Rahul, My Story

Me, myself and my timetable

2005-10-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

its 5:45am and im still wide awake...actually, i tried sleeping 5min ago but there was no point as we have an sns class at 8:30. "whats the best thing to do now instead of sleeping?" i asked myself. after watching my favourite movie, "The Girl Next Door" for like the 60th-70th time (been watching it ever since i saw it for the 1st time when i bunked vv's c prog class :D.), i thought blogging would be good (its been a very very long time...).

last couple of days were like a nightmare to me. on friday i lose my cell phone and the next day, my laptop's os gets corrupted. i can't believe there r ppl who r cheap enough to steal things even at this age. i mean, ppl mature as they grow up right?
couple of times i left my phone in the lab, but i always found it there in the same place...so what happened this time? who knows....that day i was searching like a dog in the lab...going from person to person and sending mails...totally a crappy day.

and i guess my os couldn't wait for some other day to get fked. first of all, the os loaded properly but the display wasn't working. shashank told me that if there isn't enough space ( atleast 200mb) in the main drive, then these types of problems will arise. so i booted in linux and deleted some unnecessary files which got me arnd 4gb. but the display still wasn't up. so i decided to re-install windows. thanks to the GREAT linux, the XP cd just wouldn't boot! so i installed a fresh copy of windows after booting into windows in safe mode. the installation went fine and my pc started working normally. now the problem was that there were two installations in the my comp, the main boot loader in the old partition. i thought that if i copied those boot files from the old partition into the new partition, then i will be able to clear the old one immediately. however, like an idiot, i copied only some of the files which resulted in...take a wild guess...yeah....boot failure of all the os. i accidently deleted the nldtr system file and this was the root of the entire problem.

then samba told me to format the entire hard disk using his win98. but that cd wasn't working well and so i installed linux once again. i spent the whole day yesterday trying to make my computer work. then revanth told me that win2k proff. is also good at cleaning the hard disk. i then decided to goto lab the next day to get win2k. i slept finally after installing linux at abt 5:30am and woke up at 12:30pm. went to the lab immediately and got the os.

after cleaning my hard disk with that cd, i was finally able to install my favourite os, winXP :D, in my comp. started downloading from dc++ the instant my comp came back to its original form.

the thing i regret is that i had THE entire collection of cs vidoes available in IIIT ( i don't think anybody did) before the unforseen formatting of my comp. luckily, chinni had copied all of them from me couple of weeks back. the 1st thing i downloaded was, hehe, "The Girl Next Door"...saw it in dc++ for the 1st time after summer. currently im downloading the 1st 2 seasons of "The Apprentice" which according to my friends, is great ( esp. rohith...crazy about that show).

anyway...the title of this post is nowhere near to what i've written upto now. i simply can't stick to a time table, no matter how hard i try. i keep getting distracted by the simplest of the simplest events and lose track of what im supposed to do at that time. is a timetable really necessary? do we need one? i think that we need a one as far as the planning is concerned but can be discarded during the execution time...im used to this stupid practise and am not able to change my attitude towards it...

will stop this post now...from now onwards, i will not delay posting to some time late in the night, else, as u can see...

My 1st Dasara without HIM...

2005-10-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of months since my last post. Was it my laziness or my inability to spare time for this as I was busy with CS and some important issues.

My Dasara vacation has come to an end and I will be leaving for Hyd. this evening along with Sandeep and Ravi (who will be catching up with us later in Rajuhmundry) on Garuda bus. The stupid A.P.S.T.R.C people cancelled today’s semi-sleeper buses for some reason.

Have you ever experienced the loss of a person who was very close to you? If you haven’t, LUCKY YOU…One of the worst parts of human life began for me after the demise of my grandfather. Don’t want to go any further in this topic, too painful for me to recall the events.

Today is Dasara, my first one without HIM…can’t imagine the looks on everyone’s faces in the morning. According to the customs, we are not supposed to celebrate any festival for 1 year after a relative’s death. However, I just can’t see how I will be able to enjoy any festival for the rest of my life. Sep 19th, 2005 will be etched in my memory forever…

Mamayya took us out for a long drive on his new HONDA CITY. The car is a bomb; trust me…excellent in each and every aspect. “I felt so happy when I took HIM out the day I bought this car…However, never could I imagine that the second time I would take HIS ashes and not HIM, to mix in the holy GODAVARI river.” How will you react when he tells this to you?

All of this is too complicated for me…too much to take…but as long as I am in IIIT, I feel that HE is still there…with all the things happening over there…my mind just doesn’t have the space to accommodate the piece of information that HE is no more…but brings back his sweet memories in return…

Doesn’t make any sense to you? Oh well, forget it man…

GOOOOOOGLE ALL THE WAY......(again)

2005-08-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

FUCK MOZILLA FIREFOX!!! WHY THE HELL DID I INSTALL THE NEW MOZILLA UPDATES AND WHY THE HELL DIDN'T MY DRAFT GET SAVED???

FUCK THIS...I'M IN NO POSITION OR MOOD TO RE-WRITE THE WHOLE POST AGAIN...NO FUCKING WAY!

Let me highlight the important points...

