Techkriti: Day Three

Techkriti drew to a close today, so I am blogging at a decent time this evening.

The day's round up.

First, we got joint first in the Raptobots contest in the wee hours of the morning.

Secondly, the school bag quiz, we quite obviously won, by a major margin, and cheers all around.

Thirdly, I came second in the school bag presentation competition.

Fourthly, the Robotics Chaps reached the finals of Robotica Sans Mercy (Robowars), where a lot of very upset engineering students who had the shit kicked out of them in previous competitions by our little big robot decided to vent their frustrations, gang up on our bot, and knocked us out.

Total Prize money Individual won: Rs. 833.

Karan, you aren't getting a paisa, so don't have chaching going on in your head.

Life gets back to normal now. We go for dinner, and then tomorrow, we do organic before we leave.

Its been a wonderful event, nicely organised, and the IITians are great chaps, albiet a little weird.

Ah, one last thing, on more mundane matters. Damini, I need photocopied notes on heat exchange, and purification of elements. I'll come to school on Tuesday, so I had better pick them up then.

That is all.

Day Two, Techkriti

Quick, and short recap. I must sleep.

First quiz: Sci-Tech. Qualified third, finished six. Worst luck in a quiz since the one at DPS matura road.

Second quiz: Corporate and Entertainment: Won it. Cash award of 500 each, won back ticket cost, with interest. Goodums.

Robotics Chaps: Are through to the knockout leg. Just heard that they managed one victory already, and are through to the round of 8.

Laser Show: Most terrible and overhyped event since the Aasma debut concert.

We are getting great Respaact from IITians after winning the quizzes,and kicking ass at the robotics events.

Blah. That is all. Long and sleepy day. I have promised to behave myself tomorrow, at the school events. I think I behaved myself today too, I didn't yell at anyone at all, least of all the quizmaster.

That is all. Presentation and School Quiz tomorrow. Then, we start studying again. Organic awaits.

That is all.

Techkriti: Day One

It was a long day. A very long day. As I write this, its one o clock, and my quiz has just finished.

We came, hold your breath and amazing surprise, Second, in the quiz, by,again with the breath deal, 5 points. This is a bloody bad habit.

The good news is that we topped the qualifying, thus giving me peace of mind that my pen's power holds with a new refill.

Earlier, much earlier in the day, we did the Case Study round of Olymbiz, and didn't qualify in that.

Sud and Tarun's Incorporated came second in a boat making and then racing competition. A day of seconds.

But the prize money's going up, and we are going to reimburse our tickets cost. Goody.

In the evening, we saw a hynoptic show, it was quite cool, with a hundred IIT nerds hypnotised and made to dance. The sight was priceless, Kodak moment does not even begin to describe it.

They were also made to cry like babies.and do bharatnatyam. A hypnotised Sardar attempting what his subconcious presumes to be Bharatnatyam goes into the top 10 funniest sights this good God given world has to provide to us.

Then, we left for the quiz,which I am bitter about at the moment. Extremely biased quiz master. And no luck went our way.

Well, that's all for today. G'night. Good morning in fact. I have to go write a SF story for another competition now.

Gurukul

Yesterday, we had no events, as there was only the opening ceremony, so we studied a bit in the mornings, and played Golf in the afternoon in our T.V Room without a T.V dorm.

The rules and workings of this form of golf were exceedingly complex, and I shall not go into them, let me just say that I beat Prateek, who invented the game, by 18 over par to 39 over par.

Afterwards, we had an ionic equilibrium class with Mrs. Dhami. As the mess (our current study area) was occupied with a Mess Workers Union Meeting going on, and every where else was a bit noisy, we went to get educated the old style. Under a banyan tree. There we learnt the ins and outs of Ionic Equilibrium, and pH and other such scary things that I didn't really understand much till yesterday.

Later that evening, we went for a sham of an opening ceremony, well opening ceremonies in general are terrible, so lets not complain too much. At night I watched Godfather, till PC and Anurag felt sleepy, and popped off. Then we watched the prelims of the Robotics comp, which our team, by the way, got through.

Yay. Go DPS.

Now, I must leave, as I have to have a bath before today's events begin. I have Olymbiz starting at ten.

Live from Kanpur

We reached safe and sound, and with no clue what was going on. The events don't start till Friday, so till then, we have been promised Chem Tuitions from the accompaniing teacher, Mrs. Dhami, the chem HoD.

Kanpur city is insane. Imagine the insanity of Malviya Nagar, and the streets of Chandini Chowk rolled into one. Its much much worse than that.

