I look and I earn.

Did you know?

In Kerala, there is an interest practice called ‘Nokkukooli’. Literally, “Wage for looking on”. Like bandh (forced work stoppage) and gherao (blockade), nokkukooli came into vogue as the CPI (M)-led Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) resorted to strong-arm tactics in the 1970s.

Head-load workers, organised under CITU unions, asserted that they alone had the right to carry loads and they should get wages even if an employer engaged others for loading and unloading work. Today the practice of paying nokkukooli is prevalent in many commercial centres.

This has now spilled over onto even ordinary citizens. Imagine having to pay some non working workers for just ‘looking over’.

And for the first time in my life, I saw a communist leader from Kerala actually talking some sense.

Speaking at a seminar to mark the golden jubilee of the State Assembly on Friday, Pinarayi Vijayan made a pointed reference to what is generally known as nokkukooli … Without mincing words, he said collecting wages without working was robbery. Only those who worked were entitled to wages, he added…. In his speech, Pinarayi Vijayan also referred to the need for the Left Democratic Front and UDF to adopt a constructive approach to developmental problems.

Maybe there is hope for my state after all…

Full article here.

Random shit from the net:

The difference between a geek and a nerd: A geek, is someone interested in a particular thing, to the point of being boring and obsessive about it, particularly stuff like sci-fi movies or music. So you can be a Star Trek geek or a hard rock geek or whatever. A nerd is someone who is interested in and knows a lot of stuff about the real world, or one part of it, like history or quantum mechanics.

I am Free

Graffiti on Philip St, Bedminster, Bristol, UK (opposite Windmill City Farm), taken from Flickr.

Firefox 3 Beta 5

A few days ago, I decided to make a major change.

I shifted from Firefox 2.0.0.13 to Firefox 3 Beta 5.

The changes are immediately noticable.

90% of the addons I had in FF2 are incompatible with FF3 (thankfully Adblock is).

FF3 hasn’t crashed even once now. FF2 used to crash like thrice a day.

I removed all the uber cool looking themes and now have the default theme which will hopefully improve performance.

And FF3 consumes lesser RAM compared to FF2.

I am starting to love FF3.

Download it here.

In other irrelevant news, my last end semester exams in college have started. One down, 5 to go.

P.S. Just read this. Oil has reached $120/barrel. Nice.

Standing in the middle of the street

The sun hadn’t set but the clouds were so overcast overhead and the rain so heavy that it seemed like the sun had set hours ago. The sound of the rain drowned almost all the other sounds around me. The whole street had been muted by the rain. The cars, the people, the shops, the microphones – all of them – surrendered to the rain. I stood in the busiest street in the middle of the city on a Saturday evening. The schools had just closed and the children had taken over the streets, accompanied by their concerned and tired parents. The only accompaniment to the sounds of the rain splattering on the ground and on the umbrella tops were the neon lights of the shops. They blinked, they shone, they flickered and did everything they could to capture my attention. But to me, they were nothing more than a few more raindrops in the rain. I stood there, in the middle of the street, blocking all the walking traffic, living a lifetime in mere minutes. One minute I was walking aimlessly, looking at the sea of humanity doing absurd and stupid things which they thought would make them happy but instead made them even more possessed and stupid and the next minute I am suddenly struck by the stark truths in my life. One truth glared at me brighter than the sun could ever have. Even while I was standing in this sea of humanity, even in the middle of this storm of people and their relations, I was alone. Loneliness had suddenly become a very familiar word to me. No, it was more than a word, it was much more than that. Loneliness had become a replacement for the other people in my life. It was like my living mind had died and all that was left was a shell which mimicked everything that it did before it died. How did it all come to this? I was not like this in my younger days. I was ever the attention grabber, the class joker, the silent assassin. Silent till the opportune moment and then, a raging torrent.

Guess it was the mirror of realism that I looked at the world thorough. Or maybe it was the fact that all the people I wanted near me had drifted away. Or maybe I had drifted away from them. Maybe the bad experiences that I had in my younger days mortified my mind forever and restricted its reach to remain safe in the future.

