Make way for Esya '11

I never thought of my blog as a space for sharing events from my life. I considered it more of a space where I could go on a rant and be insanely talkative about unrelated stuff. But it is hard not to! Inevitably, I ended up creating a label 'Events' - for when I wish to talk about the happenings in and around my life.

And this time its Esya '11, the first IIIT Delhi Tech Fest.

Excitement is high. Its the topmost thing in almost everyone's mind. Even the non-workaholics are working really really hard for the success of this event. Everyone in the NCR region who has the remotest contact with a IIITDian is receiving invitations for events like- programming, quizzing, debates, treasure hunt, gaming, business strategy, DJ night and lots more. From the basic planning of events and resources to arranging sponsors- its all being done by the students.

Esya '11 - Of the students, By the students and For the students.

Just like that

The following extract has nothing to do with the photographs. Its just something I like.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell
Ding-dong!
Hark! now I hear them,--ding- dong, bell.
                -William Shakespeare(The Tempest)


These were taken a while ago and I post them here for the simple pleasure of it.

A cute companion

Conjoined twins

Beautiful, isn't it?

The Summer Of My Discontent

This marks the end of three months of vacations that just flew by.
THREE ENTIRE MONTHS!
Gone, gone, gone...

My only discontent being - the end. It came too soon for my liking. I was just beginning to feel truly at home at home.No matter how clichéd this sounds, it truly truly seems like just yesterday- the start of our vacations and there I was, troubling people in other colleges as they tried to slog through their end-semester exams while I celebrated the start of 3 months of awesomeness.

College starts today. As I go through the 'its-the-last-day' FB posts flooding my News Feed, I am not altogether sad at seeing the end of the vacations. Its back to the fun/work. Yay!

And yeah- the title is inspired from a novel. Pardon me, Kaps, for sounding somewhat like you. Your latest post made me want to write this short piece.

She promised him she would leave before the clock struck 12, for she was expected around 12.15. But being the truant she was, she stayed put till the time of the rendezvous.

At five past that hour, she heard a distinctive sound. This sound was more frightening than that made by the clock announcing the hour of the day for she knew only he could cause it. She scampered to her closet, put on fresh clothes, grabbed her case and headed straight for the door. She knew he would be at the doorstep within a couple of minutes. She always preferred the stairs for health reasons. 

Not today, though. 

She could do almost anything to avoid an encounter with him, for she knew it would not be pleasant. So she directed her footsteps towards the elevator. Darn! The elevator wasn’t functional. The dreaded encounter now seemed a certainity. Gloomily, accepting defeat , yet praying with all her heart she took the stairs.For a brief moment, it seemed as if lady luck was smiling on her. Maybe she had overreacted. Maybe her ears were ringing. She heaved a sigh of relief. She couldn’t have been more mistaken. He stood a couple of meters away, at the other end of the garage, engrossed in conversation with a someone. She shot for cover and watched through the tiny opening in the wall. She thought she was a goner. But then an alternative route struck her panicky mind. She headed back for the stairs keeping an eye out for him. Instead of going up, she took the opening that went right behind the stairs. That way the stairs shielded her from his gaze. She now found herself in front of the godforsaken elevator. The exit loomed a couple of meters away. How she longed for a teleporter. Why was technology so slow? Swearing under her breathe, she made her way toward the exit keeping close to the wall all along. Then she realized he might see her from the garage door where he stood, chatting. She waited for the murmur to die down, telling her the coast was clear. And all of a sudden, it stopped. She prepared herself to make a dash for the exit. She was so close. She couldn’t fail now. Then she turned around and her jaw dropped in shock. He stood a few feet behind her, trying out the elevator button with his back towards her. Swiftly, she hid behind the other side of the wall while he realized the only way up was to take the stairs. She waited. Then grabbing her chance, she ran for the exit. All the way to the rendezvous point she wished against hope he hadn’t seen her and that she wasn't too late.

A couple of hours later…

She waited for the sound and she wasn’t disappointed. For the second time that day, it made her dread the moment she knew she’d have to face him (and if he'd seen her earlier that day, his wrath too). Quietly, avoiding his gaze, she got into the front seat of the car. Five minutes of uncomfortable silence, she thought she could finally relax.

