After Kung-Fu ,they have taken up shooting?

A giant panda goes into one of those expensive and pretentious restaurants serving French/Asian fusion cuisine and takes a table for one. The surprised waiter for that table explains unctuously that his name is Marcel, he will be your server tonight, and we 'ave a number of specials (he is French), etc., etc. The panda listens impassively to the list of $27 chili-pepper encrusted swordfish specials and so on, and then orders a delicately flavored dish of young bamboo tips and mixed greenery served with steamed jasmine rice. On finishing his meal, the panda gets up, reaches into his fur for a handgun, brings down the waiter with one shot, and calmly heads for the door.
The head waiter is near the door and exclaims in shock, "Oh, monsieur, what 'ave you done? You 'ave killed Marcel! Why 'ave you done zis, monsieur? You 'ad some problem? Ze service was not acceptable?"
The panda scowls at him and says, "I'm a fucking panda. Go look it up." He stalks out into the night.
The baffled staff huddle round the compact encyclopedic dictionary that they keep on the premises, and turning to Panda, giant, they read this:
Panda, giant. Large bear-like animal, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, with distinctive black and white markings, related to raccoon family. Rare; found only in bamboo forests of Tibet and western China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons...7.5/10

Watchmen... my first graphic novel.I had not read a comic since 7th grade...and reading this novel-well it brought back those memories.I cannot rate it to its full potential...because I had it in the form of ebook (actual and legal one costs 3000+). I was not able see why is it so critically acclaimed, in the beginning. But as I approached the end,the picture became clearer ,and I started re-reading it ...then I realised..there were so many hidden things and clues and facts that I missed- Mostly because of the fact that I kept reading it...without focussing any attention to the graphics.The novel is set in alternate history,and the elements of our history embedded in it makes it grave and murthful at the same time . I would recommend against reading it(or any grahic novel) in ebook form.I read half the book,then re-read it,and then finished it..and in all the 408 pages book took about 15 days !)..
The book provided different views of the world(from each character)...and is implanted with great quotes ,which just fit in the situation in the story at that point. The ending is good,and unpredicatble.Its nt a typical Hero-saves-the-day ending, and the book highlights the philospohy that in every hero ,theres a villain and vice versa.
In addition to the main story line (already interlaced with multiple flashbacks), each chapter also includes supplemental material from the Watchmen universe – newspaper clippings, book excerpts, copies of letters, police documents, etc. Also interwoven into the story is the pirate-adventure comic Tales of the Black Freighter (which is being read by one of the characters as the story of Watchmen unfolds).

I've decided to put some excellent snippets from the book,which really moved me:
(wasnt able to upload in comic book style with images):

Rorschach: Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. Itâs us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your Questions, Doctor?

Doctor Manhattan: Thermo-dynamic miracles... events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermo-dynamic miracle.
Laurie Juspeczyk: But...if me, my birth, if that's a thermodynamic miracle... I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!.
Dr. Manhattan: Yes. Anybody in the world. ..But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget... I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from the another's vantage point. As if new, it may still take our breath away. Come...dry your eyes. For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.

The 12 quotes of Watchmen (the ones that occupied the last panel of each chapter):

At midnight, all the agents and superhuman crew go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do- Bob Dylan
And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians- Elvis Costello
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?- GENESIS chapter 18, verse 25
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...The solution to this problem lies in the heard of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker- Albert Einstein
Tyger, Tyger burning bright,In the forestsof the night,What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry-William Blake
Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster.And if you gave into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you.-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
I am a brother to dragons,and a companion to owls.My skin is black upon me,and my bones are burned with heat- JOB chapter 30, verse 29-30
On Hallowe'en the old ghosts come about us, and they speak to some, to others they are dumb- Hallowe'en ,Elanor Farjean
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being- C.G. Jung ...MEMORIES,DREAMS,REFLECTIONS
Outside in the distance a wild cat did growl, two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl- Bob Dylan
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!- Ozymandias....Percy Bysshe Shelley
It would be a stronger world, a stronger loving world, to die in- John Cale

