Happy days are here again...........

Finally the day has arrived... when the PUJA HOLIDAYS would begin... 10 days of BLISS.. no assignments, no presentations, no case studies, no surprise quizes, no continous 2 hour lectures, no exams, no studies- full to full masti... I am going to catch up on all my lost sleep at home..Having said that, i have got my cousin's marriage to attend.. so looking forward to a lot of socializing within the next 1 week.. it'g going to be mighty hectic..but who's complaining- this kind of a "hectic" definition suits me better... coz i know there's another kind of "hectic" stuff waiting for me after the holidays....PHEW
but as of now, i m raring to go home..
MOMMA, here i come.....

what a relief!!

The mid sems are finally over...Although oficially it is over today, unofficially it got over the last Saturday itself. It was basically a report submission today. Although it still carried 2 credit points, an open book examination done in the hostel in the comfort of your room with all your friends around you is a different proposition altogether. The element of tension and wild anticipation is not there, and no matter how tough the assignments are, you have all the goddamn resources at your disposal at the click of a mouse!
The problem is that 98% of the guys did 98% of their work yesterday night, when honestly speaking, an equal and judicious distribution of time over a period of two days would have taken 98% of the load of their shoulders. But these are the idiosyncrasies of an Engineering student- they just cannot reconcile themselves to the fact that studies need to be done well before the examinations too... Waiting till the eleventh hour is something that comes naturally to us- we seem to revel in it, and just cannot do without it.. It is almost as if until and unless you associate an exam with a flurry of activities just 15 hours before the exam, then it is not really an exam in the truest sense of the term..
Can you believe this? I had a night out yesterday and still finished it at the 11th hour 59th minute 59th second... Can it get more frantic than that?
I guess that is why i feel this amazing wave of relaxation passing by me as it dawned upon me that finally, it is all over...
well, at least for the time being...I am eagerly look forward to a sleepy time at home this Puja...My(well actually my sister's) Labrador must have grown tall and big too... he would be a treat to the eyes now... Majestic,black,royal Labrador- whom we lovingly call "honey"....

Four letter obsceneties: the "God" of them...****

You know what I am speaking about. For those who are still wondering, I am talking about the God of all the four lettered abuses that pops out from out mouth as if we were born to live with it at the tip of our tongue.. F***... Passed down to us by our not so illustrious American counterparts, this letter (amongst a slew of others)has taken a grip on our tongue to such an extent that it has become fashionable to say this now....Moreover, wonder of wonders, the meaning has been modified and diversified to fit into different situations...Look at these alternative meanings:

F***
Verb-Transitive

1. To take advantage of, betray, or cheat; victimize.
2. Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal.

Verb-Intransitive

1. To act wastefully or foolishly. Man, you really f***ed it up
3. To interfere; meddle. Often used with with.

Noun
3. A despised person. You bloody f***er
4. Used as an intensive: What the f*** did you do that for?

Interjection

Used to express extreme displeasure...F***!!!!

Phrasal Verbs:
f*** off
1. Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal. Just f**** off
2. To spend time idly.

f*** over
To treat unfairly; take advantage of.
f*** up
1. To make a mistake; bungle something.
2. To act carelessly, foolishly, or incorrectly.
3. To cause to be intoxicated.

Have you wondered the origin of this word...The following small copy-paste might help:

[Middle English, attested in pseudo-Latin fuccant, (they) fuck, deciphered from gxddbov.]
Word History: The obscenity fuck is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, "Flen flyys," from the first words of its opening line, "Flen, flyys, and freris," that is, "fleas, flies, and friars." The line that contains fuck reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk." The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia," mean "they [the friars] are not in heaven, since." The code "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i was then used for both i and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields "fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli." The whole thus reads in translation: "They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge]."

As they say, you should always be aware of your surroundings...KNOW WHAT YOU SPEAK...

An open challenge: Try being messy....

Oh yeah..So all of you think that being messy is horrendous, and anyone and everyone can be messy if he wants to.You think it's no big deal being messy and the big deal is being organized,being punctual, being structured, being clean- blah blah...
First thing first, a person is organized NOT because he SHOULD NOT be messy, but rather because he CANNOT be messy... there's a huge difference in these two, you see...should not-> within your discretion and power, cannot-> not within your capacity...
I say, try the following on yourself for at least 6 months and then come back with your comments:
Try sleeping with a heap of books cluttered all around you in the worst way imaginable... Visualize this: a few books half opened, with a capless pen in between the pages, maybe a half torn dog eared paper bookmarker lying orphaned in the middle of the table, your laptop switched on and giving you a long hard lonely stare with its screensaver, your pants and shirts lying hither and thither, your hangers lying barren and useless with not a single goddamn piece of cloth hung on them for ages, your shoes lying in diametrically opposite directions and the bloody socks looking like two pieces of separated twins....Now if any of you are a cleanliness freak, how do you exactly relate to that scene?Do you feel comfortable...If some Godsend message comes along and tells you that there is no wrong in living your life in utter shambles, would you be able to live your life in a total replica of the scene just mentioned....would you? that is the question...Could you-that's the bigger question?
As a matter of fact, for those who are very finicky about their cleanliness, I can actually challenge you to try that... Now, you would say, "why should I try that? No benefit in doing these stupid little moron like stuffs"...I say there are: you just need to have an eye for details...Take these for a change::
(1)You save time..HOW?...It takes time to fold your clothes, and then bloody, you have to unfold them again when you need to go out...Does it make sense?
(2)You save your time and energy in NOT having to look for where the clothes are located... Since everything is strewed apart, everything is within the periphery of your vision..you have to "pick and choose"- the familiar concept that works in megamarkets and megaspaces...;-)
(3)You save energy...yeah, to do those unwanted things mentioned in the first two points, you need to spend a few kilowatts of your precious energy...In an era where Mr. Arjuna Ranatunga used to walk down the pitch when there is no posibility of a second run- just to "conserve his energy", it makes perfect sense for all of us not to waste our energies in the frivolities of life..What say? ;-)
(4) People would feel at home in your place...they would not mind undoing your bed when they're relaxing there..and your friends would turn up at your place for every veritable party...yeah, your place is gonna be a party spot!!

