She and I  have mostly celebrated ‘the Valentines Day’ over phone, but like I said, we  celebrate it every time we  meet. And every time we have met, we have loved being in love; we have expressed emotions – looking into each others’ eyes, holding hands; and we have turned it into a Valentines Day.

Most people I know would be working tomorrow. But I would have the luxury to sit at home, drink a little beer, and dream about the wonderful memories and times we have spent together.  She will be miles away from me, probably shopping few ‘Rajasthani jootis’ in Jaipur, but she will be close to my heart, as she always is. And I am sure, although surrounded by her friends, and busy visiting different tourist places, she will be missing me, as she always does.

Love You. Happy Valentines Day.

Currently I am reading David Baldacci’s Hell’s Corner. I am halfway and still not sure about the plot. I guess few more clues and I would figure it all. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest will be the next.

Lauren was racing wildly around her bedroom, tossing clothes into a couple of suitcases on the bed. Her face was flushed, glistening with perspiration.
‘Chill,’ I said. ‘Take a nice, deep breath.’
‘No, Nick. I can’t. We can’t stay here.’
‘Lauren sit down, please.’
‘Will you at least tell me what happened to him this afternoon?’
‘I will if you sit down.’
Slowly, grudgingly, she lowered herself on to the ottoman of the big overstuffed reading chair in the corner. I have her a quick summary of what had happened to Gabe and how deftly he’d handled it
‘So they were fake cops,’ she said. ‘Impostors.’
I nodded.
‘They’re trying to find Roger, aren’t they?’
‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think getting information was the point of that exercise. That was a threat. Just like that video clip you got today. We’re watching you. You and your son, you’re vulnerable. You’re not safe anywhere.’

I live in Mumbai and it has been a while now. I like this city. Its good and its very diverse. In Delhi you will mostly get to see typical delhi-wala/lis’. In Bangalore you will meet the typical IT frustrated guys, they smoke with coffee while at ‘work’, and drink and blabber about  it after the work. But in Mumbai you get too see all kinds of people. Didn’t you like  the characters in films like Life in a Metro and Dhobi Ghat ?

Two days back I bought a new camera. There is a little story backing it. I was attracted to the new TV commercial of Sony alpha Nex5.  Although I have read Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, I felt into sony’s advertisement trap. The camera looked uber-cool with small body and big lens and promised DSLR quality pictures.  I talked to my better half about buying it.  She disagreed and I started reasoning. It was finally concluded that I can buy it after two months (ask her – why ?). I shrank the period to two days (I am sorry) and went to a sony showroom, regardless my brother’s advice to buy a cannon. I didn’t make the mistake that day, but I went back again.  Something struck at the perfect time, I came to my senses and I bought Cannon EOS 550D instead, and now I realize I would have been the biggest dumb-ass if I would have gone for the sony.

This will be my first blog in 2011. The 2010 year end was great. ‘Absolut’e fun with my girl friend and her buddies. First solo trip. Bungee Jump. River rafting. And of course the 31st night party with people who matters. This year is going to be no different I guess, apart from the fact that I will be giving my resignation in October. And will be trying to get into a good management college. And may be engaged !

]]> http://ankit.vatsap.com/after-a-while/feed/ 0 http://ankit.vatsap.com/ragging/ http://ankit.vatsap.com/ragging/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:09:56 +0000 ankitvatsa http://ankit.vatsap.com/?p=599 ‘Freshie!’ He motioned towards Rajeev. ‘Introduce yourself!’

‘My name is Rajeev…Rajeev Varoach, sir.’

“Hmm..Varoach, huh ? Nice name,’ said Pheru, nodding his head approvingly. Rajeev smiled, pleased to have begun the interaction on a positive note. Pheru seemed lost in thought for a few seconds. Then he said, ‘So…how is your brother… Cock ?’ Everyone burst out laughing. Rajeev looked confused. Pheru clarified: You know, your brother, Cock, as in Cock-roach, Va-roach.’

‘F…Fine,’ blurted Rajeev.

‘Do you like Cock? Do you play with Cock often? Did you play with Cock when you were a kid?’ continued Pheru. More laughter emanated at the double entendre.

‘No, sir,’ Rajiv muttered, his voice suddenly weak.

‘What! You don’t like your brother?’ demanded Pheru. ‘How can you not like your brother? If you don’t like Cock, what do you like, huh?’ Rajeev didn’t reply. ‘Come on, man…what do you like?’ asked Pheru again.

‘Physics,’ he said finally. ‘I like Physics.’

‘Physics, eh? So you are really good at Physics, are you ?’

‘Well, let’s do an experiment to re-evaluate Newton’s first law,’ said Pheru. ‘Let’s assume that the floor of this room is absolutely frictionless. Zero friction, okay? Now suppose you begin to masturbate on this frictionless floor…you know, play with your brother, Cock. What happens then?’

Rajeev look confused.

‘Arre…’Pheru explained, very matter-of-fact, ‘you ejaculate. Don’t you?’ Rajeev nodded. ‘So,’ continued Pheru, ‘as you ejaculate, the drops move forward, and by the law of conservation of momentum, you move a few millimetres backward. Don’t you?’

