Moments

Wishing my readers a wonderful, happier new year 2013. I dedicate the year 2012 to Dr. Anoop. My close friend. One of my dearest. Yesterday, on the last day of 2012 was his Phd defense. We became friends during the first day of our MTech. Both of us were from Kerala and we stayed in the same hostel at IIT. Anoop was the motivation behind me joining Phd. I cherished the time spent in the labs, discussions - technical and non-technical, innumerable holiday trips, an excellent 15 day trek and many more. He was the one who kept me going at times of depression. But eventually I got bored of research and joined a job, converting to part-time Phd. Even then Anoop was the motivation for me going to IIT and continuing research. When job became more interesting and rewarding than research, I decided to say good-bye to IIT. I am glad that Anoop continued it with full rigour and came out with flying colors. Three cheers for Dr. Anoop C. Nair!!!

This is my first post of 2009 (almost when it is in its going to end). Is there someone who still reads this? The fourth anniversary of my blog went unnoticed. It was sort of a ceremony to write a post for the anniversary ( First anniversary and Second Anniversary and Third Anniversary ). After all someone has rightly said "Enthusiasm of anniversary dies down after the third" A customary update of the year that went by. Feb 2008 to Jan 2009 flew off like a hat hit by a bullet (Is that a metaphor? Am I getting worse at blogging? Cant think of something better). Busy with job, phd, parents visiting me and some trips here and there. Number of posts reduced to 4 in that period. You would find more posts than that at my blog but they were actually posted after Feb-09 back-dated using the post option in blogger (Did u know that you could do it?) Cant guarantee more posts (than last year) before the next anniversary as it is coming up soon. But I will surely try my best and pester...

Incredible India (or Atulya Bharat) is a slogan of Indian Tourism Department. Well the thought of a blog about it occurred because of this blog . "The government is promoting this campaign of Incredible India or 'Atulya Bharat'. But, what is incredible about this country. When my friends from Europe or US come to India for a visit, all they find is dusty roads, animals on the streets, poor facilities etc. etc." This was the point of discussion and I was also one of the listeners of this comment. Some people argue that this is a bull shit statement and India is really incredible because of the diverse cultural heritage and the quality of Indians to keep up with our traditions even though we were subjected to so many foreign invasions. Others may say that boasting of traditions is a farce. Metros of our country is under a huge influence of western culture and even small towns are jumping on the bandwagon. And their justification is that it is personal freedom. Fine. I ...

Yesterday I finished three years in the blogger's space, each year ending in a distinct anniversary. On my last anniversary post , I had promised to give my readers more poems and better travelogues. But the year seemed to give a new turn to my blog. I ventured into short stories and wrote two of them. I had started another one based on my college life which I left in between. The number two seems to have some strong connection with me. I wrote 2 poems on the blog before the last anniversary and this time the number of stories again comes to TWO.. Numerologists may say it is becoz I am born under the number 2 (My birth date is 20). Last year, the number of trips were plenty but just one of them was a sight seeing tour. Hence just one travelogue. There were a couple of posts on cricket along with the usual reporting from IIT Delhi. In December, I decided to start documenting some of the ideas regarding my research topic and that led to the tech blog . Though the response to that it ...

As per the tradition of updating the blog once in a year, here I present to you my blog with a new look. A look with a complete rework on the template and the colours. Here is a snapshot of the new template Isn't that colourful! Well the description says so. A few more experimentation with words all around the template. The headings are translated into Spanish (thanks to google translate) and a few keywords to make it more informal. Hey, did anybody say my blog is too serious???? May be. But isn't it true that humour lies in the minds of the reader (That sounds familiar to some other proverb). So with the new look on the blog and lots of colours all around (Does colour mean something else?) the blog from here on changes to a different genre. No more serious babble. I should probably start a new blog for that and not publicise it. No more of fundas. I have started a tech blog for that. Welcome to the world of VIBGYOR Tail: When I started the blogging, my blog title was "A ...

After a wonderful year 2007, here we are into yet another year of fun and frolic. The year that went by was a little different from the ones earlier. I had the maximum number of trips, almost one in every month, starting with a trip to Kolkata for the marriage of two of my best friends. One trip to Renukoot during Holi. Three trips to Kerala - one for cousin's marriage, one for teaching in a college in Cochin and one just for a holiday to home. One to Mumbai for a cousin's engagement. A vacation to Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mount Abu in June. Unfortunately, there were no trips to the Himalayas. There were two of them planned but got postponed to 2008. One was a trek in Manali under YHAI and another was Manali-Leh-Ladakh. Hope that it materialises this year. The new year is also full of trips. The first 3 are for marriages. Aur ek bhi mera nahi.. Last January, I wrote my comprehensive exams which meant that I am officially registered for my PhD and my research proposal was accepted. ...

