The One Year With Agatha Christie- My Adventures with Hercule Poirot!

I have always wanted to read the Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie for as long as I could remember. I couldn't because well given the restless and compulsive reader I always have been, I wouldn't have exercised self-control (as there are around 40 books in the series- novels, not including the short stories), I made a deliberate decision to forgo the series back in the days when I was in school.

So, in September, 2014- I bought a Kindle. I have already written about it once before how I enjoyed reading on my Kindle, so I will not gush about the pros and my Kindle experience again. So having bought a Kindle, and having literally the world for an oyster, I vowed in 2014 that I would read the entire series and make up for the lost time.

The year is over, and I am so happy that I am finished with the series. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of going through each book. Agatha Christie is truly a literary genius. Good authors have this annoying habit of often repeating themselves, but not Christie. She will give you the slip at any point you feel cocky and try to get ahead of yourself.

The best thing about reading Agatha Christie is how Hercule Poirot would say, “It's all about the victim, and the psychology”.

The characters and the intricate plot is always so believable. Christie in all her novels has always based the motive on the Seven Cardinal Sins. The motive is always simple, the characters not so much. They all exhibit shades of grey.

Much like the criminals, even Hercule Poirot himself is not spared from the fallacies of the human nature. In One, Two, Buckle my Shoes he is shown to be someone who takes the high moral ground by preserving the sanctity of life by putting behind the bars a man on whom the entire stability of a nation depends- a man who professes to kill not for himself, but for what he believes is patriotism. But in the Murder of Orient Express, he lets go of the killer(s). Oops! Spoiler over there! :)

Hercule Poirot like his namesake- the Greek hero, is proud, vain and patronizing. But he is acutely aware of his personality and disposition which he himself reflects upon from time to time, providing comic relief- along with Capt. Hastings, his valet, and Poirot's own reflections on his socially awkward secretary.

Ideally, a review of the entire series is supposed to follow. However, yours truly has grown a lazy streak over the past year. I feel lazy when it comes to writing, and honestly a lack of enthusiasm as well. But given the stupendous effort which went behind this particular blog entry, I will however list the absolute must reads from the series in chronological order.

• Murder of Roger Ackroyd
• Lord Edgware Dies
• Murder on the Orient Express
• Three Act Tragedy
• Murder in Mesopotamia
• Cards on the Table
• Dumb Witness
• Sad Cypress
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
• Evil Under the Sun
• Five Little Pigs
• Taken at the Flood
• Mrs McGinty's Dead
• After the Funeral
• The Clocks
• Elephants Can Remember

I hope anyone who reads this write-up is inspired to take up the series. I believe people immortalize themselves when they publish a book in ink. However, very few of them are able to make a mark as strong as Agatha Christie. The books are to survive any generation- of that I am sure.

Happy Reading!

Start-up, not a Screw-up

I graduated from IIIT Delhi in April, 2014. I did not join a corporate job straight away after graduating, as I wanted to explore further avenues. I instead joined my professor back at IIIT Delhi to push for an education start-up.

Needless, to say, like most people with start-ups often do, I grew disenchanted with lack of development after the first 3 months, plus the pressure that I was not making any decent amount of money when compared to my peers who were establishing themselves in the industry.

With my inner self in conflict, I decided to quit whatever-it-was and began to work for a data analytics start-up in Delhi NCR. I converted my probation of 3 months to a permanent job offer within a month, and completed the initial learning phase which took an average of lets say 2 months within the first month itself- the work was over-hyped anyways.

I was restless. I was bored. Any job grows monotonous after some time.

I somehow still got through exactly 5 months of job- till the day I quit.

I went back to school to my professor, and we decided to push for Machine Learning and Optimisation driven start-up where we simply approach other people to work on their problems and make money in the process. Sounds cool, and I am having fun.

I work 10-12 hours a day, (not counting the commute.) and still don't feel tired. It's exciting, it's fresh. It has been so for the past 6 months. Exactly, so.

