इंतज़ार

शाम पल्खें बिछाए इंतज़ार कर रही हों,

आज कुछ ऐसा लगा मुझे । 

* * * * *

No need of drugs.. when there's MuSiC - 4

This is one periodic post that I have been writing since past five years. Following are the links of the previous posts:

• A few words about Muzzic.. (August 6, 2009)
• No need of drugs.. when there's MuSiC - 1 (January 8, 2010)
• No need of drugs.. when there's MuSiC - 2 (November 25, 2011)
• No need of drugs.. when there's MuSiC - 3 (October 6, 2012)

.. and here are the songs I am listening to, now-a-days:

• "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses

• "In bloom" by Nirvana

• "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

• "Alive" by Pearl Jam

• "And your bird can sing" by The Beatles

• "Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins

• "Tears in heaven" by Eric Clapton

• "Fade to black" by Metallica

• "Heard it through the grapevine" by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)

• "While my guitar gently weeps" by The Beatles

* * * * *

Shiva trilogy by Amish Tripathi

SPOILER ALERT !!!

The first impression that I had was that this trilogy might comprise of a story of an individual having some divine powers. How, by using such magical powers, he might have done wonders. He might have already known what's going to happen just because he was almighty. But I was wrong. 

This is a story of a man who knows no such magic. The only thing he knows is bravery and courage. He has feelings. He loves his tribe and can do anything and everything for them. The countless wars he has fought for them have made him intelligent enough to design a major battle formation. In fact, the war between Meluha and Swadweep (in the first part) was delight to read. It is his character, valor  ideology and realization that makes Shiva a living God.

The Immortals of Meluha: (Review written in mid September 2013)

The story so far is pretty straight. There are no parallel plots running. The entire plot just revolves around Shiva. Story gradually unfolds mysteries and histories. Although this is the first "series" novel that I m reading, yet I found the end pretty abrupt, I mean it ended amidst a scene! It was not like Harry Potter where a single novel has one complete start, mid and an end (information based on movie series). It is rather one straight story divided in three parts.

Some characters are strong. For instance, you can sometimes predict what Paravteshwar might say during a conversation. And Bingo! if author mentions the same later !

Besides all this, how author related somethings scientifically is commendable. Amish quite brilliantly explained the effect of Somras on the oxidants being produced by the reaction of Oxygen with the food we eat. He covinced me on how our ancestors might have lived longer. During the discussion of "green leaf" between Shiva and Vasudeva, he made an amalgum of Science and philosophy quite good !

The Secret of Nagas: (Review written in September 2013 end)

Here I am, done with the second book. And hallelujah ! Amish seems to have achieved another level in his narration style. Parallel plots are in! Although not as captivating and nail biting as that in Dan Brown's, yet a level much farther from his previous one.

It is brilliance of Amish's work that he managed to reveal many secrets producing some more to be unvieled. At least the size of his next book promises the same !

One thing that I found a bit difficult was to get in hold with the characters. There are far too many now. There were also some parts in the story which I found difficult to digest. As in, one of the reason of Shiva's visit to Branga was to curb the pendamic disease it's citizens were suffering from. Having Ayurvati by his side he could have gotten to the roots of this disease. Launching a full fledged attack on a bandit, who happened to know how medicine was made, could have come next.

One thing I love about the Amish's novels is the description Amish gives about ancient India. It feels as if I am travelling with Shiva's voyage through Kashi and even Sundarbans. It's also really thrilling to know that cities like Kashi are actually 4000 years old ! Whatever it is now but my country for sure has a rich history and culture.

The Oath of Vayuputras: (Review written in October starting)

Finally completed all three books. The last one carry forwarded the legacy quite good. All wars fought and secrets revealed. 

One thing I have become fond of Amish's writing is that he quite brilliantly explains practical possibilities of some Hindu myths. It was quite practical explanation of why people think Ganga generates from Shiva's locks. The looks of Ganesh and Kali were convincing too.