Exciting life, no?

We're boarded up in a large tv room, which has a table tennis table, gaddas, pillows, sheets, lots of mosquito's, and pretty much everything aside from an actual TV.

On a more personal note, my blog for the next few days is doubling as a messaging service, for our stay.

Firstly, Message from PC to Damini : Stupid B**CH don't you dare try anything of the sort, or its the hug. Also, get my file checked. Monica Bhatia is the teacher.

Secondly, Bhaiyya from Bhavya: Bhaiyya, this place is nuts. Its terribly organised, don't go for Roorkee, it's not worth it. But the rooms are much better than yours.

Thirdly: Damini/Karan from Aakash: Tell Abhinav Prasanna to get in touch with me from the Shogun Lab by mail.

Fourthly: First person reading this blog is assigned the task of getting our parents to read it for the duration of the trip, as it is doubling as a message board, for all important and unimportant things.

Lastly, the matter of my Pen.

My Parker Pen is the single most important object in DPS right now. The quizzing club depends on it for qualifying. Me and PC depend on it for pretty much everything now.

It had finally run out of ink. So I got a roller ball refill for it, and one really does not know whether it will retain its charm. The next three days shall be telling in this matter.

For those silly twits who do not believe in the awesome power of this parker, go stick your head in a pig.
It has a lot more power than say, the number thirteen.

Excursion time

Wednesday morning, and I want to gloat, as this is the only time that I'll ever get to say it, I'm going to IIT Kanpur.

There's a tech fest on over there, and they've invited schools for a "school bag" competition. You can't fault the cheps for their punning, it sure beats ours.

Digression.

I have recently broken all previous records on worst pun/joke ever, with my brilliant observations on the Plus and Minus Eye/I effect.

Back to the point.

I shall be leaving by shatabi on wednesday morning, and shall not be back again till Sunday. I plan to have great fun, but then I also plan somehow to study for my exams. Shouldn't be that hard though, I'm off with a bunch of people who also plan to study damn hard for their exams.

But hey, I'm also going to try and win my competitions. Lets no lose track of that. I'm going for two sanctioned events, a presentation, and a quiz, both for schools, and of course, I'll go for all of their college quizzes.

One hopes to see Siddharth Bannerjee, AKA Bongo over there. He is, by the way, last years President, Quiz Club, and our mentor, and guru, and the guy who helped us out a great deal, and the guy we really admire, and generally a good friendly chap.

The other option was Arvind Bastard, our ex head boy. He's in Yale, though (Not Haahvud), and we shan't be seeing him anytime soon.

Deer Park

The winter of my discontent seems to be over, and thus, with weather warranting the wearing of t shirts, I'm back to my morning jogs.

I live walking distance(about 15 mins, that is) from Deer Park, and it is my favorite destination for jogging. It beats Nehru pants down. I really wish that was literarily possible. Images of a deer beating the living daylights out of Jawahar Lal Nehru, and then ripping his pants off with a swipe of the antlers are quite pleasing.

Back to the point. Deer Park is not a park, its a controlled miniforest. The vegetation is mostly allowed to grow wild, so its like a little piece of the Delhi Ridge that you can jog through, as there is a wonderful dirt track, that takes you through the whole park. On the way, you encounter fat aunties, trying to loose weight, Irate Geese, peacocks, and, if you take a bit of a diversion, deer and there used to be rabbits. Occasionally, a decent looking girl will also be jogging, but this is very very rare.

The course itself is exactly one mile long, so its nice if you want to time yourself. Great fun, all in all.

And Prejudice

As promised, I have finished the given book. Here is my review.

Firstly, lets be honest, its a tough read. Its cumbersome, and the language is really not what I'm used to, so it was hard gettting through it. I took a whole week.

Was it good? Yes, actually, it was. If you can get through it, its got a decent plot, and good lead characters. The support cast, however, are a bunch of brainless twots, much characterised by the rest of Elizabeth Bennets family.

Darcy, I am sorry Vrinda and Damini, I still find is a lot like me. Pride, honour, and a single minded devotion to what he wants are all qualities that I personally believe I possess in much quantity.

Will I however, let my pride and ego take a backseat when it comes to about a girl? Well, as with so many things, it remains to be seen. I wouldn't, however, influence such a desicion based upon a book character.

Let me just say that Darcy did it in quite a composed fashion, and didn't get all gushy. That I admire. Sort of like the gentleman's version of Aakash's stunt at the end of Dil Chahta Hai.

My favorite line from the book?
It has to be "It is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world."

