Check Mate

A rather distinct and beautiful Chess set.
Courtesy: Martin Lopatka on Flickr | License: CC BY-SA 2.0

The most imaginative people are the most credulous, for them everything is possible.       - Alexander Chase

Eight by eight board of blacks and whites. Sixteen pawns, twelve face members, two queens, two kings and two players contemplating moves to win the game - necessarily making brilliant moves as well as excellent mistakes.

Some questions though. Why shall not pawns try to become king? Why can't they define their own destinies? Why player acts God, isn't it monopoly of a sort? Further if the game has to be so uncertain, why can't there be a third influential force, which can be manipulated by two main players through treachery, bribery, emotions, affection and all those add-on tactics? It might be the case that this third party overtakes and blows the lid off both the major parties! This way a plain game be more interesting or probably more straining and intriguing.

Fundamentally the element of uncertainity drives fun, more essentially it focusses you and gets you freedom from thoughts and that is 'entertainment'. Right?

But I feel eight by eight is a small field, if the game has to be strategy, and third party influences will surely add to the taste. Just suggestions for may be a newer 'Chess extended'!

As I complete this post I realise that their exist strategy games like 'Age Of Empires' which give some of these options, but a board game can also be devised. Sad I never played 'Monopoly' like that.

Bye Bye 2009! Happy New Year.

Image courtesy : jurvetson on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

This would be a boring post, though I have tried my best to make it readable. But at the best it just accounts my whole year of 2009.

January
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1) Jan 5 - Back to college, after long winter break! We all love that slow journey on Indian railways.
2) We had cards sessions in Shashi's room, while his roomies exercised to guitar's tunes! Tried for 2 days, after that my abs were extinct. And I was not able to keep track of my losses! Time is spent setting things up!
3) Jan 14 - Guddu's birthday! :O Hardly matters, I am busy flying kites in the sky!
3) Jan 23 - Got my laptop. Love it, exclusive purple matte finish for me only. Shall I say this? But nice to find Shrey and Nilabh welcome you at home along with your family, late at night. Boosts na!
3) Jan 26 - Back to Jaipur. A fantastic journey, will never forget! Forgot Foo's birthday! Movies and a truly effortless laugh-riot.

February
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1) Feb 6-8 - Blitzschlag days! Funny times. Nice outings.
2) Feb (end-week) - Pune visit, met Debz, Mumbai-Pune expressway journey! Mumbai was dull experience, kill you Foo I think you could manage flunking an exam!
3) In true sense it was dumbest month of the year!

March
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1) Mar 19 - A distinct birthday, can't be more thankful for the fun and surprises you provided.
2) Mar 22 - fabulous scooty ride with Abhinav.
3) Newly acquired Nokia slider (miss you buddy) made me click happy!

April
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1) Blogging month of the year, not actual blogging but management stuff, networking, socialising!

May
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1) Vacations begin! Lazy times! Did nothing, just eat, sleep, friends and Mafia wars.

June
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1) A month of communications. Internet networking comes into play.
2) Phone livens up again.
3) Evening cricket matches and socialising did things great.
4) Jun 29, a college reunion.

July
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1) July 1 and 3 - Outings with college friends!
2) July 8 - Agra visit. Hotel was a sucker. Enlightening train journey, poor kiddos still in my mind. Piyush, Nilabh, Gaurav and Me! Monuments were just nice.
3) July 9 - Return from Agra, still remember that we didn't try to convince Spaniards to join us on the bus journey! The leaking roof of bus was fun. Nilabh and Piyush must be able remember my most jolly and outrageously ecstatic moods in the beginning of journey. One of most crazy adventures of life, after long time did something so out-of-mind, ran away without paying auto-rickshaw, got caught resulting in a 2 month long cold war with Nilabh!
4) Colleges reopen in end week - Probably the busiest day of the year was registration for the 3rd semester. Totally exhausted after moving into new room.
6) Enjoyed long late night strolls to Gandhi Nagar station with Abhinav.

