IAF Open To Women In Jet Cockpit

Ok, read the, between or beyond the following lines, I'm just reproducing (pun maybe intended) the piece from today's edition of Deccan Herald. I hope it helps in bringing about world peace and reducing poverty and global warming. Thank you.

Italics are my emphasis.


IAF Open To Women In Jet Cockpit

New Delhi, PTI: The long-cherished dream of women entering the male bastion of flying jet fighters may finally come true with IAF Chief F H Major saying the force is open to the idea of allowing the fairer sex donning the frontline combat role.

Women in the Indian Air Force were doing a "good job" and there was no reason why they would not be able to fly combat aircraft in future, Major said on Wednesday.

Replying to a question on whether IAF will have women fighter pilots in future, Major said, "Why not! The women in IAF are doing a good job."

Asked whether IAF was considering any proposal in this regard, he said, "No proposal is under consideration right now. We will have to give a lot of thought on it."

The Indian Air Force has over 700 women officers in non-combatant roles.



Crossposted on Linkosarcoma.

The Best Band Name Ever

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

Yes, that's the name of the band. Well guys, you love Boris Yeltsin and we love your naming abilities. Though SSLYBY comes very close to beating !Xobile as the most ingenious name, !Xobile still takes the cake, or the click rather.



From Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's Wikipedia page -

Will Knauer and Philip Dickey were mutual high school friends, growing up in Springfield. Phil and Will were in different bands that both "tried to sound like Nirvana."[1] After Will and Phil's high school bands broke up (Wharf and Thinking Vision, respectively), the two started playing together on Weller Street and Phil came up with the new name.[2]

The new songs needed a new band name, so we chose something really dumb, because we were only practicing in Will's attic. There were 2 girls who would watch us practice and I wanted to make them laugh...and I wanted the guys in Wharf to laugh...so that's when I came up with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Boris Yeltsin recently resigned and I was 17.

Check out SSLYBY on

MySpace
Last.fm


Won't it be fun to have band names on Indian politicians? Here are a few -

I have a crush on you Mayawati. [NO, not me]
We're are in awe of your pause Atalji. [Yawn, rather]
More as they come.

What sex is Bangalore?

Indian definitely promises more than it can deliver. Also that it underwent something close to a sex change operation recently, new logo and all.



And after the wonderful flight, here's what the air hostess(if she still remains she) will announce -



And yes, in honour of Shri Balaji, who reminded me of the existence of my photoblog eye5, I'm resuming posting on eye5.

Which came first - the chick or the egg?

Location:
Handicrafts exhibition
Beach Road
Pondicherry.

State :
A little tired and busy with work.
Will be back with regular posts soon.

What can exams do to you?! and The End

1. What can exams do to you?!

Our faculty have some sense of humour.They conduct exams.The fun though, still continues during exams with added abandon and disdain because these will be the last engineering exams of our lives.Exams are also funny in a different sort of way. People become different. The funny ones become serious, the serious ones become even more serious, desperate ones becomes frustrated, the normally frustrated ones become funny and philosophical.

We're generally pretty much insane, but that extra bit of sanity creeps in during exams which makes life horrible for people around us and for you, because you have to read this nonsense!

Ok,this is what exams can do to you

1. You are so hungry and lost, that you gobble of fistful of white powder offered to you in a glucose pack, only to realise that it was Surf Excel. What the heck, it cle aned my digestive system!

2. You go to all neighbouring rooms, crash into the door and then ask the startled fellow -"Mooh me liya kya?!".
That by the way, is an euphimism for "Khaana khaaya kya?!

3. Try your hand at matchmaking on Orkut. Try pairing a long(he's short!) lost school friend( this hunk with his long(maybe she's long!) long lost school friend. They scrappily lived ever after!(But then, Orkut is a very small aspect of a whole new sweeping revolution called Web 2.0. I have to come out with that post on 'Web 2.0 for dummies' with so many people asking me about my obsession,optimism,excitement and bullishness on Web 2.0. Watch the short flash film on http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/. Then probably you'll concur with me!)

4. Go bonkers about the long long lost friend's long long lost friend . The LLF's LLF happens to be a singer and now that I'm officially a member of a music band named '!Xobile', my interest in her was only natural. Also, we had this subject where we had to study cyber-stalking,cyber-crime et al, I thought some practical preparation would do no harm!!

5. For three hours and twenty seven minutes everyday, your only aim in life is marrying either Roopa Purushotheman or Kaavya Vishwanathan. What is the former has now quit high profile Goldman Sachs and joined Pantaloons or what if the latter has been caught plagiarising. They are South Indians, well-educated and look pretty. What more can anyone ask for?!. But then the hunk mentioned above recommends N R Narayan Murthy's daughter Akshata doing MBA at Stanford. Just perfect, a Kannadiga as well. Too many choices, tough to decide.

