Hang on to your Fantasy

Made using only spray paint cans.

The painting on top is my first attempt at spray paint art. The second one is an improvement of the same imagined scene. The scene itself is inspired from a youtube video that Shashi had sent me a few weeks back.

These are made on A2 sized paper with 4 colours (black, red, yellow and white). I've made some more, but I still have to scan them. They look much better in real though: the colours are far more vibrant.

Etiquette WIN

So here I was, waiting in line to buy food at a local fast-food place just off campus, waiting nonchalantly for the gal in front of me finished purchasing, thinking of all the yummy foody things I was gonna buy in just a minute. Suddenly, as she finished, some uncle fellow sidesteps the line and shoots his hand out to the cashier, effectively cutting the line.

I mean, how horrible. I was standing there, I was next in line. It's my god-damned turn. Who the hell is he to cut in front of me?

Now this is just plain bugging. Why do people (particularly in India) have no etiquette whatsoever? That queue exists for a *reason*. Ever tried boarding a bus? It's a free-for-all in most places. But IMO the most irritating experience is someone skipping a queue forcefully. It happens a lot more here in Ahmedabad than in Mumbai.

So, I was pissed with this guy.

But what am I to do? Nothing in my upbringing taught me how to deal with it when someone cuts the line in front of you. I mean, 3rd order quantum differential equations I can handle, but this? What do I do?

Not this time. As this douchebag started speaking to the cashier to place his order, aloud (to my friend): I said, "You know what I hate? I hate people who skip lines like they are above such measly things like waiting. I think they're nothing more than mere scumbag earthworms who deserve to be stomped into the ground."

My friend sounded a loud resounding "I agree" and this guy, obviously hearing all this, looks back and stares at me (us?). We stare back and with a slight confrontational-nod, I say, "What? You heard me." in a matter-of-fact way.

With that the guy, visibly embarrased, leaves his cash on the counter and walks out in a huff. I don't know what he was thinking, infact I care not what he thinks. This was an EPIN WIN! :D

We had a good laugh about it later. Serves him right. Scumbag.

PS: I made up bit about the 3rd order quantum differential equations: I don't even know if such things exist.

PPS: Well actually, I'm quite sure they exist, but I still made it up that I can handle them: In truth I haven't a clue. It was just for emphasis ;)

Curio Shoppé

Mangaldas ni Haveli, Old Ahmedabad

There's the city and then there's the old city – a story true for almost every Indian town. The new city has flat streets and paved roads with houses on the sides. It is manufactured.

The old city has meandering pathways and shaded streets, barely wide enough for a scooter. Buzzing with activity is often a marketplace. As our "guide", a professor from AMA said, "The roads resemble an outdoor room, a meeting place for all to gather."

The old city has buildings which would truly look out of place in any modern suburb. As we ate ice-creams from the first Vadilal store, purchased curios from market vendors and sampled the roadside food, fruit markets and aamras included, I couldn't help but draw a parallel to Mumbai's Colaba Causeway: The old city has character. A certain way about it that makes it qaint and perfect at the same time.

The picture above is of the inside of Mangaldas ni Haveli. Once the dwelling of a family, it is now a curio shop and a café. It's an HDR composite of 5 pictures taken with a Sony 7.0 megapixel compact camera.

Some of the component photographs are:

Trippy

Pictures from the Bhandardara trip...

View from outside the cottage

My bro and I at the tiny island

Boats after sunset

It was pitch dark (or atleast quite dark) and the above picture, using a 3 second exposure, was taken by hand: only 2 of the 15 odd were steady enough to see the boats.

HDR Photo from inside a temple

HDR photos are normally taken with fancy digi-SLRs and tripods. I made this using only a Canon hand held camera and no tripod :-) This one is a composite of 5 images at various exposure levels.

What do you think of the HDR?

Some kinds of happiness

Some kinds of happiness

Are measured out in miles,

Driving down a highway road

With nothing much in mind.

