All that is out of this world

New space...

2008-07-02T20:14:00.001+05:30

This is to inform u all that i've formally shifted my blogging space to http://essentialrarities.wordpress.com . all posts hereforth will be available on my new blog. thanks.

This way up...

2008-06-29T19:36:00.001+05:30

what have i been upto? a lot in a sense, although nothing in another sense too. realizing this is my first post this vacation, doesn't actually feel like i've not been writing all this time. maybe i was too "occupied" (or watever that is, that u call "doing nothing"). reached on 2nd june. left again on 7th for a 15 day tour to leh, srinagar etc. about that, although most of the people that i went for the tour with (some of dad's frnds and their families) didn't have the best of their times in Leh, i totally had a blast. that was majorly due to the high altitude of the place, which results in considerable drop in the amount of oxygen available in the atmosphere, which in turn results into severe headaches, and breathing problems, at times, too. nevertheless, the place was breathtaking, with its non-conventional charms as a cold semi-arid region. apart from Leh, other places that v visited were sonmarg, srinagar, gulmarg, pahalgam, amritsar etc. for those lazy bums of u who dont have nething better to do neways, check out my picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/saahil.in/LehKashmirAmritsar .
came back from that tour on 23rd of this month. been lazing around my time here and thinking about stuff. seems so unlikely, that i had not thought of these things before, though i cud've, looking at how spontaniously they came to my mind now. unlikely, but true. for one thing, it seems so straightforward to me now what some people have been trying to convey this whole time. but y is it that i cudn't gauge that then? more so that i know it now, it ceases to displease me ne more.
out of the blue, i think calvin and hobbes is the greatest comic strip ever. not only a comic strip, no other author (other than wayne dyer and maybe, ayn rand) has been able to project the trueness of a human mind and the simplicity with which it ought to work, better than Bill Waterson(Author and illustrator of Calvin and Hobbes). i am in complete awe of the philosophies that calvin and hobbes has been projecting for so long. for example, his attitude towards history lessons is precisely what i always thought of them, only to be short of words to explain what it felt like. his unusual snowman creatures as a form of "art" is also something that has a lot of thought put into it.
i guess thats about it for now. hoping to come out of this temporary blackout of my mind soon. until then....its me and the endless servings of tomato-cucumber sandwitches.

Once upon a time....

2008-05-19T20:28:00.000+05:30

the boy feels sick. actually, to put it precisely, he feels like an asshole at the moment. actually, to put it precisely, he's been feeling like an asshole for quite some days now. he has always been known as the kind who never gave a damn about what others used to say behind his back or what others thought about him. maybe that was because till that time there wasn't really anyone to show the kid how indifferent can he really be. even now, it isn't as if he cares, but this time its different. the kid is being ignored by people, or so he thinks. he used to be a fine child. used to have a lot of friends too. friends, whom he called, not to really talk about stuff thats really bothering him, for till that time he never really found it a necessity to talk to someone. he thinks it was so, maybe because he was too shy to speak out what really is going inside him. so he'd rather not talk about it at all, than talk and make a complete idiot of himself. contradiction to the previous statement here, when i mentioned that the chap never really cared bout what people think. so much for the i-dont-give-a-shit attitude. now, he is stuck. he's practically in a mess. he is even considering what if people have started taking him for granted. people, whom he thought he could share his thoughts and feelings with(contradiction again). those people no longer seem to care. he now wonders whether he made the right choice. he feels apologetic for those who really mattered. those, for whom he mattered. who always wanted him to SPEAK, not blabber. speak his mind out. although he is quite sure that they are still there for him, they'll still be holding on to him, no matter what, but as of now he feels too small to even face them, leave alone speak to them. he knows that they wud have listened, they would have adviced, they would have stuck on, held on to him, for he was the most important thing in the world to them. he didn't quite think this statement meant nething, other than just a figure of speech, but now things are different. very different. he longs for them. but also, he knows exactly what they would have wanted him to do at this point, and he plans to make sure he does the same. the old kid will be back, improved. not because he DOESN'T CARE, but because he DOES, for himself. for those people. love u ppl, miss u.