6. Listen to Stacy's Mom, What I go to schol for, fashion show videos of our college incessantly to get refreshed and watch Family Guy all through the day with Harsha. The show just suits our humour fine. Senseless, outrageous, yet peculiarly funny. Because that is the only preparation for the exam, use the word 'Quagmire' in the exam, go out to drink water during the exam, laugh your heart out on your achievement, leave the exam hall fifteen minutes early so that you could come back and watch rest of the episodes!

Sample Quagmire(a character from Family Guy):

Brian: Ugh, I can't beileve you're serving a three year sentence, it seems so harsh.
Lois: Well, the only upside is that it's given me time to think about why I ended up in here. I guess I was stealin' because I was so sick of the same old routine. I felt like I had a void in my life, like, like, there was a secret hole in me...
Quagmire: Oh God!
Lois:...and I was tryin' to fill that hole with all kinds of expensive objects, and things...
Quagmire: Oh God!!!
Lois: ...and I felt wonderful with all those things fillin' that hole.
Quagmire: Oh God!!!!!!
Lois: I did this to myself, so I'm just gonna have to lay back and let the penal system teach me a lesson.
Quagmire: That one is also sexual.



7. You being appreciating and applauding(loudly,in a coffee shop) fundas like:
The custom of doing 'cheers' comes from this 16th century practice when warring parties after a cease-fire would make peace and get together for a drink. So clear any suspicions of the other party poisoning your drink, you strike each other's glass so that the liquid spills over and you make the other person drink as well.

8. Have conversations like the one that follows on GTalk with Akshay :
omikron441: the past tense for IPOD, if it isnt the word itself cud be..IPEED?
gud mornin
me:that would be music to a centipede's ears!!
omikron441: or a human with bladder disfunction
me:stop bladdering nonsense..
omikron441: sorry peelease
me: shit up...
omikron441: piss off
me: you're taking this too fart...
omikron441: oh yeah..so u wanna go back to crappin ppl on orkut?
k now i gotta goo
pee u l8r
me: pee you later as well..
omikron441: best of luck for 2morro's (toilet) paper

I still have two more exams to go and then it'll be The End
***********************************************************************************

2. The End


This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end

- The End
The Doors

No song could be more apt than this one to describe my present state. In a few days, it'll be good bye to engineering and we'll all be jumping into the big bad 'real' world. Nostalgia's abound,silliest of the things find associations with something in the past. I won't go on a harangue on how these were the best days of our lives et al. Yes, we have done pretty well. Hitesh getting into MDI,Bharath into IISc (he will),my decision of not getting into software(more on this coming soon!) have proved that we are definitely a notch or half a notch above the rest. Personally, I would only say that, it's been one hell of a journey from someone who had not heard of Enid Blyton or Age of Empires to someone who today bemoans lack of people around him whom he could discuss about The Last Song of Dusk or talk about Web 2.0. Will definitely write about that someday.

Tomorrow, I won't be having this laptop. Will have to return it to my boyfriend,Jayanth. I don't have any miss to miss here. But apart from a few other things, what I'll miss the most is the LAN and this fanatstic internet connection!!

Musafir Hoon Yaaron!!

Posting from Rohit Shankar's room in IIM-A!:)

You can skip the first paragraph. It's crap. Don't tell me I din't warn you!

Now, God must have done some serious checksum error. Now what error is that I don't know, but it is some error in Computers. Now I have every reason to believe that God does use computers.Why?! The other day I saw a mouse falling from the sky and suddenly shuddered at the prospect of the God who rides the mouse falling from the sky! Sometime later did I find out that the fat guy staying above me DID contemplate juping after he threw the mouse. He threw the mouse out of frustration that it was not working. He then realised his folly and wanted to jump because had he sold that mouse as scrap he'd have got 2.546 rupees which would have got him 1.093 chai or 5.147 Alpenliebes or invaluable 2.546 rupees. Why did I write this?! I donno.

Musafir Hoon Yaaron!

God has indeed done checksum errors and I'm afraid he might keep on doing those errors. Because I have all the reasons to be scared,afraid,dazed and confused when almost everything goes right for a long long time. I'm expecting some serious trouble anytime now. The way everything is so unbelieveably right, I can't help but have an eerie feeling some thing huge will fall on me soon.(Lord Ganesha himself?!)

Ok, let me write here, write now about the rights!

