3 IDIOTS

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Note 1: I had 13 posts this year, which I thought was a lucky number of posts to have, but I am forced to make an exception for 3 IDIOTS.

Note 2: Go watch this movie if you still haven't.
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Tired of appreciating and being inspired and moved by global cinema, there develops a longing to see Indian cinema (for patriotic reasons), and along comes a movie that succeeds in making you laugh and cry at the same time, that connects with niche audiences and the masses at the same time, that is meaningful and 'idiot'ic at the same time, and there, there is the hope, and the joy, that Indian cinema is still alive, and breathing.

What Taare Zameen Par did for primary education, 3 IDIOTS does for higher education. You can see the faces of people around you in the characters of this movie, and when you see yourself, wonder strikes and you double-check if the celluloid has just been transformed into a mirror. Full marks to Mr. Hirani for not sticking to the book 'Five Point Someone'.

I forgive Raj Kumar Hirani for taking 'Aal izz well' over the top, I forgive him for the not-so-required dramatic climax involving the childbirth, I forgive him for not roping in an exceptional lyricist and an extraordinary music director (Prasoon Joshi and A R Rahman would have taken this movie to a whole new level), I forgive him for a clichéd characterisation of Boman Irani and a few clichéd dialogues and anecdotes in the movie. In the end, Mr. Hirani succeeds and has won the hearts of countless people.

'Rape' being such a common lingo at campuses for things that go bad in life, this was probably the first time in the history of Indian cinema when not one person in the audience flinched at the use of the word 'balatkar' on screen at the rate of 30 times a minute. There will be atleast one anecdote in the movie which will definitely remind you of your college days and your friends. For me, the movie struck a personal chord with the scene in which the three 'idiots' sit on the stairs and drink, and peek inside themselves to discover who they really are, and what they are meant to do, and then do really stupid things :D

Having visited the Chapora Fort (Goa) recently, which was the set for the famous scene in Dil Chahta Hai, I have added Ladakh to the list of places I want to visit, for the sheer beauty with which they have captured its landscapes in the movie, which goes on to prove, foreign locales are not required to deliver a hit, good script is, and that Indian locales can be as intriguing as, if not more, than any other place in the world.

3 IDIOTS...

F***book

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Note 1: The *s in the title of the post doesn't stand for what you think it does you pervert. It stands for "ace".

Note 2: "Yo" "Social" "Networking".
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Web 2.0 brought with itself an interesting and a rather irritating revolution with it, Social Networking. Let me not talk about Social Networks in general, lets talk about something that has got everyone hooked onto the social media, F***book.

As a concept, I applaud F***book, and I applaud you Mark Zuckerberg. F***book empowers people to stay in touch with family and friends, share pictures, videos, and other interesting things that they may stumble upon the internet. BUT, please, please watch the movie 'Spiderman', and always remember, 'with great power comes great responsibility'.


1. Public Romance

Wow! You are in love? Alright. Congratulations. You make a cute couple. But, if you want to say something to your 'love' about your love, there is an option to send personal message. Writing it on your wall is NOT cute. And, you DON'T have to 'like' each and every post made my him/her. And the picture that he/she just uploaded, I know it looks great, but the comment you just made on it, it can be a little more subtle than "awww...chooo chweeeeett....you look amazinggggg in this picture. luvvvv ya. muah!!!!!!!".


2. What @#^%$# are you?

Seriously? You think I have got nothing better to do with my life than to know what chocolate/ice-cream flavour/mathematical function/movie character/actor/actress/movie quote/song/superhero/$^%$/&^%*&/%^%$^ you are. Trust me, I don't want to know it, and neither does anyone else. Nor do we want to know who your perfect date is, or when are you going to die, or how many people secretly admire you, or how good a kisser you are, or whatever other superpower you might like to have in your fantasy world. Face it, if a f***book quiz says Megan Fox is your perfect match, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET HER. EVER. PERIOD.