A time of the year when most people in the world are enjoying holidays, IIT is also in a holiday mood. The winter vacations have begun and hostels are empty. Placements season is going on and there has been parties all around from those who got placed. Many final years are still working hard to prove themselves to the companies coming on campus for recruitments. We Phds, are not at all bothered by this struggle or by these little celebrations. We live in a life of perennial bliss with moments moving on and on and on. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.. May the Lord show you the path that you cherish to take.. And may the Santa shower you with whatever you want at any every moment.. For the research scholars, here is a quote that I coined. ' Phd is a journey in a tunnel. You never find the end till the last bend.'

Today I launched a new technical blog. Currently I am thinking of putting stuff related to my research work. Hoping that readers will comment and I shall get some idea for my PhD thesis. :-) For my regular readers (I dont know who) here is the link. बुद्धिमान तार - रहित उपकरण Please read it sometimes.. Kya pata kab aapko bhi research karne ka mood aa jaye... :-P

In this world where everybody is said to be selfish and unkind, yesterday I found a nice man. At midnight, I and my friend were waiting for an auto in a pretty desolate area of Delhi. After a wait of around 10 minutes, a cab went past us and suddenly braked. As we approached the cab, the driver told us to hop in and asked us where we were heading to. As there was not much of a chance of finding any other mode of transport back to our hostel, we got in the cab, thinking the trip would be rather costly. The driver told that he was going to the taxi stand near our hostel, so he offered us the lift. We got a pleasant surprise as he was dropped us at our hostel and said that he was not charging us for the ride. Kabhi kabhi aise bhi log mil jaate hain..

After missing two earthquakes that happened during my past 5yrs in Delhi, at last I experienced one today morning. It was at quarter to five at dawn when Delhi rocked measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale. I was asleep under the quilt in my hostel room, when I felt the tremors. I thought that it was in my dream and ignored it. After a few seconds, I realized that my cot was shaking and the windows were rattling. As I got to my senses and got up, vibrations had died down. There was commotion outside as people were running out of their rooms onto the lawns and the courtyard. Most of them were excited and few were shocked. I waited for a minute to check if it was shaking. As nothing happened, I went back to sleep, under the assumption that I was safe under the thick quilt even if the roof falls down. :-) Today, I heard lots of stories about how people ran to save their lives ignoring others who were around, half naked, in their underwears, out into the biting cold. Well, I dont know whether ...

That ended the celebrations of my Twenty-sixth Diwali. How I celebrated the first 10 of those I dont remember now. But the remaining ones were fun. Probably better than Diwali this year. When I was in school at Renukoot, Diwalis used to be great. The festivities started almost a week earlier and we had nice time even at school. The climate used to be wonderful with the winter setting in and the early morning chillness and the mild afternoons. Though it would be tougher to go to school in the morning but Diwali time was something we never missed at school. The thrill of the sound of crackers in the corridors was a thing everybody cherished. Every year there would be strict warnings from our principal against bursting of crackers in the school campus. But invariably every year there would be at least one going off - either in the bathroom or in some empty classroom, either under the stairs or on the rooftop. Our batch was the most infamous of all but we were never implicated. There would...

Durga Asthami: It was Friday, the 19th of 2007. Anand Srivastava, a friend on mine from school called me and invited me for lunch on Sunday. Enjoying the mid-semester break, I accepted his invitation and was also glad to know that he has invited a few more of my schoolmates. That was the beginning of this year's Dussehra celebrations for me. I also had another get together planned for the weekend. That was visiting my cousin who has moved into Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, after her marriage. She had been cajoling me to drop in at her place for the past three months and it was getting postponed due to some reason or the other. I had suggested a visit during the festive season but she had plans to go for a vacation to Rishikesh and Mussourie. On Friday, night I got the news that she has canceled her vacation, so I decided to go the next day. I also remembered that I had not yet kept my books for Saraswati Puja and resolved to do so the next morning. Maha Navami: On Saturday early morn...

The management at IIT Delhi has decided to block access to www.orkut.com from within the institute. Whether it is an attempt to police the innocent students getting over-enthused by the ongoing craze of dating or an inefficient means of regulating internet traffic, nobody knows, as there is not official announcement. But this abrupt blockage of the site using 'Content Keeper' has caused a shock to the student community. Orkut had been a topic of discussion among the faculty and the web administrators for quite some time. Many in the institute felt that students are wasting a lot of time browsing and scrapping on orkut. It may be true to some extent as I have myself seen situations in the lab where all the monitor screens show similar snapshots of orkut profile page opened up in firefox and people busy finding new profiles and scrapping to keep their network of friends going. A lot of BTech students are actively involved in various communities and are regular posters on all thre...

I am not talking about the cycle stunts that you see in your local circus. Neither am i talking about the motorcycle stunts shown by our Indian military during the republic day parade. Those are acrobatics. The cycle stunts that I refer here are the ones that I achieved in the recent past. Though it is belittling myself, but still I say here that two fractures that I have on my body are because of my cycle stunts. The first of them was 2 years ago. I was cycling back from the lab to my hostel at 4am. No I was not enjoying the morning air. On the contrary, I was returning after yet another night out, feeling sleepy. It had rained at night and the cycle had been washed clean in the rain. I was moving on the desolate road. The breeze was bringing in the frigidity of early morning and the overnight rain. I dont remember clearly what happened. After negotiating a turn, I find myself shaken up. The cycle had hit the divider. I was standing but I could feel bruises on my knees and elbow. Ther...