August
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1) As a general trend it was an ecstatic beginning to the semester, it at least to me was enthralling to discuss designs with Kalpana madam and have those climatology lectures.
2) Aug 2 - A nice friendship day. Thanks Tanvi and Kriti.
3) Oh! Mr. Siddharth got new really fantastic approach! A legalised way of bunking classes, mail me assignments! Not being sarcastic, I in reality like this approach, saves time.
4) Jantar Mantar! Shaily, Kriti, me and Abhinav. Tell me guys if it was fun or not?
5) Jumped into ANDC thing! Learned a lot from this thing, but now-a-days I cease to be appreciative of everything and I really shall repent getting into this endeavour, and for the first time I am ready to accept I was not firm in my approach, it was just an outlook. Talk more, do less attitude of every single person in the team and every group and even from my side made me go haywire and I acted out a moron in later parts of months. But this fiasco taught me some of the nicest chapters! (What the fuck! Why am I even yelling????)

September
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1) Partially realised my errors, made amends in first week, roped in Himanshu (Oh! Manik Doomra is an asshole and considers himself the in-charge of some big projects!). Love you friend, my first Photoshop tutor (I will never need another). Salute, to everyone who was a partner...
2) Ran to Delhi, don't now but now I consider myself lucky to have been through a 65 km long jam which made Jaipur-Delhi travel last 14 hours!
3) All submissions delayed by at least one week, aftershocks I guess! With no reasons to give I made my own joke in class-rooms!
4) Dusshera celebrated with a ride (tripling), Pawan, me and Abhinav. Crossword and Dhabas!


October
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1) Started revival, got organised.
2) Great I was exercising for a change! (Happens when you want to drain out that extra energy!)
3) Diwai breaks! Abhishek and me are jolly doing something common (...silly he made me think it as of a mutual thing, it was a distinct case with me!) Social I was becoming, sickening even to think I hosted family members with courtesy! :O
4) Back in college, had a plan (Like most things involving more than one person failed miserably! Avneet dear sorry, I can't keep the bet!)
5) Now I was bunking with an excellent degree of precision, but now I was careful not to misuse this time!
6) Got friendly and frank with room-mates and visiting friends! Bike rides are back in scene, Oct 26 - Zip Zap Zoom - V! Since Diwali break, everyone was asking where Himanshu boss has vanished.
7) Got back to reading habits, 2 states and City of Djinns (yukk, its real bore stuff!) Sidney Sheldon (couldn't read more than 50 pages, not because of boredom or heavy lingo, but my lazy nature (killed it anyhow) . Senuti's recommendations!)

November
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1) I love this month. Exams, movies, magazines, thadi nights, cricket matches, strolls...
2) Room-mates, me and few new found acquaintances (Shri Krishna Meena, Mani and xyz), that's life.
3) Madam Foo is there on the other end of the fan. Guddu and Mom are among other regular callers! These people are punctual. Must tell you, am a sucker. If these guys can be so good despite their hectic and busy lives, why the hell I do fail?
4) Everything was Photoshopped! Exams were fun (for last time I guess, expecting a dip in scores!)
5) Later in the month, I was getting ecstatic as well as hasty to leave for Delhi. Plans were set and abuzz on net as well as phone!)

December
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1) Blog is the new life. Shri Krishna challenges me to post once daily! And I do accept and here you see results.  I write poems and social stuff!
2) Dec 4 - Blown by jury, totally injured state of mind! We are back in Delhi, nobody knows my whereabouts for next 3 days.
3) Contacted friends one after another. Even tried to make a plan of excursion with few college friends (frankly a half-hearted attempt, and essentially a half-hearted response!)
4) Mumbai and Chennai both were turned down! Thankful to myself for the decision, loved to be with friends and family in the city only.
5) Daily morning it was a walk, basketball, badminton or cricket, sweet-corn, bread-butter, fog and sunshine, dipping temperatures are fun!
6) A girl comes back and makes space to linger in my mind and I tell you she does no bad any more. And I like to dance (edit, go on long strolls, vo hand-in-hand wali walks, head on shoulder wali talks, banayengey buildings saath-saath with her (in my dream world) as 95 FM and MP3 buzz in my ear-plugs. :)
7) I try to complete some works and take time (...ajeeb dastan hain, vacations mein
busy college days mein ye ladka free hai) to not annoy family people by joining them to various places. (I actually don't want to deny this thing, it is true that I can spend hours sitting on floor of that District Centre Wordsworth book shop if Guddu gets along with me. And madam don't dare tease me for this confession as you know I still have that option in mind, though she thinks me as no option ;) )

Chalo! Account closed! New Year, probably a new Manik, the experiment continues!!! :D Perfect nahi milega, item yeh pango se bhara hai!!! :D :P :$ :O

This was a summary of my 2009, complete to best of my knowledge! Though I do not guarantee not missing some things. An excellent year passes by! No regrets. Happy New Year to everyone. Make sure you all make 2010 even more successful and fun.