You see- being messy is "IN"..it's hot and happening..however, at this point of time, i need to clearly distinguish between being messy and being dirty. A person whose room is in a mess might have all his clothes lying across all the possible permutations in his three dimensional space, yet all these clothes might be properly washed and cleaned.His shoes and socks might not be "paired" together, yet they do not produce that abominable smell. They are just as clean as any other neat pair of shoes. By being messy, I was just referring to the organizational structure in the room, nothing else. Be physically clean, mentally pure, but never mind if your immediete personal environment goes for a toss..who cares!!!!!!!!LET THE DOGS OUT...LET THEM RULE...

The Nine Investing Secrets by Warren Buffett

Oh well, yeah..Another book.... a decent one at that too...And not very voluminous, shouldn't take more than 3 decent sittings to skim it through- over and out..;-)
Investing ain't that easy- learning the tricks of the trade of a pastmaster does not hedge you from the risks that comes with investment...We learnt about investing in a portfolio that is reasonably diverse to diversify and hence, minimise the risk...
Just to have a hang of this amazing investor, spare a thought on this snippet:
In 47 years, Buffett’s investment company, Berkshire Hathaway has achieved returns of 259,485% versus the S&P 500 returns of 4,783%. The difference in results is an astonishing 254,747%!
Look at what the Pundit has to say:
“I have seen no trend toward value investing in the 35 years I’ve practised it,” Buffett declared some years back in the Chicago Tribune. “There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”
Anyways, for all of you who wants everything in a shortcut way- i would enlist the main (nine) points and leave it to you for your interpretations..I have touched upon all the points with possibly the best statements that summarizes the whole point (purely subjective though).Nothing revolutionary,dramatic or sensational stuff, but definitely a highly commonsensical approach-something that easily appeals to your logic...So,here goes:

Secret #1: Invest in quality businesses, not stock symbols:
“When I buy a stock,” Warren Buffett said, “I think of it in terms of buying a whole company, just as if I were buying a store down the street.”

Secret #2: Don’t invest for ten minutes if you’re not prepared to invest for ten years:
“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upwards over the years, and so will the portfolio’s market value.”

Secret #3: Scan thousands of stocks looking for screaming bargains:
“If (the investment) doesn’t scream at you,” he once said, “it’s too close.”

Secret #4: Calculate how well management is using the money they have:
Every year, Warren Buffett writes in the annual report of Berkshire Hathaway that he is eager to hear about businesses that, amongst other things, are earning “good returns on equity while employing little or no debt.” This means that ROE and ROC are essentially the same.

Secret #5: Stay away from “glitter” stocks:
“Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.”

Secret #6: Know what a fat pitch is and what to do with it:
Wait until everything is in your favour. Nothing makes you buy any particular stock at any particular time. As investors we have the luxury of waiting for the “fat pitch.”

Secret #7: Calculate how much money you will make, not whether the stock is undervalued or overvalued according to some academic model:
There are various academic models for calculating what is called the intrinsic value of a stock. All these models, referred to as discount cash flow models, are fatally flawed. There are four areas that bring them down. They are theoretical, contradictory, unstable and untestable.

Secret #8: Remove the weeds and water the flowers — not the other way around:
People would have been better to sell their losers and keep their winners. Instead, they did the opposite, namely keep their losers and sell their winners.

Secret #9: Become a conscious investor:
"Risk comes from NOT knowing what we are doing"

So there they are...The "magic" rules, so to say.. ;-)

Food for thought...

