25th February

After weeks of denial i have finally woken up.
March 6 - Working Drawing portfolio submission
March 15 - Services portfolio submission
March 31 - Architectural Design final jury
April 12 - Exams
April 24 - Vivas
So i better get to work now.
No posts for a few weeks...

Group Dynamics...

i had a long discussion in the afternoon about how a group of people with similar objectives affect every individual in the group; either dragging each other down or inspiring each other to new heights. i was just wondering whether this is a very 'Indian' phenomenon. i'm reminded of this very popular anecdote which probably every primary school teacher uses atleast once every year. A crate full of Indian crabs and a crate full of crabs of other nationalities (as if crabs know where they're from) were placed next to each other in a restaurant. The Indian crate was uncovered while the other one was shut tight. A curious diner asked why so. The chef replied, 'If a crab tries to escape by climbing to the top of the crate, usually the other crabs in the crate do not react. However, if the crabs are Indian, they pull the adventurous crab down. So why put a lid?'
Two things come out quite obviously: One, the 'other' crabs seem quite individualistic and independent. Two, Indian crabs are highly dependent on their society. So again i have a few questions. Is it that this anecdote is told in every country, just replacing the 'Indian' with 'Russian' or 'American' or 'Senegalese'? Assuming the anecdote is basically correct, why just Indians? Is it because of a society that places such importance on conforming to the standard? Is it because making it big in this country is next to impossible (although the situation is changing)? Is it because all our epic heroes are called 'Maryada Purshottam' only when they bow down to society? Is it because going against the flow is considered more heinous a crime than doing what is right?
And why is this painted only in the negative light? What if that one crab who tries to escape drags his unwilling colleagues out too? Or is that just impossible to expect here??

More about Cartoons...

i found this damn funny blog. Again, its got cartoons of Muhammad. Don't be alarmed. This shouldn't start a riot. Maybe because this Muhammad is shown as a nice guy. When you make a nice guy Muhammad no one cares whether he's a cartoon or not. Similarly, when you show Jesus had a kid, people protest. Take some of the seriousness out of religion. i think thats when it would make much more sense.

http://muhammadandme.blogspot.com/

Haiku...

To celebrate one of my greatest victories, a haiku:

Not a single mosquito lives
Working in peace is now possible.

17 mosquitoes. All dead. With just 2 weapons. My hands.

Shiv Sena...

They did it again! The Shiv Sena has risen back from its ashes! Doing what it does best! Tell them to stay in power for one year and solve the state's problems peacefully... naaah. Breaking people's legs like furniture (and vice versa), street fighting, molesting women, tearing their clothes... YES!! THAT's our job. They choose to call themselves Shivaji's army. And they believe in bringing in Hindavi Swaraj which was Shivaji's pet concept. Molesting women must have been a part of the manifesto then. In a few days time, Bal Thackeray will put in the papers an article praising his 'brave warriors' who repelled Western customs successfully. Brave warriors who beat up 70 yr old women and little children with whips and hockey sticks. All this for a Valentine's Day celebration which wasn't even meant to be a Valentine's Day celebration. And to make a complete mockery of their own 'anti-western' ideals, they made off with all the foreign liquor at the party.
The Shiv Sena is in shambles. All the roadside ruffians who are members of the party have realised that other parties can provide similar opportunities for breaking limbs and other parts of the human body with official backing. All the Shiv Sena is trying to do is what businesses do all the time: raise their profile. But how long can this continue? Bal Thackeray lost his fangs when Narayan Rane left. He lost his claws when Raj Thackeray left. This tiger's on the endangered list just like his jungle namesake. And let's hope any attempt at Mumbai's Project Tiger is unsuccessful.

Valentine's Day Massacre...

IF i SEE/HEAR/SMELL THE FOLLOWING THINGS AROUND THE SAME TIME NEXT YEAR i WILL PICK THE NEAREST OBJECT THAT CAN DAMAGE AND FLAIL IT AROUND WILDLY UNTIL SOMEONE GETS HURT:

1) Celine Dion's 'My heart will go on'
2) Balloons in heart shape, flowers in heart shape, sand in heart shape, food in heart shape, &%^$* in heart shape...
3) Romantic movies on television peppered with stars revealing their love lives
4) RJ's going crazy all over the radio with the 'spirit of Valentine's'.
5) Couples making out behind the tackboards near the TT table without caring that people can see 'cause its Valentine's Day'... yes i'm talking about people in our college... atleast they could stop the squeals and the giggles...
6) More than 25 couples on any of Mumbai's promenades
7) Compilations of 100 year old songs titled 'I Love You', 'Love You Forever', 'Love You Always', 'Love of My Life'...
8) The Shiv Sena burning cards, shops, people anything even remotely related to Valentine's Day.

