The Chronicles of a Happy Life

Those of you lucky enough to be on my yahoo messenger list, must have received a invite from my new yahoo id a few minutes ago. I suggest you drop whatever you are doing right now (err.. I hope you are not holding anything nasty while reading my blog), and accept my invite immediately.

Yes, yes.. I know you must be wondering. Why did I change my id from a classy, romantic (I like to think so), akela_musaphir2003 to a sedate, ordinary rastogi2912? Well, the reason is - I’ve grown up. It was getting slightly embarassing giving this id, esp to professional contacts. “akela musafir 2003″, I would say and a strange hush would fall over the room. The person would suddenly look up at me, wondering whether this was another of my not-so-good jokes. “No, it’s akela underscore musafir.. ha ha.. It’s not a joke, see.. and it’s got a ‘P-H’ instead of an ‘F’… No, I don’t pronounce it like that. It’s just what came into my mind then.. yes, that was in 2003.. yes, i did go to chat rooms then.”

Not that I didn’t love my old id. It was a great way to start a conversation or to prolong it when we ran out of topics. And yes, it worked wonders in chatrooms and other places too. I’m sure that hot brunette from orkut would never have added me were my id a prosaic rastogi2912.. not that it was of much use anyway, we haven’t chatted much after our first conv. It also had a small funda (I love that) behind it and I love that. I really did think (and at times, even now) that I was a lone traveller making the journey of my life and that sometimes i met other travellers along the way, but our paths would soon separate.

By the way, I’ll _still_ keep this id. So if any of you have your evil eye on this id, back off! I’ll still slip into this id sometimes - for old times sake. Like superman, you know.. Bruce Wayne Clark Kent! Yes, this was one of my not-so-good jokes.

(Bruce Wayne : Batman :: Clark Kent : Superman. Thanks for correcting me)

Friendship is a strange thing. Sometimes we inadvertently hurt each other. Sometimes, the hurting is intentional. In fact, it is sometimes a means to highlight the friendship itself! To say to the world, “Behold, he is my friend. So I can hurt him.”. Sadly, sometimes it hurts too much. And sometimes, the friend does not say anything, does not say - “Stop. This is wrong”. He bears it until the wound becomes an unhealing scar, a permanent irritant. But then, in nature everything has a limit. The final sarcastic remark wreaks havoc. A relationship that has stood solid for years begins to crack and crumble. Minor things get blown out of proportion. Misunderstandings that have simmered under the surface for ages boil over. At these times, it’s easy to forget the thousands of good-times had and jokes shared over a few bad memories. But if handled carefully, these ‘come clean’ sessions can actually help strengthen the relationship. At least, the misunderstandings are corrected.

I hope that my friend X who got really senti today (fortunately, not against me), gets all the poison out of his system and then thinks calmly about the bigger picture. And if I’ve ever hurt you guys, give me feedback before I drive you over the edge. Trust me, I’ll listen. And please bear with me if I become senti someday.

1. Reading about the ‘25 most important days in the history of the Indian republic’. (covery story in ‘The Week’)
2. Being given the topic - ‘The ten most important days in the history of the Indian Republic’ for a GD at CL yesterday.
3. Doing well at 2 because of 1 :)
4. Enjoying a full-day holiday. (Did you know that it’s illegal for educational institutions to remain open on this day for any reason other flag-hoisting)
5. Catching up on reading blogs because of 4.
6. Listening to a really good song after a long time. I just love songs with fundas.

Unpatriotic? What do they expect us to do? Hoist the flag? What’s the point?

1. This blog turned one year old.
2. After my first mock interview, I was told that I need a really strong answer for ‘Why MBA?’ since I’m giving up a 6L job at a great company.
3. I realized that I’m not really convinced that I should do an MBA now.
4. Musa and Patel gave a treat at Gufaa. The best ambience, ever!
5. Lots of congress delegates have come from all over the country to pee in our campus.
6. The Dean’s Merit List Party happened and I missed the fried fish. I’ve the highest regard for my professors’ choice of reading material (the books are not at all bad in a literary sense. One could carry them on one’s arm at a literary critic banquet without being the slightest bit embarassed) and I’m thankful to them for organizing this event when they needn’t have done it, but I’ve absolutely no use for a fifth Gitanjali or books like ‘500 great personalities’. Give me cash.
7. Went to CDAC today. Almost starved to death, thanks to the dedication of DVD.
8. I’ve found that I think in bulleted points - not paragraphs or poetry as I think most people do!
9. No, that still does not give me the answer. No.

Links:

A very nice photo blog
An idea I liked
Open source Introduction to micro-economics

Perfect for long chats. Looks good. Really cool and fresh. Jassi, thanks for the intro.
Cool blue at CCD really rocks :)

Links of the day:

Enjoy the coffee, not the cups.
Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic
How Steve Jobs grabs media attention
Windows Vista
IIIT to become PMO during plenary
Quick and Dirty Reading strategy
What I learned at MIT
Trackback and Pingback tutorial on wordpress
something recursive

In 1944, C.S. Lewis delivered a speech titled ‘The Inner Ring’ to the graduating class of Kings College at the University of London. He asserted that the strongest of all drives is the desire to belong to an ‘inner ring’ - an imaginary circle of the important. But, he warned, status is like an onion comprising endless layers. No sooner do you crack one ring than you become obsessed with getting to the even-more-exclusive ring inside that one.
- Source

Links of the day:

Three simple actions that doubled my website traffic in 30 days
New interest in software products
How to Interview a Programmer
Chapters from latest Tech books for free
The Daily Brad

Let me die a youngman’s death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I’m 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I’m 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber’s chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I’m 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman’s death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
‘what a nice way to go’ death

Roger McGough

I’m too bored. It’s not that I don’t have anything to do. It’s just that I seem to have no interest in doing anything. These days, I can’t do one thing for any period of time longer than 15 minutes. I turn on a movie and then pause it, so that I can read somebody’s blog for sometime. Then, I stop doing that so that I can chat with a friend. Then, I suddenly feel like blogging myself. I keep arguing with myself on whether or not it makes sense to post something for the whole world to see and whether or not it is any good, until I give up and unpause the movie only to restart the whole cycle after a while. I alternately feel lonely and crowded (can you suggest another word?). Sometimes I wonder if I’m supposed to be somewhere else, like in a different universe. Sometimes I wonder what race it is, that I’m running. Why I’m in it. What I’m running away from and running towards. Maybe, this is what they call existential angst. Maybe, I just need to play Quake 3. Will go do that now. Blogging really helps :D

Landing my first job.
Being called a ‘bada aadmi’ / CEO by friends, especially when they are ‘bade aadmi’ themselves.
Hearing my parents’ voices light up when I tell them I’m coming home for an unscheduled vacation.
An unscheduled vacation.
Sipping ‘Cool Blue’ in CCD, chatting away for hours with old friends.
Having a large family get-together after years.
Having cousins who pooled in their year’s pocket money savings to buy me a birthday gift.
Being fussed over by a mother, 2 aunts and a grandmother.
Getting a perfect BLACKI.
Finding out that my friends have gotten a lot of IIM calls too.
Calling up a very old friend who I hadn’t spoken to in years, to wish him a Happy Birthday.
Being called up by a very old friend (different guy) who I hadn’t spoken to in years, for being wished a Happy Birthday.
Having several people who I don’t even know, say to me - “So you are Sagar Rastogi, I’ve heard so much about you”.

Touch wood.