I didn't like how the story took a u-turn after Sati's death. Everyone turned out to be good and happily accepted their fate. Even Bhrigu, who was earlier eager enough to go against Lord Rudra's rule and used Daivi Astras to save Somras, changed on single violation of Lord Rama's rule.

Nevertheless, overall story was strong. Looking forward to unadulterated version of Mahabharata which he has promised to write.

One fact that I learnt from all the three novels was regarding good and evil. Overuse of good might make it next great evil. Take overpopulation as an example. Sometimes thinking about this I wonder if religion, in current circumstances, also has come into evil's scope?

* * * * *

Baal jhad chuke hain, experience aa chuka hai

Well well well.. This is not the final version of post. In fact there will never be! This post is about the experience I have gained, lessons I have learnt so far in my life.  I'll keep on adding my experience in the list as and when gained ;)

[Added: August 11, 2013]


1. When you know you are too lazy to move your ass out of your bed and wash your belongings, never buy a sandal with yellow (/white or any other light) colored sole.

2. Never ever (ever EVER !!!!) enter a restaurant (in this case Cafe Coffee Day) on 1st of July without cash. Chances are, that they won't accept debit/ credit cards and you have to run from pillars to poles to find an ATM. And when you do, your card isn't accepted. Why (God damn WHY ????)? Because it is an RBI holiday and you can't perform money transactions across different banks. (PS: I called a friend to pay from my behalf. Embarrassing ehh ??)

3. "I'll remember it" is the greatest lie you have ever told yourself!

4. Learn from your mistakes. Opportunity comes, you got to be prepared. Even if you lose it, make sure that you have made a new mistake. Learn from your mistake !

5. Once in life, for a year or two (or three), keep a goatee :)

6. "Agar tum apni cheezo ka khayal nahi rakhogey to cheeze tumhara khayal nahi rakhengi" from dear Mumma

[Added: February 14, 2014]

7. When you know you are frugal, do not be in an agreement with a miser landlord. The combination will not just be bad but abysmal !


8. Life is not fair, get used to it :)

* * * * *

O rahi...

तनिक धीरे चल ओ राही,

तेज़ रफ़्तार में बारिश की बूँदें भी काँटो सी लगती हैं।

* * * * *

Inferno by Dan Brown

Since 140 characters weren't doing justice for a book review I had to turn up to my blog. Bear with me ^.^

SPOILER ALERT !!

Dan Brown has always been a writer who makes you believe one thing for an entire length of story and then suddenly in middle, the story takes a 'U' turn. Inferno is no exception.

Whatever was happening to Robert Langdon in Florence in Italy all fall upside down when the identity of FS-2080 was revealed. It made me turn the pages back to the chapter when FS-2080 thought about meeting professor Bertrand and ended up in his arms. He always used the name 'FS-2080' and never revealed the identity, making us believe he was talking about someone else.

Great to read how he mixed age old work by Dante Alighieri, the Divine Comedy, with the current crisis we are facing, overpopulation. Each and every line is so informative ! Trans-humanists, WHO, genetic engineering, people with high IQ, their life and miseries and what not.

At times, the overly description of places at Florence, Venice and Istanbul went pretty boring. Forced me to skip some lines :P But had a great time travelling across Europe and this trans-continental city.

By the end it turned out to be a story with no antagonist. End could have been much thrilling. Also, it wasn't much clear when everyone had such noble intentions, why not sit and discuss instead of run, hide and create chaos?

The story ended with the word 'stars' as all the Dante's poems in Divine comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso)

Anyways, the novel was not a must, but for sure a good read.

*****

Days, now-a-days !

Monday..

Tuesday..

Wednesday..

Thursday..

Friday..

Saturday..

Sunday..

* * * * *

होली

काश इस होली घर पर होते,

माँ के हाथ से गुझिया खाए ज़माने हो गए...

* * * * *

पल

ए राही क्यूँ नहीं समझता तू ,

क्या ज़िन्दगी की इस दौड़ में बस भागा चला जाएगा?

