A Catch 22 of our own

This is interesting. I wish I could find a book on these guys. Actually I wish I could write one.

Essays

As good friend Divyanshu (always referred to here as Debu) was telling me the other day, it has been a long time since he last wrote an essay. I realized that I hadn’t either. I plan to remedy this in December though.

Who’s better than the Beatles?

A simple comment by a friend on Facebook set off a good debate. Here it is verbatim:

V (The original status): the best thing that happend to music..CREED..

O: agreed

Angry young man: Ummm I kinda disagree……..Have heard a band called “The Beatles”?……..

Angry young man (here it gets bizarre): BTW Creed is a Christian Rock band……and those type of bands are more prone to drug abuse than any other rock bands……

O (very sensibly): there’s a difference between opinions and facts, one man’s beatles is another mans creed and whats drug abuse got to do with it anyways, unke gaane sunne hai, unke yahaan rishta leke nahi jaana

Angry young man (getting progressively more angry): So u r telling me Creed is better than Beatles?…..If u really know what Creed is singing about then u r better off listening to Bhajans (needlessly insulting Bhajans, some of which are beautiful) ……

Me: always thought choice in music was personal. and was not aware that music could be compared

A: I agree wit rohit…Its the music that matters at the end of it all… n I think creed is a great band… n i feel that beatles is all ballscrap… totally overrated..

Angry young man: Nice one A first u agree with Rohit……Then u go ahead and compare music……..have u ever heard of a word called “hypocrite”?……

Me: @ Angry young man. read A’s comment again mate. he clearly says “I feel that beatles is all bullcrap”. Its an opinion. He does not say “Creed makes better music than the beatles do”.
Anyway high five A. And this comes from a total Beatles freak.

O: Angry young man, what if i like creed better than beatles? The Beatles aren’t everybodys favorite band u know, how come you’re oblivious to that simple fact remains a mystery as quite clearly you’re portraying yourself here as the all knowing master of musical knowledge. U don’t seem to have heard of the word opinion, and u think only u know what creed are singing about? Hum sab yahaan pe bewakoof baithe hai na

Me: shaant gadhadhari O shaant

V: welcome to battlefield MUSIC..

Me: lol totally. where is Angry young man though?

Angry young man (And this is where he loses it): Dawg I was also giving my opinion in the start but u were the one u butted in and started the debate…….so i guess u r bewakoof……..

Me: what was that anecdote about people living in glass houses?

O: they should change clothes in the basement and hopefully they’ll stay there for the rest of their lives too

Me: haha. very true.

O: u still don’t get the difference, i respect your opinion even though its simply daft, but u think your opinion is what the world should calmly accept as fact but anyway i dont think you are bright enough to register a fair and cogent argument so peace out hombres

Angry young man (sounding chastened): Hey its cool……in the end Music is Music no matter what type……BTW good debate….kept me thinking the whole day…..

Me: heh. that’s it. this is going on my blog

P.S.
Angry Young Man: Hey if u like how the creed’s singer sounds like……listen to Kings of Leon….. (Total Wtf!)

Living on Chemicals

I have a confession to make. When I was living back in Bombay (Mumbai, Bombay, what the hell?) I didn’t like coffee. Gasp! you say. How can a blue blooded Tamilian with both parents coming from pukka Tanjaore stock not like coffee? I don’t know. Maybe Mumbai had something to do with it. I love tea. I got addicted (well maybe too strong a word) to it in 11th and there has been no looking back.

Endless cups of cutting chai were consumed during long hours of nothingness in college canteens and other places where jobless people like us used to frequent. But tea was never wake up juice for me. I liked it for the taste and it was refreshing. I have never had coffee or tea or anything to keep myself awake.

I thought that was my superpower. Turns out, I never needed to stay awake as much as I need to now. There was never enough work for me to justify putting off my sleep. But things are different here. With endless amounts of work which had to be completed the day before, some wake up juice is in order.

Enter coffee. Americans have no taste for tea. Their idea of it is something that is roughly the colour and consistency of cat pee (or so my friend tells me). While I do have cups of Badhia Chai with Bharath, making the packet of Red Label Natural Care last for more than a couple of weeks means we drink a couple of ml each day. So coffee, of which copious amounts are available here is the only option. Thanks for the coffee machine that our apartment block owners have installed in the business center, we get to stay awake. However partaking this coffee is not as easy as one might be led to believe. Much subterfuge and sleigh of hand is involved as the dispenser can make only 8 cups per day and there are a 100 odd Indians living here.