3. Farming and the Underworld

Seriously? You have got nothing better to do with your life than to grow strawberries/potatoes/tomatoes and adopt that lonely cow that wandered on your field, and earn ribbons for doing it? And yeah, the bank robberies, gang wars, and the other "underground" activities that you indulge in right under everyone's nose, please DONT try to make me a part of it by sending me an occasional gun, rifle, revolver or money. And just like I dont want to be a mafia, I dont want to be a vampire too, or any other mythical/mythological/imaginary/real creature you might think of. I am perfectly fine the way I am.



And yeah, for all the sufferers due to above, make extravagant use of the 'Block' and the 'Hide' buttons. They are there just to protect us from the atrocities of our fellow human-beings.

F***book...

Inglourious Basterds

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Note 1: As enough cannot be said about Inglourious Basterds, it is not too late for this post.

Note 2: Caution! I will try not to give any spoilers, still, in my excitement, I just might.
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Tarantino is NOT a director, it is a genre, and like any other genre, either you will love it or you will hate it. And if you hate it, you are losing out on so much. Inglourious Basterds is one of the best movies in the genre called Tarantino.

5 things to look for in the movie:


1. The soundtrackYou are sitting on a comfortable chair in a multiplex, and Nick Perito's 'Green leaves of summer' starts playing as the movie begins. The moment you hear the strings playing, you know you are in for a real treat and about to get back more than your money's worth. Needless to say, like in every other Tarantino movie, the soundtrack is amazing.


2. Col. Hans Landa (played by Christopher Waltz) - "The Jew Hunter".

This guy doesn't need an academy award to justify the magnificent work he has done in this movie. You really feel the chills this guy gives to the characters of the movie. You begin to loathe his character, yet, you love him, respect him, and admire him.


3. Shosanna Dreyfus (played by Mélanie Laurent) - "...because Marcel, my sweet, We're going to make a movie, just for the Nazi's".

You cannot help but be smitten by her, and during the movie, when someone says, "Oh he his just smitten by her", you begin to wonder if they are talking about you. Her make-up, her costumes, her grace (Well, she's French. It had to be so). Your heart might skip a beat or two when you see her dress up to execute her masterplan. Too bad her role became similar to Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, and Tarantino had to cut out a major part from her role, she just might have outshone Thurman.


4. The Basterds - "I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, jump out of an air-o-plane, fight my way through half of Sicily, to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi's ain't got no humanity. That's why every soldier we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're going to die."

The basterds ain't in the prisoner taking business. They are into Nazi killing business. And that is a boomin'.

That is exactly what they do. The basterds are the kick-ass bad-asses you love. They spread fear and terror among the Nazis (which is ironic :D ), and they do it right. The dialogues are amazing, the delivery is amazing, the characters are amazing. The basterds are...well they are just the basterds.


5. The climax

The feeling you get watching the theatre scene IN a theatre is out of this world. And, I will not spoil the moment for anybody who has not seen. Watch it. Enjoy it. Love it. It is probably the best climax that any Tarantino movie has ever seen.


You can hear Tarantino speaking for himself through Lt. Aldo Raine when he says at the end, "I think this might just be my masterpiece."

The Inglourious Basterds...

Icing for your Firefox

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Note 1: This is my first "geeky" post. Pre-requisites for reading this post - you should be aware of what 'Mozilla Firefox' is. If you are not, please close this page RIGHT NOW, you are embarrassing me. :P

Note 2: The list below is only suggestive and for the "normal" junta. Certified geeks need not read it (and hence I save myself from curses from some campus junta through this disclaimer. Phew!)
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You've reached thus far. Congratulations! You've heard what Mozilla Firefox is. But probably you need to know a little more to exploit what Firefox really is. Even if you are aware of the so called 'plug-ins', the list below might help you a lot in enhancing your browsing experience.

Some plug-ins, which I think everybody wants to use, does not because they are not aware, and will get addicted to once they get used to it:



1. Video DownloadHelper

Ever visited youtube.com, or for that matter any site that offers video streaming capabilities, and you pulled your hair off your head because you were unable to download it.

Head straight to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

After installing the plug-in, just visit the site you want to extract video from, click on the DownloadHelper icon, and Voila!



