Friday, November 25, 2005

i'll always remember the chill of november.....

November has always held a special place in life for me. For reasons that range across various facets like personal, literary, academic, festive.the personal cause of joy got over on the 15th..its now the turn of the literary facet to get its share of attention. picked up a book which is slightly off track from the usual stuff that i read.
"Writing on the wall: India Checkmates America 2017"
General S Padmanabhan PVSM, AVSM, VSM (retd)
Former Chief of the Army Staff (India)

so screamed the cover at the IIT Delhi library. let me deviate a little at this junctureand assert that the KREC library is infinitely better that the IIT Delhi library in terms of the sheer volume of the collection of books, rarity of the collection and also the number of copies of a book. the only place where the IITD library can score over is the air conditioning facility.

back to the book: wildly optimistic. even if u were to take a zillion grams of cocaine+marijuana+LSD+ some of the other stuff that college rock bands consume...(iodex, getting bitten by some variety of snake), such thinking is too wild. imagine a situation where the following happen:
1) indian political parties forget all their diferences and form a national government. no more campaigning is done in the name of caste/creed/religion..instead, issues are debated and surprisingly action is taken on all fronts.
2) indian political foresight and sagacity reaches out to the far corners of the world.
3) india actually starts attacking PoK for every terrorist attack on indian soil....
4) 100% productive research being carried out by the combined DRDO+IISc+IIT front...massive technological advances have been made....india develops its own missile defence shield etc
5) indian intelligence agencies have an eye, ear, nose and lots of skin in various coutries. hell yeah, even the conferences that the Pak prez has with his top generals come down to India...
6) all internal conflicts in the north east and the maoist belt are resolved...
7) Indian Percapita income rises to $1000......(i guess it should be per month...any economics student out there who can correct me if i am wrong?)

it was evident that some other person had read this book and had left the following comment on the front page..."Utter bilge! The true picture of the Indian army and Indian generals emerges in 'Uniformly Crazy (355.312 (lib index number)) resting on this shelf"

My review will not be so caustic. All that I have to say is that incredulous as the book may be, it gives one a chance to strut with a chest puffed with pride atleast during the time one is reading the book...

November has also seen a change in my music taste. Previously I used to label techno music sarcastically as 'takchik takchik' music...donno why but i have gravitated a little after istening to the braveheart techno remix..

i plan to celebrate the end of november with a screening of' sweet november' on the 30th..it can't get better than this..me, charlize theron and keanu reeves...

lemme finish this post with a few out-of-the-ordinary quotes that i have heard

1) 'a devout parsi and "virtual dictator" of bombay, sir pherozeshah mehta was a man commited to protect his "spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch"....'The Hindu, November 21st 2005
2) 'I am very happy that you have all turned up here though there are no attractions like naked women", XYZ company executive during a PPT (pre placement talk)
3) "when i woke up in the morning i felt that was hand was missing..i was like 'wheres my hand?'", Murali Krishnan (former classmate) after sleeping on his hand for a long time and finding that it had gone numb...

Thursday, November 17, 2005

'Czech'mate

Finally, it has happened. The Czech Republic has qualified for the Soccer World Cup finals to be held in Germany next year. Action starts June 9th. I would have finished my course and if things go well, should get a month's break before joining work which would prove heavenly as the world cup ends on July 9th.
back to the Czechs. After the fireworks in Euro 2004 where bloody Greek luck robbed them of a sure title, they struggled a bit in the WC qualifiers and had to take part in the play offs against Norway whom they beat by the identical margin of 1-0 at Oslo and Prague.
The well oiled machine Czech mean machine is sure to mow down a lot many teams. The mere presence of 'Ostrilava's Maradona' Milan Baros, the giant Jan Koller, the talisman Pavel Nedved, the crafty Vladimir Smicer, the energetic and inspirational Marek Heinz, Tomas Rosicky should cause a shiver or two to go down the spine of the other teams in the fray.
Go on boys, make this Indian supporter proud.