The 100th One!!

Hi,
Remember me??? I met you 6 months ago on my first birthday... Ya I am this blog...
Today, I have come to celebrate another milestone - I have gained huge amount of weight specially in the last 6 months.
It was 50 on my birthday in September. Now its 100.. Not completely hundred though.. it was 99 some seconds back.. but as I eat up these words, it is slowly being turned to 100..
So what is the special treat I am giving you this time around??
Considering my owner Sid, may have to deal with lots of numbers and graphs in near future, so he has asked me to have a stats treat this time. This is some info about myself which I have collected going through my personal diary of last 1.5 years. Also I took some help from my friend Google Analytics (I befriended him around 6 months back.) I would like to say a special thanks to my friend Microsoft Excel (This MS Excel and Google Analytics are not on good terms with each other but I managed help from both of them as it was a special day for me). So not wasting more time.. here are some statosas (I can't eat samosas you know!!)

Month Wise Distribution of Blogs



Top 5 Categories of Posts


(Poetry=10, College=8, Travel=8, Cricket=7, Tags=6)


Top 5 Cities from which Hits have been received


(Bangalore=574, Bombay=221, Durham=166, Madras=103, Chicago=56)

• Highest Number of Posts in a month (since Sept'05): 14 (in Aug'06)
  Lowest Number of Posts in a month since Sept'05): 1 (in Sept'05 and March'06)
  Average Posts per Month: 5.56
  
  Number of Posts in 12th month = 14 and Number of Posts in March'07 = 10.
  Hence, whenever a milestone (Birthday + 50 posts and 100 Posts respectively) is nearing the Number of Posts in that month see a considerable surge.
  



• Total Number of Comments Till Date on 99 Blogs: 694.
  Highest for any Single Post: 28
  Lowest for any Single Post: 0
  Assuming that this post manages 6 more comments that would make the average 7 CPP (Comments Per Post)



• Number of Page Views (since Sept, 2006): 3562
  Number of Visits (since Sept, 2006): 2341
  Average Page Views/ Visit: 1.52 P/V
  
  Highest Number of Page Views in a Single Day: 89
  



• Wanted to see the average number of Words Per Post but its 3 AM now plus there are 100 posts... Not feasible...

There are many more like Visitor Loyalty, Depth of Visit, Duration of Visit etc etc available on analytics but I would stop here..

I would like to Thank all my Readers for coming here, reading me, appreciating me, giving me gifts(comments) both offline and online and encouraging my owner to write more.. Hope to continue having your company as I grow older and heavier ;)

Thanks,
Regards,
The Blog

123.5

Changed the heading to 123.5 from 123/5 as the latter evokes bad memories!!
So..Getting Tagged after a looong time.
And it is not the usual Fleiger this time. It is another birdie.. Cuckoo who has tied a rather simple tag this time.
First the rules of this game.

1. Name the person (of course with the link) who tagged you.

2. Describe what you are asked to do, in this case publish 5th paragraph of page 123 of the book you are currently reading.

3. Tag five people

Now this tag has some FAQs as well. Let me put them down also.
1. What if the page does not have 5th paragraph
Ans. In that case take the last paragraph
2. What if the book is very small & doesn’t have page no. 123
Ans. Take the last page.

Well I have not been able to finish reading Argumentative Indian for a long time now. The extract from the 123rd page, 5th para is :

At the broader level of Asia rather than India, the separateness of ‘Asian values’ and their distinction from Western norms has often been asserted, particularly in east Asia – from Singapore and Malaysia to China and Japan. The invoking of Asian values has sometimes occurred in rather dubious political circumstances. For example, it has been used to justify authoritarianism (and harsh penalties for alleged transgressions) in some east Asian Countries. In the Vienna conference on human rights in 1993, the Foreign Minister of Singapore, citing differences between Asian and European traditions, argued that ‘universal recognition of the ideal of human rights can be harmful if universalism is used to deny or mask the reality of diversity’. The championing of ‘Asian values’ has typically come from government spokesman rather than from individuals at a distance from established regimes. Still, the general issue is important enough to deserve our attention and scrutiny.

(Didn’t have a good camera like cuckoo.. so wrote it!!!)