Chained Liberty

Image courtesy : Morning Magician on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

It simply seems horrendous, with so many resources and liberty at my disposal I can act a fool and not succeed! I simply continue to consume and abuse the powers that lie with me. I continue to be shameless and not leave the greed. The mask continues to separate me from the truth, it stops me from attaining what should be procured. I continue to chain myself, poison my own purity and further dilute it, to fall and be one amongst the common! I punish myself for the unknown, meanwhile corrupting what was destined to be nonpareil.

Simply the basic idea of many and most superheroes before they realise what they are made of and what defines them! The thoughts occur to me after watching Batman Begins and Batman : The Dark Knight, salute Joker!

The guy who loves to put smiles across the faces and wears a purple coat while making us believe that he is a psycho, truly captivates the imagination and deserves lauds a thousand times.

Slang Bang

Image courtesy : jetheriot on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

I chat a lot and I love using slangs! And the best thing is there are no universal slangs so everything works! Plain language is tasteless, so it is like adding spice to the lingo!

Some words that are mast include 'Bidu', 'Machak', 'Item', 'Jhakkas', 'Hakuna Matata' and more . Mixing of tongues, 'Hinglish', 'Punglish', 'Hinch' (I made this Hindi + French) is something that keeps the conversation going! Tongue twisters in Bihari and Punjabi are nice to laugh at. Mockingly adding a double meaning helps in creating that special spark! And once the frankness is lost the talk essentially will loose the purpose, it will then be just another meeting to discuss a deal of work. 'Bhasad', 'Thuss', 'Tadka', 'Masala', 'Spice', 'Chicklet' etc add to language slightly slapdash munches and slippery twists and you will surely tune in with any group, I usually fail or I usually don't want to! Need too much of openness and familiarity to communicate!

I would like to make a special mention of our own Toy Lingo, with its different variants, has a patterned set of words which include - 'Saax', 'Taax', 'Maax', 'Faax' and more such 'aax' stuff. While Jaipur version of it comes with more meaningful and intellectual things like 'Phantom', 'Farzi Phantom' and more.

I like updating such stuff on my Twitter feed, which in itself is a super sexy way of communication with all the short forms and new lexicon like 'Tweeps', 'Tweeple', 'Twooshes', '#tags', '@eds' and likes. 140 character limit make you go for innovation and this adds zing to what might be rather boring conversation! Twitter = SMS of the internet!

What more is - you always love to enjoy your time and the best movies I find in India, all have a regional slangish identity to them, be it Khosla Ka Ghosla, Rang De Basanti, Omkara, Bheja Fry, Dil Dosti Etc and many more...

Language No Bar

Recently some funny things are happening to me! I feel I am able to understand everything, language doesn't matter! Things started with music German 'Du Hast' banged my head for months. Foo would sometime share with me Marathi folklores and the bong music supplied by Debz is difficult to match. Haryanvi and many more Indian crudes are irresistible. Numerous films in alien tongues followed before I found this Gaelic thing called 'Scaliwag' on my room-mates Philips GoGear and as I come back to home a french maniac would make me listen to -

 A distinct work in French, you would definitely need no lyrics to understand it!

I myself am finding it very much fun to enjoy Punjabi Pop by Aman Hayer, Punjabi MC and likes. Morning radio is very much English and Hindi and my new found interest in Monica Belluci makes me think of learning Italian a bit. And not to mention but a boy called Enrique Iglesias introduced me to Spanish tongue and holds my romantic imaginations till date. Shakira would gravitate her hips to Latin tunes and I am equally pleased to listen to Phillipino.

As I sit before TV, very less occasionally these days a few channels will throw me with exceptionally well crafted media in Japanese, Korean, Cantish, German and more.

Tune In

Image courtesy : purple monkey dish washer on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

I was wondering if thoughts and ideas flew on radio waves. We can hardly control what might cook next in our minds. As we walk down, chat with a friend, have dinner, bathe or do any other normal activity some thing or other will occur to our minds and we generally will have to make objective choices a game of 'Yeses' and 'Nos', only often and not always. And these remaining times will be called 'Dilemmas'.

