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Showing posts from December, 2006

If I ever need advice

Ladies and gentlemen, the great Sudipta decided to end this year by a guest post on this blog. Many of you have wondered why some females want to murder me after some acquaintance. Well, one of them kindly decided to put her thoughts into words. So without further ado, let me present to you... *Tra la la ra li re la* *Drums rolling* *Curtains rising* ------------------- If ever I need advice... …he is the first person I would turn to NOT. My English teacher always told me this one thing...be precise…if only I could (well she also told me to mind my splellings as well but we will leave that out, spell check hai na?). So for those who lack the time or the inclination to read a post by someone unknown, I think the next sentence would give away the crux of the post. I always believed in Gandhian stance on non violence...until I got to know Sudipto. Having gotten my acceptance letter from UT Austin, I decided to set up a group to get to know folks I might be spending close to a year of my l

Tapping the tapper

I installed a bunch of little tools on this blog sometime back. You'll find all of them on the right column of this page, towards its very bottom. Yes, I know they are a bit narcissist in nature: displaying a map of the world to show where around the world the visitors came from, what they were referred to here by, etc. After all, no-one really is interested in knowing all that if they came to this blog. If you, as a reader last longer than reading through the latest post, you might stop by to comment. Perhaps the more interested people also read through the other comments before shooting one off on your own. But thats about it --- it doesn't really bother you to see that there is a blob of readers (or visits) even from Madagascar! As the author of the blog, on the other hand, these little tools are more than just that for me. They are sort of little pieces of a huge puzzle that come as hints from everywhere. Let me put it this way: imagine how you would feel if you could sudde

I just smiled

She was a sweet little thing. In her flowery tresses and hippety-skippety-jumpy attitude, with a spring in her feet and a twinkle in her eye. The whole world seemed like a gift waiting to be unwrapped for her. Down the slope of the road she had come, her little fingers wrapped tightly around the firm hand of her father. Her five-year old self could barely contain the excitement of seeing so much happen together. It was festival time, and place was literally dazzling with colour and lights. The buzz of flashing electric bulbs, the humdrum of so many hawkers flashing their wares, of so many children doing their own merry-go-rounds and laughing and running about. It was all so lively! And she stared at everything with innocent wonder, flashing a puppy smile and trying to keep up with her father while she gaped at the myriad stalls on either side of the road. The ice-cream vendor was doing average business --- fishing out strawberry candies and frozen choco-sticks for the bunch of giggling

Rediscovering my hero

I did my secondary schooling in a Ramakrishna Mission school. Those four years of my life drilled a lot of good things into my character --- I'd say a large part of my present personality: whatever good is in there, is due to them. However, there is also a lot of crap and bullshit that got into me during that time. Part of the responsibility lies with the management and they way they interpreted and enforced the sayings of the wise; but far more significantly I have been responsible myself for learning and clenching on to some bullshit --- perhaps it was easier to just do what everyone said was good without evaluating it. I remember my parents trying to make me see sense: but I was too haughty to understand what they meant. Besides, my biases, prejudices, and insecurities made me build a firm and orthodox wall around myself; a wall of denial of the world and that good and bad co-existed everywhere. I buried my head behind the self-learnt pedagogies and pretended that nothing else e

You must speak up

I was in Class VIII then: in my hostel. One sunny afternoon in winter, our chief hostel warden and the warden summoned about 5-6 students to the dormitory roof, apparently for a little 'chat' with all of us. I was there on the list, and somehow the conversation drifted to which students were 'goody-goody' nincompoops who could only study and were otherwise butter-fingered monkeys, etc --- a pithy expression for whom in Bengali is 'Nadu Gopal' . There was some fun being thrown around: why someone does qualify and someone doesn't, who is a Nadu Gopal, and such. Suddenly, the Chief Warden asked, "So, who do you think among you here is the most suitable to be called 'Nadu-Gopal'?" There were some mealy-mouthed 'Yes', 'No'-s and then he asked me straight, "Sudipta, who do you think?". I took a look around, picked one fellow and pointed fingers at him and said, "That person: him!" Upon hearing my answer, the ge

Only human

What Matrix Persona Are You? You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You display a perfect fusion of heroism and compassion. Take this quiz ! Quizilla Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code Cause and effect, my dear?

Octagonally speaking

Alka tagged me, asking me to divulge eight things about myself and to forward this to six other people. Since the rules are not so well defined here, I'll go for a mixture of good and bad things, plus some third party opinion as well. So without much further ado, lets begin... I dabble a lot before I can come to a decision about many things, but once I have decided upon it, I go all the way. So, I wavered a lot about whether I should try for the MBA or the GRE; but once I had decided, I put in my heart and soul into it. When I have a fight with someone or if someone accuses me of something, I begin with the assumption that I am wrong and then try to see if there is something that may actually point to the fact that I may be right. This proves to be good in many cases, because this helps me build fool-proof arguments and convince the other person if I am actually right. At other times, if the other person can successfully feel sufficiently indignant or outraged that his/her point o