epitome of divine strength - omnipotent),
Holy immortal (epitome of immortality - omnipresent), please have mercy on me.

* courtesy the Wikipedia.

Indian Ocean definitely enjoy their music. At times, I felt they were completely oblivious to the audience, especially during Kandisa. At others, the chemistry, the aural and visual cues to the other band members, made the audience come alive.

I leave you with the video of a brilliant improvised percussion act in the form of a savaal-jawaab jugalbandi. Poor quality of the footage is regretted. More videos when the official ones are released.

Indian Ocean definitely added one more fan to their already massive following today.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

Footnote - Don and yours truly won the second prize in What's the Good Word at Felicity '08. Billu and Samba came first. Is nice! Also got a chance to listen to Rashmi Bansal of the Youthcurry fame.

The A-Z tag

2008-02-05T11:11:00.000+05:30

A-Age: Just turned 21

B-Band listening to right now: Shudraka's Mricchkatikam OST

C-Career: Software/Research (Will update this by March end)

D-Drink or Smoke: Socially

E-Easiest friends to talk to: The Bakar wing

F-Funniest moment of your life: When my pants were pulled down in front of 100-odd people. Yes, yes. This happened way back in first year, outside GHEB. No one remembers it now. Muhahaha!

G-Gummy bears or gummy worms: Gummy bears and gummy berry juice. Whatever are gummy worms?

H-Have a girlfriend: No (not looking, will probably never look again)

I-In love: With food, cricket, and my camera

J-Junk food you like: Coffee shop wale ke samose, pakode. School ki canteen ki chhole puri!

K-Kids: Hate 'em. Major pain in the butt!

L-Longest ride ever: Lucknow, India to Mount Everest base camp, Nepal via Butwal, Kathmandu - by road. Took three long days in scary, shit-wrenching terrain.

M-Man/woman you love the most: Sshh. Secret!

N-Names for your kids: Boy - Chadragupt Vikramaditya. Girl - Kishkindhardhangini

O-One wish you have now: That National Geographic recruits me as their travelling photographer.

P-Phobias: I'm scared of large water bodies. Oceans, seas. Ponds and Lakes - not so much.

Q-Quote (favorite): "My name a Borat. I like you. I like ***. Is nice" - Borat Sagdiyev from "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Must see.

R-Reasons to smile: Friends, family, stupid morons like the one who tagged me, Jennifer Aniston.

S-Sleeping hours: 2AM to 10 AM

T-Time you woke up: 9:50 AM today. The mess closes at 10:00 AM

U-Unknown fact about you: However cold it might be, I always sneak a leg out of my blanket while sleeping. It helps create some sort of a hot junction-cold junction mechanism to regulate heat flow. At least, that's what my mother says!

V-Vegetable you hate: Baigan!

W-Worst habit: Procrastination.

X-X-rays you’ve had: Chest, Leg, Hand.

Y-Yummy foods: Everything home-made. Kabab parathe. Avadhi biryani. Pasta and a certain flavor of icecream.

Z-Zodiac sign: Capricorn

I tag - no one. I pledged not to increase the entropy of the blogsphere. No blogger should have to do this travesty of a tag. Lord help the poor souls who have been tagged by '@nks'.

Khuda Hafiz,
Sultan of Samarkand

The fabled first post

2008-02-01T12:11:00.000+05:30

This is going to be more of a disclaimer than a "hello, world!" post.

"I, hereby declare that I shalt not fill the blogsphere with emotional and touchy posts, nor shall I post lengthy, boring rants on what the world has come to. This blog will mostly contains travelogues - memoirs from my diary* and recent experiences - and photographs. I might, occasionally post a random post or two, but that's hardly the point. My essays are appalling and my similes are as dumb as an n-headed goat. So, go ahead and blast 'em."

Khuda Hafiz,
The Sultan of Samarkand

* - Yes, the good 'ol diary, made of paper, in which people used to write with an actual pen.