2. Screengrab

Ever visited the profile of someone hot on orkut.com or facebook.com and felt frustrated because you couldn't save the picture on your desktop for later viewing pleasure (because your right-click doesn't work)? :D Ok, I am not very sure if this blog enjoys a female audience, still, this plug-in works both ways. :D

Now, screengrab can help you capture any part of the web page you've opened in a jiffy. (Yes, jiffy is really a unit of time, it is about 1 ms :P )

Where to get it? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
Surfing orkut or facebook will never be the same anymore. :D



3. TinEye Reverse Image Search

Yup! You read that right. Always wondered what that image was? Try reverse searching the image on the web through this plug-in. Try it. Its amazing. Was looking for something like this for a long long time. This would help you figure a lot about the mysterious image that you had all along.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8922



4. EchoFon

Just registered for a twitter account? But it is a pain logging into it every time to check for updates? Well, there's a plug-in for it. If you keep your browser open all the time (as we like to do), this would help you keep a track of your tweets, and post tweets as well, right from Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081



5. Personas for Firefox

And finally, whats Firefox to you if it isn't you own. Head on to http://www.getpersonas.com/ to get a cool new look for your window to the internet, and make it your own. Check out the cool gallery on http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/gallery/All/Popular


So, that's all folks! Until some other time, when I feel "geeky" enough to make a geeky post.
And by the way, I use some cooler plug-ins too, but they are too nerdy to write about here. If you are interested, let me know in the comments.


PS: For those who in the dark about 'plug-ins', you've got to INSTALL them to use them. :P


Icing for your Firefox...

Post blog post(ing)

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Note 1: These are the views formed by an amateur blogger, experienced ones may gratify me with some enlightening thoughts that I am not aware of.

Note 2: For bloggers-to-be, please refrain from using this post as a potential guide for yourselves.
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The very act of "post"ing a blog is satisfying in itself, in the sense that you have a sense of creation. But what you do post posting a blog is somewhat intriguing. Those geeky enough to put an analytics on their blog would want to keep knowing live statistics of how their baby is performing.

For me, after opening the analytics page once every 5 minutes after posting, what is most intriguing to me is that every time I make a post, and check the analytics data, I am gratified by gaussian-like curves which show the number of visitors on my blog. Every time! The shape is almost the same everytime, just that the peaks may vary. For starters, here is what a gaussian function looks like:



...and here is what the hits on the blog look like (Please note, some curves are a linear combination of one of more gaussian curves :P)


Ok! I am sorry. Enough of the romancing about the beauty of statistics, Mr. Gauss, and the curves (yes, these are the only curves we are aware of :'( )

Enough already about post-blog posting. Here is a little about pre-blog posting.

Some guidelines that I follow before I make a blogpost (others are free to follow these, or others, as the case maybe).

I ask myself the following questions before posting:

1) Is my post going to influence the views of the reader?

2) Is my post a society-changing post, and makes a strong point against the prevailing social evils?

3) Is my post going to make my readers laugh?

4) Am I NOT going to get ridiculed and made fun of in public for writing it?

5) Will it be appreciated by anyone?

If the answer to ALL of the above questions come out to be a NO, thats an indication that I have come up with a perfect post to be made on my blog. :D

Now that I have made my blog post, let me get back to...

Post Blog post(ing)...

Maslow's (Reverse?) Hierarchy of Needs

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Note 1: @Maslow, I am extremely sorry to turn your theory topsy-turvy. Couldn't help it, that is how things are. :P

Note 2: @Everybody, for those in the dark about @Maslow, here is the Wikipedia Article
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There is a very interesting concept taught in "B Schools", by one Mr. Maslow, from his 1943 paper on "The Theory of Human Motivation". (There is a theory about it? :O That explains a lot of things :P ) This states that there is a "hierarchy" of "needs" that people have, and one moves up (or, is motivated to move up) in the hierarchy once the lower order needs are met.