There are a lot of groups on social media networks based for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

A lot of people post for possible freelance work, internships etc.

A trend in these postings that I have noticed and also observed first hand at my previous job.

Start-up has become synonymous with screw-up.

Allow me to explain further. People post for possible internships, they put tremendous amount of workload and push the interns through every possible hell while they pay them a pittance- so much so that interns actually spend more than what they are getting just to get by. And, in some cases nothing- nada, zilch, zero.

Start-up has become an excuse for not paying people good decent salaries, or making them work for hours that do not exist.

Start-ups usually meant doing awesome work with limited resources. It was a way of doing things the way you wanted on your terms with the risk of going bust the next day. Of course, long term plans are there, but look at Taxi For Sure vs Ola. Ola Cabs wiped the floor with TFS within a span of 3 months.

Start-ups were meant to break the monotony of the daily corporate grind, and not become a grind itself. It meant putting a few extra hours, working your ass off every now and then. But the core philosophy was having fun on the way. The journey, not the destination. Look at any entrepreneur who has gone big, as soon as they reach a peak, they start investing in other ventures by turning Angel. It's an addiction.

Start-ups instead have today started exploiting talent, and youth by dishing out meager salaries, with extended working hours without providing their employees any resources(because they are a start-up). This is nothing but sheer exploitation.

The oft-repeated argument here is that nobody forced you to work. Yes, precisely. There are a lot of people doing a lot of things in the world, which they are not forced to do, but they still do and when you sit back, pause and reflect for a tiniest of a second you will say that it was bad and people should not treat other people like that, nor should they do what they were doing- forcibly or by will.

In India, you can find people anywhere. I mean literally. You can not find a moment and place alone where you wished there were just random strangers around because they are already there. In a country where Engineers are pulling rickshaws and appearing for government job for a peon, imagine what it is to be like. Post a job offer where you do not pay anything but hope after 3 months, people are ready to donate a kidney. You are God.

But being God should make you rise above pettiness, and look up. Sadly, people sink below the level where hell ends.

The Story of My Experiments with Linux-II

So, finally I found an almost perfect Linux laptop. I admit I had my doubts initially before buying this machine, but when I finally decided to take the plunge, it turned out to be worth it. A Dell Inspiron 3437. It is almost perfect as it does not feature an Intel WiFi card. The rig comes with an Nvidia GeForce 720m. I would have much rather preferred a 740m, but then in India, this is as close to perfection as it can be.

 

What the laptops does have is:

 

• Core i5 4200- U
• 4 GB Ram DDR3 clocked at 1600 Mhz
• and 4-5 hours of battery life.

This is pretty much awesome I think.

Now, Dell has a history of ruining Windows OS with their own bloatware. I thought maybe Linux would escape unscathed. On the contrary it was even worse. They had not only bloated it, but ruined it!

How?

Well, with the proprietary OEM drivers for WiFi. The driver registered with the kernel as a module. So, as soon as I pulled a kernel upgrade, wham! The WiFi stopped working as the previously installed module was not compatible with the current kernel. And, that was the end of the story.

I obviously, had to reformat the whole laptop, but this time to my satisfaction. Moreover, instead of the buggy Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, this time I installed Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander. I can’t ever recall a LTS version I have hated more than 12.04. Everything will break down eventually if you are using 12.04. Stuff works so much more smoothly in 13.10. Moreover, 13.10 contains updated builds of almost every package. If you are not using these, you are literally left out. To say 12.04 wasn’t properly planned or was overly ambitious and presumptuous would be a gross understatement. I almost considered switching from Ubuntu to maybe Linux Mint or Debian-unstable.

Now, that I am using 13.10, I am loving it. As of now, I am running a MySQL server and a self-programmed Web Crawler on my machine since this past week. Needless to say, the machine response is pretty much awesome. The CPU usage is hardly 5 per cent.

