The winter

of my life continues..

Success

My professor in a design class about how one must take criticism for a design:

Success is not 'It's my idea', it is 'It's a good idea'..

Life is a bitch. 

Spring is here!

Sandeep Makam

has taken the plunge!

Time ...

If you are high, it helps you come down...

If you are down, it helps you get back...

Feels good...

to be here.
to be doing what I am doing.
to be like this.

Dancing on a High Wire

You’re dancing on a high wire
You need to be so sure
There used to be a lifeline
There isn’t anymore

India's leading business daily

Or so they claim. (Compare the headline and the boxed text)

Check out this.

Vague and Happy.

Vagueness. Happyness.

Phone calls. Chats. Teases. Listening to the same song for the 100th time on the same day. Bickering. Photographs. Nostalgia. The Stupid grin. Pseud Putting. The kick. Getting back into someone's good books. Feeling all grown up one moment and totaal childish, the next. Horsing around with a 4-month old. Robert Miles - Fable. The pat on the back.

:)

:)

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "i love you"
Birds singin’ in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I’m longin’ to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars shining up above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "i love you"
Birds singin’ in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

Yes, dream a little dream of me

Thanks S!




Thanks CB!

Isn't it surprising how soon some one can achieve a stranglehold on your moods and emotions?

Doubles, Triples and Quadruples - A Review

Play: Doubles, Triples and Quadruples - Nobody Stays Single!

Production: Evam

Shows: At Rangashankara
June 27, 2008 - 1930 Hours
June 28, 2008 - 1530 & 1930 Hours
June 29, 2008 - 1530 & 1930 Hours

Tickets: Rs. 200

Disclaimer: I haven't seen many plays apart from the ones that I was part of at TVS School, Tumkur (Mind you, they were not bad. We were even invited to perform at Yavanika!) and a couple of them at insti. So, its left to the reader to evaluate my review! :)

It was a brilliant play! Had a ball of a time.. lots of laughs, jaw-dropping moments and rib-tickling comedy! The way TMK's team brought it out through discontinuous stories - it kinda reminded of this picture that I had seen long ago:


The other Kartik in the show was extremely good. Was awed by his expressions and dialogue delivery especially in the just-wed scene as well as the therapy scene! I also liked the idea of the artists speaking to the audience between the scenes... about themselves, about how they relate to this whole play etc. TMK's narration was hilarious! Cheers to the angel of Mookambika! :P

Except for a scene or two, (such as the a la MIB - shooting troika) which I thought did not really add much to the play, except kill time, on the whole, it was a good experience and I would like to catch them next time they come over to Bangalore for another play. I would be going (if time permits) for their next play later this week at Rangashankara - ART - A serious comedy!

Oh btw, I won a pseud looking glass photo frame.. a surprise gift from evam! Thanks evam!

Today

An Inspiring Conversation.

40 sms's and a Proposal.

A University MS Admit.

Today has been good.

Long time No see

Every time i visit my blogger homepage, this is what I utter! :|

BTP done. Presentation prepared. Had a long night's sleep. Dusk. My room lit just by my lamp. LedZep on. Wet air blowing into my face. Smell of moist earth.

Bliss.

I want to remember these moments forever.

Billions of blistering Barnacles!

If you know me, you would know what I would have done after watching this video! :D

Whatay wonly!

Kingfisher. New Delhi. Vasant Vihar. IITD. Jet Airways. Trident Hilton. La Reverie Red Wine. Ganga. Smirnoff. 7up. Imperial Blue. Loads of water.

That sums up the last 48 hours. :) :)

Celebrating Narmad 3rd wing!

:) Friday. Wing Pizza night.





PS: Thanks to thaanu for the pic..

Tonight's Random Stuff

During dinner, Pondy narrated:

Placement season 08. Day 0. Goldman Sachs. Tech profile (relatively very less pay compared to the strats profile)

Very pseud candidate (who would rather scratch donkey backs than take up this job): Hello sir.
Interviewer: Hello, have you written CAT?
C (confidently) : Yes sir.
I: Hmm.. Have you applied for higher studies?
C (very happy) : Yes sir. I did.
I: Dont waste your talent. Join us!

______________________________

Yet another incident:

Day 1. ITC Interviews. Candidate is none other than our GP.

Interviewer: Do you know what is french-fornication?
GP (Bulbs.) : hmm.. umm.. er..
Interviewer : Take a guess!
GP : Is it ménage à trois?