Cool...Eternal optimist-did I mention that...WHOA! So I did, the very blog is dedicated to the incorrigible optimists- the guys(and girls alike) who gets what they want by the sheer power of their unstinting faith in the responsiveness of the universe...The Alchemist, Synchrodestiny, The Power of the Subconscious mind- all points to the wholeness of this infinite universe, accentuating on the belief structure of the mankind formulating the laws that govern their very existence..
I shall give a brief encapsulation by collating and correlating the philosophical underpinnings of the books that I have been fortunate enough to come across...There are some 7-8 of them, the knowledge of which have been gained at different "enlightening" phases of my life...
Spare a moment and ponder over Einstein's energy mass equation. Energy is equal to mass times the square of the speed of light in Vacuum... Fathom deeper into its implications...What this statement effectively means is that mass (hence weight) is nothing but PURE energy in super fast motion...So our body is nothing but pure (and shall I say inorganic) energy...Multiply the mass of your body by the square of the velocity of light, and BINGO, what you get is the energy that "you are"...And this energy, according to the laws of physics, can neither be created nor destroyed....
so then...Where was this energy BEFORE we came into existence...Where will it go after our death..Hmmmmm.... Food for thought- is it?? Now does this explain the theory of life-after-death...Or does this explain the eternality of the soul...
For one, I can tell you that after you die,the energy that is represented by the body undergoes mass transmogrification... It'll return to dust...Or be a part of fire...Or transmute into into a different form of energy...
But where was this before we were born???
Guess this would be a long philosophical discourse were I to elucidate upon it..Not saying that I know it(far from it),but adumbrating my inferences on this subject... Let me go a few shades deeper,let me read a few other books , then I would be in a better position to touch this topic....Till then, a slight hint: for all the uninitiated, THOUGHT, my dear friend, is also a form of energy...So, WATCH OUT : what you think might stare right back at you in a materialized form within seconds, minutes, hours, days or years....

Another Book Review...ABC of Relativity

Ok..This is another book which kind of fascinated me by its very name...Now, i had a baggage of expections with me as i started reading this book with great gusto. Russel is a wonderful writer and definitely one of the "selected" few who was able to comprehend with a substantial degree of clarity the challenging concept of "relativity"...Now this man is a real western philosophy maven,and it goes without saying that his knowledge in this elusive field is quite impeccable and exclusive..However, i think that the book really did not saitiate my thirst of the knowledge of relativity....In all fairness to him, he attempted , at least at the outset, to build up the knowledge frame by frame...But somewhere down the line, he fumbles...He makes a wonderful attempt, and succesful at that too, to differentiate between mass and weight...That portion was pretty engrossing indeed...But as i said, somewhere in the middle he lost that silken touch of "frame by frame" learning, and i had to look for other refernces to catch on to what he was saying....There were quite a few instances of his rapier like wit(his wisecracks and all)...but honestly, I found it hard to sustain my (flagging) interest till the end...Another thing he could have done (Look who is saying) is to unpack his views with appropiate graphs, charts, diagrams et al. I felt that he could not walk the tightrope between getting theoretical or too analytical(mathematical)..By its inherent nature itself, the relativity theory has tons of mathematical implications-the kinds of which cannot be neglected in their entirety..Those much sought-for deductions were missing in the book, so conceptualizing and visualizing the stuff in a holistic way was kind of tough...But then again,this might be a biased view of an engineer who is used to facts being presented in an empirical and mathematical fashion..
So,I guess this is still a good book for someone whose knowledge in the field is past the beginner's phase..
Now there is another book in my repertoire: The Philosophical Consequences of Relativity.... Let me see if that gets into my now-cluttered head...;-)...will post soon...with the mid sem over(well..almost), I m again on a reading spree...:-)

Latest Book Review...

The latest book which i have read is this wonderful spiritual bestseller: The Autobiography of a Yogi....I started off in a very very casual note, literally skimming through the initial portions...And i really do not know at what point of time this book grabbed my undivided attention....The biggest irony is that this was the second time i was reading the book...The first time i read this was real long back,and probably that is the reason why i could not really construe what transpired in the mind of the author and fathom deeper into the "meaning" of the book...This time it was different-very different indeed...By dint of the knowledge gained from a few other books in the same domain,i was better equipped to relate stuffs and make sense out of it.. My moment of epipheny came pretty early on in the book...n it engulfed me in such a profound manner that i didn't care two hoots about the ensuing mid semester examination, which hung like a sword over my neck!!.....
I feel book is a must for anyone who's deeply fascinated by the self-realisation thing.....But it is actually much more than that--The distinctive feature than stands out like a beacon in this book is the author's quirky way of handling spiritual matters..FYI, this is one of the rare books of its kind where every ounce of thoughts was translated to words the the "yogi" himself...Now and then, there would be scientific evidences butressing the religious claims upheld in our age-old scriptures...Then again, it focussed on the unity of teaching between different religions and regions, and how the reality is nothing but a sheer confluence of the deeper meaning underlying these books......
After all, as it says, it boils down the same age old concept...now what is "that" concept?? huh, you gotta read it to know it.....:-)

Fine then...here I kick off...

It's been overdue...I have been wanting to start a blog for quite some time now...Thanks to my lackadaisical attitide and some busy moments, specially when I uncharacteristically went into overdrive in the wake of my mid sem examination, i just could not materialize this thing about blogs...Now as i sit down and start writing, there are lots of nostalgic retrospections that has started to come flooding right from the deepest fountain of the heart and the mind.....I would write them....but would rather be structured in my approach, lest it serve no purpose to me or the selected few who'd visit this blog....