Then I noticed that the rain was slackening off. The wind blew strong. The clouds were starting to get blown away. And the rain accompanied the clouds. The cloud cover cracked and the sun finally managed to show its face to the wet and dripping city after nearly a day of non stop rain. And the sun shone with a light not normally seen. The light washed the city with a golden glow. So golden, that if it could be captured, it would probably condense into pure gold. Everything looked different. The menacing crowds became more friendly, the children started to celebrate the end of the dullness with shouts and screams and all the antics only children can do in full public view without embarrassing themselves. The shops turned off their neon boards and the golden light penetrated everywhere. The windows of the shops revealed attic-like places awash in a golden glow. Birds flew out of their nests and the branches shook, sprinkling water on all those standing below the trees. The water drops looked like drops of gold and topaz before they struck the pavement and returned to being water.

No, not all was lost. Life was not as bad as I had thought it would be. There was still hope, still things to do, still places to go. And more friends to meet. Maybe some friends to meet again and some acquaintances to be rediscovered. There were always things to do, as long as the golden sun lived, the mind would too.

Settling the accounts

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Now that my life here in this college is nearing its course, it is time for farewells. Everyone by now will have made a list of all the memories and people that he/she will remember forever (if possible) and a list of other people and other memories that are to be forgotten as soon as possible.

In this context, I have another list. A list of people with whom I want to clear all my remaining accounts. Not monetary accounts. But real life accounts. I have a list of people to whom, before leaving them, I want to tell how big assholes they are. I want to tell them how I have hated their fucking guts, how I have hated their sanctimonious bossiness, their hypocrisies and everything.

I want to tell them how badly they have hurt me all these years. I just did not complain because I knew that after 4 years of college life, everyone is going their separate ways and then after that I don't have to see their faces/asses anymore. It is difficult to wear the smiling i-have-no-problem-talking-with-you mask all the time. When I am wearing the mask, inside my head, I am screaming. All the pent up rage and frustration have no other place to go. They remain stuck inside. And so I brood. I brood it out. I think about it again and again, I replay the events again and again till I can remember them without having to start shouting again.

Am I a coward? Is it that I do not have the guts to tell those people what I actually think about them? Or is it that I just don't want to mess up things, bad as they are.

Confused.

Totally.

On a brighter note, my project report submission and presentation are complete. Exams will end on the 3^rd (probably), the Internet is back on and life is good.

Had a party at Mots' place last Sunday. Brilliant food and brilliant time. Heaven it was.

44 years into the future

44 years into the future, where will my classmates be? This is a prediction that we have made. Composed mainly by the first and the second people on the list.

NOTE: Contains some extremely vulgar matter (vulgar for some), Lots of Hindi slang words and nicknames.

*****

Ratnadeep- Finally, at an age of 61, managed to talk to a female without stuttering. Unfortunately, she was a female gorilla. Self made billionaire . Started business by milking cows with SS. Joint CEO of 'S.L.U.T Ice creams' with SS.(Sweet n Lovely Unbeatably Tasty Ice Creams)

Hari- Broke gamer and Owner( Owns 23 lac in debts )(This is me :-/)

Jagan-homeless alms seeker and guitarist, virgin till date(66 yr old virgin)

Mota- Deceased of expanding/exploding paunch. The first human bioreactor.

Ghopa- CM(Chief Maal) at Vivid entertainment, CEO of 'GAP' (Ghopchi Adult Pictures).

Subendu (a.k.a. Babu) – Revolutionary gay rights activist, wife to two pro wrestlers, Assassinated by radical shiv sena activists.

Anupam (a.k.a. PumPum, Uncle) – Professional gambler(40 lac in debts), committed suicide (when wig got stolen by Chotu) by consuming Mota’s shit.

Parate- Devdas made many times over, admitted himself at Kanke mental asylum after being stalked by 74 women who claim to be his wives.