This can be depicted in a pyramidal figure as shown below for a better understanding of the concept.
The figure is not really difficult to understand. First you fulfill the basic needs (as given in the bottom layer), and then gradually progress upwards. Let me not explain it, I ll come straight to the point.

Now for the twist! At college (true for Kgp, I am pretty sure it will be true for other IIT campuses, and for the rest, let me not comment on it. Let the comments to this post flow :D ), we fulfill this hierarchy in the reverse order :O . So the revised figure for us would pretty much look like as shown below:

A little explanation would not hurt.

1. We come, we join. Suddenly it hits us, and we start accepting the facts, and get rid of our prejudices. We join dramatics, music, blah blah.....societies and let our creative juices flow, and discover how talented "hidden artists" we all were :D

2. We gain confidence, we achieve, we see "GODs", we respect them.

3-7. We love all of it, and begin to develop a sense of belonging to this place. (Yes, you can only love what you do, because real love eludes you for quite a long time :D )

8. Security. (Job? CAT? GRE? GMAT? ... ) :D

8+. And finally...the basest need according to Maslow, we finally get what Maslow thought we should have gotten first. Food, sleep, sex (:D), and (hopefully...) better toilets. \m/ \m/

The Maslow's (Reverse?) Hierarchy of needs...

The Great Indian Lust

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Caution

Note 1: Blog Post rating - PG-16 - Parents Strongly Cautioned - Some material may be inappropriate for children under 16.

Note 2: Please "fuck" the "fish", and "hex" the "sex" to make a little more sense of this post.
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Welcome to the land that gave the world kamasutra! One of the most hexually deprived, and one of the most hexually conservative societies of the modern times - a land known as India.

Pre-marital hex is a taboo, and virginity is a virtue. Who cares? Welcome to the modern society, where people fish all the time. Not really a big deal. Some out of curiosity, some because they fall in "love", some because its cool, and some for no apparent reason at all. I am not taking sides here, as to what is right or what is wrong. This is just the state of affairs. Fishing is really "in" these days. :D People always interested in knowing who fished whom after the party yesterday night. Awesome! India comes of age?

There is a flip-side to all this. Fishing is not THAT "in" as it seems to be from the outside. Dig a little deeper, and a different story emerges. Unlike in the US (from where India seems to be learning "culture"), where people fish even when they are not in "love". Fishing, in this case, is just a part of the relationship, which might develop into "love". Often, people fish all the time, and if one of them confesses "love"..."Whoa! This is going a bit too fast!" Compare this picture to India, where a guy would say "I love you" to his beloved a thousand times a day, in the hope he gets an opportunity to fish. :O

Some poor people here never even get an opportunity to create an opportunity for themselves. :D For them, marriage becomes a mockery. Marry someone handpicked to suit you, and get a license for unlimited free hex. Of course, that is not the case with everyone. :P

A major reason for people wanting to go abroad, at least once, is the "open" society there. With lusty eyes they go, with satisfied faces they come back. Amsterdam seems to be the mecca of all places. Got some bucks? Spend it well on a nice, big, juicy and satisfying fish.

Go to the movies. Indian movies have seemingly matured from dancing around trees, and sitting behind bushes, to on-screen smooches, and "steamy" scenes. Matured, but not enough, so much that an Indian movie depicting "live-in" relationships has to be set in Australia (Salaam Namaste), and a movie depicting "gays" have to be set in the US of A (Dostana), just so that audiences can easily digest it. So much for progress. It is a pity that "hypocrisy" is not one of the deadly sins, else I would have easily dedicated a post to it called "The Great Indian Hypocrisy".

And finally, not to forget our lustful media, always waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon scandals. Some unknown actress gave 11 kissing scenes, or gave 4 "bold" scenes, or wore a bikini, nip-slip, or got an mms of her fishing? Make her a superstar. So much for being a "conservative" society.

The Great Indian Lust...

The Great Indian Wrath

"Kuch kar guzarne ko, khoon chala, khoon chala." Lyrics from Rang de Basanti, a movie which used the silver screen as a canvas to paint The Great Indian Wrath. Somehow, no other Indian movie has had so much impact on the Indian youth in the recent years as Rang de Basanti. We all could identify ourselves with DJ, Karan, Sukhi, Aslam and Laxman.