And then he asked “Did you get the job done ?” 

The tone of his question made her realize the futility of lying to him. 
Somehow, he knew.

Everything had been in vain.

Organ talk

^Its time to talk 'Organs'.

My job being to talk about the following critical ones only.

Heart

Its pointless to elucidate it's functions and importance. What I will talk about though is, how your daily intake of junk food can drastically reduce healthy heart functionality. All the fatty food that we consume leads to the fattening of the pulmonary arteries- a major cause for heart attacks and other symptoms leading to one.

Abnormal Aorta

         

             Normal Aorta

Abnormal Aorta with fatty streaks

             
Brain

The specimen at display at the Organ talk had Hematoma. The black thing on the right specimen is the clotted blood due to a severe head injury that was evidently fatal.

A normal brain(left) v/s one with Hematoma

Lungs

Yeah, smoke your worries away. But do remember the effect it has on your lungs(See pic). Apart from exponentially reducing the alveoli count, it makes your lungs much less spongy(which effectively means- the lungs' capacity to expand upon inhalation has reduced significantly). Seeing the skeptical look on one of our faces, the demonstrator had us touch the right lung. Both healthy one and the one blackened and damaged due to smoking. I could see from the look on this lucky person's face that she wasn't too happy about it. 

            

A smoker's lung

Blocked Alveoli

Liver

The following picture is why alcohol consumption is not the healthiest of options. Besides the fact that it severely hampers normal functioning of the liver- which includes emulsification of fats, manufacture of bile juices and blah, it doesn't make your liver look good, does it? 

A cirrhotic liver- scarred and blotchy

Bones

Now this reminded me of the Amul jingle 'Piyo dood in every season, piyo dood for a healthy reason'(Drink milk in every season, Drink milk for a healthy reason). Because Osteoporotic bones are weak. So much so that a slight bump against a piece of furniture will cause your bones to crack or break away neatly. 

Why was I present at an organ talk anyway?

Well, my mother's department organised this event on the occasion of the death anniversary of the former head of the department and she asked me to be there. Since I had nothing up my sleeve that would excuse me from this event , I obliged. And boy, was I glad I did that. It wasn't boring at all! Last year's event had been more of a dull exhibition. This year- we, a former school-mate and me, walked in amidst a great introduction by the head of the department. Grand, I tell you.
 Apart from meeting up with our old science teacher we chatted with the weenies about the weird changes made to our good ol' school. The tea and luncheon only made us happier. What was astonishing though, was the way the tenthies(DPS) took on the 11th and 12th standard people(from other schools) in the organ talk quiz. Maybe it had something to do with the booklets they were provided beforehand. The token of appreciation for the winners was a Lucky Bamboo- a Feng Shui plant said to bring good luck.

Post Organ talk, my friend and I headed for our local haunt and gorged on an odd assortment of junk food- golgappas, tikkis, momos, pasta and faluda. 

A deliciously hypocritical finish to a long day.
 

Don't read this if you are anti-HP

Its that time of the year again-When the magic world threatens to abolish the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy and reveal themselves to the Muggle world. The reality of the magic world acquires a surreal quality. It's the one time when you can tap bricks with your wands and shout spells without the fear of ridicule. Only the skeptics will roll their eyes and call you a crackpot. It's a matter of perception. You see what you wish to see. Those who believe in it's existence, see it. The rest - poor unfortunate souls who wish for the existence of a parallel awesome world but can't bring themselves to accept HP.