1. A mention of the documentary was made in the papers. The movie company seems to be doing pretty well. Just wish God does another error and our exams are postponed. Another wishful wish. He commits a huge error and exams are called off!!:)

2. Stood third in the Surat round of Times of India. Had lots of fun on stage whipping Himesh Reshammiya. To know what lack of sleep can do to you, look at this picture. It can win you the third prize and make you look like a rape convict!:)

3. Went to Daman for farewell. IT WAS GOOD. We guys are so close that we didn't even cry!Lots of things were sorted out, mobile was screwed,vodka+sprite still ruled. My repertoire of Altaf Raja,T-Series devotional songs,90's hindi film songs,ad jingles,TV serial songs is still intact. Will miss these guys for sure. Another post on this is surely needed, otherwise I wou;dn't be doing justice to the importance of the occasion.

4. The next day, the Times of India correspondent calls up and apologises profusely for the fact that it was not clearly mentioned that I won the third place,as there was a tie. Inspite of me telling her that it seriously didn't matter to me,she insisted that she was very sorry. Thank you Fateema!

5. The finals at Ahmedabad was a bit of an anti-climax. I'd definitely agree with Ellie now. But even after the pathetic score and no one even telling me that I spoke well, I was giggling like an ass.I'd remember this trip more for the people I met than the competition or the lack of it(on my part!). Sajani Mrinalini Dutta,Pankaj Malani,Priyanka,Vishwamohini Bhat!,Aditya and quite a few dudes whose names I don't know, like the dude from Bombay,Maharashtra!!:) I don't know if that huge film-maker will read this,but I won't forget her as well.Size does matter. And our very own Surtis - Dipti,Janavi,Gaurav and Ayan.A post definitely lined up on this.

It is things like that make me feel that God must have done some error. Something, anything which has mass and occupies space is matter, nothing else matters! I'll explain. Unless something is really important, it doesn't matter to me. What matters to me now is the experience. I'm like that soldier who waited for 99 days and then left, in Cinema Paradiso. Those who've seen the movie will understand.

6. Something really interesting and important coming up. Things should be clear in a week or so.

Rush Hour-2!

I AM BUSY!!

Sounds too good to be true, but truth can sometimes be unbelieveable and physically drainful.

0. Before anything, read this first. Feels good. Some sense of accomplishment.

Even with exams round the corner,project partners breathing down my neck, we are working on a short film!!Screenplay's almost done. Work on the script is underway. Poor Kaak aka Akshay has been assigned the dirty job of writing the script! Keep visiting this blog and 10+3i's site for more!

1. Pune Trip was GOOD!

2. Mahabaleshwar BETTER!

3. Watched Euphoria perform for the second time. Palash is a great
entertainer. Crowds(read females) just love him.

4. Went to Goa en route home.Spent 63 minutes in Goa, in the train that is!

5. Watched Cinema Paradiso, A Clockwork Orange, In which Annie gives it those
ones,The Doors and a Kannada movie in the theatre, sitting right in the first row!!

6. Read 'Of no Fixed Address' by Kaizad Gustad. Yes, the same Boom to bust guy!
It's about a writer on constant travel.Since I believe I'm bit of a both, traveler
and a writer, it was a perfect foil for my journey.

7. People back in Dharwad haven't changed much.Well, some have!

Maybe I have changed too much to notice any changes in them. Maybe the sight of this studious first bencher in school turning into a docuwallah with long hair was a
bit too hard for them to digest!!.

A post on the journey and back sometime soon
here. How soon? Fellow idiots
involved in the making of the shortfilm and my project partners dictate how I
live my life now!!So, can't say.

8. Holi was fun in a different kind of way. Sameer and co. didn't want to go to their college hostel to play Holi as they feared their shirts being torn!!Being a true blue hostelite,I wanted to burst our laughing. Because they are my friends,my mockery of them was only restricted to a sly smile with a hiss.

9. Felt good catching up with Ashutosh, Manasa, Neha, Ruthwika. Met
some new people.Pramod was a revelation and a very pleasant surprise. He HAD
heard of the movies mentioned above and had watched some of them too! The
show has just begun, what say,Pramod?!

10.I know it might come as a surprise and shock to most of you.Even I was shocked and awed by her beauty. I've found my life partner.She's pretty and pretty close to my younger sister and my marriage to her will be subject to my sister's consent. Even when I was home, my going around with her was only after my sister relented after much persuasion. I hardly know her, but I've got all my lifetime trying to explore different parts of her mind and body!