Conversation with God

2008-04-15T10:54:00.000+05:30

when did this happen? well my friend, time is not the thing in question here. what matters is that it did happen, or did it....?

Me(still not fully awake): dude, is it really u?

God(clearly not amused, but still with the inevitable serenity): son, u dont call God that.

M: ok watever. but what in the hell are u doing here? and wat time is it? i've got murthy's lecture at 8.

G: u got it wrong again my child. hell is where i've sent the likes of u to burn and rot. they cut me off and so did i.

M: likes of me? dude, u're clearly mistaken. its room 205 here, ankur lives in 226. he is the one u r looking for. and most probably he is going to bunk the morning class so he'll be able to entertain u better. now did u, by any chance, hide my specs somewhere?

G: son, u dont seem to be taking this in good sense. believe me u, i am the most powerful, omnipresent, and i see all that happens down here.

M: u gotta be kidding me. so u mean u also saw that......oh, haha, i see where u're getting me to. pretty neat eh?

G: neat, yeah definitely. i suppose u've studied the second law of thermodynamics, which says the entropy always increases? on a galactic level that means the disorder is ever increasing. i can overpower ne force, whatsoever. everything is in my power, rest ur faith upon me.

M: really? nething? tht sounds cool to me. so, for one thing, mark my attendence in all the lectures today, if u may please. the monday lunch in the mess sucks. u might want to overpower the cook anna too. then, there's this girl. i presume u definitely know whom am i talking about. so....?

G: kid, believe in me, and all that is good for u will come unto u. i am the father of all, and who is the father who doesn't want to c his children smiling? i am here to take away all ur pain, if u be good. but, if u dont, u'll be sent to the place of eternal fire.

M: place of eternal fire, huh? so much for the FATHERLY figure. are u saying that the people who are suffering are the ones who were not good? if no, then the only other reason that they are in that state is that, u still have to go and see to them? in that case, if it took you 19 years to reach me, and u've already wasted 10 minutes here, i dont see when will those millions get their due. take my suggestion, give us all ur groupmail id, to which we'll write to u what we want. in the meantime, hop onto a bus from tc and go to those people. now if u may please, i've to answer the call of nature.

G: screw u, can u show me the way to room 226?

Does God play dice?

2008-02-19T11:52:00.000+05:30

Einstein said famously "God doesn't play dice", intending it to be a direct hit on quantum mechanics and Heisenberg's uncertainity principle. This statement "God doesn't play dice" seems so obvious at first look that we almost take it for given. but lets see it this way. what if god is really playing dice with us. assuming that god really exists, in whatever form one may want/believe him to be, ours might be the planet, or universe, for that matter, that is just his game board. he rolls his dice and assigns the numbers 1 to 6 on it to the presence of an electron within the range of "uncertainity", as the lesser mortals know it. still doesn't sound plausible? does to me. looking at the fact that god is "OMNIPOTENT", it does seem like a small chance that he would actually spend his time nudging into matters as insignificant as my maths sessional tests or diego maradona's "hand of god" goal. god would have definitely something better and something more productive to do. i am in complete love with quantum theory, as well as the uncertainity principle. life wud have been dumb and mechanical had we known EVERYTHING to the highest possible precision, and that is the place where quantum theory really comes in, and probability plays its game.
GAME ON GOD!!!!!.........

Stranger than Fiction

2008-02-18T19:41:00.000+05:30

I just finished seeing arguably the most amazing movie that i've possibly seen in the near past. its called Stranger Than Fiction. the movie is about a man and his WRIST WATCH that he has been keeping for a time long enough that he himself doesn't know. the hero follows dead strict routine and even counts the number of toothbrush strokes that he makes and has to make every morning(72 times, 36 time sideways and 36 times up and down). it just so happens that he begins to hear a female voice in his head that seems to narrate his whole life, rather than telling him what to do, which is the case with most of the psychiatric patients. he feels that he is a character in his own story that is being narrated by the voice. on the recommendation of a literature professor, he decides to change his lifestyle and do things that he has always wanted to do just to check if that makes things better for him now that he has heard from the voice that he is going to die very soon. he even succeeds in getting the only woman that he "WANTS". the series of events continue and it comes as a gradual realization to the viewer that the hero is, after all, a character in his own story, and the voice that he thinks is narrating the story is of the author of the story herself. once that author understands that what she is about to publish is a real story of a real living being altogether, she decides to make some changes in the story, that although not very well makes sense with the rest of the story, but is nevertheless worth a change. "as harold took a bite of the bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt that everything is gonna be OK. sometimes when we lose ourselves in fear and despair in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank god for bavarian sugar cookies and fortunately, when there are no cookies we can still find re-assurance of a familiar hand on our cheeks, or kind and loving gesture, of subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort."
a must watch.....