Anyway, coming back to the essential issue. How great is the Harry Potter franchise? And by that I mean the characters and not the actors. Don't get me wrong here though. The filming of the Harry Potter books was a necessary evil. The movies can never match the audience and the magic created by the books. But it did make the novel reading a more pleasurable experience, providing a face to those few characters we couldn't visualize. However, I still think that Voldemort did not receive justice. (Read further before going into shock upon reading the previous statement.) The guy plotted and murdered. He rightfully won the title of the darkest wizard of all time. And still none of the versions of Voldemort(at different stages of his life and after he was resurrected) shown in the movie look anything like the word picture painted in the books.The seedy-looking kid in the movie hardly has any resemblance to the book's description of last heir of Slytherin when he first met Dumbledore. And that is not where it ends. Take Sirius and Lupin, for instance. Or Bill Weasley. However carefully I looked, I couldn't locate the coolness in him in Harry Potter 7.1. No fang earring or long hair tied in a ribbon.
I do loath not seeing the book being truthfully portrayed in the movies. The details get distorted.And that sometimes spoils the experience if you've read the book. Plus, anyone who hasn't read the book will not be able to get the story behind the story.

There are a very few cases where the movie turns out to be as interesting and gripping as the book. Expecting faithful  portrayal of the book is like asking the Americans to speak British English. So, in spite of myself, I watch all the HP movies and enjoy them a lot too. I have done that ever since I became sensitive to HP's existence. And it won't be any different this time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2.
*Jumping with a combination of excitement and elation*

Excerpts from Life in Another Metro

Here, you will get to test your patience. If you can get to the end of this post without a feeling of boredom shifting your cursor to the little cross-mark on the top right corner, you know you are a patient soul.

I am in Mumbai, People! With two others who, like me, have never ever been on a trip like this one before. One of us has never been to this city before so its an entirely new experience for her while the other has lived here for a considerable time (which effectively means- we always have an unpaid guide by our side).
What makes this trip so different? 
Well, firstly, its just the three of us. We manage our own chores. And by that, I mean every task imaginable.  Buying grocery, using it to cook our own meals, eating whatever we cook regardless of the taste and loving it at the same time.(We have cooked a couple of things and, surprisingly they've all turned out quite well. Edible. Tasty.) We live in a teeny tiny walk up- complete with a refrigerator and plenty of freedom. Living in a city alone makes you see it in a light you would have never seen, were you accompanied by your family.

The start was eventful enough with my breaking of the wash-basin in the bathroom of our landlady's house. Needless to say, she's not our landlady anymore.
Local trains are not as bad as they are thought to be. They are the 'metro minus the air-conditioning, sliding doors and the weird-sounding lady announcer'. In fact, the relatively new local trains do have a lady announcer who sounds more human and less of a parrot(comparison with the Delhi metro).
Then there are the people here. 'Bindaaas' is the only way to describe them.

Wich Latte, Cossway

NOTE:
To shop at reasonable rates visit Cossway, near Gateway of India. Bargain your way through some really awesome stuff. There is a 98.9% chance that you will overspend and get value for your money. (0.1% chance that you don't overspend and 1% chance that you can't bargain). With a considerably lighter wallet, stop over at a cafe for your favorite beverage. And just in case shopping (or drinking) bore you to death, take a buggy ride to Marine drive. Or take a walk through the crowded roads that were witness to the 26/11 terror strike. As luck would have it, we went there- neither once nor twice, but thrice!

Some ten days later...

The Mumbai monsoons are upon us. The only problem is navigating the narrow lanes without the aid of rubber rain boots. Not that I ever used them before. I don't even own them. But now I wish I had them. Mumbai draws a few parallels from an ant colony. No amount of rain or sun can stop the people here from going about their business. The first day it poured heavily- we stayed in due to sheer laziness, under the impression that the flooded streets would result in walking in ankle-deep sludge. The second day, we ventured out anyway. Destination - Powai. One of the few places where a little greenery is visible in Mumbai.
Kung Fu Panda 2 's awesomeness blinded me like no other animated movie has ever done before. iMax 3D is simply too good to be true.(I like writing iMax the way I did.The inspiration is too obvious to be stated.)


Bombay was the perfect name for this city. Just like Bangalore is way better than Bengaluru.  But the Shiv Sena and its bunch of goons decided that 'Bombay' was a corrupted English version of 'Mumbai'. The British did hordes of bad things to India and its resources. Agreed. But christening the 'gateway to India' as 'Bombay' is certainly not one of them.The national government actually objected to this renaming, fearing 'Bombay' would lose its identity internationally.It hasn't. Foreigners still refer to Mumbai as Bombay. Ha ha.

