Thursday, November 6, 2008

Found it, liked it | Color Scheme

Have you ever walked into a room that made you feel cold, even on a sunny day? Or perhaps a place where you feel cosy and comfortable no matter how horrible the weather was outside?

I'd bet a large part of it was due to colour. It might seem obvious to the designers, artists and decorators out there, but if you're not immersed in colour theory as part of your work, the influence of colour on mood and environment isn't necessarily an obvious one.


Colour Wheel


The colour wheel on the right should be familiar to most people. We've all been exposed to the basics of colours and how they interact in primary school when you did your first painting in art class.

But when it comes to choosing a colour scheme for your living areas, your website or anything else for that matter, we all tend to gravitate towards colours that speak to us. Taste in colour is as different from one person to the next as a fingerprint. True - our choices can be influenced by external factors, but time and time again, we move back to the ones that appeal to us.

So why should you be aware of the influence of colour? It's simple. Something that appeals to you as a person, might not appeal to the visitors to your website or the person looking at your product catalogue. Uh-oh ... so even before they read a single word of your brilliant copy, they've formed an opinion based purely on colour.

There has been hundreds, if not thousands of books and websites published on colour, colour theory, choosing colour schemes and the like. But if you're just looking for a colour scheme for your website or marketing brochure, trawling through all of that seems to be a bit much.

Trying to cater for the hundreds of different tastes would be a nightmare of epic proportions. Hence the need for a bit of shrewdness and savvy when it comes to choosing your colour schemes.

The key concept here - no matter which colours appeal to you - is ‘Harmony'. Do your colours work together to give the reader a good experience? Do they complement or detract from your product offering? Do they draw people in or push them away? These are just some of the questions that go into making colour work for you.

The medium you work in also has an influence on colour choices. Is it for on-screen viewing or a printed brochure? But that is an article all on its own.

As a web designer and computer graphic artist, most of my work is for on-screen viewing. Therefore, I need to make sure that whatever design I come up with doesn't make your eyes bleed when you look at it. But it's right here where the first hurdle needs to be overcome.

Web Safe Colour Palette


The image above is the standard 216 colour ‘web safe' palette. Even with 216 colours available to me as a web designer, the format it's presented in often leaves me going ‘huh ... where do I start?'. From a personal perspective, very few of those web safe colours appeal to me. And from bitter experience I know that if I'm working with something I don't like, it impedes the creative process and I spend days on trying to get the design to work. With monitors now able to display ‘millions of colours', I'm no longer limited to just working with those 216 web safe ones.

And here's my little secret: I turn to Mother Nature for inspiration. I have never seen a landscape that didn't work in colour harmony. Whether it's a stormy desert or a tranquil ocean, a field of wild flowers or even an urban setting, the colours you see around there work together in a manner that is difficult to just thumb-suck out of the nothing.

This is how I do it.

Step 1: Find an image or photograph that you like

There are many sources of images and photographs on the web. Google Image Search or even the search on a stock photography website will in all likelihood present you with at least one image that appeals to you. There's no need to dissect and analyse why it works ... just go with your instinct.

Once you've found an image, copy it to your computer. We are not going to use the image in our design; it's only as there as an inspiration for choosing a colour scheme. If you are going to be using the image itself, ensure that it is not copyrighted or that you have a license to use it in your work.

Step 2: Picking colours using the Eye Dropper tool and Zoom feature in Photoshop

Here's an example of an image that inspired the colour scheme below it. That's right - 33 colours that I can mix and match to create a design that works together.

But wait! The image is all oranges and yellows, where did all the other colours come from? It's for this very reason that I use photographs for inspiration. Even if the overall look of the image above is warm and sunny, there are hundreds of shades and colours hidden in it that work together.

My secret weapons: The Zoom feature and Eyedropper Tool in Photoshop.

If we zoom in to the maximum level on the image above (1800%), small colour details that are hidden from obvious view are revealed.

See? There is a smidgen of green in the flower image that we wouldn't notice if we hadn't zoomed in. Of course, I could have randomly chosen a green from the colour wheel and hope like hell that it worked with the general hues and tones of the oranges and yellows in the image, but unless you have a really good feel for colour, this is usually a hit-and-miss operation.

So that splash of green gave me the first 3 colours in the top bar of my colour scheme.

Next, I zoomed out again and picked colours from the image - some yellows, oranges and browns from different areas on the image. As these are the overall colours of the photograph, I decided to pick a range of colours shading from light yellow to orange to give me a nice overall representation.

In the final step, I zoomed in on some of the darker areas of the image to find the reds and browns that make up the last couple of colours on the top bar. Once I've picked a colour from the image with the eyedropper tool, I create a new layer named ‘colourscheme' and colour in a block of that colour I picked.

At the end of this process, I usually have about 16 to 20 colours from the image on a separate layer.

Step 3: Building the colour scheme

Now that you've got your range of colours, it's a matter of personal preference about how many colours you finally end up in your scheme.

Take a look at your blocks of colours. You'll usually see one or two that don't quite seem to fit the overall ‘feel' of the scheme - those are the ones that you would typically delete from the final colour scheme.