From head bang to mood swings

2008-01-27T10:08:00.000+05:30

Dont know how to react to the sudden changes in my playlist over the few days. its been around 4 years now that i've been listening to rock. but it wasn't till about an year back that i transformed into a total black/death metal fanatic. used to just listen to the likes of godsmack, slayer, pantera, korn, megadeth etc. for the past few days though, i've completely gone into classic rock and psychadelic(except for the times, of course, when i m in ankur's room). i've seen my playlist giving way to floyd(my long time favorite), the doors, clapton, radiohead, the who, simon n garfunkel etc. cant get enough of them. no complains.
now playing : human touch, Bruce Springsteen

About me now

2007-10-12T20:56:00.000+05:30

Now that i am writing for my profile, i'd like to mention that i've somehow fallen into the concept of keeping a low profile. LOW PROFILE not as in some dumb lines like "i am what i am" or "u gotta ask my friends to know that". oh c'mon. there wud b only two categories of ppl looking into your profile. one, who know u or have met u so much so as to add u in their list. they wudn't need to look into this section of your profile neways (technically speaking. though i luv to go thru the about me sections of ppl whom i already know). two, those who saw ur testimonial or scrap for a god-damn beautiful lady here on orkut (if u r a male), or those who saw ur picture in someone else's scrapbook when u scrapped the third person (if u r a non-male). so, only in the latter case does this section of your profile really holds meaning. and writing short dumb lines like those told above, wud beat the purpose of ABOUT ME section altogether then.
so, talking about low profile, i've always been writing huge stuff for myself, and may even do that not-knowingly, this time as well. i've always been enchanted by the super ecstasical attraction of limelight in the past. being noticed for wat u do (which mostly included in my case, playing pranks, doing wierdo stuffs, laughing loudly or mocking some one real bad), being talked about. not so any more. i've been convinced that u dont have to b in the limelight or u dont have to have a magnanimous PROFILE at all times. u dont have to ridicule other ppl to grab someone else's attention (someone else either refers to a grp of ppl or, mostly, a lady). u dont have to laugh away in class for no reason whatsoever, just to make the teacher feel horrible about himself or herself. no, u dont have to do that. u only need to have to do something extraordinarily productive for the humankind as a whole (ahem....yeah cudn't mince my words lesser) to grab that limelight. u just need to be NICE, to everyone u do give a damn for. for everyone else, why shud i care? there definitely might b someone else who'd b caring a bit about them as well. so then, i dont have an obligation towards them to care about, and hence i dont even need to pull their attention.
Therefore, LOW PROFILE is the word. keep rocking.

About Me

2007-10-05T20:47:00.001+05:30

This is what i've been keeping in my Orkut Profile uptil now. i wanted to update the section. so i thought i'd preserve this thing here. i kind of......love this.

5 feet 9 inches from tip to tip (tips taken as bottom and top, one at a time). normal in all respects, excepting the following -
1. nose a twitch larger than proportionally required, so as to place symmetrically between the two eyes.
2. has a short memory span which lasts newhere between 3.6 to 7.84 microseconds, when it comes to lectures involving reductive methods of extracting pure lead (Pb) and henceforth.
3. stares for an invariably long period into empty spaces, thereby putting the brain either on shuffle mode or standby.
4. has low affinity for water at temperatures ranging from 283.7 to 298.7 K.

i derive ultimate pleasure out of screeching voices, aimed at me for reasons whatsoever. about some of the most important people in my life -

Dad is a hunk. he puts immeasurable effort into making me count my blessings and not ask for 3 recharge coupons of rs. 100 each for my cell phone, each month.

