Shubham is a great punster [ http://my-mind-space.blogspot.com/2004/05/my-experiments-with-pun.html ] and I have borrowed the term 'pun'dit from him. The one line that I would write about my friendship with him would be - 'It goes beyond emotions!'. Both Shubham and Me are strong believers in reason and absence (or insignificance) of emotions. But this attitude should not be confused with being selfish - it is 'beyond' emotions not 'devoid' of emotions! Shubham is very practical - perhaps the most practical person I have met; but what bonds us together is that both of us are hardly ever affected or bothered about what 'others' are doing. An internal locus of control is integral to us. We have our hobbies, our passions and our secrets too and we do not believe in poking our nose in affairs that do not relate to us. Some more hygiene factors bonded us better - the fact that both of us wanted to get into IT, both enjoy old Hindi film songs and we b...

Long time no c! This blog was untouched since 22nd May. That was the day when G7 (our gang in NITIE) members started arriving for their final presentations. Since then I have had little time between making my report/presentation, attending the National Practice meet of KPMG, IRM and going out (just once!) with buddies! Finally, the campus is again getting empty. Most of G7 is gone and once for all Shubham has left NITIE. Shubham - a character who has been with me almost day-and-night since the last 2 years. I feel compelled to write a few words about him today. Shubham and I belong to the same engineering college - BIT. Yet, had anyone asked me or him about each other just a month before leaving BIT and we would have asked - Shubham/Nikhil?? Who?? Oh he's in Comp Sc/Elex?? Hoga koi! When I made it to NITIE, I was the sole person from BIT to get in. I had known that one Shubham Choudhury - 'the geek topper of Comp Sc' was in the NITIE waiting list and had cleared XLRI. Ever...

Discovered this Marathi Blog http://paamar.blogspot.com The latest post Lord Vishnu's performance appraisal [ http://paamar.blogspot.com/2005/04/celestial-appraisal.html ] is very hilarious ... The spirit of conserving one's language and culture online is really worth appreciating !!! Cheers to this dude!!! I wish to support him .. but sulk! I am not that good at writing Marathi .. probably would try out Hindi text someday.

Most B-schoolers discover Ayn Rand classic during their MBA preparations. In fact it is probably a matter of prestige for B-schoolers to have 'The Fountainhead' as their favorite book. But I have met quite a few people who call 'The Foutainhead' their favorite just because everyone else does so. By doing so they go against the very philosophy that this book tries to teach. Such people are the living copy of the character - 'Peter Keating'. Relievingly, I have found many people who have a mind of their own and do not feel ashamed to confess that they either do not understand Rand or the book itself is complete bullshit! I just completed my 3rd reading of the book. I had failed to complete it 2 times and had to restart every time. After completing the book I felt that the core of the book is the testimony given by Howard Roark (the protagonist of the story) in the court at the end of the story. However, Roark's (or rather Ayn Rand's) ideas are so fundament...

Watched "Bose- The forgotten Hero" on Saturday. Gem of a movie and probably the best of Shyam Benegal. Subhash Chandra Bose has always been an inspiring character in the history for the youth. This post however is not about the movie, its about the lead song 'Tanha Rahee' which is based on the poem 'Ekla Chalo Re' by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. I had pasted the English translation of this poem on my blog earlier. http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-times_30.html However, yesterday I found the original bengali text of the poem and found that the meaning in the above translation was not exact. So I have endeavourer (with the help of Shubham ) to re-translate it into English and Hindi by myself. Here is the output of my work: Bengali Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na Asse Tobe Ekla Chalo re Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalore Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai Ore Ore O Abhaga Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay Tabe Paran Khule O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Kath...

The following news was published recently in newspapers (and some probably even hailed our foreign minister for this) India refuses UNSC seat sans veto power http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1066729.cms And then came a very candid and practical comment from the UN general secretary Kofi Annan that “. . . it would be ‘utopian’ to expect the current permanent members to give up their veto power, or grant the same to the new members . . .” No veto power for new UNSC members: Annan http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1091625.cms Let us analyse the whole situation. The UN Security Council was formed when the world was just out of the Second World war with allies being victorious – especially the U.S.A. emerging as a powerful nation. The Russian Revolution and Stalin on the other hand contributed to the rise of a strong, communist U.S.S.R. and the world became bipolar. The Veto Power emerged as a major tool to maintain the power equations in this era. Conversely the...

If you read science fiction from the 70s and the 80s you will find that writers had imagined the year 2000 and beyond to be much different from what it actually is. Androids, Space Travel, Space cities and ability to transmit humans from one place to other, are few of the fantasies that they imagined would be reality between 2000 and 2050. But as many would agree – hardly any of these fantasies seem to be coming true by 2050. Conversely many of the present day innovations and lifestyle components like mobile phones and the internet were never imagined in past by scientists or fiction writers. However there is a parallel between what was imagined and what we have today. For example though we cannot transmit humans from one place to the other but communication technologies have marked the death of distance. By 2050 we may not require to transmit people even if the technology for such a phenomenon is available. Already ‘net-meetings’, telecons and forums have become a part of our day to d...

This blog has completed 3000 hits today . . . and to commemorate this event let me post about an event that left a deep imprint on me and deserves to be christened as the "turning point" of my life . . . [Pardon me for being a bit senti . . .] Our school (like most other schools) had a tradition that every section would conduct the morning assembly for one week in the year. I was in class VII and our class was allotted the turn. The class teacher selected 6 students to deliver the 'thought for the day' on each weekday. I was the last one to be selected and so was placed for Saturday. Unfortunately, an unexpected holiday was announced on Wednesday and every student's schedule shifted by a day and me who was on Saturday was kicked out. I was sad, dejected and frustrated when I went to my class teacher (Mrs. Subhadra Basu Roy). She consoled me and told me that I was good and would definitely get a chance next year but this consolation wasn't enough for me. F...

Disclaimer: This is a naughty satire on the ever-make-n-break affairs of nowadays – it is neither a comment on serious affairs, nor intended against any specific person, any specific group or sex. Please do not read further if you think you may be offended by this post. ‘I need a girlfriend!’ I said aloud and Anish started laughing. ‘Hey come on! I am serious. Damn, I have been requesting each one of you to accompany me to Juhu – even promising that the ride will be on me and none of you are still ready! Had I had a girlfriend she would not have deserted me like this’. ‘Oh Yea, on the contrary she would have been happy that you are asking her out ’ Man!! Really you do miss a lot of adventure in life when you don’t have a girlfriend. Like there’s no pressure at all on you to cut your expenses – its like ‘Main akela to hoon! Apna paisa apne pe nahi to kispe kharch karoonga’ Oh yes! Having a girlfriend helps you get economically disciplined – after all when you have to buy her the most e...

While Googling on Information security(see previous post for details), I landed up on a message archive - I was amazed at the span of the discusion going on there - the audience to this discussion ranges from software developers, network-admins, managers, IT professionals, IT managers and even social researchers . . . http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014383.html The discussion begin's with a harmless techie doubt about opening ports and tunneling (browse the link below if you want to read the techie replies - the current post does not cover them) http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014339.html The next few replies were techy in nature, but the discussion turned soon to Good Software development practices with people taking moral high ground. . . http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014386.html http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014390.html http://honor.trusecure.co...