The Scribble Pad

Who's being bumped anyways ..

2006-09-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

convergence-20050306-15_55_38-0190
Originally uploaded by Amar Agrawal.

Spot the optical illusion :D

passing me by - Flickr Pic of the Day

2006-09-12T04:03:00.000-07:00

passing me by
Originally uploaded by sint.

If someday you wonder, that the whole world is just passing you by .. and it makes u a little sad. Stop for a while on the corner of the road to admire the hues.

Don't u feel a little luckier this way?

Show Off - Flickr Pic of the Day

2006-09-10T04:37:00.000-07:00

Show offs
Originally uploaded by av_producer.

When u dance, everything else should be just blurred out. Feel the music inside, close your eyes. Smile ..

And if you are with that special someone, just be one.

Ambigrams Again ...

2006-06-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

If you didn't knew, it reads amar upside down as well as right side up :)

Reservations: I protest ...

2006-05-25T04:56:00.000-07:00

A lot has been said, written and discussed over the reservation bill imposed(not proposed) by the government. Here is a collective summary of the important points and a plausible solution henceforth ...

The facts:

All state level institutions already implement the 22% SC/ST and 27% OBC reservations.
The proposed hike is for IITs/IIMs and other 20 institutes of higher education.
After mass protests all over the country, the government has assured that the seats for general cateogory students will not be reduced. Instead more infrastructure will be built to support the hike which is to be carried out in 3 phases of 9% each.
The politicians incharge of the whole process have no idea of the statistics that justify the proposed bill as evident from several stinging interviews by Karan Thapar.

The anti-reservation (hike) activists have doubts regarding the effectiveness of reservations as a tool to uplift the socially oppressed lower classes. The lack of updated statistics justifying the hike as well as an unclear roadmap to provisioning for increased number of seats, proper monitoring to ensure that the it reaches the poeple who actually need and gradual phasing out of any reservations, are some of the issues being raised.

The way I see it :

The government could/should have projected this as a step to provide greater opportunities for the historically under-priviledged classes of society, from the start. Instead of stealing seats from one section of the society and distributing it to the other section!
The statistics justifying this hike must be published by the government, and only then should the bill have been passed. Data regarding the actual percentage of OBC classes throughout India should be collected, as well as the statistics about the effectiveness of reservations in state level institutions must be evaluated. A review of the criteria under which a class is included in the OBC category is of utmost importance, those that have done well for themselves over the years must be removed from the list.
The government should also focus on primary/secondary education and look to cultivate better candidates through scholarships, so that reservations are not needed for higher education. Finally the only way to evaluate that we know of is MERIT.
It has been observed that the many students that are admitted to institutes of higher education through reservations are unable to cope with the studies and are hence forced to leave after a few years. Inorder to help with this, an extra year of training is provided to such students at IITs before they joining the main course work. This is a good step and must be carried out at other institutes too!
It should be ensured that the reservation system is phased out over the years. For example, descendants of those who have already been benefitted by the reservation scheme would not be eligible. Thus, a reducing percentage of population will be eligible for reservation, eventually there will be none.

Final Comments:
The protests to this reservation hike would hopefully have conveyed a message to the government that they need to be more responsible, informed and sensitive to social issues. The Indian political opposition is weak at best and votebank guided policies abound. The media has a bigger role to play in modern India, the web is a great resource that is being utilized to greater levels by the not-so-ignorant society today.

I am sure I must have missed a few points .. hopefully those will come up in the comments.

ps: I am just anti-anti :) I support reservations .. but the implementation just sucks!!

Catch me if you can ..

2006-05-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

Spreadin' the word .. hoping that more people read this ...

Damn u Murphy !!

2006-05-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Nothing is deadlier than when Murphy takes it personally to whip ur bottoms!

Picture this ..

You call in sick to ur advisor's meeting citing a troubled stomach .. and just a day later he catches you red-handed holding a pizza platter in your hand, just when you are about to much into that juicy little stuffing (after fighting your own inner battles). Holy coppoli :((

Layer that with some classical sarcasm from HIM and some smirks/taunts from your colleagues, who have in their own sweet past have had similar-but-not-quite-the-same horrific guide interactions .. and u get the picture quite faintly !! You shamefully hand-over the gourmet dish to those stalking vultures .. aah the pain.

.. btw I have had worse .. imagine your guide asking if you partied too much .. drinking vodka and stuff .. actually that was redeemed with that LONG islandIceTea at the last presentation treat :P

I need a break from all these MURPHY incidents .. its time O'Lord!

Performancing - A firefox extension for blogging.

2006-05-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is a test post to see if I can actually blog from my browser w/o going thru all the strenous login->select blog->create post activities.

Of Waterfalls and more ...

2005-07-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

Its 4.30 already ... gotta get ready ... hurry! just one last email!

And so it began ... a trip to Matheran on a wonderful IIT morning. We were behind schedule (as usual) but we could afford a quick stop at Maddu's before leaving for Kanjurmarg. An hour and a half hour long trip to Neral followed with a train change at Thane.

Neral is the closest train station to Matheran. We took a rick from there upto the base of the hills (some Jammabhatti) at 20/- per seat. Had our tea, wondering all the while if it would rain (Hey bhagwan .. aaj barsaa do !!)