1. Google Talk Beta created (still is...) a sensation all over India (as far as I know...), Yahoo == endangered IM???

2. Timetables are not for a guy like me, screw them...

3. Midsems are just couple of days away and I still have no clue about the OS syllabus...

4. I'm very very pissed of at this stupid browser, Firefox, funny that I'm still posting from the same browser :P

5. Can't think of any...

My shortest post until now? Hmmm...this browser better behave well tomorrow...

Chinni's and my birthday party pictures...

2005-08-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Chinni and I, the hosts for the evening...

The entire gang at Nan-King, Secunderabad

Us again...

Ummmmm...yummy yummy!!!

The man who has (OR had OR never did have... ;)) 6 girlfriends...

And we all know whose finger is trying to penetrate Satya's uhh..mouth...yeah...

Say cheese!...EWWW!!!

The perfect couple...until....

Pondyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samba: Ee..kya bolta/bolti tu?
Pondy: Ee..kya mein bolu?
Samba: Sun..
Pondy: Suna..
Samba: Aati/Aata kya mere kamre mein?
(room# 143 to be precise :P)
Pondy: Kya karoon, aake teri room mein??
Samba: ***CENSORED!!!!***
Pondy: Sorry man, I'm booked tonight (pointing towards Satya)

Oh no!! Pondy...how could you disclose our ....ahem..."YOU KNOW WHAT"??

Take another look at this two timer!! Naughty satya :))

Will you marry me???
...gosh, another guy in line for Pondy!

Revanth...

IIIT's FingeR << __|__ >> clan...

HAIL DC++!!!

2005-08-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

Probably one of the best file sharing softwares ever created, DC++. The downloads are fast and incomplete downloads are saved as well. If the user is not available, the download starts from that same point but from a different user. COOOOOOOOOL isn't it?
Yesterday Revanth told me about another fascinating feature of DC++, simultaneous download of loads of files in the same directory from all users who have them. Completed my CZ download in 2 min, yeah 2 min!, from 25 users :P...1.5GB in 2 fucking minutes!!!

Today Sasank created another DC++ hub with one of the UG2 computers running as the server. I was thinking of that as well, couldn't get my hands on the scripts though. But the server is too slow, maybe it's because of the configuration of the computer. 128MB RAM...WOW...startx in LINUX takes a couple of minutes to load in such computers. We talked to Pudi today, reminding him about the RAM upgrades...he told us that it may take 10 days more...oh well, a little more waiting won't hurt would it? CSE people are still 10 computers short. Talked to MBP loads of times and he keeps saying "today evening...tomorrow morning...blah, blah, blah..." Hope we get those computers soon as I'm planning to make some good use out of my lab computer, I hope RJ agrees :D

Thought of a new plan 2 days ago (haven't implemented it yet)...sleeping at 11PM and waking up at 6AM and go for PT most probably. I was planning to start that from today but the "SCARY MOVIE I" and its sequels kept me wide awake with some serious stomach pains due to unstoppable laughter...SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re-installed my XP and Fedora Core 4 yesterday, all night long. My actual CD was full of scratches and so Kirthi told me to make a fresh copy and then install XP. His idea worked well as I completed the whole process in 20 minutes. Then came the LINUX part...took me a whopping 90 minutes...a new all time record...

Didn't sleep yesterday (guess today will be the same case as well...current time is 2:30AM)....and so made full use of PK's, Pudi's and Sarkar's classes....slept the whole time...just wish there wasn't any compulsory attendence eh? They could atleast reduce the cut-off!

Talked to parents today, today being their 20th marriage anniversary. Funny that my father's birthday falls exactly a week after mine and their anniversary today...

Midsems starting next week...just can't wait :P...guess thats all for now...goodnight!

No title... :D "S.S.D.D"

2005-08-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Just completed watching the 6th episode of the Star Wars saga...very entertaining, especially the part where Ford and his team attack the enemy with the help of some creatures which look very much like small teddy bears. The first 3 episodes might have to wait until the mid-sems are over.

Did the assignment on my own this time, thanks to Shashank, Kirthi and Bhaskar obviously...the problems were quite easy, except for the last one which noone in my wing or maybe GHEB attempted. The problem itself was 1.5 pages long!!! Have to prepare for the mid-sems well, looking forward to a good GPA this sem...my ticket to stay here in IIIT.

Went to the canteen to try the chaat...but they ran out of samosas, pathetic...Can't they estimate how many items they are selling everyday? They stopped serving Chinese as they were not able to cash in on them. Thats not fair! What about some of those who do wish to eat such food when the mess gets boring or just like that? All the chaat items are horrible, samosa ragada is OK but...Well it's my opinion...
THE CANTEEN IS SUCKING AND THE MESS IS MORE PREFERABLE NOW...

Still have to start the OS assignment. Guess I must start on it tomorrow as it's due the day after. Shashank said that it's easy, just some 100 odd lines of code which is good compared to the 250 line ls.c. However, the system commands are kind of confusing in the man pages. Also, some logic is required for redirection operators, wild characters and piping...as Robert Frost wrote in one of his poem....
And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep...

Messed up CZ game...

2005-08-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 10AM today...missed the convocation...wanted to see the faces of all those seniors, glistening with joy and reflecting the colour of their convocation robes. 4 more years for me I guess!

