Star gazing and some other things

*Not my image. Found this on Google.

Back to blogging after a long time again. So I don't need to do the ritual explanation of how big a lazy bum I am again now, do I? Yeah, I don't. So another post now. WARNING: The following content could come across as cheesy and pathetic. There will also be unrestrained digression. Reader discretion is advised.

Before I start the blather, a little babble about the background: My boss told me to go to a company in Ahmednagar on Sunday, June 21, as the company had failed to send too many drawings according to schedule and had not given any replies to reminders. So furious, the boss told me to go and "fire them" and to stay there till they've released all drawings. I was livid as well. No, not least because of delayed drawings. The boss was telling me to go on a Sunday when I had so many plans, first which involved my best pals (or animals) Somu and Jimbo staying over at my new home (that's another story), then I had plans to go watch Wolverine, go out and have fun. Sunday is the only holiday I get. And snatching away that holiday is preposterous. A bloody crime! GRRR!

But I agreed to go (if I didn't, the boss would've made an ugly face and regurgitated crap about my excuse forever any time he wanted). The 5 hour journey in the MSRTC shake-machine didn't do much to lift the mood either. 21st June was a Sunday which coincidentally was also the summer solstice–the longest day of the year. Nice way it was to spend the longest day of the year discussing drawing revisions with the company engineers. But I did my job, the company people were friendly and food was satisfying (food is damn important). Didn't get to explore Ahmednagar though (this is the suckiest part of official visits, you don't get to enjoy).

So the inspiration for the drivel here begins now on my return journey. It was more comfortable than the other bus, but the presence of mosquitoes more than made up for the discomfort. There I was sitting in the bus reading The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (which till now, has been a good read; I haven't finished it yet), munching Piknik (damn good they are, I love this snack), it was around 7:30 pm and they turned off the lights. WTF! The longest day it might have been, but reading was impossible in the light of dusk. I was in an irate mood. So I was just staring out through the bus window, and there I saw it: two bright specks in the almost-dark blue horizon, blurry, but bright enough even for my myopic eyes.

So I put on my glasses and there they were, two really bright stars. And then there was another. *ting!* And another star materialized. *ting!* Some more after a while. *ting!* *ting!* *ting!* Soon enough, the sky was getting more dark and these whole clusters of stars were coming into focus on the moonless, cloudless sky. And then, the entire sky was a canopy littered with bright dots, dense clusters of stars. It was something really, a sight to behold, oddly mesmerizing.

The road was completely dark. There were no lights obstructing the view of the sky, except for the lights from the far spaced villages, the odd Dhabas or oncoming vehicles. There were no streetlights, and for the first time, I was glad that there weren't, and I hope it remains that way; people (people like me at least) should not be derived of the chance for viewing the amazing starry sky like that. Also, I was lucky, it was raining both in Ahmednagar and Mumbai and yet, the sky was cloudless.

I just sat staring at the stars, I don't know for how long. It was indeed enticing. I don't remember seeing such a view (well, maybe in the Nehru Planetarium in Worli I did, but that doesn’t count). It can't happen where I stay in Navi Mumbai because of all the lights of the city that only allow seeing the brightest of the stars. The night sky in my native place in Kerala would be suited for star gazing, but there, you're not allowed to go out at nights, and besides, most of the time I was there, it would've been raining. But there in the bus (I don't know where exactly), if I was not mistaken, I was seeing the Milky Way. I wished that the bus was made of glass so I could've had a 180° view of the sky.

I must have looked stupid staring up to the left out the window. For 2 hours or more probably, I was just gazing up at the stars like a child completely entranced by the sight of something that seemed extraordinary. It got me thinking. It's no wonder that the old time blokes came up with weird theories about the stars and how they could affect the lives of puny people on earth. I was playing joining the dots with the stars and I could see a beach recliner, a wind-mill, a horse, a television, a hot chick with one hand on her hip and one hand waving, and then some other things. The old people back then must have seen some other stuff and decided “Let's call this one a crab, this one a lion, that one a dude with water” and so on. Must have been more convenient, eh? C'mon, who's gonna take an astrologer seriously if they were to say "The person born on the cusp of the hot chick and the beach recliner will..." But I think I can spare those men. Who could blame them? The sight of the stars, like I said, can be very enchanting and can make you feel spellbound. And at those old times, they could not have known that the dots up there were giant balls releasing light and heat by the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium millions of light years away, could they?

