Simple Things

Life used to be about the Simple Things you know. Things get so complicated as we grow up that sometimes when we look back its difficult to see how we landed up in our present situation.

The summer has come again and I am constantly complaining about how hot it is. There was a time when I didn't care about how it used to be. Summer meant cricket in my neighbour's garden starting at 11 in the morning. From 11 to 1 it would be intense cricket where almost everywhere you hit directly would be out and so you had to be extremely patient if you wanted to score runs. I didn't care about the heat then all that mattered was a first innings lead. After cricket we would just chill have lemonade wait for the 3'o clock show of Pokemon , 4'o clock show of Swat Cats and 5'o clock it was the second round of cricket. Evenings meant swimming pool and going up to our treehouse. I used to have so much fun in the summer and whenever anyone used to ask me "Do you like the Summer or Winter ? " and my answer inevitably was Summer. But now when anyone asks me the same question , I don't know, I have to think a lot you know. Like I said life gets complicated as we grow up.


Even school used to be a fun place to go to where you could just meet up with friends , discuss your stories , talk about their crushes and finish off the day with a 5 rupees candybar in the bus. I know life was going to spoil this little bubble for me in 11th and 12th standard when everyone started saying "IIT" , "Engineering" "Future Planning" etc . Everyone pretty much started doing their own thing then , even I did but somehow it felt relatively simple. I remember sitting on a staircase once holding my Math final in my hand, I had scored a 95 . I should have been happy (I used to find Integration a bitch ) but somehow it didn't seem to matter all that much. What did matter was spending a whole day backstage in the auditorium just chilling with friends. That was school it was about the Simple Things even amidst all the chaos life put forward in the last 2 years. I remember entering college and feeling like life was turning towards other things.


Fast Forward, about 3 weeks back I was having the most f***** up day ever. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong (Thanks Murphy). And I remember just opening my hostel room's door and literally falling on the bed with shoes on. I kept thinking to myself how the hell did life become so complicated. From going on treehouses to collecting pokemon cards to just playing cricket all day , life had just turned into an assortment of text messages, emails and chats each one making life more complicated and intricate. Somewhere along the way the world had lost its innocence for me or maybe I was too innocent or naive. I have stopped trusting people , I am told this is a good quality but somehow I miss having faith in people and the world (it used to be a "simple" principle you see).

That day I turned off my phone , plugged out the ethernet cable and just put a couple of songs on loop. Whats more it rained that night and for just a couple of hours life seemed simple again...


(Not a humorous post I know. But just a "ramble" again. More ramblings next time !!)

Its Seminar Day

There are days when you wake up for class at 1:00 hoping to enter at 1:15 and get attendance. But what happens when class is dismissed at 1:10 pm ? Do you head back to the room disappointed ? Or do you get back up , toughen up and make something of your day ?

This was the choice I was faced with a couple of weeks back in college. I had decided to lay down and just go back to room to sleep. But one my friends from Computer Engineering was going to attend his seminar ...and I asked him.."Will it be held in an Air Conditioned room ? "...and five minutes later I was sitting in an AC room on a revolving chair...what better conditions to sleep can a man ask for ?.

So before I describe the seminar to you. Let me give you a layman's account of what these seminars are. Basically a bunch of people turn up with their "uber-cool" power-point presentations on some technical papers they read up and are supposed to give their "analysis" of these papers. The rest of their class mates have to bear this torture while three or more teachers are looking blankly at the Projector screen trying to figure out why the child in front of them is NOT speaking anything and WHY on earth would someone put Yellow text on a White background.

Anyway , I was sitting with a bunch of my friends who were all looking to have some fun. (In good spirit of course ). I don't know why one of them wrote my name on the attendance sheet and I had to somehow grab it and fiercely ink my name out. The seminar started , the first topic was pretty interesting about how everything around us can be connected to the Internet and we can actually have Home appliances connected to each other and a central computer in the home. But I guess soon as the lights went out everyone started pretty much doing their own thing.
(Something about lights going off, everyone gets "naughty") As soon as the lights went up again...PEOPLE GAVE A THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE ..as if everyone was listening intently. I swear I saw a teacher just wake up from sleep. The worst part was one of the teachers kept looking back to see if anyone is talking and she constantly thought I was the head of the group. I had to constantly nod my head in approval...showing that I am actually listening to why HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS were applied to a GOAT.