Once your happy with the final selection of colours, duplicate the layer they're on. Now set the opacity of that duplicate layer to 50%. Voila - you now have an additional set of colours, based on the original ones that give you tones and harmonies that will work with the ones you picked from the image. And finally, duplicate the colour layer once more and set the opacity of that layer to 20%.

And there you have it - an entire palette of colours that work together.

One image, two different colours schemes

In the following colour schemes I worked with a photograph of rusted rivets. Remember, I mentioned that even an urban landscape can yield colour harmonies that work together, even if it doesn't look like something that Mother Nature would dish up.

In the image above, there is a myriad of colours spanning the entire spectrum from yellow to purple. I chose one or two colours from each colour family. But, this same image can be used to create a more monochromatic scheme with perhaps one or two alternate highlight colours.

Here, I focussed my colour choices on the blue portions of the image. For highlights, I could have gone with the greens, oranges or yellows instead of the purples and still have ended up with something usable.

As you can see, in just one image, there is the inspiration for multiple colours schemes that can work together.

Final Thoughts

Like any language, colour can either help to bring people together or push them apart. It all depends on how it's used. I've revealed my secret for creating colour schemes, but there are just as many other valid ways of getting to something that will work.

In most corporate type projects, the colours you are given to work with will be dictated by the corporate identity standards or the logos you're given. Don't despair. Even within those images, there are hidden complementary colours that can bring your work to life.

Have fun and play with it. You've got nothing to lose.

PS: And here's another colour scheme. For no other reason than the fact that I really liked the photograph *smiles*

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

GRiN | Issue 3 released.





Wanna know what this is? get in touch!

NIT Library | All you need to know about the insides



All the things, apparently, aren’t that apparent. And the thing applies more so to the entity which inherit this capacity either due to its hugeness, intricacy, complexity, convolution, or the simpler one; no one cares to strip open the cloth that hides the truth.

Walking up the 19 steps of the Great SVNITian ‘Central Library’, illuminated beautifully at night by 14 ornamental lamps(two of which don’t light up) you seem to get this same feeling. It’s like entering into Siberia- You know its there, but you exactly don’t know ‘what’s there’. As you stroll through the lines below, you will be surprised, dumbfounded, irritated, and informed. As to what actually lies inside that ‘love’ly building of ours……

So we enter in- you don’t have to be a Stephan hawking to understand that it’s a huge table providing you with the daily information you need in 3 languages and in totality with 8 papers. Walk through the room, give fleeting look to the computers kept (we’ll come back to it). 8 steps up we reach in the ‘MAGAZINES AND JOURNAL SECTION’ .Managed by Mr Atul Panchal, the room sits quiet and calm, housing 170 magazines. But wait!!....what are those stacks and stacks of bound black things, hid by everyone???....resembling the department of mysteries from the remains of Harry Potter’s sets, only the difference, here you have real mysteries on the stacks than prophecies! Ok, they are the bound volume of all the journals that the library ever housed. Take a look (of course with a handkerchief covering your face) and you are sure to be pleasantly surprised. A thing to note here- if you wish to add a magazine of your choice on display, just write an application to our librarian requesting him for the same, the need would be taken care of; if it’s a costly (ahem ahem..) subscription then it would adore the rack from January (yearly budget allocation you see)

Lets move back (of course 8 steps down) to main room, pass the computers again (we’ll come back to it)….pass the beeping gates (we’ll come back to it too). Reach for the basement-the area of our prime interest, either by choice or accident. Now the problem kicks in, you kind of want a needle in grass heap. Run up back to the computers, type in the name by author, by title or any of the five options. ENTER.

The number that you see, is for eg, 623.456 now this no, for a particular book remains constant all over the world. The six hundred series is for technology similarly five hundred for pure science and so on. The number after the decimal is placed taking into account the initials of the author’s name, which is also displayed below. A marvellous system all in all. So we have our stack, and thus the book. New systems are in development to ease the flow of information as to who has a book and so on. Some points to remember.

  • Keep the book exactly at the place you took it from after browsing
  • Never tamper the page with the tag
  • Fine charges are one rupee per day
  • Never keep more than three books on the KIOSK machine
  • Always ‘EXIT’ don’t ‘LOGOUT’
  • Forget for once that the forbidden fruit is the sweetest

Ah, the machine, it is yet another highlight feature, rather its working is. Here goes- you keep the book on the desk, it sense the tag in the book (mind you, it can sense four tags kept one on one-try fooling it now) and deactivates its reflecting properties, thus when you ‘issue’ the book legally and move out, the doors(technically known as RFID- Radio frequency Identification) don’t call for cops (in recent past when it used to, it was actually kept on trial mode) but try once to hoodwink the system and ‘steal’ a book, and you’ll have ‘the right to remain silent!’. One more such machine may adore the place soon.

