I had been missing a LOT of things!

This morning, while I was floating in an ether world of exams and summers, content to sadistiscally drown myself in the misery of missing my friends at home, cribbing about the dull life in Bangalore and wishing life could bring some happiness, I was suddenly and forcibly brought down to Earth. The first catalyst was "Business Law", the most toughest paper to crack this term, what with trying to remember all sections and sub sections. But strangely enough, I came out of the exam hall, all smiles and twinkle. The next being of course that exams are getting over soon and an even stranger anticipation of things to come! And this is what felt like a club on the head. As if someone was shouting "Look around!" And look I did and to my consternation realised that I had been missing a LOT of things!

"How can someone live in the campus and still be unaware of whats happening around?" you ask? well....It was not so much as not aware of it but more of not being aware of what it is! Ya! UnMaad 2004, the all-India inter-collegiate festival organized by IIMB in January every year is all set to unfold today. Fortunately, my uncle has consented to get me a pass for the Euphoria Indian Nite tonight! The fest also promises a hoard of events from collage to personality contests and the final 'Crescendo' will be by the band Parikrama on Feb 1. Let me see if can get some of the guys here to go along and participate with me.......

PS: oh ya! do have a look at the story by "Team Dhakkan - The Lid" of XIMB, the winners of the Tale Spin UnMaad Online contest. Its absolutely mind blowing :))

Life has got a new meaning

"Every time something out there in the world makes us feel a certain way, it's because some particular bits of our brains are being tickled by it"

Will continue later...someone special has come online! Life has got a new meaning afterall!

An argumentative person

My mid-term exams have gone for a huge toss! Guess why? My parents had come down for a visit and poof... there went my eagerness to be the topper of the class. From the day I heard that they were planning for a trip down to Bang, my excitement knew no bounds. I mean, how much can a phone or letter compensate for talking directly to your dear ones? uh? So, there I was, all pepped up and ready to receive them. But as it happened, unlike in the movies, as often happens in real life, there was no "I am extraordinarily happy now that I have seen you" running towards my mom and pop. No jumping up and down with joy either. In fact, I was not even aware that my parents had arrived until after five minutes when I heard their much familiar voices in the living room. I was playing Set (a game played with makeshift cards by creative children ;) ) and was at the point of winning against three other under ten kids when my aunt came rushing in.

And in a sing-song voice proceeded to shout "enna, amma appa vandadu kuda theriyama inga irruka?" ("What? you are not even aware of your parents arrival is it?" or something like that!) So of course, there were loads of relatives buzzing in the living room that day and we didn't get even a single moment alone till my parents were ready to leave. And as fate would have it, it gave me a foul temper and matching mouth yesterday- I was left staring at their departing auto seething with anger at myself for being such an argumentative person!

Naturally I cant sleep now! My conscious is going crazy knocking my head! So a trip to good old Chennai is soon imminent!

Some pics

Have a look at these pics! :))

ps: If you are a member, it would help but never mind! the one on free display is amazing enough!

Bangalore is not all its cracked up to be

Bangalore is not all its cracked up to be! or so says Economic Times in this article on best paying cities. Against common belief, salary in Bang is 12.5 per cent lower than the cross city-average. In other words, Bangalore ranks way below Mumbai and Kolkata, the highest paying cities in India, even after adjusting for cost of living differences!

Behaving properly in class?!!

For the first time in my life, I got caught for not behaving properly in class! You see, I had to submit this assignment (which was due yesterday) urgently to the HR lecturer in the afternoon and was busy writing during the Law class. For this express purpose, I had strategically selected a seat in the room- not too much in the back, yet not too near to the prof, somewhere where the oblivion of the crowd would conceal me well. But fate had decreed otherwise :( Today's class was afterall a presentation by some of the students or so I thought! But the result of my eagerness to get more marks in internals in HR has resulted in negative internal marks in Law!

When I think about the gall of the professor.....Yeeeeeee.......I see red! My God! I accept that was not an action suitable for a MBA student and yes I accept I need to pay attention to my classmates presenting but, but do I really deserve negative marks? I mean no marks would be so much more better. At the end, I had no other option other than to go and ask the prof to give me Zero and not below! What a laugh!

Virumandi

I saw the latest Kamalhassan starrer and directed movie "Virumandi" yesterday! A wonderful film, though it was a little hard to follow all the dialogues keenly! The result of 20 years of breeding in great Chennai! :))

Expectations

Expectations play an important role in the interpretation of information, as information is screened by known experience and images, distorting the new and unique aspects of what is in view. Situational awareness is also limited by the profound emotional makeup of individuals, and the process of unlearning requires discipline to override the pervasiveness of ego, fear, and self confidence. And the limitations and distortions related to ego and over confidence are the worst challenges to accurate judgment and decision making.

More than things outside our control, things that are very much within our reach are the ones which affect us the most! I learnt it the hard way today! After a long time, about 10 years, I got to play treasure hunt again. It was one of my favorite games when I was a kid and even after this long, I got a mighty adrenalin surge when I heard that we have been shortlisted for the third round, the treasure hunt. It was wonderful running around the huge MCC campus looking for hidden clues and at the same time unscrambling the phrases given to us. Unfortunately, we got chucked out at the end of it by a mere five points! And this taught me a very big lesson today.