Celebrate love. But make sure you celebrate with YOUR loved one. Everyone doesn't need to know you're with somebody...

Clash of Civilizations...

(Before you read this, let me clear some facts about myself. i am a Hindu by birth, Christian by education and anti-religion by sentiment. i hate all organised religions. If anyone reads any thing offensive about their religions in my writings.. u can go to hell or whatever place you find equivalent to it.)

PART 1
Danish cartoons sparked outrage all over the Muslim world last week. Cartoons. By definition,
A drawing depicting a humorous situation, often accompanied by a caption. Thats what it took to burn down a few embassies and kill some people and basically throw the world into turmoil. Osama ain't far behind. He's promised a new bunch of suicide bombings for 'wrongs done on the religion of Islam'. Wrongs done on Muslims by non-Muslims a.k.a kafirs. If you hate kafirs so much and wish them not to exist then why bother. All this crap about protecting your faith is not warranted. Your faith should be strong enough to withstand all attacks whatever is attacked. ive seen Jesus painted in drag. Not a single violent protest. So what is the big deal if someone makes fun of Mohammad. Why can't you simply accept that maybe they do not have any understanding of who Mohammad was and in their ignorance have printed these cartoons. Every single Islamic opinion points out that the West does not respect their sentiments. Where were these so called intellectuals when the Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed? Not a single peep from the Muslim world about the destruction. Were Buddhist sentiments respected? Why does Islam treat every non-Muslim as second class citizens? And why do all Muslims have to treat anything slightly against their religion as an attack on their religion?? (moderate Muslims too.. just because they don't speak out when they are required too). When will they realise that respect breeds respect, contempt breeds contempt? The day you stop calling people Kafirs (which is such a derogatory term, makes my blood boil on just hearing it and other similar terms whether a Christian or Hindu or Muslim uses it) is the day when the other will stop abusing your religion.

PART 2
Danish cartoons sparked outrage all over the Muslim world last week. Cartoons. By definition, A drawing depicting a humorous situation, often accompanied by a caption. The editors of all magazines which printed these defended their right to free speech. 'The foundation of our democracies', 'Our fundamental right' etc etc etc. When the Iranian government wants them to publish a series of cartoons denying the Holocaust, the same 'freedom of speech' becomes 'protecting sentiments'. Lets face it, the West feels guilty about letting the Nazis run amok and now feel its their job protect them. But when you make fun of a Muslim sentiment you should be willing to insult a Jewish sentiment too. And then why do you say 'Oh these Arabs they hate us so much'? You take their land away and call it Jewish (which is so non-contextual, the Jewish heartland was always Eastern Europe, just like the Catholic one was Western Europe) and then get pissed that they're trying to take it back. And then belittling the Muslim population without 'respecting' their sentiments. Soon Muslim population in France is expected to be large enough to challenge Catholics. What are you gonna do then? Criticise them even more because they're 'taking over your land'. Which is exactly what you have done. Which is what you are trying to do again by taking over Iraq and trying to do the same thing for Iran. Defend your right to free speech by all means. But when you apply it selectively, do not protest when your right to free speech is clamped down.

PART 3
Danish cartoons sparked outrage all over the Muslim world last week. Cartoons. By definition, A drawing depicting a humorous situation, often accompanied by a caption. Muslim attacks on Western embassies, Western protests and mud-slinging. All coming out of a cartoon. Even if i came from another galaxy far far away i would know theres more to this than meets the eye. Maybe there are some things i dont know which both or one of the sides also dont know or know about this issue. But maybe Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations was right. There are no two ways to it: Islam and West (whatever those two stand for: modernity, moral degradation, purity, backwardness) will have to slug it out. Two different ideologies. One big fight. i can already see Don King smacking his lips in glee. In the course of their fight, they might discover that Jesus and Mohammad followed the same prophets. They'll realise that basically their ideologies are the same. But that shouldn't stop the fight. No! How will they protect their faith otherwise? Obviously, there are no bigger issues in the world than two men who lived more than 1500 years ago. They should wield such tremendous power even after theyve been dead for sooooo long.