Now we pick up the most deserted (or the most deserted of the more deserted(?)) region of the library- THE REFERENCE SECTION. If you for a second stand, and ponder near the issuing counter, you’ll notice that a stair leads to the upper level too (it may sound absurd for the people who frequent it, but for those who don’t….well, it’s a discovery). The section is one of the best, with books ranging from tips to bell the CAT, crack GRE, open the GATE and what not things we’ll have to get into. You can know more about India, learn french, german, and English!!-ya with such big dictionaries and sets of encyclopedias…..its a heaven. You also find all the books containing the ‘standard data’ about which we learn in class. The problem is that there is no one around to lend you the book. But we have a solution- when and ever you need a book, get to the staff present below. You’ll be personally escorted, to have your cheese and eat it too.

Coming down once again. We see a board displaying DIGITAL LIBRARY. It’s a place where at given time you do not find more than two people. Enter it, and you enter a world of knowledge. Here goes some lines about the most unused facility of our institute:

www.svnit.ac.in---->central library----->digital library.

TADA!! You see a whole list of big shots. IEEE, springers, wiley’s, ASME et all. You find papers journals, everything you could ever need to support your projects and general engineering needs, for which you always meandered google, and came out empty handed. Some of these papers costs more than 25$ and you have them free!!, the MHRD pays for them. This facility is provided to all the NITs and IITs exclusively. Take up for instance IEEE journal, you enter and log in with your ID and Password that being the same one as you use in CCC. me06647 ******* enter. And there it is, the heading “Welcome SARDAR VALLBHBHAI NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Surat” . Once you use it you understand what amount of information you have at your disposal. To add to the charm, our librarian sir TB GOSH has created a site of his own, under the tag ‘eprints@svnit’ , I leave it for you explore.

Again some points to remember-

  • This facility can be accessed even from CCC (unfortunately not from your hostel rooms)
  • Use of pendrive is prohibited in the digital library, get your blank CDs
  • It is unfortunate, that many people didn’t know about this, and thus not many hits were recorded, hence its plea- USE IT, atleast if not for yourself then for the people who want it. Or there may be a possibility that the MHRD backs off, and stops the subscription. As it sees itself paying Cores of rupees for thankless herd.
  • With some 8000 e-books, 1061 encyclopaedias, 1800+ online journals. What else can we ask for???
  • Set up the dgital library page as the homepage of your personal systems

Out of the room, there at the distance of 7 footsteps lies the CD-ROM section. All the disks are copied on the pcs there. The list of the same has been displayed. Come up and for sure have a look. Another thing is the “BOOK BANK” started for the category students, it offers books for a semester and has some 6200 titles.

It would not be fitting if we move out without meeting out dear librarian sir MR Gosh. The person behind all these developments, the man behind all the innovation, which even if unused and unthanked. continued to build up. Once you dig into the things you actually understand what it is to be a librarian. “With a devastating flood we lost 20,000 titles” he expresses his concern “but still we do have 60,000 titles”. One thing that I as student felt- the library is grossly understaffed. With new thousands of books lying just because there is no one to tag them. To this sir replies “there are no problems which can’t be solved, a bit of the co-operation more from the authorities to allot a bit more staff would very well suit all of us”. Point accepted. So here it is, we end our 50 cent tour, one hope which I personally have is- if from we have 30%(?) more public, using the facilties more by 40% (??) then the tree, out of which the paper you currently hold in your hand made, would be thankful and its cutting down would be justified. And hope by a month from now, we don’t have to use a handkerchief while browsing through stacks. “This is your institute, all these things are for you. Own it, use it” and there with the words from the librarian we have our FULLSTOP.


NIT Canteen ; a behind the scene account



Thak thak thak thak………chop chop chop….fisssshhhhhhhh….. the cacophony had been imploring itself, the door lay open and a distance darkness spread over the city…nothing decipherable. But still a tint of nostalgia was filling up inside, more of a déjà vu….suddenly everything started being clear, rather more clear- it all turned white….and the cacophony was blurred out with a high pitch tone “BEEP BEEP BEEP” it said…..Hell that was my alarm clock! And this all a freak dream...0530hrs!... and I had an appointment….i ran for it.

Thak thak thak thak………chop chop chop….fisssshhhhhhhh…..apparently the sound wasn’t that vague, here I was listening to it in the great SVNIT ian canteen at six in the morning- that being the time (or rather even before, when I was lazing around) the crew hits the ship, and it prepare its self to give everyone a ride. So here goes some thought which generated itself while I tried to get to know, that what exactly happens behind the counters in our canteen and also in the lives of our feeders!

I got in, and a familiar smiling face –Shekhar bhaiya’s, escorted to me to very corner (or wait, is it ‘middle’?) of the things. 5 men…chopping away at mach 4..making it seem that there isn’t a thing called post sleep dizziness. “there are 15 members in our family here, they begin their work at 0530hrs” informs Shekhar bhai. This time is when the ‘base of the pizza’ (if there is such an idiom) prepared. All the masala’s, chutney , and the other stuff that floods the mouth get prepared. The cold January wind gets out of the way when the big burners are set on fire. And just when I thought that all the vegetable in Surat were done away with, a new gunny bag arrives where potatoes, tomatoes, onion, et all are to meet the same fate on the platform. “This what you see is only 5% of total grocery that gets consumed up during the day” quips Shekhar bhai, yeah right…as I later learned every day we hog up 25 kg of onion, 30kg of tomatoes, 100 eggs, 35 kg of potatoes (“it’s the most popular one” says Hasmukh bhai)…I mean hello? Talk about controlled eating.