I do have a plan to push the CPU usage to 100% by using a brute force decryption tool. But that is a story reserved for some another day.

PS: I still hate Unity, but have learned to admire it for its ability to not break even when hell cometh over. I still wish to try Xfce though, but then, since, I am using my Linux machine as a development platform, my willingness to experiment has diminished in favour of stability. I need my machine to be available. I still have my fun, and a couple of scripts up my sleeve, which I will share soon.

The Story of My Experiments with Linux

 

Almost 4 years ago, I started playing with Linux. I started with Red Hat but it wasn’t long before I switched to Ubuntu. It was the summer of 2009. A good one. I still have fond memories of that time.

 

I have for the most part self-taught myself Linux. I however am still not an advanced user, as I still haven’t custom compiled a kernel for my machine, nor can I fix problems on my fingertips. I however can google a lot and read through forums and fix a problem for you should one arise. I have also over the years learned to recognize when the given solution in a forum is crap and when it will work.

 

The purpose for me writing this post. When I started playing with linux, it often led to system downtime. My father, with whom I used to share my home desktop system with instead offered to buy me a laptop- Dell Studio 15. A machine which I later realised had more design faults than pros.

 

Moreover, my choice of configuration especially and specifically the processor has wreaked havoc- Intel Core i3 clocked at 2.4 Ghz. I had selected this processor due to its 32 nm MOSFET, believing that it would produce less heat and will optimise my battery life. However, my personal practical observations with comparison to Core i5 have proven otherwise.

 

I am sad and not for the lack of trying. I have tried everything, well mostly. Like I mentioned, I still haven’t tried installing/using a custom compiled kernel. It may help, it may not. I am not sure. To be honest, I feel lazy after 4 years to try this. Maybe, it will be my swan song. Maybe not. It will be a crazy one night stand. Let that night come. That is another matter.

 

I have installed linux, repeatedly. I loved Ubuntu 9.04. Those were the days when they used to ship original installation media all over the world. I still have mine, with the original packing. The second version that I fell in love with was 10.04. It was a very stable version and I admit a very robust one as well.

 

My love for Ubuntu took a beating when they unified and the default version started bundling Unity interface. It took another downfall, when I got over my fascination of GNOME 3. It simply isn’t worth it. If any package breaks (read: any fun with the graphics driver) it falls back to GNOME 2. I mean, I liked GNOME 2, but I will use it on my own free will, not when I intend using GNOME 3. If you think I am confused, I am not. I am just a difficult person.

 

Every time, I have installed Linux I spent the next week customising the look and feel of the core operating system. The menus, the desktop gadgets. Everything. It’s hell of job, because not everything works. But then I like my eye-candies. Some things work which work easily in Unity don’t work at all in GNOME 3, or some other environment. Why? You may ask. And I have no answer. The linux community is heavily biased, they feel that people will install some of these gadgets in some particular desktop environment only. These people will never bother testing them on XFCE, LDE, or Cinnamon.

 

Why? Because fuck you. That’s why.

 

You must suffer.

 

And so I did. After one painful week, I would be done customising, looking over all the problems, installing different stuff. And then, something as simple as a kernel update means that some of these settings are not compatible anymore. I have to do it all over again.

Or, that my system is behaving like a heater, that I don’t need heating in my room anymore. I have to turn it off. Worst still, I have to reboot and load up Windows. I love Windows. It’s the greatest and the most robust operating system I have used till date. I mean to say I haven’t used Mac, yet.

 

So, overheating issues coupled up with persistent issues, meant I never installed Linux for more than 3 months at a stretch on my laptop.

 

However, in an interesting turn of events, I thought of buying a new laptop. This time with a more carefully selected specifications.

• 14 inch screen- to make it portable
• Intel Core i5 4200U- well it wasn’t going to be Core i3 obviously and so an undervolted Core i5 to boost battery life.
• 4 GB Ram
• At least 1 GB Discrete NVIDIA graphics card preferably 740M but even 720 or 730 would do.
• Intel Wireless Adapter
• Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

 

I don’t care for hard drive space or RAM as they can be upgraded by loosening a couple of screws. No big deal.