And now I'll say that I was only talking about my sister's Kinetic!I'm now
experiencing what others call and even I call as writer's block. Was only trying
to check if I could get back to writing. Looks like the world has to wait for
some more time for that 20% finished novel to see the light of the day!

P.Ses or PJs(whatever you call them)

1. If Kapil Dev would've appealed too much, would he have been renamed Kappeal Dev?!
2. Are the gastric juices in cows called Mow-biles?!

Mumbai Meri Jaan!!!

My travels and explorations in Mumbai have been very limited, almost zilch considering the immense expanse of the mega-city. Yet, Mumbai with all its flurry and fury continues to interest and enchant me further. With each of my visits to Mumbai, my curiosity to delve deeper into the intricacies of the mechanisms on which this city functions gets deeper. What excites or enthuses me about Mumbai is not its tourist places, not its people, not the hustle-bustle of the local trains, not Bollywood, but something which is a sum total of all this and which transcends all this- Experience!. My trysts with Mumbai have been many, albeit very short and limited. Yet there is something of each trip that is etched forever in my mind. Shall certainly write about my experiences sometime later. This post though is about movies and books which feature Mumbai as the main protagonist. Most of these corroborate the eternal truth- ‘Mumbai is a living hell and the people here enjoy living in this hell, come ‘rain’ (read floods!) or shine. Worse still, they make you fall in love with that hell.’goo

Movies or books, which one first?! Tough choice, but alphabetical order rules.

To make the presentation interesting (and appear fundoo in the process), I’m presenting the movies and books under three categories.

1. The ones which I haven’t read/watched.
2. The ones which I have read/watched.
3. The ones which no one has read/watched (because they haven’t been released as of now!)


Before I embark on this journey of prose and picture, I decide not to include Bollywood movies on the underworld. Much has been spoken, written and filmed about that. But I do know what to expect circa 2015.

F Fwd to 15th May,2015
Today, a book by the award-winning page 3 journalist Moniica Beidy on the harmonious relationship between the underworld and Bollywood was released at a grand party at The Taj hosted by the adorable Abu Salem. Among those in attendance were the dashing Dawood and a visibly moved Mandakini. The book is said to be inspired by the eternal love-story of Dawood and Mandakini. Among those who graced the occasion included the chirpy Chhota Rajan who was closeted with Chhota Shakeel. The two seemed to enjoy each others’ company. Sanjubaba and Sanjay Gupta weren’t able to make it to the party as they were busy watching English DVDs looking for ‘inspiration’ for their next White feather production movie. Mahesh Manjrekar and Vikram Bhatt made a grand entry in a rickshaw, sporting a new hairdo, a combination of pink and orange hair colours. Later, it turned out so that it was a clever marketing ploy by L’ Oreal to promote their latest men’s hair colour products.

Back to the present

Books:

Book which I haven’t read:

Maximum City by Suketu Mehta.

It is said to be the book which was waiting to be written but no one dared to write. It is said to be the book which introduced vada pav, bar –girl and b*@&*()d to the world. It was short listed for the Pulitzer prize and was in the news for this reason as much as it was for Mehta’s much publicized spat with Vinod Chopra. By now you’d heard good or bad things about the book by me but then I swapped it for another book, on Mumbai again. And that book is right up there as one of the best I’ve read in my short spanned pursuit of reading as a serious hobby. If you have Maximum City, please lend it to me!

Book which I’ve read :

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

I want to be born as Gregory David Roberts in my next birth. I like the book that much. I might not actually that long to enjoy the ‘highs’ and endure the agonizingly painful lows, but my life would be worth it even if I have a miniscule of ‘experience’ of what Roberts had. Shantaram is about an Australian fugitive who escapes to India on a forged New Zealand passport and his life on his subsequent arrival In Mumbai. He works for the mafia, sets up a health clinic in the slums, spends a horrid time behind the bars because of his rivalry with a mysterious character and later goes on to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. The characters do not move you, you become numb with their simplicity, their purity of heart, their beauty, their mystery. What runs through all the characters and makes them become etched in your mindscape for ever is their ‘spirit’. Prabhakar’s cheerfulness and ability to see the silver lining in the darkest of the clouds, Vikram’s suaveness, Prabhakar’s mother’s pure love and affection, Khaderbhai’s ‘principle’ of ‘doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and the wrong things for the right reasons’, the challwallahs’ unity in spite of all adversities. I forgot to mention Madam Zhou’s mysterious life, Karla’s reluctance to open up to Shantaram, Abdul’s friendship with Shantaram. I can go on and on. The book is a behemoth, close to 700 pages. But it is no prose-athon and the language is simple and free-flowing. It is not like an action thriller where the hero is like a supernatural being crushing all difficulties. I liked the book because it is real. The characters, the emotions, the experiences are all real. Even the landmarks, for e.g. Leopold’s in Colaba, Haji Ali are all real. It has so much about life and philosophy, death and even the Big Bang Theory that it takes some time to digest it. But once digested, it nourishes you well like any nutrient. Shantaram is one book which you won’t think much about while reading it. But you won’t stop thinking about it after you finish reading it.