How wonderful!

Poly ticks

Before I get down to a fun day of Hydrocarbons, and Thermodynamics, as Eaps requested, I shall elucidate on the Head Boy race at DPS, R.K.Puram. There are politics involved, but not the kind that one would be lead to believe. One certainly hopes that politics do not enter the race.

Thus, a brief description of all the candidates I know about, and their likelihood of making it.

1. Prateek Chadha (PC) : Most likely to become head boy of DPS. Impeccable record, he's even been junior school head boy, wonderful 11th year, class ten topper, and all round great guy, and opinion held by most(unless, of course, you happen to look cute in a pink raincoat).
   
   
2. Samarth Modwal: Something tells me he's going to be our other head boy. Sam's a nice chap, hardworking type, amazing chess player, and decent on the keyboards too. He's not a great public speaker, or personality, but then, he makes up for it with a very good record.
   
   
3. Bhavya Khanna: Me. I'm the dark horse of the race. Actually, I'm short, fair and cannot seriously gallop, so lets just say I'm the underdog. More appropriate animal to describe me. Reason? I'm a new admission, you see. Oh, and I have a myriad of other problems, but those are too interesting to mention here.
   
   
4. Abhishek Raman: Hahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Funny. He might make it on the gay quota.
   
   
5. Anant Dang: Dang's a new admin too, same disadvantages as me. One hell of a singer, though.
   
   
6. Zafar Khurshid: He's the son of Salman Khurshid, chairman, DPS society.
   
   

Thats all I know about. If you guys know anyone else who is applying, do comment about it. I'll update this post.

Pride

I'm very proud of myself today. I have achieved great things, namely, having Raman(IUCRAP name SBIntercrap Club) claim that he shall never talk to me again.

I have no idea how I've managed this, and what prompted his desicion, so for all of you keen to know, so that you can quickly follow suit, cos lates face it, no one really wants Raman to talk to them, do wait. As soon as I find out how I managed this little fait accompli I shall post about it, and spread this golden secret to the rest of the world.

But it is a bittersweet joy. I'll never be able to hear one of his killer comebacks again....

"Haan, haan, Bhavya, Bolte Reh"

Rings

I went and saw Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King today, at long last, with Eaps.

I'm not worthy to properly review such a movie. So I shan't. I'll say a few other things, instead.

Peter Jackson deserves a hell of a lot more than an Oscar. He deserves a Pulitzer, for making such an amazing portrayal of the book.
He also deserves to recieve the rights to make the big screen version of the Ramayan, or Mahabharat, he's the only one commited enough to bring epics to life.

That is all.

Go see the movie.
Go read the book.

Don't spend this time studying, there are better things to do.

Of Bets

Well, it didn't start out as a bet. Originally, my brother told me to read Pride and Prejudice, so as the become more like Mr. Darcy. He's never read the book himself, in fact. So, for background information, he had no idea what Mr. Darcy was like, he, like me previously, never really making any headway through the book.

Now this devolved into a challenge to complete the book. Which I accepted, and borrowed the damn thing on the Library on Friday.

In library, this bet was further taken by Akshat, who was wearing his L-Gaurd, and Damini, who both reiterated the challenge to complete this book. Well, I've never been one to turn down a challenge, and have finished the first 60 pages, in fact.

Well, here's the thing. I'm already quite a bit like one Mr. Darcy. The chap, Darcy, is apparently Arrogant, Proud, egotic, and takes pleasure in abusing people in general, which he does with unbecoming ease.

Sound familiar?

Two old kahani's which popped into my head

Well, the first is not that old. Its from Monday, but there were more or less important things to write about on monday, so I skipped this.

As I entered school returning from Springdales, the first thing I here is, and this is Verbatim, "Tell Ooofuck to call all the ninthies", being uttered by a very upset looking girl.
There is someone in our school, presumably in ninth, who's name is some spelling variant, of Ooofuck. This world, as I have said before, never ceases to surprise me.

Second story. I was travelling in an auto today, after a long time, and it brought back memories of something called a tuk tuk, in thailand. You must have seen it in the James Bond Visa card ad, where it seems like an unrealistically fast auto. Well, I thought it was unrealistic, till I travelled in one.

Its not. Its bloody real. Its THAT fast, no kidding. Its got a hell of an engine, and not much of a body, and it goes like a rocket.

When I grow up, I'm going to buy me a tuk tuk.

Bellyflop

A short explanation of the title. A bellyflop is when you dive stomach first into the water, and by the way, it hurts. This is probably what is going to happen to me very shortly. Yeah, well? Who gives a damn.