Ammi jaan makes sure i've got my both ankles and wrists in place, the first thing in the morning, keeping in view the frequent sprains resulting from careless sleeping positions of mine (ahem..). ritualistically, wakes up at 2 am every night to make me realise the differences between the Owl and Human Genus and puts me to bed.

Haaroon doesn't care, about nething. all he cares about is setting reminders on a dozen cartoon channels that show on the TV. reckless bicycle riding and roller blading has a new messiah in him.

Pranjal seems to b on a never ending spree of finding flaws with stereotypes and tricking people into misleading arguments about the already established facts of life.

Shanky wants to b a rock star. sets no priorities at any point of time. thinks hard about the most insignificant and inprofitable things in life.

Aarav is one DUDE, for sure. his call-me-and-tell-me-the-venue attitude gives him invariably high ratings.

Zenab can never think of nething not to talk about. has bonded ionically to her cell phone and wudn't be happier if even food and water were sms'ed to her. is totally messed up but a darling, nevertheless.

Mehul wud never plunge into a conversation of ne kind. answers in monosyllables, and takes mammoth effort to say "bye" on phone.

Sufy has taken a vow to never stop laughing. has a stunted growth and has always attended skool so as to oblige to our very need of her esteemed presence in the class. plans to.....oh, never mind.

So long...eh....

2007-09-23T21:30:00.000+05:30

Been on the net a couple of times before this too. sify i-way. he was right. before going to the cafe, i had so many things in mind that i planned to do on net. once i reach the god-forsaken place, only things i can think of at the spot are orkut, scraps, reply to those, gmail, reply to those, messenger, and nothing more. didn't even bother to check entropy-on-the-move. so here's how it is.
first day (i.e the orientation). library auditorium. top floor MIT central library. a humungous (feels so good to b able to use that word after such a long time. i said i was sorry, u shrimp) hall. some 300 ppl sitting, staring at the blank projector screen (which has now bcome such a monotonous sight that it causes VISUAL POLLUTION - quoted C.Rajagopalan). some holy crap blabbered about the college, the Credit system, ragging, laptops, BICYCLE (oh ahahahahaha...). the first day in the class. cant remember whom i sat with. wasn't definitely a girl. can clearly recall the INDO-PAK BORDER (quoted - that ENGLISH TEACHER, Natasha or something). well by that she meant the passage dividing the rows of boys and girls in the class. huh. ya the border was here too, at least the first day. only some fortunate late comers (time > 8.15 am) were able to make it in the PAK area. some of them my hang-outters now. ok, now that i have used the term HANG-OUTTERS, let me explain wat does it mean. now, i, or neone else for that matter, can only DESCRIBE as FRIENDS the people that they get to hang arnd with. they might or might not mean the same. "might not mean" doesn't imply that they spite against those so-called frnds, but they cudn't find a more appropriate term to categorize those ppl falling in the much crowded range between (actual)FRIENDS and AQUAINTANCE (yep, orkut cant do it either). so that is the category that i have called hang-outters(phenomenon known as NEOLOGISM, if u know it). ok, so talking about ppl here, forming impressions doesn't take me ne time, and neither does changing them. heard a guy playing "come as u are" in room 226. found out then that he was the same fortunate late-comer (time > 8.15). got along with him real well. formed a ROCK BAND at the spot. NAME :- CLEO'S FUNERAL. that name came after much thinking though. some of the proposals that came along the way were - THIS WAY UP, and some more which i cant remember at the moment. though, i didn't bring my own synth along. am gonna borrow it frm somewhere.
was thinking. whn's that time gonna come when i'll pull my own strings. dad called yesterday, and out of a sudden pang of realization asked me whether i had had ne haircut since leaving home. i said that no i hadn't. told me to get that at once, or so did he mean. plan shattered. had earlier thought of going home with long bangs. doesn't matter though. i m not getting that bloody haircut ne time soon. i wanna play at the PEROXISM with these on. yeah baby, feels like my own strings. but even this semester wont last longer than 4.5 months. no, not that i want that to last ne longer than this, i want to go home on vacations, more than nething else.
soon am gonna upload the impromptu speech on MONEY, that i gave in the class. felt good abt it. but let me confess, tht was the best topic that i could have been given to speak upon. that one line, MONEY CANNOT ACTUALLY BUY YOU HAPPINESS BUT CAN DEFINITELY PUT YOU IN A GOOD BARGAINING POSITION, was quite a thought over (and over) line. i cant really remember if i thought about it myself or read it in RD. maybe.

