Three threes are thirty-three

I was tagged twice --- with the same tag. First, it was Life Lover who confessed that she wanted to learn belly-dancing and then passed the baton to me. Supremus, on the other hand, finds Lata Mangeshkar's voice amusing amidst his musings about why he is single yet, and asks "Why not?". So instead of waiting for someone to complete the triplet of tagging me and recieve brickbats from all these people till that time, let me go ahead and finish this tag.

Three things that scare me:

1. Computers conking off when an unsaved program is just beginning to do what it is supposed to do after 10 hours of debugging! You'll know this only if you've ever faced it.
2. Friends who rightfully get angry at my follies --- I completely give in to them and would do anything to see them smile again!
3. Landing up in helpless situations: when the only way out, the only rational logical way to behave and do things is to let the events mould themselves out. I am talking of situations where your doing something can only screw things up --- I really hate them and am scared of landing in them!
   

Three people who make me laugh:

1. My own self and my own old PJs --- I swear they are mindblowing! But well, I know you don't have the sense of humour so you will never appreciate :-\
2. Russell Peters --- I can spend hours listening to his antics.
3. Captain Haddock --- his sense of timing (or of Herge, actually) is what classical textbooks on humour should be written about.
   

Three things I love:

1. Being loved and cherished, and reciprocating back.
2. Good discussions: things that stimulate your brain. Anything right from quantum physics to human neuro-cognition is welcome. I feel so happy from within even if I just sit there and listen to the exchange of ideas.
3. Eating --- there is a certain satisfaction in slowly munching through warm and deliciously minced meat or licking tantalizingly cold and sweet dessert. I don't worry about my weight or figure when I eat: there are 23 more hours in the day to do that! :)
   

Three things I hate:

1. Getting up in the morning --- I can happily stay awake till 4:00 in the night, but if I have to wake at any time of the day before 10:00, I REALLY hate it!
2. I hate dishonesty in people --- those who don't speak openly and are not morally upright. I really shun their company.
3. Cooking: I am more than happy to wash dishes, but someone please cook for me! A post coming up on this soon!
   

Three things I don’t understand:

1. God, or the whole concept of His being there. Sometimes it is so self-evident, and at other times I am the fanatic atheist.
2. Most research papers I read, or even my subject area of interest. I wish I could really feel/know what and how the human brain works and what artificial intelligence truly is.
3. The vastness of outer space; the truth, beauty and darkness of quantum physics and such concepts --- I would really love to sit down and discuss them with someone some day!
   

Three things on my desk:

1. The book: Speech and Language Processing by Jurafsky and Martin
2. Another book: Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets and Solutions
3. This laptop I'm typing in.
   

Three things I am doing right now:

1. Wondering why I get these inspirational ideas to type in my blog at the dead of the night past 1:30 a.m.
2. Shaking my legs, typing this and thinking at the same time that this entry is actually cheating --- it shouldn't qualify. [But guess what, it just did! :)]
3. Hunting around for research internships in parallel with the blog posting --- I want to do something useful for the summer.

Three things I want to do before I die:

1. Get a PhD --- it may not be the end of the road without one, but it surely is one of my top priorities in life right now.
2. Make difference to the lives of people through my life and work: I am not sure how, but I am sure that given the opportunity, I will succeed!
3. Learn to play the Tabla --- if not now, then maybe in some off time some day. I truly believe that its beats form the soul of any song. Try listening to the same song without drum/tabla beats and then again with them --- you'll know what I mean.
   

Three things I can do:

1. Sleep --- uninterrupted and unlimited. My record is 23 hours straight: I am sorry but I just had to move myself out of bed after that!
2. Listen to others, put them at ease and cheer them up, etc. As per one of my friends (who said this in Hindi), "You can actually cheer up a corpse!"; although I don't really relish the prospect of having to do that :)
3. Write code: lots and lots of it, and smart ones at that.
   

Three things you should listen to:

1. My rants and gyaan --- you really SHOULD listen to them because you are my friend :)
2. The sound of a mother's heart blessing her child: when you hug her tightly and forget all fears, inhibitions and worries and lose yourself in her bosom --- that is the sound of celestial bliss for me.
3. On a linux box, cat /boot/vmlinuz > /dev/audio to listen to the voice of God
   

Three things you should never listen to:

1. My rants and gyaan --- this I tell you as your friend. The Lord have sympathy on the poor chap who happens to catch me on my Gyaan-daata day!
2. People who tell you that you are worthless, that you cannot do something. Don't trust them --- shun their company whoever they are!
3. The clawing of someone's nails on a blackboard: slow, deliberate and rough going kssk-kssssshhhk! Boy I'm having jitters just imagining it!
   

Three things I would like to learn:

1. How and why exactly one should fill a hospital form when he is about to die. It may remind you of Munnabhai MBBS, but believe me it is not so funny when you see it happen for real.
2. How to play the tabla, as I said earlier.
3. These I would some day want to have by heart --- some of my favourite poems including those by Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, etc.
   

Three favorite foods:

1. Chicken-X, where X may be substituted by any arbitrary string/dish you can think of.
2. Laal mishti doi --- I'm sorry but even translating this into English feels like blasphemy! Well, anyway... it is a sort of reddish sweet yoghurt you get only in Bengal.
3. Kolai-er daal aar alu-bhaate bhaat: perhaps the simplest of all Bengali meals, but trust me this lentil soup with mashed potatoes and rice is what people must have had in mind when they coined the term, ambrosia.
   

Three beverages I drink regularly:

1. Paani --- plain good old water. Oh, let me get a gulp!
2. This you may never notice, but you also drink a lot of your own saliva. Now, please don't go ewww --- without it you will actually never be able to digest most foods.
3. Milk --- doodh doodh doodh doodh... :)
   

Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:

1. Charlie Chaplin: I can watch this anytime/anyday again!
2. The World This Week: although I was regular at this, Prannoy Roy's show never really made too much sense, and for the longest time I wondered why the last section they showed in the end spoke of NEW-SMAKERS and who the Smakers really were to feature every week on the show! :)
3. Paagla Daashu --- a classic by Sukumar Roy which never failed to make me laugh. Ahh I feel like reading it again right now!
   

Three people I tag:

1. Twilight Fairy: because she needs proof that she indeed belongs to the galaxy :)
2. Phatichar: long long time writing his detective novel. I believe this might be welcome relief.
3. Grafxgurl: welcome to America!

Whew that was long! Thirty-three three times over...