04.29.09
I am luck-ay!!
What a hectic couple of months!! I’m still in the middle of it!!
What with all the exams and assignments and tour planning and birthday planning, I’m sooooooo exhausted. My birthday is this week. In a few weeks, my friend and I give a shared bday party – pirate theme!!
For the first time this night, I walked back home alone all the way from the Centrum and did NOT feel scared. I loved the cool breeze and the whispering trees. It took me back to my Magic Faraway Tree and my school summer holidays. What a beautiful beautiful night. The moon was just a sliver of silver, the pools and waterways were gleaming and tiny little ducks swimming everywhere. The TU way was deserted but it really wasn’t scary.
I found the sweetest bookshop in Den Haag ever!! Anyway, I spent hours and hours there this morning. Browsing, drinking off. Nice day off. I’ve made my wish list of books for this year! (It’s something I do everytime I grow one year older) So here goes.
1. Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh
2. An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
3. A pale view of the Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro
4. The Volumptious Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam – Lauren Liebenberg
5. Naguib Mahfouz’s Trilogy.
6. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman – Haruki Murakami
7. Snow – Orhan Pamuk
8. Other Colours – Orhan Pamuk
9. And as usual, my list ends with the book I wish for year after year. When I was a kid, I had this book called the Hollow Tree House by Enid Blyton. It’s now out of publication. Mom lent it to someone who never returned the book and now, I’ve found my copy of the book on Amazon. It’s selling for 159 euro today. Aaaaaaaaaarggghhhhh!!!!! I love my book! I want it back! Please Mr.Whoever-owns-it-now, can I please have my book back? I can’t even get a new edition anymore!
Book lovers, unite. I’ve been dying to find a book on Book Crossing and I can’t seem to cross a single book. Is it just me or do you see that happening to you too?
03.27.09
You know you’re a madrasi when..
you can’t sleep without dogs barking outside
you recoil when a girl only says “what the…” (especially so when she leaves out the swear word)*
saravana bhavan is your idea of fast food
in school you were impressed more by geek-two-plaits with her 100 in “maks” as opposed to the hot lil silent number.
after school, the only woman you ever made eyes at was the immigration lady on your way to Amey erica
you can pronounce arulmozhivarman without blinking.
you’re a walking, talking, thair sadam** eating cricket database.
you know its “dh”osa and not “doe”sa
at least once in your life, you’ve hung around in spencers acting cool and feeling so WITH it
32 degree C feels pleasantly enjoyable
you never realized that most of the points made here are about food and geekism and now that you do, you’re still smiling anyway.
dushyant adds:
spot a madrasi on dining table:
u r madrasi :
wen u prefer curd-rice over ice-cream as desert.
wen u swear ” aye ye yo” wen i tell there is no curd.
wen u forget even about curd rice if I put Rajnikant is on youtube
P.S – by request, I add the following to this list.
Hindi seems funny to you. yek gaaun mein yeh kisaan ragu thatha is you’re comprehensive hindi capacity.
03.26.09
Sooper Natur ale!
Last night I hung out at friends’ place. Wonderful big apartment. It made a pretty change from the tiny spacebox i live in. Loved the place, loved the food, loved loved loved the company!! 
Din’t help my sanity one bit.
After dinner, I had some assignment stuff to finish. It’s exam time again okay? Okay.
And then I made the biggest fool of myself. Think the biggest big that you can and big that by a gazillion.
They have a clock that was reading 3 am (yes, a.m.) and suddenly the hands started going at top speed. 4 a.m, 5, 6, 7, 8,9. You get the picture. It’s just freakin running in front of my eyes. I nearly died of heart attack. Yes, I am a freaking telecom engineer. You’d think I’d heard of GPS wouldn’t you? And not like they knew it or helped it either. Dushyant sitting next to me suddenly GROWLS and BARES his teeth at me and Prem gravely starts chanting some weird rhyme and my mind is already COMPLETELY overworked and i start freaking SCREAMING . Very Very Sane. Stupid girl. Never stops to T.H.I.N.K. Well at least at the end of THAT, when they’d insulted me crapless and ensured I’d eat up any self-proclaimed evil spirit before believing in it, I had the presence of mind to recognize the technology. I deserve such a good kicking. Mera naam ullu hai.