‘Yes, yes…sir,’ replied Rajeev lamely.

‘Now, Newton’s first law says that any object tend to be in state of motion or rest unless acted upon by an external force, right? But here the drops are moving forward and you are moving backward without any external force at all, right? All the forces are internal, aren’t they? So this neat experiment of yours proves that Newton’s first law is just bullshit. Doesn’t it?’

Amidst raucous laughter, Rajeev fidgeted nervously.

Pheru smiled and said, ‘So this is your task for tonight. Sit at that desk and start writing an article on your experiment and we will send it to the Noble Prize Committee to review and publish, stating how you, Mr Va-Roach, and your brother, Mr Cock-Roach, have disproved Newton’s first law just by playing with each other.’

———————————————————-

‘What was so funny, eh?’ bellowed Pheru. ‘You stupid Jat! This is a serious scientific study and you find it funny! What..you’ve never masturbated? How many girls have you screwed?’

‘Sir…no, sir,’ mumbled Harsha.

‘No what? You don’t masturbate or you’ve never fucked a girl?’

‘Never …with a girl, sir,’ replied Harsha, his face expressionless with fear.

‘Really?’ said Pheru, suddenly softening his voice. Putting his arm around Harsha, he said, ‘That is terrible. It is a requirement for this hostel that you lose your virginity. Look around you…do you see any virgins? Huh?’

Pheru smiled. ‘See? So tonight, we will help you lose your virginity. Right here, right now.’

A loud cheer rand out in the crowd. Harsha smiled uncertainly.

Pheru continued, ‘So who do you think is the girl of your dreams…You know, the one you think about when you fantasize?’

‘Princess Diana, sir,’ said Harsha with a spontaneity that immediately ratified the sincerity of his reply.

‘Now imagine,’ continued Pheru, his voice full of sensuality and passion, ‘ you are alone with her on a beautiful island, and all she has left to wear is a black, lacy negligee. She is hot and horny for you. Her beautiful buttery breasts heave with every breath, and she spread her silky thighs and tells you, “Harsha, oh Harsha, I want you. I want you so bad.” So what will you do next, Harsha?’

Harsha looked around uncertainly and said, ‘Sir, I will…I will..ask her if she has AIDS.’

‘Man, you are cursed ! You will remain a virgin! You are hopeless’, he roared. ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Ask Princess Diana if she has AIDS?  Its a bloody fantasy, you idiot! She is not..I mean….” His voice trailed off in exasperation.

In my last post, where I wrote that this book ‘Bombay Rains Bombay Girls’ has heavy words, and I needed a dictionary; I was so wrong. This was an easy to read book . I was done with it (453 pages) in aprox 4hrs. The story was average. I won’t recommend anyone to buy this book. But in case you get a hand on it, and have nothing better to do, you can read it ofcourse!

The layman does not often have the opportunity of reading a simple ex-position of advanced scientific thought written by the man who did the actual creative thinking. In this book, which is the result of a happy collaboration between the author of the theroy of Relativity and one of his own co-worders in researh, the story they have to tell of this evolutionary development is one of the most fascinating that the human mind can meet with – the story of mankind’s attempt to comprehend through inventive thought its own realationship to theexternal world.

In simple, straightforward language, avoiding all the technical terms and mathematical formulae, the authors have traced with beautiful clarity.

The next book I have picked up is Bombay Rains Bombay Girls by Anirban Bose. And coincidentally, it rained yesterday (the very first monsoon rain), the minutes after I started reading this book. I couldn’t read much. The author has used unlimited number of heavy English words ! I have to carry a dictionary along next time !

Love : The ship isn’t sailing smooth. Three years of  ‘long distance’  journey and yet there seems no end to it. I wish what have kept us together for these three years will keep us together always. Love, love & more.

Friends: For almost a year now, I am living a life of  ‘ almost solitary confinement’. I stay alone in my apartment. But the good news is that, Pranjal will be taking admission in NMIS, and coming to Mumbai. I will have atleast one good company.

Its raining again this morning. I love rain. While in college, I used to sit by my window sipping my black coffee, and watching the rain, the sky the clouds. Wonderful days, I must say !

Now, it’s time to make my coffee and call my girlfriend. Naraaz hai.

It’s really an interesting book to read. Those who already have read it wouldn’t agree less. And as the back cover reads – This collection of the best short works of rule-breaking genius Richard Feynman shows his passion for knowledge and sense of a fun at their most infectious. The revealing and inspiring pieces here span a lifetime of enthusiasm for discovering what makes the world tick – including uproarious tales of early student experiment; safecracking and outwitting US censor during the Second World War; his first lecture as a graduate student (to an audience including Albert Einstein); and the memories of the father who delighted in showing him the world and sparked his insatiable curiosity.

I sand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the rushing waves…mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own business…trillions apart…yet forming white surf in unison.

Ages on ages…before any eyes could see…year after year…thunderously pounding the shore as now. For who, for what? … on a dead planet, with no life to entertain.