 

The specs that I have put together, I expected to pull it in at around 45k INR. 50k being the upper limit. I expected there to be at least 4 models at this spec sheet from different manufacturers. What I have wound up with was Windows 8 laptops which would each offer me a Windows experience and that too only with some partial set of these specifications.

I don’t expect manufacturers to spring up with my custom spec sheet. But this is something decent, and not exactly out of the blue or weird or unheard off. This in my honest opinion is a decent rig and anybody would be happy to have it.

 

What irritates me the most is not even the unavailability of a laptop with these specs, but the tendency of OEM units to bundle these machines with Windows. Not that I hate Windows or anything, but shouldn’t it be my choice whether I need an Operating System or not. And to top it all, they then gloat over this supposedly genius idea of forcing people to pay for software that they are never going to use. I mean what is with the bundling, especially in Indian sub-context. Not everyone pirates Windows. And, even if I admit that I have in the past, and intend to do it again in future. Then,

 

So fucking WHAT? What are you going to do about it? I would like to see you try.

Microsoft makes money not through personal home users, but by corporate sales and support, and even though a significant chunk of their revenues is down the drain due to piracy, but then Microsoft knows exactly when each copy of Windows is pirated and they take pride that they have invaded our homes and offices and eventually our personal lives through their sometimes substandard piece of software which absolutely refuses to perform what it promised.

 

You might talk about buying a cheap linux laptop, but I don’t like the cheap stuff, and for obvious reason if you still haven’t understood why, then I suggest you to stop reading further.

 

This is my cue to end, because I see people in black uniforms and helicopters hovering outside my Windows. Seems like Microsoft got wind of my little piracy admittance.

Disclaimer: The writer proclaims that this article is a work of fiction, and any fact or declaration can not to be held against him for it may not be true. If proven otherwise, it’s one of those funny little comedy of errors called as “the coincident” which means the Universe is trying to screw him. Please Universe, that is quite enough. Thank You.

Living Life: The Way of the Dunedain

 

People often remark that life is short. Be happy, stay focused. What these people will oft also reflect is that to do some things, they also had leave out some others which they had absolutely loved. For instance, giving up on some hobby like reading, travelling, playing a musical instrument, learning a new language. They often lament that how despite achieving a significant amount of success in terms of money, fame and even love. They had to give up on some things. Why?

There wasn’t enough time.

Last night I had an epiphany. I wished I were a Dunedain. Why?

Because they were tall, with dark hair, pale skin and grey eyes and benefited from longer life-spans (three times the life of a regular man) than ordinary men and could retain their youth until the very end of their days.


Fuck!

Thrice the lifespan and young till the very end! That is not just amazing, that is THE

DREAM!


In case, you still don't get the reference. The Dunedain- the Men of the West, were an ancient race in the Middle Earth who descended from the Numenoreans. All hail Tolkien! I love Lord of the Rings.

Currently, I

• Have books on my reading list, which if I were to read one book a day, may take me around 3 years to finish. And that is just reading them, thinking and talking about them will take an entire lifetime (a normal man’s lifetime, not the royally descended one as that of a Dunedain).

• I have enough music on my playlist that if I were to listen continuously to it 24x7, the playlist runs into years. With so many artist and their music still not discovered, imagine.

• Want to learn Spanish, and maybe French.

• Have projects/ideas which need time to implement and all my focus and energy.

• Maybe want to learn to play the piano or violin.

I want to do it all. I abso-fucking-lutely want to do it all. On top of this, I also want to enjoy doing it all. Sharing it with my friends, family and all the people I love.

Why we are as people limited by just one lifetime’s worth? We can only read as much, listen as much, and share as much.

Why?

