Driving 700 Kilometres in 36 Hours- An Experience!

On 14 June, we all (my family) sat in car and started off for Patiala at around 2:30 PM. I was at the driver's seat. We picked up didi from her college, and then via Devigarh we reached Kurukshetra. After that we headed straight to Delhi, and after that went to Ghaziabad. Out of the approximately 375 km total length of this route, I drove about 340 km (papa drove the rest). We reached our destination at around 12:30 AM (on June 15).

On 15 June, I did the works I was supposed to, and at around 6 PM we started from Ghaziabad for Ludhiana. Once again, I was at the driver's seat. We reached back home around 3 AM (on June 16). So I drove a total of about 700 km within 36 hours.

What made the drive back home special was that it rained almost all the way. It was the first time I drove for so long amidst such rain. Everyone was sound asleep, but with me fully alert- knowing that my whole family is sitting in the car, it's night, it's raining, and I'm driving on the Grand Trunk Road- infamous for the accidents that take place on it daily.

It was during this drive (towards home) that I first time ever touched the speed of 100 km/hr.

Also, mummy complimented my driving, saying that it's butter-smooth. Mummy faces Motion Sickness each time she travels on long routes, but mummy said that with me at the driver's seat, she didn't face even a bit of problem for all of the 750 km journey.

When I finally reached home, I felt happy :-)

The photos above and below (these have not been clicked by me) are representative of the perils of driving on a highway on a rainy night.

My foot's nail got plucked out

Today evening, I was about to go to buy a new adapter for my scanner, and while I was opening the gate of our home (to take out the car), the lower edge of gate accidentally hit my left foot. It started to hurt quite much, but no one was at home, so I didn't quite bother about the injury (at least for the time being- I didn't even look at how much the injury was).

I drove to the shop, parked the car & did the work I was supposed to. When I started walking back to the parked car, I felt something sticky in my left foot. On inspection, I saw that blood was oozing out of the finger which had got hit by the gate, and it was this blood that was causing the sticky feeling. I didn't bother much about it even now (the pain too had reduced by now).

But as I was having dinner (around 9 PM), it again started to hurt. This time, I inspected my finger more closely & found that the nail had got almost pulled out (it's just loosely hanging there now). I got scolding from mummy for not applying Savlon.

:( :(

Saturday Night Fever

This post is not about the 1977 movie, and instead is a play on the concept of a weekend; an attempt to connect it to the impending end of my college life.

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It's nearing the end of April 2008. And about a month from now it will be the official end of my college term. Seems like 4 years passed in the blink of an eye.

I remember when I was small (a school kid), we would all wait eagerly for Saturdays (I, like most others in India, had a 6-day-a-week school). I still remember coming home on a Saturday, carelessly sending my schoolbag flying away in some dusty corner of the home and feeling really nice that tomorrow is a Sunday - a holiday :). And Saturday night would be the night that would be more celebrated than the Sunday itself.

Why so?

Because Saturday night had a hidden element of hope in it. That hope was the upcoming Sunday. The next day. A holiday. Watching a movie late night on Saturday wouldn't ring any bells, because one knew that there was still 1 full day ahead to wake up late, to relax or to play.

It's Saturday night once again. Yes. There's still a hope alive somewhere in me. That yes, I can still watch a movie late night. Because there's still 1 full day ahead, that's going to be my very own. Only this time the Saturday is April 2008, and the Sunday is May 2008. And instead of the careless happiness of school time, this feeling tonight is almost feverish!

Sunrise At Delhi College of Engineering - A Photo Album

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Update [23-Oct-19]: Same feeling since this Monday about the upcoming Diwali. Till this last Sunday, it was like Diwali is "next week", hence sort of far away. But starting from Monday, Diwali became "this week", and it'll come and go fast. Hence the anxiety/sadness.

Rediscovering myself - moving back to my roots

December 31, 2003. Late night.

I can never forget that night. While the whole world was celebrating the impending arrival of new year, I was quietly sitting in my room. Reflecting deeply. Introspecting. Thinking where I was, and where I've reached.