03.23.09
Of Sunshine and Summery Mangoes
It’s nearly Spring again!! In a week, we do the Spring Forward daylight saving time! This morning, i saw a tiny tree of the most beautiful pink and purple flowers! Oh sunshine and sweet sweet summer, come soon!
All day, I have been running some simulations, which means I have a lot of time to kill while the computer does all my work for me. So I quickly popped into my favoritest of all cities – Madras!! 
There are so many posts on the net about the fantastic places and experiences people have had in Madras, it’s like I was there all over again! I’m so sated and happy, it was like I had a quick lil visit home.
So I’m not going to write – my mind is absolutely choked with flashes of my crazy city now. Instead, here are links to some of what’s running through my head. Things I did and saw that make me love love love the most creative, affectionate and sunshiney of cities.
03.05.09
Convinced.
Today, I’ve become a feminist. I read an article about a community of women in Kandahar, a war wrecked part of Afghanistan, bull-headedly defying the violent opposition to their right to educate themselves. Their school was attacked by bikers spraying acid on them, attacking them and threatening to disfigure them if they continued studying. These girls walk miles to school everyday, defying the threats and brutalities of a bunch of testosterone happy chauvenists who mask their insecurity with religion. I’ve read parts of these religious books and I’ve a heck lot of moslem friends. I’ve Never heard it being said that women shouldn’t be educated.
This, is feminity in its finest form. It says Bitch. Here’s a finger for you. You can take all your insecurity and all your religious beliefs and put it another place. These girls celebrate arriving at school everyday. Shamia has had her face scarred and disfigured. But she keeps coming back. So do all 1300 of them. Are men so threatened by women that they’d resort to the low down dirty of physical abuse? I’m amazed and inspired by these women. They have me converted.
That brings me to the idea of feminism per se. Burning bras and dirty talking might be alright for promoting the cult. But tangible action? True feminism is this, what I talked about before. And also this. Because we’d like to tell the chaddi walas that there’s more to us than sticks up our a*ses, unlike them. And thank you very much. Hitting us, throwing acid in our faces, pulling us out of pubs by the hair, will only make us laugh at you. We’re only going to make you feel weaker and more threatened than ever before.
What really surprises me, is the fact that there are so many guys who believe in this kind of strong feminism. Strength in women. And they’re being quiet about it. I haven’t read any blogs about this, or heard my guy friends talking about it. Sam, Ram, Su, Krishnan, Rajesh, Anchit, I’m looking at you guys.
I think I’ll ask one of these guys to guest post here. That should be interesting. And Krish, BikerAnna, where are you guys on this?
You should check out Arayan on this.
PS. Krish has written on this. I’m thinking of asking a guy to do a guest post here. On this issue maybe. We’ll see soon!
03.02.09
Kaanya
I was looking for new music and look what I found!! Niraj Chag’s Kaanya is addictive. Loved it. The other songs require high quality equipment, which my stupid laptop doesn’t have – sooooooo, I’m gonna buy the cd! Yay! Music Shopping again!
I’d like to hear what kind of lounge music you listen to – apparently there’s a nice place to go in Amsterdam for lounge and I can’t seem to get the name of the place from anybody! Help please!
03.01.09
Chilly Chilli Evenings
We’re practicing Garba and Dandiya for Holi. Yup We couldn’t make it during Navratri because the university had exams. And saturday being grocery day, I hit the market after dance practise with a friend. Of course we were trying to figure out what we were going to wear to the Garba Night so I went back to her place after shopping and we tried on clothes, gossiped a bit. It’s so important to have girl friends – just hanging out can be such a stress buster! I miss my friends from hostel SO much!