The prospect of me thinking about all these things makes me excitingly happy and sad at the same time. Happy because these are the things I love. Sad, for obvious reasons and time being the limiting factor that I would have to give up most of these things.

My one and only wish is that whatever happens- whether I get to do it all or not. I just don’t want to have regrets. They say when you are on your deathbed, your life flashes in front of your eyes, I don’t believe it.

But, just in case.

If it happens, I want a brightly coloured neon sign which says, “NO REGRETS”.

It's your fucking fault

Satya Nadella became the CEO of Microsoft Technologies. Yes, this is big news for him. Fuck! This is the definition for big.

Yes. For HIM.

Not for me, not for you, and certainly not for India.

Simply, because he is a person of Indian origin, yes that is how they refer to themselves these days. He is just that, he is not Indian. He is as much Indian, as Miley Cyrus is.

Let’s talk more about what he is not.

He is not an IITian, which means he didn’t enter the great Indian circus of- get into IIT, get placed big, make your life. He didn’t. He did get placed, and made his life big though.

To come to think of it, if even eight years back when I was preparing to be a rat, if somebody had told me about this guy, I would have laughed him off. His own parents might have been disappointed when he went to the private MIT of India, where I still wouldn’t go, because it’s Tier 3.

Who’s having the last laugh now? Not me.

So, why the sudden rant on this guy, for whom I don’t exist? (And an inconsequential non-existence for good reason as well)

Because he reminds me, of what each of us can be. What we miss out while we bum and wait for things to happen.

As I write this blog post. I am currently listening to some of the best modern music on Pandora, by using Tor proxy network, while I reside in Delhi- the heart of India. Only in India you will find that people will proudly proclaim Delhi being the heart of India. Apparently, we proclaim pride that our so-called heart is biased to the right and not correctly placed to the left. But, it feels right, so I guess it’s okay to put up stupid metaphors which don’t even make a geographically correct statement.

But I digress. Let me return. Pandora is restricted when it comes to India. You can’t subscribe to this super awesome service which allows you to listen to music for free. You have to try it to believe me. But you can’t. Because you will have to hack, you will have to do things which might seem more complicated than simply typing Pandora.com in your browser window. Why do we have such an insane amount of bozos running this country like Rahul Gandhi who is now in his middle ages, still not married, and who can’t do anything without his mother censoring him.

Our system. Anything. Be it politics, educational institutes. Everything. Everything has been designed to keep people out. It’s an exclusive system, and not an inclusive system. It’s easier to get into Harvard or any ivy league insti than getting into an IIT. It’s even more difficult to get your kid into nursery school than it is getting into an IIT.

Every year, year after year of bullshit. We hear the same story. Things don’t change. They never will. People have to change.

And if you want to change. If you wish to make a change. Fuck the people. They will be there when you make it big, they will also be the ones who pull you down, and they will also be the ones who will bury you deep in shit when you fail.

Who would have thought about some guy born somewhere in India, going to college somewhere in India (because it’s not a place if it’s not IIT) making it so big that the world has to stop because and take a look.

You did it man. You made it! Congratulations!

This is my cue to shut down my laptop and go to sleep.

Science is one tough lady for a person to love. She is not only difficult, but treacherous- She will leave you when you need her the most. However, for most part, She is fun to be with. Eager to lead you on an adventure if and when you discover her. The affair for itself is oddly amusing- open for the world to know, and extremely secretive where only You and your Lady know the intricate details. More people have died loving her, than lovers in a conventional romantic relationship. They have fixated and spent maybe an entirety of a lifetime exploring just a single part of her. So much so for foreplay.

While at times frustratingly quiet, for it speaks without words. The universality of it transcends our life in perhaps every possible way.

Einstein once said that that the biggest mystery and perhaps the funniest thing about that mystery is that we are trying to figure out something of what we ourselves are a part of. It’s quite a simple an observation. Delving into the depths of it, it is maybe the most beautiful thing I have ever come across. Literally.