Ah, drifted away again. I was snapped out of my musings by an explosion of light–the bus had entered Pune city and there was suddenly a haze of orange from the street lights. And then I realized my neck was hurting from staring up to my left through the window. By the time it was dark again, the sky was obscured by clouds, and the stars were no longer visible. I didn't know when I fell asleep, but I woke up when the bus had reached and stopped at Panvel and it was 1:00 am. Home was close, and I did not doze off again. Then, I looked out the window and I saw the Navi Mumbai sky with clouds streaked by an orange-yellow. It was neither looking like sunrise nor sunset. The view that I once thought was resplendent no longer seemed very captivating anymore. The clouds in the horizon polluted by city lights seemed oddly grotesque.

But I have decided that sometime later, or hopefully maybe sooner, when I'll have a really good camera, a fast mobile net connection and a car of my own, I'll go on a drive on the same roads on a summer night and gaze at the stars again, for hours maybe. Maybe I'd to take a portable folding bed along too, so I can sleep in the middle of nowhere under the dome of the starry sky. I'd love to do that.

Until the next time I blog, see you (the few ones who're reading this anyway).

PS: I've been told to go to Noida on 26th. I've heard that it is one big polluted city. So expectedly, won’t be seeing the serene sky there.

Stupid hypocrites

Hmmm… It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. I’m not passionate about blogging. I guess I mentioned that earlier when I blogged. Anyway, engineering studies are over. So is my job hunt. Got a job as trainee electrical engineer in a firm last month (I’m not sure I’m really enjoying my job though).

Anyway, I’m into twittering these days (follow sreeyesh on twitter if you want to listen to my rants and other nonsense). I really like the concept of microblogging. Unlike a blog, there’s not much fuss to jot down things in less than 140 characters. You get the message delivered, and that’s what counts. But the downside is that sometimes, the 140 character restriction can be irritating when you want to really elaborate your thoughts. This is where a blog is essential. But since I’m not much of a brainy guy, I don’t have many thoughts to elaborate; and then I’m lazy too, because of which I don’t take any efforts to “elaborate my tiny thoughts”. So that’s that.

But anyway, today, I had some thoughts, and I decided to slog on my blog. I was reading the Times of India, and there was this article about a group of people protesting the nude depiction of the Hindu god Shiva on canvas by an artist. This is one of those ‘what-the-fuck’ news. I mean really, I don’t understand why these people are really offended. Shiva was drawn nude by an artist (who, coincidentally, and maybe fortunately is a Hindu named Nitai Das), and that apparently didn’t strike a chord with the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (literal translation: Hindu Mass-awakening Association) needs to wake up and look at a bit of reality themselves. Millions of people worship the lingam, that is, the phallic symbol of Lord Shiva every day. For crying out loud, they ask for blessings from a damn penis. The article quotes sources who say that there are “several other manifestations of Shiva that are traditionally shown in the nude”. So are we to understand that according to the Janajagruti Samiti, it is perfectly fine to make phalluses out of rock and concrete and keep it inside a temple to worship, but when the same genitalia in question, belonging to the same deity, is drawn on canvas by an artist who does not happen to be from the year 2 BC, it suddenly should be considered indecent and vulgar? What kind of logic is that?

If sex or the depiction of sex organs is such a touchy subject for these people, why aren’t they doing anything about the blatant sexual depictions made in rock sculptures by the ancestors of this land at places like Khajuraho? I mean if a penis in a painting is so offensive, then the portrayal of the penis actually being put into its best use (and I don’t mean urination), along with a generous accompaniment of large breasts and buttocks on sculptures just cannot be tolerated (and these are in 3d). Why not demolish them?

I just hate hypocrisy. And moral police are of the worst kinds of hypocrites. And even worse is their extreme intolerance and touchiness. You have your morals, be fine with it. You have some beliefs, believe them. You might find it offensive or scandalous when some things are not coinciding with your beliefs or traditions. How about showing a little tolerance and doing some calm reflecting? Just don’t shove your holier-than-thou morality down others’ throats, as there are people who are actually very offended and disgusted by you people and your antics. When you’re forcing people to follow you, it just doesn’t fucking work.

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Oh, I almost forgot: Happy New Year!

I really HATE wearing formal clothes.

Your name on the moon.

Hehehe... I found this out surfing through the net...

So maybe you may not be able to take a flight to outer space in your lifetime, and setting your foot on the moon will be out of the question all together. So what? How about getting your name on the moon? NASA is giving everyone an opportunity to go to the moon, at least all your names. NASA will send your name to the moon as an 'appreciation of your support', as they're saying on the website. The payload is not going to increase with names anyway. They'll be putting the names on a chip and sending it to the moon onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's next big moon mission.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to this site and register your name. Let it go places, let it go to the moon!

Oh and by the way, you can gather "more support" for the mission by registering the names of your friends and loved ones.

