Books-from-blogs

The first books-from-blogs prize has been announced! And guess what - it is called the Blooker Prize - now we should have seen that coming ;)

Anyways, here's the article.

This should be incentive enough to all my friends out there in Blogosphere!

Now, note that this stuff are actually books published from blogs and not the blogs themselves. So how much longer will it take to institute awards for blogs? Or is that difficult because of the anonymity of the web?

Douglas Adams

I love Douglas Adams! erm, his writings, that is. If ever in the dumps, I read his books or quotations, and life seems infinitely better!

This one is one of my favorites:
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Especially applicable to grad students, don't you think?

PS: His full name was Douglas Noel Adams, and was nicknamed Bop Ad (after his illegible signature), or by his initials "DNA". Now, was that a coincidence??

Zeno's paradoxes

Aristotle may have set the ball of rational thinking rolling, but ended up leaving a bundle of contradictions in his wake. Some are listed here.

Anyway, he led others to build up science as we know today. And as Newton said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (even if the shouders were crooked? :D)

Hooray for technocrats!

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here...Blame it on the busy grad student life - the endless reports, presentations, blah blah...

Anyway, as I was blog-hopping today (do not ask me if this was one of the activities that is an integral part of the busy grad student life - it is) I found this post on Abhishek's blog:

Making the trains run on time

Also read Wiki's post about Sreedharan.

Being a civil engineer myself, especially one specialising in transportation, I know how hard it is to actually implement a plan to make a difference, what with all the beaurocracy and politics and everything.

So I definitely applaud (albeit 5 years late :)) the Padmashree being awarded to a technocrat. Yo!

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna

--Ram Prasad Bismil

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qatil mein hai

Karta nahi kyon dusara kuch bat-chit
dekhata hun mai jise vo chup teri mehfil mein hai

Ai shahid-e-mulk-o-millat mein tere upar nisar
ab teri himmat ka charcha gair ki mehfil mein hai

Vaqt ane pe bata denge tujhe ai aasman
hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai

Khinch kar lai hain sab ko qatl hone ki ummeed
ashiqon ka aaj jamghat kucha-e-qatil mein hai

Rang de Basanti

What a movie! After watching the movie, all of us who watched it got into a passionate discussion about how to change things. It has been quite a while since any movie has made people think as much, and about important things.

This movie comes at a particularly appropriate time, I think. Just a few weeks ago I read in the newspapers that there has been a new political party, Parithraana, set up in India that has similarities with the vibes in this movie. A few more such calls will wake up the people from their state of apathy - or will they?

Anyways, after watching the movie, this poem of Tagore's came to mind:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Amen!

Ridiculous!

Today I had an idea. What makes me laugh? Something out of the world, something totally ridiculous. Everyday I will write of something I think of one thing that is ridiculous, and post it :) so everyone can have a good laugh...and who knows, if any of this stuff comes true, maybe I can patent it ;) and live happily for the rest of my life....

Now, that, is ridiculous!

Woman

Another poem of Tagore's that I really like!

Woman

Chitra

This play has always been one of my all-time favourites. I wonder why Tagore's popularity has died down in spite of his very comtemporary verse and prose?

Chitra, daughter of the King of Manipur, the only girl in an unbroken line of male heirs...Lord Shiva had blessed the family that they would always have a single child, male, to perpetuate their clan, but then, a daughter was born...and the king took Lord Shiva at his word and raised her as a son!

Read on...

Why I started my blog

IT all started during Boston's first snowstorm in 2006...