Scales

2007-05-03T20:16:00.000+05:30

Shrimali sir says there are 7 fundamental physical quantities (he is confused till date whether to call charge or current the fundamental quantity, well never mind). all other physical quantities can b derived from these seven and can hence b measured. but having said this, the word remains PHYSICAL. oh now wtf, sure only physical quantities can b measured. "tum mujhpe kitna trust karte ho?" sweetie, had i known the dimensions of this god-forsaken quantity called "Trust" i wud have definitely let u know. ok for time being why not try to derive the dimensions. lets c, trust....one HEAVY feeling tht keeps thumping like sony ericsson's bass reflex headphones...makes M1. trust seems to b inversely proportional to the time tht relation sustains, so much so tht it makes T-2. so far, so gud. M1T-2. darling i trust u 12.376 metres/second2. now get a physics tutor and a life.

Over and Out

2007-04-28T12:10:00.000+05:30

32700, something. dont remember the exact figure and am in no mood to open another tab for it too. time was around 7.45. cudn't sleep the whole night through. mom and dad were having their morning tea. bloody me, i felt as if i ruined it. ruined it? are u mad. is nething left to be ruined. have been thinking for some days, some spiteful things about people who care the most about me in the world. every thought came crashing down though, this morning. also been thinking for some days, tht these people's worlds are revolving around me. even if it isn't so, it atleast seems so. dont know why tht doctor said tht my eyesight is 6 by 6(watever tht means). i do have to put a lot strain to see the score. neways, he has asked me to go to him again, but am sure the first thing he is going to ask is the same tht i expect him to. dont know whether i wud want to go or not. i dont think this shud b the feeling at the moment but i m still thinking if i'll be going for the movie on monday or not. i've asked dad to remember to bring the pencil colors. do i have everything else. geometry box, check, pen, sort of, admit card, yes, pencils, wtf. dont know whether st pauls will b gud for it or bad. i mean the environment might prove inconclusive. but again, wtf. no centre was better or worse as yet. so why fret. still want a t shirt, u asshole, wudn't tht b enough. bikes, t shirt, girls, mobiles. i even switched this one off in the morning. mithapur was bad. really bad. i mean there were a lot more to b discussed thn chocolates and chocolaty things altogether. wudn't know wat they have got. 216 shud b gud, or so did i think. the ratio suggests it shud b gud. but statistics lie, people lie, results are amazingly gud. she was saying on tv tht u cant judge a persons knowledge in 3 hours or something like tht. another sucker on the microphone i say. u can grade people like nething. why those grades dont lie. u can see the picture, clear as is meant to be. i still think she lies.

Wish you were here

2007-01-03T23:45:00.000+05:30

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Omnipotent God or Good God??

2006-12-17T13:46:00.000+05:30

Before i start writing anything, i ought to warn the readers beforehand that anyone who is sufficiently satisfied with his or her concept of god and other related religios stuff need not read any further. this is my effort to cater to those eternal questions of the rationalists who have ever been confused whether to believe in the prevailing definition of god or not. what i write further is based on a simple analogy. what i want to prove is that God cannot be both omnipotent and GOOD at the same time. and if i succeed in proving this, it wud b a direct contradiction of the basic definition of god. consider this example -
you are standing outside a burning house wearing a fire proof jacket. u have all the other required resources which provide u the ultimate the ultimate fire resistance and u have no fear whatsoever of fire. now suppose u know that there is a small child inside the burning house whom u can easily save, provided your fire protection. what wud be your most spontaneous action at that moment. surely u wudn't think twice before going in and saving the child. given the omnipotence of GOD, as per the popular beliefs go, what do u expect god to do when he sees the millions here suffering from AIDS and other similar diseases. doesn't it become his responsibility to save the victims rather than leave them to die. You wud surely save the child and not leave him to burn to ashes so as to give the people an 'example' that one shudn't leave their gas cylinder's nozzles open so as to avoid fire. doesn't the same applies to god as well.
So this directly proves that either God is not Omnipotent and doesn't have resources to help the victims of AIDS or he is not Good. in either case he is not God. replies will be acknowledged.

