Geek = me
I woke up today morning at around 8. I usually go to breakfast after washing.. but the newspaperwala hadn’t arrived yet and eating breakfast without ET is so.. I-dont-know-what.
So, I settiled down to read a book I had started reading long ago but couldn’t manage to find the time to finish it. Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland is an amazing book. It’s about this group of programmers who quit Microsoft to work on a startup in Silicon Valley in the 90s. The cool part is that this book is written exactly like a blog (Weird fact 1: A few days ago, Shiben said on the mess table that I was a blog geek and everybody agreed) - Each chapter title is the Day / Date. Dan (the character narrating the story) his friends, memorable / arbit experiences, falling in love (not in a gooey way. Oh, btw check out this link.) and also techie-thoughts… For example, there is this character, Michael who says, “We’ve reached a critical mass point where the amount of memory we have externalized in books and databases (to name but a few sources) now exceeds the amount of memory contained within our collective biological bodies. In other words, there is more memory ‘out there’ than exists inside ‘all of us’. We’ve peripheralized our essence. Given this new situation, the presumption of the existence of the notion of ‘history’ becomes not necessarily dead but somewhat beside the point. Access to memory replaces historical knowledge as a way for our species to process its past. Memory has replaced history - and this is not bad news. On the contrarym it is excellent news because it means we’re no longer doomed to repeat our mistakes; we can edit ourselves as we go along, like an on-screen document…”
A few days ago, in some restaurant, we were having this discussion on whether the Matrix was real or not and Nappy said that he thinks that the Matrix exists because he thinks there are only a few true originals of people units and everybody else are just copies. True… in a non-scary sort of way. I didn’t agree with him then.. but yesterday, I told him how I understood that he was such a big fan of Abhinav because both of them are practically the same people - same homecity, same type of humor, same ideas on love, same experiences with love (I guess!), same ideas on work-life balance, same performance in college, same attitude towards comp sc, the same drive for iims.. Even their experiences with campus placements are the same!
A few people ask me for advice these days.. and I feel so inadequate giving it. I mean, there is no universal pre-requisite to success.. at anything, anywhere. I cannot tell them to get a good CGPA (there are so many examples of people who’ve done well - good b-school / us univ / job without having a good CGPA. I cannot tell them to focus on only one thing at a time - I feel Su is the best example of doing everything, extra-curriculars, hanging out with friends, working on his project (he must have done sth to get Dr. Sangal to give him such a good reco), preparing for gre, cat, job.. and he’s succeeded in everything too - good us univ, good job.. CAT mein chot ho gayi.. but that was just chance. I can’t even tell them to plan ahead - I’m sure Mux didn’t think he’ll be going to an IIM and all his previous ‘chot’s will not matter at all! Any advice on how to give advice?
Another thing.. I realized that spending too much time reading great blogs can actually be demoralizing and demotivating to write a post - because you feel you will never be able to measure up to their level. So, from now on, I’ll first post and only then check out bloglines. Shiben was right. I am a blog geek.
Tagged, Again!
So, in the cause of increasing my blogger karma, tagged by Recca, here I go again!
Seven Things I want to do in my life:
1. Jump out of an airplane.
2. Own a successful company.
3. Write a book.
4. Donate a huge pile of money, anonymously.
5. Create the Matrix.
6. Learn Graphology.
7. Invent something.
Seven Things I can do:
1. Take any course in IIIT, and be good at it :D
2. Chat endlessly.
3. Read books like crazy.
4. Read blogs like crazy, even personal blogs of people I don’t know.
5. Defeat Major, Hardcore 14-minus4 in DM17 in a 5-minute game with 100% efficiency (Quake 3) (That’s really hard to do for non-hardcore-gamer) (Rao, you can stop laughing now!)
6. Give good advice.
7. Not get irritated by people who boast a lot.
Seven Things I say the most:
1. Obviously
2. Basically
3. Haan, yes, okay, theek hai (I rarely say no, sacchi!)
4. Chot! (IIIT lingo, meaning a cruel twist of fate - many variations exist and can be used as a noun - “Prashant ne Gogo ke saath chot kar di”, verb - “Teri zindagi ek badi chot hai” or simply an exclamation - “Chot!”)
5. Mostly
6. Cool!
7. You’re fired (just kiddin!)
Seven Things I can’t do:
1. Figure out what I want to do with my life and be 100% convinced of my decision.
2. Memorize something without understanding it.
3. Go to the gym regularly.
4. Play cricket (or almost any other physical sport) well.
5. Watch a cricket match (or almost any other physical sport) and be interested in it.
6. Listen to slow, sad music.
7. Watch a melodramatic Hindi movie.
Seven Things that attract me to the opposite sex
1. Looks
2. Good sense of humor Must find my jokes funny :D
3. ability to give me space.
4. must share my interests.
5. I should feel comfortable talking to her / she should understand me.
6. Height :D
7. Actually, anybody with five out of the above six, will do perfectly.
Seven Celebrity Crushes
1. Jennifer Aniston
2. Linday Lohan
3. Alizee
4. Elisha Cuthbert
5. Mila Kunis
6. Christina Applegate
7. Anna Kournikova
Seven People I tag
1. Khurana
2. Pati
3. Sid
4. Nappy
5. Sandeep Chandna (blog more, dude!)
6. Vishal Dwivedi
7. Ranjeeth