Never at rest…tortured by energy..wasted prodigiously by the sun..poured into space. A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the patterns of on another till complex new ones are formed. They make others like themselves … and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity…living things, masses of atoms, DNA, protein…dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle onto the dry land…here it is standing … atoms with consciousness…matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea…wonders at wondering…I … a universe of atoms … an atom in the universe.

]]> http://ankit.vatsap.com/book-review/feed/ 4 http://ankit.vatsap.com/the-beauty-of-a-flower/ http://ankit.vatsap.com/the-beauty-of-a-flower/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 23:53:03 +0000 ankitvatsa http://ankit.vatsap.com/?p=579 I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree, I think. And he says-”you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure.

Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flowers evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting-it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower form? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don’t understand how it subtracts.

(Above is part of a transcript of an interview with Feynman made for the BBC television program Horizon in 1981)

So how does it feel to be a professor after like troubling all my teachers for the last 20 years. ( Sad to say, but I was the most talkative kid during my school, and of course a headache for my teachers). To be honest, I have still not got that “I am a Professor” feel ! The reason being simple, I have not been taking any regular classes. Just a few classes and discussions sometimes doesn’t make you feel like a professor.

The first three months of my ‘professor-ship’ was the training part, and I didn’t  miss any chance to bunk my office ( legacy bad habit continues after college). I had a reason. A very strong one infact. After like almost two years of my Long Distance Relationship, finally I was in the same town – Delhi. So why shouldn’t I miss my office , and explore the city with her? Why shouldn’t I wine and dine together ? Why shouldn’t I enjoy like normal couples do ?

Three months of being in heaven,  I finally came to Mumbai (good things doesn’t last for ever).  And like I said, I don’t have a regular batch, so I am still not ‘The Professor’. What I did here was nothing related to ‘professor-ship’. Like, making plans of social media marketing for FIITJEE Mumbai, making a neat and clean interactive site for FIITJEE Mumbai and writing codes for admission fee calculator. I made a poster and a promotional page for FTRE too. And a day back, I interviewed directed an ‘ad shoot’ for the upcoming FTRE Exam. Its about an IIT Bombay guy, telling his story, how he dropped a year, and gave this FTRE exam, and prepared for a year in FIITJEE, to got a rank of 321 in JEE. He was a ‘nice baccha’.  He spoke my lines.

And that’s it.  After I feel like professor, I will write again about ‘On Being a Professor’.

I had almost forgotten that we have entered a new year. It was today, when chachi called up and wished me a happy new year, I realized..oh it’s still a New Year !

Don Prannoy Kothari fucked up our New Years Celebration. According to him, Gateway of India turns up into heaven on that night. It had rather turned into hell. But the best thing is that, if you are with best friends, even the hell becomes fun. We had chicken chicken and more chicken along with red colored breezers.

The last year was all fun and I am scared the coming year will be very boring and deprived of fun! Last Year – kept R15 in campus,  last semester, avk episode, regular visits to beaches, booze with friends, 20000 fine, placements, bplans, getting job, staying in delhi for 3 months, date, date and so many dates!

And this year, if I predict my future, it contains, work, no fun, no friends, no dates, no booze, no beaches, no goa, nothing! Lets see how much of it comes true !

]]> http://ankit.vatsap.com/writing-articles/feed/ 9 http://ankit.vatsap.com/parents-and-children-ii/ http://ankit.vatsap.com/parents-and-children-ii/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:15:51 +0000 ankit http://ankit.myndfcukd.com/?p=561 Middle Class and Concerned Parents

Generally any parent coming to our FIITJEE office for admission inquiry or form submission, spends an average time of say 5-10 minutes. But there are some who sit, ask, discuss and compare for hours. I call them Middle Class And Concerned Parents. Middle class because, anyone who sits for that long ought to be from a working class (my experience). It very rare to see a rich  guy doing so much research for their kid.

These type of parents are really concerned about their children. A lady, who came to our office, chatted for hours and gathered as many information as she can. And she was not reluctant to ask the bold questions, like “Why should I put him in FIITJEE and why not in PACE ? , why should I not send him to KOTA which is a hotspot for IITJEE aspirants ? ” And we have to be honest, truthful and also smart in giving the answers and presenting the fact ! And then satisfied with her visit, she would move on to other coaching institutes. She would check on internet, she would do as much research as possible, she would compare the results and finally considering all the factors she will make the best decision for her child. She won’t compromise on her child’s future.

At this stage, when the child is in 10th, there are just two decisions which if made correctly, will surely bring a successful and satisfying future for the kid. The first decision is to choose the field – engineering,  medical, mass communication, civil services, pilot, army or any field according to the capability and interest of the kid. The second decision is to decide the path he should follow to excel in the field choosen. The Parents understand the importance of these two decisions in the life of their child and that’s why they don’t make these decisions just like that !

Another very good thing about these parents is that, they keep a track of their child. They  know that their responsibilities don’t end after making the above  two decisions (unlike the rich and responsible parents) . They continuously help and motivate their kids in their path.  They really wish to see their child become more successful and earn more name and fame than they did. They love them unconditionally and to see them becoming successful makes their life complete!

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