Casa Piccola @ Koramangala

Yesterday was wonderful. We went out the whole day and had some major 'phun'. The day started with Sids banging on my door to wake me up.

Sids: Wake up. Monty has gone to buy tickets at PVR
Me : hmmm [read it like a grunt of a guy who hasn't woken up yet]

(Bang, bang, bang. Sids persists)

Me : Wait a minute. I will be out.
I go out and he tells me that we will be leaving in an hour, and I wasn't even fully awake (all this at around 10.30 in the morning).

We reach PVR just in the nick of time. 'War of the worlds' was a good movie. But the problem is, from Spielberg, we don't expect good. I expected a great movie. The movie seems to have borrowed visuals from other movies like Independence day, ET etc. The ending was not as powerful as expected. We knew the aliens were going to be vanquished, but couldn't it have been done a bit better. The movie also sparked a huge debate between Ashish and Karthik, with the others pitching in with their opinions. The movie was ok, just that.

Hungry and ready to hog, we reached Casa Piccola at around 3. We managed to order something, but did not have a clue as to how it was going to be. To cut it short, lunch was a disaster. Either we picked all the wrong dishes in the menu, or the cook is not as good as the one at Casa Piccola, Residency Road. As it was my birthday treat (one long overdue), I walked out with a heavy stomach and a lighter wallet.

The walk back to Forum where the bikes were parked did help with the heavy stomach atleast. There were plenty of birds to watch, an "ornithologist's" paradise. I liked one special bird at the Levi's showroom :)). We were delayed at the Levi's showroom as the pants given for alteration was not ready (thank god). The ride back in the rain was just the added bonus.

Back in the room. I started on the "Born in Fire" book with vengance, and managed to finish it by 2. Not bad at all. Why can't every day be like this?? :(

Got Tagged (a long time ago)

Long long ago, so long ago that the guy who tagged me (Sids) doesn't remember how long ago, I was tagged into this meme about books I read. So here it goes...

Number of books I own:
LOTS! Whenever I go home, I have to clear a place in my room to sit down or take a nap. I heard that my mom managed to clear the mess my books made. I never bothered to count. But I did manage to get a lot of stuff like old volumes of Mahabaratha, Complete works of Shakespeare, O'Henry collection as an inheritance from my grandpa.. and I could never get enough of books. After coming to iiitb, I have to think of other basic needs like sustenance, so I have reduced the number of books that I buy.

Last book I bought:
Five point some one... a really cool book. There was something with those characters that I could actually identify with. We were off to birthday treat of Manas, and happened to go to Crossroads(?) by chance. The book is so great that it is still doing the rounds in the hostel (yeah, people actually read it!).

Last book I read:
I think "Charmed" by Nora Roberts. It is sort of a lovey-dovey book. I can finish one of these books in a hour and a half (an added advantage). It is not serious, no great philosophy or thoughts thrown in. Basically a boy meets girl, they fall in love, are not ready to accept it and finally get married (happily ever after ending). The book is a change from the regular stuff like sci-fi, philosophy and action.

Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. The Godfather by Mario Puzo [my personal bible in life, when in doubt, read the Godfather]

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho [love that book]

3. Mahabaratha [never read the Sanskrit version, but one of the best political books written]

4. Love Story by Erich Seagal

5. Who moved my Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson [not that I am into self-help books, just that I like this particular one]

That's that folks.

P.S. I decided not to mention my obsession with Star Wars, space and time travel and Space Odysseys series, 'cos it is considered unhealty [;)]. People just don't realize that what is impossible is just something that we can't imagine. Possiblities are as far as we can stretch our mind.

Free for lunch

Dilbert's creators have been kind enough to give him his wish... but what about me? Hey, I am free for lunch too...

Wa(l)king dreams

Sunday! The day that we all look forward to. I personally don't like Sundays, 'cos Mondays are just around the corner. But this Sunday was special. No classes on Monday, less assignment pressure than usual and the fact that I just managed to get hold of 4 movies. Life can not get better.

I managed to sleep at 5.30 today morning after watching 2 (or was it 3) movies continuously. I personally never get tired of all this sentimental and action crap that the moviewalas continuously feed us. The best ones are the "love stories". I am one of those people whose entire love life that can fit on one side of a very small grain of knife. It is nice to find that there are other people around the world who find love, and live happily ever after (I wonder why the divorce rates are so high!?!)