If you want to know more, read on here. No, this is not a joke. Read NASA's press release.

Bachelorhood after four years

Hmmm… Its been a long time since I made a post here. It was laziness of course, there were many occasions when I felt I could’ve made a good blog post, but I procrastinated and then I never got down to do the job. Seems like blogging isn’t exactly something I’m passionate about. But I think I can make a rant and a few cribs now.

5th of June 2008, it was the day that I gave the last exam in by Bachelor of Electrical Engineering course. Was I happy? Maybe. Was I sad? Yeah. But was it because of the nostalgia and the thought of saying goodbye to the institution where I studied for four years? Definitely not. The four years were definitely not the typical college years that I had expected. It wasn’t exactly fun. And the fact that we didn’t have any good teachers in the college only added to the agony. It was exactly due to these reasons that I was not exactly happy about the end of my college life.

The memories that I could take back with me would be the few and far between events which were not really connected to the college. I’m sure most of the people who study in college would have really looked forward to a trip somewhere with the class. No such event materialized in my four years. Plans were made only to be cancelled. I’m just about glad that the four of us who were teamed together to make the final year project agreed and went to Goa for a few days. We went during the college festival, and I have no regrets of missing the event (not surprisingly, the festival turned out to be a huge damp squib). Thankfully, the Goa trip would be one thing that happened towards the end of the four years that I would not immediately forget.

What did I learn in college? Nothing much except perhaps what many engineering students would actually have already learnt: learn everything yourself. The text book is your best friend (sometimes because the text books helps the brighter ones who could later help you). Your other best friend is the Xerox machine, without which studying engineering would be impossible. Teachers are just a formality (maybe except the odd ones who actually knew what they were teaching). We didn’t have any teachers for some subjects. Others were horrible. The ones who could actually teach and who actually were passionate about teaching left when I joined the college. Seniors told me about those legendary people who commanded respect from students. Alas, I wasn’t fortunate to meet them. The only one good professor who was remained left the college when I was in the 3rd year.

The project is another thing that I have close to my heart. Four guys who were totally different from each other were teamed up. The situations leading to the formation of the group would make an interesting story, but I don’t feel it’s a topic to be blogged. Still, I really couldn't have asked for better guys on the team. At least our thought frequencies were in phase. At least something good happened, and these guys are now good friends of mine We made a project on renewable energy (using a wind generator). I’m really proud of it, because we made it on our own. While some people did their project in some company, most guys in the class didn’t make their project at all. It was outsourced to be done by someone else (like ghost writing). Just give money to the project-maker, and present your stuff in the end. I’m sure most of the engineering students reading this would know what I’m talking about. But we had absolutely no help for our project. We knew the risks involved, we knew not many would be able to help us, but we got through in the end (a special thanks to our guide who appreciated our work and supported us).

Other than that, I really don’t know how the four years went past. It seems it was just yesterday that the Principal of the college was chomping on cucumber when my friend and I went to meet him to inquire about the admission procedure. It sure was quick it seems. But there was no emotional attachment to the college. It wasn’t like leaving school where I felt I was leaving a part of my life behind.

Ah well, life goes on. Now I have to think of what to do next.

The Still Spot

Well, The Still Spot is the name of my new photoblog. Yeah yeah...I know what everyone might be thinking, that I'm nutz to open a new blog when I don't seem to give any attention to this one here. But, I've explained the reasons of my compulsion there...check it out.

Blast!

It just wasn’t one of my usual days, and I don’t mean it was a good day. Well, I might have just escaped death yesterday. Who knew what could’ve happened!?

Well, to start off, I had decided to accompany my friend Kishor to Andheri to get his new Seagate hard-disk replaced (it wasn’t getting detected on anyone’s PC whatsoever). Well, I’ve never been to Andheri by myself and neither had Kishor. We had decided to set off at 9 AM, but as I had predicted, I overslept as usual and thought I might have again made things late. (But I came to know later that Kishor Da had slept more than me.)

Anyway, we were waiting for the bus at 11 AM and from nowhere this stupid auto-rickshaw driver came from the wrong side of the road and splashed mud on our pants. After a few abuses that were only heard by the bystanders (the rickshaw-walla obviously didn’t wait to hear anything), we boarded a bus for Dadar and reached there by 12:30. After reaching the Dadar railway station, we spent a fair amount of time switching platforms and we had to ask a few people there about how to get to Andheri since we knew nothing. And we reached Andheri by 1:45.

At Andheri, we were facing a familiar problem with the address. No rickshaw wallas or taxi drivers knew anything on how to get to the Seagate place. No one knew where the TNT Cargo building was, or the Pizza Hut opposite to which it was located and we decided to wander around. We tried our luck with the locals and one good man directed us to the Pizza Hut.

