Movie comment- “I am Kalam”

Rarely I find a movie that is poignant yet not sorrowful or morose. “I am Kalam” leaves an impression. It may not be the most technically sound movie you will see, but the main character, Kalam, is beautifully written and characterised. I quote from the letter Kalam writes to Kalam,”
आदरणीय राष्ट्रपति सा,
थोड़ी लिखी, [मगर] बहुत समझना, चिठ्ठी को तार समझके जलदी जवाब देना. मैं ढाबे में काम करनेवाला बच्चा हूँ, जिसकी ज़िन्दगी आपने बदलदी .
मैं समझ गया की हर बच्चा लाल बहादुर शास्त्री बन सकता हैं, और राष्ट्रपति कलाम भी . बस इतना ही कहना हैं . और हाँ, thank you भी बोलना हैं .
आपका आज्ञाकारी student.
कलाम
“

Stop scrolling the Marquee guys!

It is a bit distracting. Somdev grabbed the headlines but all you notice here is that bright orange marquee that leaves your mind confounded.  It seems like they have hired a clan of  designers who learnt HTML “programming” in the late nineties. . I remember how excited I was when I managed to copy-paste HTML code for a scrolling marquee and opened it up in IE. That was 1998. This is 2010. Meanwhile, our marquee clan was busy designing the following-

http://www.indianrail.gov.in/

http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/

http://www.maharashtra.bsnl.co.in/default1.asp (A Work of Art)

http://www.india.gov.in/

http://www.mpsc.gov.in/MPSC/

http://indiannavy.nic.in/

http://indianairforce.nic.in/

http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/

among many many others that share the same top-level domain, the gov-dot-ins and the nic-dot-ins.

Somebody needs to get the message across to the clan leader that marquees are bad design. Even if it goes top-bottom!

And don’t even get me started on these >> !

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Principle Put To The Test

After several weeks of procrastination, I finally got down studying for the Responsible Conduct of Research course. Only halfway through the course material I was feeling like Tom in the poem printed below.

A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest,
Had once his integrity put to the test;
His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob,
And ask’d him to go and assist in the job.

He was shock’d, sir, like you, and answer’d, “Oh no!
What! rob our good neighbour! I pray you, don’t go;
Besides, the man’s poor, his orchard’s his bread,
Then think of his children, for they must be fed.”

“You speak very fine, and you look very grave,
But apples we want, and apples we’ll have;
If you will go with us, you shall have a share,
If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear.”

They spoke, and Tom ponder’d- “I see they will go;
Poor man! what a pity to injure him so!
Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could,
But staying behind will do him no good.

“If the matter depended alone upon me,
His apples might hang till they dropp’d from the tree;
But, since they will take them, I think I’ll go too,
He will lose none by me, though I get a few.”

His scruples thus silenced, Tom felt more at ease,
And went with his comrades the apples to seize;
He blamed and protested, but join’d in the plan:
He shared in the plunder, but pitied the man.

Excerpt from “‘Pity for Poor Africans’, by William Cowper

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The Importance of Giving Back.

This article in the Times of India made me think and think enough that I decided to write a blogpost about it, when I remembered I don’t need to compose the post it since a a very good friend of mine, Abhishek had already done it for me.

The following is a letter Abhishek wrote to fellow COEPians when we graduated in 2008.

–

Dear Fellow Students,

Today I attended the lecture by Dr.Smoot in our college about the
origins of our universe. Granted that he could’ve been more engaging
and probably made his talk better suited to the audience, and more
far-ranging – it still was a pretty darn neat. I don’t mean to be
derisive or anything here, but I was personally glad to see our huge
auditorium filled people, when no one was singing or dancing. We must
also commend the folks from Honeywell for thinking of such a great
idea, and more importantly executing it so well.

But on a wider scale, this is an excellent opportunity to talk about
our responsibility as students. I’m in my final year, and I’ll pass
out this year. I’ve seen the college change under autonomy, and a lot
of what is happening is excellent and I personally like it a lot. A
lot of this is due to Dr. Sahasrabudhe, and the new regime of
administrators and policy-makers at COEP. We must commend them for the
work they’re doing, albeit in small, sometimes unseen ways. What I’ve
found out about them is that, most importantly, they’re reasonable
people who are willing to listen to us. So as students, it’s important
that we think of issues that concern us, and make sure they’re
addressed. The college has changed, and will keep changing, and it’s
important we change along with it.