मन की हर मुराद को मसल,

क्या बड़ी इमारतें बनाता चला जाएगा?

इक पल तो बैठ, सांस ले ज़रा ,

बेड़ियाँ हटा, थोडा सा जी ले ज़रा। 

क्यूंकि ये पल, गर हो गया कल,

तो बहुत याद आएगा, बहुत याद आएगा, बहुत आएगा।

* * * * * 

[Re post]: an ACM experience

(Post written back in January 2011 in my techno blog (which I no longer maintain). Re-posting it here)

..and finally we disembarked at Kanpur.

Competing at the world's most prestigious programming event (even at the regional level :P ) looked just like a dream earlier but not any more. On 11th of December 2010, we were on our way to IIT Kanpur for competing with some of the best coders of this country. We were (Team name: Elites) amongst the top 50 teams of Northern India who were invited to participate at the ACM regional level after qualifying the prelims, which was held earlier amongst more than 200 teams.

On reaching the campus we were greeted with two goody bags. One was from ACM itself and the second came from Directi, the official sponsers of the event. Goody bags were loaded with some really good stuff ranging from T-shirts, diaries to pens and badges. Great hospitality, awesome management and top-class environment at IIT Kanpur were the things they can really boast about.

On 12th December the teams competed for five hours. There were ten problems given. By the end, we managed to solve three problems (and managed to win three pen drives !!! :P ). The team from Indonesia (Dongskar Pedongi) came first solving eight questions whereas team from IIIT Hyderabad (Any Dream) came second solving seven probelms. The team from Hyderabad included Yash Kumar and Nadeem Moidu, who held the second and fifth position in the AOL CodeDash competition too.

But the team that made it to Egypt (for world finals) was from IIT Kanpur (Deep thought). I would like to further elaborate details about the team members. The team consisted of three members:

Raziman TV, who is a blogger and you can visit his blog "Mistranslated" here. He has won many such events both at the regional and the world level. The entire achievements list of Raziman can be seen here. Now possibly he has one more achievement of ACM to brag about!! :D

Shitikanth was the second member. He topped the IIT-JEE 2008 examination (AIR-1). He is a regular codechef member too.

Utkarsh Lath is also a codechef member and much higher placed than his colleague Shitikanth.

With such great coders IIT Kanpur really deserved to win the world finals berth.

Later in the prize distribution ceremony, I was pleased to see my friend Rahul Gulati (Team name: HyperHexagon) secure the tenth place. We (with Prateek Gupta and Ankit Jain as my team-mates) were amongst the honourable mentioned ones as we managed to solve more than one question. With more than half a dozen of certis we bid IIT Kanpur adieu.

Summing up the entire event.. it was really an amazing ACM experience.. :)

* * * * *

The fourth anniversary

Stop wondering! For God's sake, it's fourth anniversary of my blog! :P

Back during those days (January 23, 2009 to be precise) I used to be an emotional moron. Too much of anger, at the same time, too much of placidness, too many friends, too much virility, too much laziness, too much hatred and sometimes.. too much love. Nothing was normal then. Yes, I was in college which has been, by far, the best phase of my life.

To give all these feelings a vent I started to blog. Starting with poems, I went on to writing articles, weirdo posts, senseless music posts, letters and what not. Looking back on all these posts I see how beautiful a person could be, when his soul is free.

In the span of these four years I myself have gone through many changes as my blog. Blog appearence got changed multiple times, so did mine. Falling hair, bushy goatee, strident voice, loss and gain in weight (from scooter to hummer, as I call it) all have contributed in this change. My interests changed as did my posts. They spanned from romantic poems to articles on music, then changed to some technical subjects and finally to retrospective posts like this. This blog clearly showcases the course of my life.

I imagine myself, sitting on my rocking chair, at an age of 60, with my specks on, reading all my articles right from the beginning. Cherishing all the moments and living them all over again :)

Happy Blogging !

* * * * *