Presenting the Indian GP

The FIA recently announced that the Indian GP will be a part of the 2011 Formula-1 season. This is great news not just for all motorsport fans in India, but also for all Formula-1 fans in the world.

That is because a new feature that will be unique to the Indian GP will be launched at the race by the FIA: the race will have 'mamas' (traffic cops) standing at various locations on the track. They will randomly stop cars and then ask the drivers for their licenses, PUCs, insurance papers and NOCs for the cars (as the cars are not registered at the local RTO). The driver who can pay them off quickest and reach the finishing line first will win the race.

The FIA believes that this new feature will help attract more viewers to the sport, which is already suffering from various problems like reduced viewership numbers and the presence of drivers like Lewis Hamilton. Also, the FIA is hoping that "One day F1 too will have IPL following" and has hence decided to appoint Lalit Modi as the 'Traffic Commissioner' for the Indian GP.

A question to the blogspot team

When was the last time anybody labelled his post as 'scooters'?

The COEP Network Administrator CAN beat love

I guess I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the COEP Network Administrator. Though I am grateful that a lot of measures have been taken so as to prevent wanton downloading, there always seem to be some stupid side-effects which make me hate him even more. The most notable of them being the ban on Cricinfo, which fortunately did not last long.

I have blogged earlier about the pesky url filters which made the Middlesex CC site inaccessible. But something that I have only recently noticed is this - even the word 'love' is banned. Though as of now I don't think that this is going to have any disastrous consequences, it does seem rather silly.

But I think I really shouldn't complain much. After all, I only have to spend a few more days in the kingdom of the COEP Network Administrator. After that, I can freely access any site I want! The mere thought of it makes me ecstatic!

My latest hobby...

Constantly reminding people that their college life is coming to an end, thus making them all sad and nostalgic.

P.S. : For those who haven't realised it yet, consider it to be a tribute.

You know you're terribly in need of sleep when....

.... you start reading Pune Mirror and doze off before you reach Dr. Mahindra Watsa's column.

Lets make a deal

I have always felt that I get the raw end of whatever deals that I make with people in my personal life. I am pretty good when it comes to negotiating with people when money is involved, but somehow I always end up losing out in my personal deals with people, mostly because they generally refuse to accept the existence of such a deal and question its validity.

But no more shall I suffer from such problems. This site should take care of things. It allows you to make deals with friends, family, employees or absolutely anyone. It then sends out mails to them and you can even opt for further negotiations. And I hope the site's tagline - "Asynchronous Negotiation Favors the Underdog" - proves to be true.

(Link courtesy : Marginal Revolution)

Sheep

After shifting to Pune and staying at the hostel, IO have found it increasingly hard to watch as much cricket as I used to at home. As a result of this, I mostly keep track of the latest scores via live commentary on Cricinfo. The commentary is nice and crisp and gives you a fair idea of whats going on, along with the constantly updated scorecard, which has everything you need to know - like the currently partnership, who is bowling etc. But the icing on the cake is definitely the random topics that come up during the commentary, as a result of which you don't miss the TV commentary that much. And this commentary involves not just Cricinfo's commentators but also a lot of viewers from all over the world. Most of the time, these chats are related to some famous cricketing incidents of the past or some anecdotes. However, at times, they tend to go totally off-topic, as during the recent India-NZ ODI. Here's a short sample of what was going on during commentary that day:

Suresh: "Seriously - what is the sheep:human ratio in NZ?"
...
Steve: "Good to see Rahul enjoying his stay in Rangiora (25km north of christchurch population 9,000). I wonder if he is being billetted with anyone or staying in a local motel overnight?" Must be with some sheep, no?!
...
t4jho: "11 Sheep for every person"
...
Farmer Bob: "According to the latest Agricultural Production statistics, released by Statistics New Zealand's Agricultural Production team, there were 40.1 million estimated resident sheep at 30 June 2006, which means that the sheep-person ratio has halved in the last 20 years, and now stands at 10 sheep per person. see http://www.population.govt.nz/myth-busters/sheepmyth.htm
...
Amit: "1:10......strange! Are those sheep owned by people or just forest sheep?" The sheep owns the people. Duh!
...
Alex from NZ sends us this: "At any given time a New Zealander can reach out and touch a sheep." No more dirty details please!