We could hear a waterfall nearby and ashish decided to have a look around. A short while later we were all enjoying the cold waters in this wonderful little waterfall downhill across the road.

Mausi joins in shortly! Ani then gave a shocker, he fell off the slippery rocks and was riding down the waterfall. Managed to hold on to some rocks after a nasty fall :D Ouch !!

We move on to a long walk uphill stopping at every waterfall in the way. Finally took a van to Matheran (20/- per head). We were all very hungry by then .. but food was a 45min walk away. Had reasonably good Maharashtrian thali at Suyog Bhojnalaya.

The tourist points in Matheran are all dispersed with a good 1 hr walk between most of them. We had to hurry back 'coz I had a meeting with Prof. Krithi in the evening (ani had work too .. ). We could see just three of the points - Khandala point(the nearest, learnt what walkin' thru clouds means ..), lake point(just a lake nothing much) and echo point(it did echo .. palmolive ka jawab hai). Feeling very sleepy by then, I wondered if sleeping the earlier night would have been the right idea!!

We made our way back to the base after an excruciating long walk. Took a taxi back to Neral and a local to Kanjurmarg from there. Just in time for the meeting, phew!!

Jatin Bharadia Rocks ....

2005-06-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

One of the many gems ...

Music for the farewell PART-Y? (Cause we have to...) [1].

So here is the deal.
As per I am told, by big brother (KM), we have to play some specific (relevant ?) songs for each of our seniors when their profile is being read.

Any suggestions, requests, orders are desperately encouraged.

-Jatin

[1] It's party time. P, A, R, T. Why? Because I gotta!

Life after the storm!!

2005-04-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

End of another semester and a whole academic year at IITB calls for celebrations!!

And celebration we had .. with lots of good food and a barrage of movies .. life is one big party!!!

Last month has been witness to what I see as temporal 'gluttony' and my friends term as 'tamas'. Call it whatever u want, but it sure has been an indulgence ..

Lots of NV stuff and did I mention this before .. Pizza Hut NV pizzas(Teekha Chicken, Tandoor Maha Mazaa .. ) ROCK!!

Here are some other places that you would wanna check out ..
1. Phaktoon - This mughlai place around 2Km from IIT(The halawa is just mind boggling .. can still savor the taste .. yummmy!!)
2. Subway - An American Sandwich chain(little costly but different than ur McDonalds and Pizza Huts)

On the movie front ...
Amelie - A feel good movie you just might like ..
Cidade de deus - A crime thriller - gentle comic touches and great story.
Good Fellas - Another crime drama with humor thrown in for good measure.

Clint Eastwood sucks ...

2005-04-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

I just can't seem to appreciate (gross understatement) the kinda of movies Mr. Clint Eastwood has to offer ...

First 'Million Dollar Baby' and now 'Mystic River'!!

Just one advice Mr. Clint get a f***ing story before u got out and make it a movie ..

[Genre : CRAP]

Mental Note: No Clint Eastwood movies for me.

CLOSER !!

2005-04-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Its been a looo..nnng time I have watched a movie and even longer a movie that has given me the chills!!

CLOSER with Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen is one heck of a movie. Its romance like you have never seen ... all real .. stark naked LIFE glaring through moments of love, despair, lust, and truth!!

Awesome direction by Mark Nichols and soothing performances from everyone.

[Genre : Romantic Drama]

p.s. Natalie Portman is drop dead gorgeous.

A sunday well slept!

2005-02-20T03:23:00.000-08:00

Ok .. here's the thing ..

Ever since I joined KReSIT for my post graduation studies, there have been very few days(even fewer nights) that I have slept whole-heartedly. I mean yeah, you do sleep 6-8 hrs .. but the gratification u get out of a 14+ hour peaceful sleep is beyond everything(almost! ;)).

Just yesterday I had a mid-semester paper on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems and I ended up having a night-out. I had a paper at 10.00 a.m. and I made the utter mistake of going to my hostel room for refreshments at around 9.00. And to my horror I just slept ..

I woke up shocked (not disbelief - coz this has happened too many times ..) and pleadingly glanced at my alarm clock .... Thank GOD!! 10.00 a.m. I could still make it . That one hour of sleep could have easily turned out painfully longer!!

Last night I slept for over 12 hrs, celebrating I suppose .. and another 4 this afternoon .. SOLACE!!

The Book Exhibition

2005-02-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

Just the other day I was enlightening my friend about how weekends just swoosh by ..

And here I was at the start of yet another weekend, hoping it would be fruitful in some way!

There was this book exhibition at Churchgate and we (Me, Anusha, NagP and Shailesh) decided to go have a look. We left at around 11.00 and hoped to return by 2.00. We left for the Kanjurmarg station and took a local train to Dadar and from there to Churchgate. The gallery was a little distance away and we walked our way to it.

It took almost 2 hrs to get ourselves out with everyone carrying a handful :)

From there we strolled around a bit, had our lunch and finally decided to return back to KReSIT. It took us all day and we finally made it back till 5.30, all exhausted and weary.

My first Blog ..

2005-02-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

Here today as i stand, ready to Blog
Hats off to the dude who started this all
Inspired I am, and lost probably though
Thoughts I have but little do I know ..