A collage of mixed emotions

Apparently I have nothing to write,but I still feel like writing something. I think I am capable and experienced enough to resist the temptation of calling myself a loser or start blabbing about She who must not be named.or about the dream of sg that I had.
Rather I think I oughta write about Winter Ball ,which, did live up to the expectation of not living upto the expectation.To describe in a few words..concise but not precise:
Old friends..lots of smiles-some fake,some genuine...An attempt to dance, to feel the ecstacy that others feel while dancing.In hindsight, I guess I should say a failed attempt.... Regret at not going with an empty stomach (I was able to try out only the gulab jamun,chocolate cake,an extraordinary mutton dish(but then, I've only eaten mutton on 2-3 occasions before), and an astonishingly delectable mushroom dish).
Bored of trying to dance,with stomach heavy ,and amused with the sights of old mates pixillated and drunk, I decided to make an early exit by 1.30 am.

As for other things , I finished reading Watchmen .So it was time for me to start another book, so I bought a copy of 'The Amulet of Samarkand'- 1st installment of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy.I also read two short stories - 'Nightfall' and 'The Last Question' by Isaac Asimov.

As for movies watched recently:
Night at the Museum :7/10 (great entertainment)
Get over It :4/10 (watched only because of Kirsten Dunst..special note : pronounced K-ee-rstun, not Kurstun)
The Incredibles : 6/10
Casino Royale : 7.5/10 (my first bond movie)
She- Creature : 5/10

(This post was intended to be in the category of those which I write but to not publish and keep as a draft for myself)

Just observed that a Title is not necessary for posting(the post)


When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called GOD. (controversial,but I prefer speaking my mind rather than faking Im a believer)

I recently came across the most stupidest insanely thrown-in-your-face argument(scientific?!) that says GOD must exist.Its called the 'Watchmaker Analogy':
The watchmaker analogy, or watchmaker argument, is a teleological argument for the existence of God. By way of an analogy, the argument states that design implies a designer.

The watchmaker analogy consists of the comparison of some natural phenomenon to a watch. Typically, the analogy is presented as:
1. The complex inner workings of a watch necessitate an intelligent designer.
2. As with a watch, the complexity of X (a particular organ or organism, the structure of the solar system, life, the entire universe) necessitates a designer. (source:Wiki)


It really perplexes me how people do follow-up researches based on such lines of thought .Maybe it has an undercurrent of Great truth and elegance that is beyond my comprehension.
Besides all this, as an agnostic, its really gripping to read mythological stories purely from an entertainment point of view.

Let there be Light....

The time is running out...18 years have gone by,yet I have not learnt anything that might be new to human civilisation...I have not done anything that is original,that no human has ever done...I still have no idea what is going on. Why are we here? WHY Am I here? WHO am 'I' ? WHAT is 'HERE' ? The universe? What is the universe?... WHY is the universe? When I say the time is running out,what is TIME? Where did it all began ? WHY did it all began?What is 'began' altogether?What was there 'before' the beginning ? What was before 'before the begining' ?(sounds contradictory?..It is.)
I have,at best,anoter 60-70 years to make a difference.Otherwise mine will me just one of the zillion of stories of little earthlings ,who came,and disappeared after finite no. of years,without finding THE ANSWER.

Meanwhile,I guess I'll go watch a movie. ;)

To Kill A Mockingbird ...8/10

What do you call 2000 mockingbirds???
"Two Kilo Mockingbirds"(lol)
Ok.I agree it was a big big PJ.But dont make the mistake of relating the quality of the joke with the movie,because the movie more than just justified(pun intended) its #47 ranking on imdb.
I actually fell in love with the child actress in the movie ,Mary Badham.(*This is not a result of the acute shortage of girls in my life.Watch the movie,and then argue that she didnt deserve to be nominated for an Oscar*)....But,as unlucky as I can get with girls,the movie was made in 1962,and Mary Badham ,has attained a grandma's age.(LOL)She narrowly lost out on the Oscar,and she dint appear in any other movie for another 40 years,which is strange but respectable.As for the movie,it was not sentimental, thrilling, humourous, inspiring or anything like that.It was just a simple heartwarming movie,and the thing that amazes the most is how good a movie can get without losing its simplicity.
and by the way,it was my first Black and White English movie.

A true underdog story?

