My future home address

Now that we are likely to have congress again forming a govt. we can expect the more public roads and buildings named after the Gandhis. I pray that someone has the sense to pass some kind of a law which prevents parties (read congress) from using the govt. money to build a brand name for the party and the family. It reminds me of one of Hitler’s quotes which when translated sounds something like, “tell the same lie for a hundred times and you can’t differentiate it from the truth any longer.”

It scares me to think about the future generations, they find almost every other building named after Rajiv Gandhi or Sanjay Gandhi, they’ll be fooled into think that the Gandhis were remarkable people who did remarkable things. May be if the congress rules India for 10 more years, directions to my home would sound something like this.

Get down at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, take the P. V. Narasimha Rao flyover. From Sanjay Gandhi Park, go straight and take the first left after Indira Gandhi statue. Take the road to Gandhi Nagar, cross the Indira Gandhi Bridge to reach Rajiv Gandhi Municipal School, next to the Rajiv Gandhi Municipal School is a transformer (yet to be named after a Gandhi!) The plush bungalow next to the transformer is my future home.

Euro Trip Part 1: Monkey in the lab

Getting into an international flight for the first time at the Mumbai international airport is not an easy task. At least I found it a little difficult and the late night flights have a huge queue for security check. I got a window seat (as requested) but it was probably the second worst window seat one can possibly get (the first being the one right above the wing). It was just before the wing, so I could look directly into the engine and also a good amount of the ground. I was trying to figure out how to use the various gadgets available there and that is the first time I felt like a monkey in the lab, a feeling I have experienced quite often over the next couple of days. It is like someone is playing a cruel experiment- try this button and then if you do it right, you get a small incentive like turning off the light, getting the table (or the plank whatever you call it).

Taps! Why are there so many kinds of taps? I have gone through 4 or 5 airports till now and none of the air ports have the same kind of taps for their wash basins! Not even the same mechanism. You have to pull some, you have to push some. Some you have to turn clockwise while the others, anticlockwise and the rest automatically spill water on your shirt! Why can’t there be international standards for taps too??? I think a fancy restroom is the best money-in-the-lab moment for me and I am assuming for a lot of other people too, unless you choose to wait till someone else comes and uses the tap.
The next, probably the biggest monkey-in-the-lab moment I had was in the kitchen. I did not know how to open the kitchen door. It was locked all the time and there was a notice (in French) which I misinterpreted. So it took me one full day to figure out that the same key that opens my room opens the kitchen also! Once I am in the kitchen it took me one more day to find out the on button of the electric stove and to figure out how to use it! I still do not know anything about housekeeping and laundry so more-monkey-in-the-lab moments in store for me.

PAF claims 6 more lives in IIT Bombay

Hostel 5, IIT Bombay: PAF this year is turning out to be a horror for the reptile community in IIT as six more causalities have been reported late on Tuesday night. The people working for PAF desperately wanted a tube light holder and they forcibly removed it from a Sophie’s room. This is what they found in the inside of the tube light holder, 6 cute little lizard eggs.

One of them was on the verge of hatching but that was not to be because of the interruption and sudden change of habitat. The poor little embryo couldn’t make it. The other 5 are currently battling for their birthdays (hatch-days may be) under strict surveillance and protection at an undisclosed location but wing authorities have confirmed that they are somewhere inside the wing and doing fine so far.

A detailed post mortem was conducted on the still unborn embryo and as shown in the photo, the embryo was in a fairly developed stage with the blood vessels and muscles almost formed with a fully grown heart and liver. Scales are just appearing on its still translucent skin. Though no official case is registered as yet but just imagine on humanitarian grounds, the plight of the poor lizard mother. The hostel G Sec was not available for comment.



courtesy GNN: gtoos news network :p
Photo courtesy: Varun Perumal
Special thanks to Soham Basu

Es'sense' of humor

Ever wondered how all those funny guys come up with all the funny stuff? I did... in fact I have been doing research on that for one month now. Now most people I know laugh when I use the words "research" and "me" in the same sentence (even before I finish the sentence). May be it has got to do with my rather offbeat research techniques. For instance my research in humor goes like this. I try to figure out how I come up with funny stuff and then generalize the results on how all the funny people come up with all the funny ideas. "A rather controversial method" you might say. The surprising thing is that this is nothing new. Sigmund Freud did this all his life and he is now considered the father of psychology!

Sense of humor is an interesting paradox. It has no funny definition! Also, the notion of sense of humor changes with the gender. A guy is said to have a good sense of humor if he has the ability to make people laugh. A girl is said to have a good sense of humor if she laughs at whatever the guy-with-good-sense-of-humor says. I know it is unfair but yes, it is pretty easy for the girls, all they have to do is laugh!

Speaking of research, some topics are easier to do research on than others.



I'll illustrate most of my research findings in simple sketches because sketching gives me a lot of pleasure:


Here are some of my research findings illustrated:

Sometimes, giving pep talk to depressed bald people can get quite tricky. Even humor might not help.