The victims are the usual ones – with one difference though.
Mr. Fleiger becomes the hunted rather than the hunter this time. In addition it is my usual list:
Amryas
KT
rOmpy
Bharath

LTA Part VI - Laugh Riot

More and More suggestions are coming from friends to write about ‘that’ incident and ‘that one’ also.. some more of starting a quiz specific to Mechies-04 quizzing about certain incidents. In this 6th part I wanted to write something positive – where we actually studied something in the class, about some good prof’s who made us learn something. But I guess this has to come later as there are some more important issues to be documented first.

This was our group – the group name is hard to disclose here. Let's call it the 'B' group. It included Chunnu, Kunnu, Singal, Thakur and me. In this particular incident Keeda (meaning Bug) was also there – infact not there!!
We had a Subject DI (Seminar and Deptt Instructions) in which we were required to give seminars on some topic – as a group. The B group was scheduled to give it on the 2nd or 3rd lecture only (at the start of a Sem!!!). On the D-Day we hadn’t prepared a thing. I mean not a single line was written which could be spoken. Moreover, Keeda who was also in our seminar group was absent that day.
We bunked the previous lecture and went to the library to discuss the matter. And that half an hour – 45 minutes is hard to forget for any of us. Sitting on the floor in between the racks of books we started discussing it but the discussion which should have been serious slowly turned into laughter. We laughed at our own insolence, at what we were doing or in this case ‘Not Doing’. We laughed without a care in the world, without thinking what would happen a few minutes later. We thought about the ‘bahanas’ we would make and then laughed at how naïve those excuses were. We thought how the teacher could fail us and then laughed about we will be the first in history of mechanical to be failed in DI.
We laughed so hard that our stomach hurt and tears literally rolled down our eyes. We were doubled up and rolling on that cold library floor uncontrollably.
Well, it had to end sometime and it did around 10 minutes from the lecture time. Singal and I were wearing the same dress – black shirt and off white trousers. So it was decided that we would go to the prof and put all blame on Keeda. That he had all the stuff we had prepared – our speeches, the presentation charts etc. Same formal dress would prove that we had come prepared for the seminar but due to Keeda being absent nothing could be done. So both of us went. Singal told, in near tears, that Keeda had got some Liver problem and that he was admitted in Hospital and couldn’t come (Keeda indeed had some ‘minor’ liver problem). The prof also got senti (his son also had some liver problem). He gave us advice about how to drink lots of water and to tell Keeda to meet him when he comes back. He excused us and told to give seminar later. In the class, he publicly told that “members of the group, who was to give the seminar today, were in near tears as one of their friends is ill and hence they will not be able to give the seminar”.
Well, how Singal brought tears in his eyes I don’t know but the ones I had, if they were there, were because of the 45 minutes laugh riot earlier. I don’t think I have laughed more ever again.

LTA Part V - Proxies

Well.. it is difficult to stop me when you start talking of college.
So after getting ‘hints’ of turning this LTA thing into a series and getting positive feedback from everyone.. I can’t help myself from writing more.
The fifth in the series concentrates on the Proxies.

A proxy-friendly class, many students missing and Mr Atul Singal in his true elements. I guess he said yes sir, present sir to roll no. 00601 , 00610 (his own), then 2-3 more roll numbers in 30’s and then Chawla’s(00641) which was just before me. Some were bold and loud..some with covered mouth.. some bending down from almost under the table… and I guess only 1 (his own) with raised hand..(The teacher was not seeing above so it didn’t matter much).
And yes, he was sitting besides me. So when he said “Yes Sir” 4th or 5th time that day.. I couldn’t control it… I laughed out – quite loudly.. the prof called out my roll number.. looked up.. I was still laughing (by now under the table).. and then the prof carried on. Not much of a problem though. At the end I went to him, told him that by mistake I had missed my attendance. Some normal words – “Sote rehte ho kya class mein” etc etc.. and end of a successful class.

Def: Successful Class – The one for which you get attendance.