Check out the German Bundesliga and you're in for a surprise.Whos topping the league?Not the traditional Bayern Munich.nor Werder Bremen or Leverkusen.Nay,not the dark horses Hertha, Hamburg, Schalke or Dortmund either.
Right at the very top is a team that, up until a few months ago, hardly anyone in the country had ever heard of. It is a squad from a tiny village in Germany's south-west halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt, population 3,200.
The story began back in the early 1990’s . At that time, the club was nothing more than an amateur village team turning out in the eighth tier of the German football league system.The club reached the Regionalliga Sud (third tier) by basing their team on players developed through the club’s youth setup, and proceeded to attain respectable finishing positions in each of their first four seasons in the division.They finished 2nd in the third division in 06/07,and in the secnd division in 07/08.
It is a success story the likes of which Germany has never seen: Within just a few years, 1899 Hoffenheim has rocketed from regional league obscurity to its current status as one of the elite teams in the country. Football fans from all over Europe are now rooting for the club, attracted by its fairy tale rise up the table. A new book about the club has recently come out called "The Miracle of Hoffenheim," and the title's reference to Germany's dramatic 1954 World Cup victory -- known as the Miracle of Bern -- doesn't even feel overstated.
There are, of course, some detractors. As one might expect, the team's progress has been helped along by money -- a lot of money. Dietmar Hopp, a co-founder of the software giant SAP, has invested millions of euros in the team in recent years, allowing it to go on a shopping spree for players that could help it to the next level.
Still, comparing Hoffenheim to other clubs who have lucked into money -- such as Chelsea, which was purchased by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich in 2003, or Manchester City, bought up by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi this year -- is off the mark. For one, rather than going after players the calibre of Robinho (brought in by Manchester City for €40 million) or spending hundreds of millions on the transfer market like Chelsea, Hoffenheim has gone for youth and potential.and previously unheard of players.Anyone heard of Demba Ba from Belgium,or Chinedu Obasi from Norway?
or Vedad Ibišević (pic,left), the Bosnian who they signed last season from a club named Alemannia Aachen(???!!! wtf) ,a player who has beaten the likes of Klose, Luca Toni, Ribery, Podolski and Schweinsteiger to the top of the scorer charts in the league.I am already a fan.
There is also another important difference: Dietmar Hopp actually comes from Hoffenheim, and once played on the team back when it was little more than the local village club. Now, Hopp owns 49 percent of the team, the maximum allowed under German league rules. And he is building a new stadium. The current village stadium, capacity 6,000, is much too small for a Bundesliga team, meaning Hoffenheim has thus far played its home games in nearby Mannheim. The new building, which will be finished early next year, will seat 10 times the population of Hoffenheim.

(Data taken from various football sites)

Time Pass

I have been reading stories of Greek Mytholgy,and I came across Bacchus(also called Dionysus),the god of wine(as many would recall from from 'Ode to the west wind' by Shelley).Now ,acc. to wiki,he is 'the inspirer of ritual madness', and the frenzy he induces is called, bakcheia.

Now I am wondering ,is this is the etymology and the origin of the famous word in our IIT lingo-"bakchodi" ? Nay,not probable.

Meanwhile,I finished 'The Kite Runner '.Totally amazing book.The way its written, especially the description of human emotions, is awe-inspiring.It provides a totally new dimension of thought and culture.Especially because the Afghan culture has never been portrayed in any book I read previously.The character buildup is strong,and the book is flawless-everything fits in.

The only thing that it lacked was self-discovery.No element was left unexplained,even those which could have been easily guessed by the readers.The writer connects the past and the present beautifully,and explains the connection ,though I felt it would have been better if the readers were left to figure out the connections.

and The Flashbacks.They totally capture your heart.The ending is great,and the book has been planned out well.Overall I would give it 8.5/10.

After reading a series of fantasy books,I was thinking how did I enjoy those non-fantasy novels?Now I know.I feel.

I also watched many movies in the past few days:Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,The Ghost Rider,Kung Fu Panda ,Crazy/Beautiful and WALL-E.

Watching WALL-E was another unique experience.Especially the subtleness of different elements in the movie.How,by only a few select words which the robots utter,we understand the whole depth of their emotions.The movie captured all the greatness of the Silent-Film era.The way it combines the element of Love,Artificial Intelligence and 'the future of mankind' ,is awesome.I loved the character of the The Cleaner Robot and the Cockroach(remember the study that says only they can survive a nuclear war? ).