Indians love eating together. So it started with a very experimental Chilli Parota, ice cream, wafers and biscuits, juice and peanuts and popcorn. And a thriller movie. After putting it off way long, I finally watched The Butterfly Effect. It’s one of the most beautifully scripted movies I’ve seen. The crazy idea of the story being that a guy has the ability to go back in time, and make changes there, which changes everything in his present. So everytime he goes back and changes something which he did, he sees the consequences in his present. If he doesn’t like it, he goes back and changes it again. And again. Till he finds the optimum solution – which turns out to be a little sad, but sorrow is definitely the lesser evil of the two portrayed in the story. The second being, violence. Violence and children. Violence, children and a verycrazy, unreal story, directed amazingly enough to convince you and to make you think.
We were going to watch 28 Weeks next, but we got talking and talked till dawn. I love having friends like these. I’m so lucky! I love where I am right now, with all the pressure and the uncertainty, I love this process of becoming independent! It’s a semi-sunny day in Delft and a super sunny day in my mind!
Cheers y’all!
02.28.09
De-tag!
Rehab, tag me again and you’re dead. Anyway, here goes. Ten totally irrelevant, random things about me.
1. Simulating antennas is fun. That’s how my first laptop burnt out. In my final year of bachelor of technology, i left one huge simulation on overnight. when i woke up in the morning and tapped my keyboard, my laptop gasped it’s last – literally. There was a puff of smoke out of the cooling vent and some crackling noises and electric sparks. Then she died – my poor baby.
2. I had an imaginary brother till i was 19 years old.
3. I’ve been held up by, um, let’s say, “anti-social elements” in India. And had life threatened.
4. I’ve been known to fall in love with cartoon characters. Aladdin, Huey, (Huey of Disney Hour, zee tv), Woody (Toy Story), so many.
5. I love the arts - music, dance, theatre, painting. These are my best stress busters. I love going to museums and acting in plays. When I’m really stressed, I just put on music and start dancing – often at 2 am in the morning. No, I’m not psycho I just love dancing.
6. The best way to see a city, if you ask me, is by foot. I walked all over Brussels. I swear. Over two days, we covered almost the whole city. We did the chocolate trail, the comic trail and parts of every other trail. It was serious fun! I love exploring cities and mixing with the locals. We met the most fascinating old man at a breakfast bar. And when he left he told us that I’ve the most speaking eyes. Whatever that means. You’ll never catch me in shorts and a straw hat, unless I’m in Bali or something.
7. I’m a tambrahm who wont drink coffee. Or eat coconut.
8. I’d give up all my life savings for one ride on a time machine. To go and live in the Victorian era. Just for one season though. Not forever. I couldn’t handle the insane women back then. I’d go nuts. And they’d be shocked to find a girl who lives in jeans, does math and hopes to have only one boyfriend.
9. My favorite way to read a book is to lounge on a couch at home in the darkness of a hot summer afternoon during agni-nakshatra with cold milo.
I do hereby pass this curse on to
Muhahahaha.
Cheers y’all
02.27.09
Madras! Nalla Madras!
Today was a cloudy, balmy day in Delft.
The sun put in an appearance before lunchtime and kept coming back to peek cheekily every now and then ever since. This is so exactly like the weather in Madras just before the monsoons!
That was always holiday time and it’s invariably connected to pictures in my mind, of sitting in maruti cars (later of corsas) and driving through long long highways, with the crazy wind screaming through the car, a wonderful lovely book that’s just been begun in my hand, mom and dad in the front seat, beautiful prospect of rains, tall tall palm trees bending in the wind, emerald green fields glittering away around the modest brown huts nestled snugly among them, of goats being driven across said highway and dad cursing at the goatherd, little brown kids with huge huge grins waving from the roads, zillion engineering colleges along the way, and the feeling of HOLIDAY in the air!
Knowing where my next indulgence was going to come from, knowing we were going to play all evening and all night and then tell ghost stories, knowing I’d see my mom’s face first thing in the morning and someone’s got my back – I can’t believe I took these things for granted. Okay, maybe I sound cliched. You only appreciate something when you lose it and all that. I just can’t believe how hard this realization is hitting me. Oh, I so NOT pampered at home. Believe you me. I guess I just took some of our social norms for granted.