A new teacher - M.E student who had committed the grave sin of coming to teach 1st Year Mechanical. No white hair/ bald head meant that the Prof was in for a hard time.
So it was Triple E class (Elements of Electrical Engineering). Somehow the prof was able to pass half an hour with everyone on seat. Then started the shouts of “Bas Sir”.. “Sir.. next time”.. “Attendance Sir” ..
Gradually some people got up and started roaming around… the prof was helpless.. he came forward near the benches, kept giving a strange smile and continued teaching to a few who were sitting. Some of us (not me though ;)) went behind to the teachers table, opened the attendance register, picked the pen, marked their attendance and got out of the class. After one did it, many followed. I don’t know how, the prof didn’t come to know that people were marking attendance. He later found out when more than half of the class had marked ‘P’. The rest forced him to fill P for the few blank boxes that remained. The poor prof, never ever came back to teach any class!!

Then there was one Prof. His unmatchable husky voice was legendary.. In the class he was full of energy. With his real life examples he tried hard to teach the finer things of Chemistry. He used to come up to the last bench, sit besides students, telling them how to solve the numericals… That is why whenever you attended his class – there was a rush to sit on the 1st bench – the safest place. But such fights for 1st seat were far and few. Reason – his distinct style of taking attendance. He used to pass on a sheet and tell everyone to write his name and roll no. on it. Once it was tried to write a few absent friends roll no.s also. The ploy succeeded. Slowly it became the norm that 10 – 15 people used to attend the class and there were 60 names on the list.

All said and done, the Professors who had style of taking attendance where proxy was possible must be aware that they are ‘allowing’ it. Doing it they, in a way helped us – not only in completing our attendances but also letting us have so much thrill and fun.. It was thrill – wasn’t it..
Thank you Profs…

LTA Part IV - Turn Outs 2

Presenting the 4th in the Lecture Time Activity (LTA)series
Some more turn outs ..

• The Prof was the same as in LTA part 3. Kunnu and I were short of attendance in this particular subject. We were nearing semester exams and only a few lectures remained. So we were desperate to attend the lecture that day. The lecture before it got mass bunked. So we went to the library to get some books to prepare for the sems. Eventually we spent the time chatting, laughing, cracking jokes – as was the usual case on the Library top floor Reading Area. After a lot of time we suddenly realized that we had the all important lecture to attend and we were late.. well quite late – about 30 minutes!!!!!!!!
  Nevertheless we rushed to L 13, asked permission to get in with around 35 minutes of the class over. The Prof, already with his mind not in good condition after the bike incident some days ago, was shocked again at our audaciousness. He refused.
  
  Kunnu pleaded “Sir.. Attendance short hai.. please let us come”
  
  At this, the volcano erupted. “I will not allow. What will you do?? You will file a case against me in High Court?? Go Do it.. I am not scared. I will not let you come in. I will not complete your attendance”
  
  Before he could ask our names, we ran off from there. I feel for the Prof. because as he was talking about High Court Cases (where did that come from we still don’t know), we were smiling standing on the door. And later while he must have been fuming and taking out his ‘gussa’ at the class, Kunnu and I were having a good laugh in the parking!!!



• Many people must have read this, joked about this but only a few must have experienced this. I was the lucky one to not only have experienced it but being the target.
  I am talking about the famous “Both of You Three. Get Out of the class!”
  
  It was the lecture of ‘Funny English’ ma’am. I sometimes used to note some of her ‘sayings’ to tell it to other friends later. Kunnu, Thakur and I were sitting in the 3rd row and the funny English plus our internal jokes were keeping us happy and smiling. Of course the teacher didn’t like it. And suddenly we were commanded “Both of you three. Stand up”. We (atleast I) was confused while the class was trying to fathom what had been said. Slowly Kunnu and I stood up. The teacher looked at Thakur. “You tooo”. And Kunnu and I smiled – a bit.
  
  After Thakur standing, under the air force of fan, with all class laughter, we were introduced to some more funny English – scolding this time. Now when the whole class around you is laughing, it is hard to control – even though you are standing in the full attention of the teacher. The end result is not hard to guess… Both of us three did get out..

Retiring at 25...

From the last 4 years it was Vision 2007..
There were 6 players with more than 10,000 runs in WC. 3 of them formed the backbone of Indian batting.
World’s 2 top spinners were part of the bowling line up.
There were no injuries/ doping/match fixing/killing of coaches/scandals.
There were hopes, dreams, wishes and support of a billion people.

Yet the Indian team returns after just 10 days of a near 50 day event.