More importantly, the point of writing this email is that we remain
connected to our college, in whatever way possible. As I’m sure most
of you will realise, what our college gives to us is not instruction
in *a* particular subject or a particular discipline, but general
lessons overall. It also gives us opportunities and a brand – that has
been created by a lot of other students, who were exactly like us in
many ways. So realising that COEP is not just another chapter in your
life, but a part of your identity as a person is an extremely
important step into this journey of giving back.

We’re a culture of quantity. To be frank, though we might have
hundreds of thousands of institutions of higher education. their
quality is abysmal to say the least. Even COEP, considered to be among
the best in the country, has a long way to go – if it has to come even
close to its American or European counterparts. And we, as students
have an important part to play, in achieving this goal. I’m sure we’ll
get there sometime – but like good, professional organisations we must
set targets, and achieving transformational change within our
lifetimes has to be our goal.

On a more basic level here are a few ways one can stay connected, and
“give back” to use a cliched term.

1. Time
Come back. Visit. Say hi to old folks, old professors. Drop in
whenever you’re in town and see what’s going on. Maybe even teach,
full time or part-time. Mentor someone.

2. Money + Time
Set up prizes, develop a sustainable scheme for keeping these going.
I’m sure if everyone sets apart Rs.10,000 per year, to award one
deserving student, that itself would be a great achievement. People
are already doing this in small measures – and you can think of
innovative and effective ways to make your money count.

3. Just Money
This is the simplest really. Donate to college fund on a regular
basis. Convince colleagues, maybe past students to give back too. I’ve
just talked to a friend of mine who passed out, and he said he’d give
$2000 a year to the college, once he starts earning. That’s not bad,
really.

I hope I’ve got you thinking in this regard via this mail. The whole
point is to keep this idea somewhere in the back of your mind. As long
as the thought is there, we’ll maybe have our own Nobel Laureate
addressing people in 50 years time!

–
Cheers,
Abhishek
(B.Tech Comp Sci)

That was surprising!

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kalam-attends-sai-babas-birthday/26864-3.html

Abdul Kalam attends Satya Sai Baba's Birthday!

Winter brake.

Extreme ways are back again
Extreme places I didn’t know
I broke everything new again
Everything that I’d owned
I threw it out the window; came along
Extreme ways I know will part the colors of my sea
perfect colored me

Extreme ways they help me
They help me out late at night
Extreme places I had gone
That never seen any light
Dirty basements, dirty noise
Dirty places coming through
Extreme worlds alone
Did you ever like it planned?

I would stand in line for this
There’s always room in life for this

Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart

Extreme sounds that told me
They held me down every night
I didn’t have much to say
I didn’t give about the life
I closed my eyes and closed myself
And closed my world and never opened up to anything
That could get me at all

I had to close down everything
I had to close down my mind
Too many things could cut me
Too much could make me blind
I’ve seen so much in so many places
So many heartaches, so many faces
So many dirty things
You couldn’t even believe

I would stand in line for this
It’s always good in life for this

Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart

Oh Baby, oh baby

Oh baby, oh baby

Then it fell apart, it fell apart Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
Oh baby, oh baby
Like it always does, always does

–

“Extreme Ways” by Moby

Why beg?

A friend asked me whether I have donated to Wikipedia- The Free Encyclopedia and when I replied “No, I am not supposed to.” he was quite amused. I continued “Its supposed to be free, right?  Why are they asking me for money?  That they cannot run it for free anymore means that something is not quite right.  Probably they should have thought about this when they started it.  Now, I don’t want to ‘spend’ money, but I don’t want to be feeling like a selfish encyclopedia-freeloader either! I like to use it free because it IS free …Oh save me those emotional messages on the header! Heh!”.

Longest bicycle ride.

I intended to take a break and lunch along the lakeside somewhere so I packed sandwiches and some fresh fruits. When I started riding, I didn’t feel like stopping. So, I didn’t.  After about 3 hrs and 10 mins of nonstop biking I returned home. I covered a distance of approximately 25 miles in the trip. This was my longest single bicycle ride . This is also my dullest post.

Simpsonized

This is how I look these days.

Exhilaration.

A sudden burst of energy and excitement.  Something that you would experience when you are just staring outside the window on a cloudy day and it begins to rain. Then you run 2 miles towards downtown in the torrential and cold downpour, stare at tornado winds and walk back slowly.