Tagged, AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This seems to be the month for tag's. Here's another tag, that i got while i was writing my previous one. This was gifted to me by Hari Vishnu and i returned the favour by givin my previous tag to him. This looked a bit easy at first, coz it wasn't that much to think about. I felt i'd do it in a day and that's what i did :). So without much delay the tag; it's about listing 8 items about various topics. So here goes :

Eight things I am passionate about:
1) My Family : My Dad, Mom and sister and i'd like to add one more person to this family very shortly. Err, about 3-4 years to be precise; if we don't experience many probs. If you've read my previous post u'll know the kind of probs i'm talking about.
2) My friends : They come next in the list, though most times they're the one's who help me out with various problems. Since i'm not yet officially married to the person i love; she'd also come in this list and she's among the most helpful friends i have. But then at times it's the other way round too meaning, she's the reason for the troubles :).
3) My rides : It'd be better to say i WAS very very very passionate about my rides. I still love to drive whenever some senior gets too helpful and does the favour of giving me his bike in the hostel here. I'm always a Biker and even though driving a car is fun i still love my Bike.
4) Books : This is my current passion, mainly coz i'm deprived of the pleasures of having a computer or a laptop. So i do spend a lot of time in the world of books. Have a huge list of authors and i usually enjoy reading thrillers. When i'm in the mood for it i enjoy some serious literature as well.
5) Quizzing : Though i feel i'm getting worse at this day by day, i still am very passionate about my quizzing. I still love to relive those moments when i was in college and won a few quizzes(very few thanks to better teams).
6) Multimedia: I'd like to copy this from Hari. He used this word and i'd say i too couldn't find a better word which brings together internet, music, movies and video. These are great passions of mine. I enjoy the time i spend watching movies and anyone who's come to my home or seen my collection of movies and songs would testify for that.
7) Food : Though this comes at the bottom of the list, it doesn't mean i don't give it sufficient weight. I'm among those who live to eat, rather than eat to live. Anyone who's seen me would surely agree to that :)
8) Blogging : Even though i'm not giving it as much time as i used to, i still would say that i'm very very passionate about my blogging. My friends at work would vouch for that, coz they know how much time i steal from them to use the computer for my blog. I'm not writing this to earn praise of sympathy, but i feel sad that i don't do justice to my blog nowadays.

Eight things I want to do before I die:
Well lot of things:
1) Be able to be there when my wife gives birth to our children.
2) Start a firm of my own and be a good employer.
3) Be able to fit into a size L t-shirt. That's a wish i'd love to make come true.
4) Have a Hayabusa, Ferrari and a Rolls Royce Phantom in my garage.
5) Fly a fighter plane and if possible gun down a few people from my last post.( i know it'd take someone like Ratan Tata to do so :), but then its a dream list)
6) Goto the Swiss Alps, Caribbean and Hawaii for my honeymoon and extended honeymoons.
7) Become a writer of repute and be able to live off my royalties :); now that's definitely a dream.
8) Earn a noble prize in Physics, Literature and Peace respectively, thereby being the 1st person to do so :)

Eight things I say often:
1) M***e
2)P***
3)Oh F***
4)Naaaaaaariiiiiiiiiii(when i'm addressing a very close friend
5)Harami(New title for close friends in hostel)
6)MC, BC( for closer friends in hostel)
7)Sorry(yeah i say that a LOT)
8)Love you(only to one person)

Eight books I’ve read recently:
1) Catcher in the Rye
2) The Godfather
3) The Prophet
4) All quiet on the Western Front
5) Wheels
6) Atlas Shrugged
7) Love in the time of Cholera
8) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Eight songs I could listen to, over and over:
1) Hotel California - Eagles
2) Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
3) Yaaron Dosti - KK
4) Kadhal Rojave - SPB
5) Aadat - Jal
6) Tum Se Hi - Mohit Chauhan
7) Devasabhatalam - Yesudas
8) Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden


Eight things that attracts me to my best friends:

1) That i'm a good problem solver.
2) They find someone who won't beat them down when they make fun of me
3) They will get free rides on my bike and car
4) They would get sound advice on anything under the sun.
5) They would get a patient listener.
6) They would have someone who'd be there anytime they want, any place they want.
7) I love them for whatever they maybe, even if they turn to be backstabbers.
8) We bitch about people whom we hate, and i am VERY good at that.