23rd March, already a sad day in the history of India – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were martyred And India Lost World Cup 2003 finals on this day – became sadder.
The highest scorer in world cup out on a duck in his last world cup match.
The explosive wicket keeper who has the country running after him – first ball duck.
The wily spinner who couldn’t get a wicket.

It was a sad, depressing ending to the campaign.
But I am sure soon, everything will be forgotten.. India will come back, take revenge from Bangladesh and everyone will be a hero again…
It will be for many many people… but not for me.. Cricket, for me got out when that ball went through Sachin’s defenses. It can never be the same again.
I don’t know when Sachin will retire from playing the game but I have retired from watching it. There would be no more cricbuzz in Office.. no more sitting for 8 hours to watch each and every ball.. no more fighting to get tickets to the stadium.
Something died inside me yesterday. It was craze, passion... something…

P.S: Some of the optimists might say that India can get into Super 8 if Bermuda beats Bangladesh. But think of it. Would it be worth watching even if this happens??

LTA Part III - Turn Outs

On popular demand, trying to continue the LTA series.
In this third part in the series, I try to recall the ‘turn outs’.
The following incident has been written with golden words in the History of Mechanical.
It is such a important one that in part 3 I will cover this only.. rest of the turn outs in part 4.

It was a historic event – which has never happened anywhere. It will not and cannot happen again. This was more adventurous than bungee jumping, more daring than the getting in a lion’s cage. The stars were Trainnn and Jolly’s old rugged bike. Cutting to the scene. It was a humanities class (in 2nd year as far as my memory goes)– the teacher was quite senior and serious one. He was in the class a few minutes early. And of course Trainn didn’t know that. There was some disturbance and noise outside and before anyone knew Mr Vinod Trehan entered the class sitting on Jolly’s bike followed by a bunch of guys holding their tummies and cheering him on. Yes…. Bike in the Lecture room… Try to match that!! It was shock and awe for the Prof. Never in his nearing retirement life would he have witnessed such a spectacle. Train and the outside bunch didn’t realize that Prof was there in the class and the pandemonium carried on for a few seconds. Then sudden silence with muffled laughter in the class. Now comes the ‘bahana’- “Sir. Bike ki Brake fail ho gayi thi”. Considering that I am laughing out while writing this, imagine our condition at that time. Lesson to be learnt - Getting late for the lecture.. and brake fails – head straight for the class with the bike.. hahahahahahaa… Strangely enough the prof allowed Train to sit in class.
Later during the lecture the Prof was just roaming around the class while lecturing. Kunnu and I were busy drawing some graffiti on the register as well as table while Trainn sitting just behind us was busy making notes. Not that he usually made notes but he was under some pressure and limelight after the incident earlier.
The Prof came roaming. Kunnu and I continued drawing thinking he will not come that far (second last bench). We realized a bit late of his continued journey and in the nick of time we turned to the previous page where there was some non sense written. The prof glanced at us and then to Trainnn behind us. Then he asked him to show what he was writing. Train, who was duly writing his notes showed him. The Prof turned to the previous page. Notes there too.. then one more page turned – Now C’mon, how can you find notes on every page???
So the prof turned Trainnn out of the class….
Soon the lecture was over and The Legend was Born
Oh !! And regd Kunnu and me… nothing happened to us.. We managed to say “present sir” a few minutes later!!
And yes, no one tried to maaro proxy for Trainn.. because his name was burned in the prof’s mind… May be for the rest of his life!!!!

LTA Part II - Mobiles

Continuing with some more Lecture Time Activities, here are a few mobile related incidents...

• Teacher ji with all seriousness taking the lecture. I guess he was angry as we had mass bunked last few lectures. So there had been a mild dressing down (not many can afford to give mechies more than a 'mild' dressing down).
  Amongst this slightly tense atmosphere some good fella's mobile rang.. The ringtones were not polyphonic/ mp3 ones in those days... They were shrill and piercing, especially if there is an unordinary silence. So the already incensed lecturer got hotter. The particular fellow was turned out and everyone’s mobile was confiscated and kept on the big table in front of the teacher.
  Now the prof was not going to count the phones on the table, so some of them were still in some pockets. And how in the world is it possible that some idiot has forgotten to turn the phone off before keeping it on the table. I remember it was bhardoo, sitting on the last bench who tried every number in the class. And bingo… soon there was a grrrrrr… on the table followed by a nice hindi song. Few tense seconds, an indication of a slight smile on prof’s face and a big hahahaah from the class..May be it was the fav song of the prof.. or may be he too was reminded of his good ol' college days :)



