Naveen's Journal

No, these lakes are not the ones associated with Mumbai, nor any pilgrimage as you may ponder. Located in the southern suburbs of Calcutta, whithin the serene campus of Indian Institue of Management, Calcutta in Joka, they cover a better part of the sprawling 135 odd acres of the eminent B school of India. Courtesy Siddharth, my childhood buddy, currently on the rolls of PGDCM 2005-07 there, and more to my habit of last minute desperations for anything important, yesterday i had the good fortunes to get up n close with the one of the most coveted institutions of higher education in India. Had he not taken the CAT bulletin for me the previous day (the last day too!) , i’d have had to be content with the memories of the excursion only, quashing any hopes whatsoever of gracing any of the IIMs with my presence as their guest for 2 years! It was not to be. The goody-goody guy sid is (at least seems so), not only did he bunk his already-down-in-the-dumps Financial Accounting class for it, but also gave me a guided tour of the college premises with an obvious sense of pride, coated with humility. We started off with the hostel itself, his room being adjacent to the Computer Lab, the Common Room …… and ……….. the GIRLS’ HOSTEL…………!!!!!!! yes, the Girls’ Hostel. Moving on to what looked like a small club, having a tennis court, a basketball court outside, inside was the empty gymnasium, as if its ultramodern equipments begging to be used! Alongside was the indoor badminton court, slick enough to give the ones maintained by national authorities a run for their money! With such facilities in-campus, i wonder how the college keeps churning out brains as it does. Next stop was the ultramodern auditorium at the heart of the campus which we didn’t go inside and moved on to the academic blocks. The thing which would strike anyone was the roll of honour hanging on the walls inspiring each of the 250 odd students each year. After having a good look at the lecture halls, we made a move and on the way saw the bird sanctaury, the Kendriya vidyalaya, the library, the administrative blocks. HELLO…. we are still in the campus! A good one and a half hours of the PILGRIMAGE was enough to give to me something to think about.

Sachin@man-of-the-match.com
RahulDravid@Jam-Jam.com
AnilKumble@Hurt-Keeper.com
AjitAgarkar@Give-Runs-To-Opponents.com
VirendarShewag@Will-score-200-in-200onedays.com
IrfanPathan@Shatapdi-Express.com
RoshanGavaskar@Never-ComeBack.com
Kaif@Indian-Jonty-Rhodes.com
YuvarajSingh@Only-fit-to-do-modeling.com
Azharuddin@match-fixer.com
AjayJadeja@another-match-fixer.com
HarbhajanSingh@Turbanator.com
ZaheerKhan@Always-Yorker.com
Balaji@Where-Is-He.com
KapilDev@Cry-On-BBC.com
ManojPrabakar@Video-Cassette.com
Sponsors@They-Earn.com
CricketFans@Are-They-Fools.com
Coach@No-Use.com
IndianTeam@When-Will-It-Win.com
ganguly@2minutesnoodles.com

During the past few weeks, so sick have been the follow ups on happenings around, in the electronic media, that it forces me to think as above. One rot after another keeps surfacing on the tube, and huh… we have a so called masala curry prepared to be served to the nation for the rest of the week. As if the REAL ISSUES don’t even exist! Be it the Salman-Aish fiasco, or the wedding of a fugitive’s daughter. The best the government or media could do was create a hoopla to rake in moolahs rather than constructively act against the mess. Doesn’t anyone from the press realise that ours is a country where things need to forced rather been taken care of by whoever should? Instead of concentrating on larger and more commonplace problems, and trying to force pace in an already crumbled DEMOCRACY ( I wonder how it is called one!), people seem to be more bothered about the ABC Readerships and TRPs. Unfortunately, if the trend continues, not many would be left to bother about them. Only bragging 24x7x365 over little achievements, which most countries would shrug aside as petty works, won’t do any good for the future of us. Filling up our shelves with copies of APJ’s Ignited Minds or Wings of Fire should be followed by at least 5% of work required to even dream of the objectives set in there. Anyone listening? Time for some reality check baby….

When Columbia came crashing down in 2003, few would have dared to bet on NASA to send another mission to SPACE, that too within a couple of years! But the successful launch of Discovery , although after a delay (thankfully so…. late better than never to return!), showed us all what mettel the NASA guys are made of. It not only signifies the advancements of technology well beyond the wildest imagination of mere mortals, but also reaffirmed the grit and strength that humans are capable of showing when required. The scheduled return of discovery is on 7th of August, pending which i’m sure none of the scientists involved, would be able to blink an eye, and for which millions would be praying around the world.

TATHAASTU!

Quite amazingly, about 10 mins. ago while i was coding away to glory, a network failure was followed by a sudden reboot of my workstation. Only for that dreaded black screen to be shown at restart laughing at my apathy Network guys diagnosed it as a crash.. and me left with no machine for the time being. Thanks to satty (he’s absent again), i’m sitting on his comp waiting for my machine to be fixed ( hoping to regain all my data too). Dunno what i’ll be working on tomorrow if it isn’t.

Not for nothing I’m an ardent fan of TOI. Apart from being the inspiration for this blog’s Title, every now and then it comes up with these really cool can’t-help-but-get-addicted-to kinda stuffs, the latest of which is MOUSTRAP. Here’s a listing of some of its contents (with my take on them) –

• How Stuffs Work – The name says it all! From the principles of working of ubiquitous things like a matchstick, to the complex mechanism (or physics, Chemistry and what not!) of a nuclear bomb – this is one place where u’ll find it all.
• The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest – All of us have at some point or the other come across “It was a dark and stormy night….. “, which is the most written opening line of a novel. Well for those of who you don’t know yet, it is also considered to be THE MOST SICK WAY to start a novel, and this site welcomes entries from public to complete the line, the winner to be awarded as THE MOST WRETCHED WRITER..! (I have a decent chance… don’t I!)
• Future Me – How about setting a task for yourself to be done in the year…. say….2030! Well I plan to take a cross galaxy tour in summers that year . But how would you remember it? This is one of the most amazing sites which will e-mail you anything which you wish at any day you wish until 2035! Just enter your email address (One which you do not intend to trash away before your appointment day) and the message which you wish to receive on a particular day. And VOILA..! You’ll be notified.

Cheers