Started my day with a couple of rounds of CZ as usual, we had a match scheduled against Zombies, a tough clan. Then it was time for the game between G.I.JOE and Siths. G.I.JOE actually won...against all odds...Never had I seen Koyya snipe like that, as if it were Koyya in the first place...so what if one loses a game? This is not the matter of life and death right? So why cheat? If you can't play properly then try to improve your game, but cheating?? TOTALLY FUCKED UP!!!

Anyway, I deleted CZ from my pc...not that I won't play it anymore :D . The fact is that after the current CZ tourney, everyone will switch to CS 1.6...

Started playing Cricket 2005 as well. Nice game, graphics and all. It's tough to play and thats what makes it very interesting to play...

Hopefully I will wake up in time tomorrow and start the SnS assignment which I thought was due on 23rd. Unfortunately it's due tomorrow night.

Have to go now and play some cricket ;)...

After a 2 month break...

2005-08-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

I finally started blogging...Gosh! It has been a very long time indeed...There were various occasions when I thought of starting my blog again but my I guess my laziness got the better of me. Anyway, here I am, pouring down all thoughts into this uhh...e-pensieve...please don't kick me!

Woke up at 8:15AM today, a little too early for PK's class, well thats what we all thought until today. I told Ravi to take it easy as he kept urging me to move fast else PK will shut the door. However, PK had already enacted his tough and mean lookingpart by the time we got there. There we were, standing with some 100 odd students cracking jokes and enjoying ourselves as if nothing happened. Some people tried convincing sir into letting us in but in vain. I told Ravi that this is crap and to come with me to the hostel...obviously for some rounds of CZ. CZ in the morning...hmmmm...man I love this game!

On our way back to the hostel, we met T3 aka Shashikant anna who asked us if we wanted to play Quake in their labs as Mr.Sam Babu or is it Shyam...whatever had blocked the ports through which WLAN people can connect to wired LAN...for gaming obviously. No problem for CZ though...gg :P

Didn't play any Quake at all most of the pcs had passwords and others didn't have QUAKE in them. We waited for 30 min. to download the game, 230KBps...can you believe it?? wired LAN to wired LAN ??? So we finally got fed up with the download and started playing CZ in their pcs. Those few rounds I played there, I faced hell. Stupid keyboard, mouse, table, chair and the most important of all...PC itself! Just couldn't imagine how the seniors managed to play on those computers.

Soon it was time for Remo's class but Ravi and I thought we had better things to do :P ...and the first thing on our minds was the shell assignment of which we still have no clue where to start from...But as soon as I opened my door, Ravi and I looked at each other at the same time and gave each other that evil smile that meant..."FUCK SHELL, LETS PLAY!!!". Ravi started playing DOOM III and I was learning some commands useful for the OS assignment.

Not even 15 min. had passed when the small shortcut on Ravi's pc ( his pc is TOO good for DOOM III...ROFL ) caught my eye. Yeah, yeah, "Shortcut to CZ". 2 more clicks and voila! I was hunting for servers like a dog. Soon I found a senior's server and played in it until it was time for VP's class.

After the morning shock, all the students rushed for the class only to find out that the over punctual VP didn't turn up himself. So, do we lock him out then? I looked at Chinni and told him that I ain't wasting any more of my precious time for this crappy class...not the subject!!!

Came back to room and started watching the movie "Catch Me If You Can". Half hour later, Lingam came to me and told me that the SithLords wanted a match against the Jedi Warriors ( thats us! LOL ). I told him fine and stopped the movie and joined some server. The SithLords never turned up and I ended up playing CZ until 5PM.

Went to the canteen to try the new chat and pani puri but the owner said that it would a few more minutes ( which in reality == 1hr ). So we had some samosas and went back to the hostel. Completed the movie and slept...wanted to rest before our match against the ROT ( Return Of Titans ). Ravi arrived later and both had some really good biryani from Anupama, Ameerpet.

As expected, we lost to ROT...very hard...managed to get 1 win out of 13. Personally, I think we could have done better with more practice but now lite.
After that we watched "Star Wars V : Empire Strikes Back". My first time watching the series, and they are good.

Started playing CZ again after that movie with some OBH guys. What crappy players...not that I was like them a few months ago...but they just can't shut their fucking mouths...keep on commenting and talking bullshit...I can't stand it coming out of a n00b's mouth. Sickos...

Phew....30 min into this blog now...hope to be regular from today atleast...got a match with Zombies clan...what if we win this?? LOL Great Expectations...

NATO...

2005-06-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Not to be confused with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation !! This name was coined by Sudarshan for Siddharth. NATO expands to "Naa Autograph", a Telugu movie which was very much appreciated by Siddharth but not by the other members of his gang. So Sudarshan gave him this name. I got to see the movie day before yesterday. And what a movie it was!! One of a kind storyline...I would give this movie a 4/5 rating...those stupid fights lost the movie its 5th point...After "Aa Naluguru", this movie was another treat for us...After watching it, I thought over the reason why Sudarshan made fun of Siddharth for liking this exceptional movie..couldn't find any though...might as well ask him!

Farewell dinner...

2005-06-18T01:47:00.000-07:00

Had a nice family dinner tonight ( Chinese...cooked my mother )...delicious as always obviously...Father bought something special, Champagne! I had a little bit of wine when I visited Napa Valley in CA, famous for its wineries and that tasted good. But this experience turned out to be my worst one. After tonight, I don't think I will touch champagne ever again...