MK from Canada: "Why bother? India should just cancel the tour and go back home. I am amazed that Cricket is actually played in NZ."
...
Matt from OZ: "What else would you expect from a Canadian? You guys don't even play cricket."

Kody: "Whats all this nonsense about sheep? ... that pitch will be soaked by now!"

Cam from NZ comes back with this! : "Is it time to point out that Cows wander down the streets of several Indian cities?"
...

What fun.

---------------

Staying with sheep, I recently saw Fergusson College's Firodiya Karandak performance. The story was about a guy who is visiting the Swiss Alps and meets an old shepherd high up in the mountains. Now the shepherd's role was being enacted by a girl. All of us who were there at the start knew this. However a lot of people came in late and had no idea about the sex-change. Hence when the guy approached the shepherd and asked for protection from the rough weather of the Alps, the guys sitting behind us started whistling loudly! At this point, me and Bhedas thought that the play might just turn into something like Brokeback Mountain. But alas, that was not to be. Since then, we have decided to think of various changes that could be made to stories so that they can be converted into Brokeback Mountain. More tales expected soon.

The reason why the economy is in tatters

This is an amazing take on today's economic situation, even though it was first published 15 years ago. Bill Waterson never ceases to amaze.

(Link courtesy: Mostly Economics )

Spooky coincidence

Yesterday, I saw South Park Season 12, Episode : Britney's New Look, at the end of which Britney Spears is sacrificed for a good corn harvest and the people target Miley Cyrus as the next superstar to be sacrificed. And, I immediately went online and googled for Miley Cyrus and look what I found.

What I think of during exams

If you ever catch me deep in thought with a book in my hand during the exams, do not deceive yourself into believing that I'm studying. What I'm actually doing is making up stuff like this:

I'm waiting in my cold room when the bell begins to chime
Reflecting on my past day and it doesn't have much time
Cos at 2 o'clock they take me to the exam hall
The sands of time for me are running low

When the teacher comes to take my blank sheet
I take a look through the bars at the last sights
Of a paper that has gone very wrong for me

Can it be there's some sort of error?
Hard to stop the surmounting terror
Is it really the end not some crazy dream?

Yeah - e - yeah - e - yeah
May I be all clear again!

Pune Times - news you just can't use

I always used to wonder why on earth does Pune Times publish such mindless crap like what happened in a certain disco on some goddamn weeknight. All such articles are basically the same - they mention the club's name, the DJ who played (who usually has a corny name) and that it was a rocking night. Of course, there are also a few pics of some unknown people who seem to be extremely overjoyed by the fact that they are being captured on lens ( O My God! Pune Times! Really? )
But today PT managed to sink lower than before. Here is an article from today's paper, as it appears:

'The house was on fire'
The night simply kept getting fierce as the DJ kept spinning hot numbers one after the other at a popular club in the city. It was a party to be at, as the party animals couldn't have asked for more. The dance floor was ablaze with the crowd shaking its leg to the beats of the music. Guys and girls both had a rocking time.

Along with the article was the photo of an extremely dumb guy and a dumber chick.

Now can somebody please tell me why on earth was the article there? It didn't mention the club's name, so definitely not for publicity. No DJ's name, so nothing there. No celebrity. Nothing! Basically it just tells us that somewhere in the city some people were dancing in a nightclub to some music played by some DJ. Now what's so great about that? Don't people do this everyday at all night clubs? How is this supposed to be of any help to anybody (except the couple in the pic maybe, but they look so bad that even they are no better off)? Or did I miss something? Or am I just too dumb to be actually worrying about stuff they print in PT?
No wonder I use the paper only for killing bedbugs without getting my hands bloody.

Small joys

Yesterday night I was finally able to sleep peacefully, without bedbugs disturbing me every single minute and then waking up to find bites all over my body. It was pure bliss! And after this rest, I had a bath with steaming hot water. Ah! Has to be the best possible start to a Sunday morning.
It's only at the hostel that you realise the value of such small things.
And now, for some more free sleep..