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January 1, 2004. Midnight.

I can never forget these moments ever. I was not a bit happy about new year. I was still in my bed, thinking. I had figured out that "disorganization" brought me down. That was the time when I developed a hatred for disorganization. Hatred, which lasts to this day. That hatred caused me to hibernate everything for 4 and a half months, and to work relentlessly, all whilst maintaining complete organization. And yes, it paid off. I cleared IIT-JEE. I got admission to DCE. I topped every engineering entrance exam from my school. I learnt a lesson- organization is one of the keys to efficiency (and efficiency is one of the keys to success). And organization has got hardwired into me now.

If I could ever show to someone how excessively high levels of disorganization I had created from 1998-2003, how unbelievably high amounts of unorganized information I had been processing, one would be plain shocked. It's futile to try to express that humongous pile of unorganized data that I had. It could easily run into dozens of gigabytes, if digitized.

It has been over 4 years now that I've been patiently processing it all. Organizing it so perfectly that even Google would be put to shame. And I know the 'Debt-Free-Day' is coming near. The day when I'll be able to breathe freely knowing that there's nothing that is 'Pending'. And that day I'll begin to work at a frightening pace. I'm waiting for, in fact working for, that day.

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March 20, 2008. I suddenly wake up sometime during the night.
I am on bed in my hostel. Looking at the ceiling. Where was I? Who was I? What have I become? Where do I stand? Why is this so? Can something be done?

These questions were rattling me. I began introspection. Once again. After over 4 years I'm thinking so deeply. Again. It's time that Rishabh Singla be what he is. It's time to go back to my roots. It's time to discover the power of 1. My power. I have always held unshakable faith in myself. In my ability to single-handedly outperform even groups of people.

It's time that I rediscover myself. That I go back to the quotes that drive me. I must never forget some invaluable words.

Labor Omnia Vincit (Hard Work Conquers All). I must remember this always.

Recursion And A Major Goof In The Movie "Next"

***Caution: Spoiler Ahead***

Once again, its surprising that no one pointed out (or should I say "noticed"?) such an obvious goof in the otherwise nice movie "Next".

Towards end of the movie, Cris (Nicolas Cage), along with several FBI officials, searches for his girlfriend (who is in captivity of the terrorists), and he makes numerous copies of himself (actually he is merely looking at the various possible futures).

So far there's no problem. However, later in the movie it turns out that whatever happened (up till explosion of the nuclear bomb) was not happening in reality, but was merely a future that Cris was looking at (while in bed with his girlfriend).

And here lies the problem - if he was merely looking at his future, then can his own self of the future (as he is seeing it) also (recursively) use his gifted power (of looking at the future) to look even further into the future (as he did when multiple copies of him look further ahead into the future - simultaneously - while even his original copy standing with the FBI agents is not his real self, but is what the original Cris is looking at from his bed)?

About Me - My Profile On Google

In search of a Soulmate...

"Soulmate (or soul mate) is a term sometimes used to designate someone with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, friendship, love, intimacy, sexuality, and/or compatibility."

Blue skies, And open air...
There's a place, For us away...
Take me away, Somewhere far away...
Beyond the Sun...
Take me away, Somewhere far away...

What a lovely little soul-touching song! I just keep humming "Take me away, Somewhere far away..."... Its a bliss to read these words while listening to the song. Wish it was longer...

I want to quote someone's words here

"What a beautiful ad! Well, Vodafone continues the Hutch legacy, wonderfully."

I want a plate full of manchurian and chilli cheese :-(

Its so cold and dark outside, and I'm shivering too (just a little bit though). And I so much feel like having a plate full of sizzling steaming hot manchurian and chilli cheese right now :( :(

Oh god, my mouth is salivating like a dog's even at the thought of it :P

I'm sure if I get it right now, I shall be able to stay up for many more hours. But it must of Basant restaurant (Ludhiana), because out of the (perhaps) dozens of Manchurians and Chilli Cheese recipes I have tasted so far, the best one undoubtedly are Basant's.