I poured myself a quarter of a glass, thinking that I would complete it. What a fool I was! Took the 1st sip and OMG, my head started spinning, literally! The taste was really bitter and I still regret that I spoiled my taste buds for what was to foloow the champagne. Thinking that it was the first time and so it might taste OK after another sip, I gulped down some more only to make my head become dizzier. Gosh! I wonder how people manage to pour down gallons and gallins of this shit down their throats in spite of that bitter taste or whatever it was.

Chilly chicken and fried rice didn't help much in making me forget that taste. No way I'm going to drink this crap again!

Movies Over The Summer...

2005-06-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Some fine as well as fucked up movies ( rented from the library ofcourse ) I got to watch over the summer...AND my ratings ;)

1. Hart’s War---------------------------------------Very Good
2. Minority Report----------------------------------Average
3. Blood Work---------------------------------------Good
4. Hurricane----------------------------------------Very Good
5. Along Came A Spider------------------------------Very Good
6. Serving Sara-------------------------------------Average
7. About Schmidt------------------------------------Very Good
8. K-19---------------------------------------------Very Good
9. Man On Fire--------------------------------------Excellent
10. Along Came Polly---------------------------------Good
11. Remember The Titans------------------------------Excellent
12. Sleepless In Seattle-----------------------------Very Good
13. The Whole 10 Yards-------------------------------Good
14. Windtalkers--------------------------------------Excellent
15. Haunted House------------------------------------Average
16. Dreamcatcher-------------------------------------Below Average
17. XXX----------------------------------------------Average
18. Master And Commander-----------------------------Excellent
19. Raise Your Voice---------------------------------Average
20. Freaky Friday------------------------------------Average
21. My Boss’s Daughter-------------------------------Good
22. A Cinderella’s Story-----------------------------Average
23. Daddy Daycare------------------------------------Average
24. Hardball-----------------------------------------Good
25. First Daughter-----------------------------------Below Average
26. Bring It On--------------------------------------Average
27. Sleepy Hollow------------------------------------Below Average
28. Cradle To The Grave------------------------------Average
29. Terminator-3-------------------------------------Good
30. Pirates Of The Caribbean-------------------------Very Good
31. Chasing Liberty----------------------------------Below Average
32. Radio--------------------------------------------Excellent
33. Traffic------------------------------------------Excellent
34. New York Minute-------------------------------------Average
35. Proof Of Life---------------------------------------Very Good
36. Pay It Forward--------------------------------------Excellent
37. The Family Man-----------------------------------------Average

Awestruck...

2005-06-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Just watched a Telugu movie ( still regreting that I did ) in which the hero crushes a golf ball to yellow ( well the ball was white in colour, strange... ) dust. No, I'm not referring to NBK. Summoning a chair to one's feet by just ordering it to do so, that NBK for you! This guy is none other than.......TADAAAA...Jr. NTR!!! Oh yes!! Both of them are related, no wonder that their powers seem a bit, just a bit, superhuman?? NO...that is Rayalaseema blood that is flowing in their veins...Stupid dialouges, stupid stunts, stupid everything...OK, so they tried to pull a MATRIX stunt, great...congratulations...but how sensible is it when the hero throws one bad guy in the air, and fights at twice the speed at which that poor fellow is falling down...when it comes to Rayalaseema movies, the Physics seem to vanish, literally!

Thinking of making a list of movies I watched in this summer...will post it soon...

Got to go now, CS is waiting for me...or is it me dying to play it??

Tiring day...

2005-06-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

      Waited until midnight yesterday to wish mother. After that, as usual, CS on the roll :) Joined a couple of clans who took me in for my calibre, not bragging!

      Currently my name is -=[ZT]=- Bu||zY -=[TWP]=- ranked 3rd in a 24/7 de_port (latest map added to CSS) server with 1845 kills, 823 deaths and 1129 headshots :P.

      On mother's request, we went out for lunch, Indian cuisine. The food was OK, I don't even remember the restuarant's name. The only item that tasted nice was tandoori chicken.

      Looking back, I can now see that I did put on some weight, thanks to my mother's cooking X-(! IIIT gym, you are my only hope to shed some pounds now!!

      Got to go now, mother is getting angry for sitting at the computer for such long periods...ciao =;

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

2005-06-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

WHAT THE FUCK???
WHAT THE FUCK???
ARE U FUCKING SERIOUS???
CMON MAN, PLEASE DON'T JOKE!!!

This was my reaction when Yaso, my Saviour of the day, told me that against all odds I got a B in Maths!!! Thats right...I got a B in Maths as well as Physics. This was way beyond what I was expecting, after that 4/30 I scored in Maths Midsem-2. I guess the final exam and Midsem-1 (39/50) saved my ass. Anyway, after that news breakout, my happiness knew no bounds :). Didn't tell parents though, not after what I was expecting!!!

      We visited a temple today, all hi-fi and stuff. I, being an atheist, didn't have much work to do other than watching two OK looking gals who were standing out there doing their usual ABCD ( American Born Confused Desi??? ) shit. Went out for shopping too, mainly chocolates for all those hungry pigs back at home :D , just kidding. Don't worry guys, I've got a good amount this time ;)...

      Tomorrow is my mother's birthday but we haven't planned to do anything. Father was proposing a bottle of champagne...real nice eh?
She said that she wanted to rest. So no lighting the kitchen stove tomorrow :P.

