mere funde

Category: Genthu

  • Quiz Actually!

    Please do not blame me. This is the title the PR dept came up with for an intra-company quiz contest.

    The elims were held yesterday. 30 questions (provided at the end), 30 minutes, 25 teams and 5 finalists to be chosen. The elims was fun and I hope a sign of things to come. Prepared by Rohan, a very interesting set of typical (though pretty easy ones) quiz questions. Anyways, the good news is that Ojas and me qualified (we were the last ones ;)). Yet another point ot note was that 5 out of the 10 finalists (5 teams) were BITSians. Sandeepan (’96, ELAS, BoB finalist), Ram (’98, HDC), Chaitanya (’98, PCr), Ojas (’01, Soundz), and yours truly.

    The finals are slated for Monday Tuesday, and I hope to have loads of fun then.

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  • Been there, done that!!

    This weekend was about as good as it gets. I mean one of the better ones in this place. Sanghi had come over on Friday evening. Dinner outside and then that crappy movie called Zinda. It is supposed to be another brilliant one from our very own Tarantino (the amount of blood and gore being the comparison), Sanjay Gupta but failed to make any impression on me other than the scene with the actress tied up 😉 Agle subah we woke up to head to NII where we had planned on spending the weekend with TK and Bharathi. Ride for Bansal and Sanghi must have been good in that Innova but was awesome for me. I did some 20 kms in 26 mins. Not that the speed was anything to boast about but the feeling of driving for such a distance in Delhi was good. I had always heard that it is difficult to ride a 2 wheeler in Delhi but I did not face much problems.

    We got there by lunch and headed off immediately to the New Shanthi Sagar Restaurant, which brought back all those memories from Bangalore. Topped it off with great kulfi-falooda at Evergreen. And now we were sleepy. So we headed back to NII and next two hours were devoted to some talk and lots of sleeping. Woke up in the evening to take a first look at the top of NII. This place took my breath away and is high on the list of places where booze must feel so different. Headed to JNU campus for a walk then and that place called PSR Rock. Brilliant place!! Watching an aircraft fly by was never better.

    It was time to bid Sanghi goodbye. We headed to the New Delhi Railway Station. Again drove and this time it was even better through those brilliantly peaceful areas of Lutyens Delhi. Very nice. Paked our bikes at Nirulas at CP and took the Metro (I fall more in love with it every time I ride it) to the Station. Reached the station, bid Sanghi goodbye and then headed back to CP (now Rajiv Chowk btw) to Nirulas Chinese Room. Had Won-Ton soup there and Veg Chopsuey (Yum!!). I am now a die hard fan of the food there and swear to go there at every possible opportunity.

    After that back to NII and then mostly chatting with Tk and that eccentric friend of his (whose name I don’t remember thanks to this great memory of mine). We stayed up till 2 I think talking about everything from Physics to bikes and how the chappie who wanted to “do” Physics ended up “doing” Immunology at NII.

    Woke up next morning and returned to Gurgaon as I had to catch up with some work and that is the glorious weekend came to an end. Btw, as an icing on the cake Schumi won the Imola GP 🙂 There is something about San Marino that gets the Ferrari horses prancing. Is it the tifosi gathering or the circuit being their own or just the number of red flags all over, I do not know but they sure help I guess 🙂

  • Bits and pieces

    Lots hasn't been happenning. But contained below are a few pieces I wanted to write about.

    1. Casanova sucks – Always thought that being Casanova required something special in the person like charisma and behaviour and a way with the ladies. Seems it doesn't!! Rejoice all geeks!! This yuccky movie suggests that it has to only do with how well is someone physically endowed!! Crappy movie. Avoid at all cost.

    2. India lost to Pakistan – One more game left. Let's see if India can bounce back. Also Indian management (if there is one) has decided to give Sehwag and Kaif a break. Sachin has taken a break from WI ODI series and players are complaining of burn outs. And why are we having those matches in Abu Dhabi again?

    3. Dr. Rajkumar (kidnapped once by late Verrappan) passed away and his fans burnt down stuff in Bangalore, resulting in a very-long weekend.

    4. Also I turned 23 last weekend. Hmm!! I feel old.

    5. A piece of shayari I read here.

    haalaat ke tiiron se chhalnii hain badan apne
    paas aao ke siine ke kuch zakhm to bhar jaayein

    simtii huii yeh ghadiyaan, phir se naa bikhar jaayein
    is raat mein ji lein hum, is raat mein mar jaayein

    ab subhaa naa aa paaye, aao yeh duaa maangein
    is raat ke har pal se raatein hi ubhar jaayein

  • The weekend that was!!

    So what did I do this weekend. if I list it out then it becomes pretty simple. A nice, and relaxed weekend. So I will actually list it out.

    1. Watched Rashomon. Brilliant. Now I know why Balu kept on talking about this director. Simple plot. Brilliant narration. Awesome acting. And facial expressions that ermoves the language barrier. 5 on 5 to it.

    2. Watched Baharain Grand Prix. Heartbroken. Schumi lost. But nice to see him back to where he belongs. Top of the lot. Must say that though Alonso is good, it is Kimi who I predict to take on Schumi this season. And the title will be closely fought for by the three.

    3. Watched parts of Aus vs. RSA. Unbelieveable. 434 getting chased. Ponting must be actually wondering what went wrong. To me any ground with such short side boundaries arent good for one dayers. Bowlers were getting clobbered like crazy. Anything the batsmen touched most times reached the boundaries. But great chase none the less.

    4. Watched Transamerica. Mixed it up with North Country but a very good movie none the less. Dragged Bansal along. He might still be cursing me 🙂 Traces a week in the life of a transexual, just before he is supposed to become a woman and he spends the week with his son. Great acting and a sensitive subject very well handled. Must watch. 4 on 5 to it.

    5. Last but not the least. Attended a CII conference on Biotech. I must say that seeing the people in charge of the business in India, I was thoroughly disappointed and understood why no innovation has taken place in India in this field by the private sector. Their view is so narrow. One of the gentlemen said that Biotech is not IT (a very high poisition holding guy). Surely it isn’t. You people do not aim as high or world class as Premji or NRM or anyone else. They all kept cribbing about the high cost of infrastructure whereas one new discovery in the same field, could finance for them 10 new labs. Come on guys dream big. Only sane voice was that of a female (Ph.D. from NII) from Dabur Research Foundation (Dr Rama Mukherjee, Director). She said it was imperative that we look for more collaboration between the industry and the academia. Very well said since DRF is one such foundation. I talked to her after the conference (over some good lunch) and she did remember the project Dr Das was executing and I was proud member of the team. A def high for me 🙂

  • Yippieeeeee!!

    Did two online transactions over the last two days to complete my transformation to an e-shopper.

    1. Booked air tickets for a trip home (first use of my new credit card) 🙂

    2. Booked a railway ticket for a friend from IRCTC (a government e-comm site and it works surprisingly well) 🙂

    Things are so much easier thanks to the internet. No more standing in line to book a railway ticket. No more sweat. No more paying the stupid middle-man. I must say this is one place Lalu Prasad Yadav has done well (Maybe he did nothing for it, but he should get some credit).