Now that this first of its kind trip draws to a close, I guess I should conclude this post too and enjoy the last night in this city (on this trip).

In God's Land

How could I complain about life being dull? It can be boring at times, I agree. But dull it certainly is not. Here's why.

Rewind to the morning of 9^th May.
College mates and adventure - a  marvelous combination. From jumping off a cliff into the Ganges to climbing down a vertical mountain face, white water rafting over a 16 kilometers stretch to an early morning nature walk – we did it all. Not to mention the trek up and down a hill along a pre-chalked out path complete with slippery steep regions and a silent zone(Its a human settlement, so you are absolutely prohibited from as much as whispering here. Nevertheless, this is where one of us started singing 'We are the Champions' at the top of his lungs and progressed to singing a few Christmas carols before somebody told him about the zone being a silent one) and a cleanup region(where we were supposed to pick up all the non-biodegradable junk careless mountaineers leave behind. Here we found out the brand of gutka (or pan masala) preferred by people while trekking. We stayed in a cozy little tent complete with an attached washroom. (Tents should be made up of sound-proof material. Even the people trying hard not to eavesdrop can hear everything you say. And whispering doesn't help either.)
Jumping off a cliff into a river is not really that tough. All you need to do is get to the edge, close your eyes, and take a step forward. Gravity will take over and the water below will cushion your fall(almost always). I never understood the power of the potential energy being stored in a object due to the work done on the object by gravity as well as I did during that 3 second fall.
Caves behind waterfalls have neither algae nor bats (or vampires). At least the one I went to only had loads of green surfaced-rocks, a marvelous view and a rare kind of peace and quite.
Most important lesson learnt: When on a bus full of your peers, take care not to fall asleep. Because if you do, you will regret it. Facebook will make sure that even the people who weren't on the bus get to know how peaceful you look while you sleep.

Though I am trying to give words to this experience of a lifetime, memory alone can do justice to this trip. Words simply cannot describe how exhilarating and rejuvenating a trip it was.
Pictures, you say? A few of them, I did manage. Just me and my ghisa-pita phone-cum-camera.

The End Of the Beginning

Today marks the end of one year of college life. No longer freshers with shiny faces,we are now the all-knowing second-year students rearing to have a go at the humungous work and bucketful of fun in the academic year to come.[We have repeatedly been told how ' your workload is nothing compared to ours. ' Its funny how seniors (be it the ones in school or college) always say that.] But we need to contain this steam because its still three entire months before college restarts. Till then it is Fun, fun, fun.


And when it comes to fun - nothing is fun on an empty stomach. So, we celebrated the end of  the end-semester exams with a visit to Pizza Hut. And the best(and most delicious) part was the cheese cake(see pic, if you haven't already).

There are so many things that need to be done during the vacations. Not to mention the great list of must-watch movies to be released this summer. So much to look forward to apart from the usual hobbies which are almost always neglected during term time. Its exciting just to think about it all.


P.S.: This post was due to be posted on 29th April 2011. No explanations available for the delay.

First Things First ?

Hardly the time to be writing a blog post but then, its been a while since I sat down to write something significant and even if its only a blog post, I like to think of it as doing something constructive(though at this point of time it most certainly is not).

I thought of numerous things that can be recorded here but are they significant enough? The significance of most things can rarely be fully comprehended. Anyway, usually some thought goes into my posts but this time I feel I must have one impromptu post. One which does not include me thinking about a specific something and then taking some time pondering over what all can be said about it.
 And I came up with something but suddenly as if on cue, a chat message started flashing in my gmail tab and before I knew, I was chatting to people about all kinds of relevant and irrelevant stuff. Then I started browsing about some random stuff and after an hour or two of that a little something in the back of my head reminded me of the homework I had to submit next weekend.So, I got down to look into the related specifics. Then when I decided to call it a day and was getting ready to sleep like a log, I remembered my original agenda. And it hit me (its hit me previously too but never with the same intensity) : That is how things I plan to do never get done. Because I usually get distracted by something or the other. But then after that brief distraction I should revert back to my original work. But I don't. I should. I will.