I am not a morning person, unless I have some business or lectures to attend to in the morning. I find mornings very unproductive. Everyone is busy with their lives. Going to jobs they do not love, working for people they do not like, speaking what they do not believe in, talking what is certainly not what they are thinking of.

Nights on the other hand, are quiet. Calm. Serene. Listening to violin, cello, piano or any piece of classical music, away from home, alone, taking in the cool wind is oddly overwhelming.

It has been about three months since I last updated. I scribbled- typed basically a lot of random notes and stuff. None of it makes sense. Why does it have to? Why does it always have to make sense? Why can’t we embrace the chaos? Maybe the biggest problem is that we try to make sense of chaos. That is the problem.

The problem is not chaos, but the way we look at it. In mathematics, either it’s a linear system or a non-linear system. Why the binary? Why not accept something for what it is rather than for what we are trying to project it as?

What is life’s greatest mystery that we are yet to uncover?

I was watching Person of Interest, a TV series that I never heard of and a friend suggested it quite recently. A character Mr Finch says, “I am hiding in plain sight Mr Reese, I am there for all to see, only nobody notices me”.

What secrets of the Universe lay hidden in plain sight? What is most apparent, yet no one has uncovered it? Is it still there, or has it been lost over centuries of squabbling over the trivial, or our own selfish need have made us so blind to what has been the obvious?

Run away. Ran far. Run till you can breathe no more, feel your legs will fall off. Run till there’s a searing pain in your stomach. Run till you can think of nothing else. Your mind is blank. That.

Just that.

Sunday!

Sunday is the best day in the week. Whoever created the days of the week was a total moron. Clearly, he lacked a foresight that some people would like to have more of “Friday” and “Sunday”. My Sunday’s are the most lazy-assed of the days. I hate working on Sunday- be it assignments or studying for tests. Whatever needs to be done, it shouldn’t be done on Sunday.

My Sunday begins with my morning newspaper which often leads me to think of the Origin of Life and Universe. If some people are to be believed then, ‘God created this World in six days and on the seventh he rested’. It further adds to my argument for not working on Sunday. I usually disagree with those people most times, but I guess they would be happy to know that on this occasion my thoughts are in sync, even if partially- though for my own practical selfish purpose.

Now this train of thoughts- makes me wonder, ‘What did God do on Sunday?’ Play golf with the Devil on some neutral cloud turf? Go out and take a stroll on water? Go on a long fly-by (I believe God wouldn’t care for cars) or simply catch-up on some zzzz’s?

Life in the Promised Land.

To come to think of it- am not sure about the existence of internet and other tech stuff, no malls- which means no bowling, or pooling. No movies, pizza. Beer would be a definite no. You can’t use money to buy things (money is substituted by goodness points) - you have to be goody-goody, which means no sarcasm either. Rise up early, go to bed early. Do all the chores, and you still have to be in line to get your licence to the  promised  “wings and the golden halo”. So till you get those wings- it means you can’t fly, assuming that apparition came later down the line of transport hierarchy. Plus, since you are an angel- you can’t click your fingers to grant yourself those wishes you always had. Why? Because it would a gross misuse of your power, and you lose out on your goodness points.

And after all this hard work- you wonder why you worked hard all your miserable life to be here, to be even more miserable.

So much so for a thought on a lazy Sunday.

Yeah, this is why I want to retire in Cuba or Hawaii.

 

PS: I have no idea about what I wrote above, and this is just 10 minutes past 12 midnight on a Sunday.  Yeah, Sunday is here!

I know your little secret!

So, I continue my tales of travel in the Delhi Metro. People still kick each other, push over, and when the metro door opens, rush in. The funny thing is that no matter if someone is for the time being physically incapacitated or let us say has an injured foot or back, but when the the metro comes over, they all can sprint at a pace which would shame Usain Bolt.

Moving over the usual, something totally unusual happened. Allow me to tell you the glorious tale.