There’s a movie being made based on the book with Johnny Depp playing Shantaram. I might sound too far-fetched and optimistic, but if the character of Prabhakar is treated well and given the importance is deserves, Rajpal Yadav or Vijay Raaz might just win an Oscar. Read the book, and we’ll discuss on the Indian cast for the movie. Till then I’ll continue debating on that on IMDB.

Book that no one’s read

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

And I had thought author Vikram Chandra was same as NDTV editor/anchor Vikram Chandra. Of course, they are different. The latter does look scholarly and erudite enough to be an author himself. Author Vikram Chandra is a professor of Creative Writing at University of California, Berkeley. Looks like art and literature run in his genes. His mother, Kamna Chandra was the script writer of 1942: A Love Story. His sister is more famous than him. Tanuja Chandra, the director of acclaimed movies like Dushman, Sur and Sangharsh and a dud, Yeh Zindagi ka Safar. Another sister Anupama Chopra is a journalist and recently turned author with a book on the making of Sholay. His brother-in-law is probably the most famous in his family- Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Incidentally, Suketu Mehta and Vikram Chopra together wrote the script for Mission Kashmir.
Sacred Games is in news for the huge advance Chandra has pocketed and has been in the making for almost 7 years. Hope it is worth the effort and the wait. It is a book set in Mumbai; but spreads out into a much larger canvas as the book progresses. Looks like after co-authoring the script Mission
Kashmir, Mehta and Chandra are co-authoring a ‘Mission Mumbai’. That incidentally happens to be the name of a B-grade Hindi movie.

The Ultimate Pot-boiler.

Ok, this certainly is not the best of my posts.It was inspired by this and the sorry state of roads in my home-town Dharwad.This was the best I could come up with after traveling almost the length and breadth of Mumbai for JMET and NMAT(One more post definitely needed for that).Dharwad->Thane->Powai->Koparkhairane->Vashi->CST->Dharwad.That was quite a trip and this post was written during the return journey. This was the best my tired mind could come up with.Have some more posts in the offing on my father's experiences as the returning officer during the upcoming Gram Panchayat and Zilla panchayat elections here. They talk of decentralisation of power and village empowerment, but all that has happened is that the rot has precipitated down to the bottom.Imagine a village being divided not only along caste lines,but also along political lines now.Politics is one of my favourite subjects and I saw how little of that is reflected in this blog.

Returning to the current post, it could have also been titled


The Monk who drove his Ferrari over a pot-hole.
or
Zen and the Art of pot-hole maintenance.
or
Harry-potholer!
or
The Autobiography of an Unknown Pothole
or
The Argumentative Indian Pothole

I don’t exist on paper.(I exist on road, of course!). what I meant to say was that I don’t have an official existence like most of you. The census of 2001 was conducted well before my ‘birth’ and I doubt if I’ll survive till the time the next census is carried out in 2011. Actually, the whole pot-hole community around me has been officially declared . In the dusty files of the Public Works Department consigned to some corner, they have been given the best possible burial a pot-hole can ever imagine. Covered with the supreme quality tar, and then rolled over by the strongest road-roller in the whole region, specifically ‘bought’ for that purpose. That is all ‘for the record’. The actual story is something else. Neither the tar came nor the road-roller. The holes weren’t filled, what were filled though were the beds of the executive engineer who floated the tender, the bank lockers of the contractor and the cup-boards of the minister. The minister actually made money twice. Once, while awarding the contract and the second time a 20% cut in from the same contractor after he began working on the ‘project’. That was two years ago. Some work was indeed done. It was the perfect patch work ever done. It was patchy both in terms of the quality of the work and also that it left lot of patches were still left untouched. Those which were covered up soon opened up and in pothole-speak, they are called ‘ghost-holes’ . The whole colony talks about them in hushed voices. Children pot-holes aren’t allowed to go close to them. That is why the area around those ghost-holes is quite deserted.

