Official Pastime

With the new projects not properly outlined, old ones headed for a dump and the boss getting busy with his stuff, it was all free time in the office. (Can the posts in a blog be held against an individual in a legal processing? Hope not!) To use the time constructively I engaged in two means to feed my brain, luckily both turned out to be nice pastimes. Remember, not mere pastimes, it’s official.

1> If you haven’t checked out howstuffworks.com, pay a visit. They are explaining, well, how stuff works and the range of stuff is quite extensive. If you want to find out how stuff related to computers, science, people, entertainment, electronics or any-field-you-name work, go to the site and do a search. Do you know how a hair dryer works or a speaker or a telephone or a TV or an atomic bomb?

2> Next one was an old game rediscovered. Solving puzzles. Here are two of the best I encountered recently –

a. There are 12 balls exactly identical in shape, size and color but one is defective though whether it is lighter or heavier is not known. Find out the ball using a common balance (without weights) using minimum tries

b. A scientist has 1000 beer bottles. He will use those during a party scheduled one month from now. He comes to know that one bottle is poisoned. How can the scientist find out the poisoned bottle using minimum number of mice?
If a mouse is fed the poisonous beer, it dies after a month.

Will you try to solve the puzzles?

If you know the answers beforehand, don’t let the word out!

Back to Mumbai & Latest Update

I had a nice little trip to Kolkata. It felt great to be at home. Since my father also managed to avail leave for a few days, the family get-together (me, my parents and my brother …… meeting all my relatives is a distant possibility) was complete. There wasn’t much to describe about the break. Not being Holi enthusiasts, we spent the day indoors. However, the celebration was at its high with all the family members sharing the dinning table and the delicious dishes after a long time. The relatives pestered me over the phone for not paying a visit. They complained of not getting a chance to meet me for long. Quite justified. But with the limited leave of seven odd days, I had little time to spare and decided to spend time with my family only. The pending ‘Puja’ days were alive at our house. I loved it.

Well to honour your right to information, I must tell you about the latest update. Today, I got the admission letter for PhD in University of Illinois, Chicago. The scholarship aspect is still hanging in mid air. Hope something works out soon.

Who can be my Lover?

Dipanjan tagged me.

I will copy/paste (most used utility in computers, I suppose, makes life so easy) the rules from him –

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover
2. You have to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game and leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.

I have never given much thought about the qualities my perfect lover should have. Coming up with 2-3 points was easy but then it required a bit of brainstorming to meet the limit. My being single is not so much for my stringent criteria as it is for the lack of quantity that I have been exposed to, that too in a highly competitive situation (read IIT). I had once put down the criteria to get a girlfriend, and with quite some deliberation decided that I satisfied none of those. May be I will talk about those in the next post.

Well, now the points. And if you were in any doubt, the target sex is female.

1. Must have a minimum level of intellect. Actions and words should come through a filter called brain before getting their way out to the world. I can’t stand dumb people. This is the most important and only must-have criterion. As I am heading towards an arranged marriage with 99.99% probability, I am wondering how to guarantee that the person satisfies this point.
   (This includes that the person doesn’t babble and laugh all the time.)
2. Should be alive and energetic. I have the tendency to become like those who are around me. Being with a dull partner will make myself dull.
3. Should be nice to talk with. Point one and two don’t always ensure this one. An intelligent and energetic person is not necessarily one you enjoy talking to. This requires wit, humor, basic knowledge and understanding of the everyday world, capacity to describe or analyze things and the very crucial one, interest to listen to what the other is saying.
4. Should have a sense of art, not so esoteric but more mundane like the sense of colours and designs. I am often at a loss while choosing garments or bed covers or anything for that matter that has an appeal to the aesthetic sense. I can’t decide what to give someone as a present on an occasion. I need a relief.
5. Should cook well. I am dying to have ‘ghar ka khana’ on a regular basis.
6. Should understand the importance of money.
7. Should understand my passions with work, not necessarily office work.
8. Should be decent looking. I really don’t care much about the look as long as the other criteria are matched and as long as it doesn’t go below a threshold.

As I don’t know whether it is a standard to tag unknown people and since Dipanjan has already tagged many of the people I know in blogosphere, I could tag only Varun, Jayanta and Suvro.

Updates from a Dormant Blog

My enthu for blogging has given away to laziness as usual. However this one is still fortunate to survive(?) so far, the others died with less than five posts. If you are interested in statistics, here are the numbers of posts I made in this blog –

September 30th + October - 10
November - 5
December - 5
January - 4
February – 0

Pathetic!!
Well, what kept me from posting is largely my laziness, somewhat the lack of a computer at home. After the office hours, I don’t feel like writing and when I am fresh again at home, I don’t get the electronic gadget I require to blog.

No more useless words, let’s get to the theme – the updates from my side

1. Dipanjan tagged me to write about 8 different points of my perfect lover. That’s a lengthy question man! 8 points!! Essay-type question, you mean. I will answer soon. This tagging is a prime cause that I am back in the blogosphere.
2. Me going home tomorrow evening by an Air Deccan flight. These low cost carriers are changing the way people travel in India.
3. I have already applied and will apply to a few foreign universities for a PhD. I am waiting for a result. I haven’t thought beyond the applications. If I am not selected in any of them, I will have to rethink what I am going to do in the near future.
4. We are practicing austerity because of bird flu, still no chicken in the menu.
5. It rained for quite long yesterday bringing back the memories of last September. I want to leave Mumbai before the next monsoon. Mumbai in monsoons sux.
6. Deep and Shashi, two of the people who work with me in the office, (it sounds odd to call them 'colleagues', it sounds so formal) met with a bike accident. They are okay now but things could have been worse, I think. Deep better take care next time.
7. In office, we have got new projects. The old one is still on, but looks like the boss has lost interest in it.

That's all for now. I will be back with the tagging thing. Beware! I am going to tag 5 more!!