Eight people I think should do this tag:

1) Hari
2) Abhijith
3) Njaan
4) Freebird
5) Renji
6) Sreehari
7) GWBE
8) Rohin

Hatred and Me????????????????????

After a long loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg gap i'm tagged by someone. :). I'm quite happy because that gives me something to write in this blog other than the misfortunes happening to me! What could i say, even though i was happy to accept the tag from Mr Njaan(What a funny name, isn't it?), i won't say that its a happy tag. It basically is about:

(1) Posting about 5 different characters you hate.
(2) Passing on the tags to 5 different bloggers.
So without much yapping about how much i hate to tell the public about my objects of hatred, i'll start:
1) Phonies: They are right on top of my list because these are the kind of people who don't deserve a life from my point of view. They don't live for themselves, they live to make others belive that they are SOMETHING IMPORTANT. I used something with the understanding that they are what we say in malayalam as SAMBHAVAM. They tend to believe that the world revolves around them and they are the best thing to happen to the world after cell phones. They are of many kinds, guys who behave differently when a hot chick walks in, Managers who don't work and then show up on the site with all kind of instructions when the top management appears to inspect the job, people who ditch you when u need them the most, people who take advantage of you for wrong reasons, even people who show off their costly spare parts in front of a not so welcoming audience and enjoy that glory and so on and on..........

2) Reality Show Anchors and Judges: I differ a bit on this with Njaan, he hated everything associated with it, while i believe that some of the participants are genuinely talented, but the anchors are really really crap and so are most of the judges. Some are outrightly stupid and will give anything to make the audience cry, while some are so rude that they want me shove a spade up ther @$$.

3) Gossipmongers : People who spend their lifetime making false newsreports about others and take pleasure in making others' lives miserable. They could be saying anything from who someone is going out with or even may go upto who somebody slept with the previous night.

4) Perverts : These are guys who take pleasure in doing abnormal things, like Mr Moninder Singh who love to do things that one wouldn't even wish that his enemy got. These people have no right to live in this world, if i were the ruler of the country, i'd lynch them personally and then hang them on a noose so that nobody dares to do this.

5) Casteists/Religious Fanatics : People who bother so much about the caste and religion so much so that they'd kill for it. I'm personally against anything to do with caste/religion. This maybe due to the fact that i've had a few crushes broken because the girl wasn't from my caste/religion. YES, Indian GIRLS do think about all this while falling in love(at least gals in TVM do). I've had numerous proposals being dumped by the girl because i was from a different religion or caste. These things are way too old and way too stupid to be observed now. Maybe for some religion is a good thing, it gives them direction and maybe means of living, but then nobody has the right to take lives in the name of religion. This is what i belive and personally i hate people who propogate such kind of thoughts , even if it is my ex-girlfriend.(I'd hate her more for other reasons)
I've been postponing the publishing of this post for a long long time, mainly because i didn't find enough in my head to fill the post with. Yeah, maybe my work has made me hate less or maybe that i'm too unattached from anyone i hated a few years back :)
I don't know whom i should tag in this, coz many people whom i blogroll have already done this tag, or are tagged by others. Still i'll tag some:

1) Hari Vishnu : Coz he gave me another TAG while i couldn't complete this :)
2) Viajero : Someone who's new among my readers, so here's a welcome gift :)
3) Abhilash Sir : I'd love to hear about his list of hatred :)
4) Gasmuttai : An adorable senior, who seems to have forgotten about his blog, so be a reason to start off again.
5) Sreehari : He too seems to have forgotten his blog, maybe the s8 exams are making his so.

That's it for now!

Is this a PORN magazine?