      Watched a Telugu movie yesterday, AA NALUGURU, one of THE best among the ones released in the past few years. Starring Rajendra Prasad and Aamani, the movie was worth the 2.5hrs of time waste. Mature comedy for the first time, didn't have Sunil in it. One of those few movies that we watched without rushing through the songs, as there were only two and were well woven into the storyline. The basic story is that Prasad dies and when taken away by the Lord of Death, he requests him to grant his last, or his first ( after death :P ) wish to see through his cremation and the reactions of his friends and family. He is a very chaste person who is devoted to serving humanity but his children's ideals are quite opposite to his. He tries to change them but fails and in the end, he makes a debt for them which he cannot repay. So he commits suicide and the events following his death change his children and so a happy-sad ending. A serious role well enacted by Prasad, nice. Hope to see such movies again.

Chemistry in Action...

2005-06-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

      Gosh!!! I should make it a habit of blogging everyday or else spend atleast an hour or so recollecting the events in the past week or so...

       Last Sunday, we went to Six Flags theme park, an hour's drive from home. News was out that the worlds tallest and fastest roller-coaster , The Kingda Ka, had become a MAJOR attraction. We found that to be very true. Infact, it took us 5hrs, waiting for our turn, to get onto one of the coaches. And how long did the ride last?
"""25 sec"""
      Can you believe it??? All the time we were waiting in the line trying to cool ourselves off, because believe it or not, the temperature that day rocketed to well above 100 degrees fahrenheit!!! But it was worth waiting as it is very rare to get on a ride that accelerates from 0 to 120Mph in 3.5 sec flat and makes a 450ft plunge (vertical ascent and descent!!!)...yeah you read it correctly...

Kingda Ka!!!
      Although we could get on only a few rides, we had a great time. I finally came over my fears and all that crap and enjoyed those rides a lot.
      We got our turn on The Rocket Coaster(powered by hydraulics, should have seen the tracks vibrate and tracks cooled by water...amazing!!!) just moments before the park closed. It was 10PM and I was very thirsty. So thirsty that I didn't notice the unsual heat I felt when I took the can and got ready to open. Apparently, the cans of Pepsi that we left out in the car exposed to the sun expanded to such an extent that the can literally blew in my hand when I tried to open it. A sharp pain shot through my right hand and for a moment I thought that I was a goner. But fortunately, nothing much happened, not even a scratch :D. After coming home I noticed the big bulge in the can due to the GAS EXPANSION, something I learnt in school but never experienced first hand until today, Chemistry in real life :))...

LOOK AT THAT BULGE!!!!

      After that there was another close call when my father fumbled over some directions to home and changed lanes on the road without signalling to the speeding guy behind us. From that moment onwards, until we got home, I kept a watch over my father if he were to fall asleep at the wheel. Quite absurd I agree but 3 calls in the same hour is not something that is normal and to get over with easily...

Tanush...

2005-06-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

      Couldn't just while away my time by just watching movies and playing CS...had to do something productive...not necessarily in studies right?
      Tanush , now a 7 month old boy, moved into our neighboruhood couple of months ago and as both of their parents were working, my mother was kind enough (The pleasure was ours so to speak, to be with kids and stuff) to take care of him. From day 1, I spent about half of my day playing with him and doing stuff with him. It is either CS or movies or him. He looks like one of those those babies we find on the babies posters, extremely cute looking and all that. And thanks to my photographic skills, I captured some nice pictures of that cute little guy. Yesterday, mother discovered his first tooth protruding from his lower gums. It was an amazing feeling, just touching that tooth. Soon he will be biting into stuff and walking around putting lots of people behind him. And once again, when I return to India, I lose my chance of seeing a baby growing up and turning into a rascal, annoying all the people around him, etc. :((

       There is sooo much to say about him that cannot be jotted down in words...everything about him is special and...OK, you guys might think I'm getting a little too excited but the truth is, once you hold him in your arms, you will feel like you are THE happiest person in the whole wide world...

Here's a glimpse of this little dude!

Voila!!!

and a 2...that innocent face!!!

and a 3

and a 4

and a 5

and a 6

and a 7....ohhh!!! look at that smile!!!

and an 8

and a 9...last one with me right now...

Rohith...

2005-06-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here I was going over my Orkut stuff when I noticed that nobody had written a testimonial on Rohith yet! I was planning to post few things about him and some memories yet to be recollected and here was my chance to put it in his orkut as well :)

A small problem in fluid mechanics brought us into each other's notice in Vikas, couple of days after the admissions. I used to sit with Ozair (I have no clue where he is right now) and Rohith with Joydeep and who were later joined by Sagar. Rohith, Sagar and I used to walk upto the RTC Complex junction where Rohith caught a bus and after that Sagara and I went home riding bicycles. Soon, we became pretty close friends. Everyday we used to walk along the same path talking about various things, cracking jokes and what not! After sometime, Sagar even introduced us to pool and we got hooked onto it instantaneously :P

Rohith is a guy you will never regret that you have met. EXTREMELY helpful and THE kindest, most understanding guy I have ever met!!! And that too born on WORLD AIDS DAY!!! Very mature and rarely makes a wrong decision. Reminds me of my mother for his quick thinking and ability to explain.

