Sudipta's Life

I am moving out of my university to join work. PhD plans are shelved for now -- lets wait for a couple of years and find out how much I really want it. It is time now to say goodbyes to professors and friends, change addresses, return keys and clear out offices and drawers. Like my mother said today, this will be another chapter of my life that is coming to a close. A lot of people keep asking me, how does it feel? Truth be told, I don't feel a thing. Yeah so I'm leaving. Will I be missing my apartment, my office, my desk? Not really... and it is tough to explain why. Actually, I think some people are either disappointed or even offended when I say this, and almost everyone refuses to believe me. This post is sort of trying to explain the why or how to them: more importantly recording my own thoughts to read them some years down the line and analyze myself. The point is, I don't get attached to things so easily. Things, people, places -- they serve as points of reference fo...

Positive dis-service: the credit for coining this term (as far as I know) goes to Swapan da from my days at the Ramakrishna Mission. Time and again in my life, while I'm helping others, I have felt that I might actually be doing them harm by making them dependent upon my help or service, rather than equipping them so that they may do it for themselves. I had a friend in school who usually slept through some classes which were deemed boring by public opinion. In the back bench, he would enjoy a peaceful siesta while I took running notes for the history lesson and come back to my hostel to read them or write answers for the homework. Sometime in the middle of the semester, he had come to me once for help and I happened to dig up my class notebook and told him the answer after consulting it. Soon, this became a habit -- he would come to me just a day before the homework was due, and I had to explain to him what was required to answer the questions. He wasn't the best brain in th...

The matrimonial season is in the air. The shady.com and other such websites are doing great business. And for those who take the word a little forward, both sides want to know more about the candidates. On the online profile, everyone is jolly, happy, caring, intelligent, sensitive, blah blah blah. But the real deal lies in what you are in person. And that, unfortunately, nothing can guarantee except observing someone doing the smallest day-to-day tasks for some time. People usually choose to outsource this work to the grapevine: does someone have a contact in the locality where he lives? Enter the reluctant detective. The first time someone asked me to find out about another prospective groom was when I was working. I suppose a secure employment lends credibility to the opinion and report of a twenty-something guy. I was not even in the same building complex, but I had to do it. I called up someone I knew in the same building, and told him what and why in full detail. He in turn broug...

7:20 am. Have been awake all night trying to make Harsha Bhogle redundant by replacing him with a computer. Gobbling on a Hershey's pure milk chocolate bar. And need to sleep for 3-4 hours to reboot myself and start attempting to steal the sports commentator's job again. What better way to relax than to vent out something that has been spinning around in my head for some time: Galdriel 's tag of identifying my favourite literary characters. And the fact that I can brag about having descended from Raja Ram Mohan Roy on my mother's side and that Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay is my great grandfather by relation cannot be passed. :) So write a post, we shall. Bipradas (বিপ্রদাস): To think of literary characters who have inspired and stirred me, Bipradas definitely comes on the top of the list. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel set in the times of India's independence portrayed this man as a stellar example of reticence and self-confidence emanating from inner pea...