A few (my favourite) excerpts from The Kite Runner:

“Salaam,” I said. “I’m sorry to be mozahem, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” “Salaam.” “Is General Sahib here today?” I said. My ears were burning. I couldn’t bring myself to look her in the eye. “He went that way,” she said. Pointed to her right. The bracelet slipped down to her elbow, silver against olive. “Will you tell him I stopped by to pay my respects?” I said. “I will.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Oh, and my name is Amir. In case you need to know. So you can tell him. That I stopped by. To... pay my respects.” “Yes.” I shifted on my feet, cleared my throat. “I’ll go now. Sorry to have disturbed you.” “Nay, you didn’t,” she said. “Oh. Good.” I tipped my head and gave her a half smile. “I’ll go now.” Hadn’t I already said that? “Khoda hãfez.” “Khoda hãfez.” I began to walk. Stopped and turned. I said it before I had a chance to lose my nerve: “Can I ask what you’re reading?” She blinked. I held my breath.

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I had this: that perhaps something, someone, somewhere, had decided to deny me fatherhood for the things I had done. Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so. It wasn’t meant to be, Khala Jamila had said. Or, maybe, it was meant not to be.

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My body was broken--just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later--but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.

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And so it was that, about a week later, we crossed a strip of warm, black tarmac and I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty.
IT WOULD BE ERRONEOUS to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquillity. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life. Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab’s silence wasn’t the self-imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under. He didn’t so much live with us as occupy space. And precious little of it.

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Why maggus are called Maggus

I feel that studying the way I studied(or most of us study) has trimmed my potential for creativity.I collide with the walls of facts,reason,logic , whenever my thoughts try to linger somewhere 'out of the box' .
Looking back,I can see the flaw in our education system.Endless mugging,learning facts without pondering on the background ,has left the innovative areas of our mind shattered.And I am not talking about mugging in the conventional sense.I mean the way of 'learning' promoted by our teachers uptil now.We are straightforward introduced to facts and discoveries and theorems ,and not encouraged to try and derive them on our own or, what might be even better- guess what all theorems would exist related to the given topic,based on our insight.
This seems impossible ,and I agree we are,at many stages, incapable of deriving theorems on our own- but such an exercise would help in building our understanding.
Some good teachers do tell the proofs and the derivations- but at no point of time we are encouraged to develop our own proof- or told alternate approaches- or explained why in particular instances some approach works ,and others dont. We are never told the background,the history,what led to the academicians to work towards that topic.
We are straightforward taught the applications-never has any teacher asked us to guess what the applications and the implications of a particular result or axiom or theorem might be.
To many all this would seem like an oppurtunity to put forward the common argument -"IITs are meant to produce engineers,not scientists".But what are engineers worth,if they lack innovation?What then,makes IITs,in particular,IIT faculty-different from any other college? We complain that we deserve to be a lot higher in world rankings.Why!?
Without an innovation based eductaion system,our world would be at a standstill.We would never progress towards newer horizons. Especially in an age where entertainment-based industry is flourishing and driving students away from research and science,towards money and fame.

Mathematical Beauty

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

- Bertrand Russell

Grades out...

Well it turned out that I missed a 10/10 in Maths,and ..well..nothing else matters...(sob sob)

MAL 115 :9
CYP 100 :9
CSL 101 :8 (Owe this to you pradeep)
CYL 110 :7
MEL 110 :7

Life in a Metro

As the Moon,Venus and Jupiter formed a beautiful celestial triangle in the night sky,I continued my suddenly-turned-insouciant life.Its not easy to believe that our first semester is already over--six months passed by in no time.
The week that went by was heavenly.No studies,two visits to Select City Walk,My first experience in a metro train,roaming around palika bazaar,playing baddy and tennis for hours ,till 2-3 am - and being with friends all this time.
Looking back at this semester,I am fully satisfied-and I have learnt a lot.The one thing I like most about IIT D is that the campus is always abuzz with some event or the other.There were all kinds of cultural and classical performances ,academic lectures and speeches,visits by eminent personalities(notable e.g. Bill Gates!) etc etc. and then there are those never-ending non comps and inter hostel comps.I'd definitely miss all these during the holidays.But then there are other things to lk forward to in Chandigrah- old friends,Christmas,and ...the grandest party(as ppl say) in Chandigarh- The SJOBA Winter Ball.