“The best thing about our staff is, that there aren’t specialists assigned to a particular job. Everyone in here is an all-rounder” brings in Shekhar bhai…”..and that is a great relief, as during peak hours-the specialist would have been doing shezvan rice, while somebody shouts away for masala utthapa” he adds. Ah… masala utthapa, I learned here that this in particular the dish that takes the longest to get done. Talking about time, I couldn’t resist my self from asking “what actually happens after someone hands out a coin and blurts out an item out of the zillions?”…..to this he replied “…well, technically you hear anand’s top notch sound, with which we all are familiar with, after that…just as the sound wave hits the cooking staff inside..a sort of contraption begins… the base masala gets together in no matter of time…the actual base of the dish gets prepared on the burner…along with the vegetables, all these steps go on simultaneously. And then they are mixed up, layed out…..and you reach again at counter…and hear anand again…hehe…its like a cyclic thermodynamic process…ends where it begins” yeah well, that was one, only that here we actually gain a lot of peripherals. “the process remains more or less the same for all the items” he informs. The fun kicks in when you actually see this happen…its like a rotating roulette. I checked the other room inside..”this is the special ‘dosa’ tawa that we have” I was updated. It kind of is imperative that we have a ‘special tawa’ for dosa. That category begin the most consumed in a day. “Masala dosa tops the chart, with rava catching up” he said, cool stats I must say.

Then there is one more angle involved…more importantly relating to Anand and Hasmukh Bhaiya, they being the ones who guard the ‘windows’ of humanity, looking out through the counters, I bet they must have seen some of the coolest glimpse of our lives. “We have seen couples hook up, break out, friends enjoying, biggest political-apolitical decisions been made, right in front of us…we have seen the freakiest to the geekiest kid in the college, all in his/her’s inner self, do we just love our jobs or what!” so now I get where they get all this energy from. “ every individual coming up the counter is different…. The style with which they order do tell a lot about them, some are party to our fun making….the others unfortunately as much distant, we just want to say one thing- what ever we say- dil pe mat le yaar “. Point accepted. Then slowly as I endeavoured Into their lives, I found another energy sources. “manoj is great singer, he sings for us most the time…accompanied by anand who is great dancer!” said hasmukh bhai… so so so, hidden talents.

Talking of staff members, its like a mini NIT in here, with 15 people all from different places, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Nepal, you name it. “its good they all know Hindi, or else we couldn’t have been serving food at all” jokes Shekhar bhai. Some of them haven’t visited their home town for past two years. “its nothing to be being sorry for, not that I don’t miss my family, but I love it here…I now even have a girlfriend in surat!” lets out karan Bhaiya. They all work like a well oiled machine with their day ending at 2130hrs. Then they generally watch TV, enjoy a chat, and cook themselves dinner! (yeah, they too eat!) “during the day, they are allowed to have anything they want, no restrictions” said Shekhar bhai. “Wow” I thought. Then there is Sunday the day they get up late, catch a movie play cricket, clean the canteen all this while we pass looking at the building with hungry eyes…but OK we understand. For many don’t know that out canteen is operational even in vacations! “its much slower then, with days feeling like composed of 48 hrs or something, we miss you kids’ says Shekhar bhai. Do we even need to reciprocate that in words?... I don’t think so.

So, this is it…the tastemakers of our lives, may we wish their life is as tasty as ours is because of them. And just one request from my side the next time you order something, take the dish away with a “thank you” or even a small smile of gratitude would do.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Dark Blue ray

They said it was for one
But left others too soaring
The silence was gone
And noise kept roaring.
Left out were those without the energy
Since it didn’t board anyone with lethargy.
The ones left out saw sour grapes
For the rest, it was a sun blocking drape
They reached out, emulated, initiated,
Their share of dreams.
For it was the feeling as smooth as cream.
The sentiment of a free-soul, grabbed their arm
Leading them away from shackles of past failures
The went on to create a setup they liked
A kingdom of their choice
All stimulated by on streak colored light
That was the play of the ray hope…..
The dark blue ray of hope.

Life goes on | I penned this ages ago, found it on my desktop

we make every setup fall
by playing hardball
we do nothing
not even wait for a clarion call
but stiil we stay
yet we live, because....
life goes on

We love pride, instead of deed
we care price, instead of value
we flaunt ego on sleeves with no shame
and curse others for the same
still we stay
yet we live, because.....
life goes on

We want to be loved
we to be cosseted
we want to praised
we want to be raised
but still deny others the equivalent
because towards emotions we have become monovalent
still we stay
yet we live, because....
life goes on

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Top Ten Ways to Be happy

1>Realise that enduring happines doesn't come from success. Just accept it like a will-less robot. Wealth is like health; its absence breeds misery, but presence doesn't garuntee happiness[or coreect spellings]

2>Take control of your time, it helps to set goals and break them into daily aims.