I was at the CST Interchange (Central Secretariat), when I was waiting for the metro. A girl somewhat around my age, stands right next to me ignoring the queue that was there. However, the first thing that I noticed was not her, but the book that she was reading- the soft porn which has taken over Europe. Guess?

Fifty Shades of Grey

Now I am not judging, and this comes from the guy who has read through all 4 books of Twilight. In my defence, the first book deserved a little credit, and then since I had read the first already, I had this need for a closure. There, I have admitted it.

But, I digress. Let me return to the girl. The crazy devil that I am, I just couldn’t let go. The metro comes and, she luckily gets a seat in the general compartment, I purposely take a position where I could observe her from discreetly- someplace not too far, not exactly close, but close enough for her to notice me should I decide to make an appearance out of thin air. I had approximately 22 mins to make my move.

Tik tock!

Like a silent assassin, I wait for my quarry to give me a glimpse of an opportunity that I was waiting for. Almost 20 min had passed, and my station was coming up next. And then…

She turned a very delicate shade of red. SHE BLUSHED! Voila!

And there I had it! Now, if you can. Imagine me smirking like a devil, ear to ear. Suddenly, as if aware of me, she looks at me straight in the eye. I wink with a knowing smile, which subtly says “I know your little secret”, which makes her blush even more and before she could react, I get off at my station without caring to look back.

Summer of 2012

The Summer of 2012- the best and the laziest summer ever. The best and the worst thing about holidays- you can’t’ have enough of them, and when you do have them; you despise them for the inconvenience of having nothing to do. The eternally restless soul that I have, torments me.
So I decided to shake things up a bit on my lazy-assed schedule.

Having giving up on getting up early ages ago, I resolved not only to do so, but go out on jogging- a herculean task for me given that am extremely lazy and detest any sort of workout; but then I had already decided. My first day - catching the early morning dew, the chirping of the birds, and the first breeze; and I knew I would do it again and perhaps made a self-promise to make a habit out of it- a first for me.

It has been almost a month slacking and I finally have done what my Mom has been after me- making my own breakfast. And it’s not just toast or Maggi! Over the past week- I have experimented crazy with sandwiches. Making them crazier and more outrageous by the day! And then cometh the drinks for the breakfast- which necessitates my mention of the awesome “Chocolate Shake” which I seem to have perfected!

The rest of the day is spent on reading and catching up on old news and stuff I had earlier put on hold. Long ago I had made up a Charles Dickens reading list, and then I had to do away with it due to time constraints, but am back with vengeance:

1)      A Tale of Two Cities

2)      Oliver Twist

3)      Great Expectations

4)      Bleak House*

5)      Pickwick Papers

Have already read through the first three, and making progress with The Bleak House.

As to other pursuits- I recently downloaded the “Vikram and Betaal” stories which were originally aired in 1988 with Arun Govil playing the fabled king Vikramaditya and Sajjan Singh as the Betaal. I had always wanted to watch the episodes in serial order, something I never did uptill now. And the series is amazing!

To those curious about multiplayer gaming, I achieved what I believed was impossible for me- a 25 killstreak on a 300+ ping server on Game Ranger playing Call of Duty:4 Modern Warfare I. I can be found online every night from 2200-0100 hours for a match. My Game Ranger account id: 2453639. Bring your shotgun and body armour!

Here I Am...

The idea of a blog is no alien to me. I had started out of curiousity 5 years back- when blogging actually started. It was a fad back then- now it's twitter. Needless to say, I deleted that one. Maybe I didnt understand what blogs really were, maybe I still don't. Of course not from the technological view point- that I most certainly do, but then lets say its one winding road- not sure in entirety.

So a few days back, something clicked, and I decided to give it an another shot- something I have being doing a lot online of late; shooting people in face with my shotgun when they are looking the other way round.

I love to rant. Having said that I have hence declared my intentions for this place.

More to come soon.

PS: For folks who are interested in joining me online for the duck hunt- my Game Ranger id is 2453639.