Watching history in the making

While idling around on my computer for the whole day today, I realized a very important thing. We may not have realized this but we are witnessing history in the making as we live.

In school I used to think that since all the basic laws of physics have been discovered now, there's nothing much left to do in science. It seemed like a golden age when Newton and Gallileo lived. So little was known about life. Almost everything they published was history in the making, and provided new insights about the world. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was also one such historic moment. It just completely changed the way people thought about life and god. People know now that we weren't just created out of nothing in 7 days. It was evolution.

Also, I used to think how it would have been to live in America during the 60's or 70's. The hippie revolution was at its peak. Rock bands were churning out albums that are now regarded as classic rock music. What feeling it must have been, going to see a Laser Floyd show, watching a Beatles concert or watching Jimi Hendrix perform in the legendary Woodstock '69. And there would have been times when people would have realized that these things are going to be remembered as remarkable moments in history.

And I realized that even now as we live, we do experience many historic moments. People 50 years from now will envy the feeling of anticipation that we people had before the release of every Harry Potter book. Harry Potter became a legend and will be known as a legend for hundreds of years to come. We watched Federer first win those titles effortlessly, then having to fight for it and then finally proving to everybody that he is the greatest tennis player ever. The titanic clashes between Federer and Nadal, Wimbledon 2008 final, Wimbledon 2009 final (16-14 in the final set) are all going to be things that make people of the future very jealous that they didn't live in this day and age to watch these moments in the making, to watch Federer cry after finally winning that French open.

It's a fast age. The population of the world is huge. The times are-a changing. Now I believe good artists are starting to get recognized in their lifetimes. Even those things which are not the most popular but are otherwise considered great by some end up having a cult following which I think any artist would be honored to have. I think we are living in a great time.

Smoking is beautiful

All dangers aside, I think the idea of smoking is one of the finest and most artistic ideas which the human civilization has come up with. The idea of a small stick, which you set on fire and put to you lips and then inhale the smoke is just plain amazing. You do not eat or drink anything, just burn something, inhale the smoke and it messes with your head to give you a 5 minute high. I'm not talking about whether the high is good or bad. It's just that the concept is so artistic and amazing which is what makes smoking so cool. Just think about a civilization coming up with something like that. It's almost as brilliant as the wheel.

P.S. - I don't expect to get many positive comments for this but that's ok. Just go ahead and write what you feel like

Roadies

As seen in a magazine's Q&A session


Q- Hi. I'm good-looking, weird and unemployed. Please help me.

A- Congratulations, you have the perfect qualifications for getting selected in a television show MTV Hero Honda Roadies. The Roadies is out looking for good looking jobless people like you. You didn't mention how bitchy you were. If you are sufficiently bitchy then there's no chance that you would get rejected. However, even if you are not bitchy, don't worry. You mentioned that you are weird. That means that even if you don't get selected, there's a really good chance that you will be shown on TV in the auditions stage of the program. So fret not, just audition for Roadies, you needn't get a life.

Cheers

Getting back in the game

I think I'm wasting my life and my holidays. I haven't written anything in a long long time. I thought I would do something good with my holidays. Have started squash coaching and finally started gym today but I haven't been actually doing anything. Our sitcom plan is on a hold now because my fellow dumbass creators are not in town :), no offense. I really need to start writing something, to start creating something. I seriously need to get back in the game. Science has stopped fascinating me, also interesting me. Atleast that's what I find these days. I'm not missing studying at all during these holidays although I do miss IIT. I miss being in IIT in a regular semester, although I don't miss studying.

The confused me

Today, while taking a break from viewing quantum mechanics lecture videos, I went down for some water. I met Benjo who asked me what was up. I told him that I had this presentation of a b-plan competition coming up in which I had been selected for the finals. Our team still hadn't done anything about it till now. He asked me if I wanted to do an MBA after IIT. I told him that I don't know. Right now, I find all the available prospects like MBA, MS and going for a job crappy. I told him that at the end of the 4th year, I'll go for whatever I find the least crappy. It's not like me to be usually negative but it was an honest answer. The thought that I find all the paths that IIT leads to crappy is a scary one which worries me most these days. I like viewing quantum mechanics lectures on internet even though I do it very irregularly, I love the idea of winning a B plan competition but I haven't worked for it. I would love to become a prof. but I absolutely hate studying. Every day I come to my hostel after classes (or wake up realizing that I missed all the classes), I hardly do anything. I have rough idea of things which I want to do that day but no plan. In the end, I just end up searching arbitrary things related to our b-plan on the internet for about 30 minutes and then start watching 'That 70's show', loving the show but hating myself for watching it all this time. I suspect that my posture of lying down on the bed while I start working is one of the culprits which contribute to my being unproductive. I started today sitting on the chair and keeping my laptop on the table, and I think it has helped because I felt like writing something here today. I feel better that I wrote this as it was a good way to let out my confusions.

Great day

I'm reaching the end of a great day. Met a pretty girl today, finally went to gym after 5 days, read about 120 pages of 'The last lecture' by Randy Pausch - a Carnegie mellon university prof. which has turned out to be quite a great book till now. Had wanted to read it for a long time but the paperback edition came recently only. Although i have a sore throat and feel a little feverish, but it still feels great. Haven't had a great day for a long time. An episode of 'That 70's show' would make it even better but have to sleep now. I'm thinking i'll go to my 8 o clock drama class finally. Have been thinking about it for a long time but always end up oversleeping :)
Let's see if i attend this one.

On spin offs and 75% attendance

Recently, while going through the websites of foreign universities, I came across an interesting term called spin off. In almost every department of every good university's website, a list of 2 or 3 spin off companies is given. From what I gathered, this term implies a tech-company which got started by a successful project undertaken by one of the students or faculty of that university. An example of this would be www.bostondynamics.com. This is a spin-off company started by a group of MIT students and it makes very animal like robots which can be useful for a lot of purposes.

This led me to wonder whether it is easy to start a spin-off company from IITD. The answer I reached was, not surprisingly, no. After coming to IIT, the first thing I noticed that there was a desire to excel in the students in one field or the other. They would go for night outs for their plays and dance practices even if that meant missing classes or getting a low CG, because in IIT, that was their forte and they didn't want to give it up. Now let's say I have an idea for a project and I will have to spend as much time as I can in making it a reality. I decide to skip the dumb classes which are a pure waste of time and work on my project. But no, there exists a rule which says I need to have 75% attendance in every course if i wish to pass it. The 75% attendance rule is the worst thing that can happen to a person who wants to concentrate his/her energies on anything other than getting a good CG. I can't register for less courses because it would be a sin not to complete my degree in 4 years. I had once thought of completing my degree in 5 years, so that I could do it in a relaxed way and read as many novels and take as many trips as I want in that time. Apparently, it's a bad idea or atleast that's what I was told.

The administration is busy inventing new ways on how to make the 75% attendance rule stricter. I even heard there was a proposal of changing the 75% attendance rule to 90%. C'mon guys. If you really want us to attend classes, get good profs, make the classes interesting and make the students realize that what you are teaching has some practical importance. Scaring the shit out of people by telling them that CGPA is everything may make the students attend classes and mug up for courses but it cannot make them interested in a course or learn anything. Even if they do learn something, do we really want a generation of professionals who hate their job? I'm sure the IIT students have lots of interesting ideas that can lead to a lot of good spin-off's, which will also make IIT rich and improve the infrastructure and the quality of education. But our system needs a serious overhaul if that has to happen and 75% attendance rule is the first thing which has to be done with