3>What is self-discipline? "Doing practically everything against the law of inertia"; which is so freaking tough, but it kinda pays!

4>Act happy, put on a happy smile like the clown from the 80's. Talk as optimist [although your head knows better]. Be outgoing sort of person. I mean why frown and have wrinkles when you can smile and have...err...dimples?

5>Seek work and leisure which enhance your skills. Like do something creepily fundu stuff like gardening!

6>Try aerobics, the author himself doesn’t, but what the hell...advice is after all free!

7>Give priority to close relationship, do a trust fall with them if time [and space] permits, also get to know what the heck a 'trust fall' is. it will always seem to you that the people about whom you think the most, care the most think of you as a walkover doormat. Now that, it happens with everyone so relatively speaking it shouldn’t make you that unhappy.

8>Focus beyond self, i.e. when you want to steal something for yourself, steal one more piece for your friend...on a more ludicrous note, help the needy.

9>SLEEP; and tell everything and everybody to scoot off!!!!

10> Read more such articles, which tell you what to do and what not to do....it makes you feel that you yourself are so gullible, hence you end up laughing on the author. Which primarily makes the 4th point valid.

Monday, September 29, 2008

13 ways to make a bollywood movie

13 musts, when trying to make a bollywood movies


1. Story has to be about romance. No questions. To give the villagers who watch these movies a twist, try adding as many love triangles as possible, and even love rectangles, if more than two actors are in the film. Love dodecahedrons may be a possibility[Though not mathemathematically]

2. Shah rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachan must be in the movie. Otherwise, there might be a protest or a strike.

3. The male "hero" must be Muslim, and the female "heroin" must be Hindu. Such available male actors include Aaaaaamir Khan, Salmon Khan, Zayeeeeeed Khan, Safe Ally Khan, Abishit Butchan, Farteen Khan and Sharook Khan. Female actresses include Ashwarehouse Rye, Pretty Ugly Zithead, Bitchassa Busu, Uh,me?SHA! Paddle, and Rainy Macaroniji. This is so the Hindu-Muslim population ratio is balanced and no conflicts result, so a partition doesn't occur after watching "Raju Chacha." Also, the Kapoop family, which includes millions of actors, have the largest family as possible for the director's convenience.

4. Every movie must have 10 songs. In the corresponding videos, Sharook Khan must raise his hands in the air as if to hug no one in particular but everyone in general, followed by curling his eyebrows in unusual positions (triangular positions are highly favorable, to remind the audience of the numerous love triangles) followed by running his finger inexplicably through his hair.

5. It is mandatory that every movie have at least one scene where the hero punches the air ten feet in front of the bad guy to the sound of a small firecracker, only to send him flying off in the wrong direction due to complex shockwaves created by his bekar expression.

6. All movies must be rated FFTTI (fun for the typical indian), so directors don't lose money if video material is unsuitable for particular audiences. (They can walk out AFTER they pay for the ticket, the directors don't give a crap as long as they have money to bring curry to the table.)

7. Make sure actresses giggle and toss their hair constantly to seduce interviewers. Classes to learn how to do so are held every other ten years, instucted by Pretty Ugly Zithead, who has years of experience.

8. Bollywood is frequently pronounced "bawl-e-vud", as it is mandatory that each movie has at least one scene where the old ladies bawl their eyes out. The young ladies do that just as well

9. There must be at least one scene where the young lovers stare soulfully into each others' eyes, each hoping that the other will pay for dinner, while fans (financed by the profits of previous movies) blow the heroines hair around.

10. The main actors must, and this is compulsory, mix hindi and english together (=hinglish). Just as you do while typing SMSes. When speaking english it must be in a dodgy american accent(not really american, mostly an indian kidnapped from a call centre to sound american).

11. Any actors in the movie who are not of indian origin must speak in an american accent. The accent produced must be out of tone and style with the rest of the cast.

12. Each main and supporting character of the film must have a minimum of 327 back-up dancers respective of the gender.[More would do, but no less]

13. If you are Karan Johar, then your movies' title MUST start with the letter K and also be titled after a song from one of your previous movies...which also started with a K.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Aao Beta | Freshman Welcome, Unpublished

Oh good, so you’ve grown up! I mean wasn’t it just yesterday when you were being waddled through a crowd to a class, in a school named ‘tiny tots’ or something with your fingers tugged into your mommy’s hand, howling like the insti siren?...wait, what are you looking at? no? Damn, I always knew it was only me doing that. Anyways, Now that your are a bada bacha n bachi [I hope mutually exclusive] and into your new home for four years [ err..some ppl do stay longer though] you need a guide to ‘waddle you through the crowd to your class with your finger tugged in his hand’. And I have been allotted the job of that ‘guide’ [phew, I always thought I’ll be a peon]