Some tenderhearted emotions

Are measured out in waves,

Traveling from ear to ear

And spreading joyous tales.

Some ways of religion

Are measured out in heads,

Maybe in church on Sunday

Or rolling with the dead.

Some hopes of rebellion

Are measured out in lines,

A quill and parchment paper

Together with a rhyme.

Today we can stop

Words from a thinking mind

And rejoice, not realizing

The crime in the game.

*sigh*borg

The latest meme-y thing doing the interweb rounds these days is Cyborg Names. Yeah, everywhere you see stuff like Electronic Robotic Infiltration Construct (ERIC). Ofcourse they'll be the first ones with their backs against the wall when the revolution comes. (First person to guess the reference correctly gets a chocolate!)

I thought it might be interesting to have a look at a few.

To satisfy my narcissistic urges, my name goes first:


Hm. Not bad. But not good enough. I want more harm-level.
Ah! much better. IMO, if you are borg, might as well be bad-ass noh?

Baccha, it turns out, is pretty dangerous as well:
KP is some sort of nocturnal owl:

Krishna. Well I though this is a better fit for Baccha, but Cyborg Names are *always* true. So Krishna is actually:
Gidwani diagnoses destruction. Apparently.

My bro has quite a short name. So he got stuck with:
That was quite lame. So I decided to upgrade him:
Better.

But ofcourse, short names aren't always bad. My favourite one puts it rather succinctly:
I'm rather looking forward to the time when robots (we're the robots) take over the world. My only concern is whether they'll be musically literate. Till then, do keep turning :)

Chang

I know of only 1 Chinese name. Chang. There are more than a billion of them and I'm sure they're not all named the same. Yet, I know of only *one* Chinese name.

Therefore, this article is titled Chang.

Now Chang was your average Chinese punter... short, slit-eyes, smart, yellow and worked in an undergraduate research lab in some US college. Perfectly normal. Except for his yellowness.

You see, he wasn't just yellow, he was a very particular shade of yellow. So accurate was his yellowness that the following conversation was oft heard in the lab:

Student: Prof, the Sodium vapour lamp is out again!
Prof: Hm. No probs.. Get Chang to substitute.

And the student went on happily observing Newton's rings.

I would like to point out that this article is unnecessarily racist. What to do ya I've been reading and writing about Château Margaux (Premier Cru French Wine, may sell for $1200 a bottle) that I've imbibed some of that French snobbery.

I would like to say that I'm sorry to all those whose feelings I've hurt in the recent past: Chang, other Chinese and all my friends whose birthdays I've forgotten. Sorry peoples.... been under a lot of workload lately.

Anyhows. I should go and make my PPT titled "Why I Should Not Be Made Dorm Baap" or else I'll be stuck with extra responsibilities next year.

Adioses (plural of Adios)

At Sunset

I'd love to touch the sky tonight
I'd love to touch the sky
So take me in your arms
And hold me up so high

Nothing particularly special here. Just an overall nice looking peaceful sunset. Somehow I always imagine sunsets over limitless oceans and sunrises over valleys and hills.

Made on August 2, 2007.

Hair Falls Over My Face in Nightvision

Wasabi

Wasabi is essentially Japanese chatnee.

Imagine a slap - a loud resounding slap. That's what Wasabi tastes like.

Imagine taking your hand and reaching into your brain and twirling it around till you see colours and smell a faintly nuclear chilli. That's what Wasabi tastes like.

Avi got tubes of this stuff from Japan and we went around pretending it was "Japanese edible toothpaste" as we liberally handed it out to friends. Their reactions were priceless.

You should try it too.

But remember: Keep away from the eyes. Do not inhale. Do not attempt to feed to pets. If you exceed the recommended dosage (approx 1/16 teaspoon) seek medical help immediately, lest your intestines disintegrate. ;-)

Happy New Year!