Let someone make a cartoon outta this!!

Rang De Basanti...part 2...

Saw the movie. Finally. Don't know why so many people complained about it. Yes, the movie has its glitches. Yes, the transformation from happy-go-lucky college students to inspired revolutionaries wasn't convincing. Yes, it was a little cheap to make a real movie about revolutionaries using the making of a real movie about revolutionaries. But it was one fucking inspiring movie. No lecture baazi (Manoj Kumar: every mistake you ever made in your movies is sorted here). No jingoistic Paki-bashing hero (Sunny Deol in god knows how many movies). Just normal people with normal selfish issues. My friend got killed. i think you killed him along with a hundred others. i will kill you too. If that means a hundred other deaths get avenged, much better. i don't aim to be a revolutionary. i may not agree with what ive done. But it has to be done. For the sake of everyone. ive believed that a movie is good if at the end it convinces you that it is true. It has to appear honest. Karan Johar does that, however crappy or senile his movies may be. If he says 'It's all about loving your family' then it means that even if you hate every single bit of the movie, at the end you're convinced that all that crap leads to that one-liner. Rakesh Mehra (dont remember how he spells his name.. two y's and two e's more i think) has achieved it. He convinced me that the movie is honest. He convinced me that all it takes to start a movement is one spark. And best of all, no 'Mere Desh ki Dharti Sona Ugle'. If you take out Fatehpur Sikri (beautiful.. Akbar, boss, you're the best!!) and India Gate, it could be any other country. Salute. To all who were involved in making this movie. In a few days time i will lose my enthu and my appreciation for this movie, but for now this is the greatest movie ever!!!

P.S. Maayur ur project will look beautiful! The last scene with a sarson ka field against the wall of Fatehpur Sikri should be your ideal i guess...

Euphoria...

The Sensex hit 10,000 yesterday. i know all the brokers in India are partying. Headlines in TOI: TENSEX!! Front page. i dont invest in the stock market. Neither do a lot of people who were happy about this. Yet the sense of euphoria was all over the country. "We are in the big league now!!" screamed over-excited TV reporters happy to break a 'big story'. Big league. Don't get me started on how many people die of starvation or how many women die before they are born. The joy on achieving another 'milestone' seems identical to the herd mentality that governs the sensex itself. If the bulls are happy the country (whatever part of it is in the news or sees it atleast) is happy. If the bears are happy, we've descended into economic stagnation. i've never understood the working of the stock market but as i understand it, a lot has to do with 'feeling good'. Doesn't matter if the company's doing well or not. As long as a few big players are convinced about it, that company's stock rises. Optimism must be at a new high now. Remind me to invest my two rupees in Reliance stock, one of the largest gainers over the past few weeks. By the way, just a few pages away was another headline, small enough to escape attention: 'Mukesh-Anil battle begins again.' The glass is half-full... the glass is half-full....

Sunday...

What is it about Sundays that makes me not work even when i know i will be screwed on Tuesday cos i surely wont finish it sitting all day Monday?
Oh btw.. i think i should Rang De Basanti soon... ive come this close to hearing the ending 4 times...

Work...

Can't.. write... havta.. make... time.. for...work

SPECIFICATIONS - Rote learning stuff that you can copy paste when your client wants a tender...

SERVICES - Learning what happens to shit after it flows out of your ass till it reaches the sewers.. Makes toilet time more interesting...

CONSTRUCTION - Details from a book published in 1937... and kalpit ashar's sheets.. what more should i say?

WORKING DRAWING - "You can build in any material! ANY material!!! So long as it is brick, stone and wood..."

LANDSCAPE DESIGN - Beautiful plants. But why such evil names??

STRUCTURES - Bending moment of a beam with respect to its cross-sectional area at the apex of the shear force diagram is equal to the.... AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! ISN'T THIS WHY I DIDN'T TAKE UP ENGINEERING????

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN - Fourteen hours and four hundred drafted lines later i realise: hmm, maybe this one should twist by 6 metres to the right...

QUANTITY SURVEYING: Simple math. So why do we need 2.5 hours a week to know that 2 X 4 = 8??

HISTORY: (blank)

well well... looks like i did have time after all...