So, the first thing you saw about your palace was the ‘fourth dimensional SVNIT gate’. Over my tenure it got painted, depainted, repainted, final coat and then painted again for 368 times. But boy, does it look Handsome. If the 8 lane road didn’t get so frequently choked up by traffic as kandivili gutters, you could cross and have a better look at it from the other side. But why are we stuck at it??? Let’s move in. NOOOO…there you are stopped by the BSPF jawans, just show your ID card, Debit card or anything that nearly looks like a card and you can zoom in like an owl! Moving forward you cross hostel-10,9,8 [girls must stay put in H7 for now] and you feel like ‘yeah, am gonna njoy stuff” and just as your about to take a right turn, your life takes a U-turn. SURPRISE SURPRISE, you are going to stay in H1,2,3. Now, some words of funless wisdom here. The place is so x 10 to the power 38- times much in better condition now. But before, [stupid nostalgia] people almost thought about buying a tent instead. It’s a myth that until 1961 A.D. prisoners were kept in these buildings, when suddenly archaeological survey of India smoked them out citing it as ‘unfit for human habituation’ from then on engineering students were allotted the haven. Some factions believe it to be true though. Now, way too much have been written and said about the place [and mosquitoes, mess food, annoying roomie, stuck up toilets, slippery stairways, doors with stickers, falling parapets ( ZOINKS!) ] so let’s just leave it and live it. Being the diplomatic snob that I am, Its imperative that you learn that the hostel authorities have put a lot of thought in maintaining the ‘old man look’ of the hostel and still provide modern facitlities viz, TV, CCfs, Gezers, cycle stand, Hand drier near the mess wash basin [that’s friggin cool!] and good attending staff. Kudos to them! The girls hostel is too a great place, like first the 1st year had to keep themselves in staff quarters, which mildly gave them the feeling of being in a rental scenario of southern bangalore. But now H7, three seaterd, fun life awaits you. With a great garden with manicured lawn in front, what more can one ask for? Though here too mess food is always looked upon as mess, but some say the low mess charges act as compensation. But nothing can be said for certain unless you are a girl, which I long before realised I am not.

Once you get over the initial home sickness, and breaking-the-ice phenomenon with people around you [where you act all ‘deshent’ and goodie goodie] you seem to get ready to imbibe the hugeness of the place [and also to include a large no. of profanity in your vocab] Its 250 acres which includes 11 hostels (12th,13th coming up), canteen, departments, dispensary, sports center, 2000+ people and a ground so large that you can actually play cricket, football and quidditch (if you can) all at the same time; It’s a legend that a man was once lost in a remote SVNITian area in the summers of ’93, we just found him yesterday!!..so be careful. The place is transforming fast and how, I mean four year ago we had 8feet high grass, now there are 8 stories hostels coming up. With ‘funds no more a constrain’ [the sentence heard every 3rd day from from every 2nd faculty member] things sure will be hunky dowry. The whole campus is, is?, is! Wi-fi ed. And then there were rumours about centrally AC-ed Admin building with rare orchids in the garden, but I suppose they are just that for the moment.

The internal road system is fundu, with all the bumps just at the right place. The crossings and T’s here have names! One of the most famous is the PMC [the Piya Milan Chowk] If your elementary hindi isn’t that good, ask your neighbour what that means. It’s a place with which every NITizen is grossly in obsession with, no one can have enough of it ever. Every 3rd sentence spoken in campus consist this word. It has many orkut, facebook, myspace, ibibo, wayn , and ‘I don’t care’ communities to it. Some alumni in DRDO may even name a missile after it some day [Amen]. But that’s not the point, the point is “WHY??” Well, see the theory says then when you have such large number of youngsters thrown in together to endure learning of mechanisms of moving stuff, and non-corrosive boilers for four years; love is sure to bubble up. And that’s exactly what its for, its that Shakespearian place where the beloveds see each other for the last time, well only talking about that day actually, but bollywood taught them to overreact. But now a huge change has struck, 3rd and final year girls have moved to a different place [where they say their privacy has hit an all time low of 6.7], diluting the concept of PMC by 50%. But from the +ve POV, we now have two of them. Senior PMC, and Junior PMC. After learning this, some may say that authority’s plan actually backfired. Whatever, lets just be mushy and think about ‘lhuuuv’.

Now instead from telling you about CRC, Canteen, Departments and other geographically distant placed entities, which you can yourself find out. Let me tell you something about seniors here.

2nd YEARities

These people are way too happy to be seniors now. They go around changing their orkut ‘freshers’ communities to ‘seniors now!!’. They have discovered that staying in canteen is actually fun. According to stats they consume most of the food there. They get nostalgic attacks about CRC, and all the literature they put on its benches. But that goes off soon, when they find new benches in their respective departments. They are very hard working, being the ‘working class’ of every festival this institutes hosts i.e. all in all good self less people, with a bright future and dipping GPA ahead.

3rd YEARities

Being one of them myself, I fail to understand or believe “how did I pass 4 sems?” that emotion is shared by 98.37% of populace, the rest, well they didn’t. These people are entrusted with all the responsibilities one can think of. They have to study hard, be more technical in approach, start giving wisdoms to junies, arrange for every fest here, decide about future plans, get a job in the end. Apparently they are so tired by april. That they cant help but try and Jump to final year.