Don't be so surprised at the title of the blog, this was the question asked to me by a bystander while i was buying a Malayalam Edition of India's premier magazine 'India Today'when i went to Bhuvaneshwar last sunday. It happened when i was buying this issue :)

Hope now u know why someone who doesn't know Malayalam would comment like this when he goes just by the cover picture. Well what more to say, the magazine tells about the way SKIN(or rather SEX) sells in the film industry, and i guess that's the bottomline when it comes to selling the magazine as well.

I've always been a big-time reader of India Today. For the last 10 years or so, i've not missed a single issue. It's only after i've come to Orissa that i've given up on that habit and moved onto Outlook and Frontline. The reason being that India Today has turned more into the skin show kinda magazine that i never expected it to be. Off late there are more number of SEX Survey's that alarmingly say that the Indian youth is going down the drain and all. Being part of the YOUTH brigage it deeply hurts when such a post comes in a respectable magazine. The most recent survey i got my hands on told that 60% of all girls in the age group of 18-25 DRINK alcohol in INDIA. I wonder who supplies them with these figures. It's these figures that've always made me believe in the saying i once heard in a GD practise session "78.92% of all statistics are made on-the-spot"

How true!

PS: This isn't a post to escape the long gap for not blogging, i'd love to tell that i'm busy with work and all that yada-yada, but then the fact is that. My workplace hasn't been that liberal with internet usage off late :)

Birthday blues

Today i celebrated my 22nd birthday. Well it'll be wrong to say that i CELEBRATED, plainly because i didn't celebrate anything. Not because i don't like the idea of celebrating myself getting old or because i'm a snob who hates such celebrations. But then there were two main reasons why i didn't like the idea of CELEBRATING my birthday. One being that i'm not in the best of financial conditions to celebrate anything, let alone give my friends at work a decent party. Second being i'm not in the best of mental conditions for any kind of celebration. The financial conditions got so bad mainly due to my bad management of my salary. I ended up spending a lot more than i'd planned when i went to Kolkata. I more than 3k for the books i bought. I'd planned to buy around 1000 bucks worth of books and save the rest for my birthday and also for my now-cancelled leave to go home. But after getting back happily from Kolkata i'd a really bad week. It started with me being down on one day because of the extreme heat in the plant. The temperature in the town in around 40 deg and due to the conditions in the plant it's 5 deg more inside the plant. All this took a toll on me and i had a real bad time on tuesday evening and on wednesday morning i'd so much pain in my body that i couldn't get up from my bed. I decided to have a day off from work and just sleep thru th day. After spending half the day sleeping, i just got up and had some water. Slept again till evening and then went to see the doc. I'd told my problems and she first asked me if i'd fever. When i said no, she asked if i'd been out too much in the sun. When i replied positively, she said that i was suffering from sun stroke. WOW. Now that's something that you only get to hear in hi-fi fashion mags. I was elated bt at the same time worried too. She said i'll be ok in a day and it was good on my part to take rest. After this i had an ok kind of week. Only the usual pump getting a vibration problem and some gearbox getting oil leaks i had a tension free week. Now while typing this post from my mobile i'm watching Lakshya, the Hritik starring action picture about the transformation of a young man from a carefree guy to a military man with responsibilities. I don't know why but i felt i'm also getting the same kind of transformation. Not that i'm in a war front, but this will be the closest i'll get to a war front. These scorching temperatures, the squabbling workers, being far from home, missing my friends. All this. I know i'm comparing somethings that are far far apart. But then why do i feel so, i don't know. I got up today to my girlfriend calling me at 5 AM. She'd set a 12midnight alarm to wish me but it ended up waking her at 5. So i got my first wish of the day from her. That was a great thing for me. I just don't how to explain but i think guys and gals in love would understand. Actually it wasn't the first wish, I got a few wishes at midnight. But then i slept at 1 in the night after watching the film 'Shooter' in a senior's room. I saw a lot of scraps in my orkut scrapbook and also got a few messages in my phone. All these make me happy, but then now the boredom hits back. The day is going on and i don't know how i'll celebrate in the middle of all this. It's just another boring day in orissa :)