_______________________________

While getting back to room, I see junta farting in Gigs room.. and I join in. Some random conversation led to gigs claiming he liked to feel guilty.

Junta: Why do you like feeling guilty?
Gigs: Because I like showing off!
Junta: Come out of the room.. we shall show you off ! (:P)

_______________________________

While going through gtalk status messages.. i found this as the status message of one of my classmates..

"I love my booboo......"

=)) wtf wonly.

The Leap month

The month that was! Last post on the first day of this month. Fell sick that day and am just about recovering. What a dicey month its been. Fever.. Sleep.. Hospitals.. Injections.. Sleep.. Home.. Peace.. Insti.. apprehensive "fun".. BTP..

Now that I am back, I am keen on posting regularly. Probably not as regular as in the first month but surely often enough.

Cheers!

Narmad wont change!

This happened today afty:

Sadhu: Gigs, I have something with me, which is of utmost importance to you! < wink >

Gigs: Vibrator a??



(Gigs got into UT Southwestern Medical School for PhD and the offer letter came today - promptly picked up by Sadhu)

Should one feel angry when a self-righteous nincompoop insults you?

I was torn between feeling angry and using obscenities... and trying to sound like a weathered veteran trying to advise a young hot-blooded person in a sweet manner..

The B Planners

CB and me have been part of a team which also includes Jiten Patel.. and we have been thulping quite a few Business plan contests in the recent past.. :)

We have in the last one week qualified for the finals of a business plan contest at NITK Surathkal - E Pitch and also the India Innovation Pioneers Challenge 2007-08 :)

Wish us luck!

Reunion Ahoy!

Had one heck of a day at my alma mater.. TVS school, Tumkur. Met people whom I had not met in 8-9 years! (thats nearly half my life!)

Going back to school.. seeing all those once familiar places.. talking to all those chaps whom you grew up with.. Playing in that field which you did every evening in school.. climbing those mountains and traversing those fields with those people whom you grew up with.. All those akka's* and sir's.. All the memories flooding back.. talking about life as if we are veterans.. answering tons of questions from juniors... those gasps or whispers when the junior _most_ realise who you are.. those smiles.. those days.

School was fun. Then. Now. Forever.

A few pics of the reunion after the jump.

* Its the norm at school to address all lady teachers as "Akka". Somehow the same thing did not catch up with the "Anna" and we stuck to "Sir".. Akka and Anna mean elder sister and brother respectively, in Kannada.

PS: Pics not taken by me. I had handed the camera to a teacher of mine who was slisha vetti.. :)

Of Google, Digital Cameras and Mesothelioma

I am currently reading this book called "The Google Story".. Its a very interesting read.. especially for entrepreneurs - is my opinion.


Here is something very interesting and revealing (if I may call that), that I came across in the book..where the Google Ad keyword auctioning was being described..

Ms. P is an executive who is a portfolio manager.. not of your sorts. She deals with search keywords and phrases rather than stocks and bonds, but nonetheless hoping to maximize her company's investment in online advertising. She juggled bids, for example, on the term "digital camera" and its plural, "digital cameras" - with the cost of a click on the second averaging $1.08 compared to about 75 cents for the first.

Now, guess the reason as to why this could have happened? The singular of the word being priced 25% lower than the plural?

The reason for the disparity, it turns out (as Ms. P says), was that customers who typed in the plural were more likely to end up as buyers. These sort of nuances were learned with experience and they separated the successful bidders from the rest of the crowd.

Brilliant isnt it? I just thought about what I would do.. If I wanted to find out how a DigiCam worked, I am more probable to type the singular, while if I were to buy a cam, I am more likely to type out the plural so that I can check out the variety and options!__________________

Another interesting snippet from the same book..

In Google's nonstop auction, the minimum bid for a search term was five cents. One of the most expensive search terms was "mesothelioma", a type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Top bids for the word hovered above $30 (!!) per click.

To put things in perspective - the digicams keyword sold at around $1 - Digicams is surely a very popular search term, a popular buy and it still sells at $1 while this vague, never-heard-before term sells at approximately 30 times that value!
Now, take a wild wild guess as to why that might be?

It turns out that these bids came from lawyers aggressively vying for the chance to land a lucrative client (and sue the company where (s)he worked for health violations at work places) :)

Very clever people!

____________________________________
On an aside, I am going home today afty. Want to catch up with all my long lost school friends at my School Reunion in Tumkur. I studied in TVS School, Tumkur. Will get back with a couple of pictures!