Click here to visit RCCIIT Students' Linux Users' Group. Click here to visit my home page at Fedora.

Search

Too early for tomorrow... our pet project

Friday, January 22, 2010

Campussing Nama

I got through the Cognizant campus recruitment drive at our college yesterday. But, strangely, I don't feel, in the least, elated. Probably because there were candidates more deserving than me who didn't get through. And some, who cannot say what subjects they had in the last semester, or what was his elective subject, got through. And, I got through with this lot!

I guess, it depends on one's luck. And I was lucky yesterday. The companies do not come to take the best: they come to fish a few students. And in the net get caught both small and big fries: while some are left to cry, but none to hear.

What pained me even more was the wild celebrations of some who got through in the very presence of the lot who didn't get through. There were singing and dancing, and in their midst were people secretly crying, thinking all was lost. And who were celebrating the most? Those who did not deserve to get through at all.

What has man come to? No feelings for one's friends? Lord, make me a wolf in the next birth: at least I will be one of a decent pack.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Young adventurers

People do not realise that their everyday life is an adventure. A fisherman does not realise that his life is full of adventures. But when we, lay men, hear that he spends days on end in the high seas, braving the wind, the storm, we feel 'how adventurous!' A miner perils his life everyday but he may not realise it.

Are we very different? I get a bus/auto to Bally Ghat everyday, hang from an overcrowded train, get off at Ultodanga, hang from an over-crowded bus to get to Beliaghata. The return journey is no more sweeter.

The journey of adventure reached its zenith yesterday. I boarded a bus from Beliaghata at 5:14. There was no way I could catch the 5:17 train from Sealdah. I hoped to catch the 5:30 Naihati local to Dum Dum from where I could get the 5:53 train to Bally Ghat. I reached Sealdah at 5:32. I could see the tail lights of the departing train blinking in the distance.

Then there were two options. I could get the 5:36 galloping Krishnanagar City local to Dum Dum and still hope to catch the 5:53 train, or wait for the next train from Sealdah which left at 6:10. I chose the former. The 5:36 train left at 5:39. I reached Dum Dum at 5:55. I could see the tail lights of the departing 5:53 train blinking in the distance.

I chose to go to Chiria More from where I could get a bus to Belur Math. I reached Chiria More in no time. But when I was still to cross the road, a Belur Math SBSTC bus whizzed past along the other side of the road. The next bus arrived in 10 minutes (the only lucky part in this story). And when the bus was cruising along Vivekananda Setu, guess what happened. The 6:10 train from Sealdah came charging along the bridge, overtook the bus and disappeared. The only consolation was I was in the same bus that I would have boarded had I alighted from the 6:10 local at Bally Ghat.

Friday, January 1, 2010

A writer's work stolen?

Those of you who have read Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat will definitely agree that it was a wonderful book. It had a unique, never before told, story. It took on an aspect of Indian education that should have been taken on a lot earlier. It had the sense of humour like nothing else before it. And it had the elements of humanism at the right places.

It's not the mettle of Bollywood director/producers like Vidu Vinod Chopra or Rajkumar Hirani to come up with such wonderful story lines. And take my word for it.

I have not seen 3 Idiots, but from what I gather from various sources, including CB's blog entry: http://www.chetanbhagat.com/blog/general/a-book-a-film-and-the-truth , what the film makers have done is utterly shameful. What they forgot was perhaps that FPS has a million readers worldwide.

One may think of business interests. But to give up all ethics in the process! It is not done.

Chetan Bhagat is a famous writer. So if he cries foul, people will listen. But there must be thousands of other lesser known writers who are being tricked by the Bollywood fraudsters every year. What about them?

The public should boycott 3 Idiots in order to teach them a lesson. And if they are doing all these for awards, then it is utterly disgusting and reeks of selfish Satanism.

What the...

If this article in Wednesday's The Times of India is true, then what are we coming to? Catch the article here.