His ability to explain matters thoroughly is one thing that has helped me with my Physics, yeah definitely!!! He never left me until I told him confidently that I understood everything...

I was kind of happy when BITS ruled out its admissions through AIEEE because Rohith 's next option was IIIT and I wanted to , want to and will be with him...with my best friend...forever...

I can't even imagine the situation I would be in if Rohith and I never met or parted after Vikas...

Enjoy your stay in Ongole with Shashank!!!

Niagara trip...

2005-06-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Maid of the Mist -> Tourist boat going towards the Horseshoe Falls

Isn't it beautiful??

The Canadian side

Both of them together...so peaceful!

Me...DUH!!! So windy out here!!!

Chelli

Amma

Nana

So beautiful isn't it?

American Falls from top

Horseshoe Falls from top

The Rainbow Bridge ( Connection between USA & Canada)

Horseshoe Falls

American Falls again

American Falls while standing on Maid of the Mist's deck

Lots and lots of Tulips!

Amma & Nana :)

Sleep tight…don’t let the bed bugs bite!

2005-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah right! Had it not been for the sudden invasion of the invisible, apparently, irritating midgets, I would have been sleeping tight . Even my parents have no clue where these bed bugs came from. They reckon it is the bachelors’, living below us, fault. Maybe their untidiness and shabby living place encouraged the stupid little bugs to come over and then bug us!. Mosquitoes in India are far better than them. There were some mosquito repellents at least! None here for the bugs, except for the harmful insecticides. The nymphs (teenage babies of bugs ;) ) are colourless and so can’t be seen unless they drink some blood and attain that color. Pissing us off like hell! My mother told me that there used to be a huge bed bug problem in India as well. But they were very much eliminated with the help of a very powerful insecticide, TICK20. However, the exponential growth of human suicides when compared to that of bug deaths, resulted in the banning of that chemical. No use discussing and sighing over past events…

My family won’t be moving from this place for another year! I feel so sorry for them…and for myself (1 more month to go :P)

Counting up to 21…

2005-05-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

This is unfair. We get the right to vote at the age of 18. We get the right to go out and live our own lives at the age of 18. In short, we have attain adulthood at that age. But when it comes to gambling, why does one have to be 21 yrs or older? I just don’t get the logic behind this! I don’t want to mention about alcohol and smoking as they are not even worth discussing.

Last week, we went to Atlantic City, famous for its casinos. It would have been a perfect trip, had it not been for the uneventful rainfall and me being too young to pull down the rod fixed to those dumb looking slot machines. What brains does one have to apply to insert a quarter or two and pull down that rod? The last time I went to a casino, it was in Reno, Nevada and I was in my 9th. I didn’t get a chance to test my luck then. Now, when I thought I did, I found out that 21 was the minimum age limit and was completely disappointed. A guard near those slot machines told me to go to an arcade center in a very sharp voice. She didn’t want me hanging around, not even watch my parents play! The arcade center sucked as usual. I lost complete interest in the whole trip. My parents sensed this and we left that stupid place ASAP. The whole day was ruined. 6hrs. wasted in journey itself.

The only good thing about the trip was the beautiful beach and the boardwalk along the casinos. It was raining and cold outside, so no bikinis on the beach. Bad luck all the way I guess!

18...19...20...Ahhh...finally ;)

In the END...

2005-05-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

     I just can’t think of any force or reason that will keep me away from CS. Man!!! It is too addictive or what? And look at all these people hooked onto drugs. I guess they get the same feeling I do when I play the most beautiful ever created and they smoke pot. Soon, there might be an anti-gaming law brought into action for gamers like me. I just had to get my hands of my mouse and keyboard. My right index finger twitches like hell when kept away from the left button of my mouse for long. 1 week is a lot. Probably the longest period of time I’ve abstained from CS! All those guys who missed getting fragged by me in that short period of my self-control test, I’m sooo sorry! (Maybe next time ok??).

     In the meantime I even thought of my name, I did use it a couple of times while playing in IIIT. However, it didn’t match my skill that time, not that it matches now. Nevertheless, I have improved a lot as I think that a world ranking of 30/550 odd in sniping is quite an achievement. Je m’appelle Bu||zY et mon nom de clan est G3$T@|>0. Forgot most of my French after coming to India. Oh well…there is always a next time right? Nice names I guess. I hope my team-mates and I will stand up to our clan name!

*Break*

     Just came back after watching “Mumbai Xpress”. The movie was so damn hilarious that it left me with a really serious stomach pain! Kamalhasan as usual rocked with his exceptional acting. Of course, the credits go to everyone in the movie as well. Watched quite a lot of movies in these 2 weeks. The library being close by, I was able to get some nice movies. Old they may be, but I haven’t watched them. So, I was in for a real treat when I got to watch X-Men 2, Bourne Supremacy, The Insider, etc. A little more than 1 month remains in my stay here in US. I hope to watch lots and lots of movies by that time.

     So, I’m finally back to my game and my blog. Have to make it a habit to blog when the events are fresh in my mind, else I have to spend a lot of time recollecting them.

SCAP!!!