Anyhow, back to topic. So probably the ideas fly on Radio waves and there are special recievers in human mind that just catch them. Once we get a nice idea, it is our job to nourish it. And I most of the times fail miserably! Well we can always dump an idea or pretend if it never occured to us. And if we choose to nourish them and go a long way in doing so we get somethings called 'results' or 'outcomes' and these are expected to be good only.

I just can hope that I simply get to tune into those divine and nice frequencies and be able to do good work. While imaging Shivani Kashyap whistle out the lovely and very famous All India Radio (AIR) jingle.

Though AIR is obsolute in practical senses in this age of MP3s and private radio stations, this is something that got me into the habit of listening to the radio other than those lovely fancy stories put up by my father about his college day radio romance!

Lipstick

Image courtesy : ZedZap(Nick... NEVER slow ) on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Those beady eyes are no longer there,
Chirp is missing and nobody seems to care!
Hairstyle is not good I must say,
But I'm told to stay away! :|
Lost and Found I felt oft,
And wished I could flee soft,
Most of the time, most of the days!
Come December, And we will be on our way!
Because now we realize, Not everything goes by our say!
Limerence continues to stay,
Get back to work before you go too astray! :)
Rebellion continues... Fire still burns in the foray!!! :| :$
Not my fault that I do not believe in pray!

One of my attempt at poetry. Actually written on Nov 18' 2009, I tried to modify this one a bit but kept it largely in its original form.

As for post title, I interpret it as Lip + Stick. Hope I got myself clear!

Another Interaction With Delhi.

Last Sunday, I had my engineering and architecture entrance exam. But the post will loosely move around the proceedings of the day. I almost didn't sleep the whole night. In the morning, we took bus till Dhaula Kuan and then an auto-rickshaw to the exam centre. the auto-rickshaw driver zipped it along the southern boundary of Delhi's central ridge reserved forest. The ride extended into the beautiful by-lanes of the New Delhi. Mesmerising roads lined by a large number of trees and a lot of infrastructure development projects underway. I got few glimpses of the under-construction Airport Express Link of Delhi Metro, the line is supposed to provide fast access between New Delhi Railway Station and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport with top speeds reaching 120-135kmph. Further we moved to Connaught Place, the central business district of Delhi. It wore a deserted look on early Sunday morning. Next came ITO, crossed Yamuna and then the ride along eastern bank of the river. A lot of activity is taking place along the banks of river, majorly in view of coming Commonwealth Games of 2010. Across the road opposite the river front stands the exam centre. A filthy smell disgusts me throughout the tests. And yes the top floor syndrome continues here also! Add to this I got to sit on the first bench in the paper one. In the paper two the room changed to my happiness, I was no more on the first bench and the pesky smell was gone. Paper two had three drawing questions and the last one was to create a colourful composition of some season. But as I started attempting the question I realised that time was very less and I will have to make something very quickly, so I just didn't gave a thought and started sketching a girl, I think as she would be about 20-22 so girl would be appropriate word, followed by a tree then her companion to fill the space. I just started filling the colours, but soon realised that two eyes were glued to my creation. Oh this was the invigilator, to make it less obvious I sketched two kids, giving the hint that they are Mom and Dad and not some romance ridden couple!In the meantime I completed the exam in the best possible way. after the exam I was not in mood of a bus-ride so went to take Metro. About 2-3 km from exam centre was Shastri Park Metro station. I reached there by Rickshaw and the Metro station was one of the best in Delhi. More importantly you get to see a lot of hip crowd, air-conditioned travel and all the best facilities at almost no cost. For the first time I used Metro to transverse across Yamuna and reached first interchange station and so passed about 20 stations and I was at my destination Tilak Nagar. The whole way I kept on thinking about a lot of stuff including web-pages, evening with friends and more. At home I took some rest but could not resist calling up a friend to meet soon, later in the evening we enjoyed browsing on net, some PC games and a little walk. Rest is only schedule, but living in Delhi is a bliss!


All Images in this post are taken from Flickr. Click on respective image to access respective original location and owner. All these images can be re-used following these terms.