We got a temporary relief from the heat when we reached our destination and gratefully let the customers ahead of us sort out the matters with their own hard-disks while we gave a much needed rest to our rumps on the sofa. When our turn came, we came to know that we’ll have to go to the place again, since the replacement will only arrive on Friday. (Aaaarrrgh!)

Kishor Da suggested that we catch a movie and I agreed. So we reached Cinemax to find out that only Krrish was showing and that we had arrived 10 minutes late. I wasn’t really wanting to go and watch Krrish (I had thought of watching Corporate), but then went on anyway. We were treated to Hrithik Roshan showing the finger to Sir Isaac Newton, the laws of mechanics as well as common sense. I was really amused at the antics and Kishor Da was wondering why I was laughing. (Ah well, its cinema and the policy was: NO QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED and as my friend Sreehari said, Krrish is a baby in front of the great Rajnikant, and Rajnikant was supposedly a mere human...hehe). I started wondering how much extra moolah Daddy Roshan got with the endorsements (let me see…Tide, Vicks, Bournvita, Samsung, Lays, Hero-Honda and maybe some more I may have missed).

Ah well, the show(off) got over near 6 pm and we decided to head back home. We reached the station and on the foot-over we saw people gathered around on one side – all watching the stopped train below. Upon enquiring, someone said something about a bomb explosion on the train. Well, it didn’t seem anything was wrong and we decided to wait and watch. Then the word was spreading that there had indeed been a blast somewhere, maybe Jogeshwari, a few stations from Andheri. And then we came to know that the trains were all cancelled.

But the people had to be applauded here. I saw no panic anywhere. Everyone was acting cool and logically, in spite of the serious situation. We got out of the station and decided to ask some rickshaw-wallas to get us some place to catch a bus to Vashi. But none of them were cooperative or they didn’t seem to know any such place. Seeing that we were virtually stuck at Andheri, we decided to get to Kurla by bus. The bus arrived and people started to rush inside in a panicky frenzy. No, it was not due to any panic at the explosions, it was because of an even deeper fear of someone else occupying an empty seat (I guess some things will never change in Mumbikars). And by pure luck, we too managed to find seats, although, I received a sharp blow on my back in the hustle and bustle (my back is still aching).

In the meanwhile, through a phone call from Kishor’s sister, I came to know that mom had somehow got to know of the explosions and was apparently trying to contact me. I was trying to call mom but couldn’t reach her. it seemed all mobile networks were being overloaded with calls and I might have been lucky to just make a little call. I presumed mom might have been a bit worried and I was lucky that I could SMS by best friend Somu to inform my mom that we were OK. But it seemed he was worried himself, since he called me back barely a minute later. Since I could make no phone calls, I SMSed dad too (to my relief, he was really calm when he called me some time later).

But man, the traffic was killing. The bus moved at a snail’s pace. We were all sweating inside, and the only time-pass was small talk with the co-passengers, their opinions on the blasts, etc. We reached Kurla at about 8:15 pm, more than an hour since we boarded. The taxi ride home was worse. We had to get through the police nakabandi, and it consumed more time. While we did watch Rang De Basanti (yet again) on my iPod, the slow pace and the driver’s smoking weren’t helping us feel any better. Meanwhile dad called and told us he would come and pick us up at Nerul since there was a nakabandi at Kalamboli too and we’d have to take a detour if we were to make it home anytime before midnight.

And we reached home at 11 pm. Immediately, I switched on the news and what I saw and heard was indeed saddening. Serial bombing: Eight explosions within a span of about half an hour. The compartments were disfigured by the blasts. The sight of those suffering was indeed heart wrenching. Reflecting back, I just sort of thought, we might just as well have been in one of the ill fated trains. Life could really be cut short man (I might as well enjoy eating all the chocolates and ice creams before my life gets cut short).

But I was starting to feel angry at the cause of it all: Religion. Sure people might say no religion professes violence (even though i beg to differ), but it sure is the cause of all violence like these. Its the disagreements that is the root cause of it all. For someone belonging to some religion, his religion is the holiest and most correct, while the other religions are wrong. And he fails to see similar sentiments of opposing polarity reflected by the non-believer with respect to him.

One more thing that angers me is that many political parties are going to have a field-day. They'll be the ones taking full advantage of this disaster, what with making more promises and assurances and name-calling to blaming the opposition for the mishap. In a way, they are the most dangerous people here, since they can incite otherwise peaceful people to commit violent acts.

Ah well....that's enough blabbing for now....it was an eventful day, and I just thought I could blog it all, so here it is.