The race for appointments has begun in our school. Tomorrow, we shall all respectively and with great due respect submit our Biodata's, with a whole lot of bullshit about how good and qualified we are.
I'm just bitter because my acads, by the way, suck.

At any rate, as stated before in this blog, I shall be trying for Sabse Bada Aadmi. I don't have much of a chance, really. Why do it? Because I want to. No more half assed compromises from me for now. I'm applying for head boy, and ONLY head boy. I'm apping to Havard on EDP, and all the other good colleges later on. I'm going full hog for a bloody A1 overall grade for this year.(Above 85%). After that, I'll see.

So whats my strategy? I'm going for a more extreme version of what I'm used to. More brutal honesty, more inherent stupidity, and craziness, ah yes, oh yes, more obssessive than I've ever been before.

Oh, but you won't be able to tell. Because I'm very happy. And I'm going to enjoy doing this a lot. There's no point otherwise.
Such is the nature of things.

One of my maxims has changed, by the way. It used to be everything you say, in every way will come back to bite you in the ass. One has discovered today that actually everything you think, in every way will come back to bite you in the ass. You don't even need to say it anymore.

So you might as well, eh?

It is like rain, on wedding day

In an ironic twist of fate, that only close friends will understand(I hope everyone else hasn't heard, this is an interesting story, and not for everyone), I have won the award for Best Personal Interview, at Springdales.

Mrs. Chona was looking pretty shocked.

Khuda

Yahan bhi Khuda hai
Wahan bhi Khuda hai
Yahan bhi Khuda hai
Wahan bhi Khuda hai
Jahan khuda nahin hai
Kal Khudega

They're digging again. Delhi has this strange obssession with digging up its roads every so often. This time, its to lay bricks, apparently.

Happy Happy Joy Joy Part Deux

Well, today was the second half of Y. Kumar Student Award, and as stated before i was bouncy going into the event. Needless to say, my enthusiasm did not die out, and this time, instead of pissing merely Vrinda Marwah (I'm going to specify which Vrinda from now on, and which Sonali, for that matter, after certain questions regarding the last post) off, I managed to piss off pretty much everyone except for the very nice Judges(I hope!).

For some reason, bubbly enthusiasm is not what people enjoy. No one got pulled along in the mood, especially not Vrinda Marwah, and apart from Bacchus singing with me for a while, accompanying me on a wonderful rendition of Wild Thing, there was hardly any cheer amongst the general public.

I met a girl from Sanskriti named Emiko, who, quite frankly, rivals Copal in terms of general thickness.

Now, to the competition. First, there was the group discussion, which had three topics, half an hour to the topic. The first was globalisation, and I thororly messed that up, by being too bouncy, and a little too exhuberant. But still, I had fun, at any rate.

The next topic was related to Gender Violence, and through some mysterious quirk of fate, the moderator appeared to share the exact same views as I did. That, in short, was good for me. Hehe.

The third topic was the most fun, because the moderator was the best. He was this nice english proffesor, who let it be pretty much an open discussion, and thus, me and Bacchus pretty much took over. No one else particularly got a word in.

Then, we had a long long wait, as the personal interviews took place, and we waited till our turn, which by the way, was second last.

The interview was good too, I had fun. Well, I've been saying that a lot, but what of it? I've had an amazing couple of days.

I also somehow now have a confirmed blood pressure of 140-90. Good heavens!I'm a bit young for HBP.

Ah, well, such is life.

I'll say more

Well, there's a lot to say.

First of all, I'm really sorry Dammy and PC can't share in my fun. Cheer up guys, you'll get better than me in your next shot.

Secondly, I'm bouncing. Literally. Again. And guess what? The second leg of Y. Kumar competition at Springdales is tomorrow. I'm bouncing beforehand.

As I was saying, I am, and was, literally bouncing from 2:30 PM onwards. I first bounced around the house. I then bounced all the six Kilometers to tuition, where I had to stay in a seat for about 2 hours, and then, I bounced all the way back.

Well, not all the way back, Cos on the way, I dropped off at Sonali's, bounced up her stairs, and then proceeded to give her a twirl hug(hugging, and twirling at the same time). This left her a little dazed, till a second later, I said 1500, and then she got it, and hugged me too.

I've been doing a lot of hugging today, by the way.

I then bounced around her house, while talking to her, took my leave, and bounced the rest of the way back home.

I'm now bouncing around on my computer chair. I shall now bounce to eat Pizza from Slice of Italy.

G'bye.