Creative Friend

Image courtesy :silver.and.gold on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

A very hip begining of the day. Niyati, a very good Orkut friend of mine showed me her creative work and I promised her to post that on my blog. So here it is. Cheers to my very good friend, who has always been distinct because of her lively and cheerful nature in all this time.

Sometimes i feel so lonely
As if all are gone
Who were sittin next to me closely
I found nothing when I turned around
In search of something I turn round 'n' round
Something has changed
As if i m exchanged
Exchanged with a lonely soul
Who has nothing but tears n all
I miss those days when I was small
When I used to hide myself on mummy's call
Gone are those days when i was happy
Now my loniless follows me to make me unhappy
Many times I tried to friendship the world
But no one responded when I called
Still some hope is left in my heart
To get back all my sweethearts
But when I get my happiness
I am gonna miss you my loniness.

In exception to my blog policy the poem featured on this post is not copyright free. The poem has been used with permission from Niyati, the author of this poem.

Summer Day Out

 
Image Courtesy : World is beautiful on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

On June 08 '07, I got to venture out on Delhi's roads on scorching summer day. The blistering heat could make even the most enduring ones to run for cover.

I live in a bustling colony in western Delhi and had to go to Vastukala Academy, aside temples of educations IIT-Delhi and JNU, to collect result of architecture aptitude test.

So I got up a little early in the morning, expecting to finish my work and come back to home by 2'o clock in the afternoon. Having done with things like breakfast, etc. I ran out of home to catch bus that would leave me at Dhaula Kuan (DK) interchange. It was already 11:30, but I was enjoying the ride; as to passengers surprise the driver of the DTC bus was driving nicely and I could even spot a few good looking girls. Moreover summers are my favourite season, everything being hot, bright and windy. Sooner the bus reached DK and I got off it.

Now I was waiting for next bus to arrive, but to my dismay it was not a very pleasant experience because the Sun was shining harshly enough to melt the asphalt of roads. It was very panicking to stop and wait for a ride while the mercury soared to 44 degree Celsius and loo, hot seasonal winds, blew uncalmly.

To manys' respite the bus was there after about 10 long minutes. I hurriedly boarded it and was happy to find some shade. I found a seat and sat calmly sure that it will take at least 30 minutes before I reach my destination. Through the way I glanced the magnificent reformations the city was witnessing in a bid to prepare well for the Commonwealth Games 2010. The bus zoomed through bustling commercial areas and calm residential colonies of South Delhi. I was disappointed to see encroachments and dirty shanties just beside R.K.Puram, one of the most refined localities in the city. The bus took a turn to Vedant Desika Marg and my mind started reminding me of leaving the bus and as per my habit I de-boarded a stand before (more because of my fear of being lone one to leave and thereby ignored and taken to the next stop!).

So I was here in front of Physical Sciences Faculty of JNU. After waking down the lane about 200 metres I reached my destination and straight away asked the administrator to give my score card. He printed it immediately but as per "Indian tradition" didn't give it to me before another 1.5 hour, the reason being it was not signed by the head of the institution.

Soon I found that i was not the lone one waiting for the signs, but there was a bunch of about 8-10 students! Many others were waiting for there turn for exam. So I could pass time listening to them, having chats with few ones, planning about return, cursing the system and very pleasantly checking out the beautiful girls, etc.... But as the time progressed it was becoming difficult to bear the delay. And it all ended only when few guys started something like a little agitation (not the Rang De Basanti style, but just a simple negotiation). And now we had our score cards with us, at 89/200 my score was average considering the topper could manage only 117.

On my way back I had to walk about 500 metres before I could find a bus stand. Very annoyingly I had to hop onto the bus while it was still running. The rest of travel till DK was fine.

It was about 2:55 and the hot weather had started taking toll on me. With no snacks or drinks for last 3.5 hours I was feeling uneasy and in a hurry to reach home as early as possible. But the whole thing went wrong when I mistook route number 568 to 588 and boarded the wrong bus!

The bus this time was a real hell, the staff of bus was 4 people strong with each one smoking proudly (I hated them for this) and stopping the bus for uneasily long intervals of time. but it ended soon and I was on my way to home, on another bus followed by a 15 minute walk in scorching sunshine!

After reaching home I was happy and comforted as I could sit on my PC and enjoy playing the race game abbreviated as NFS-Most Wanted!