Another cool part of these seminars is the Question and Answer session. Now every speaker supposedly gets extra marks if he answers questions positively after the talk. Needless to say students fix their friends as the guys who ask questions and I heard questions such as "What is Google CAPTCHA ?" and "What was the first online MULTIPLAYER game ? "...these are answered by the speaker in such a suave manner that the teacher is left impressed...and of course...THE CROWD GIVES THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE. :-)


One of my friends also decided to enter the field hoping to help some mates by asking questions and increasing their marks. One of his questions was "How would I decrypt passwords I got from a friend's computer ? ", to this the Speaker replied "You wouldn't need to decrypt it, just Copy and Paste". Applause Followed. I was having a good time now . So the next time even I asked a question. The Topic was on Smart Cards...and I ended up taking out my wallet and flashing my Metro card. I started off by asking..."See I have a Smart Card..I mean I charge it to 500 Rs and everytime I end up breaking it I lose my money...How will you counter that ? Who takes responsibility ? "....I got a little over-emotional I think. The teacher was giving me weird looks after that.

Seminar ended after that. It was a fun afternoon. Just goes to show what a man can do for an Air-Conditioner.

Hope you liked it. More ramblings next time !!

P.S- My Seminar is on Monday

Backdoor Entry

This semester one of the life altering decisions I made was not to attend classes. Or lets just say reach class just in the "knick of time". Confused ???. Let me explain ... . You see every class has a backdoor - that heavenly gateway that is held ajar for "mavericks" like me to enter just before attendance takes place and act like nothing happened.

Now the first time I did it , I was brash and decided to go against all rules. Infact , first time I entered through the Frontdoor when the teacher wasn't looking. I carefully choose a seat, sat down comfortably and started nodding my head in agreement as soon as the teacher started looking at me. Soon enough attendance was taken . Mission Accomplished . I had to admit it, it did give a very small rush (geek-was-seeing-a-whole-new-world-sorts rush)

My mundane days had at least got one interesting element now :-).

After the first time , these entries became a regular affair. Now I had set guys who would make sure the backdoor was open. Sometimes I would even do a lil jig upon entering or enter with a coffee in hand. I thought of myself as Di Caprio from Inception except his plan was not at all full-proof but mine was. Or at least I thought so.

After a couple of weeks of successful entries , my "street-credit" sure was going down. People wanted the thrill as well , you know to laze around and just come for attendance. But these people all they want is the result they don't understand the meticulous planning it takes to execute a plot like this. Sure enough as I expected there were 20 people waiting outside class just when I was ready to enter ....the teacher had locked BOTH the front and the backdoor. No ENTRY took place that day. My fame had come back to bite me. But the worst part was my 100 percent Backdoor Entry record was broken.


I guess nothing could last forever. It was fun while it lasted. Now everyone does the "entry", it has lost its charm with amateurs coming in. They giggle as they enter class. I mean come on this is supposed to be a classy , suave sport. I tried my best to maintain the age old tradition of this "art". I hope some of you are inspired and try it out on your own. Its too hot these days , come on take some rest and just ENTER THROUGH THE BACK DOOR :-)

More ramblings next time.!!!!

What's up Doc ?

You know I have always been lucky with the nurses I have got at hospitals. No this is not referring to any weird fetish but rather in the way that they have always been the nice , sweet types and not the "Ok-I-gotta-30 inch-needle-waiting-just-for-you-(evil laugh)" types.

The other day I went to get a blood test done. Before the test , the nurse comes up and asks me how my 12th board exams went . I started laughing , obviously my schoolboy charm was evident because even though I am in my senior year in college she thought I was a 12th grade kid. (When I got back home , I realized this was not really something to be proud of).

Blood test was not as bad as I thought it would be. I used to be scared of needles as a kid but I guess the nurse handled it well. They always do the same tricks, always tell you ..."Its Done" and then when you are just about to relax they put in the needle and suck the blood. Can't believe I fall for it everytime.

After the test was done this "cool dude" lab guy asks for my email id to mail the report. I give him my email id , then he also tells me about the hospital's Facebook page. At this point I am wondering if he will Tweet my results too. I can't believe Social Networking has entered Healthcare. The rest of the visit was pretty much mundane. They had a nice cafe, somehow the lighting was just perfect in all the rooms. It didn't hurt the eye at all , I tend to hate lights in the morning. I got lost a couple of time from the cafe to the lab, mom made a joke on using GPS next time. I am glad she is catching on my tech-based lifestyle :-)

Well I came back after the test. Trying to recover from the fever. More digressions will follow. Hope you liked my ramblings !!!