The end of an era

Just when I had thought that internet censorship on the hostel server had hit rock bottom with the banning of sites like Cricinfo & ESPNStar.com , comes an unexpected relief. The era of stupid censorship is over and now I can freely access my orkut account and download videos from YouTube without having to use a gazillion proxy servers. More importantly I can visit the website of the Middlesex Cricket Club myself * and thats a great relief.
Along with the freedom, however, has come a warning. All those downloading or watching porn will be strictly punished. I, for one, welcome this because the new system still (hopefully) manages to keep a track of the amount of porn being downloaded and also helps innocent users like me to use the web without any restraints. And now I shall say something I never thought I'd say, "Long Live the COEP Web Administrator".

*- I wanted to download the Middlesex CC logo from their website. However the site was blocked by the url filter as the url contained the letters 'sex'. Hence I had to ask Gadre to download it and then mail it to me. Other perfectly harmless sites that were effectively blocked were Sensex and the dictionary.com page for sextant. How all this prevented downloading of porn still beats me.


P.S: I would also like to take this chance to thank, and bid farewell to, the following sites which have been good friends in the past but whom I shall not be visiting anymore:
1. stupidcensorship.com
2. backfox.com
3. safelizard.com
4. safehazard.com
5. KProxy
and most importantly,
6. calculatepie.com - the first proxy server I ever used. You showed me the path to enlightenment. I am greatly indebted to thee.

A Few Things I've learnt

1. Aundh is in Pune. It's not miles and miles away as I used to think before. Hence I'll no longer give Gadre concession for turning up late.
2. Chinchwad is still not in Pune. Nor is Bharati Vidyapeeth or PICT.
3. Apocalypse Now is an amazing movie! And 'The End' by The Doors is an amazing song.
4. I never do any work unless it's a real emergency. Actually, everything before 'unless' is also true 90% of the time.
5. Watching movies on my PC sucks. Especially at night.
6. Brown Blazers suck. Especially if you have to compulsorily buy them.
7. College food sucks. Believe me, I've had dinner in college about a dozen times and it's never any good.
8. College quizzes suck. Yet I shall continue to attend all of them. Even in godforsaken places like Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering.
9. I have nothing to blog about.
10. The word 'suck(s)' has appeared four time in this post. Which is bad. That sucks.

Cheap Thrills

I have found a great way of having some fun without troubling anyone. I had signed up on facebook some time back because my girlfriend insisted that I do so. I was bored of it by the third day, and I'm totally uninterested by now. Hence what I do now is this - I wait for a few days and then log in to facebook. On logging in I see at least 40 new requests pertaining to all kinds of crap. Recently facebook has added an" ignore all" button. So I click on it and watch happily as all those useless requests disappear and I feel like I'm laughing in the face of all those who had sent me those requests. Believe me, it's a great thrill!

The Two Times of Indias

Can somebody explain how on earth is it that two guys living in the same building, albeit on different floors, get two different versions of the Times of India?
The TOI dated 22nd February, 2008 or rather the one I got has the headlines 'US Shoots Down Rogue Satellite' & 'Suspects use RTI to prove innocence'. Whereas another edition of the same newspaper, with the same date has a graphic of the spy satellite shooting and a headline that reads 'Icons a drag, say IPL bidders'. And that's not all, although most pages are identical, there are occasional differences in the inner pages with different stories featuring in different editions. And surprisingly this isn't the first time it has happened.
Now how did that happen?

A warm welcome...

... to my classmate Ashish into the wide world of blogging. Like in everything he does, Ashish seeks perfection in blogging too. So he spent the last few days in figuring out how the whole thing works and finally he's started blogging here.
And for those of you who know Ashish as merely the E & TC topper, there's much more to him than that. He is a really good poet and has published a book of his poems. His latest poem is one of his best and one of my favourites. Carry on Ashish!

What to expect this year..

You have GOT to read this! Unless of course you are either of Ramdev Baba, Rakhi Sawant or Shashi Tharoor.

Happy New Year

Here's wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year. I tried calling all of you but the networks were jammed and hence couldn't get through. I promise to come up with a new excuse next year.

I shall now write no more about this topic since it has become too much of a cliche (actually I am just bugged and need to sleep).

Check your traveller IQ

Think you know a lot about the world? Think you're damn good at geography? Think you can locate any place in the world without a second thought? Well, if so, take the Traveller IQ test to check your traveller IQ. I scored a 115 in my first attempt. So what's your score?