Angry young men we are, young men, angry at something or the other. Angry at not being able to get into a "good course" at a "good college" (reservations?), angry for not being able to get a job we wanted or liked, angry because we had to go away (abroad?) to do justice to ourselves, angry with the netas, angry with the corruption, angry because of unequality in a free land, angry because of communalism in a secular country, angry because noone seems to cares, angry because we care, angry because we feel helpless, angry because of the "system". As Karan says towards the end of Rang de Banasnti, after shooting the minister, "Abhi bhi bahut gussa hai."

So much that we wait for something so happen, to show our wrath. To make a example out of an incident. Symbolic protests to show our wrath. On how many different occasions have there been a candle light march to the India Gate, to protest in a peaceful manner, and to show that we are all united? It is ironic that the people constituting the "peaceful" march are not at peace.

The Great Indian Wrath is waiting to be unleashed. It is only a matter of time now. Sooner or later, it has to explode. And once it does, it ll burn whatever crosses its path, and then the phoenix will rise from its ashes.

The Great Indian Wrath...

The Great Indian Gluttony

Mayawati builds 130 elephants at a cost of Rs. 52 crores in Lucknow. There is a proverb in The Bible about Gluttony. Proverb 23:2 says, "And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." I am pretty sure that Sushri Mayawati has heard of this proverb, but I am even more confident that she took it literally. She thought, "Why do I care? I am a 'wo'man!" :D

India is a funny country. People have an infinite capacity to eat. Eat money. Khaao jitnaa khaa sakte ho! The appetite seems only to be increasing each time the sun rises.

What I wonder is what is the cause of such a huge appetite? Easy availability of Hajmola? :O The Hajmola, I think, is the huge mechanism in place to ensure easy digestion of whatever is "eaten". The mechanism is actually very simple. It consists of just ensuring that the channel through which the "food" comes is "well-fed". Naturally, someone has to go hungry, given that there is just limited food. Who goes hungry? The Aam Aadmi, which again is ironic, considering "Aam" is "Mango" in the lingua pura. :P

By now, either you are cursing me, for drawing such ridiculous parallels, or you are cursing me for such (pathetic?) jokes. (Yes I know, either way, you are cursing me.) Still, think about it, what is it that causes it, and what can be done to change it. I can understand if an illiterate man with a criminal background rises to be a minister and "eats". I can understand if a poorly paid clerk makes a few extra bucks to improve his lifestyle. But I fail to understand when educated people, who dont have anything less than a good lifestyle, want to have a share of the pie (american?). That pains me. Yes, well-educated, well-earning people. I agree, not all, but many. Bureaucracy, Judiciary, Civil Services, education, health care, and even media, all seem to be hungry even when their stomach is full.

The Great Indian Gluttony...

The Great Indian Greed

Can anyone please tell me the latest count of the number of IITs in India, because, seriously, I have stopped keeping count. 15 is it? I understand that the increase in the number of IITs, or for that matter, even the number of AIIMS, IIMs, and any other "brand" that India was able to create in its (glorious?) 62 years of Independence is because of "Greed". What I cannot understand is that whose greed is it? Greed of a nation? To capitalize on the very few "brands" that it was able to create for itself, and brand a more number of its citizens with that name? Or the greed of a select few at the top, to show us an oasis in this desert, and create (vote?) banks for themselves?

"Every Indian will be an IITian one day". :D True. At the current rate, seems very plausible. But only after the very word IITian has been ridiculed and mocked to such an extent that it would have no value at all.

What is the point of saying all this, when all this has already been said a thousand times? No point really. Vella baitha tha room pe, and had nothing much to do. I thought, lets make a (society-changing?) post. :P

But on the eve of the 62nd Independence Day of the Republic of India, lets sit back and think of what we have achieved, and how the common man of India is feeling deprived of being able to make and see the changes he wants in the society, in a country that is the world's largest democracy. I am not saying India does not need more quality institutions. But the new ones should not come at the cost of the existing ones.