In the slum world, I live in what is the real world equivalent of a small locality in a city. there isn’t much of an activity, but once in a while I’m woken up from my slumber by a truck or two running over me carrying heavy goods. It hurts, not only physically but also in the heart. Not only these people run over you but also abuse you with choicest expletives for no fault of yours. It may sound a bit cynical, but we potholes do extract our pound of flesh. The faster these guys run over you, more is the pain they suffer. These humans are so strange. I’ll never be able to understand them. Two days back, this handsome hunk was riding what has been our latest nuisance, the hayabusa. He mutters such obscenities under his breath it spoilt my whole day. And yesterday he comes again, with his friend in the pillion, runs over me again and thanks God for my presence there. The reason?. He gets that ‘close touch’ with his -friend. These humans think that Gods must be crazy, but what they don’t know that it is them who are crazy. Just the other day he was cursing me no end, but at that moment he was glad I was there. I could make that from the gleam in his eyes. I pray to God to give me enough strength and make me grow in size such that the next time he runs over me, he gets such a ‘touch’ he’ll never forget in his life.

I often wonder about my parents. The elder potholes in our colony have taken such care of me that I don’t really miss my parents. But sometimes during the night I wonder if my parents might be among the countless stars in the sky. I dream of leading a quiet, peaceful life with papa pot-hole, mama pot-hole and a lil’ brother pothole until another one of the devils runs over me.

Let me share a secret with you all. We pot-holes are not actually very sure about our gender. Most of us assume our genders. What makes our situation even more piquant is that we are not ‘born’ normally. We come into existence by an , a tiny somewhere ‘evolves’ into a fully-grown pothole. I often wonder about what my name could be. Few days back, a bespectacled engineering student was almost kicked to by his friends when suggested a name for me. ‘Harry Pot-holer’!. His idea didn’t quite appeal to his friends. I guess I know what name I like. A female, the most beautiful I have seen till date, came close to me, slowed down and passed over me with such gentle care that I almost felt like I was in an embrace with her. Then with her soft, silky voice she gave me a name-‘Oeemah’. Yes, my name is Oeemah.

Ok, I guess it’s time to move on. I wish you all the best in this roller-coaster jouney called Life. And remember, no profanities the next time you come across a hurdle(pothole) on the road or in your life. It’s your creation and that your backache is not my headache. Don’t fall down, but recover soon and keep your eyes wide open and reach your destination without any hitches.

Dressed and Confused(DBCAs)

‘Open 24 hours’. In a fast-moving, never-sleeping,maximum city like Mumbai, one would expect such a thing to be written at a restaurant close to a railway station or more likely at a guest-house. But much to my amusement, I found this written across seemingly firm bosom of a mannequin at a Mega-Mart outlet in the suburban Kandivili. The very next day at my CAT centre I chanced upon this female (ok, a candidate) wearing the same T-shirt. No less than 44 eyes were ogling at her. 18 wore an amused look, 20 were looking at her just like any guy would look at a good-looking girl (maybe the T-shirt was what attracted them towards her, else it’d have been some other girl who’d be the object of their attention). And some 6 wore a seriously menacing look which seemed to say, ‘ok, let’s see what you’ve got madam’. Not that they intended to do anything dangerous, but the ‘bold’ statement the madam wanted to make had had its effect.

Now let’s come to the broader question. Before that let me ask myself one very pertinent question which you as a reader would want to ask me. The question being-‘what problem do I have with people wearing what they want to wear? ‘. At the outset, I’m a liberal and have no problem with people wearing what they are comfortable with. But what never misses out of my mind’s scanner and my watchful eyes is this whole thing of people wearing T-shirts to give out some kind of an attitude or to make a statement. If one is hip, hep, hop and dude/dudette -ish enough to carry him/herself well with the kind of attire he/she is wearing, that’s hardly anybody’s problem. But things tend to get a bit complicated when this segment of confused, wannabe youth wears T-shirts which appears to confuse them even more and with all the attention such T-shirts attract, the feeling of discomfort is quite palpable.

Che Guevera,Jim Morrison must be turning in their graves now. They are the ones seen most on these t-shirts PYTs wear. Yet they remain as foreign as ever. No, I’m not talking of that 8-year old kid who serves us tea near the college gate. He wears a Linkin park T-shirt with LP written in bold letters in fluorescent on a pitch black t-shirt. The shoulders of the T-shirt extend well beyond his elbow. Forget LP, he probably wouldn’t even be aware of Dr.Kalam being the president of India. I’m actually talking about this college-going student with a decent pocket money at his disposal, seven of ten of his ilk have a bike at their disposal too, hanging/chilling out with his friends at the most hip/hop/hep/ happening places in his city/town. You have more probability of finding such a vikas a.k.a viks in a tier 2 town than a city. But I wonder if wearing a black t-shirt with an ‘in your face’ face of Jim Morrison with ‘The Doors’ in glossy bold letters doesn’t exactly make him hip/hep/cool/. Complete the picture with a goatee, long hair, a yo-man with the ‘rock sign’ to boot interspersed with *ucks and screws, you have the DBCA- desi born confused American!