Pascal's Wager (God is a safe bet)

2006-12-16T10:46:00.000+05:30

"If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing -- but if you don't believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist."

This argument is known as Pascal's Wager. It has several flaws.

Firstly, it does not indicate which religion to follow. Indeed, there are many mutually exclusive and contradictory religions out there. This is often described as the "avoiding the wrong hell" problem. If a person is a follower of one religion, he may end up in another religion's version of hell.

Even if we assume that there's a God, that doesn't imply that there's one unique God. Which should we believe in? If we believe in all of them, how will we decide which commandments to follow?

Secondly, the statement that "If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing" is not true. Suppose you're believing in the wrong God -- the true God might punish you for your foolishness. Consider also the deaths that have resulted from people rejecting medicine in favor of prayer.

Another flaw in the argument is that it is based on the assumption that the two possibilities are equally likely -- or at least, that they are of comparable likelihood. If, in fact, the possibility of there being a God is close to zero, the argument becomes much less persuasive. So sadly the argument is only likely to convince those who believe already.

Also, many feel that for intellectually honest people, belief is based on evidence, with some amount of intuition. It is not a matter of will or cost-benefit analysis.

Formally speaking, the argument consists of four statements:

One does not know whether God exists.
Not believing in God is bad for one's eternal soul if God does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore it is in one's interest to believe in God.

There are two approaches to the argument. The first is to view Statement 1 as an assumption, and Statement 2 as a consequence of it. The problem is that there's really no way to arrive at Statement 2 from Statement 1 via simple logical inference. The statements just don't follow on from each other.

The alternative approach is to claim that Statements 1 and 2 are both assumptions. The problem with this is that Statement 2 is then basically an assumption which states the Christian position, and only a Christian will agree with that assumption. The argument thus collapses to "If you are a Christian, it is in your interests to believe in God" -- a rather vacuous tautology, and not the way Pascal intended the argument to be viewed.

Also, if we don't even know that God exists, why should we take Statement 2 over some similar assumption? Isn't it just as likely that God would be angry at people who chose to believe for personal gain? If God is omniscient, he will certainly know who really believes and who believes as a wager. He will spurn the latter... assuming he actually cares at all whether people truly believe in him.

Some have suggested that the person who chooses to believe based on Pascal's Wager, can then somehow make the transition to truly believing. Unfortunately, most atheists don't find it possible to make that leap.

In addition, this hypothetical God may require more than simple belief; almost all Christians believe that the Christian God requires an element of trust and obedience from his followers. That destroys the assertion that if you believe but are wrong, you lose nothing.

Finally, if this God is a fair and just God, surely he will judge people on their actions in life, not on whether they happen to believe in him. A God who sends good and kind people to hell is not one most atheists would be prepared to consider worshipping.

Entropy - The Band

2006-12-15T21:11:00.000+05:30

The Raze, Shanx, VZ, Bahamut, the Soul. Entropy was initially formed as an amatuer so called 'rock' band. i use so called bcoz none of us had even the faintest idea wat comprises singing with all the world's vigour, guitars in hand, fingers bleeding as one switches from G to A minor. but seems now tht we know our standings already. shanx already got a guitar, my synthesiser sounding high as ever. Soul's beautiful voice touches ones senses with such ease as does a hot knife to butter. but it wud take time yet to sprout. JEE, PMT and all other fucking stuffs are no kid's job as of now. but watch out and get hold of some gud seat belts and head gears as well. we're gonna rock soon.