The Great Indian Greed...

The Great Indian Envy

Ask a young 14 year old, "What do you want to do?". "Engineering!", comes the prompt reply in 90 out of 100 cases. This is at an age when the kid is oblivious to the very question, "What is life?". "What is engineering?", you ask next, and you see an empty blank face.

Its not restricted to engineering. The trend seems to be changing, though the basic idea is the same. And the basic idea behind this, is trend (:P). You ask a 10th class student in Delhi, and invariably the answer would be "Economics (honors) from Delhi University". What is the problem in this, you ask? What is wrong in being focussed and determined, you say?

Nothing wrong, but then you should be clear about what your goal is in life. And at such a young age, how can you be so sure about what you want to study, when you are not sure what your goal in life is?

Does it sound plausible that every year 3 lakh Indian students want to study from IITs? Does it sound plausible that every year the 4000 students that get through JEE want to study computer science as their first option? Does it make sense that 4000 people sacrifice their passion (suppossedly computer science for the majority), and pursue any damn engineering degree they can for the tag? Is it believable that 4 lakh students every year want to study from an IIM. Ha! Whats wrong with everyone? :O

No wonder you find a majority of IITians taking up non-engineering jobs, some even unconventional ones like being a film director, or even a writer. Because these four years give you ample time for "self discovery", away from the maddening crowd.

To quote from Sunscreen, by Baz Luhrmann, "The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t."

I would say that children get forced into believing what they want from life, only to later realise what they set out to do was never what they really wanted. And what drives this forcing? Envy?

"If his son can do it, so can mine." Nurture the kid into believing that he was meant for engineering, or medical sciences, or whatever. Whatever sounds cool. Whatever would give us a respectable place in the society. Whatever would earn big bucks.

I am not talking about those fraction of the people who enjoy the liberty of pursuing what they really believed in. But those majority, who are under the illusion of what they want in life.

Envy of a sibling, envy of a friend, envy of the topper of the class, envy of those who have more money, envy of those who are happier, fulfilling the envy of your parents, or even being the envy of others, envy comes in attractive gift-wrapped packages of several sizes.

Why cant we go backpacking around the world, into a journey of self-discovery? :)

The Great Indian Envy...

The Great Indian Sloth

Confined to the shackles of a prison known as IIT, I have been quite distant from the idiot box for quite sometime now. Each summer meant me catching up on whatever the trend was on the television (which also meant watching Kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi with my mom :P ). But this summer, something amazing happened. Something, which I was waiting for it to happen.

I happened to watch three shows (which incidentally garnered the highest TRPs). "Iss Jungle se mujhe bachao", "Sach ka saamna", and "Raakhi ka swayamvar". Now, what is amazing about these shows is, that these shows are a testimony to the fact that India is coming of age. If India can show a high GDP, produce billionaires, entrepreneurs, Oscar-winning artists, then India can also create such people, who can confess their darkest secrets in front of the entire country, people who make their own marriage a mockery, people fighting for "survival", and people who can watch all the load of crap that is given to them in the form of prime-time entertainment. I could never imagine a guy could admit to having 3 wives, a current girlfriend, an illegitimate child, and forcing an abortion on national television in India. Now that I see the signs of change, I am waiting (excited??) for the possibilities in the future. To what extent can we go, and be called freaks.

If India intends to be a superpower (by 2020?? :D ), this has to come tagged along with it. Its obvious. We say the average IQ of America is less, just wait a couple of years till you see the picture very soon at a place (store? theater? :P ) near you. I bet some of you have already started to notice the steady decline.

It pains me to see obese couples with their kids at KFCs, McDonalds', or Dominoes'. Where are we heading to? Is this the "modern" lifestyle? Eat crap, Watch crap, Talk Crap, and do nothing...