Am I actually saying that the kind of t-shirt one wears is an indication of an identity crisis or something? The point I might want to make is on a shaky ground and the arguments may not be backed by enough convincing arguments. But to me it appears more convincing than having to look and wonder at a female wearing a t-shirt which had –‘ for authorized persons only’ written right across her bosom.

P.S. Did the girl wearing that open 24 hours open t-shirt mean open as a noun or as a verb?

Who the hell wants to do engineering???

OK,Me and Shashank are like the most jobless people around(with our group, of course).We are literally jobless too,yet to be placed you see!!.

Following is the entire transcript of the conversation we had over yahoo messenger.It might make no sense at all, but I'm sure shashank and me had a very good time whacking our brains. Actually coming up with things like this gives me more joy than being a topper in exams.(More joy than second in technical,eh Skunk??..n me third..what say??balls to that:))

Exams fast approaching and NEO asking me to sleep??

The next few days might see me not blogging at all or coming with a flurry of posts as to how engineering sucks...that'll also make for good reading,don't worry!

6 months back B.E== Best is Engineering(IIMA SPIC trip)
4 months back B.E== Best is Engineering (IIMA CHAOS trip)
3 months back B.E== Best is Engineering (SPIC week)
2-1 months back B.E== Best is Engineering(MINDBEND - informals,COCKTAIL)
15 days back B.E== Still,Best is Engineering
5 days back B.E== Bereft of Emotions(schedule announced!)
3 days back B.E== BASTARD ENGINEERING
now......... k.. enuf of bullshitting... BACK TO ENGINEERING...
*********************************************************************
sha_100_100: u there?
getnikhil2002: yeah...
sha_100_100: tht 4th april was a trap.... technical rap....u walked into it
getnikhil2002: will u please crap.........cut the crap?
sha_100_100: btw i came second in our test today.... got 22 in technical.... one of the highest
sha_100_100:
getnikhil2002: that is sash(ay)ing............ simply smashing....
getnikhil2002: calls for a greet---------grand treat
getnikhil2002: if a cat has had a good meal... will it say it was a purrfect meal?
sha_100_100: if a dog chases a leopard instead of a cat... wont u say its barking up the wrong tree?
getnikhil2002: are good females supposed to use sane(i)tary napkins?
sha_100_100: how do girls throw away the sane(i)tary napkins?
sha_100_100: ti-shoo
getnikhil2002: why are there no females in your cLASS?
sha_100_100: becos LSASS VULNERABLE
sha_100_100: .exe
getnikhil2002: isn't it a bit missleading....this word called cASStratred??
sha_100_100: ya i think it should rather hv been cass'TREATED'!
getnikhil2002: the university vice chancellor has become inVCble
sha_100_100: wud u take incest in zest?
sha_100_100: speaking of miss leading .... what do u think abt the word 'AWAY'lable?
getnikhil2002: this novel HARD times by charles DICKens...
getnikhil2002: somebody passed away... he went to paraDIES..
sha_100_100: and this character master bates in oliver twist.... this DICK(ens) really knew how to twist and screw things
getnikhil2002: guess he had an UNCANNY KNACK of screwing things..... probably was a meCANNYcal engineer..
sha_100_100: god doesnt play dice.... he just makes sure the guy dies
getnikhil2002: if you proposed a girl from electrical... will she reFUSE?
sha_100_100: rather a ME-CANNY-KAL engr...one from the past
getnikhil2002: will pumelo get a FAIRwell??
sha_100_100: oh my god .... that trical girl is 'circuit'
sha_100_100: can an impotent guy get a wel'cum'?
getnikhil2002: who's a gujju guy who is sexually inactive?? cum less === kamlesh...
sha_100_100: what do u call a fat wedded couple
sha_100_100: what do u call a fat wedded GUJJU couple
getnikhil2002: ??
sha_100_100: MARRY GO ROUND
sha_100_100: did u hear abt the screeching prostitute>?
sha_100_100: did u hear abt the screeching prostitutes?
getnikhil2002: no...
sha_100_100: the WHORES were HOARSE
getnikhil2002: ok u r talking abt the that one prosTITute...
sha_100_100: do u know what el'L'e can do to u?
getnikhil2002: if prostitutes had a school... how would they be evaluated..
sha_100_100: she can change u from affable to 'L'affable
sha_100_100: how
getnikhil2002: they would be evaluated on the basis on prostutorials,,,PT in short
sha_100_100: what is the answer?
getnikhil2002: they would be evaluated on the basis on prostutorials,,,PT in short
getnikhil2002: even in deFEAT ... a person achieves a FEAT
sha_100_100: and that person is also EATing
sha_100_100: btw how did u upload htose photos>
getnikhil2002: how will a female customer walking to a gigolo ask two questions in one sentence?
getnikhil2002: www.photobucket.com
getnikhil2002: are you stRATE?
getnikhil2002: www.flickr.com is better i guess...
sha_100_100: what is a male prostitute playing in a band called>? ...this ones a sitter.....
sha_100_100: a jigole
sha_100_100: a 'jig'olo
sha_100_100: sorry its a 'gig'olo
getnikhil2002: how will the lead singer scold the guitarist??
sha_100_100: how
getnikhil2002: you BASStard..............
getnikhil2002: type in here ,,,,guess HERsha's left....continue here,,,
getnikhil2002: yeah even ppl have been telling me abt this,,,but seriously it does take some brains to thINK this way......
sha_100_100: my sha?
getnikhil2002: ??
sha_100_100: some BRA IN wat>
getnikhil2002: i'm blind.... i know BRA ILLA(e) ...
sha_100_100: a blind tamil girl is ????
getnikhil2002: ??
sha_100_100: BRA ILLAD
sha_100_100: i think ive reached SATURation point.....its 4 am on a saturday
getnikhil2002: and we still haven't sLEFT...
getnikhil2002: ok.. we'll stop after i sEND you this message...
sha_100_100: and ill give you some bYES
*************************************************************************