• This happened a few days back in my cousin’s class. The times have changed and camera phones have come. In our time we used to draw pictures of prof’s. Now they just click it. A student was caught clicking photos of some classmates who had dozed off during the lecture. His phone was confiscated and the teacher asked him to take it from MLG.. now, non-pecobians wont know who MLG is..well, I would just say he is a typical nightmare for students - specially first yearites. The student pleaded “Ma’am you keep the phone, turn me out of class .. anything but don’t give it to MLG. The phone eventually landed in MLG’s hands and I don’t know what happened to the student but the reason of student pleading is interesting. Guess what was the wallpaper in the phone – a photo of MLG’s bald head – daringly taken by the student in one of the lectures... I salute the Dare Devil !!!



• It happened during early days of mobile intrusion. After one Tutorial, Mr Chunnu was busy talking to his ‘friend’ just outside the Tutorial room. The teacher(a relatively new one) came and asked everyone who were standing outside to get in the class. Chunnu ji still on his phone. Teacher who was about to take attendance asked Chunnu... no not asked..but pleaded, “Rahul. Ab to class mein aa jao!!”. Normally a person would have switched off his phone, be a bit embarrassed and return to the seat.
  But apne chunnu ji said, “bas sir 5 minute mein aata hun.. aaap attendance to lo” (sir, I will come in 5 minutes. You start taking the attendance”.


P.S:
These short names can be sometimes very mind stressing. A few days ago, it took a combined effort of 2 Man Days from Tarun and me to recall the real name of “brownie”, who was in our class. And quite often you see asking yourself “what was chunnu’s real name.. or Jolly’s real name…or Jindal’s first name?”
Once Sinha called at my place when I was not there(non mobile days). My mom told that Nipun had called.. For the entire day I kept on thinking who the hell is Nipun..
Trainnn takes 2-3 calls to respond when someone is calling out Vinod..
And if you are thinking these are made up things.. you are wrong.. everything is true..Still don't believe me.. Try calling me 'Sidharth' next time !!!!

Some More LTA's in the part I...
Analysis of LTA - Part 1..

Amchi Mumbai

A view of the sea at BandStand, Mumbai
Get out on the road here on peak office time and places like Delhi, Bangalore seem comfortable.
Luckily we had a deadly combo of Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi. The 4 wheeler and 2 wheeler champions seemed to have merged to form our 3 wheeler auto driver. He was bent forward like a bike racer, precise like formula 1 car racer and maneuverable like a Fighter Jet.
I don’t think we could have made it to Andheri station within the 1.5 hours we did, if it hadn’t been him.
The stairs of Andheri station is a jaw dropping experience if you are seeing it for the first time. You get to see such an enormous number of people in your 1 eye span that it is difficult to fathom. It’s like a big huge wave. When you – a non mumbaiker, are at a Mumbai local station for first time, mind often wavers to the Train blasts a few months back. But thinking practically – is it really possible to have some security setup on stations to cater to such a gigantic number of people. It may be possible if you think sitting in an office or home but when you stand for 5 minutes and see the numbers, all plans seems to wane away.
After around 2 hours of bad traffic, vehicles with zero road sense, sense numbing screaming of horns and car engines, we reached Juhu Beach. And as you touch the waters of the sea in the lovely breeze, all your tensions, the difficulties fade out…Its very similar to the waves of water coming.
At some distance, a huge wave is formed. It’s seemingly violent, creating lots of noise, threatening…
Then as it comes closer, the retreating water slows it down; the noise becomes a mild Sussshhhh… And it comes and gently kisses your feet..
And if you sit there for some time, you experience continuous cycles of violent whooooshss followed by mild Sussshsss..then again wooooshh.. and then susssshhh…Amid these you are busy - happily building home like structures in the weak sands on the beach. That, I think is Life!

Win Us the Cup

Here is a video - I made it.. with help of some photos I had and some from eclectic sources on net.
The background score is courtesy Mr A. R Rehman.
Enjoy the video and Pray for our cricket team!!
With all the hope in heart - All the Best India!!