Why should you always expect the task given to you to be the "hardest and toughest"? Why do we subconsciously assume that "nothing will be easy?" Why do we get stuck in one way once we chose that as the one? Shouldn't we accept that our decision was after all wrong and change, whatever face loss we may get, before it is too late?

Now you are wondering why I am raving about all this for losing in a simple treasure hunt? Because we thought our last clue would be the toughest and associated all kinds of answers with it other than the obvious, which of course happened to be the very one! :(

When will I learn to shut up?

Some of the questions that has been haunting my mind for sometime now...

Was Chess invented in India?
What is the difference between a theory and a theorem?
How likely is it that the BPO sector will go the same way as the Dot Com?
Why is there so much inter office politics... The need for constant one upmanship?
Why is HR thought to be the easiest subject to crack?
When is the next Harry Potter book coming out?
When is the ONGC public offer coming up?
When is the next international HR meet?
When will my soon-to-be mentor reply to my mail?
When will I learn to shut up?

Clocks!

Ever wondered how else you can display time on your comp other than the old and dull ticking clock? Here are some amazing links! Check it out

Clock 1

Clock 2

Clock 3

Clock 3 4

Forgotten hobbies

I always loved to paint as a kid, though I was not too good at drawing perfect imitations! So I decided "modern art" was the one for me and went as far as hanging my "first pieces"all around the house! Then puberty stuck and pooff.......

Now I am thinking of taking them up again! Who knows? Maybe I can create my own masterpiece? But before that, I've got one beautiful artwork on its way flying across cities for me! Yep, Anita's painting for me is ready! I had a sneek peek at it and it is fantastic- blue flowers(my favorite color) sprinkled with white ones. Soon I shall be the proud owner of a painting for the first time in my life!

Wow, blogging does pay, in its own way!! ;) Does it rhyme?

The war gene

Did you think war is an exclusive human-created mechanism to gain superiority? Think again! According to a new study, the cause for human tendency to participate in and initiate violence is because of our shared ancestory with the Chimpanzees. As you would be aware, Chimpanzees are supposed to be 'peaceful apes' minding their own business, not aggressive creatures which passed us our "gene for war"!

But detailed observations have found that, in contradiction to above, chimpanzees are and can be violently aggressive and will not hesitate to kill their companions when competing for food or mate. And guys? One absolutely hilarious thing about this is that, only male chimpanzees and their descendant male human counterparts have this "gene"!This theory, which has been named the "Demonic Male Hypothesis", explains how human males and chimps share a tendency to be aggressive due to their huge number of shared attributes ranging from 98.5 per cent of the DNA to their hunting ability.

"We are the result of millions of years of evolution since our common ancestor and chimps must have evolved considerably, too. So how can you compare these two species based on their behavior now? For all you know, the chimps may have developed this character later... " is that what you are asking? Well...Study on to know the counter arguments on why this "war gene" theory should not be accepted!

Tamil computer terms

What do u think is "Previous" in Tamil? Whats "Do you want to delete selected item"? Now dont go attempting to come up with pure Tamil words when you can have much more fun reading the Tanglish Madras version of all Computer terms (LOL)!!!!

For those who know Tamil, this is a real treat! Be prepared to roll around the floor and laugh :))

Open = thora naina

Close = pothiko

Print Preview = paathu printadi

View = looku vudu

Cut = vetu - kuthu

Paste = ottu

Paste Special = nalla echcha thottu ottu

File = failu

Save = vechukko

Save as = Aiye ipdi vechukko

Save All = alaathium vechukko

Find = thedu

Find Again = inoru thaba thedu

Move = jaga vaangu

Zoom = persa kaatu

Zoom Out = velilavanthu persa kaatu

New = pucchu

Old = palsu

Replace = itha thooki athle podu athe thooki ithle podu

Run = odu naina

Execute = kollu

Delete = keesidu

Tools = spanneru

Toolsbar = spanner setu

Exit = odra dei

Compress = amukipodu

Scrollbar = inge angae aladathey

Next = appaala

Previous = munaagati

Trash bin = kuppai thotti

Drag & hold = nallaa ilthu pudi

Double click = rendu dhabaa

Do you want to delete selected item? = Maiyalume thukirava?

Do you want to move selected item? = Maiyalume kadasidava?

Do you want to save selected item? = Maiyalume vachukkava?

Abort, Retry, Ignore = Ishtam illati uttudu

Yes,No,Cancel = ippa innaa sollikeere nee

General protection fault = Allam Gali

Access denied = Kai veche, keesiduven

Unrecoverable error = Bada bejaruma

Operation illegal = Bemali...Savugrakki...Kasmalam

The source, by the way, is Sree Lakshmi. Go Girl!

Oh well

Government slashes business school fees by 80%. Can there be any better news than this today? Only am sure that my college would be clever enough to say that this does not apply to those students who joined before this regulation came into act! (whenever it materialises!)

Three cheers to all these clever people in the world!!!

Ask for a slight drizzle, end up with a torrent!

What is that saying? When you ask for a slight drizzle, you end up with a torrent? well...I am sure it must be something along those lines!

Who wanted to be busy?

Who aksed for an extra source of income?

Who wanted a part time job?

Who wanted a prestigious project with a big company?

Me! Me! Me!

And who is ruing all that? Me! Me! Me!

PS: Happy New Year guys! (can anyone beat me by wishing any more later than this?)

Buddhism

A sudden intense interest in Buddhism........

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.