10 ways to irritate your hostelmates!

Here are 10 ways to irritate your hostelmates.

Statutory Warning: Using any of the below means might lead to .. many things!!Try and see!

10.The classic: Lock them up inside their rooms or in the bathrooms when they are bathing!

9. Take their buckets and mugs and don't return them for days, weeks or even months.

8. Barge into their rooms, stand idle for 5 mins and come back.

7. After 5 mins again do no.8

6. Just go to the mike and shout " AS-3 Bharath phone hold hai --ghar se phone hai." .Mr.Bharath is fast asleep,wakes up runs to the mike and finds out that there was no phone call.The next morning you tell him that was probabaly a dream!

5. Diwali time,knock on the door,the bechara opens the door and before he realises DHUM, the cracker bursts right infront of him!

4. If your hostels are all wired up with LAN,spam them asking their opinions on spamming!

3. Cold winter nights, go infront of the mess with a plate and spoon sound a bell, people assemble thinking it was a tea-bell. And when they realise that was a hoax join them in abusing the culprit and leave!!

2.Old one but still,use their tooth paste,hair oil, shoe polish,vaseline,.. most importantly water which they take all the trouble to fill. Better still empty the bottle.



1.Play songs like KYUNKI SAAS BHI KABHI BAHU THI on full volume on your computer, lock your room and go out of the hostel on Sundays!and rejoice you've just disturbed their hafte bhar ka sleep!!

Time for a P.J (Poor Joke, for starters!)

Seriously, quite busy these days doing something on the 'creative' side!(Will write shortly(not lengthwise!)).But still squeeze in some time for P.J.s rather they come naturally to us.

Ok,So here it is ..

"

















"

What did i write? Nothing.
Who is a person who has nothing.POOR
So, that was a POOR JOKE!!!

P.S I'm glad people reading it are not around. When I told this to people here, they actually tried to smash me!!

EverYthINg'S In ThE naME!

We've had lots of arbit translations of indian names especially the marathi,bong,mallu ones....heard many like .. what is a dashing mallu called--debonair...haha haha funnny!!!!

Here are some more coined by yours truly.. and i'd be damned if i don't acknowledge the inputs of my fellow PJ's(poor jokers).....

Here we go.....(I seem to use this a lot!!)

1.A woman with three cows..."gaya"three....GAYATHRI!!!

2.A woman with hundred cats...."sou"meow....SOUMYA!!!!

3. A woman who knows the hindu scriptures..."sung""geeta"...SANGEETA!!(too vague!)

I'm no male chauvinist but haven't come across anything for the male names...additions to this list would be welcome....

Well well...
I have indeed come across one for a male name ....

that makes it 4 ...5 infact if you include ellie's(??ram's??) pushpa..

5.Ram after having an energetic meal......strength==bal in hindi so...BALRAM!!
(now SVNITians no arguments on that ..balram IS a male name!!!)

still seeking for some more additions...