Longest weekend of my life

The title may look like the one in Five point someone, the day where Hari and his friends Ryan and Alok meet with so many unfortunate incidents. Well in my case it isn’t as bad as that. But then that’s fiction, this is life. It all started when I got to my OFFICE :) on Saturday, 13th of April. It was the off day for my boss and technically I was the section head for the day:P. I was pretty happy about this, but if I knew the things what were in my way I’d never have been so keen to take up that position. It was the first time since I joined IFFCO that some SERIOUS responsibility had been given to me. Earlier it was always one particular unit in the section that I had to take care of, either a heat exchanger or a filter or a scrubber or something like that. Never had I got charge of the entire reactor with me, the maintenance of the world’s largest phosphoric acid plant was under me for a day. Yahoooooooooooooooo wanted to shout this from the top of the fume stack. But then what to say, something aren’t that good. It started when I got to know that one coupling had broken and that too in a critical place. It was a small flexible flange coupling that I’d always seen only in drawings in my s4 and s5 classes. These things were what we called as small fry in those days, things that were easy to draw because they had a symmetrical shape and weren’t having too many ratios to remember. If you get the shaft diameter, you can get the flange diameter, based on that you choose the number of nuts and bolts, and based on that you get the flexible packing thickness. But here the problem was that the gearbox shaft had a bigger diameter and the motor had a smaller shaft, so for this bit I’d to redesign the coupling. Also due to years of use, the shafts were worn off from their original diameter. The actual dia was supposed to be 160mm, but around 4-6 mm was lost. So while fixing the new one I’d to make sure that all these factors are taken into account. Being the senior-most with the least experience in the plant has its share of disadvantages; you’re always looked upon by the subordinates, either with jealousy as someone who got ahead of them through some more years in a better college or as a knew-it-all. It’s also very difficult for me to manage my temper with these people. Some are utterly lazy, typical to a govt job. They know that they won’t be dismissed from their jobs and so that job security is what makes them lazier. Some are worse, who tell me to stay away from any job and telling that even if I don’t do anything I’ll get paid. At times I also do these things, like now when I’m sitting in the library and updating my blog:). It isn’t a healthy practice to bunk one’s responsibilities, but then working in a chemical factory isn’t that motivating. At times you do need to take a break off from work to recharge your batteries.

So I’d planned such a break last weekend, it was a weekend which had a Monday as holiday. So I’d planned to go to Kolkatta. The city had a special place in my heart because the last time I went there, even with the uncomfortable ride I had, I’d enjoyed the time I spent in the city, with its British era buildings in esplanade, Museums, huge parks, zoo’s, not-that-great-looking-but-functional metro rail system, good looking gals, rosagulla’s, sandesh and other sweets, fish curries, communists who talk at lengthy why Nandigram isn’t a problem and that Prachanda will be a great PM in Nepal, Elgin road bookstores, Esplanade road-side shops selling anything from key chains to shoes, taxi’s that never charge as per the meter, Kali temple @ Kalighat, infamous hand pulled rickshaw’s, aspiring Ganguly’s and Baiching Bhutia’s playing around the Maidan area, high tech office building’s in salt lake, City Centre at salt lake with the Inox, Eden Garden’s with the huge Knight Riders’ posters. All these are things that would make anyone want to visit this place. As I mentioned before I’d visited Kolkatta last month, I had wanted to write about the worst train journey of my life, but then the beautiful city made me forget all the pains. This time I had come prepared and even though I had to get the ticket in Tatkal quota, spending more than twice what was the normal fare, I was willing to go. I found just one more person willing to accompany me and that was my roomie Nagendra. We both took the night train to Kolkatta that arried at 5 AM, after having spent some time in the waiting hall, recharging our cell phones and discharging ourselves:), we hit the road and took the 1st bus to Esplanade. Even at 9 AM not many restaurants were open; maybe Sunday’s are late openings for the shops in Kolkatta, or maybe we were just in the wrong area. We finally decided to have breakfast in a hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant after a long search to see if we had some good place open. Surprisingly the food was better that what we expected. After filling our stomach’s we went to the Victoria memorial. We were quite early and being a Sunday the crowd’s weren’t there, except the lover’s who held hands and other parts right from the morning:D. By 10 AM the museum in the building opened and we walked into a collection of paintings and photographs that took us back into the 30’s and even early 18th century in some cases. We traced the history of Calcutta city in the Calcutta Gallery. It was the best section in the gallery from my opinion, because:

1. It was an air-conditioned section
2. It had very descriptive footnotes on each photograph and painting explaining what it was.
3. It had a very huge collection of souvenirs from many collectors.
4. It showed how the 1st capital of British India was shaped and what all struggles took place to have control over it.

After spending a good part of the morning here, we went to the destination that I had planned to visit after my last trip. It was Crossroads, the bookstore in Elgin Street. I loved the place right from the time I stepped in, such a neatly stacked and well arranged bookstore, with shelves and shelves of classics, bestsellers and what-not. It had got all the books that one would need. It had been the reason why I’d got back to my old habit of reading. I spent a good time in the store. I was very very happy to find that the manager remembered me from the last time, when I had asked for Hitchhiker’s guide the galaxy. He had looked crestfallen when he found that they didn't have such a classic piece in sci-fi. So when i went the next time i casually asked just to see if he remembered to get that book. To my surprise he got me the 6-in-1 collection of all the stories of Hitchhiker's guide. What a dedicated manager:), After this we decided to go to the famous park street. Bought a couple of stuff for friends back @ hostel, or else they'd have us branded with all the kitchenware if we forgot them. Then on the way we went to Netaji Bhavan, it was a nice experience. With a lot of memorabilia about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the INA it was again a great experience to see the photos which depicted the creation of the rebel wing of Indian freedom struggle. Then in the evening we went to the Kali Temple in Kalighat. The temple was full of devotees especially due to the Bengali New year eve. We managed to spend some time there without being bugged by the pujari's who're hell bent to make you do some kinda offering. All these travels were made possible due to the Kolkata Metro rail. Its nothing compared to the Delhi Metro, but then for something that was started off in the 80's i'd say its a great engineering and technological feat. The metro has convenient timings and has stations at almost all major locales. Also a ride to the taken is on the Tram. Its something that'll make you completely forget that you live in the 21st century. Its truly a legacy of the British era, that the communist sarkaar is still operation. After visiting the temple, we had one more place in our itinerary and that was to visit Eden Gardens. We had seen it in the morning from far, when we were going around Esplanade. We had heard that the Australian's in Kolkata Knight Riders were having their practice sessions in progress in the evening and when we reached esplanade we could see two of the four floodlights lit. It was an amazing sight to see the largest stadium in India(maybe the world interms of cricket stadia's). We reached there and tried a lot to get in, but the security persons were letting in only the people from media, that too after a very strict pass verification. As we were cursing the security, SRK and others in IPL it started to rain, with a very forceful wind blowing across the stadium. In the wind the giant posters of the Knight Riders in the top of the stadium got torn and i had a smile(ente revenge) muhuhuhhahahhahahha.

After this we took a cab and reached Howrah Station, there i took this beautiful view of the Howrah Bridge, thus ended the longest day in my life(errr typo, longest weekend of my life)

Street shops in Kolkata, a nice way to spend evenings


Rickshaw pullers in Kolkata-Something that i don't agree with

Wi-Fi @ Cuttack Station

Victoria Memorial @ Kolkata

Taxi ride in kolkata

Me on top of the books!

Bird Watching(and some background watchin as well)

For more pics goto my Orkut Album
PS: If some of the terms in the post above aren’t understood by non mech readers, its NOT my fault, you were the one who didn’t want to take up mechanical engineering, not me:). As we used to say in college, You see the difference between Man And Machine, We Don't!!! & Machines rule the world "We rule them "