I decided to hit the sack when I couldn't keep my eyelids from coming into close contact. Suddenly, Sids is banging at my door, 'cos it is 1.30 pm and high time that we go for lunch. Lunch at Pavitra was great. After the 25 paise episode (I think Sids has an account of it in his blog), the service was great. Back to the room, watch another movie, grab a shower, and then off to the volleyball court.

Now, here I am, banging my poor keyboard to smithreens, thinking of what to blog today, and writing a really long post. The day passed like a dream, and a nice one at that. Life doesn't get better than this.

Nerd level

I never knew I was such a "gone" case. Wow, am I a god or what?? :))

A ride back home

I must have written this post yesterday. Guess I was so tired that I put it off till today. I am back in Chennai. Good ol' Chennai, the land of 3 climates: hot, hotter, hottest [not an original quote, heard from many people describing Chennai :)) ].After the end of finance exam, it felt great to get out of college. There is nothing better than being at home, having so much time to do nothing, and being constantly pampered. But this whole post is not about Chennai at all. It is about the ride back home.

Vasanth, Badri and I left iiit-b at around 7.15. After escaping from a few death traps (those private bus operators between Bangalore and Hosur), we managed to get a nice and comfy ride. Meenakshi Bhavan at Hosur had some nice masala dosas and chola pooris for us to polish off. We reached the bus stand at around 9 and lo! and behold there was a decent looking bus from Hosur to Chennai. The seats looked comfortable and we thought we might just survive the ride back.

A warning to all those of you who want to grow tall. Consider the fact that you will be taller than the average Indian, and have your head bumping constantly in the roof of every bus, or auto that you ride. Consider the fact that even seats are not made to fit you in. And consider the fact that you might some be forced to go in a bus and fit your long legs in a very small place. I hope I have managed to scare atleast some of you from growing tall. Life is difficult (though the guys in the volleyball court think otherwise ;) ).

The seats were pretty comfortable, atleast to the other two guys. I really have to thank Vasanth, 'cos he took care of my laptop and gave me some space to stretch my legs. The bus ride can be summed up in two words - "bone rattling". I never knew that I had so many bones in my body that could rattle like that. I felt like people riding a bicycle [or whatever it was called] before an inflated wheel was invented. We were tired, and the rattling did help you to go to sleep, once you were beyond the brink of exhaustion.

The bus managed to come into Chennai at unholy hours [4.30 in the morning is a time that most folks wouldn't mind commuting]. Thanks to late night service of the ever-dependable MTC, I am back home. And in one piece! The post is pretty long. I guess I should stop now, and hold my peace.

Bang, crash and a creamy cake!

I may be a little late in writing this, but it is not every day that a person gets lifted by a bunch of people (!!!) and kicked till he starts howling, and then let down to be wished "Happy Birthday". For the uninitiated, welcome to the world of colleges and birthday bums.

Yesterday wasn't my birthday. It was a long time ago (end of may). But my buddies just decided that they wanted to kick me. So, one of them goes and gets a cake. Another suckers me to walk all the way to college telling that we are having "bums" for one of my seniors who just landed a job in Google. And guess what, I drag that poor guy all the way to the college, only to find that I am the "Bakra for the Day". It just aint fair. I lost count of the number of kicks after the first dozen.

The "best part of the night" was the cake. I am not sure how it tasted. I managed to get a small piece into my mouth before the guys tore it to pieces and stuffed all the cream on my face. I got more cake on me than inside me. Then came the "worst part of the night", I had to take a bath at around 1 in the night. Lucky me, the college has hot water running 24 hours. I go back to the room and find that my t-shirt (the orange one with iiit-b logo and let's log out on it) covered with cream. And then, I find that I had forgotten to go to the shop to buy some soap. Lightning struck at the same place twice. It was one thirty by the time I finished cleaning myself and my t-shirt. A wonderful night. The problem was that I was on the receiving end of the cake.

Is it right to hit back?

I just came across this post at whurleyvision about networks that can not just monitor threats posed to them, but actively respond with countermeasures. Sounds like a very interesting idea. There is a project called OpenSIMS that is currently working on it. But is it right to hit back at a network threatening you? What are its future implications in Information Warfare? A pity that I could not read the whole article on newscientist written by William Hurley...