Adios ... ZEAL

Phew !! Just finished with the intra-college fest of ours, ZEAL 2005. Didn't take up much responsibilities this time, therefore I wasn't really that busy, like some of my friends. I have really begun to hate the politics at such fests - this time, too, there was a major argument among the event heads, with some of them threatening to resign. I still don't know whether matters have been settled yet.

Anyway, ZEAL has gone now, with me having burst balloons, threaded needles, scaled down a building, danced, sung ... etc. I also won the 2nd place in the mock interview. I had a lot of fun, and it's really disappointing to have to go to college now to sit in the classrooms.

BTW, my results came out a few days back. I passed with 60%.

Eminem fan club

Guess what? In an interview to the Times of India, Sania Mirza revealed that Eminem happens to be one of her favorite singers!

Guess I have elite company ...

Fighting a reputation - III (was I mistaken?)

I am allowed to make mistakes, right?

Well, there was this other friend of mine who went to the U.S. for vacation. His way of explaining his experiences revealed why my other friend felt the way she did.

This friend, Ankith, told me that people in the U.S. are inherently more friendly (read: social). It isn't uncommon for complete strangers to come up to you and say 'hi' and ask about the weather. In fact, he said that during early days of his visit, he used to be surprised at the way Americans talked to him, it was as if they knew him as a friend.

So, Indians don't behave strangely in the U.S. . It's just that Americans are more social. I remember reading in a business magazine once that with growth in urbanisation, social inhibitions decrease. That is fairly obvious. What my earlier friend probably experienced was just a culture shock.

Fighting a reputation - II

A friend of mine just returned from a holiday in America. It had always been, rather, it IS her dream to land up in America at a point later in her life. Naturally, I was really curious as to what lessons did this small trip give her.

As expected, she enjoyed the trip a lot. In short, it probably was a perfect holiday for her. There was at least one thing that disturbed her though. She happened to notice that Indians (not red ;) living in the US were not quite as receptive to Indians as one would expect. Americans, on the other hand, extended much warmer feelings.

I wasn't really surprised at this though. Post 9-11, many "outsiders" in the U.S. have been eyed with suspicion. America obviously doesn't want a repeat of 9-11, what with their political/military excesses in other parts of the world. And those "outsiders", I guess, have been try as hard, if not harder, trying to "fit in". It's like being a teenager - the more you try to be someone, the more you ignore things that hold you back from being that "someone". We try to be not seen with certain kind of people, and try to hang out with others. And Indians in the U.S. are probably going through something similar.

What further reinforces this point is Pascal's trip abroad. Pascal has been abroad quite a few times, and many of those trips have been while he was in school (pre 9-11). Although he has never been to the US, he tells me that Indians abroad were quite pleasant and friendly. In fact, he had lived with an Indian family in Europe for some time.

California callin', twenty miles to go ...
And I don't, I don't know,
Should I turn around or should I leave you alone ?
I don't, I don't know ...

Fighting a reputation

It's hard to fight your reputation.

It's good to have a reputation of a "good" student, isn't it? I know it has helped me many times. Teachers are usually very helpful to me, my term work marks reflect that too. I am certainly not among the top rankers in our class, in fact, I really lag behind. Thankfully, I am at good terms with my teachers.

But the college sports taught me that this may not always be good. I was never really "into" sports, only this month was I taking cricket seriously (with me having lost around 10 kgs in the last few months, sports suddenly is now pleasure). As I had mentioned in my earlier post, my bowling was pretty okay. I am not really that bad a fielder. And I did belt quite a few good shots with the bat during practice. But no one from the the "team" really took me seriously. There were a couple of selections that I could have debated ... but, well, I chose not to.

I am a programmer. Sports is not my cup of tea.

Shane Warne, beware!

Oh! How my legs hurt!

For the first time in my life, I am being "seriously" considered for selection in a formal cricket team. I mean, I have never even made it to our colony's cricket team. And there I was today - bowling leg spin to some batsmen from our class. Seems I was good enough to be invited for the second stage of selection of the T.E. CMPN cricket team for our college sports. It's strange though - I never liked bowling.

But all this took it's toll on my body. It's been a long time since I spent some time on the cricket ground, and my legs are really paining. Hopefully I'll be fit enough to bowl tomorrow.

Pascal's new PC : Part II

This is why I sometimes hesitate to recommend Linux to my friends.

Firstly, I know they wont really appreciate the principles on which the world of GNU/Linux is based. They don't give a damn to freedom, for them, the 'freedom' with which they can acquire Windoze is good enough.

Secondly, even though Linux is coming of age, it still leaves a lot to be desired in the area of hardware support. In Pascal's case, his sound card and DVD/CDRW combo drive are not being detected. I am sure we'll find a fix in a few days, but really, should hardware be a problem with a distro as recent as FC3? Most of the SOHO users are not adventurous enough to fix problems on their own. I am still a student, and can afford a few hours a day sometimes to fix problems with my PC. Not that I did not face problems when I used Windoze, but in those days I could call my dealer in times of desperation.

Of course, I am still a dedicated GNU/Linux fan. But I don't think I can be as enthusiastic a promoter of GNU/Linux as some are.

Pascal's new PC : Part I

Pascal got his new PC yesterday, and I happened to be just in time to watch the delivery guy put the machine up. Actually, I had rushed there as fast as I could - with my Fedora DVD. The machine came with Windoze XP pre-installed (it's a branded PC). It was so irritating to see the delivery guy make his moves. It was obvious he was weaned on Windoze. The fact that 'My Documents' opened up was good enough to convince him that the machine worked fine. I can't help admitting the fact that even if Microsoft hasn't managed to sell legal copies of it's software to most home users, it has managed to create a healthy eco-system for itself.

Anyway, the machine is pretty good. It's one of the fastest I have seen. Frankly, I have just one benchmark - run 'glxgears' on Linux. Pascal's PC managed 123 FPS. My PC can manage barely 58. I just hope he lets his sister's use the machine!

I haven't been in the best of health lately, which is why I have not been posting regularly. My advice : please dont eat out, in any case, Mumbai has seen an increase in the number of Hepatitis patients in the last month or so.

Die another year

Happy new year, everybody !!

Just saw the James Bond flick, "Die Another Day".

Now, only if I had a penny for every pun in the movie!