You know what folks?
I'm happy!

1500

Need I say more?

I'm bouncing again.

Matters of Taste

Well, as expected, I am going to blast NieShit's taste in food again, which is quite awful, even without the off incidents of Kheer with Ketchup.

His tiffin, for instance, is uniformly disgusting day in and day out, and is far far far worse than Souvik's Chinese tasting Gobi(Which actually isn't bad).

Thus we get to the point. He is in opinion that Bukhara offers equisite cuisine. I went there a few months ago, with quite the same expectation. This is supposed to be the finest mughlai dining experience in Delhi. Its not. By a long shot. And the prices ensure that I won't even try going there again. Not if you paid me. Its grossly, grossly over-rated.

The Dal Bukhara, which we had to have, was severely overspiced. It was also too thick, which isn't the most desirable quality in dal. Its what happens to leftover Dal when you reheat it, generally.

The meat was good. It wasn't however, amazing. I can have good meat at a wonderful place called Indi-spice, I can infact have my entire meal there for half the price for a dish at Bukhara. At that price, I want it to be amazing.

You want to go five star and Amazing? Go to Dakshin, at the Marriot. Go to the Great Kebab Factory, at Radisson. Do not ever make the mistake of going to Bukhara. No matter what that obese, pant-splitting culinary barbarian thinks.

Cheerio.

Idiot Savant's

For those of you who know Copal(IUCRAP name: Ms.-I'm(1-15)Director, Intercrap), you know that shes a bit thick most of the times, and prone to saying things that she really shouldn't say. One may call it SCS, which is spreading, quite frankly.

For those of you who don't know Copal, she's actually a genius. I thought I was the authority on kameenapanti, as far as relationships go, but she's outdone me. Thus, I have decided to take advice from her from now on.

What prompted this? Well, Valentines Day is coming out, and I pointed out that of the many couples, any of them who want to break up will be doing so in the next week and a half, as to do so after Valentines would mean spending a lot of money, on gifts and god knows what else. This, seemingly, to my uninitiated mind, was the best course of action.

Well, for those of you know need the advice anyhows, it isnt. What Copal suggested is. Two birds in one stone, with her plan. Which is this.

Don't give anything for Valentines, and act like a cheap S.O.B. The day after valentines, respective girlfriend will be very very angry (If she isn't, then you might as well keep going out with her, she sounds allright). Fight. Break up. It gives you the perfect excuse.

I am impressed. This is by far the smartest thing I've ever heard Copal say, and she claims that she's an expert at this sort of stuff.

The world never ceases to surprise me.

Paagalpan and the Khanna Khandan

Those who know me know that I am a little bit off my rocker. I have a tendancy to do things that most people just do not do. Well, I have an excuse. Its genetic. My whole family is nuts, and I'm proud of it.

Ma is probably the most normal member of the family, and thats saying a lot. This is, of course, because she wasn't born a Khanna, she's just lived with them too long.

My father is where you can trace my thirst for knowledge, and most of my radical views, and a good bit of my life philosophy from. This, again, is saying something.

Bhaiyya is one of the nuttiest our family has produced, and that is saying a hell of a lot. I'm a sober Tam-Bram compared to him. Don't believe me? Just read his blog. I can only aspire to such levels of paagalpan.

But the definitive influence on my particular brand of craziness must come from my Bua, one of the most remarkable people I know.
Dr. Suversha Khanna, for those who don't know, is my Bua. She is single, she runs a hospital(Dharamshila Cancer Hospital) that she almost single-handedly set up, and now singlehandedly manages, and she is one of the strongest people I know. She is all of five feet, and can break the will of the strongest men. Don't ever smoke near her, the consequences will be fatal. She is the Hazard on the back of the pack.

How does she do this? She is singlemindedly obsessive compulsive, she WILL get what she wants, any which way. She has, as I have been described to have, sudden desires, but please notice the scale. I have sudden desires to eat certain kind of food, or to see certain things, or indeed, to get things done.
She has sudden desires to buy a plot and build new house, she gets a huge 1000 sq yard one in Faridabad; she has sudden desire to get a new car, two three days later, we see Skoda Octavia in the driveway. She has sudden desires to buy exceedingly expensive medical equipment, such as linear accelerators, and hey, they just get bought.

She also, like me, does not have a medium setting. And, by the way, I've never really seen her unhappy.

She also has a very open mind in general, but exceedingly set views about certain things. She will not, no matter how much you try, eat fish.

Any of this sound familiar?

I have a fond hope, and a great fear that I turn out to be like her.