:( :(

State Of My Heart After Watching "The Pursuit of Happyness"

Its been under 5 minutes since I finished watching The Pursuit of Happyness. My eyes were moist at a couple of moments (the ones I identified myself with - and more), and as the movie concluded. It is difficult to say any more thing now. My throat is heavy with an overwhelming feeling. Its been quite a long time since I last got to enjoy a motion picture of this high grade. That's all I can say to summarize my feelings.

P.S. The small part of my life, as the movie just concluded, can be called "happyness" :)

(you need to have watched the movie to be able to appreciate this last line...)

Phew! Finally survived for 'over' 18 seconds in the game 'Escapa!'

I got a link in a forwarded email, that pointed to a simple-looking game. Here is the link

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

As I started to play, however, I soon realised that the game was anything but simple. The game, in some sense, tests one's dexterity. More precisely it is a test of one's ability to maneuver the computer mouse both at high speed and with precision! It is not difficult to get really annoyed repeatedly playing this game trying to get to that oh-so-near-yet-so-far goal (basically one has to survive for at least 18 seconds- as the webpage says- to be considered having done brilliantly).

2 time points, at which I got killed most number of times were in the proximity of 12 seconds and 16 seconds. I dont know how many times I played this game till I finally managed to clock over 18 seconds, although I believe it was about 20. And I am glad that I could make it (I know well that I would not have slept until I managed to clear it...).

Here are the screenshots of initial failures and final success (yay!)





And here's the winning game


Update:

I saved the webpage as an mhtml archive in the Opera browser, and played it while offline. In the first go itself I could clock over 18 seconds... Here's the screenshot


Update 2:

My second try in Opera browser (while playing from the saved webpage) too resulted in clock time of over 18 seconds (yawn...the game is looking boring now...I'll try to clock over 25 seconds sometime in future!)

Obituary to a video I posted on YouTube

3 months back I posted a video on YouTube. The clip I had posted is the part that I like the most in 'Titanic'. And not surprisingly, it got a deluge of views (the last time I checked in, it clocked well over 10,000), and about 75 people had bookmarked it and about 40 peoplehad commented on it (most of the comments described it as a very emotional and lovely scene).

Now 2 days back I got an email from Google- an excerpt from it follows...

"This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Paramount Pictures Corp. claiming that this material is infringing:

Dawson. Rose Dawson. (Titanic): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5qfJMFK9Rc"

Now I want to yammer about it here :-(

I had very carefully cut that video from the movie- the starting and ending points were thoughtfully decided so as to give the viewer the true feel of this scene. The title and the tags too were carefully decided. I have also lost the lovely comments that the populace wrote. So sad :-(

Here is the description that I had written for this video

"My favorite scene in Titanic. rose's calling herself "dawson. rose dawson." signifies her continued love for jack, despite his physical demise. and after the attendant goes away, the scene with rain and accompanying music is so touching. so really beautiful. i love playing this music on my yamaha keyboard.in the words of wikipedia- "While on the RMS Carpathia, she sees Caledon, who is looking for her desperately. She hides her face in the blanket just as Caledon looks over. He doesn't see her and walks away. That is the last time she ever sees him.On arriving in New York, she takes Jack's name when asked by a steward, calling herself Rose Dawson, giving implications to the audience of her wife-like commitment to Jack and their plans for marriage. The name change also enables her to forever escape from her family and allowing them to think she is dead. She goes on to do everything that she had promised Jack she would do, riding astride a horse on the beach, going to Santa Monica Pier, flying a plane, and so forth. Rose becomes an actress, gets married, and has children, but she never forgets Jack. She died in 1996 at the age of 101."

Added: May 28
Duration: 02:53

I'll miss you my video... you had 4.9 rating out of 5.0 (I guess about 75 people had rated you). Google you did not do good- you should have warned me so that I could have saved the comments and screenshots of it...

Update:

As I found out on 3 October 2007, the comments, ratings etc for this video are all available in 'My Account' section of YouTube. I am glad that I have access to people's comments again.

Sorry to bark at you Google.