2005-04-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

Uhh...SCAP stands for Stupid american College Admission Prodedures...cool huh?? LOL

Yesterday my father enlightened me on the way a student gets admitted into an American college or university. I had a vague idea of this because I lived here for a couple of years preparing quite well for the SAT during my stay. Unfortunately, my B grade in PE (running a mile in 10 min. was the cut-off :(( ), as pointed out by my parents, was one of the reasons for me coming back to India after spending 2 cool years in US. A sudden cultural change in me also was a, maybe the, reason for this. IT happens, we can't control it. We can't avoid being influenced by the people here. Not just here, as a matter of fact, anywhere in the world. And we have to get used to the people here and their living styles, those changes might sound exciting to the kids but not to parents ;) . This happened in my case as well.

Anyway...what I heard from my father was quite shocking to hear. Students appear for the SAT in their 11th grade :P and their applications are sent to colleges in Decemeber / January...depends on the colleges. SO, whatever they learn in their 12th grade doesn't count at all!!! What is this?? The core subjects that students learn in their final year don't even count for their college entrance??

Its raining now!!! WOW...it feels so good to see these beautiful droplets of water splashing on the window and sometimes on my screen as well :)

Coming back to the admissions...there is discrimination among people when it comes to fees. The people are divided into two groups, Locals Non-Locals. Locals are the people who belong to the same state. The Non-Local fees are almost double the Local fees!!! Sounds sooo crappy X-( !!! . And the weightage of the SAT score and GPA (from high school) don't have a fixed weightage to decide upon on the admission...they vary from college to college...so a student can't be sure of getting a seat in any college until the final results are declared!!

Father asked me to write the SAT as well...as I had a good chance of getting into a nice college here. However I said, "Vaddu nana...nenu IIIT lo chaala happyga vunnanu...please let me stay there...:)".

Indian system is the best, no doubt about that!!!

Have to go now...and close all the windows....

No more CS :((

2005-04-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is probably the 13^th or 14^th time I've taken this decision, however, this time it will be the final one. Oh yeah! No more getting away with the false promises.

*Break*

Phew!! Just escaped another of my father's lectures right after dinner ;) . So, as I was saying, I have decided to quit playing CS from today onwards. I even uninstalled the game from my laptop (have done this loads of time :P ) . I am going to miss this game sooo much :(( . The beauty of this game lies in the realistic surroundings it creates around the gamer. All the events that take place in the game are governed by the laws of nature. And this is what got me addicted to this game, sadly not anymore. I spent about $60 on this marvelous game and looks like all the money will go waste :( .

CSS is the advanced version of CS v1.6 and CS-CZ. The engine used in this game was the same one used in HL2. So, it inherits the same rag doll physics principles wherein every particle in that (virtual) world behaves like it should as if it were in our (real) world. The rag doll effects are simply superb and are worth lots and lots of praises.

Anyway, I have taken a serious resolution and am very keen in sticking to it till the end ( I didn't define the meaning of end here :P, just kidding).

Another shock...

2005-04-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

What’s up with this strange static electric discharge? I can’t understand it! And I am so freaking out because of this thing as it looks like I am the only one who gets these shocks.

It all started when I went to my parent’s place for winter break. I touched the car’s door handle outside the airport for the 1st time and received this sudden jolt that threw my hand back!

*Break*

Ok, I am back after a good lunch and a good lecture from my father ;)

Lunch was GOOOOOD as usual, and today being a Sunday it was chicken and pulav. After lunch, it was movie time. I watched FOOLPROOF, had in my laptop for 3 months but never the time to watch it! It was a good movie, nice plot and the direction was cool with unexpected ending. I should watch more movies now! Make a habit of it maybe as I don’t have any expect for a few (who am I kidding?).

It was CSS time again after the movie, of course. I don’t know what would have happened to me if CSS wasn’t there. I would have been stuck with some crappy game like AOE.

No sooner had I started playing it, parents woke up and came into the living room, just to find me “wasting (I don’t think so!!)” time. I should have seen this coming .

My father then started off with his famous lectures. Rohith and Ravi know about this very well. He lectured me even while chatting in Yahoo! Come to think about it, they are worth hearing. They might sound mean and used to make me wish I was never born. However, I have realized (couple of years ago, so to speak) that they are too good to be ignored (chaala matter vundi vaatilo ;) ). People have a lot to learn from those lectures, I pity those who don’t have the opportunity. He lectured about his days and then told me what I should do and what not to do. He does this every time, except that the durations and complexities of the lectures increase year after year.

Anyway, coming back to the stupid static electric discharge, the stupid discharge is following me everywhere. It has become a habit for me now to use my handkerchief as a medium between my hand and any metal surface I touch. This is sooo weird and uncomfortable. This happens in IIIT as well!!! In the mess (it is a MESS, lol), I get these stupid jolts when I touch a water jug or my own freaking plate!! I keep asking my friends, who apparently haven’t any encounters with “IT”, to touch the jug before I do, just in case.

I don’t know the reason behind this and I am very, very, very much interested in getting to the bottom of this, but I don’t know where to start from! I am so confused and angry that I don’t know what to do about this.

I don’t know how long this will last…

Thai food again? NO WAY!!!