This article would not be complete without my mentioning the IIT Kgp junta. Yahaan bhi haalat bahut alag nahi hai :P . People sometimes don't realize that there is a big wide world out of their 14" monitors. So many things that cannot be understood by just staring at a screen. People can also talk in places other than the DC main chat,and Google Talk. All this when there are excellent opportunities on campus to pursue whatever we like, be it sports, soc cult, or tech. So much from the cream of the crop, so others cannot really be blamed.

The Great Indian Sloth...

The Great Indian Pride

July, the month when some of our batch-mates return from their internships in some foreign land. They return with their heads held high, with a great sense of pride by having a "foreign return" stamp on their foreheads, which is really a great value addition for them, and more importantly, for their families. Ladkaa pardes ho ke aa gaya!

But they do not return alone. They have a bagful of goodies for their friends and family. I got a fair share of the goodies from several such bags, which led me to think, what is it that Indians value the most, in terms of material posessions.

I could think of only two terms to describe such things - "imported", and "export quality". Wierd isn't it? :D . There is little value for things available normally in India.

Some more thinking while sucking on a Malboro menthol from the US of A (which is awesome :P ) - imported cigarettes, awesome! Export quality cigarettes gifted by someone at ITC, awesome. While all you get to suck on in your daily lives is the 3rd rate Goldflake. Imported scotch and wine, awesome. Imported car, awesome. Export quality fruits, awesome!

This does not end here, it gets better. ;)

Imported women, awesome! Thats what got Barbara Mori in Kites all the eyeballs. Or thats what made Katrina Kaif the queen of bollywood, and the ruler of the hearts of Indian men. Export quality women? Do I need to explain all about Aishwarya Rai and Mallika Sherawat? ;)

The great Indian pride comes when they offer you something, the look on their faces when they say, "Try it, its imported."

Whats the point of this post, you ask? The point is, in our enchantment of foreign stuff, we fail to appreciate that which is not exported but is of global standards, available for us, right here in India. All you need is the right amount of bucks in your pockets. ;)

Where did this tendency originate, you ask? I ll have to say the glorious 90 years that the British ruled us. Those 90 years made us fans of that that is not Indian. Which explains why speaking English well is supposed to mean you are well educated. Which explains the value we give to imported stuff. Bechaare Gandhi, wore khaadi till the end of his life, while here we are, dying to have an Armani or a Versace on. :D :D

The Great Indian Pride...

Fachcha doubts, or is it?

Come July each year, the "cream" of the society has doubts. Doubts regarding their underwears, buckets and mugs in toilets, air conditioners, internet connectivity and a plethora of other (useful?) things. These doubts originate in the most brilliant minds, which obviously speaks volumes about the brilliance of the doubts itself.

In case you are still wondering, I am talking about the students entering into the hallowed portals of Indian Institute of Technology, or lovingly called the IIT. Each year, the new entrants into this institute ask their seniors about various doubts that they have, like will the mosquito bite them, or will they be served food in the mess, or will they have to study. Frusst with the recurring doubts each year, I decided to clear a few doubts for the fresher students. Below is the query, and the reply, as posted on the IIT Kharagpur community on orkut.com

Vishal:

i m new to kgp

in aerospace dept. btech course
can u tell me what books will be required
how are the hostels allotted
and will we have to stay there from the registration day?

Pulkit

Hey vishal,

Now that you are into IIT, the premier technological institute of the country, there are very high standards of education, especially at Kharagpur, now that it is ranked No.1 in most college surveys.

You have to study a lot of books, studies is going to be everything now. And now that you have joined the Aerospace department, you will be expected to know a lot about aerodymanics and flight simulation before you come here.

Have you read "harry potter" series? It gives a lot of insight into flying, especially brooms, and the subtle art of Quidditch. Also, Microsoft has released a software called "Microsoft Flight Simulator", which will help you very much.

There is also an excellent book by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, "Wings of Fire", which gives you insight into a more subtle form of flying.

For allotting the hostels, there is a gadget called the Sorting Hat, developed by the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering. Just hope you are not sorted into SN or RLB, you will not like to go in them.

Yes, you have to stay here from the registration day, there is no going back even if you want to. Its like a sentence you have to serve for four years.

Post any more queries you might have, we will be glad to help.