Final Yearities

No one, including themselves, have the slightest clue as to for what are they here for, most of them by now have forgotten that they study engineering. All of them have one or more job in pocket and an IMS class in the evening. They move around with ‘Holier than thou’ expression, in chilled out cargo pants. Occasionally they cycle and visit ONGC bridge, only to come back later [LULZZZ]. They have largest basket of prudent wisdom with them, coz they have been there and done that [in all the respects]. They wake up in night and cry that ‘OMG, this my last year!!’..well some coudn’t care less, and just grin away.

So aren’t they all nice people??..[any different opinion or charges of libel may please be directed to nijeesh129[at]gmail[dot]com . Disputes subjected to Chinchpokli judiciary only]

The world doesn’t end here; you have 1001 ways to spend your time fruitfully here. There exists many forums here as Drishti, CHRD, LnD, ACM, Shuche which has something or the other for everyone every next evening. Talking more about it gets you convicted, so I’ll shut up. Then there are fests like Kashish, Entrumeet, Autofest, Mindbend, Sparsh, Prakriti, end sems….and some more I just can’t remember. These all together make you great human beings. The experience [and exhaustion] on both sides of tables deserves a try!

If you are just too lazy to do indulge in any of these; atleast try and learn a new language you lazy bum!

This article was deliberately made so lengthy to keep the suspense quotient up, as we yet haven’t spoken about RAGGING.

“hooray”

-certain 2nd yearite on the word ‘Ragging’

“HUH?”

- All the first yearites in unison.

This is the second biggest anticlimax you would have faced this month [the 1st being ‘Mission Istanbul’]. After all things said and done one thing remains;

“No one can humiliate YOU without YOUR consent.”

Some say its ‘just fun’; but its only for you to decide.

Some say it doesn’t exists; but its only for you to decide.

Some say its important; but its only for you to decide.

Some say its mental exercise; But its only for you to decide.

Some say its product of senseless seniority complex; [I am personally baised to this point but…] its only for you to decide.

Some say this author is being a nuthead; its decided that its true.

Though everyone is curious to know what changes the new admission system excites. Some seniors are banging their heads as we read, while some are partying in ‘sheesha’ due to same reasons. The political structure must have been bamboozled greatly. I use ‘must have been’ because seriously I don’t understand the bizarre setup; and let’s face it, no one does.

Just as inside, the outside world is too, eventful. Viz every damn thing is ridiculously overpriced, Every SQ inch of road is filled, stuck, held hostage by a vehicle. All the great malls in this area attract people from all there nearby areas and Valsad on weekends. The diamond city is hustling bustling with an exponential growth literally and figuratively, I mean you may be just peacefully driving and suddenly a flyover emerges underneath, freaking the crap outta you. To mention some great ‘bahar latkna’ [read ‘Hang out’ in US] places, we’ll go with

- Rangeela park

- Klassic, SnS, Sunrise, US pizza, TOI and other sundry eateries.

- Lake view garden

- Anyone of the 2453 malls and multiplexs

- Dumas beach

- ONGC bridge [strictly with a guitar in hand]

- Sargam

- Ravi Medicals

- The coconut pani counter outside

- SBI ATM inside

- The long Varacha flyover

The 4th point reduced the list size.

So? Checklist:

We cribbed about hostels, admired the gate, talked about things inside, discussed ragging, recommended sight seeing places. And for once we didn’t be chauvinists and objectified girls, almost everything a typical welcoming the freshman article consists of!!....so your guide’s job done. Transfer a sum of 3500 + 11 % service tax to the account number 0000300-Idntdiscloseit-567. Can’t wait to meet you. Bye!

Monday, August 18, 2008

No Problems?

Of Problems and more.

Things, off late, don’t seem to be going right. If you drop your optimism goggles for a while and ‘see’ the coffee; probably you’ll get what this article is speaking about. Events are fictious, not related directly or specificall to me, generally 'general' nevertheless.

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I mean you reach your hide out. That’s may be a rented apartment in a big city [of course with a BIG rent] you plan out that may be you should talk to your parents about quickly buying your own house; but you can’t , because land at 70,000/- per sq yard isn’t helping the script progress. You all sit together thinking of an investment plan, that’ll [maybe] help you support your post-grad studies, your elder sibling’s marriage, your maid’s sky rocketing service charges, your broom that’s costing you 30/-!, and smaller things that you seem to have lost control over. You get all messed put on the internet to find some better yielding bonds. But lo! your broadband no more works, you get ulti irritated; feel like banging your head against the router [so that the router may get damaged], but it starts at sight of threat. You go for http://www.icicidirect.com/, but before you hit enter, you remember that its your result day [which is being postponed since ever]. You shakingly type http://www.svnit.ac.in/ , go to the page and find that your GPA has a figure, with which you had been happier had it also been the percentage of inflation growth. You get bumbed up, leaving al these ‘future problems’ to your ma n pa you shut down the lappy, and swear to yourself that you’ll start studying like an *unprintable word*, only to know that nothing of this is going to help.