But coming back to the issue. I have become a convert. My parents would be proud to know that their son is following in their footsteps in ensuring that the coffee makers of the world do not go out of business because I estimate that within my family the amount of coffee consumed keeps half the coffee manufacturers in the world busy. Sadly the coffee I drink is not as effective as the one my mom makes. Its not filter coffee. Its not even instant coffee. It tastes a lot like the above mentioned tea. And I’m getting used to it……

Overheard at Target

I am shopping at Target earlier today and this jock (I call him a jock just because he fits into the stereotypical description of one) walks past me yelling into his cellphone, ” YOU BELONG TO ME! YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING HIT ON BY ANYONE ELSE.”

I presume he was talking to his girlfriend who probably has to put up with nonsensical statements like this all the time. I pity the poor girl.

The quizzing continues

I love quizzing. For the longest time however, my quizzing was restricted to the ones organized in Space, Nirmaan and Technobreak in SPCE. But in my final semester in SPCE, I and Chinmay decided enough was enough. Over a hot cup of tea near Pokhran, while going to Jaisalmer on the 2008, IEEE trip, we decided to formally start a quiz club in college which would provide a platform to avid quizzers and novices. We wanted to expose people to the classic Infinite Rebound format and get rid of the idea that quiz elims have to necessarily be paper rounds. And by God we did.

SPQC is larger than ever (so they tell me). Everyone has taken a huge liking to it, so much so that a larger venue is being considered. For me, it will always be the one thing that carried me through the week. I never missed a session and only 8000 miles of separation made me bunk. But I try to retain close ties to it, which is made easier by good folks like Chinmay, Dimple and Kirti who keep me up to date with the latest on that front.

My class especially loved the quiz sessions. To be honest, we fairly dominated the quizzes in the first season thanks to stalwarts like Deepak, Divyanshu, Jinju, Rahul and Heston. But then again, an SPQC quiz is never about winning. It is about that sharp intake of breath one draws when one discovers the answer to a question. It is about being amazed at the quirky stories behind the origins of innocuous words and phrases. And it is about the special feeling you get when you are stumped by a quiz and there comes a question, the answer to which you instinctively know and impatiently wait for the question to be passed to your team when you triumphantly shout it out and feel that warm glow inside when you realize that you have just won your team 10 points.

Having passed out, my classmates and I miss the sessions, but we try to remain involved. For the recently held FACE Mega Quiz, Rahul and I took some time out and made the following quiz. Rahul was able to take some time off from work and assume responsibilities as quizmaster. Divyanshu also managed to secure a seat in the audience. Some questions from Jinju and a connect by Adithya “Anna” Iyer completed the quiz.

I am told that it was a huge success so all is well in the jungle. But a quizzer never rests on past laurels and so preparations are already underway for a quiz in the even semester. But until then, I leave you with the elims and finals of the FACE quiz.

The Mega Quiz Prelims Ques With Answers

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The Mega Quiz Finals

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Revenge, best served cold?

This report in Mumbai Mirror about a 5-3 win for Mohun Bagan against arch rivals East Bengal in the i-league claims that with this victory, Mohun Bagan finally avenged their loss 5-0 in the 1975 IFA Shield Final.

Ask any football fan, is any victory in a league game, no matter how many goals are scored, ever compensate for a defeat in a final? Revenge is complete ONLY when Bagan defeat East Bengal in the IFA Shield final. I am sure the Maroon half of Bengal would agree.

Only goes to confirm my belief that Mumbai Mirror is a crappy newspaper.

Fall

Like Rucha, who is up at Maryland, I too have fallen in love with Fall. I felt I just had to share these pics of the trees in and around the Georgia Tech Campus.

Which remind one of the immortal lines by Joyce Kilmer, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”

WTF again

This is the biggest WTF news I have read in a long time. It shocks me to what lengths people will go to gain some money and publicity. The biggest wtf is that the parents claim they gave their baby to the show as they felt they were doing “social work”. Have they ever heard of clothes donation drives or volunteering?

Honesty

The one thing that is very striking about the students in America, is their honesty. A professor tells us, “Look I am giving you a take home exam, do it on your own and please don’t consult any blog.” A typical Indian student reaction, “Screw this, I’m doing whatever I can to get my marks”. An American student would sit down, open his book and notes and do his work honestly without infringing any rules.

Same thing about assignments. Even if the assignment is due in half an hour and he has no clue how to do it, you will see the American, actually most non-Indians, sitting in one corner, books open, trying to figure out the logic behind the question. And if incomplete, he will submit it the way it is.

Of course these are all general observations. I am sure there are some Indian students who really are sincere. Many start changing their ways. There may be some Americans who do all the crap too, but I haven’t met any. Is it this desire to learn and understand what is really happening without caring about the marks that in general makes foreigners better innovators than us? If it is true, then a little more honesty and a sense of purpose about what we are doing is something which we could all use.