Chotu- small time Bank robber and con artist, known for crying his way out of prison, finally grew to 4 feet in height

Master-Highest paid prostitute at Sonagachi(a legend of sorts)

Saurav- Renowned Breast & Vagina angioplasty surgeon, now serving life sentence following conviction in a rape case(Gyan Agarwal)

Jhingur-Scrap dealer operating out of some shithole in Varanasi

Aditya- Happily married but later discovered impotency, underwear model

Baba- Bihari IAS officer,implicated for siphoning of money off the renowned raand Master, Extremely Bad gambler (Banned from all Casinos in Las Vegas)

Ankesh- Pro gamer,world champion clan member for DOTA, Married and divorced the same woman four times, known for his pathetic taste in women, Still plays with 3 yrs old noobs in Ethiopia and concedes first blood. Disgrace to DotA crowd.

Amit Rai- Researcher with Sex toys inc. Invented dildos for apes, columnist in ladies magazines, expert with sex issues

Vishal- Won Oscar for playing a transvestite in the French movie 'MISS COOOZYYYY MISS COOZYYY ' (watch the movie 'Eurotrip')

RG- Was a renowned porn star,noted for his performance in 'Chitty Chitty Gang Bang', Only male to have featured in cover of Playboy magazine.

Saket- World renowned PJ artist, accidentally castrated himself while shaving at the age of 23, spent the last few years serving castrated poor people of Somalia

Bharali- Serial killer known for his inhuman torturous ways, renowned kela merchant(inc plastic kelas)(kela in Assamese is di*k)

Sirdard Jalan (a.k.a Siddharth Jalan)- After years of frustration due to lack of female sex partners,raped an 87 yr old granny from Somalia. Arrested in the US. Was assfucked in Fox river penitentiary, is an anal addict ever since,currently trisexual (transsexuals welcome)

Body Balboa- Became one of the highest paid models who modeled for GUCCI, VERSACE and CHANEL. Currently dating Master’s 34^th illegitimate daughter born to a sex slave in Guatemala.

Bruce- After his song “Broos Choos Mera Lauda….”made it to the top of the charts he made it a point to suck all lauda’s he could find. Holds the current record for the most dicks sucked by a single mouth at 1.11 *10⁴……Also holds the record for the most no. of dicks sucked continuously(in 1 breath) at 45.

Srikant- replaced OSAMA as the most wanted man on the FBI most wanted criminals list, responsible for the brutal killing of 5 former professors, was Naxalite supremo for a record 6 years after which he resigned citing lack of 'explosive' opportunities

SS- Finally got 36DD sized boobs after a 34 hr surgery injecting 6 kgs of ass fat(extracted from Mota’s arse) ,Got herself a famous boyfriend , has a fetish for circumcised dicks and man boobs, even got Osama to bed. Recently in great difficulties after undergoing an operation to get a bottom bigger than Jlo's since no one manufactures dresses that can cover those HUGE things.

PP- Got married to Saurav at the age of 24, Divorced after Saurav made an MMS of their First Night and posted it on dc++. That made take to bestiality, and currently enjoying a wild safari in the African Kalahari with her playmate..an Indian war elephant.

Sandeep- Played professional cricket for the Deccan Chargers for 5 years, got fired after he caught the wrong “ball” on the field(the ball belonged to the umpire) . Currently coach of the Ernakulam Eunuchs.

Avinash-Completed PhD from The US, self proclaimed Sex addict, made path breaking advances in Sexual stimulation via bioinformatics tools, Accidentally killed by Girlfriend while he was running a test on her.

Munna – Became the Bhai of a Local Ranchi Cycle gang (they couldn't afford Bikes so a Bike gang was out of question). Jumped into a pit of human shit once when drunk…henceforth called shitlord. Entered politics, recently ousted the existing PM in a relatively bloodless coup (By ranchi standards, only 53 men killed) became dictator of Jharkhand.

BandoP- murdered by his own student while administering corporal punishment, death celebrated by a three day holiday in chotalundabad

Shukla- Committed suicide when he discovered he was pregnant, autopsy revealed it was an ass-human hybrid offspring, a legend in the life sciences for discovering the sacred male.

Rajesh- finally submitted his Phd Thesis last year, learnt finding Ph using Ph meter, promptly got it all wrong (AGAIN)

*****

And its all gonna go…

Mots and Yelakanti say that I have changed recently. They say I am too dejected, too morose. Maybe I am. This was always a part of me, the morose, sad, serious individual inside of me. And the current circumstances have been so conducive for this ‘other’ me, that the other me has totally taken over. I am not talking about Multiple Personality Disorders or stuff, but of different (for want of a better word) ‘modes’ of a person .