It’s like some gentle nudge to remind of my blessings. I have such a fantastic family, and such fantastic friends. I got what I’d dreamt and worked for. What’s more, it now looks like I’m going to be able to combine many of my dreams into one single career. Being a writer, a linguist, an innovator and an entrepreneur. There’s nothing more that I could possibly ask for.
This is just so fantastic. Today’s weather has made me SO Happy! It’s good to be easy to please isn’t it? Doesn’t take too much to make you happy!
pictures courtesy: visithra.blogspot.com
02.25.09
Sex in Robot City.
It’s funny what a crazy society we live in. Don’t ask me why but I started watching Sex and the City last night. A single, slightly harassed space box-er, starts watching sex and the city in the middle of the night – NOT the most sane thing to do. Especially after covering a lecture on Love, Marriage and Sex with Robots by 2050, an article I had to write for my job.
I’m not so sure how realistic the Sex and the City series is. Maybe it’s accurate about Manhattan, but the rest of the world, I’m not so sure.
To the guys who are trying to figure women out, here are some revelations.
Revelation #1 – Skin is not a switch. Just by touching a girl you can NOT simply turn her on. What’s with all the women getting turned on as soon as the men touch them on this freakin series? I’m sorry, that’s SO not true. I saw five episodes and I’m yet to see a guy who is has serious sex appeal. Looks to me like a bunch of gay guys and desperate women got together and unable to find both acting jobs and blow jobs, just got together to have simulated sex on tv.
Revelation #2 – Not all women are looking for sensitive, caring, romantic, rich guys with potential. We’re sane, okay. We like the occasional normalcy. But it’s probably true that the older they get, women get pickier and pickier. And then it’s tougher and tougher to get a guy who fits everything.
I recently went to this lecture by a famous robotics scientist called David Levy. He predicts that by the year 2050, love, sex and marriage with robots will be common and, in fact, a social norm. Just like how having random sex is a ‘norm’ today. Yeah right.
Imagine, a socially conscious, little-finger-sticking-out tea drinking, napkin dabbing, boring suited western european talking to you about having sex with robots and why it’s inevitable in the ‘near’ future. You can? Try imagining sitting straight-faced through it. It was a freak show. I’m sorry, with all due to respect to Mr. Levy’s PhD in the subject, the failed to put forth any case at all, let alone a convincing one.
He claims that soon robots with feelings and emotion can be made. Okay, he actually said this – ‘on the company’s website you can specify the looks of the partner you want, specify the body size, the hair colour, eye colour, and face structure, etc and they can make them for you’. Okay, accepted. Then he goes on to say this – “We can use Artificial Emotion Technology’ to simulate feelings and emotions in robots. They can be programmed to like what you like and to change themselves immediately if you don’t like something in them.” Okay, that’s simply light years away from today’s state of the art in AI. So, Levy thinks that if you like Beethoven, the robot can be programmed to like it too and to have a conversation with you about Beethoven – maybe even play snippets of the music. I swear he said that. Imagine you’re on a date. Suddenly your date opens his mouth and you can hear beethoven’s music from his freakin speakers. How romantic. Even real life will have background music from now on in.
He’s addressing people from the technical university. We know what’s happening in robotics and artificial intelligence R&D. Making a statement like ‘It is straightforward to accurately predict the mood of a person with sensor information’ is just bullshit. The state of the art today is very advanced. But not that far advanced. You cannot accurately predict human emotion with a bunch of sensors now. And definitely not accurately. From the answers he gave our questions about the technical feasibility of these robots, it was obvious that it was very badly researched. So we moved on and people asked about the legal issues. Will these near-human robots have robotic rights? What about law and order? What about the social impact of something drastic like this? All these questions were left unanswered but Levy says he’s dead sure that we’ll be marrying robots by 2050.
P.S – as if you men din’t already have enough to live upto, now you’re gonna have to live up to the standards of a robot. i wish you all the luck in the world 