2005-04-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight happened to be the last day I ate Thai food in my life, unless of course I go to the Thai restaurant, ‘My Thai’, in Fremont, CA in future ;). No more Thai food after the horrible experience we had today. Today is Poornima’s birthday, she turned 16. And it was her wish to have dinner at a Thai restaurant. So after an extensive search, we finally found a good restaurant close to our place. We were having the idea that it would be just like ‘My Thai’. However, the menu card itself was so confusing that we immediately realized that we were in the wrong place. But there was no backing off now, as it was my sister’s birthday right? We couldn’t find any rice or noodles ;) in the menu. When we asked the waitress, she showed us another card which listed the various noodles and rice dishes they served. We didn’t understand it at all! Based on my extensive GK in food, we ordered some dishes; I don’t even remember the names :(. The food was horrible, full of vegetables, no chicken at all! I was damn sure that I had ordered chicken and not veggies. After a thorough search, I found few strands of chicken (they did look like that) meat sticking to the stupid baby corns and mushrooms (boiled :(( )! I felt so sick when eating all those boiled vegetables. Finally we returned home empty stomach. I didn’t even feel like complaining, I was too dejected to do so. Spent $60 for nothing!!! That sucked. Anyway, we all learnt a lesson and will make sure that we won’t make bakras of ourselves from next time onwards :P

Blogging in the airport???

2005-04-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well...another IIITtian went down with the blog fever. In the past 1 month...quite a few of my friends started blogging...couple of them very interesting I must say!! One of them even made me famous :)) Thanks (really??) to Badri a.k.a Apocalypse...people know me better as Sloggerika rather than Rahul Sarika. Why Badri?? Just because I sat in my room 24/7, why did it occur to you that I was slogging, especially CO?? If I really had the capacity to slog...I would have been expecting a decent GPA this sem. My intermediate total of 420 (nice number eh??) would have been somewhere close to 450 at least?? Like I care about these exams anyway...was just trying to support my arguement :P). So what was I doing in my room if I wasn't slogging?? Well, I was playing Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike, during the exams as well...yep, that’s true!!! I am so damn addicted to this cool game that I can't imagine even a single day without playing it.

So, as I was sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight to Newark (5 hrs. of waiting :(( ), I got this idea of beginning my blog instead of starting in summer. I was like...’free internet + 4 hrs laptop battery = some useful work?? ‘The journey until now has been comfortable, better than the experience I had in Air India! My friends, Rohith, Shashank, Samba and senior#2 a.k.a Yaso (senior#1 being KAP) accompanied me to the airport. It was so nice of them to see me off, imagine waiting for a fight ALONE for 2Hrs!!! We talked about the usual stuff, being ourselves as usual. We happened to see Jayaram sir too; he must have come to see his relatives off. He is such a cool guy. He is one of those few people who need not demand respect, they get it automatically.

Sooo...coming back to the airport...my flight was scheduled to leave at 0120Hrs...After saying goodbyes to my friends, I entered the airport for check-in. Immigration and Customs followed check-in and finally I was in the departure hall, waiting for my plane. Due to "unknown" reasons, the flight got delayed by 45 min. Finally, I boarded the plane and found myself sitting next to an average looking gal ;). It wasn’t even my seat...a mother came up to me and requested me to exchange seats with her daughter. Shwetha, that was her name, was a BTech grad in Telecommunications from Bangalore. It was her first trip on a plane and was kind of scared. I helped her to get familiar with the procedures and stuff. She then told me that she was going to Boston; to her husband (I was like, ‘WHAT???? OHHH...OKK...’ she looked too young to be married!).

We talked about a lot of things until it was time for the in-flight movie "Spanglish". I heard a lot about this movie but never got the chance to see it. So this was going to be treat for me. Last time they screened "Kal Ho Naa Ho", which I had already seen and was in no mood for shedding tears: P. Spanglish is a cool movie! The movie is about a Mexican mother, Paz Vega, who tries her best and eventually succeeds to preserve the Mexican culture in her daughter while living among "whites" (really mixed up family) after getting out of the miserable life in Mexico. This is a problem faced by us Indians as well, my parents had to face this problem...every parent does....we are talking about “THE USA” here!!! The actress was gorgeous...very very very beautiful. The cast also had Adam Sandler (that guy from Big Daddy and 50 1st Dates with Drew Barrymore??). The movie was a good one...I must get my friends to watch it :)...

A long nap followed the movie and woke up in time for breakfast (by the way, the food sucked big time, except for the paneer...yummy!!!) with the usual omlette and fruit. Then they screened a Hindi movie, starring Kareena Kapoor, Fardeen Khan and that hero from Ishq Vishq Pyaar Vyaar (I don't know this name, some XXX). The story itself was sick...Fardeen khan, a hacker, steals Rs. 5.5 Billion (yeah right!!) which belong to a mafia don. To get that bad guy off his back, Fardeen and Kareena (apparently lovers) trap XXX in this scam. XXX recovers from a serious injury and kills Kareena for framing him for the robbery in the name of love. I think he dies in the end as well....I was too fed up with the movie to watch its stupid ending. Yuck!!!

Soon after that the plane landed in Frankfurt and Shwetha and I said good-bye to each other and went off in different paths (she was going to gate 28 and I was going to gate 31).Ahhh....so my first blog finally comes to an end...its 1010hrs now....German time....have to wait for another 2.5 hrs....damn!!! Could do with a McDonalds burger eh? And then pass the remaining time by going through Sairam's Chip and Digit magazines....

Really boring ...hope the second part of the journey is good and interesting...

*Apr 16th : I just found out that XXX = Shahid Kapoor....thanks to a crazy fan of his ;) LOL