30 mins latter your fone buzzes up, you wish its ‘that’ someone, whome you ‘admire’ but who have no idea about it. But no, its Vodafone telling you that 30/- has being deducted from your balance coz they thought you would like that new caller tune they just put you on, about which you got no friggin idea. You think of sueing the company, but get depressed thinking about the Law procedure that may bite off your leg and hand in the course. You move out of your room, switch on the T.V. see some ‘news’, which only they think is news. Light yellow florescent bars flashing ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in every sq inch of the screen making you realise that Rakhi sawant is may be just 923 KM [or even nearer] away from you…[the thought which makes you want to take a bath]. You browse through 20 of them learning about a 30 mins expert analysis over how a man was bit by a peacock in the indore zoo, how a national poll gave a verdict that yuvraj singh is an eligible bachelor rated higer than dhoni, how a tigress expressed her love to a tiger in a national park and they aren’t speaking metaphorically, how SRK and Amitabh bachchan may be fighting about the single loaf of bread they wanted in BIG BAZAR, how a woman suddenly realised that she was a man; and two more stories depicting vice-versa, and how the nation suddenly realised that these piece of information was something they really needed. You are now frowning, just impending to puke, when you learn that sensex is down by 700 pts, RBI increases REPO rates, home loans are up 1.5% [and your’s floating!!], N-deal isn’t yet through, how 5% of population manifested the capacity to trouble the rest of 95% by blocking rail tracks, how a guy killed his grandmother so that he could see AXN uninterrupted, about aarushi, and all those ‘domestic help no more safe’ stuff [also how news channels are generating TRPs with it], how 4546 people died of due to a quake somewhere, how 3000 went missing due to a lost ferry some where near Philippines, how a man was charged of molesting a minor- 33rd such news since last week, yet another bomb blast killed some of whatever maybe left in Iraq, how ice is melting up at a rate which makes R.K pachuri flash up on BBC every now and then, how Indian cricket team lost the 18th final out of the last 22 with two of the rest being ‘shared’, and how you have no idea of what all other sport India is playing currently.

Now you are upset, you shut your T.V. to move out, you sit in your car hit 1st, move 20 mts forward, hit ‘R’ backing in lot, coz you just remembered that you heard just in news that petrol is 55/- per litre , coz crude oil is at – no I can’t mention it even, too obscene. And you are just to idealist to fill up a 14.2kg LPG in, coz that would be ‘stealing’ as they show in the ads. You set on foot, it rained last night, and thus your foot is all goowy, the drainage system sucks [everything except water] and you have your makeshift swimming pool, maybe Shanghai is such after all. You curse the authorities, for such a mess, for low internet connectivity, for increased price, for lack of law and order, for unattended promises, for not selecting the right sport team, for…for…..you don’t know what. Your brain gets the better of you, it being a natural antidepressant. You shut your mental eyes, and move to a park. You spot a couple happily cuddling away, and find that how your last break-up was such a surprise, coz you were dumped from the 40th floor or something. And your new crush’s secret thought is literally crushing you inside; coz once bitten you are twice shy. You find yourself emotionally imbalanced, alone in messy but romantic climate [the way bollywood puts it], compounded with stupid dreams that do not help the matter at all.

You suddenly think how much more things could not be right, or how much they are wrong. Your prudent brain, which is ready to advice anyone and everyone in adversity, fails to help yourself now. Maybe now your just amplifying minor hiccups or the ‘KALYUG’ is really coming to an end [dated 21st dec 2012 courtesy INDIA TV].

You walk back, just observing extravagant people, supporting their ‘lifestyles’ with fake hairs, costly cosmetics, Gucci wears, sonatas, just because everyone else is doing so, and everyone else is doing so, because the other ‘everyone else’ is doing so. So what? you can shift to a more frugal eating habit, with tomatoes at 20/- kg, it will help you save for ‘flaunt-fest’, attain zero figure [again for flaunt-fest’], and save for that Italian perfume which you want to ‘flaunt’, of whose name you cannot pronounce quite properly, who cares about health, and balanced diet fundas?, you can hit a ‘high end’ gym, that way you can even show off your sonata while driving up to there, cycle economy may be for Mangolia. Bargain deal. Now ‘you’, the real you watching this is frustrated at something even you don’t know what. Coz you find something here is no honest, whatever might that be.

Inflation. State-of-the-world. Sensex. News channels. Needs. Demand. Supply. Life. Love. Recognition. Academics. Future. Placements. Savings. Basic amneties[or rather the lack of it]. Expectations. Desires. Short hands. Ideals. Honesty. Tommorow…. All these words now seem to be never-ending sentences to you. Its may be night by now, you take an imaginary sedative and doze off…..forgetting that there is, after all, a thing called dream.

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Phew, now a word, if you really didn’t get what this was about, then be merry, coz you are the happiest person alive…. Neither are you the saddest if got it J

Pointless reflections

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