Why this sudden change? Maybe because of what I have said in the last few posts. Maybe coz I am going to lose my friends. Maybe coz I am going to lose my best friend. Well not lose in the literal sense of the word, but….Things between us are going to change aren’t they? Everyone is going their separate ways ad the strong friendships that we have will wane, slowly but surely. Of course, some people may manage to cling onto the old friendships. I sure do hope that I can keep my friendships intact. But obviously only if Fate allows. Now I don’t believe in that bitch called Fate but she is useful to describe circumstances out of our control. (But I guess thats what Fate really is!!!)

I like to think that I am a realist. But that keeps changing. I made this blog on a day when I was feeling really good about everything, very optimistic. Hence the blog name. But for the past few days, I feel extremely frustrated and pessimistic. And it reflects on the posts too.

And now, permit me, to wallow in my miseries.

The World SUCKS. Big Time.

I am sick of this world. The monotonous monotony of this world continues to frustrate me. This world is too…normal. It is plaid, drab, boring and colourless. One has to endure a million thorns to get a single fruit. And often the fruit ain’t even worth it.

The chronic stupidity and rigidness of the inhabitants of this world never ceases to amaze me. Everyday they rescale the mountains of stupidity and everyday they establish new records. It is like they are actually PROUD of their stupidity and naivety.

Inflexible and uninspired, they have no interest in living out their dreams. The people study, work hard, fight, sweat it out and suffer. All for what? To be accepted by the mob. To be ahead in a rat race that leads nowhere , never ends.

The only solaces I have are my friends and dreams of a different world, different life. One without the monotony of this world. One filled with colour and breeze. One with all the things that actually make your life be worthy of being called life. A world with life as life should be.

Reasoning out Failure

Again, the low marks saga continues. Since the 3rd, and through the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th semesters, things have been extremely frustrating or me. My inability to score marks in any exam, in spite of me knowing almost all the answers baffled me in the initial days. But as time went by and the oddity became the norm, surprise became frustration. And now, after long and deep period thoughts, I have figured out two possible reasons for my not-so-satisfactory marks.
The first, and the more convenient reason (convenient for others to understand at least), is that even though I claim to study, in reality I don’t. I just keep reading the same lines over and over again. I get distracted at every sound. I keep day dreaming all day long. I keep gaming. I keep sleeping. I do everything that I am not supposed to do while studying. As I said, extremely easy for others to say and comprehend but not easy for me to accept as the truth. Because I know that it is not.

The second reason is that I am unable to write the answers the way they should be to score marks. Maybe the way I express my ideas and the way I put the concepts in my head into words in the paper is totally fucked up. All the evidence I have points to this reasoning.
I score low marks even in my strongest papers. I mess up the papers even though I know the answer to every single question.
E.g. Engineering Economy. Basically, it is an accountancy paper for engineers. Even though my teacher is worthless (the only good quality she has is that she is cute. Extremely cute actually (by college standards of course)), I came to understand and like the subject. And by the way in which all my classmates respond in her class, I am certainly among the best in that subject. The teacher stopped asking me questions coz I would answer every single one of them in a far better way than she could explain and then she would have to figure out a different question to ask the rest of the class. In spite of all that I get only 23/36 in the mid sems. I lost thirteen marks. Thirteen. And the paper was so damn simple that it was impossible to lose more than six marks in it. And here I am, losing thirteen marks. And in this college, you just cant question the marks.
The universe continues to conspire against me and it is not funny anymore. Not anymore.

Dear Abby, SHOOT!

Check out this brilliant page. It is a compendium of letters to Abby. EXTREMELY funny.

And this review of GTA IV’s Multiplayer gameplay. In one word, I-M-B-A.

Finally the Internet administrator here gets some brains and has now allowed access to Belle de Jour which was earlier classified as porn.

PotF have released their latest album “Revolution Roulette”. A little heavier and louder than the previous 2 albums. But as usual, has some absolutely brilliant songs.

Mots finally got my project working. Hope to complete it by tomorrow.