Today is the second anniversary of blogging. Here is the annual report of my blog. The number of posts on my blog site doubled in comparison with 2005. I had written about a few get-togethers, my first flight trip and a couple of incidents at IIT Delhi. During May, I finished my trilogy on evolution of marriages and went on to write the most controversial post in my archive about Love marriages. The post invited a lot of heated discussions and flame messages on my inbox and chat windows. When there was nothing much to write, I started a series called "Vaidya and his friends", the title being inspired from Malgudi days by RK Lakshman. I managed to write 3 episodes, but soon lost interest in it (though i had a few more episodes in my mind). As usual, the year was filled with trips to various places and a couple of travelogues found space in my blog archive. In my Kedarnath travelogue, I tried imbedding photos in my post. The past year saw a new dimension added to my blog posts....

After the research plan submission I and Anoop went to the famous 'Gali Parathe wali' in Chandini Chowk. Though the name would suggest that the place would be full of shops selling Parathas, the street is crowded with a lot of other shops. There are hardly 4 or 5 shops selling hot and fresh Parathas. We got into one such shop. The first impression that I got about the place was that of a shabby little dhabha that you come across while travelling on the highways. But the crowd there made me rethink. The place was buzzing with people, all cramped in the little space, with the waiters yelling to the cook as they took orders. Crawling through the narrow gaps between tables, we managed to get a table in a corner. With the aroma of pure ghee in the air and the hunger in our stomachs, we started our orders with some exotic parathas that they serve. Kaju Paratha, Gajar Paratha, Matar Paratha, Khurchan Paratha, Papad Paratha. And a lot more. One after the other, we tasted almost all kin...

Yet another new year! I know you would be saying, "Is this the time to talk about new year, a good 15 days into it. Where were you all these days". Well, I was busy deciding on my new year resolution and then busy getting it done. Very unusual of me, this year I had a new year resolution. "Decide on my future of PhD." There were a few critical decisions to be made. First and foremost was whether to continue with my PhD or to quit it. There were lot of reasons for that but writing about them will be long enough for another blog post. So let me defer it to some other time. When the new year started with a review of my research draft by JD, one of my guides, I was sure that this new year shall surely be eventful. With lots of concern about my research plan, he criticized the presentation, somewhat constructively. Constructive in the sense that it helped me clear my mind of entangled thoughts and showed me a glimpse of my future. After a lot of tussle with my inner self...

"Oh! Poor Sir!", I exclaimed, after coming out of the examination hall. "How much effort does he put to make me learn something from the course! To what extent will he advise!" It was the Minor II of yet another Selected Topics course by Prof PKB. I had written about my previous attempts with a similar course . This time I had decided to sit through the course. I was not even auditing it. I was not willing to give Prof PKB the trouble to evaluate my performance in the course, to be liberal in the marks distribution and to forcefully pass me in the course. "It pains him very much to fail a student. And that too a student for whom he is teaching the course without any earnings", I thought. "No. I cannot write a test in his course", I had decided. So when the time for the first minor came, I tried to mug up some Greek letters from the notes. All the preparation was last minute. After a night out full of cramming, I decided that I am not writing the ...

It was 2.00AM. I had returned from the lab after having a hot Maggi and Soup from our institute Nescafe. The Dan Brown novel 'Angels and Demons' was lying on my table. I had already read about 50 pages of it on my PC. So I though of picking it up and read for a while. Sleeping at 2.00AM was not my habit for the past few years. The usual schedule, which I always try to correct, is to have night outs. But today, I was not in a mood to put yet another nightout. There had been series of nightouts in the past 3 days. A night of orkutting, a night of cdsdoc (some technical documentation) and a night of report writing. As I started reading the novel, I realised that it had been a long time since I read a novel. The mood set in. As pages went by, the speed of the novel made it hard to put down. Clock ticked by and by the time i completed page no 249 i saw a faint light of the dawn sneaking through my window. Then I decided to be awake till breakfast, and the reading continued. I had re...

A mail circulates through the vls05 group. It invites all members to a silver-jubilee birthday celebration of their beloved Villain. A birthday eagerly awaited by all. Though, everybody knew he was an aquarian, yet there was the spirit to give him the birthday bash. And that too his 25th! This being the 25th year of his life, the celebration had to be year long. Hence, today's party at our very own NESCAFE. A party with a purpose. And a party with a difference. NO Cake NO Candles NO Maggi NO Ice Tea NO Photos NO Bumps even!! Only Eclairs, Eclairs, Eclairs.... Each one got two eclairs for coming down to NESCAFE. Few of them who went escorted the birthday boy from the lab knew that the truth of Eclairs. But where is the fun when everything is known. So they decide to call others who were not in the lab, and told them a white lie. A birthday party. True. And they believed. Ha Ha Ha... Now let us see how many of them come down again next month when there shall be another silver-jubilee...